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Anime Rec: Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun
Jun. 27th, 2014 01:24 pmAnime rec: Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun
In this reflective, often sweet, occasionally unsettling anime, friends Shino, Sousuke, and Hamaji are the sole survivors of a fire that destroyed their entire village—except that Shino and Sousuke had to meld their souls with animals in order to survive. Shino now has a god in the form of a demon crow (that can turn into a sword) living inside him, which prevents him from aging, and Sousuke can turn into a dog. Now working for the Church, the three of them travel to the capital to investigate demon-related crimes, and they keep having chance encounters with other people with similarly tragic backstories who also have spirits living inside them.
Clearly, the story here is a little hard to explain: the story takes a while to get going and is confusing once it does. To quote a character in the actual anime, “Jeez, I was already taken aback by that strange eyeball, and now there’s this Sacred Dog. The world is full of surprises.”
Regardless, I enjoyed this anime more and more as it went on (and especially into season 2) because the characters are the real draw here, particularly the two leads. Shino and Sousuke’s relationship is a mix between a married couple, brothers, parent-child, and best friends (who cuddle a lot). Another character remarks that Shino draws people “like a magnet,” and that certainly was the case for me. The characters are all beautiful, and I found they became more interesting the longer I knew them.
Of the ones I’ve seen so far, I found this anime was similar in theme and tone to Nabari no Ou and Kuroshitsuji. In all three, the main characters (Shino, Miharu, and Ciel) have a tragic backstory that leads to magical weapon (or contract, in Ciel’s case) living inside of them. This makes them the target of the antagonists, and because they are physically smaller, they need the help of protectors who travel around with them. All three anime have tantalizing undercurrents of shounen-ai as well.
Other anime recs can be found here.
In this reflective, often sweet, occasionally unsettling anime, friends Shino, Sousuke, and Hamaji are the sole survivors of a fire that destroyed their entire village—except that Shino and Sousuke had to meld their souls with animals in order to survive. Shino now has a god in the form of a demon crow (that can turn into a sword) living inside him, which prevents him from aging, and Sousuke can turn into a dog. Now working for the Church, the three of them travel to the capital to investigate demon-related crimes, and they keep having chance encounters with other people with similarly tragic backstories who also have spirits living inside them.
Clearly, the story here is a little hard to explain: the story takes a while to get going and is confusing once it does. To quote a character in the actual anime, “Jeez, I was already taken aback by that strange eyeball, and now there’s this Sacred Dog. The world is full of surprises.”
Regardless, I enjoyed this anime more and more as it went on (and especially into season 2) because the characters are the real draw here, particularly the two leads. Shino and Sousuke’s relationship is a mix between a married couple, brothers, parent-child, and best friends (who cuddle a lot). Another character remarks that Shino draws people “like a magnet,” and that certainly was the case for me. The characters are all beautiful, and I found they became more interesting the longer I knew them.
Of the ones I’ve seen so far, I found this anime was similar in theme and tone to Nabari no Ou and Kuroshitsuji. In all three, the main characters (Shino, Miharu, and Ciel) have a tragic backstory that leads to magical weapon (or contract, in Ciel’s case) living inside of them. This makes them the target of the antagonists, and because they are physically smaller, they need the help of protectors who travel around with them. All three anime have tantalizing undercurrents of shounen-ai as well.
Other anime recs can be found here.
