Houshin Engi - What was Skipped! 2

And I wanted a good anime!

I'll say right away the title of this post is a little misleading. It should be Houshin Engi - The Utterly Bizarre Structure of Episode 2

Regardless, let's get to it!

The first episode tried to fit an entire story arc in a single episode. Predictably, it did a very poor job with it. The second episode had a much simpler task. It just had to tell Nataku's story. It's just four simple chapters. It's a little hard, but doable.

You know what this episode did not have to do?

Trying to fit in Bunchuu and Hiko's entire friendship in the first eight minutes!

The episode starts with a completely unnecessary flash-forward. We got one last episode. We did not need another one. It takes precious time away from everything else. More importantly, it's not that good.

Flash-forwards are supposed to be cool. For example, Fate/Apocrypha starts with a big epic battle to assure the readers that there's going to be awesome action in the future so please bear with the exposition heavy first episode. A flash-forward baits the readers into staying with the promise of better things down the line.

Houshin Engi started its first episode with a flash-forward to assure the readers that this time the anime was going to adapt things all the way to the Sennin War at least. It does not have cool animation but it does have that promise.

Meanwhile, the flash-forward this episode sloppily handles a very emotional moment in the manga. They try to use it to structure this episode around Bunchuu and Hiko's friendship and its eventual breakdown. Because clearly the big blood splatter in the OP wasn't a big enough clue.

The attempt falls flat.

The first seven minutes of the episode are torturous.

The narrative changes from scene to scene to flashback to scene so often and awkwardly that you barely have time to process each scene. The way the map location changes with each transition is supposed to be helpful but quickly grows annoying.

Manga readers will be able to appreciate why showing this flashback this soon was dumb

The flashbacks are the worst. Good Lord, what were they thinking with those? There are around three flashbacks this episode (not counting Nataku's scenes). Each one tries to expand on Bunchuu and/or his relationship with Hiko. They all fail at those because they are too damn short.

The episode does not give enough time for any of their scenes to set in.

The biggest offender is the flashback to the reason why Bunchuu is so devoted to the country of Yin. There is no narration or dialogue. There's just a bunch of still images that pass by in less than a minute.

It's a humongous slap on the face to the character. Only manga fans will be able to get it since they have read the vastly superior source material. Anime fans will be at a loss unless the anime does the scene later (in which case why show it now?).

The anime is clearly trying to push Bunchuu's arc forward since he will most likely be the final antagonist Taikoubou faces. The problem is that it does so at the expense of everything else. Nataku's story gets even less time to be told properly, and then there's everything Dakki does.

See, in manga, Bunchuu does not appear until near the end of volume 3. All the scenes of him and his flashbacks you see this episode? They moments scattered through latter volumes.

Before Bunchuu appears, Dakki does a lot of stuff, and that stuff is important.

This stuff may end up being (awkwardly) adapted later so feel free to skip this part unless you want to be spoiled. Or better yet, read the manga. It's great.

Dakki does a bunch of things before Bunchuu arrives like creating torture devices for fun. She also throws a big party and invites the four Kings (the four main governors under the Emperor) to the Imperial Palace to watch people getting mauled by tigers.

Yes, she's a bitch.

Angered by this, the four Kings call her out on being evil. Dakki uses the opportunity to have most of them killed for daring to not like her party, thus eliminating the biggest political threats to her rule.

She also has the former Empress (the Emperor's main wife before Dakki worked her magic on the Emperor) jailed and goads her into suicide. After this, the former Empress' sons have to run away from the country. Taikoubou helps them out, and they are taken to the Sennin World. It is very likely they are being cut entirely from this adaptation.

Anyway, I digress The point is, Dakki had done a lot of shit by the time Bunchuu arrives.

Bunchuu arriving is supposed to be a cool moment, and it is so because we have had to watch Dakki do whatever she wants for so long.

Within moments of entering the story, Bunchuu puts a stop to Dakki's torture games and starts to put the country back on the right track. Hiko is impossibly happy to have his bro back, because he is the only one who can deal with Dakki. For a moment, it looks like things are going to get better.

Then a section of the country rises in rebellion.

Remember the kings she had murdered? The heir of one of them is rising up in rebellion because of that. It is the moment where the reader realizes Dakki was playing the long game. It wasn't just a random act of cruelty. It wasn't just about getting a political enemy out of the way.

It was about getting Bunchuu out of the way, the one person who can mess with her fun. It's one of those moments that gives you real appreciation for Dakki as a villain. In the anime, Bunchuu talks about how smart Dakki is, but it falls flat because an anime-only watcher has not experienced how devious she can be.

All the important context is missing from the anime. The Emperor just tells us, "Oh, the son of this guy I had executed is rebelling against me. Also my former wife was also related to them and she killed herself."

Worse, in the manga, Bunchuu is gone for months. As it turns out, diplomacy takes a long time. It gives Dakki time to make yet more moves to undermine him. In the anime, Bunchuu is just brought back at the end of the episode and told Hiko has rebelled, all because the anime wanted to force the story of their friendship on us.

Don't get me wrong. I love their friendship, but this was not the proper way to do it. A story must have proper pacing. You must give things their time. This adaption is not doing that. It's trying and failing to pander to manga readers while alienating potential new fans. It took a plot that should have been developed over different episodes and shoved them into one.

It's a tragedy. Houshin Engi deserved better than this.