Houshin Engi
| Houshin Engi | |
|---|---|
 . | |
| Artist | Ryu Fujisaki |
| Format | Manga |
| # of Volumes | 23 |
| There was also an anime, but it was terrible! | |
Contents
Genre
Short Outline
Gods and demons are fucking with the human world, token lazy hero god is sent down to clean it all up.
Main Description
There exists an entire world separate from that of the human world, the holy realm of the sennin. From time to time they meddle in human affairs, but none took greater interest in the humans than the evil fox spirit Dakki. Merciless, beautiful, and cruel, she has turned the ruler of the Yin Dynasty into a puppet using her seduction. The country has thereby fallen into desolate times where suffering and corruption plague the people under Dakki's hated rule.
Taikobou, a "young" 80 year old sennin, is dispatched to the human world to deal with Dakki once and for all. His true goal, however, is the complete removal of all sennin in the human world, who he feels have meddled with the mortals far too much and altered history far too greatly. Gathering many comrades, he seeks to overthrow the desolated Yin and destroy Dakki and her followers.
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Personal Opinions
Nate RFB
I like Houshin Engi for many of the same reasons I like One Piece. Both are shounen fighting stories that at heart do not take themselves seriously at all. It often breaks the fourth wall and is self aware of itself as a manga, and it really plays into the style. I definitely feel that One Piece fans will enjoy this, though apart from the "let's just fucking roll with it and have fun" attitude the two couldn't be any more different. Houshin Engi is very (VERY) loosely based on one of the four Chinese stories, Fengshen Yanyi, and thus has more of a historical setting and grounding in reality. Some parts are genuinely fucked up, even for a Shounen story, so with all of that "fun" there is plenty of violence and drama. One of the coolest aspects I think is that Taikoubou isn't really much of a fighter at all; almost every major character in the story is far stronger than he is. But he is an excellent leader and a brilliant tactician, and his role as a revolutionist overthrowing a corrupt dynasty almost makes him more impressive as a character compared to pure brawlers. It's a shounen story blessed with a sense of originality that is hard to quantify; the story takes a lot of crazy and fucked up plot twists that are honestly unexpected (yet still awesome). Despite being only 23 volumes, it gives off an epic feeling that I don't think is duplicated in other series twice in length.
Pierson
I'm a huge tool for quasi-historical/fantasy epics, even adapted and shounen-ized ones, so I got this the second I could. What I really loved about this series was the scale it kept: Even though it focusses on Taikoubou and his immediate group as the main heroes, it makes sure everyone gets time and importance, and instead of pretty much everyone being foils to the main character, they're (mostly) all awesome in their own right. The series switches between light-hearted hijinks and serious drama well, and never falls one way into stupidiy ("Oh he's dead! No wait he broke his fall offscreen!") or the other into OTT melancholy.
Also Kou Tenka is awesome and it cannot be denied.
