Hakumen

Hakumen is one of the Six Heroes, and a playable character in Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift.

Information
Hakumen is a samurai-esque warrior wielding a sword as tall as he is and wearing a mask that completely hides his face. He is an incredibly powerful individual in the BlazBlue universe, so much so that the player is often told to proceed with caution when confronting him, and at times even advised not to do so entirely. His armor (which is the Susano'o Unit), seems to grant him limitless energy and incredible power, and his sword (a Nox Nyctores named "Ookami") appears to bear the capability to kill characters that otherwise would be immortal, or have rapid healing properties that would make them difficult or impossible to kill. This makes him an equally dangerous foe to both mortal men as well as more powerful beings. It seems that Hakumen finds nuclear weapons to be a greater evil than the Black Beast was. This might be because while the Black Beast did spread destruction, it left seithr which became the power source for the future, while nuclear weapons just completely obliterated any life within its radius and leaves the area irradiated and useless.

He was the legendary "Silver Knight" who appeared during the First War of Magic, and lead a band of Six Heroes (including himself) that ultimately defeated the Black Beast. Afterwards, Hakumen warned the people to "change their evil ways", but was exiled and sealed in a place called "The Edge" of The Boundary for roughly 90 years.

He was later 'rescued', by Kokonoe, a scientist who often subjects Hakumen to her whims. He finds himself repeatedly aggravated by her meddling, especially when she interferes with his duels by having him teleported elsewhere. While Hakumen is generally a grumpy sort who often attacks characters without provocation, there are a few characters he will tolerate, including Jubei, one of his former comrades among the Six Heroes, and Rachel Alucard, to whom he feels indebted. He also seems to show an intense respect towards Bang Shishigami because of his sense of justice.

It is revealed that Hakumen is, in fact, Jin Kisaragi through hints given to the player during both their respective stories in Calamity Trigger. In one of Jin's endings, he leaps after his brother, Ragna, when Nu-13 latches onto him and jumps into the Cauldron with him at the Gates of Sheol. This thrusts Jin back into the past where he meets Rachel Alucard, who offers to help him become a true hero. From here, his soul is bound to the Susano-o armor, and he becomes Hakumen. Then he goes on to defeat the Black Beast as one of the Six Heroes.

In one of Hakumen's Calamity Trigger endings, he calls Ragna his brother after 'killing' him (though bear in mind this Ragna was only an illusion), and Ragna recognizes him after Hakumen removes his mask to bid farewell to him face-to-face. Hakumen then claims he must denounce his old name, and ends up fighting a shadow of his former self, Jin Kisaragi. He also states that he must do this to repent for killing his brother, implying that Jin, even as Hakumen still cares about Ragna due to lacking possession of Yukianesa.

During Continuum Shift, it's revealed that when he was still Jin, Tsubaki was his secretary instead of Noel and while they had more time together he still left her which ultimately in his neglect lead to her demise, and in respect named one of his techniques after her. He also learns that Kokonoe is storing nuclear warheads, something he fears and despises even more than the Black Beast. Hakumen and Jin try to defeat Mu, but had no success. During the fight, he was relieved that Jin was able to control himself. Sometime after the incident at the Sheol Gates, believing Rachel to be too soft as an observer, Hakumen decides to walk his own path.

Material Collection Information

 * Values: Order
 * Dislikes: The Black Beast

Appearance
Hakumen follows a rather unique blend of cyborg and samurai. He wears semi-heavy white armor and a muscular body suit with a large collar and the traditional hakama present, ballooning pants common in samurai. His long bright blue hair is tied at the mane. All armored sections feature fully-functional crimson eyes with slit pupils. These eyes are not as much of an intimidation as much as the mask he wears; a completely white, two horned helmet with no features or visor, appearing to have no face at all, a feature that paralyzes even Ragna in fear.

Powers and Abilities
Being one of the Six Heroes, Hakumen possesses exceptional strength incomprehensible to the norm. The armor, Sankishin Susano'o, bestows him with incredible fighting prowess, allowing him to tap into infinite reserves of power, enabling him to fight for prolonged periods of time without rest and to increase his own strength. The various eyes adorned all over the armor suggest that they are for sight enhancement as the helmet features no visor.

