Soul Hunter - Game of Kings (Vol. 4)

Rating:
Summary: Go Youzen!
Review: (Don't ask about the title- I'm a little obsesed...) but anyway this DVD and infact this whole series is something you do not want to miss! It combines a really good sense of humor with a very serious plot line...almost depressing at times...but then in the next scene you have Taikoubou, the main character, eating grass with Sibuxiang or something...Wait was this reveiw soposed to be on this DVD! Okay, this particular one is basically one big battle- a really cool, long, serious, and at times a really extremely funny one! It is a must have for those of you fallowing the series and my personal favorite. It has some really great scenes and Taikoubou defeats this bad guy, Ohma, is the coolest way! I only have two complaints: 1. grr...it leaves off right at the good part!! 2. I am sorry, I mean I really like the character Kisho, Lord of the West, but why did they have to put him on the cover with Youzen? It's no fair! Kou Tenka gets his own cover why shouldn't Youzen! I guess they did that because he is a very important character int the plot of the DVD(okay, I am over it)...but this simple thing was not enough to give this product 4 stars...Buy this DVD!

Rating:
Summary: Great for kids
Review: A typical English translation of the novel that this show can trace its lineage to is over 110 chapters and eight pounds. That gives you some idea of the complexity of the source material, a novel that combines Chinese mythology and some ancient historical events in China. The show follows the basic events of the source material via enhancing the background and status of Taikoubou who was a bit more of a minor character in the initial material.

However, despite the relative complexity and obscurity (to most Westerners anyway) of the original material, this show is still quite accessible. It can get a bit confusing at times with so many different characters and factions introduced, but they generally take the appropriate time to introduce and give enough background on the characters introduced so even the unfamiliar viewer can understand the relationships involved. At times, the show does feel a bit crowded though with so many people getting introduced. The main lead, Taikoubou, who at first just comes off as somewhat stupid (albeit good hearted) does actually get good character development in the second half, but I was vaguely dismissive of him during the first half of the series.

In a sense, the initial set up of the show is somewhat deceptive. It appears, on first, that it is simply going to focus on a "battle of the day" formula of Taikoubou squaring off against whatever demon he is dealing with, but over the course of the opening episodes as characters are gathered and the background is established, that aspect begins to be minimized as a more grandiose plot slowly develops involving the fate of the Yin Dynasty and the role of supernatural beings in human history. Toward the very end, we get a few surprise elements that are interesting thematically, but a bit rushed to for maximum effectiveness. When the show is staying a bit closer to its roots and focusing on the various themes of honor, duty, obligation, and royal corruption it actually is fairly good, but the writers and director far too often let the show drift away from what was working to try out something that was considerably less interesting.

Unfortunately, various design and story choices also knee cap Soul Hunter and help to prevent it from rising from being average overall. Perhaps the most obvious is certain anachronistic elements that sometimes show up in the show. The mystical beasts and vaguely science fictionesque "magic" mecha did not really bother me as they fit in with the general atmosphere of the show, but the random appearance of say a modern stereo system just seems jarringly out of place. Later you get elements like Dakki playing a video game to "simulate" whether the forces she controls will be able to beat another army. The way they choose to portray Dakki early on was a bit odd, as she comes off as a simple flighty bimbo rather than a ruthless manipulator. One could argue that it was supposed to show how unassuming she appeared to others, but I thought it could have been accomplished with a lot more subtlety than they choose to use here. I have a hard time understanding why these elements were included since they don't really fit well with the show and don't really work strongly as comedy either.

There is also some odd tone shifts. While many great examples of both Western and Eastern fiction often alternate between comedy and tragedy to maximize emotional impact, there are just several comedic elements that felt a bit out of place especially later on as the plot starts getting much more serious in tone. Also, if a show is going to break through the Fourth Wall and acknowledge its fictional nature, they need to be a bit more consistent about it. They would have a character speak to the audience, do nothing with that aspect for episodes, and then suddenly have an odd exchange like this out of no where (this might not be an exact quote but it is pretty close):

"Onee-san, why are we wearing [] outfits like this anyway?"

"Fan service for the viewers."

A lot of this irritated me, because Soul Hunter kept temporarily rising to levels of excellence in regard to both characterization and thematic elements right before letting some bizarre random element or unnecessary plot development totally disrupt the atmosphere of the show. If they were going for more a comic feel overall, it would have been sense, but that just isn't wasn't they really were getting across, particularly as we get to the second half of the series. The elements were often unnecessary or could have been toned down to the overall betterment of the show.

Visually the show is pretty new and so the animation and art quality are pretty high. The character design choices range from the very tame to the wildly exotic and anachronistic at times, but overall I liked the character design work. There are a number of battles and they are well animated even if they focused a far too much on long range mystical attacks for my personal taste.

Overall, this show had a lot of potential but just didn't quite make as good use of it as it could. The sad thing is once the show got going it actually did have a lot of good characterization, plot, and thematic elements, but the uneven nature of the writing and design work kept dragging it down and preventing it from achieving excellence.

Though this show had, overall, an interesting plot, ideas, and some interesting characters, it was far too uneven in quality and execution to be called more than average overall. If fantasy or Chinese myth/history derived epics aren't really your thing go ahead and subtract a star.

