Peacemaker - The Complete Seriesby Patti MartinsonReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Studio
Credits Grade: 7 Tetsunosuke Ichimura is a 15-year-old boy of short stature who manages to join a legendary band of samurai called then Shinsegumi, which was formed by the Shogun to protect the capital. Landing a position as a page, Tetsu vows to avenge the death of his parents. His older brother, Tatsunosuke, is already part of the Shinsegumi as an accountant.Tetsu came across as the typical overly stubborn teenager with weird hair that I'm all too familiar with. Despite Tetsu being the focus in the anime, more attention seems to paid to the other samurai that Tetsu hopes to emulate. Okita is a very delicate-looking samurai, but is considered one of the top swordsmen of the Shinsegumi. Hijikata is a cold, stern samurai who is stuck with Tetsu as a page. Saito is a laid-back but morose-looking samurai with a supernatural ability to detect ghosts and auras, and some ability to see the future. There are many other samurai, all distinctive. What I liked about them is how different they all are and how they work together. One somewhat minor character is Ryoma, a rogue samurai, notable for being the only one with a gun, a sign of the changing times in this anime. Peacemaker had more characterization and more of an introspective aspect to it than I had expected in an anime about samurai. What fighting there is intially is done in flashbacks, and it is only as the series progresses that it becomes more exciting. For villains, there is the Chosu, the gang that originally killed Tetsu's parents. The Chosu's boss, Toshimaro, is a psychotic villain who seeks destruction of the capital. And then there is the intially mysterious person who killed Tetsu's parents: Testu finally is able to take revenge, but in a different way than I had expected. One of the most distinctive things about Peacemaker is the extreme shifts of tone. One scene can be spooky, then slapstick, then romantic, and then there is sudden fighting with blood everywhere. It's hard to see Tetsu engaged in some wackiness in one scene and a bloodbath the next. Peacemaker is a fairly good series, if not a great one. Other than the jarring tonal shifts for hijinks to buckets o' blood, there are worse ways to spend your time and money. Written: September 10, 2011
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