Darth Wiki / His Fate

"Naoto, this soul sucking power... use with wisdom. With this power, you can be an angel or a devil. So, what's your choice?"

— Hideyuki, after discovering about Naoto's powers

His Fate, or in original japanese, Kare Jishin no Unmei ni Chokumen Shita Otoko no Futari no Kao (translated as The Two Faces of the Man who Faced His Own Fate, shortened for Kare Jishin no Unmei) is a popular best seller manga originally created by Takao Amamiya (of Lollipop Stop and Arabia Heart fame) in 2003. It was also serialized in Dangan Magazine.

This is the story of Naoto Kakuzawa, a 16 years-old boy which lives in Japan with a relatively normal family which are kind, if somewhat eccentric. He's also a Ordinary High-School Student and is friends with Miharu Yasakani and Hideki Ishizuka. One day, Naoto was attacked by a monster and after killing it, he discovers that he has the power of absorbing souls.

With this, Naoto can use his powers to save his close friends. Of course, he's not alone. Aside of the aforementioned Miharu and Hideki, Naoto also counts with the help of Hideyuki Kurozuka, Eriko Nakamura and Benkei Ushijima, both from Hellsing, an organisation which hunt monsters. Later on, both are joined by Ryotaro Miyanaga, who shares a strange connection with the monsters who attacked Japan recently. Opposing them there's Shuji Amaterasu, leader of a company which believes that is the reincarnation of the Demon Lord.

Despite having a great fanbase, His Fate didn't gained an anime until 2015. It was a 26-episode anime which suffered a lot of changes in the story: For starters, Naoto is no more born as a full-japanese, instead being a Japanese-Spanish not that it changes something in the end . His classmates (except for Hideki, Miharu and Feilin) are also half-bred, rather than japanese students with just happens to have a love for foreign cultures. It also suffered a heavy Adaptation Distillation, but also gained some filler to develop most of the characters. The result can vary depending of the part of the fanbase. It also gained a second season in 2016, also with 26 episodes.

The manga also have a game released in 2009 for PlayStation 2 named Kare Jishin no Unmei ni Chokumen Shita Otoko no Futari no Kao ~Another Tale~ (Known as Kare Jishin no Unmei: Another Tale in North America and Another Tale in Europe). The game plays similar to the first half of the story. It's also notable for having lots of changes in the american release, most notable changing Naoto's name and nationality. Other wise it's basically Devil May Cry meets Persona 4, having the gameplay of the former and some mechanics of the latter (most notably the Partner Soul System, which is in a way similar to a Social Link).

Naoto and company also showed up in many of the Dangan Battle Arena games since 2005.