His weapon of choice is Nox Nyctores, Ookami, a nodachi with an odd blunt tip in place of a sharp point. The sword is attached to a sheath on his back with a slot to allow him to draw the sword without straining his arm due to its long length. Hakumen repeatedly claims that despite its cursed nature, it is a weapon meant to destroy evil, hinting that it may have holy properties. It apparently possesses the ability to negate ars magus as well. Hakumen's Drive, Zanshin, allows him to project energy barriers that repel enemy attacks and allow him to effectively counter advances towards him. Unlike the other characters who have a Heat Gauge, Hakumen uses a special 8-point gauge named Magatama, that allows him to pull off all of his special attacks, which automatically fills up or can be filled up by countering attacks. While using unlimited form his gauge will regenerate faster. In addition, whenever Hakumen's attacks clash with a projectile, he leaves behind a large vacuum crest known as Fumajin (Earthbind) at the point where the clash took place. Not only can it absorb all projectiles but it can also damage his opponent if they touch it though this will cancel it out.

Movelist

 * Hakumen's movements.
 * Changes in Unlimited Mode.

Musical Themes

 * Susano'o - Hakumen's Theme

Stages

 * The Gate - The wolf knows what the ill heart thinks.
 * Closed World -The GATE- - Truth lies at the bottom of a well.

Arcade

 * AD2110/01/01, -Lies and Truth-
 * AD2200/01/07, Heaven and Hell

Story

 * Atonement hero
 * possibility

Quotes

 * Catch Phrase: "I am Hakumen! The end has come!"
 * Full Catch: "I am the white void. I am the cold steel. I am the just sword. With blade in hand shall I reap the sins of this world, and cleanse it in the fires of destruction! I am Hakumen. The end has come!"
 * Short version: "I am the white void. I wipe the slate of the world clean that it may begin anew. I am Hakumen. The end has come!"
 * Alt. Version: "I am the white void. I shall cleanse this world and return all to nothing. I am Hakumen. Come!"
 * Silver Hakumen style: "I am the white void! I am... etc etc. Silver Hakumen! The end has come!"

Gallery
Click here to view all images of Hakumen.

