Live action TV
Description
The character known as Onmyōji #1 is Hirai Yasumasa, a hereditary onmyoji of the Tsuchimikado school and the chief spiritual practitioner among the figures gathered to protect Tokyo in the anime Doomed Megalopolis. During the early years of the twentieth century, when the city is being transformed by rapid modernization and industrial expansion, Yasumasa is recruited by the businessman Shibusawa Eiichi to join the Tokyo Reconstruction Plan, an effort designed to shield the imperial capital from both military and supernatural dangers. Within this plan, his specific responsibility is to perform the rites that keep the vengeful spirit of Taira no Masakado safely bound beneath the city.
Yasumasa is serious and disciplined, shaped by the weight of a centuries-old tradition of esoteric practice. He is highly knowledgeable in classical ritual arts and tends to treat the spiritual world as a practical reality rather than a matter of superstition. He works alongside scientists, writers, and statesmen without friction, seeing his own craft as one more necessary skill in the defense of the capital. His calm and collected demeanor reflects both his training and his sense of duty, though his devotion to that duty is absolute.
His primary motivation is the protection of Tokyo and the imperial order it represents. This puts him in direct opposition to the sorcerer Yasunori Kato, who plans to awaken Masakado's spirit and use it to destroy the city. Yasumasa's role in the story is that of a guardian and ritual specialist: he performs protective ceremonies, detects and counters spiritual disturbances, and supports the efforts of the other defenders. He works closely with the novelist Koda Rohan, and together they appear to bring Kato's scheme to a halt, though the victory proves incomplete.
Yasumasa's key relationships reflect his position as a trusted specialist. With Shibusawa Eiichi he shares a patron-and-expert dynamic, while his alliance with Koda Rohan is one of mutual respect between a mystic and a scholar united by a common goal. His confrontation with Kato defines his arc, as he is ultimately defeated in direct magical combat. Accepting that the disaster he tried to prevent is no longer avoidable, he predicts that the capital will face destruction on September 1 of the twelfth year of the Taisho era, and on the day of Emperor Meiji's death he takes his own life, leaving his final warning as his legacy.
His notable abilities are rooted in the traditional arts of onmyodo, including ritual incantation, spirit binding, the use of protective talismans, geomancy, and related divination practices. He is able to perceive supernatural forces that ordinary people cannot see and to carry out the complex ceremonies required to suppress powerful entities like Masakado's spirit, making him one of the few people capable of standing against Kato's sorcery.
Yasumasa is serious and disciplined, shaped by the weight of a centuries-old tradition of esoteric practice. He is highly knowledgeable in classical ritual arts and tends to treat the spiritual world as a practical reality rather than a matter of superstition. He works alongside scientists, writers, and statesmen without friction, seeing his own craft as one more necessary skill in the defense of the capital. His calm and collected demeanor reflects both his training and his sense of duty, though his devotion to that duty is absolute.
His primary motivation is the protection of Tokyo and the imperial order it represents. This puts him in direct opposition to the sorcerer Yasunori Kato, who plans to awaken Masakado's spirit and use it to destroy the city. Yasumasa's role in the story is that of a guardian and ritual specialist: he performs protective ceremonies, detects and counters spiritual disturbances, and supports the efforts of the other defenders. He works closely with the novelist Koda Rohan, and together they appear to bring Kato's scheme to a halt, though the victory proves incomplete.
Yasumasa's key relationships reflect his position as a trusted specialist. With Shibusawa Eiichi he shares a patron-and-expert dynamic, while his alliance with Koda Rohan is one of mutual respect between a mystic and a scholar united by a common goal. His confrontation with Kato defines his arc, as he is ultimately defeated in direct magical combat. Accepting that the disaster he tried to prevent is no longer avoidable, he predicts that the capital will face destruction on September 1 of the twelfth year of the Taisho era, and on the day of Emperor Meiji's death he takes his own life, leaving his final warning as his legacy.
His notable abilities are rooted in the traditional arts of onmyodo, including ritual incantation, spirit binding, the use of protective talismans, geomancy, and related divination practices. He is able to perceive supernatural forces that ordinary people cannot see and to carry out the complex ceremonies required to suppress powerful entities like Masakado's spirit, making him one of the few people capable of standing against Kato's sorcery.