In General

• Action Girl: Eriko Nakamura.
• Affably Evil: For a villain, Shuji is pretty nice. Until he discovers that Naoto is one of his rivals for the will of the Demon Lord.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Painter Shiori is one. Her black hair is longer than the rest of the cast (Including the monsters, even!) and her personality is calm and reserved.
• Anime Chinese Girl: Feilin, one of Naoto's classmates.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: A downplayed example involving Naoto and Miharu. Naoto isn't much of a jerk, and Miharu is a minor Type B Tsundere. Also, both characters are Nice Guys.
• Betty and Veronica: Shrine Maiden Miharu is the Betty and belly dancer Konoe is the Veronica, with poor Naoto being the Archie. He ends up with Miharu.
• Big Bad: Shuji Amaterasu in the first half and Elizabeth Lelouch in the second half.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Eriko, Konoe and Miharu, the most prominent girls of Naoto's life.
  • Technically, you can also count the main trio of Naoto (Which is white-haired) , Hideki (Black-haired) and Miharu (Reddish-brown) as well.
  • The main members of Hellsing after Ryotaro/Reynard joins the group: Eriko is the blonde, Hideyuki is the black-haired one and Ryotaro, like Miharu above, is the reddish-brown. The main members before Ryotaro’s arrival also counts - Eriko, Hideyuki and Izayoi (Redheaded Mission Control).
  • From the second half of the manga, there’s Elizabeth’s servants Tristan (Blond), Victor (Dark-Green) and Gestalt (Redhead).
• Bound and Gagged: Naoto after being kidnapped by Shuji's henchmen.
• Character Narrator: Naoto follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Kenji and Shankar. It's typical of a Takao Amamiya's manga.
• Cool Big Sis: Eriko to Naoto and later Miharu. Miharu also sees Shiori as one albeit she is another story entirely.
• Creature-Hunter Organization: Hellsing, which is very dedicated to killing monsters.
• Crossover: In the Dangan Battle Arena games.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being aloof and dressed in black, Hideyuki is a reliable guy. He's also a member of the Hellsing Foundation. Contrast with Shuji Akatsuki.
  • And after The Reveal, Naoto. Sure, he's the reincarnation of the Demon Lord, but even then Naoto is just as nice as everyone else.
• Disappears into Light: Hideyuki in the end of the manga.
• Distressed Dude: Naoto after being kidnapped by Shuji's goons.
• The Dragon: Azusa to Shuji in the first half.
  • Lucrezia to Elizabeth in the second half.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Naoto has to struggle with a lot of things save his own (and his friends) life. But at the end, it ended well for him. And his loved ones of course.
• Expy: Most of the characters have some similarities of the characters of Castlevania, most exactly, the ones from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow duology:
  • Naoto is Soma Cruz
  • Miharu is Mina Hakuba
  • Hideyuki is Genya Arikado/Alucard
  • Eriko is Yoko Belnades
  • Benkei is Hammer
  • Ryotaro/Reynard is J/Julius Belmont
  • Shuji is Graham Jones
  • Elizabeth is Celia Fortner
    • Outside of the Castlevania franchise, There's also Soichiro, which is a dark skinned and black-haired Soichiro Nagi. Konoe takes some cues of Zafira from Arabia Night, Amamiya's previous manga. In fact, Konoe herself is also a major inspiration behind Chrono Jumpers' Jasmine.
    • Compare Feilin to Mega Man Battle Network's Jasmine. They look pretty similar.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Two of Naoto's classmates are too obsessed into foreign things... To wit, Soichiro is a reverse weeaboo, Konoe loves arabian things.
• Foreign Exchange Student: Feilin, the chinese student.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Demon Lord, which is known as being the one behind the Legendary Human-Monster War.
• Hair Color Dissonance: Naoto's hair is white, but some artworks shows him with gray hair or light-blue hair.
  • Miharu can be a brunette or a redhead Depending on the Artist. Same deal with Ryotaro and Izayoi.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Naoto is a Nice Guy through and through, but he is not afraid of playing jerk. Hideyuki too.
• Japanese Delinquents: Hijikata.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Hijikata, albeit he is less of a jerk.
• Light Is Not Good: Shuji Amaterasu. Is white-haired, wears white (and his servants too), and shares the freaking surname with the japanese goddess of the sun. Totally not a bad guy.
• Love Triangle: Naoto, Miharu and Konoe. There's also Naoto, Miharu and Hijikata.
• Miko: Miharu is one.
• Mission Control: Two of them, actually. There's Hideki for Naoto, and Izayoi for the Hellsing.
• Ms. Fanservice: Eriko Nakamura, full stop.
• Mystical White Hair: Naoto. There's a good reason for that...
• Mythology Gag: Many from Takao Amamiya's previous manga, Lollipop Stop and Arabia Heart...
  • Naoto and Miharu's relationship stands in for Kenji and Tsugumi's relationship. Albeit Naoto is far for being a jerk and Miharu is a downplayed Type B Tsundere (rather than Tsugumi's more straight Type A).
