Playable Characters: Calamity Trigger | Continuum Shift | ChronoPhantasma | Central Fiction
Others: Non-Player Characters | Remix Heart | Light Novel Characters | XBlaze (Code: Embryo | Lost: Memories) | Alternative: Dark War
Spin-offs: Cross Tag Battle (BlazBlue | Persona 4: Arena | Under Night In-Birth | RWBY)
Individual Characters: Ragna the Bloodedge | Jin Kisaragi | Noel Vermillion | Rachel Alucard | Litchi Faye-Ling | Bang Shishigami | Hakumen | Nu-13 | Tsubaki Yayoi | Hazama | Makoto Nanaya | Yuuki Terumi | Nine the Phantom | Izanami
Others: Non-Player Characters | Remix Heart | Light Novel Characters | XBlaze (Code: Embryo | Lost: Memories) | Alternative: Dark War
Spin-offs: Cross Tag Battle (BlazBlue | Persona 4: Arena | Under Night In-Birth | RWBY)
Individual Characters: Ragna the Bloodedge | Jin Kisaragi | Noel Vermillion | Rachel Alucard | Litchi Faye-Ling | Bang Shishigami | Hakumen | Nu-13 | Tsubaki Yayoi | Hazama | Makoto Nanaya | Yuuki Terumi | Nine the Phantom | Izanami
Hakumen (ハクメン)
Profile
- Height: 208cm (6'9.9")
- Weight: 155kg (341.7 lbs)
- Blood type: Unknown
- Date of Birth: April 6
- Birthplace: Unknown
- Hobbies: Unknown
- Values: Order
- Likes: None
- Dislikes: The Black Beast
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara (Japanese) / David Vincent (Calamity Trigger-Chronophantasma) (English)
The sub-boss of the first game. Hakumen was the de facto leader of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast. He was trapped inside the Gate for decades until he was finally released around the same time Ragna's first attacks on the NOL happened; Kokonoe intended to use him as her slave but then he ran away, going after Ragna as Hakumen thinks he's endangering the world. He is armed with the Nox Nyctores Interfectum Malus: Ookami, a nodachi which can completely nullify the effects of magic. Also, his armor is one of the three Sankishin (Three Shining Gods) Units, the Susano'o, which (through his sword) has the ability to cut through time.
Later in the story he meets (again with) the "true evil", Yuuki Terumi (aka Hazama), another of the Six Heroes who rebelled, and sets his sight on defeating him, teaming with other people (namely Rachel, other Six Heroes, and ironically, Ragna) in the process.
His arcade mode playthroughs are named, in order of the game: Lies and Truth, Heaven and Hell and Magic Master. His story mode playthroughs are named, in the first two games: Atonement hero and possibility.
Unlike the other characters, he does not have a regular Heat gauge, instead using his own Magatama meter that gradually stores up to 8 orbs, used for special moves and Distortion Drives. The meter fills up automatically over time in addition to being filled by attacking and defending. His Drive ability, Zanshin/God Slash (Slaying God), is a multi-purpose countering maneuver that helps to fill his meter. In Chronophantasma, his Overdrive is Kishin/Demon God, which greatly accelerates his meter gauge, and allows him to cancel his counters in his special moves.
In the fourth game, his Exceed Accel Kokuujin Kingi: Tengai/Empty Sky Forbidden Form: Heavenfall (Empty Air Blade Forbidden Right: Heaven Hull) has him stun his foe with a low kick. If it hits, he knocks down the foe with another kick and then leaps up and finishes with a powerful chop from above with his blade. His Astral Finish, Kokuujin Ougi: Akumetsu/Empty Sky True Form: Judgment of the Sword (Empty Air Array Secret Skill: Evil Perish), involves him performing a counter. If the opponent falls for it, the background suddenly switches to the style of an ancient Japanese scroll painting and he unleashes a fatal strike upon his opponent which fills the screen with blood.
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# - C
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Ookami can cut through, amongst other things, Ars Magus, Phantom's Sorcery, temporal borders (with the help of the Susano'o Unit) and can permanently injure and kill the otherwise immortal Murakumo Units. It can also cut through the very fabric of the Embryo itself.
- Achilles' Heel: The Susano'o Unit may be indestructible, but as CF shows, not the soul that resides in it. Hihiirokane is a weapon that can directly attack souls, and Terumi used that to shatter Jin's soul inside it so he can reclaim the Susano'o Unit.
- Animal Motifs: Much like Jin before him, a "Fox". But even more badass because it's the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox in Japanese Mythologies. Which strongly reflects his status as the Alternate Timeline of his past self.
- When activating his Mugen/Infinity Distortion Drive, Hakumen's long silver hair stands up and separates into nine pointy lineups, depicting the nine tails of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Heck! Even Hakumen's official Crest artwork has nine pointy leaf-like swords attached to the runic circle in the center, with the imagery of a fox as well, which becomes his Animal Battle Aura.
- Animated Armor: It's Jin's soul within, so the armor is completely hollow. Notice when he is hit by electrical attacks, there is no skeleton within the armor.
- Anti-Hero: Of the Pragmatic Hero variety. Hakumen has a completely noble goal of wanting to prevent the world from falling back into the destruction it almost faced 100 years prior. Unfortunately, he's a bit of an asshole who'd rather do things his way than talk things out, which puts him at odds with the cast most of the time. True to form, though, he does mellow out a bit through the series.
- Anti-Magic: His Ookami sword negates seithr and Ars Armagus (since it's powered by seithr).
