Hakyuu Houshin Engi (2018) — Story, Release Date, Rating

Synopsis:

Taikobo, orphaned by a devastating attack orchestrated by a captivating demon, becomes a key figure in the enigmatic Houshin Project. Tasked with locating and containing immortals dwelling amongst humanity, he navigates a world steeped in ancient conflicts and veiled truths. The series explores themes of identity and loyalty as Taikobo grapples with his origins. Trained by those who hunt demons, he must question the nature of good and evil while confronting the moral complexities inherent in his mission. The narrative unfolds within a richly detailed setting where the boundaries between human and supernatural are blurred, inviting viewers to consider the cost of absolute control and the potential for unexpected alliances. It's a story focused on personal growth amidst profound responsibility, demanding difficult choices with far-reaching consequences.

Trailer:

Streaming Platforms:

Crunchyroll

Episodes:

Episode 1: The Hoshin List
Episode 2: Nataku
Episode 3: Yozen
Episode 4: The Buseioh's Rebellion
Episode 5: Two Paths
... and 18 more episodes

Characters:

Taikoubou (Main) - Voice Actors: Ono, Kensho, Grelle, Jessie James
Bukichi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Uchida, Yuuma, Lewin, Comona
Bunchuu (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Maeno, Tomoaki, Tatum, J. Michael
Cho Tenkun (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kawada, Shinji
Chou Hou (Supporting)
Chou Kou Mei (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Okitsu, Kazuyuki, Magill, Seth
Chou Tenkun (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kawada, Shinji
Chuuou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Namikawa, Daisuke
Dakki (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hikasa, Youko, Tipton, Alexis
Dokouson (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hino, Satoshi
Doujin, Nentou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Terashima, Takuma
Doukou Tenson (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Toyosaki, Aki
En Tenkun (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Fukushima, Jun
Fugen Shinjin (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Shimazaki, Nobunaga, Dismuke, Aaron
Fukki (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Gaku, Suu (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kawashima, Tokuyoshi
Genshi Tenson (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Tsuda, Eizou, Campbell, Charles
Go, Ken (Supporting)
Gouhei (Supporting)
Gyakutei Shinjin (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Suwabe, Junichi
Haku Tenkun (Female) (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yoshino, Yuna
Haku Tenkun (Male) (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yamamoto, Itaru
Hakutsuru Doji (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Takanashi, Kengo, Bowling, Anthony
Hekishou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yaoya, Kyou
Hekiun (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Suwa, Ayaka
Igo (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Umehara, Yuuichirou
Inshi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yuuya, Atsuko, Young, Stephanie
Jikou Doujin (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Nogami, Shou
Joka (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Sakamoto, Maaya
Kashi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Clinkenbeard, Colleen, Nakahara, Mai
Keishou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Tachibana, Yuuko
Ki, Hatsu (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Ono, Daisuke
Ki, Hakuyuukou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hatano, Wataru
Ki, Shou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kiyokawa, Motomu, Elliott, R. Bruce, Ono, Daisuke
Ki, Tan (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Takumi, Yasuaki
Kinkou, Seibo (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Mori, Nanako, Connors, Amber Lee
Ko Kibi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Wiedenheft, Sarah, Nanjou, Yoshino
Kokukirin (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yanagita, Junichi, McFarland, Mike
Kokutenko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yamashita, Daiki, McDonald, Joel
Koso (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Izaki, Hisayoshi
Kou, Hiko (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hosoya, Yoshimasa, Hawkins, Brad
Kou, Tenka (Supporting) - Voice Actors: KENN
Kou, Kon (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Amada, Masuo
Kou, Tenshou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kobayashi, Daiki
Kou, Mei (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Souma, Kouichi, Smeaton, Brad
Kouryuu Shinjin (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Mizunaka, Masaaki
Kouseishi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Kumagai, Kentarou
Koushi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Komatsu, Mikako
Koyuken (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Murata, Taishi
Kuryuuson (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hayashi, Daichi, Schenck, Garrett
Kyou, Bunkan (Supporting)
Kyou, Kanso (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Watanuki, Ryuunosuke
Li, Kintaku (Supporting)
Li, Nataku (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Furukawa, Makoto, Briner, Justin
Li, Sei (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Shingaki, Tarusuke, Wald, David
... and 39 more characters

Staff:

