English Dub Review: HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI “The Brave Warrior’s Soul is Released”

Into…the past.

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The battle intensifies as Bunchu goes up against his old friend Koh-Hiko who attempts to knock some sense into him due to Bunchu’s stubborn nature to admit that their Kingdom in Yin isn’t what they once knew while Taiko, Tenka, and Youzen are unable to do anything but watch due to a barrier created by Ohtenkun who’s revealed to somehow still be alive…

Our Take

While I do see what they were going for within this episode as it attempts to handle the proceedings in such a dramatic & Shakespearean fashion by showing the diametrically opposing views about a dude (Koh-Hiko) admonishing his longtime companion (Bunchu) for his path of self-destruction which would’ve excelled in selling the drama if the twist involving a specific character death wasn’t spoiled in an earlier flash-forward episodes & events that lead up to this moment.

We do have scenes of Dakki conversing with her servant about her devotion to Jyoka, and the twist of Ohtenkun is the closest thing to an actual twist since he’s supposed to be dead but that the previous episode kinda spoiled that one. The flashback scenes with Taiko’s boss making a secret pact involving his task to destroy Jyoka I wished had more context to them.

How was Master Genshi’s plan supposed to work? Why wait two-thousand years to carry it out? millions of People have died because they failed to immediately act upon Jyoka & Dakki’s obnoxiously destructive antics and now they have to face the consequences.

Overall, while the Animation and writing attempt to properly convey emotional resonance, the biggest problem with this episode is the fact that all the shock & the emotional impact a specific character’s death it’s supposed to have is gone because the show shot itself in the foot too early on.

I hope the final episode is worth it…