- Antiquated Linguistics: Uses archaic Japanese in the Japanese version. Not as much in the English version, though.
- Atomic Hate: When he discovered that Kokonoe has a silo full of nukes in her base, he gets horrified by it, and apparently considers them worse than the Black Beast.
- The Atoner: Part of his motivation to make up for his actions that led to his Tsubaki's death and truly fight for a righteous and noble cause. Trinity lampshades this in CF.
- Badass Back: His Astral Finish reeks of this, with him arrogantly sheathing his sword facing away from the camera as his opponent lies splattered all over the ground.
- Badass Boast: Really, Badass Boasts make up about 90% of his dialogue. (When you've been trapped on the edge of the universe for most of a century, you have a lot of time to come up with this stuff.)
- Badass Creed: It's what he's best known for and his Catchphrase. His quote above tells the story.
- Barrier Warrior: Hakumen's Drive in games creates a barrier that absorbs hits which allows Hakumen to counterattack. And from Continuum Shift onwards, his ability to cut projectiles is change to creating a black hole-like barrier when hitting a projectile with his sword, which blocks any further projectiles.
- Baritone of Strength: He speaks with a very deep and booming voice, emphasized by the filter provided to his voice. And he's one of the strongest characters in the verse.
- Belated Love Epiphany: While he as Jin already saw Tsubaki as a loyal friend and subordinate, it's not before her (gruesome) death where she Took The Bullet for him (after he acts mean to her, to boot) that he realized how much he loves her. As Hakumen, it's more pronounced in that he calls her "my lover" and makes her his motivation to live and fight.
- Berserk Button: Literally anything having to do with Nu (including Lambda), due to her role in Tsubaki's death in Wheel of Fortune, his original timeline.
- On the subject of Tsubaki, hurt her before him if you feel like dying. This button was pressed twice: once in his CS bad ending where Terumi beats her senseless in front of him, and once in his CF arcade where Terumi taunts him about how many times Tsubaki had died because of him.
- The Berserker: When it looks like history is about to repeat itself at the climax of Central Fiction story mode, and Nu is about to Legacy Edge Tsubaki, Hakumen takes the blow for her, loses any semblance of self control, and turns into A COMPLETE RAVING LUNATIC! If it weren't for Terumi's interference, Nu would have ended up as road kill.
- BFS: A little bit of Truth in Television comes into play with Hakumen's sword. It is so massive that instead of trying to draw it out of the sheath (With his sheath on the back, this is literally impossible), he has a sliding mechanism built into the sheath that allows him to open the entire left side of it at will, making it possible to draw it quickly. The anime chose to go with Rule of Cool and has the sword go right through it.
- Big Damn Heroes: In Continuum Shift, he saves Tager from Hazama, Valkenhayn from Relius, and along with Bang, saves Platinum from Relius. He also saves Tsubaki from Ragna in Chronophantasma.
- Big Good: During the Dark War as the unofficial leader of the Six Heroes.
- Big Little Brother: He's a future version of Jin in a very large armor and thus he's taller than his big brother Ragna.
- Bittersweet Ending: By the end of Central Fiction, Hakumen's soul has been sealed along with the Susano'o Unit in the depths of the Boundary, but the one who did it is dead, and some version of Tsubaki takes up his sword.
- Black Knight: Not that he's actually clad in black armor, but he plays the character archetype right down to a T.
- Blood Knight: It's not that obvious given his taciturn nature, but he never exactly turns down a fight no matter who challenges him and admonishes those who hold back when they do fight him.
- Boring, but Practical: In a setting where most characters have sorcery and are beast-hybrids, Hakumen is simply a man in a suit of armor with an Anti-Magic sword. He is one of the strongest beings in the series on nothing but skill and strength alone. Yea, he can cut through time, but he very rarely uses it.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: In the ending of Chronophantasma, he attempts to use Time Killer, a technique that can erase all of the victim's time across timelines and is taxing on him...on Izanami. This naturally fails because death is a timeless concept, and Izanami is literally death incarnate. Nine then proceeds to teleport him away.
- Brought Down to Badass: His "normal" isn't exactly everyone else's "normal" and he's still implied to be one of the strongest characters in the game.
- Brought Down to Normal: In the first game he can only use, at best, 20% of his total strength due to the remaining 80% of his existence being left on the Edge.
- He's also seemingly regaining strength over time; in Continuum Shift it's implied he can now use around 30-40% of his full power.
- But Not Too Foreign: Being that he's Jin Kisaragi, who was born from the 5th Prime Field Device, implied to be based off of Saya Terumi, who is Japanese.
- But Now I Must Go: During the ending of Central Fiction Hakumen is revealed to still be, at least to some degree, alive in the Susano'o unit. With Trinity entrusted with the unit by Ragna not moments before, she tells him that she believes it's best that the unit be returned to the boundary, as humans were never truly meant to have it. Not only does he have no problem with this, he's thankful. He says his good-byes to Trinity, hopes that circumstances never force him to leave the boundary again, and falls into the Cauldron.
- Call-Forward: In Phase Shift 2, the Susanoo Unit gave him (i.e Jin, before he donned the armor) this Dare to Be Badass speech that he would later use in the present."Be the white void. Be the cold steel. Be the just sword. Wield the blade in your hand to reap the sins of this world and cleanse it in the fires of destruction."
- Calling Your Attacks: While Hakumen doesn't shout them out loud like other characters, he does have a deep-growling version of this trope.
