Hojo Tokiyuki

     The Elusive Samurai

Backstory

The most important thing to know about me is that Matsui Yuusei is my favorite mangaka ever. (Or at the very least, the author of my favorite manga ever.) The second most important thing to know is that I have had a debilitating crush on major characters in both of his previous works. There is definitely a pattern at play here, and while getting into this series I thought to myself, "how odd that this hasn't happened to me a third time!"

Until it suddenly all hit me at once, and I went, "Oh, okay. There it is."

About Tokiyuki

Tokiyuki is the protagonist of Matsui Yuusei's The Elusive Samurai, which explores the real historical events following the fall of Kamakura in 1333, but with a healthy dose of his unique brand of themes and comedy. After his hometown is destroyed, Tokiyuki goes into hiding and prepares for the day when he can take back Kamakura from Ashikaga Takauji. The story spends a lot of time in the first few years after the city falls, but expands over time - as of writing this, the manga is well into the 1350s and is close to ending.

In a time when society is singing the virtues of dying an honorable death and how cowardly it is to keep yourself alive, Tokiyuki instead subscribes to a radical point of view - run, and live to fight another day. This sentiment in innate in him, but he learns to believe in it more and more and spread it to those that he meets as well.

The thing that he's most known for... that is to say, if you had only heard one thing about him, it would probably be this - is the fact that he has a fetish for being put into near-death situations. It is used as the punchline to many a joke along the way, but it is also played straight, and is an integral part of who he is and the larger story as a whole. He wouldn't be the person he is, and arguably he couldn't be as much of an inspiration and a force for change to others, if he neglected this part of himself. And I love that!! It's peak Matsui writing!! He laughs in the face of death and danger - nay, he gets off on it, as is often pointed out by his friends who have more or less learned to deal with it by now. You can't break someone's spirit with a sword to his throat when all it does is make him drool.

About My S/I

Most of my focus is on him, so I don't have a lot in the way of information here. In a regular canon situation, I think she would be a shrine maiden at Suwa Taisha...!! In a modern AU, maybe they're high school sweethearts? Pretty much any number of ways that I get to think about him, I'm happy.

What I Love About Him

Everything!! I mean, like, everything. I could definitely come up with a list of specifics if I had to, but I really just love everything about him... he's so kind and so brave, in a way that feels very meaningful when you look at the things he's been through and the time he lives in. He, like other Matsui protagonists and characters, lives with beliefs and passions that come off as abnormal or even laughable to others, but he never lets the 'normal' senses of society (at large or in terms of those around him) change who he is. Also as a Matsui protag, he takes turns playing both boke and tsukkomi roles - be still my beating heart, for real!!!

Art

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Extra

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