English Dub Review: HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI “Nataku”

This episode may induce migraines…

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

While it tries to cram as much plot & exposition down your throat as possible within a half-hour, the episode is structured into two different subplots that are inter-woven during the proceedings.

Sub-plot-A

After another 1 min 15-second action sequence that we still don’t know the relevance of Between the characters Bunchuu and Kou Hiko, It cuts back to Dakki’s palace in the “Village of Yin” wherein the present, Bunchuu returns and greets Kou Hiko. that’s interwoven with flashbacks of how they met 20 years ago. As they try to confront the Emperor, he’s still under the negative influence of Dakki’s fox-lady charms and consistently manipulating the Emperor into making bad decisions. Either the Emperor is under an actual spell or is just thinking with his dick Because as far as I can tell, Dakki is the only female character with equal focus & screen time in this very male-dominated story. While Bunchuu tries to bring some level of order & stability back to the people of Yin who are being abused by Dakki until the Emperor and by-extension Dakki later gives Bunchuu the task of stopping a rebellion uprising from a group of people who are retaliating because the Emperor previously had their Prince executed.

Sub-plot -B
While it Intercut’s with the Koh & Bunchuu storyline, Taiko is still recovering from the near-death experience he had the last episode while Supu is encouraging him to get back on his feet and to find powerful allies. That is until he just so happens to encounter one named “Nataku” who is born with 3 magical Items called “Paopei’s” that are fused to his body which gives him the ability to fly and fire copper bracelets that can cause damage and return to him at high velocity speeds. While stopping Nataku’s attacks Taiko learns that he’s seeking revenge against his father who saw him as a monster for how he was born but it leads to some trippy plot-twists in Nataku’s backstory and without giving too much away, they involve Water Dragons, reincarnation and lotus flowers. After sort-of solving Nataku’s inter-personal family conflict during a decent action sequence, Nataku decides to become Taiko’s ally, but before he can join Taiko on his quest, the episode ends when Nataku is forcibly taken by a wizard and former classmate/rival from Taiko’s past named Taiitsu shows up out of nowhere and promises Taiko that once Nataku’s training to control his Paopei parts is complete, Nataku will join him on his quest.

Our Take

The main problem I take issue with in regards to this incoherent mess of an anime is that nearly everything goes by at a break-neck pace to the point that rewatching this twice started to give me a migraine. Unlike a better-paced anime that slowly unravels new information in each episode like Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko, Hakyu Hoshin Engi just drops us into this world without letting us know most of the creatures, in-universe terminology, the mechanics of how magic works, etc.

And finally, why would Taiitsu want to help Taiko out? What’s he getting out of this? Does he know what Taiko is trying to accomplish? I’m hoping all these questions will be properly explained in a better-paced episode because I nearly had a migraine trying to comprehend everything I just watched…