- The Cape: A rather extreme example. Hakumen is hailed as one of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast, and even tried to have humanity change its ways. He makes a large, grandiose speech announcing his presence and is primarily motivated to vanquish all evil in the world. Unlike Bang however, Hakumen is very much taken seriously.
- Cessation of Existence: Terumi destroys his soul when taking back the Susano'o Unit. He just BARELY manages to get better.
- Character Development: In his first appearance, he's an antagonist who's primary concern is eliminating "evil", and by evil he means Ragna's unstable Azure Grimoire. Even ignoring this, he always picked a fight with the cast for some reason and absolutely detested Jin. By Chronophantasma, he's toned down on this a bit and his rivalry with Ragna is far less hostile since he's decided to focus on killing Terumi instead and is willing to work with Rachel, albeit reluctantly, to do so. In regards to Jin's own Character Development, he's far less spiteful towards him as well and commends him for achieving the Power of Order and even gives him advice in undoing the Mind Eater curse on Tsubaki.
- Charged Attack: A few of his normal moves can be charged to do more damage and have different effects. As well as his Kokuujin: Shippuu DD.
- Climax Boss: Hakumen is always the penultimate boss in Calamity Trigger's Arcade Mode, as well as most of the cast's story routes, but he's always transported away by Kokonoe before he can finish his fight. In the True Ending when he fights Ragna, Hakumen overcomes Kokonoe's intervention and continues their fight, which forces Ragna to use his Azure Grimoire for the first time, which is what leads to the Time Loops being broken and the plot to kick in.
- Close-Range Combatant: He's more effective to be played at close range. In a variant, he's not supposed to be rushing in recklessly like most fighters; instead, he's the defensive kind, waiting for the foe to come close first.
- Close to Home: In CF, when Valkenhayn says that he doubts if his master's decision of giving Hakumen the Susanoo Unit was a right thing to do, the latter gets ticked off by how he would deny the resolve of someone already dead. Considering Hakumen is moved by the resolve of someone already dead (Tsubaki), it really makes sense.
- Combination Attack: In the climax of CP, he and Jin combine their Yukikaze together to destroy the Monolith.
- The Comically Serious: The only time he gets to be the butt-end for comedy is in his Help Me, Professor Kokonoe segment. He can't admit that he made mistakes and that getting an advice from someone like her humiliates him, all while being completely serious. He also reacts with confusion when Kokonoe tells him (sarcastically of course) "you need calcium, eat some fish".Kokonoe: Man, guys like him are a real pain for these gag routines.
- Counter-Attack: His standard Drive, Kokuujin: Yukikaze/Empty Sky Form: Winter's Riposte (Empty Air Array: Snowy Wind), and Akumetsu; all three work on this principle. Also gains a new move called Yanagai (Nue Willow) in Central Fiction as one of the only special move that uses his Drive button.
- Crazy-Prepared: To an extent; when Jin is asking Jubei about info on Izayoi, the latter says that Hakumen had organized research on it. This is made clearer in Phase Shift novels; there, he witnessed Tsubaki's ancestor died after using Izayoi's powers too much. He suspected that Tsubaki herself (who technically would be born decades later) would one day wield the weapon and so he went to find out more about it by organizing that research.
D - N
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: A lot after the first game.
- Akumetsu is 720+D in Calamity Trigger, charge down -> up + D in Continuum Shift. If you like using it...
- Also, Guren is 236A in Calamity Trigger and is 214A in Continuum Shift.
- j.C is no longer that nice jump-in friendly move it used to be either, being changed to j.2C, much like Jin's.
- Renka (214B) has their input reversed; it is now 236B. While a good change overall, damn if it doesn't get you killed when you're used to doing the old input.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Using Time Killer without his full power at his disposal causes him to start to disappear even when anchored by Rachel being his Observer. As of the end of Chronophantasma he's slowly fading away because of it and will most likely not survive the next game unless the rest of his power is dragged out of the Boundary.
- Death or Glory Attack: His counters have quite a small active window, so pain usually ensues if you mistime. It does not help that some of his Distortion Drives and Astral Heats have unusual timing so you cannot just wildly use the super flash buffer technique.
- Decomposite Character: Although he's not the actual Susano'o of Japanese myth, that being Yuuki Terumi, his story of fighting the orochi-like Black Beast and becoming more moral does harken to the post-Heel–Face Turn depiction of the storm god.
- Determinator: Spent ninety years of utter isolation in the Boundary — the same one that drove Arakune mad — and retained his sanity through sheer force of will.
- Difficult, but Awesome: He becomes this in Continuum Shift. He's very reliant on meter gain, he moves rather slowly and his Counter-Attack can be hard to pull off. A skilled Hakumen can play poke with his sword's long reach while waiting for a chance of Counter-Attack, and once properly powered-up Hakumen can begin his assault that can shave off loads of enemy's HP.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: The only reason there even is a plot is because Hakumen is severely handicapped due to being pulled out of the Boundary forcefully. The fact that he can completely shit on the two villains at 15% of his full power should give you an idea of just how weakened he is at the moment.
- The Dreaded: Absolutely no one without a death wish wants to fight this guy. He's the only person Relius and Hazama don´t feel confident fighting at the same time, and for good reason: in Wheel of Fortune he curbstomps both of them at the same time with 15% of his full power.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: In CF Hakumen gets killed, rather unceremoniously, by Terumi sneaking behind him and striking him with Hihiirokane-enhanced Ouroboros, which pierces through Jin's soul and tears it out of the armor, while he was busy dealing with Nu. Subverted in that he barely survives but is still left in the Boundary, possibly forever.