Rating:
Summary: BEST ANIME EVER!!!
Review: I fell in love with Soul Hunter from the first DVD. Everything after that was absolute heaven... True, it has some faults, like sometimes breaking the fourth wall and/or moving too rapidly to comprehend. I recommend watching the Japanese version w/ subtitles. More info, and the voice actors sound much more suited to the characters. Anyway, Slayers fans should like this. If you like drama without frivolity, I suggest you try something else. SD fans should also watch... Taikoubou goes SD a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Sillyness...
Review: I has heard about Houshin Engi from my friend and had watched it in another language. When i heard it was coming out in america i flipped, literally. it's great anime, altough the characters u like die all too quickly, but it's moving and funny, you'll really enjoy this

Rating:
Summary: good to watch, but better to just rent
Review: I have seen the entire series and this is a rather interesting anime but it's flaw is it trying to mix comedy, action, and drama equivalently. The drama sometimes seemed to drag on too long, and the action didn't last long enough, but some of the comedy is really great and the philosophical views and lessons that the anime teaches you are very powerful. I enjoyed it for a very strong fact that it had a good story. Other positives things that could be commented on would be the extras in the dvds, and the american voices. I liked the translation notes especially because they told me some of the verbal jokes that couldn't be translated into english (like japanese puns) and what some of the words they used mean ("gung-fu"?). The american wasn't that bad, in fact I prefered listening to it rather than the japanese one (I still left the japanese subtitles on) because of some of the voices, namely Nataku's voice, which was much better in english. Even though most of the voices were good, I personally hated Raishin-shi's voice because he sounded like some ghetto, black-washed, kid trying to sound cool, especially when he refers to his dad as "pops". The thing that annoyed me the most was the animation, which seems to change every episode. One episode it was sophisticated and clear, next episode, it was gaudy and didn't have the same quality and the previous one. I gave this one a 4 mainly because it kept me interested throughout most of the episodes. It was good but I would recommend it be rented not bought.

Rating:
Summary: good to watch, but better to just rent
Review: I have seen the entire series and this is a rather interesting anime but it's flaw is it trying to mix comedy, action, and drama equivalently. The drama sometimes seemed to drag on too long, and the action didn't last long enough, but some of the comedy is really great and the philosophical views and lessons that the anime teaches you are very powerful. I enjoyed it for a very strong fact that it had a good story. Other positives things that could be commented on would be the extras in the dvds, and the american voices. I liked the translation notes especially because they told me some of the verbal jokes that couldn't be translated into english (like japanese puns) and what some of the words they used mean ("gung-fu"?). The american wasn't that bad, in fact I prefered listening to it rather than the japanese one (I still left the japanese subtitles on) because of some of the voices, namely Nataku's voice, which was much better in english. Even though most of the voices were good, I personally hated Raishin-shi's voice because he sounded like some ghetto, black-washed, kid trying to sound cool, especially when he refers to his dad as "pops". The thing that annoyed me the most was the animation, which seems to change every episode. One episode it was sophisticated and clear, next episode, it was gaudy and didn't have the same quality and the previous one. I gave this one a 4 mainly because it kept me interested throughout most of the episodes. It was good but I would recommend it be rented not bought.

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly great anime
Review: Senkaiden Houshin Engi (title changed to Soul Hunter, um ok) is one of the best, if not the best anime I have ever seen. Not to mention this DVD has -5- episodes! So buy it! Now!
Taikoubou leads a cast of quirky characters brought together by strange circumstances. The problem is Taikoubou is not a normal hero by any means and has no intention of completing his quest to seal 365 demon sennins. He figures he'll just go after Dakki, the evil temptress that has taken over the empire and who he believes to be the head honcho. Armed with his weapon, the paopei of wind called Daishinben, his bumbling adventures begin.
While at first this show may come across as a light-hearted, comic adventure, it turns out to be much more as the plot deepens and allies become enemies. Pasts are brought out and secrets are revealed. Taikoubou may even turn out to be a strategic genius who truely believes the words of the heart are stronger than steel. Then again, he may just be as stupid as you think! ~_*

Rating:
Summary: won't see this too often...
Review: Soul Hunter is based, abate loosely, upon one of the more interesting (and rarely translated) Chinese classic called Investiture of the Gods (or Creation of the Gods). This work is centered around one of the most tyrannical king in Chinese legends, king Zhou (roughly 1100 BC) and his offending the goddess, Nu Wa (Dakki, in this translation) that ultimately led to the downfall of the Shang dynasty (Yin, here... i think). interestingly (for me anyway), Investiture of the Gods was written in a very pro-Taoist manner, in contrast to Pilgrimage to the West (with the Monkey King) where the most powerful deities were Buddhists... just my $0.02.

BUT ENOUGH of that boring background stuff... on to the anime.

Soul Hunter is a series spanning 6 dvds and follows Taikoubou's (a taoist seer) journey to bind 365 demons (including Dakki herself) to prevent unbalancing the order of things in the mortal world.

animated in the style of Slayers and El Hazard (a funny anime in its own right) in both its model art and tongue in cheek humor, Soul Hunter is light hearted and very well translated (the English voice acting is very good) -- in fact, on the dvd, there are 'Translator's Notes' that explains little tidbits that might be missed during the first viewing of the series.

the first few episodes are a little slow until the different characters had some time to develop and then it picks up pretty quickly with all of the usual manic skirmishes between different mystical powers.

cleanly drawn and well acted, get past the slightly slow start and you'll be hooked.

Rating:
Summary: Oddly Entertaining.
Review: While some may view this anime as childish and silly (i.e. the rest of my household) it is a very good balance of the dramatic and the fun.

I want to know how a series with at least four deaths in the first DVD can be classified as 'just silly'.

The plot is a bit deeper than it first appears, as is the main character. I myself own up to volume three and it has drawn me in to its bizzarely addictive little universe.

In fact, I'd buy it just for the Translator's notes, which are at times strangely hilarious in their own right.

Its definitely worth the money. ^_~