OP Sequence

OP: 「God FATE」 by Faylan

「境界」 (Kyoukai)
“Boundary”

Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun is a fantasy shoujo about three children who miraculously survived a plague that wiped out their village. These three children are: Hamaji (Takagaki Ayahi), Inukawa Sousuke (Hino Satoshi), and Inuzuka Shino (Kakihara Tetsuya). All three of them live together in an isolated church, and all of them seem to have special powers. Due to Shino’s recklessness, people of authority find out about these children’s powers – namely Shino’s, which is a crow called Murasame (Okamoto Nobuhiko) who can transform into a katana. The “people of authority” are in fact the Four Families of the Demon Gods, sent by the Imperial Church. These families have the power to possess demons, and because of that, the Imperial Church wishes to control them – therefore, they take in children from these families. Now that Shino is one of their targets, our main trio’s peaceful days are no more.

Supernatural mysteries and a plethora of bishies voiced by some of my favourite seiyuu – I’m in! This premise is definitely promising to me. As a fan of youkai anime, I knew I’d be watching this. But at the same time, I was wondering what to expect from it because this is based on a shoujo manga with a lot of shounen-ai vibes. Having seen the first episode, I can tell that there is a possibility for romantic feelings to grow between some of the characters, but this is not a shounen-ai anime. Even if there would be romance tendencies between the male characters, that is certainly not be something this story will centre on, and therefore I hope that people won’t disregard it for being something it isn’t. This is a fantasy adventure before anything else and should be seen as such.

So why is this promising then? To me, anything related to youkai is worth giving a try. But aside from that, this episode made way for some great story development. The characters have charming personalities and interesting powers. I think “inviting” is a good word to describe this introduction. If we leave the story itself; the visuals were very appealing as well. The art is absolutely gorgeous, but the animation could’ve been better. Still, it was a visual treat, especially the character designs. Something I think makes this anime even more attractive is its great cast. I don’t think it comes as a surprise to any of you that my favourite seiyuu happens to be Kakihara Tetsuya, but apart from him, the other voice actors are all fairly well-known and talented people. Aside from the ones already mentioned, we have some other prominent seiyuu such as Miki Shinichiro, Kamiya Hiroshi, and Namikawa Daisuke. And let’s not forget about the staff! We have Yamazaki Mitsue (Mawaru Penguindrum), and Yamasaki Osamu (Itazura na Kiss, Hakuouki) directing this show – but the most interesting staff member to me is Kuroishi Hitomi (CODE GEASS) whose wonderful music can improve most scenes in anime.

This anime had an enjoyable start that left me wanting more. I am most likely going to see this to its end, but as for now, this show is not being covered here on RC. Having said that, Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun looks like it’s going to be an intriguing adventure, and hopefully, the remaining episodes will be as entertaining as this one was.

Full-length shots: 1, 16, 21

 

Preview

21 Comments

  1. hmm never read the manga but the first episode indeed looks promising ,it is a good distraction from all those moe anime this winter and the art oh the art i love it
    but i’m not getting to much into after ,at least 3 episodes

    pocky.chii
  2. Animation,characters,character designs,art,music all were to my liking, if I had to complain, it’d be about something that’s not in the show rather what is.Still only the first episode, should watch few more eps before deciding.

    @Stereoman
    You guys not covering ‘The Unlimited – Hyoubu Kyousuke’?It seemed pretty interesting.

    shadowalker
  3. I say it’s definitely one of the good animes to start the new year with. Too bad it’s not covered here; I guess I’ll have to fine good quality screenshots elsewhere then.

    random viewer
  4. Welp, you told me practically nothing about it except that it has supernatural stuff and lots of boy-on-boy vibes. The first is fine, the second I’ll pass. Seiyuu are meaningless to me: I only care about female seiyuu, and you listed none that I know. But mostly the big problem here is you didn’t tell me a damned thing about this episode. I have no idea if I’d even want to give it a shot, because you told me nothing except that it may have yaoi. That’s a turn-off, but if it wasn’t too heavy and the rest of the stuff was good enough I could have possibly overlooked it. But I can’t know if that’s the case, because you simply didn’t tell me anything.

    Wanderer
  5. Guide in owning a Kuro Marimo:
    1. Do not let it soak with water, it will increase in size.
    2. To shrink, dry it with hair-dryer.
    3. It eats anything, the mouth is on the other side of the eye.

    I want one.

    lyndine
  6. I’m personally not detecting any shounen-ai in this one.

    The one thing that really interests me with this show is that unlike practically every other show that focuses on youkai, this one has a lot of western elements in it. The world that this show takes place in is controlled by this Imperial Church, which is apparently a strictly monotheistic ruling force.

    Tre
    1. I really don’t see the shounen-ai either, I get the feeling it more for teasing the reader/watches then anything else much like what they did with 07 Ghost anime. 🙂 I’m actually not a fan of pushing pander onto a series. Freezing anime was kind ruined for me for that reason. (Adore the Managa and the slight more tastefully done fan survive for the guys).

      Stereoman don’t scare away the homophobes. lol

      Ani_BEE
  7. On the anime website: (and my translation)
    その時、選ばなければ生き残れなかった。
    On that day, if I had not been chosen, I would not be alive.
    伝説の八つの玉とその持ち主。
    The legendary eight stones and their master.
    ある者は大切な誰かの為に
    One for the person they hold dear
    またある者は人として生きるために…
    Another because he wishes to live as a human
    玉に導かれ出会う運命戦う宿命。
    Those stones which determine fated battles and their fate
    物語はここから始まる―
    The story begins here.

    Story summary from Baka-updates: Five years ago, all but one of the inhabitants of Ootsuka village perished due to the plague…but the lone survivor wished only to follow her two dear friends to the grave.

    To prevent the death of the people who were like family to him, one of the dying boys used his last remaining breath to agree to a proposal put to him by a mysterious fair-haired man. Miraculously restored to health, the trio have since sought refuge in a church near the adjoining village.

    Eventually, the Imperial Church begins to express its interest in possessing ‘Murasame’, the demon blade rumored to ‘contain life’…but what connection does this legendary sword have with the three survivors of that devastating epidemic?

    mei
  8. I can’t stomach the yaoi stuff. Too bad many anime move into this direction after sucking you in with a fantastic battle scene and or animation.

    Gonna pass on this after seeing these guys sleeping together really comfy in a bed and whatnot.

    David Lamfd

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