What is Harukanaru Toki no Nakade? When I discovered Harutoki in 2000, it quickly caught up with my then-current favorites Fushigi Yuugi and Angelique. Originally an adventure love video game and manga, it was being developed into an OAV animation series in 2002, when I first built this site. Now, in 2004, I have some more free time and much more Harutoki goods to scan and list, so I hope to expand this reference site for your viewing pleasure.
The 2000 card set, which I have scans of below, includes primarily imagery from the video game, with some forays into the even more gorgeous manga art. The name, as best I can figure it out, means something like "in the midst of faraway times." I've seen this mislisted on two sales sites as 'jiku' or 'juku' no nakade respectively, and Hachiyo on another, so you might include those in your searches if you're using a search engine to look this series up.
The story is somewhere between Fushigi Yuugi and Angelique, with a few twists of the knife thrown in for good measure. At the beginning of the tale innocent Akane (a lot less annoying than Miaka) falls into a well near her school. Tough, deeply emotional red-haired sempai upperclassman Tenma and sweet golden-locked kohai underclassman Shimon (Simon) tumble in after her. They wind up in wonderland - a fantastic land with a beautiful and gentle empress who recognizes them (after a rather abrupt introduction to her warriors) as beings bound to the destiny of her country. Here, Akane meets six warriors who along with her two friends, become her guardians, the Hachiyo, and discovers her own destiny as a protector of the land and Miko (or priestess).
Here the complications begin. Since this is a combination romance and battle game, as with a normal love game, Akane might fall in love with one of her handsome guardians. There is the noble samurai Yorihisa no Minamoto, aqua-haired playboy Tomomasa, gentle purple-haired Eisen, green-haired wizard Yasuaki with his strange birthmark and different eyes, darker green haired scholar Takamichi, wild red-headed Inori and of course Tenma and Simon. As the story begins, Akane seems most torn between growing interest in Yorihisa and Tenma, but of course things have to get more complicated! There are serpents in Eden, and the evil warlock Akuram has spies beautiful, wicked, eerie and sly scattered throughout the country he means to conquer.
When Akane is stolen away by Akuram (a scene like a cool dream in a field of flowers), she has one glimpse of his face and he is stunningly beautiful to her. Safely returned to her palace shelter, Akane watches as the Hachiyo train and fight and learn to know one another, and looks forward to the peace and safety of the country, even as the stolen glimpse of Akuram's shocking beauty troubles her heart. Will she remain true? Will the Hachiyo overcome the mist of evil sweeping over the country? The game makes the group battle demons as they fight the far-reaching effects of this demon Akuram. The manga makes them do the same with his creeping magic, but with more intense scrutiny of the character relationships, I think. I have mostly read the manga and looked at the cards, I'm not far into the video game yet.
The artwork for the series is very beautiful, and they took care in creating the card set to maintain an ethereal, classic Japanese tone. The palette seems chosen from an iris garden after rain, soft, nostalgic and piercing. For me, it captures perfectly the feeling of aware (ah-wah-reh) - in which the beauty of the moment is exquisite both for its own surpassing loveliness and for the tragic knowledge that it is in its moment of perfection, just before that perfection fades. It also abounds with a lovely and comforting sense of wa - the right soul and spirit. The card borders are lovely, with traditional flower patterns in pastel lilacs, greens, soft blues and pinks of flower petals. Even the few harder colors used for the cards of the demon-swayed characters are iris browns and umbers. These are scans are of the trading cards released so far that I have - they are not quite as pretty as the actual cards since the light in my scanner is dim.
Promo cards, Idol cards (aka lami cards), and others - (in progress, many to scan and add).
Card Set 2 - I will post as soon as I get a new scanner!
Well, let's see what else I can do to be useful in the meantime!
Shitajiki - here is a list and scans of the pencil boards put out from 2000 through 2004.
Other Harukanaru stuff - The amount of merchandise out there for this series is astounding, so I think it must be very popular in Japan. So far the following items exist other than the cards and shitajiki stationery items catalogued above (and there are probably more that I haven't run across yet):
Video games -
Harukanaru Toki no Nakade, Harukanaru Toki no Nakade 2 (premium box versions came with promo items like clock and postcards - Marfisa, linked below, has images!). Harutoki 3 comes out December 2004!
PlayStation board game version (again, Marfisa has info!)
Gameboy Advance HaruToki with special pouch
Mail soft and related software
Nine compiled manga volumes and counting as well as the original serialization in LaLa manga magazine
Two HaruToki promo OVA videos Ajisai Yumegatari and one "making of" DVD that goes with them
Two HaruToki 2 promo OVA videos - Shiraki Ryu no Miko
A video series
A purse pouch
A paintbrush
A calendar box set 2001 (see Marfisa for more info)
Three image albums and counting
Eight Drama albums and counting
Game music album
HaruToki Tsuushin 1-13 and counting
HaruToki Comic collections
HaruToki Game books 1-3 and counting
2 Spiral notebooks
Eight colored pencils
Two stamp sets
Yasuaki cosplay bracelet, beads with feather
Takamichi cosplay hairpiece
A washcloth
Promo sticker sheets
Memo pad, smaller, with Yasuaki and Akane on front
Memo pad, larger, all Hachiyo
A traditional style fan
One bound style notebook
A set of temporary tattoos
Four double-keychain sets, clear images
A calendar refill packet for 2002
A calendar refill packet for 2003
Four clear posters
Portraits, or nishiki-e, of the eight Hachiyo, that match the images on the eight lami cards released in 2000.
An Akuram eye relaxation mask - no, seriously!
HaruToki Fan book
HaruToki Illustration Collection, Tohko Mizuno
Eight mini amulets and (zipper pulls) with chibi Hachiyo
Eight chinese knot pieces with character face tiles
Postit Notes, 2 different sets
Eight fasteners (zipper pulls)
Eight clear card and pin sets showing characters' emblem plants.
Eight SD pins of character faces.
Two photo stands, here's an image of one
One mirror
One incense and burner set
Clear files
Two letter sets
A set of mini visiting cards
Some furoku (never enough!) in the magazine LaLa, including a book cover, several posters, minigames, and a Mouse Pad, dark blue background
- and I'm sure I'll remember more when I stop typing. ^_^
I'll work on more scans! In the meantime, check out these pages of interest for Harukanaru information in English:
Marfisa has done a lot of research on this series and has some great information including full names, some Manga ISBN numbers, game guide info, and news on the 2nd Harukanaru video game on her site Here! An awesome resource on this series. Marfisa rocks! (Now how to convince her to sell those postcards... 'no, no,' she hollers, 'I'll have your blood first!' smile nice, hands up, backing away from the postcards...)
If you trade anime trading cards or shitajiki, Harukanaru and other series are up at my trading card page.
Here is a cute Harukanaru game that was a furoku in a CD I got -
game
game pieces, 1
game pieces, 2
