English Dub Review: HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI “Parasite”

Seems like even Immortal beings need the Orkin man.

Overview (Possible Spoilers Below)

The opening begins with events that lead up to Nataku getting upgrades and going on his first adventure to meet up with Taiko and briefly meets Youzen for the first time. It’s a short & simple scene that gets the point across that both characters share the particular commonality of fighting strong opponents. After a brand new intro with visual symbolism for potential upcoming episodes, Aside from a random scene where Nataku makes quick work of a talking stone rectangle named “Chiretsujin”, We cut to Youzen who seems to be  still infected with the parasite and having dreams of his past, along with the sacrifice his master made.

As it turns out, crashing two flying islands together was not without consequence, as that exact same parasite affecting Youzen has now spread within Konron, and only seems to be affecting all Sennin & Doshi within that circle, except two of Taiko’s allies Nataku & Igo. We do get random scenes of Koh-Hiko and his son Tenka still venturing out within the Kingo Mountain, but the 3 sisters show up and point out Ohtenkun’s parasite affecting Tenka as well. when we cut back to youzen, Nataku and some homeless looking dude named “Igo”, they encounter two of Ohtenkun’s goons named “Youtenkun” and a redheaded witch named “Kinko”.

In terms of appearance, it’s a purple tick with a yin-yang symbol its head, but its powers seem to affect Animals, insects, and immortals, so Nataku is immune as well as any humans traveling with Taiko. The more I learn about the parasite, the more useless it seems. Oh, and the immortal’s quick solution to counter the bug’s effects is a medicine that can maintain 50% of the individual’s powers even when infected. It may seem decidedly bleak for Konron’s side, were already weaker than their advantageous foes, as we aren’t sure how they’ll survive this one, but the episode ends on an intense cliffhanger with Youzen despite still being infected, proceeds to charge forth against Ohtenkun who started the damn parasite outbreak to begin with. And in a post-credits scene, Dakki at a floating pink island above the Atlantic Ocean gives a status report to Jyoka that her goals are all going “according to plan” and appearance-wise, Jyoka looks like a Roswell alien creature with a long wig and white robes that resemble that creepy girl from “The Ring”.

Our Take

Compared to the disjointed, incoherent mess of episode 13’s recap episode, Episode 14 was much better as it seems that minor characters such as Nataku who had very little screentime in past episodes are going to have their own moment to shine as the plot progresses. The new intro & outro were also catchy and slightly more energetic compared to the previous ones we’ve listened to for the past 13 episodes, And finally, there’s a more foreshadowing of a more powerful villain who’s power towers over Dakki & Bunchuu who we know very little about Named Jyoka, but who knows when they’ll touch upon Jyoka’s goals in later episodes.

The quality of this show feels like a roller-coaster ride at this point, one episode would be low in terms of quality, only for it to pick itself up and actually do something entertaining when it doesn’t screw itself up with the various problems of flashing forward events that haven’t happened yet.