  • Aside of Konoe being a younger Zafira, her relationship with Naoto mirrors Shankar and Zafira: Both Shankar and Naoto are more serious that their more cheerful female counterparts.
  • For more Arabia Heart references, one of Hellsing's targets is the Red Scorpion Clan.
• Oddly Small Organization: For an effective organization dedicated to killing monsters, Hellsing doesn't have too much members aside of Hideyuki, Eriko, Benkei, Izayoi and an unnamed President. Even if you count Ryotaro as a Sixth Ranger, it's still a small number. Late episodes try to avert this by showing other (unnamed) members outside of the "main core".
  • Averted with Shuji's organization. He has many servants, with some of them threathening Naoto's father and mother to death if he doesn't surrender.
• Official Couple: Naoto and Miharu, in the end.
• One-Man Army: Naoto.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: According to the mangaka, Izayoi's real name is Isabelle Maxwell.
  • In a case of "Only Known By Their Red Baron", there's the Demon Lord himself. Flashbacks reveal that in the past, the Demon Lord has two different names: Gabriel Morningstar and Lucian Asta Nightgale.
• Power Trio:
  • Main character Naoto and his longtime friends Hideki and Miharu.
  • There’s a more action-forward trio in the form of Hideyuki, Eriko and Ryotaro/Reynard.
• Reincarnation: A major plot-point in the series as a whole. Shuji believes that he's the reincarnation of the Demon Lord due to his connection to the "spiritual" and by the fact that he was born in the same day that the Demon Lord was killed. As it turns out, the one reincarnated is not Shuji, but Naoto.
  • At the end of the manga, it's implied that Naoto and Miharu's son is Hideyuki's reincarnation.
• Secret-Keeper: Hideki to Naoto, albeit he is not the only one which is aware of Naoto's true powers.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Naoto is not Miharu's girlfriend. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with that.
  • Except Konoe and Hijikata. At least until they gives up and decide that Miharu and Naoto are genuine soulmates.
  • In the end, Naoto confess his love to Miharu and both ends up Happily Ever After.
• Shout-Out: Too many. The manga clearly shows Amamiya's geek side.
  • The plot as a whole bring to mind the duology of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, right down to the main characters (see Expy above). The only thing that is missing is an eclipse and an european-like castle, albeit Shuji's hideout fits the bill in the last chapters.
  • For another Konami franchise, it's easy to compare Naoto and Hideki to Solid Snake and Otacon, especially as the fact that both Hideki and Otacon are [[Mission Control the one giving
  • Miharu's own name owes a lot to The King of Fighters. For starters, Miharu is a shrine maiden, similar to Chizuru Kagura. Her surname Yasakani is also reminiscent of the Yasakani/Yagami clan.
    • Miharu herself can pass easily for Yuki, as both are girlfriends to a troubled main character which have to deal with an Ancient Evil Eldritch Abomination which is "connected" to his clan (Naoto and Kyo, respectively). Interesting, Naoto himself is also similar to Iori, as both have to deal with an Enemy Within which is connected to the bad guys.
• Teen Genius: Hideki.
• Terrible Trio: Tristan, Gestalt and Victor from the second half.
• Token Minority: Feilin. She's a chinese student in a japanese high school.
  • One of the agents of the Hellsing is a black guy.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Naoto is opposing Shuji because he thinks that he's the reincarnation of the Demon Lord. Turns out that the one which is the reincarnation is Naoto himself.
• 20 Minutes in the Future: The story takes place in 2079.
• What Are They Now Epilogue: The manga series ended with all of the characters (major and minor) stories reaching their own conclusions...
  • After too many struggles, Benkei continues living a normal life with his wife and kids.
  • Eriko is putting flowers in a tombstone, which is implied to be of her late ancestors or possibly Hideyuki
  • Hideyuki goes to a castle in Transylvania. Then he dissapears for no reason.
  • Ryotaro/Reynard ends up being a bartender, with Benkei and Eriko being his major clients.
  • Hideki continues his work as a Mission Control, but this time he's now working in NASA.
  • Hijikata is now working as a cop.
  • Konoe joins a traveling troupe and make shows around the world.
  • Feilin returns to her homeland in China. She's married and have one kid
  • Soichiro is on New York, now as a baseball player.
  • Izayoi ends up working as a librarian.
  • Shiori is now a famous and successful painter.
  • And, of course, Naoto and Miharu are married and have a baby, which may or may not be Hideyuki's reincarnation.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Oh hi, Shuji. Naoto is an aversion, but he sometimes invokes this to protect his loved ones. He's also the reincarnation of the infamous Demon Lord, who also has white hair.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Shiori. Miharu is one in-training.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Naoto, of course.

