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Characteristics: Gender: Male Race: Human Eye Color: Dark Blue Hair Color: Indigo Height: 169 cm Professional Attributes: Faction: Shinsengumi Rank: 3rd Division Captain Voice Actors: Japanese: Toriumi Kōsuke English: Leraldo_Anzaldua
--->Hajime Saitou (斎藤一 Saitō Hajime) is a member of the Shinsengumi. He is the team leader of the third division and a master of Iaijutsu - the art of drawing one's sword, cutting down one's opponent and sheathing the sword, all in one motion. His swordsmanship is one of the best among the Shinsengumi. He is based on the real-life Saito Hajime.
Appearance: Saito is 169 centimeters or 5'6" tall. He has long indigo hair that hides the right side of his face and is loosely tied into a side ponytail. He possesses sharp, yet relaxed ocean blue eyes. Saito wears a long, black, fighting-style kimono with a simple white sash and long scarf.
Personality: Saito is a very stoic, quiet fellow who only speaks when spoken to or when something is worth saying. He is extremely loyal to Hijikata and will obey any order without question. In the games, he starts out very cold and almost cruel towards your character, but as you progress through his story, he begins to open up and turns out to be quite trusting and passionate of your character.
According to the audio CD's, Saito claims he'll take swords over women any day, as he is quite the sword aficionado & could go on for hours talking about them; he is very aloof and shy towards girls in general. Saito is very thoughtful and always puts the safety of others above his own and never lets on about what he's truly thinking or feeling. This proves to be a bit of a problem, especially when he suffers blood-lust attacks from taking the Ochimizu, which only your character knows about.
History: Not many of the other characters know about Hajime's past, for obvious reasons. According to the games, Saito is the first-born of a prestigious samurai clan in Edo. However, being strongly left-handed, he was unable to learn how to use a sword with his right hand, thus adopting left-handed Iai style.
One day, a fellow clansmen challenged Saito to a duel. Saito "won" the match and then was accused of being a murderer and was exiled from his clan. Some time later, Saito found himself at the Shieikan dojo and was quickly befriended by Souji, Shinpachi, Heisuke, Sano and the others, it was also then that Saito met Hijikata and immediately was drawn to his respective and kind gesture despite him being a left-handed swordsman. Ever since then, Saito has always held fierce loyalty towards Hijikata and the other Shieikan men.
Plot: Season II: Saito is last seen charging towards a Choushuu army, giving an Injured Hijikata a chance to escape from Aizu and flee to Ezo. It is assumed that Saito dies in that battle.
However, according to history, Saito & half of his unit survived the battle. The Aizu Clan made sure to spread this story in order to keep them safe.
Hakuouki SSL: In Hakuouki SSL, Saito is a Second Year, Form Two student and a member of the Discipline Committee.E He has a quiet nature and holds respect for Hijikata. Together with Okita and Toudou, he belongs to the Kendo Club.
Trivia, Anime differences & Other info: •According to Reimeroku, Saito was the very last main character to arrive in Kyoto as he had other business at the time and had trouble tracking everyone down afterwards.
•According to the audio CD's, Saito was the one who gave Kondou his sword, Kotetsu.
•In the games, Saito was among those who drank the Ochimizu. In the anime, Saito stays a human.
•In the anime & the games, Saito is known to be the second shortest of the captains (next to Heisuke) which contradicts his real-life counterpart, whom was actually regarded as one of the tallest of the Shinsengumi.
•Saito's fate is unclear. It's unknown if he died in battle in the anime. The real-life Hajime died at the age of 71 from a stomach ulcer from drinking too much.
•Saito can be understood as being a kuudere type of character: Cold at first, but later warms up to you.
