Reviews

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.