The anime

Having been lurking around journals containing translations of the novels, I've gathered that the anime gave a somewhat biased treatment against the character of Takaya. That is, they softened the character of Naoe to the extent that he became the more sympathetic of the two.

While I'm inclined to agree on this, my opinion of both of them was not actually swayed in favour of Naoe. In fact, I was a little frustrated that all the blame was being piled on Takaya with no one defending him. Thank goodness for Ujiteru! I guess him backing his beloved Saburou gained a plus point in my book. But seriously, Kagetora didn't come off as a jerk to me. He seemed more of an enigma in the anime and Takaya was certainly deserving of sympathy - the whole revelation of his true identity and his importance in Yami Sengoku suddenly thrust at him - not exactly the kind of issues that the average 17-year-old has to deal with.

I know I refer to Takaya and Kagetora as if they're two different people but they're not. More on that later.

Point is, during my first encounter with Mirage of Blaze, I wasn't one of those people who thought of Kagetora as mean or cruel. In fact this never occurred to me until I read about it. So really, I'm not sure if the anime failed to give a balanced view of the relationship because as far as I'm concerned, I got the idea that both had problems and both were at fault.

And that there was still love somewhere.... deep down in the very dark crevices of their hearts. ♥