Saitou Haijime

Name: Haijime Saitou

Nicknames: Shinsengumi Sanbantai Taichou, Fujita Goro

Month Of Birth: January

Age: 35 years old

Height: 183cm

Weight: 71kg

Blood Type: O

School: -

Weapon: Nihontou

Technique: Gatotsu*

Appearance: Very tall and thin

Personality: He is a man who fights for peace, kills the evil and live for justice. He often speak his mind hence people find him annoying and irritating. Because he was part of the Shinsengumi, he lived by the words "Aku Soku Zan".

Background: Saitou Hajime was the leader of the third group in the Shinsengumi. He is a brutal swordsman with a lean look, which is often called as "ookami" or a wolf. During the Bakumatsu no Douran, Saitou fought Kenshin a couple of times, but they did not finished their duels due to one reason or the other. After the Douran ended, Saitou takes the name Fujita Goro and become a secret police working for the Meiji government. When Shishio Makoto starts to cause trouble, the Meiji government order Saitou to find Kenshin and test his skill, to see if he is still the Battousai he once was. However, the battle between Saitou and Kenshin get out of hand and both ends up trying to finish their duels, which stopped at Kyoto. No one at Kamiya doujou could stop them. While giving the other the fatal blow, Ookubo Toshimichi arrives and ends the battle. After apologizing to Kenshin for testing him, he relates the story of what Shishio is plotting to do, and asks Kenshin to go to Kyoto to kill Shishio before he creates chaos in Japan. Ookubo gives Kenshin a few days to think about it and leave. Before Kenshin can tell Ookubo his answer, however, Seta Soujirou assassinates Ookubo. After finding out about Ookubo's death, Saitou tells Kenshin that he will go to Kyoto and stop Shishio's evil plan. He asks Kenshin along...

Making of Saitou Hajime (Fujida Gorou): There is no model. Saitou Hajime is a real person. Unlike Sagara Souzou and Yamagata Aritomo, he has a deep influence on the story, so I adapted him. I adapted him so much that I received protesting letters from fans of the Shinsengumi. But Saitou just seems to get more and more popular, so I am really happy. The character Saitou is still in progress, so I will keep quiet about the historical facts and the details about the plot, but I like the way he is drawn as an aloof "Dirty Hero" who carries out his ideal of "Kill Evil Instantly" never a simple good guy and always antagonistic to Kenshin and the others. Other than the above I have no design. Since he was introduced in the beginning as a bad guy, I have gave him a villain's face, but I got protest letters about this too. It seems the fans of the Shinsengumi think of him as a gentle handsome man, even though there is not a single photograph left of him, so . . . I also got letters saying, "What's Saitou doing selling the Hijikata family's Ishida Sanyaku?" To put it simply, that was just a joke. And to those who protested that Akamatsu seemed like a practical joke, I am very repentant. But getting so many letters about such little things actually makes me very sad. I am a manga artist and only human Shinsengumi fans, can't people read this manga a little more forgivingly . . .

* The Gatotsu is not a real technique. Saitou Hajime's special technique is the left-handed one-sword stab, but I have changed it around for a boy's magazine to be the Gatotsu. But the Shinsengumi's specialty, the Hiratsuki, is real.

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