English Dub Review: HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI “Fugen Shinjin”

God of wind?

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The episode begins with a pre-credits flashback/origin story of Bunchuu as we learn about the events in his youth that lead him to establish ties with the mystical Sennin/Doshi world, along with his devotion to the Kingdom of Yin. It’s a short scene but we do learn that Tsuten Kyoshu got him to where he is today. It’s one hell of an improvement compared to the show’s infamous track-record of flash-forwarding spoilers that ruin it for people new to the series but I’ll take what I can get. Despite their efforts in killing Ohtenkun last episode to kill the purple ticks affecting everyone, Taiko did find a different solution, so problem solved.

We also get scenes between Youzen and Taiko’s Master Genshi, who is confronted about the ulterior motives regarding his “Hoshin Project” which is intended to Imprison Dakki and other creatures like her, but with the inconsistent stories about the Hoshin Project floating around, Youzen expresses legit concern on the matter. But of course, for the sake of dragging whatever plot-twist this show expects me to give a shit about, Genshi dodges the question in the most roundabout way possible with the only vague clue we’re given involves the phrase “Signpost of history”. The real meat of the story as the title implies, is on the effeminate angelic looking fellow who’s with Taiko named “Fugen” who has a strange way of approaching his enemies in a non-confrontational way and whenever it doesn’t work out, it often resorts to him using his magical science ball to destroy the shit out of them with a Nuke as previously demonstrated.

 

As it turns out, Fugen’s philosophy on playing negotiator to avoid conflict remains unchanged, as he thinks he can get through to Bunchuu. But despite the valid points, Fugen brings up about the moral decay of the Yin Kingdom due to Dakki’s corruptive influence in combination with Bunchuu’s track-record of being an uncompromising, ambitious douche, it goes about as well as you’d expect. The episode ends on a cliffhanger as Fugen faces potential Danger from Bunchuu’s hand, while Taiko is at a disadvantage due to some drugged food that Fugen tricked him into eating earlier to keep him out of danger. Much to my surprise, there’s a post-credits scene that further fleshes out Bunchuu’s motivations, along with the vow he devoted himself in regards to the preservation of the Yin Kingdom.

Our Take

This was one of the decent ones. It got the point across that Bunchuu isn’t really evil for the sake of being evil unlike Dakki, and his motivations are made clear enough that paint him as somewhat a dark reflection of Taiko in the sense that while Taiko doesn’t want Sennin & Doshi to interfere with human lives, Bunchuu shares that common goal, but wants to achieve it through more destructive means by making both sides destroy each other.

As for the ulterior motives of Master Genshi, I’m curious why he’d be keeping it such a secret regarding what the Hoshin Tower is supposed to actually be. I mean what’s he getting out of trapping the souls of Doshi and creatures like Dakki? Why not unleash all the Sennin forces against her instead of one careless dude like Taiko? what’s he getting out of this?

Those seem to be the questions I’m left asking myself after seeing this episode, but let’s hope later episodes don’t shoot itself in the foot with random out of nowhere spoilers that reveal shit too early like previous episodes infamously did.

Score
8/10