English Dub Review: HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI “Blinding Light, Deafening Silence, and Then…”

Deaf Heaven.

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The episode begins with a random conversation via-flashback between Fugen & Taiko as Fugen goes into a philosophical speech about the concept of Sacrifice which attempts to cement it’s poignancy as it leads up to the previous episode’s cliffhanger where Fugen attempts to take out Bunchu with by suicide bombing himself using his Magical Science-ball. You’d think the build-up of this speech would’ve driven the point home with the aftermath of Fugen’s great sacrifice because it consequently causes the Reactor within Kingo Island to shut down completely causing deaths within Kingo to increase en-masse. After crashing into a mountain with Taiko, Youzen, and Supu alive. Of course, Taiko knows that their efforts were in vain as he predicts that Bunchu is not only alive, but his next target is Konron Mountain since it seems to be the only flying palace left in the sky and despite Youzen’s pleas to not put himself at risk, Taiko still attempts to stop him anyway.

Much of the episode spends it’s running time delving into the philosophical themes of courage, sacrifice and finding the fortitude to move forward in times of tragedy. We do get a brief scene revealing the return of a presumed-dead character and we’re not sure what his purpose even is at first. But just when you think it would actually lead anywhere, the focus is very quick to shift back to the real meat of this episode as Genshi has the balls to take on such a villain “Final Boss” caliber like Bunchu and even gives him a well-written speech about how Bunchu’s protection & influence over the Yin Kingdom despite being well-intentioned, comes off more as self-serving than beneficial.

As Taiko tries to follow his Master Genshi, It feels kinda forced that he isn’t there to help him as Genshi has put up a protective barrier outside of Konron while using his Gravity powers against Bunchu, because unlike some simple-minded characters in this show, Genshi knows something bad’s about to go down. The fight starts off pretty one-sided at first, but wouldn’t you know it? Bunchu begins to fight the gravity’s effects through sheer force of will. This causes the Genshi to amplify his ability to full power trapping Bunchuu inside of a black hole. That should make Bunchuu the loser right? Wrong. Bunchuu just uses his whip to destroy a black hole. I’m pretty sure that shit is supposed to be impossible, but the episode ends on an intense cliffhanger when that presumed-dead character goes a far as to teleport Koh-Hiko into the fight against Bunchu.

Our Take

The stakes are officially raised as Bunchu is going all out on Taiko’s home-turf, but I do give it points to this episode as it also didn’t commit the unpardonable sin of flash-forwarding scenes of spoiling future events like previous episodes infamously have done.

We also get a chance to see how powerful Taiko’s master is, and the big shocking surprise of who’s somehow back from the Dead should surprise anyone who’s been following this show since the beginning. Not to mention, part of me is even more shocked that he brought Koh-Hiko into the battlefield which should give some emotional weight to the proceeding battle as both of them are best friends.

For the next two episodes, shit’s about to get real!