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Mach-25 Houshin Engi is a series that assaults you on every level. I honestly should've expected what a travesty it was. It's adapting a 200 chapter manga into a 2 cour seasonal. Shaman King couldn't even get a 50 episode 300 chapter adaptation correct, and even that has the excuse of its first part being episodic. Houshin Engi is heavily plot based, with an intricate setting and world building. The reboot has those elements but it doesn't bother explaining it. It doesn't involve explaining anything. It has some of the worst transitions I've ever seen. About 25 different things happen each episode, and don't ... expect them to flow together, given that each episode adapts more than 7 chapters. Characters will make big statements, get power ups, and get killed in the span of 2 minutes, and most of the time, the series doesn't even bother introducing them. They also, for some reason, included a recap episode. Because this series totally needed that. And you can't skip it, because the series drops one of the biggest plot twist so casually that if you blink, you'll miss it. The show also looks bad. Admittedly, the backgrounds are nothing short of stunning, effectively using CGI to capture the magic of a fantasy/sci-fi China. However, this is marred by piss-poor character designs and mediocre animation that at best becomes passable. The music is actually pretty decent, and the op kind of slaps, but the studio just decided not to animate it. What a waste of amazing source material.

Ice Head Gill certainly exists. Having followed it since Day 1, when it first debuted, I could already smell the axe-bait. Its first chapter had a solid Viking aesthetic, however, its conclusion suggested an adventure type story. Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with that. Some of the best shonen ever are adventures. However, as Red Hood certainly showed, adventure series usually have a hard time in Jump nowadays. And while Gill did have a decent first chapter, it went downhill from there.

Plot: 3
Gill's first chapter was actually sort of decent, leaving me with some hope for it. However, it also didn't have much originality, aside ... from its Viking aesthetic. This only gets worse. One thing that already bugged me was the inclusion of liches, which sort of bugged me, since there are so many other shonen that incorporate demons in some way, and nothing about it seemed all that original. This is a theme. The story does not uses liches in any interesting way. The story itself isn't that interesting either. It's a formulaic hero meets sidekick and villain of the week thing that is not interesting in any way.

Character: 2
Ice Head Gill's hero, Gill, on his own is already bland as hell. Nothing about him is interesting or charismatic. He's really just there, and the first chapter was the only point I found him charming. He also has the most annoying catchphrase I've seen. At least it's very memeable. I can't be bothered to remember anyone else, except for a guy with an even more annoying catchphrase. Wonderful, I needed more of that.

Art: 5
As I said, Ice Head Gill's aesthetic is strong. The Viking stuff is incorporated into the artwork in a nice way, and Gil himself has a nice design which does bring out some appeal. Aside from some well done spreads, the flow between panels is very lacking, and there are many points where the characters just look awkward due to the panelling.

Overall: 3
I could make some lame pun about Gil's catchphrase, but I really don't want to see those words in that order ever again. Ice Head Gill is a dreadfully formulaic series with uninteresting characters, a sentiment which I belive the Japanese agree with. After all, they seem to be treating it quite "coldly". I'll be leaving now.