- Emergency Transformation: While he was still Jin, he was essentially crippled after having fought both Ragna and Nu, and then taking a trip through the Boundary. Clavis even said that he would never be able to fight again in his condition. Only by donning the Susanooh unit, and therefore giving up his humanity in the process, was he able to become the legendary hero Hakumen.
- Enigmatic Minion: To Kokonoe at first, and then to Rachel.
- Evil Laugh: Japanese dialogue only, and tends to indulge in this a lot during moments of sarcasm. Obviously taken from Lelouch.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: He doesn't have any eyes on his mask. His armor instead sports them everywhere else, like his shoulders, chest and shins.
- The Faceless: Hakumen's never seen without his mask. And the one time he does remove it, his back is turned. Of course, it's entirely possible there's no human body in there at all, just Jin's disembodied soul.
- Face Palm: He does this when he loses due to Time Up.
- Failure Knight: What failure? See the Wheel of Fortune Drama CD. (Hint: I Let Gwen Stacy Die.)
- Fantastic Racism/Fantastic Slur: Jubei makes it clear that "Grimalkin" is not a polite term.
- The Japanese version is a little more obvious about this, as it has him referring to Jubei and Kokonoe as "Bakeneko" or "monster/goblin cats".
- "Grimalkin" itself is actually just an archaic word that means "old cat." (Or, more colloquially, a witch's cat) It's usually applied to female cats, though, which might be why Jubei takes offense to it but Kokonoe doesn't seem to care. Hakumen's just being sesquipedalian.
- It should also be noted that Hakumen's use of the term for Jubei would appear to be mostly good-natured ribbing on his part (the two are old war buddies, after all), whereas (given his tone of voice) he has nothing but pure disdain and loathing for Kokonoe.
- Field of Blades: Possibly as a Shout-Out to Fate/stay night, one bonus art of the game depicts him standing on one.
- Fights Like a Normal: He may have the ability to cut time, along with the Power of Order, but in gameplay he does little more than swinging that long sword of his. Oh, and countering people's attacks.
- Flower Motifs: His attack names.
- For Great Justice: While he's more complex than just this, a strong sense of justice and the need to right wrongs for its own sake is still a large chunk of his motivation, especially considering how much he talks about justice. Hell, his Astral Finish literally means "to destroy evil".
- He also commends fellow justice warrior Bang on his undying will, chastises Tsubaki for her flawed view on justice, and teaches a thing or two about it for Izayoi.
- In CF, he gets called out on this by his fellow comrades; on what his "justice" had cost. Turns out they're just illusions made by Nine - but even then she also calls him out on it.
- Future Badass: He's one for Jin Kisaragi.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Its possible to play Hakumen as the unstoppable force that he is in the story, but not without difficulty.
- Gate Guardian: Subverted, he serves as the first game's penultimate boss, challenging anyone who happens to find their way to the gate of the Cauldron. He doesn't actually guard the gate, he's just waiting for the gate to open, so he can enter it himself. Anyone else he meets is just unlucky to cross paths with him.
- Gone to the Future: He was sealed in the Boundary around 90 years ago and then gets (partially) pulled to the present timeline.
- Good Is Not Nice: Pretty much.
- Good Old Ways: He uses archaic words and phrases ("How dare you interrupt me, Grimalkin!"), at least in the English dub. He's also polite enough to formally declare doom on most of his opponents before cutting them in half, and generally holds himself as a Knight in Shining Armor, going so far as to warn all of humanity that they'll need to reform or die. His status as a practitioner of the Good Old Ways is heavily subversive, though: not only is his Pride so intense it violates physical laws, but he dips into Knight Templar territory often. Oh, and he's actually from the future, not the past. Kind of.
- Good Wears White: Hakumen is the de facto leader of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast. He wears white armour and is nicknamed the White Void. He appears as the Hero Antagonist of the game and is an Anti-Hero with Good Is Not Nice tendencies, though he mellows out later on.
- Gory Discretion Shot: His Astral Heat.
- Green Aesop: Most of his motifs tend to revolve around nature, as well as Shinto religion. All of his attacks are named after flowers and seasons, his crest has the nine-taled fox in the center, he tries to discourage Kokonoe from relying on technology so much, and he strongly dislikes nukes, even moreso than the Black Beast.
- Guest Fighter: In Lost Saga.
- Guide Dang It!: Judgement: Squall (or Summer's Advance in CS) is unblockable if you delay it for the maximum period of time. The in-game description doesn't even remotely hint at.
- Heartbroken Badass: Losing Tsubaki when he was still Jin and then losing his brother were not exactly the happiest moments of his life. He also mentioned that his lost love (and his memories of her) drove his sword and will towards defeating the Black Beast.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Calamity Trigger, he temporarily calls off his feud with Ragna to deal with Terumi resurfacing, which inadvertently puts them on the same side.
- Hero Antagonist: In Calamity Triggger, on top of being one of the Six Heroes, Hakumen is the penultimate boss for most of the cast's story routes, good or not. He also has a grudge against the series' protagonist, Ragna, which makes him this.
- Heroic Sacrifice: CS reveals that he pulled off one of these in the past by having Jubei seal him along with Terumi.
- Heroic Willpower: To an absurd extent. Years inside the Edge failed to break his will, and it makes him Immune to Fate. In Calamity Trigger, he uses it to counter an attempt to teleport him by affirming his own existence. It's attributed to his Power of Order, much like Jin's.