Trivia

 * Hakumen refers to Jubei and Kokonoe as "grimalkin", meaning an evil cat. Towards Jubei, this seems to be just friendly banter, but it is clear from his tone of voice that he views Kokonoe as utterly evil due to her scientific experiments and the fact that she plans to use nuclear warheads to stop Yūki Terumi.
 * Hakumen's Birthday is the same as that of his counterpart Jin indicating that he still has some memories of his past. This is further supported in Continuum Shift from his conversation with Tsubaki.
 * Furthermore, In Rachel's story she refers to both Jin and Hakumen as "Mr. Hero".
 * It should be noted that throughout the games Hakumen is only at 20% of his full power.
 * Until the player gets to Hakumen's ending where he fights Ragna and kills him, no one knows that Hakumen is Jin. Rachel points to this in a way when you get one of Jin's endings (where she asks if Jin would like to become a "real hero"), or when you meet her in one of Hakumen's paths. In Continuum Shift, Hakumen directly confronts and defeats a bewildered Jin in his story, while he chastises Jin's obsessiveness.
 * It is unknown if Ragna knows why Hakumen wants to kill him, or if Hakumen's desire to kill Ragna stems from remants of Yukianesa's power, his own will of being grumpy towards others, or Terumi's influnce on him. Even though Terumi was honest in telling Jin that Ragna is part of the Black Beast, it's possible that Ragna can do something else other than destroy, though Hakumen does not want to risk that. Another possible reason is that he might think he can keep the Black Beast from being 'born' by killing Ragna, which could be possibly one of the easiest and efficient methods. By Continuum Shift, his focus is shifted mainly on Terumi and Saya, though he still acts antagonistic to Ragna.
 * It seems that Hakumen can "sense" the fact that Kokonoe is going to test upon him and turn him into a Gundam-Like Hybrid called the "Silver Samurai", and even states that his fear of being turned into a giant fighting robot like Tager earlier was in his story line (One of Tager's optional endings in Calamity Trigger has him being turned into a golden robot and blasting Bang into space, which acts out nearly like an anime), and adds to the fact that "it's more stronger than the Black Beast", then said that he was in "Danger... Great danger."
 * For both Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift Hakumen posses an instant kill combo if done correctly is very difficult to use and can only be done when Kokūjin Ōgi: Mugen is activated.
 * Hakumen's Guilty Gear counterparts come in the form of both Baiken and Justice. From the former, he borrows her vengeful and callous nature as well as the samurai motif while the basic design and meaning of the namesake from the latter. Strangely, both characters are female. He also shares the guard point attribute with Anji Mito as some of his sword swings can stop many projectile and melee attacks, though Bang is more of being counterpart than Hakumen is. He's also counterpart of Order-Sol, both of them are a time-traveller of the their original self such as Jin Kisaragi, Hakumen's past-self and the original Sol-Badguy, Order-Sol's future-self.
 * Along with Rachel, Hazama and Arakune, Hakumen is one of the few who do not appear to have a skeleton. This is caused for the fact he's just a suit of armor (apperently), but still will get shocked. His insides appears as his armor outline, wires, and orb-shaped items.
 * The word hakumen means "white face" or "white mask" in Japanese. It can also mean "blank face". Both are true in Hakumen's case.
 * Although Hakumen does not have any joke endings of his own (something referred to by Kokonoe in his bad ending), in Continuum Shift he briefly appears in Noel's as one of the customers unfortunate enough to eat the character in question's "dish" and in Tager's as an eccentric replica prototype called "Silver Hakumen" whom does not say more than half of the infamous oath. "I am the white void! I am.....etc etc. The end has come!" When Kokonoe says he's going to explode, the clone yells "The END has COME!" before blowing up and ending the Gag Reel.
 * The name of his stronger form known as Silver Samurai is a possible homage to the Marvel character of the same name.
 * Hakumen's eyes are not on his head. In Continuum Shift, dialogue reveals that the multiple orbs on his body are his eyes.
 * In Japanese, the "Just Sword" part of his speech its written "Jin" in Romanji, so the speech that says "Ware wa Jin" can also be translated "I am Jin" which is actually a Stealth Pun, in which he reveals himself as Jin Kisaragi.
 * His achievement "You're already dead" could be a reference to the Kenshiro catchphrase.
 * The Japanese god Susano'o and Hakumen, whose Susano'o Unit is named after this god, have a few things in common. Both have slayed an eight-headed monster (Yamata-no-Orochi/The Black Beast) and both were banished from their home (Susanoo to the earth/Hakumen to "The Edge" beyond the Boundary).
 * It is also to be noted that one of Hakumen's alternate color schemes resembles that of Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, a character with orange hair and black outfit as well as a sword as long as his height. This color palette previously resembles to that of black Zero in Mega Man X series in CT, with white hair and orange sword slashes.
 * One of Hakumen's DLC color almost resembles Omega (First Form) from Mega Man Zero series. Another color palette of hakumen almost resembles Golden Omega from the same game franchise.
 * Incidentally, there is also a color palette (fourth in the first palette selection board) that resembles the main character Zero (red and black outfit and green sword). However, instead of the whole blade being green, only Hakumen's sword slashes are. The sword is yellow, which might be a reference to Zero's yellow sword in the Mega Man X series (X3).
 * In Continuum Shift's Arcade Mode, Hakumen is not fought in the final stage, however, along with Ragna and Hazama, Hakumen can be fought in his Unlimited Form (in the case of Tager and Hazama), also, in Score Attack Mode, he is one of the 4 characters that are fought in their Unlimited Forms, along with Rachel, Ragna and Hazama.
 * A VA allusion with David Vincent seems to show with his role as Assassin from Fate/stay night, both Hakumen and him seem to wield nodachis and are said to be one of the strongest characters in their respective series(and have a high chance of beating their protagonist without hinderance).
 * Much like the Murakumo Units, Hakumen and Jin have the same input for their Astral Heats.
 * An interesting fact is that the basis for Hakumen's Zanshin drive came from an old developer for SNK Playmore who joined the Blazblue CT project at one point. Thus the drive's funtions are a throwback to the Last Blade/Bakumatsu Roman series' Repel system.
 * Storywise, it is unclear what exactly Hakumen's Drive does. Possible explanations are that either Zanshin stops time for a very brief moment or the shield Hakumen creates nullifies the opponent's attacking power to help him make a counter attack. Both explanations being true is also entirely possible.