Souji Okita

Cocky, Charming, laid-back, sarcastic, sadistic, clever, intelligent, witty, caring,

Sōji Okita (沖田 総司 Okita Souji) is the Captain of the Shinsengumi's 1st Division. He is a native of Edo. Hos brilliant prowess as a swordsman developed by training with Kondou and Hijikata.

Okita is based on the historical Okita Sōji.

Souji is a handsome 24-year-old man, standing at either 176 cm or 178cm, with chesnut brown hair in a topknot and emerald green eyes. He usually wears a loose red, gray, and orange haori and green hakama with white kyahan (cloth leggings) around his calves. His 'on-duty' style includes a blue haori and a black-and-white protective headband around his forehead. He begins wearing a white sleeping robe all the time after the Shinsengumi vice-commander Toshizou Hijikata orders him to stay at the headquarters due to his worsening illness.

In season 2 Souji eventually changes into a western outfit that is done in the same color palette as his usual unofficial outfit: red, orange, green and black.

Souji has a charming and somewhat sadistic personality and is fond of sarcasm. He enjoys pulling pranks on the other Shinsengumi members, especially Hijikata.

As tuberculosis has given him a failing sense of taste, Souji prefers strongly-seasoned food (to everyone else's misfortune when he's on cooking duty), but attempts to hide his condition.

He idolizes Isami Kondou, the commander of the Shinsengumi, and imitates his hair style. Souji is one of the most loyal men to him among the Shinsengumi. As much as he tries to hide it most of the time with teasing and rudeness, Souji is a good-natured person but as a warrior, he is a ruthless killer. At the same, he seems to be the type of person who likes to keep important information to himself, just to see what happens. When everyone found out that Chizuru Yukimura was a girl and some of the others were surprised, Souji commented that "It was obvious she was a girl" yet had not said anything initially.

Souji once warned Chizuru that if she ever got in his way during patrol or a fight, he would kill her. Even so, he protected her from Kazama during the Ikedaya incident, despite his own injuries. And later he protected her and Heisuke from Itou's followers who were lurking in the darkness and tried to shoot Souji's friends.

Souji is one of those who first find Chizuru in the dark alley. He keeps suggesting killing her, though in his sarcastic manner, so it is unclear whether he is serious or joking. When the Shinsengumi decide to let Chizuru stay, he claims he will kill her if she stands on their way.

During his fight with Chikage Kazama, he begins to cough up blood and is later diagnosed with tuberculosis. Chizuru finds Souji fighting Chikage and tries to stop Souji from fighting. Chikage was going to attack Chizuru until Souji tells him that he is his opponent. Chikage tells Souji that his job was already done when Souji first arrived. Chikage vanishes and Souji collapses unconscious from the tuberculosis.

Gradually he begins to weaken and is mostly seen in his bed or participating in discussions, until Kaoru Nagumo visits him with a bottle of Ochimizu that would "heal his illness". This proves to be untrue when Souji decides to avenge Kondou, fights with Kaoru and then, protecting Heisuke and Chizuru, Souji gets shot with silver bullets and his injures do not heal quickly, so he is last seen being sent to Osaka Castle for treatment alongside Kondou.

Souji remains in bed for the first half of the season with Chizuru and Harada visiting him from time to time. When he is told that the Shinsengumi are planning to engage into fighting again, he blames Hijikata for dragging Kondou into this even though Kondou has not fully recovered yet. When told off by Hijikata, Souji gets bitter but does not retort. It is implied that his condition is worsening.

Next time Souji is seen protecting Chizuru and Kondou from Kaoru in the forest. Even though he is strong enough, his tuberculosis kicks in at the last moment and knocks him out of his Rasetsu state. He is saved by Chizuru who is later saved by Kazama.

After Kondou's death, Souji furiously challenges Hijikata, but gives up after Chizuru informs him of Hijikata's injury. He walks away but Chizuru catches up with him and explains that Hijikata did not want to leave Kondou, despite being ordered to. He expresses his deep admiration of Kondou and stops talking about Hijikata accepting that he is probably the one to lead the Shinsengumi and leaving him in Chizuru's care.

Later, when Hijikata is wounded again and is in bad shape hiding in a village, Souji, angered by Kondou's death and his own weakening condition, decides to protect Hijikata after having heard of a conspiracy to assassinate him. He ties his sword to his hand with a bandage and runs into battle in his Rasetsu form, killing off an entire group of men on their way to the village where Hijikata was hiding. Since he was already weak beforehand, his life force gets sapped away by using his Rasetsu powers, and as a result his body turns into dust. The only thing left behind is his sword that Hijikata finds upon arriving.

Souji was born to a samurai family and his older sister took care of him after their parents' deaths when he was 7. His sister brought him to Shieikan when he was 9 and Kondou took him under his wing from then on.

As a child, Souji was extremely cagey and refused to open up to anyone. Although he was initially a live-in student at the Shieikan Dojo, Souji was treated more as a servant and was beaten by the other (and older) students in the dojo, leaving Souji with bruises and injuries that worried Kondou who only discovered the situation by accident when seeing the bruises. When Kondou confronted the other students and told them to stop bullying Souji, it only led to more severe beatings for Souji.

Kondou's heart only sank more for Souji when he saw him standing outside the dojo looking out in the direction of his former home. Kondou tried to console Souji by telling him how hard it must have been for his sister to leave her adorable little brother.

Souji bitterly talked about how first his parents abandoned him by dying and now his sister abandoned him by leaving him at the dojo.

Kondou attempted to comfort Souji, telling him that nothing happens without reason and that despite Souji's hardships there must be a reason for it all.

Souji then asked Kondou if he was the one who told the other students not to hurt him anymore and explained that he was cornered by the other students again after that who beat him with wooden swords while calling him a "snitch".

One day, Shuusai-sensei (the soke of the Tennen Risshin-ryu Dojo as well as Kondou Isami's sensei) decided to let his students have a sword fight. Souji was hit on the forehead and began to bleed. Kondou immediately wanted to stop the match to treat Souji's wound, but Souji desperately protested and begged Kondou to allow him to continue. Kondou hesitantly agreed and allowed Souji to keep sparring. Souji fought more fiercely than before and eventually got a winning hit. Without thinking, Souji did not stop fighting and attempted to keep beating up his opponent, not realizing what he was doing. Kondou rushed in to stop Souji before he could seriously hurt the other boy by telling him that he had won the match.

Kondou embraced Souji, and Souji stated that so far Kondou has been the only one who has not called him pitiful. He expressed his gratitude and quoted Kondou's words about everything having a reason to happen. Souji's reason to be in the dojo, according to his own conclusion, was to follow "Kondou-san".