- I Did What I Had to Do: It is implied that he doesn't actually like having to kill Ragna, being his brother and all, but stopping the potential Black Beast that he fears Ragna would be is his priority.
- I Hate Past Me: He and Jin are not known to get along often. Which is mostly due to the understanding that Hakumen hates the man that he was.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: His actions when he was still Jin cost Tsubaki her life and it's something he was never quite able to get over. His refusal to kill Izayoi!Tsubaki in CF, combined with the story he told her in CS, lead her to realize that Hakumen is an alternate Jin.
- Immune to Slapstick: He plays this, being a character entirely defined by his seriousness. For example, the first game only had him in a single scene in Tager's humorous route, but even then is not involved with any of the comedy. He's the only guy in the game (at least prior to CP) who lacks any kind of gag reel. He also never appears in others' gag reels (the one in Tager's is a robot copy made by Kokonoe). Ironically, he's an alternate version of Jin from another timeline, and he is used fairly often in several gag routes.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: While he's distracted by fighting Nu, Terumi stabs him in the back with a Hihirokane-powered Ouroboros and pulls out his soul to take back the Susano'o unit.
- Implacable Man: There really is nothing that can stop him once he sets his sights on a goal.
- "Instant Death" Radius: He can attack largely with impunity in the distance between his opponent's maximum melee reach and the end of his own BFS. This especially is true in Chronophantasma, where if the opponent isn't careful they'll be on the receiving end of an Overdrive combo, which have become notorious for giving him rather clutch victories.
- Invulnerable Attack: Made low-tier, at least in Calamity Trigger, by the conspicuous absence thereof.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Hakumen is extremely arrogant and independent and refuses to be tied down by anyone, even if they're on the same side. But he does seemingly respect his comrades from the Six Heroes, particularly Jubei, and treats Tsubaki with the most kindness we've seen thus far.
- Katanas Are Just Better: His Nox Nyctores, Interfectum Malus: Ookami. Technically it's a Nodachi, not a Katana.
- Kiai: Is well known for shouting "ZEA!".
- Knight in Shining Armor: It's what he looks like, but he's more of a...
- Knight in Sour Armor: Because he's not exactly the nicest of characters despite being one the characters who helped saved the world in the backstory.
- Knight Templar: Hakumen is convinced the only way to save the world is to eliminate all sources of it's evil, namely Ragna and Terumi. No he is not open to alternative methods and will cut down anyone who opposes him towards this goal.
- Lag Cancel: Unlike most others, he can cancel all of his specials into another without using the Rapid Cancel. Then again, his specials do cost meter... unless you're in Mugen.
- Large and in Charge: He was the tallest of the Six Heroes and their de facto leader.
- Large Ham: Hell, 'Ham Nuke' is an anagram of his name, and kind of apt.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler:As of Chronophantasma, his true identity is already known to several members of the cast. He's an alternate timeline version of Jin Kisaragi, brought forth into the future by falling into the Cauldron after Nu kills Tsubaki and merges with Ragna to become the Black Beast. Even the current Jin himself figures it out during the story. The only people who don't know and are relevant to the main plot are Ragna, Noel, and Tsubaki. However, Tsubaki finally realizes it in her Central Fiction Act 3 ending.
- The Leader: The first one to take the fight to Black Beast before the other five heroes, and is considered the de facto leader of the group. Which makes him the headstrong type.
- Leitmotif: SUSANOOH, yes it's spelled with all capital letters in the OST.
- Magikarp Power: Hakumen without magatama is just like anybody else. Hakumen with enough magatama becomes a terrifying power to behold.
- Man in the Machine: What remained of a mortally-wounded Jin following a time-jump into the past was placed into the Susanoo Unit by Rachel, and became Hakumen.
- McNinja: Of the Samurai variety. Despite his samurai-inspired look, he wasn't apparently born in Japan. He's the Brit Jin Kisaragi after all.
- Meaningful Name: Hakumen means "white mask" or "white face". It may also be a reference to the Hakumen Konmō Kyūbi no Kitsune, which fits with his kitsune emblem and with his mask, which resembles a fox's face and ears. Further, when his long hair flares up in response to his power, it divides itself into nine tails.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Hakumen does not have a Heat gauge like the rest of the cast. Instead, he has a Magatama gauge which allows him to seamlessly cancel his specials and Distortion Drives into one another. Each special move and Distortion Drive requires a certain amount of orbs in order to use.
- Mighty Glacier: Rather slow in the leg, with his dash being a simple hop as opposed to a run, but as he gets enough magatama, he can start bombarding his opponents with a long string of strong attacks.
- Morality Pet: Tsubaki is this for him as she's the one he shows the most kindness towards. With a good reason: he already lost his own Tsubaki due to his conceitedness, and he has learnt from his mistakes.
- CP gives him another one: Celica. He helps her when she gets lost and she tells him that some of what he's doing isn't entirely right.
- My God, What Have I Done?/My Greatest Failure: Hakumen has two instances of this, due to his former life as Jin Kisaragi.
- In the Drama CD The Wheel of Fortune, after Jin got injured badly by Ragna, Tsubaki comes to his aid and literally pleads for him to stop fighting. Unfortunately, Jin's obsession with killing Ragna and stubbornness got the better of him, with Jin telling Tsubaki to "Get lost" and that "He doesn't need her", causing Tsubaki to lament those words in pure depression. This, in turn, drove Tsubaki to pull a Heroic Sacrifice, shielding Jin from Nu's stabs. For Hakumen, the death of Tsubaki in The Wheel of Fortune holds a lot... which explains his actions in one of Tsubaki endings in CS and the hatred he holds for both Jin Kisaragi (seeing himself as responsible for her death) and Nu/Lambda.