Anime-only Tropes

• A Day in the Limelight: With the majority of them being filler.
  • Episode 10 of the first season has a focus on Eriko and her reason why she's a member of Hellsing in the first place.
  • Episode 15 of the first season has Feilin as a major character.
  • Episode 22 of the first season doesn't have a focus in one character, but to Hellsing as a whole, as Naoto was kidnapped by Shuji and his goons in episode 21.
  • Episode 3 of the second season is focused on Naoto's classmates, as both were "hired" by Hideyuki to keep an eye on Naoto during his vacation.
  • Episode 6 of the second season is focused on Shiori.
  • Episode 18 of the second season is focused on Konoe, as she decides that Miharu is a better girlfriend for Naoto than Konoe herself.
• Adaptation Distillation, Compressed Adaptation: The manga is a 2003 to 2009 long runner. The anime on the other hand is a straight 26-episodes two-season anime, so many things have to be cut.
  • Adaptation Expansion: On the other hand, the fillers at least gave some backstory for minor characters.
• Adaptational Dye-Job:
  • Naoto's hair is changed from white to light-gray. Strangely, the Demon Lord, which is Naoto's "spiritual ancestor", also changed his hair color from white to black.
  • Miharu has auburn hair in the manga. The anime gives her more shades of brown.
• Adaptational Job Change: Well, more like "Job Addition", but aside of Konoe being a belly dancer, she's also a vlogger. Her channel name in TooYube is named "Konoe's Dancing Channel".
• Adaptational Nationality: Naoto, Soichiro and Konoe are Spanish-Japanese, American-Japanese and Arabian-Japanese respectively. In the original manga they're all full-blooded japanese. Averted with Naoto's true nationality.
• Bland-Name Product: TooYube, Birdy, Photogram, Facenote, Howreyou...
• But Not Too Foreign: See Adaptational Nationality above.
• Character Exaggeration: Konoe's original personality is still here. It's just that now she has lots of belly-dancing outfits.
• Demoted to Extra: Shiori, the attractive and ladylike painter which was an important character in the manga, has fewer lines in the anime. Yet she did a cameo in the second ending of the first season.
  • At least they gave her a limelight episode for her in the second season.
  • Also, the school-half of the cast (except Miharu and Hideki) in the second season.
• Nosebleed: Naoto of all people in Episode 8 of the first season, after he sees Miharu with a belly dancer outfit. Interesting, he doesn't have the reaction towards Konoe, in spite of her being being more attractive and well-endowed than Miharu.
  • Likely before seeing Konoe as a belly dancer is normal for Naoto. Or maybe... Naoto is genuinely attracted by Miharu. Too much for a guy which denies having a girlfriend...
• Ms. Fanservice: Aside of Eriko herself, Konoe is promoted to one, thanks to her scenes with belly dancing outfits.
• Named by the Adaptation: Not a character, but Shuji's nameless company is named Amaterasu Industries in the anime. This is not the first time that it happens (see below).
• Setting Update: While the year doesn't change, the anime replaces some of the 90's/2000's technologies for more modern communication devices, like smartphones and laptops.
• Shout-Out: One of Konoe's belly dancing outfits shares the same color as Jasmine's outfit.
• Youkai: One of the monsters of the week in episode 15. Interesting, it was summoned by a Yellow Peril. Granted, said Yellow Peril was helped by a certain japanese Corrupt Corporate Executive, but still.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: While Konoe's casual clothes are the same, she has a lot of belly dancing outfits.