Cook, Justin (Producer)
Kanemitsu, Kazuhiro (Producer)
Kodama, Keita (Producer)
Maru, Ryouji (Producer)
Sugimoto, Mika (Producer)
Suzuki, Toshihiro (Producer)
Herek, Samantha (Assistant Producer)
Aizawa, Kagetsu (Director, Episode Director, Storyboard)
Fukushima, Toshinori (Episode Director)
Hishikawa, Naoki (Episode Director)
Iwata, Kazuya (Episode Director)
Jinbo, Masato (Episode Director, Storyboard)
Kawana, Kana (Episode Director)
Matsunaga, Masahiko (Episode Director)
Rissen, Hirotoshi (Episode Director)
Tamura, Masafumi (Episode Director, Storyboard)
Ikeda, Rintarou (Script)
Ookusa, Yoshiki (Script)
Fujiki, Kahoru (Storyboard, Animation Director)
Kuzuya, Naoyuki (Storyboard)
Takenouchi, Kazuhisa (Storyboard)
Watanabe, Masaki (Storyboard)
Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas (Theme Song Performance, Theme Song Arrangement, Theme Song Composition)
Ishikawa, Chiaki (Theme Song Composition)
yanaginagi (Theme Song Performance)
Ban, Yukiko (Animation Director)
Emori, Mariko (Animation Director)
Endou, Daisuke (Character Design, Animation Director)
Fujisaki, Ryuu (Original Creator)
Fukunaga, Gen (Executive Producer)
Furuya, Yuuji (Sound Effects)
Hasegawa, Saki (Animation Director)
Iguchi, Chuuichi (Animation Director)
Imoto, Miho (Animation Director)
Iuchi, Maiko (Music)
Kado, Tomoaki (Animation Director)
Kurosawa, Masayuki (Editing)
Motoki, Yousuke (Director of Photography)
Mukouyama, Yuuji (Animation Director)
Oda, Mayumi (Animation Director)
Ootaka, Yuuta (Animation Director)
Ray, Tabitha (ADR Director)
Shimizu, Yoshiko (Animation Director)
Takahashi, Natsuko (Series Composition)
Takai, Risa (Animation Director)
Takano, Yukari (Animation Director)
Tanaka, Jou (Animation Director)
Walker, Tyler (ADR Director)
Watanabe, Asami (Chief Animation Director, Animation Director)
Watanabe, Keiko (Animation Director)

Reviews:

User Yas- (Score: 7/10):
Over the course of my anime watching pastime, I was fortunate enough to have been acquainted with anime that were high in both rating and quality and this never experienced a time when I watched an “underrated” anime, one which was a great anime but it's rating didn't justify it at all, or an anime that was not popular and deserved more attention, life isn't always fair, and as such, Hakyuu Houshin Engi was sadly caught under the web of both these unfortunate situations mainly because of the manga purists Before we begin, I'll cover the external problems Hakyuu Houshin Engi faced before it evenaired before I review the show because I feel it is necessary to let the readers of the review know that they should understand what the show went through and the unfair problems it had to face and finally that they shouldn't judge this show by its rating and this review will answer all of that. The manga purists of Houshin Engi were quick to outright reject the anime and this isn't surprising because the LotGH purists quickly rejected the remake of the show as well. For Houshin Engi's case, the manga lovers complained that the pacing in the anime is “too fast” (which was true for the first few episodes) and that “it deserves a 1 for doing so” which is definitely something that didn't make sense since they didn't look at the other things in the anime at all or heck, give the show a chance and watch it through, because Hakyuu Houshin Engi did improve considerably from around the end of it's first half and went on. As such, another problem that was unfair for Hakyuu Houshin Engi was that not many people decided to pick it up when it first aired (and before the purists started giving 1s and 2s and the mean broke down completely) since the show was pretty niche outside Japan. nnUnlike the monstrous popularity of Hunter x Hunter (a show Houshin Engi the manga is comparable to according to people acquainted with both series) which obviously was a great hit among the Western Anime market along with Japan as well and this is largely because the manga was still publishing around the time when the remake first aired and another fact being that Hunter x Hunter (2011) went on for a year with more than a hundred episodes, thus allowing the hype to go on and keep on increasing, Hakyuu Houshin Engi didn't have that unfortunately. It's manga ended long ago, it’s budget was a mere shadow of Hunter x Hunter’s budget and the purists couldn't swarm HxH since it's casual view count steadily kept on increasing thanks to the benefits the famous show had. My point of rambling on about HxH, a show I haven't watched but have spoken to many readers/watchers about? It's that Hakyuu Houshin Engi had a lot of problems to face even before it aired that were against its power or control and…
User Karhu (Score: 5/10):
Hakyu Houshin Engi is every generic fighting tournament shonen anime in a nutshell. It hasn't even masked itself to look like something else. It simply does not care, and frankly neither do I. Most viewers will not like this anime for two simple reasons: It's not very good and most of all, not very enjoyable either. It walks the path of mediocrity without even trying to be anything. The outcome is very bland and a total lackluster. This adaptation did surprisingly many questionable choices. First and foremost is the lack of introduction. Viewers are quite directly thrown into a random world around random characters. Nothingis explained, things just somewhat are there and stuff happens because it does. One could say that this is the right approach considering how direct and linear the story and narrative ends up being. Still, the lack of build up, world building and events that in generally offer reasons to care about any characters - make the series not really worth of caring about and most of all not very memorable. On top of that, nothing really happens during the whole run. Episode after episode, I was waiting for the series to go somewhere, but all it did was end without accomplishing much.nnThe characters are hardly worth of talking about. It seems like the author was afraid he would create shonen stereotypes and copy-pasted character macros from other shonen series, so instead he tried to abandon all these things. The outcome is not very pretty. Practically all characters are so empty that they aren't even worth of being disliked. nnThe animation is a lackluster as well. Most living things look lifeless and sturdy objects. In most lazily animated series, the illusion of animation is done with camera work. Rollovers, zoom outs and that kind of small tricks typically focusing on backdrops. In this series, the character movement is often executed in similar fashion. Instead of the camera moving from place a to place b on solid speed, it's the still character macro drawn on a piece of paper that is moved from place a to place b. It looks cheap and weird. In all honesty, the animation got miles better during the run, but the sad part is that the hideously executed movements from the first half of the series are among the most memorable things from this series for the reason that nothing else really stands out. nnThe music in this series makes the series seem better than it is. I am not sure how they managed to get Fear, and Loathing in Lass Vegas take part in this project, but they did. Most of the BGM is pretty chill and catchy. The voice acting is bland and makes the characters seem even more empty shells than they otherwise are. nnOverall this series is lacking in most of everything. It's hard to find any of it very interesting. Most of the things in it are so boring that even the most annoying things don't seem…
User pennycryman (Score: 1/10):
Mach-25 Houshin Engi is a series that assaults you on every level. I honestly should've expected what a travesty it was. It's adapting a 200 chapter manga into a 2 cour seasonal. Shaman King couldn't even get a 50 episode 300 chapter adaptation correct, and even that has the excuse of its first part being episodic. Houshin Engi is heavily plot based, with an intricate setting and world building. The reboot has those elements but it doesn't bother explaining it. It doesn't involve explaining anything. It has some of the worst transitions I've ever seen. About 25 different things happen each episode, and don'texpect them to flow together, given that each episode adapts more than 7 chapters. Characters will make big statements, get power ups, and get killed in the span of 2 minutes, and most of the time, the series doesn't even bother introducing them. They also, for some reason, included a recap episode. Because this series totally needed that. And you can't skip it, because the series drops one of the biggest plot twist so casually that if you blink, you'll miss it. The show also looks bad. Admittedly, the backgrounds are nothing short of stunning, effectively using CGI to capture the magic of a fantasy/sci-fi China. However, this is marred by piss-poor character designs and mediocre animation that at best becomes passable. The music is actually pretty decent, and the op kind of slaps, but the studio just decided not to animate it. What a waste of amazing source material.

News:

North American Anime & Manga Releases for April (04/01/2019)
Winter 2018 Simulcast List [Update 1/24] (01/01/2018)
Winter 2018 Preview (12/15/2017)
New 'Houshin Engi' TV Anime Announces Additional Cast Members (11/21/2017)
New 'Houshin Engi' TV Anime Announces Staff and Additional Cast Members (10/31/2017)
New 'Houshin Engi' TV Anime Announces Additional Cast Members (09/29/2017)
'Houshin Engi' Gets New TV Anime (07/31/2017)

Forum Topics:

External Links:

Related Anime/Manga:

Hakyuu Houshin Engi: Kou-ke no Chi (anime - Sequel)
Houshin Engi (manga - Adaptation)
Hakyuu Houshin Engi Recap (anime - Summary)
Senkaiden Houshin Engi (anime - Alternative Version)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Mythology, Shounen
Themes: Mythology
Demographics: Shounen
Studios: C-Station
Producers: i0+, NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
Licensors: Funimation
Rating: 5.39 / 10
Rank: #12772
Popularity: #5099
Users Listed: 21,870
Users Scored: 5,622
NSFW: No
Last Updated: 08/06/2023
Aired: January 12, 2018 – June 29, 2018 (Winter)
Type: tv
Source: manga
Age Rating: PG 13
Episodes: 23
Broadcast: Friday at 22:00 (JST)

Hakyuu Houshin Engi