- It's the (many) death(s) of Ragna... See This Is Unforgivable! below for the other.
- Multi-Slot Character: Hakumen is Jin Kisaragi thrown back in time and merged into the Susano'o unit. In this case, both are introduced as separate characters before the link is revealed.
- My Name Is Inigo Montoya: He does this a lot. Most notably, it shows up in both his Badass Creed (seen above) and in one of his win quotes:
- Mystical White Hair: Considering the Susano'o Unit is one of the ancient and unimaginably powerful Sankishin, Hakumen is pretty damn mystical.
- Named Weapons: His Nox Nyctores: Ookami. Which literally means "Howling God".
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Hakumen has yet to suffer more than a slight daze, even against people like Relius or Hazama. Which sort of makes sense because the Susano'o Unit is supposed to be completely indestructible.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: He’s an Animated Armor Samurai Hero Of Justice.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: More of a no-nonsense Hero Antagonist, but still, he's portrayed as completely straight and serious and he'll stop at nothing to stop all evil in the world.
- Not Quite Dead: Despite Terumi attacking his soul with Hihi'irokane and taking the Susano'o Unit from him, it's shown that a fragment of his soul still survived and remains in the Susano'o Unit when Trinity seals it in the depths of the Boundary.
O - Y
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Inverted; he has the chance to kill Arakune but decides against it because Litchi is the only one who should.
- Played straight with Ragna, seeing as how Hakumen's Jin and all.
- Order Versus Chaos: If you read Jin's folder on the last page, you should know why.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Like Terumi, he's a ghost inside that armor and the only thing tying him to the world is being observed by Rachel.
- Parrying Bullets: Hakumen can stop most projectile attacks with a well-timed slash from his BFS. It gets even better in the sequel; any time he hits a projectile, a void is created, which will stop all projectiles that hit it. Most of this has to do with Ookami's anti-magic abilities though.
- Pet the Dog: The only character he treats as an equal in the first game is ironically the resident Butt-Monkey, Bang. It helps that he, as Jin, in the Wheel of Fortune, never encountered Tenjo in the Ikaruga War, let alone Bang.
- Shows vulnerability and kindness to Tsubaki, and apparently named one of his specials after her. Fitting considering who he was.
- In spite of his hate for Jin, he does give him some encouragement if Jin does something right.
- In the climax of CS, he decides to spare Ragna after he manages to save Mu without killing her.
- In Mu's CS arcade story, rather than being hostile like he is to the Murakumo units, he questions her goals and is even disappointed to see how Noel ended up, seeing his slaying of her more as a Mercy Kill. Fridge Brilliance (and Tear Jerker) kicks in when you remember that in his timeline, Jin was a Cool Big Bro to Saya. He, unlike the current Jin, has no reason to hate Noel who out of the Murakumo units, looks like Saya the most.
- In Platinum's CP arcade mode, Hakumen sincerely asks Trinity to go and rest while he takes care of Terumi. According to Trinity, people have been saying that Hakumen is actually a nice guy.
- Power Glows: Mugen/Infinity gives him a white glow.
- Power Limiter: Stated to be only at 20% of his full power due to the rest of it being left in the boundary, but is still one of the most powerful characters in the game, powerful enough to trash most characters. Which makes you wonder how powerful he really is once he reached his full potential. And we are not even counting his "Power of Order", yet. Damn.
- In the novels, Ragna gets to meet the Dark War-era Hakumen-in-his-prime, and he's completely terrified of him.
- Power Nullifier: Ookami's power is apparently this, represented in-game by its ability to destroy projectiles and in-story by the fact that otherwise-immortal characters such as Nu, Arakune and Hazama are legitimately afraid of it. For good reason as it turns out, as he used it to permanently wipe Terumi from existence.
- Reality Warper: Small scale; as he's Jin, he possesses the Power of Order, which allows him to reject certain events through sheer force of will. Heroic Willpower above gives one such example.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives out one to Jin after defeating him in his CS story, which is extra poignant since its essentially Jin tearing himself down.
- Redemption Equals Death: Played With. He himself was never really evil, but he was a bit of a Knight Templar in his pursuit of justice and ridding evil of the world due to the guilt he felt at letting the Tsubaki from his timeline die. He finally makes up for that failure by Taking the Bullet for the present Tsubaki before she's skewered by a Brainwashed and Crazy Nu. Then Terumi stabs him while he's distracted and destroys his soul to take back the Susano'o Unit.
- Regenerating Mana: His magatama charge fills up automatically, and normal attacks and Drive moves speed up the process. His Overdrive makes it fill faster.
- The Rival: Among Ragna's most prominent antagonists behind Jin and Terumi.
- Samurai Ponytail: He has one although it’s unclear why a suit of armor would have hair.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Imprisoned in the Edge of the Boundary until rescued by Kokonoe.
- Happens again at the end of Central Fiction where he is again sent to the Boundary so humanity can never abuse the power of the Susano'o Unit.
- Secret Identity Vocal Shift: Hakumen wears a full-body armor and a deep, echoing voice courtesy of the armor. His voice is actually much softer, courtesy of him being an alternate timeline Jin Kisaragi.
- Shadow Archetype: Towards Jin, pre-Character Development. Like Jin, Hakumen is also a hero revered by the world for his efforts in slaying the Black Beast and both are rather indifferent about it. They're also pretty big cases of Good Is Not Nice. However, Hakumen fights out of a sense of righteousness and atonement while Jin mostly fought for himself and his own desires, something the former calls him out on in their confrontation in the second game.