Game-only Tropes

• Adaptational Badass: Azusa was just a secretary in the manga. Here, she's much more competent as a fighter. And then she becames Melusine...
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Naoto's hair was pure white in the manga. Here, it's light-blue.
  • Shuji's hair was changed for white to blond, perhaps for helping players distinguish him from Naoto.
  • Mission Control Izayoi's hair was changed for auburn to cherry-red. Maybe for the same deal as the above example, to distinguish her from Miharu.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Feilin in the game is a haughty tsundere, rather than her more calm persona in the manga and anime.
  • Shiori is more reserved in the manga, while in the game she is a Tsundere.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: To Capcom's Devil May Cry and Atlus's Persona 4.
• Ascended Extra: Given that they're now acting as the equivalents of Social Links, many of the characters of the manga gained a major role in the game.
• Composite Character: The manga has Melusine as a minor Monster of the Week. In the game, this is Azusa's One-Winged Angel form.
• Cut Short: The game only covers the first half of the manga. It was supposed to have a sequence which covers the second half, but low sales of the game prevented it, despite the mixed to good reviews.
• Dating Sim: The game has one of these, and fitting, all of your candidates are in the Partner Soul System. Having a girlfriend also slightly changes the ending of the game.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Naoto's name is changed to Nathan.
  • Sunrise Corporation to Helios Corporation.
• Foreign Exchange Student: Naoto/Nathan in the dub. Note that he's a native japanese in the original version.
• Hack and Slash
• Holding Hands: In the Golden Ending, Naoto and his chosen girlfriend.
• Multiple Endings:
  • Normal: Naoto defeats Shuji, causing the falldown of Sunrise Corporation. Then, Naoto has a strange dream involving his friends and his enemies. He wakes up outside of the ruins of the corporation alongside Miharu and Hideki. Then Naoto thinks... "I have a strange feeling about this... It's like my own story is far for being finished.
  • Bad End: Naoto defeats Shuji, and then discovers that he himself is the Demon Lord's reincarnation, not Shuji. After dealing with Ryotaro, now with his memories restored as the legendary hunter Reynard, Naoto then says that he refuses to be the next Demon Lord and decides to fight against his own destiny. Unfortunately, Naoto loses to his Enemy Within and the game ends with the battle of Reynard against Naoto.
  • Good Ending: Naoto defeats Shuji, and then discovers that he himself is the Demon Lord's reincarnation, not Shuji. After dealing with Ryotaro, now with his memories restored as the legendary hunter Reynard, Naoto then says that he refuses to be the next Demon Lord and decides to fight against his own destiny. Naoto fight his Enemy Within and wins, causing the falldown of Sunrise Corporation. He wakes up outside of the ruins of the corporation alongside Miharu, Hideki and the Hellsing members.
  • Golden Ending: The same as the above, except that after the end of the game, there's a FMV of Naoto holding hands with one of your girlfriends that you have more affinity during the game. To earn this ending, you need to have one of your chosen girlfriends with the affinity in MAX.
• Named by the Adaptation: Like the anime, Shuji's nameless company is named Sunrise Corporation (no relation with the other Sunrise). The dub also give another name, Helios Corporation.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Many of the female characters here.
• Relationship Values: The game has the Partner Soul System, which give more abilities for the Arcana Souls depending on your relationship with your partner. It also gives you the chance of dating female characters with one of them being your girlfriend, not to mention affecting one of the endings.
• Sequel Hook: The last minutes of the game end with a "See you next time, hero...", implying that the next game will cover the second half of the manga. Too bad the game didn't sold well...
• Shout-Out: To both Devil May Cry and Video Game/Persona 3 and 4.
• Tsundere: Miharu is already here, but this time as a more straight take of a Type B (the original manga downplayed her tendencies towards Naoto). There's also Feilin as a Type A, and Shiori is a mixed example.

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