Character of the Month of November: Toyohisa Shimazu

Well, I got some esplainin’ to do.  So for my regular readers, yes, I took last Sunday off and skipped last week’s post.  However, it was for a good reason and, for once, not related to homework.  I won’t go into details, but let’s just say that I’ll have a little more room and privacy to get things done (blog-related and otherwise).  But given that I missed the opportunity to say this last week, I want to take a minute to say that I hope all of my American readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  And I am grateful for each one of you who takes the time to check out my blog!  Anyways, back to this week.  I only had one show to review during the month of November, so I was pretty limited in my choice of characters.  Not only that, it was hard to pick between three really awesome characters.  But in the end, I went with my gut.  So let’s talk a little bit about this month’s Character of the Month: Toyohisa Shimazu from Drifters!

During the Battle of Sekigahara, general of the Shimazu clan Toyohisa is severely wounded.  Staggering off into the woods on the brink of death, Toyohisa suddenly finds himself in a mysterious hallway with a man at a desk at the end.  Toyohisa is then wisked away to a fantastical world.  However, he soon finds he is not the only one who experienced the same event, quickly finding company and comradeship with Yoichi Nasu and the infamous Oda Nobunaga.  So far in what episodes have been aired, the three free a large portion of the elven population and continually challenge the Orte Empire, with Toyohisa being the designated leader.

Like I said earlier, this was a tough call.  But there were two reasons why I gave it on to Toyohisa: 

1.)                         Toyohisa is one of the main characters of Drifters.  And while that doesn’t automatically make him a candidate, it does put him at the front for the audience to examine his character.  So we do see Toyohisa quite a bit

2.)                         He’s a badass.  But let’s face it, everyone in Drifters is a badass!  But what really distinguishes Toyohisa from everyone else is his personality.  Toyohisa is actually very noble and honorable as a warrior.  And despite his katana happy mentality in battle, he’s a decent guy.  In fact, he passes up on being the leader and suggests that Nobunaga be the leader.

Speaking of which, Nobunaga was also an equally awesome character thus far.  In fact, I actually considered giving the title to Nobunaga.  But there are quite a few characters and even the narrator of the English dub make a point that Nobunaga in power is a scary and unnerving thought given his conquests in Feudal Japan.  So there is a bit of untrustworthiness to the character.  Still I can’t deny that of the three main characters, Nobunaga is the more cunning.  But for now, my eyes are on Toyohisa.  So while I won’t give you my head, I will give you the title of Hanime on Anime’s Character of the Month of November!  So hoping that nothing else comes up between now and next Sunday, expect to see another post.   If not, I will let you know if that will not happen.  As always, let me know if you have a request for a show or topic you’d like for me to talk about!

-Hanime on Anime