- Sheath Strike: His Crush Trigger in CP uses his sheath to break the opponent's guard.
- Shoryuken: A kick version with his Hotaru (Firefly) move. It can beat almost everything in midair. His Unlimited version has a more powerful version of it, akin to Hazama's Serpent's Infernal Rapture.
- Shoulders of Doom: Another trait he shares with Justice. Interestingly, they look almost identical to Mu's.
- Signature Move: His Drive moves, as well as all of his Distortion Drives. He's also often depicted doing his j.214C special (midair quarter-circle backward + C button). It has Tsubaki's name on it.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Yukikaze works like this. Subverted in Overdrive as he adds a bit more slashes.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Tsubaki.
- Skewed Priorities: During Doomsday, he challenged Ragna to a fight while they were in the middle of stopping the end of the world. His justification being that Ragna became too strong and that he needed to end him before it was too late. After Ragna beats the sense into him and explains that everyone else became weaker, he tones this down.
- Smug Super: He reeks of this. And for good reason. He is the leader of the Six Heroes, who saved the world from the Black Beast. This seems to have gone to his head a bit (or it could be that he's monstrously powerful, and is fully aware of it). He uses a derisive tone of voice when speaking to most other characters, and many of his in-battle lines seem dedicated to mocking his opponent's inadequacy.Hakumen: A fight? No. This will be a massacre!
Hakumen: Give everything, and you might live a little longer!
Hakumen: What was that?! Don't tell me you call that fighting...! - Soul Jar: Hakumen's armor contains Jin's soul, not his body.
- Spell My Name With An S: His name is occasionally stylized as "Haku-Men" or "Haku=Men."
- Starting a New Life: Before Jin started using the armor, Rachel stated that he'll become different from what he was. And then Jin used it, starting his new life as the would-be legendary hero, Hakumen.
- Stealth Pun: Japanese-only. His Badass Creed has the "I'm the just sword" part be written as "Ware wa jin" ("I am sword"). So that part can also be rendered "I am Jin."
- Stone Wall: His Counter Attacks allow him to be played this way.
- Story-Breaker Power: He doesn´t have access to even half of his full power right now * , yet Hazama and Relius are still terrified of him. There wouldn´t even be a plot if he was at full power.
- His Time Killer is all but referred to as such; It instantly kills anyone it hits by destroying the time between the moment they are struck and their future death, forcing the concept of death upon their very soul based on that one moment in time where the person can die. It even works on immortals. Though it's absurdly taxing on Hakumen and Izanami is immune to it because by all technicality, she's already dead.
- Straight Man: To the point where he's the only character in Continuum Shift without a gag reel.Kokonoe: "Man, he really needs to pull that stick out of his ass. Guys like him are a real pain for these gag routines."
- Super Mode: His "Kokujin Ougi: Mugen!/Empty True Sky Form: Light of Judgment" Distortion Drive. It requires all 8 magatama, and his meter will drain down slowly, but now he can use all his specials and other Distortion Drives without using any magatama. Combined with his Overdrive, it can give him an infinite magatama for the duration.
- Sword Beam: He has one for a Distortion Drive, Kokuujin: Shippu/Empty Sky Form: Summer's Advance (Empty Air Array: Hurricane) not unlike Jin's Touga Hyojin/Ice Wave Distortion
- His Unlimited form has a more powerful version of the move, where he throws out 4 Sword Beams one after another.
- Sword Pointing: He does this to Nine in his CF arcade play after cutting through the Embryo to get to her.
- Take Up My Sword: Tsubaki inherits Ōkami in the epilogue to Central Fiction.
- Taking the Bullet: Near the climax of Central Fiction during a particularly vicious battle with Nu involving he, Ragna, Jin, Noel, and Tsubaki, Nu catches Tsubaki with her guard down and fires all of her swords at her. Just as it looks like history is about to repeat and The Wheel of Fortune is happening all over again, Tsubaki opens her eyes to see that Hakumen desperately threw himself in front of the attack and took it for her. While this wasn't fatal, it did succeed in royally pissing Hakumen off that he almost had to relive his greatest failure all over again. Then, in a bit of karma/payback, he soundly beats Nu.
- That Man Is Dead: In Continuum Shift, he has completely renounced the name "Jin Kisaragi", stating that it no longer has any meaning to him. Both Terumi and Nine use the name to mock him on at least one occasion each.
- Theme Naming: Japanese mythology, as well as flowers and nature. His Distortion Drives and Astral Heats also starts with "Kokuujin/Empty Sky Form" (Empty Air Array).
- The Tell: In his Act 3 Arcade play of Central Fiction, he looks for Izayoi and tries to convince her to kill Noel with her weapon, but she disagrees, unwilling to harm a friend. When Hakumen wins, Izayoi tells him that he can at least kill her and take the Zero-type Izayoi with him. Hakumen, normally tending to go through with shooting the dog, relents, saying that doing that would "repeat his original sin". This is what clues her to his true identity.Izayoi: Could it be... Are you... Jin-niisama?
- This Cannot Be!: He reacts with this trope when Jubei informs him that Terumi has returned, much to his own shock and disbelief.Jubei: I reckon it's Kokonoe who's trying to pull you out here... An' if she does, I'd be much obliged if you don't tell about me. I got my reasons.
Hakumen: ... Then you have my word. But what has brought you here? What news do you bring of the outside world?
