Forum - View topicREVIEW: Hakyū Hōshin Engi Blu-ray
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Lord Vaultman
Posts: 810 |
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Definitely he biggest turnoff for me was the pacing. Like seriously what was up with that first episode. Whoever thought it was good to do on average 1 volume of content per episode they were crazy.
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2703 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Yeah, as mentioned, the main problem I've generally heard about Hakyu is that it rushes like hell through the entire 23-volume manga story, which is just absurd. I saw the old anime years & years ago, and while I know that it also skips over some bits here & there, it still focused on being a proper adaptation, only getting about 7 volumes in before moving on to its own original ending.
It's a shame, too, because from what I've (& heard from friends who have read it all), Hoshin Engi is definitely one of the more clever shonen action manga to come from Jump. While it's certainly not Hunter x Hunter-levels of thinking, Taikoubou is notable for being a literal general when it comes to battle, usually preferring to think out strategies or figure out clever ways to defeat his opponents... And that requires time to properly plan out & devise, so Hakyu rushing like hell to get to the later parts of the anime is ridiculous. I think my friend described this anime perfectly when he said that "It's for existing fans only, since they'll already know what's going on, & will love seeing later parts of the manga finally animated." Essentially, it's the first 13 episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, i.e. rushing through stuff existing fans of the previous anime already know so that it can get to the "new" stuff, except done for the entire show. Oh well, at least Discotek re-released the original anime, so people can always go for that show, if they want a better Hoshin Engi experience. However, since I'm such a fan of this series, I think I'll still wind up grabbing Hakyu at some point. |
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meiam
Posts: 3452 |
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Yeah the manga is pretty good, although its been quite a few years since I read it. A lot of the reviewer problem are also present in it but never really bothered me. Like the anachronism was never a problem because only the immortal have those, and its established very early that they have access to far advanced technology. The manga also jump between serious and comedic tone, but that's pretty standard shonen fare, so I guess it might just be done poorly in the anime adaptation. Most battle definitely involved the main character having to outwit his opponent, it's very rare that fight just devolve into "who can hit hard/faster". The main character is generally the weakest person on the field and later on you have plenty of instance where multiple battle happening simultaneously and intersecting into each others while the MC just goes around giving direction to people without really engaging himself, that was (and still is) very refreshing for a shonen. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1465 |
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This is one of the most baffling adaptations I've ever seen, but I still got some enjoyment out of it thanks to its rock-solid production values, great art direction and the fact that the show finally slowed down to a reasonable pace once it started covering the Great Sennin War arc. In fact, it seems the whole point of this show was adapting that arc, because as soon as that was over, it skipped right ahead to the conclusion of the manga, without even showing how spoiler[Joka was defeated.]
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tintor2
 Posts: 2190 |
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Gotta be honest. I was looking forward to this series happily since I heard bad stuff about the first anime.... only to be disappointed. I was superconfused at some stuff due to the poor pacing. In the first episode a lot of stuff happens in such rushed pacing that made Taikobo looks like a really poor hero due to lack of build up. I get they tried to make Taikobo stand out, but with this writing and pacing, it was almost a black comedy due to how a lot of people suffer while Taikobo just goes around having fun.
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Cave
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I'm an old school Houshin Engi fan and can say my reaction was about the same as Zhou-BR's. The first anime (Senkaiden) is pretty solid. They changed some things around and ended it way early, but it's for the most part well put together and the drama is good. The animation is also pretty good for its time as a TV series.
What's sad about Hakyuu is that it literally did everything so well. I was so worried they wouldn't find voice actors that could match the original and yet they cast well beyond my expectations with Ono Kenshou as Taikoubou and Toriumi Kousuke as Shinkouhyou. The animation is beautiful. The music is great. Just the gd pacing. THE PACING! Just WHY. It doesn't make sense to me, to anyone. A lot of focus was on the Sennin War arc. So why not do JUST the Sennin War arc? Why shove everything else in there? Why skip over everything with the final boss? Why skip over spoiler[THE MAIN CHARACTER DYING]? Even myself who is an avid fan was just confused at points. Too much information was cut out and so many scenes weirdly abridged. The only way to enjoy the story is through the manga itself... but then the Viz translation is kinda eeehh, so then basically the only way to enjoy it is through scanlations or the original Japanese. There is also the Senkai Chronicles mobile game that has come out, but that's only if you can read Japanese. ._. Luckily, the mobile game is going through the ENTIRE story and has been pretty good, though it crashes regularly for me. |
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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I just remember watching the original 90s anime and not liking it much, it's tone was all over the place if I can remember and it felt like it had 2 climaxes to it too many. The only character I liked was Kou Hiko also. The new version sounds like it has worse problems though from the sounds of things.
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gridsleep
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Is that a Moomin in the thumbnail?
Yes, I realize a grunty in .hack//Sign also resembles a Moomin. I guess there is no reason for Moomins not to be everywhere. |
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Ruri Lee
Posts: 32 |
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There's a moomin joke in the manga series itself  so yeah, kinda...
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Ruri Lee
Posts: 32 |
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Houshin Engi fan here, and it's a real shame they didn't decide to do a dedicated remake, it was a fantastic series to read; all the more so if you're a history and sci-fi nerd (so many little details to pluck out...) At a glance it seems like a historical fantasy, but it's really just sci-fi.
I'd say the biggest thing the anime's pacing kills off is the subtle nuances. The story sometimes seems basic on the surface, but there's consistency and a lot of subtext that gets missed out on the first read-through. |
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