Hakyuu Houshin Engi - Vague Memories [message #360679] |
Fri, 12 January 2018 22:05 |
Dave Baranyi
Messages: 1057 Registered: January 2012
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“Hakyuu Houshin Engi” is a new version of a mid-90s fantasy manga series that spawned an anime in 1999. I vaguely remember the name of the series, and the goofy looking character design of the Mystical Beast is familiar to me, but I can't remember watching the original anime, nor does it show up in my records from 1999. At the time I was receiving so many anime on tape from Japan that I didn't always keep track of the ones that I didn't care for, so maybe that's what happened in this case.
The story is based upon a Chinese tale of the end of the Shang Dynasty. Various powerful spirits are interfering with the affairs of men and a young spirit master is sent to earth to bind 365 spirits, including one who has become Empress of China. Things don't work out well at first for the young master and he has to re-think what he is going to do.
If the first episode of the first anime was anything like the first episode of this new anime I can understand why I dropped it and forgot almost everything about it. It's essentially yet another shounen magical fighting anime with a paint-by-number plot and a hopeless protagonist who has to learn to become serious. There was lots of yelling, numerous unfunny supposedly humorous scenes, and some surprisingly bad direction.
It was fairly painful for me to force my way through the first episode of “Hakyuu” and I can't imagine sitting though any more, so that's it for me. My final rating is C-.
Dave Baranyi
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Re: Hakyuu Houshin Engi - Vague Memories [message #360700 is a reply to message #360679] |
Sat, 13 January 2018 08:21 |
E. Liddell
Messages: 44 Registered: August 2012
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On Fri, 12 Jan 2018 19:05:13 -0800, Dave Baranyi wrote:
> “Hakyuu Houshin Engi” is a new version of a mid-90s fantasy manga series
> that spawned an anime in 1999. I vaguely remember the name of the
> series, and the goofy looking character design of the Mystical Beast is
> familiar to me, but I can't remember watching the original anime, nor
> does it show up in my records from 1999. At the time I was receiving so
> many anime on tape from Japan that I didn't always keep track of the
> ones that I didn't care for, so maybe that's what happened in this case.
I know I watched the older anime. Once. I seem to remember
that it had too large an ensemble cast for me to keep track of
the characters and that it felt rushed, like they'd tried to
compress too much manga into too few episodes. Of the content
of the plot and the identity of the characters, nothing remains.
Which leads me to believe that the best thing about the show
was the opening theme song--and this is despite my having very
low standards for what constitutes a "watchable" series.
E. Liddell
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