Jubei: ... Terumi's back.
Hakumen: What!? That can't be! It's impossible!- He also reacts like this in his Help Me, Professor Kokonoe session when he realizes where he is (i.e back at Koko's lab).
- This Is Unforgivable!: In The Wheel of Fortune, which tells the story of the timeline he's from, he (as Jin) screams this at Nu after she fatally injures Tsubaki using Legacy Edge after the latter had just let herself be stabbed in an attempt to protect him. The resulting hatred for Nu still exists even now, as evident by his reaction to Lambda in her Arcade Mode.
- He also possesses similar feelings towards himself, particularly notable in his reactions with Jin, who is his past self. He believes that he brought nothing but pain and misery to those around him, and he especially can't forgive himself for killing his brother Ragna. At the same time, he knows that the Black Beast's revival presents a very real threat to all life in the world, and believes the best way to eliminate that threat is through Ragna's death. It's obvious from one of his endings in Calamity Trigger that the act of killing Ragna still fills him with immense grief, no matter how many times he's done it.
- Three-Strike Combo: His Exceed Accel goes like this.
- Tin Tyrant: Hakumen combines this with being a Samurai Robot. Unlike Justice however, Hakumen's armor houses his soul rather than his body. His original body was too broken to be of any further use, hence the upgrade.
- Tragic Hero: As Jin, his arrogance and obsession with Ragna led to the death of Tsubaki in his timeline and his humanity itself. He's very aware of it too, and it's the cause of much angst for him before his encounter with the present Tsubaki helped him make peace with himself.
- Übermensch: He lives according to his own idea of "justice" and rejects anything that doesn't fit in how he thinks the world should be. This is the cause of most of his clashes against the other "good" characters.I will define the world how I see fit. That will not change.
- Unstoppable Rage: In his bad ending in Continuum Shift has Terumi kick Tsubaki while she's down immediately after he just got done brutalizing her for Hakumen to see. Then he mocks Hakumen about Tsubaki's death in Wheel of Fortune with a great amount of detail. When this happens Hakumen's reaction goes from horror to completely losing it. No reciting his badass creed. No truth. No justice. Just pure, unadulterated hatred. Exactly what Terumi wanted.
- This ending is a bit chilling in hindsight when Terumi tells Hakumen that hatred is all the Susano'o Unit needs. And he's absolutely right, having displayed that magnificently in Central Fiction.Terumi: Haha! Ehehehe... That's what the Susano'o is, isn't it?! All it needs is your hate! Justice? Love? Courage? Ha! Those don't mean shit! Just keep on hating, and keep pumping juice into that sucker!
- This ending is a bit chilling in hindsight when Terumi tells Hakumen that hatred is all the Susano'o Unit needs. And he's absolutely right, having displayed that magnificently in Central Fiction.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: His Unlimited self in Calamity Trigger. If you are an inexperienced player, he will destroy you.
- SNK Boss: If you thought he was bad in Calamity Trigger, Score Attack Hakumen in Continuum Shift is a nightmare, and Unlimited Mars Hakumen in Extend is a night terror.
- Warrior Therapist: Towards Jin, although he intersperses it with flat-out insults.
- He'll occasionally be this with other characters in his Arcade Mode win quotes. Also, as Mu's Final Boss in CSII'a Arcade, he tries this at first, before concluding that she's too far gone. In CP he also acts like this for the brainwashed Tsubaki and later Izayoi.
- Western Samurai: Hakumen at first would look and sound like a traditional Japanese samurai, with not just the armor and sword but also the appropriate fighting style (only with a strange-looking helmet). Beneath that helmet, however, he's the Western (likely English) Jin Kisaragi - who is still this by himself, with his Iaijutsu Practitioner style. His decidedly Japanese name is because he's adopted to the family.
- What the Hell, Hero?: First to Rachel regarding her inaction, and then when he learns that Kokonoe has something like a hundred nuclear warheads restored to working order, he... doesn't take it well, since he thinks they're the only thing worse than the Black Beast.
- White Mask of Doom: This should be pretty obvious.
- The Worf Barrage: Much like the Immortal Breaker, the supposedly guaranteed One-Hit Kill Time Killer fails every time it is used. Terumi survives it, although barely, by Observing himself and Izanami flat out no sells it since she is technically dead and thus has no time for Hakumen to sever.
- World's Strongest Man: He is by far, the most powerful character in the cast (well until the introduction of Susano'o, which uses the exact same body). Even at ''a quarter'' of his full power he can defeat most of the cast. The only other beings considered in the same league as him at full power are other prime Six Heroes like Jubei (at Dark War), the "strongest living creature in existence", Terumi, Relius, Izanami, Onlookers, Ragna with the Idea Engine's limiter on the Azure Grimoire removed, and Azrael (likely at full power).
- Worthy Opponent: He seems to regard Ragna and, of all people, Terumi as this - if he defeats either of them, he gets mad at them for holding back. He also has some respect for Valkenhayn, Kagura Mutsuki and most interestingly Bang this way.
- You Remind Me of X: In Phase Shift 2, he tells Celica that she reminds him of Tsubaki due to them both having the same boldness in pursuing their goals.
- Your Days Are Numbered: In Chronophantasma, it's revealed that he's slowly fading away and states that he's at his limit that not even Rachel observing him would be enough to keep him around. It's a result of using Time Killer when not at his full power and of existing alongside Jin. This is also the reason that Trinity had to help him restrain Terumi when he and Hakumen were evenly matched.