English Dub Review: HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI “The Great Sennin World War Begins!!”

“This isn’t even my final form!”

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

Just as Taiko was on his way to Kingo Mountain to propose his alliance, It all comes to a crushingly abrupt halt when he notices the Island by itself and is under the command of Bunchu who is heading towards Konron Mountain on an all-out assault, and even worse, the odds aren’t working in their favor at all. After getting to Konron to warn everyone, Taiko’s Master entrusts him with leadership status to help them get out of this mess.

Much of the episode spends it’s running time on both sides of the conflict, but at least they both have the common courtesy to move away from the humans to ensure nothing happens to them before the battle, but Taiko manages to protect Konron thanks to having Youzen use a magical barrier to shield them from enemy fire which at first helps, but that turns out to be a distraction when Bunchu reveals that Kingo has it’s own giant Death Ray which causes a portion of damage & casualties to Konron. Knowing that Bunchu has some sort-of strategy in case they attempt to retreat, Taiko decides to attack head-on against Kingo Mountain using a death ray of their own which would’ve worked if they weren’t at a disadvantage in the form of Kingo’s own protective barrier.

We do find out that Youzen not only survived the blast, but he’s infiltrated the Kingo base using his shape-shifting powers and to give a sense of urgency, Youzen attempts to destroy their shield from the inside with 20 mins to spare before the Kingo Death Ray fires again. But of course, it’d be a much shorter episode if this was too easy and is trapped inside a “Hyperspace dimension” by a Kingo subordinate named “Chotenkun” who tries to tempt him with a “Join the Darkside” speech while slowly killing him with his dimensional abilities. Youzen in retaliation decides to use his Trump Card which turns out to be his true form as it’s revealed that the whole time, his human form was never his true form and it’s a purple formless mass with yellow eyes. The episode ends on a suspenseful cliffhanger as we’re left wondering what Youzen will do next with minutes to spare before Kingo fires it’s Death Ray again towards Taiko and the rest of Konron Mountain.

Our Take

The action scenes were good if you’re into aerial space dogfights between slow-moving floating islands with robots & laser beams. The ideas sound cool on paper but somehow all of it felt kinda dull in terms of execution. The episodes biggest flaw so far is its attempt to make us give a shit about the protagonist Taiko who takes command which would sound cool if his only solution wasn’t always charging at the enemy when cornered with almost no plan as a strategy. As for Youzen, he kinda stole the show this episode as he made more progress in getting inside the enemy base to do something useful rather than stand around and watch Konron get partially blasted.

Since episode 6, they finally slowed down pacing-wise. At least the show is somewhat watchable, but it still needs a lot more work to improve itself.