So I was wondering if there's any other Houshin Engi fans out there? Or perhaps you've seen it's anime counter-part which went into another direction and which I do like and find enjoyable but pales in comparison to Houshin Engi? Well anyways the anime counterpart is Soul Hunter. It is enjoyable too but like I said the manga is far superior.

Like I said in the manga topic, here's a short summary:

The basic plot of Houshin Engi...Well that's difficult to put in words. It's pretty epic, or at least I believe so. Basically you have your typical youkai/demons and immortals. However later on you find out that maybe the immortals aren't all that immortal. All powers and magic and the like are basically weapons known as Paopei. Hoshin Engi was inspired by an ancient Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi. Basically the incompetent(or is he?)immortal apprentice to the great Sage Gens***enshin is sent down to the mortal war to defeat the evil So Dakki. Dakki has corrupted the Dynasty and it's emperor as she's his new Queen. (Though his wife is the empress so another way to describe Dakki would be concubine but she's manipulated the emperor's mind to the point where he's appointed her to the position of queen, but not empress.)

Dakki is actually a demon, and while her and her demon sisters enjoy life in the palace everyone else is suffering. In fact Dakki loves to make them suffer more so she's actually made sure everyone else is suffering. She conducts plans to assasinate those in her way and make it so she's always going to be cozy. She has lots of allies and spies who are demons like in their army and what not.

Taikoubou, whose over fifty despite his young appearance(remember immortal), comes off as a stupid, selfish, ignorant idiot. Okay those are pretty much all the same thing but you get the idea right? In fact he's quite the opposite. He could have probably gotten a really high rank(even though just being Gens***enshin's apprentice gives him a high rank already)if he wasn't so lazy. Taikoubou is what you'd call a general, he's rather intelligent despite he rarely acts it. He's also self-sacrificing, another thing you'd never guess unless you were one of his friends.

So Taikoubou has to stop Dakki and save the human world, as he too once suffered because of this demonic vixen over fifty years ago when his human village and family was destroyed. So along the way he'll make allies and rally a army against the enemy. The cast is actually rather large and I don't know how you could not have at least one favorite character.

Another thing is Dakki is probably my most favorite villain of well anything. So you see it's a great story.



If it's allowed I do know a site, which is relatively safe that lets you read manga online. I'll post it if it's allowed so you can read Houshin Engi yourself. Of course you should go out and buy the books too. I'm the type of person who even if they read manga online I'll go buy the series if I like it. Which is why reading manga online isn't a bad thing if you ask me, sure it's free but it doesn't quite make up for actually owning the copy and taking it with you wherever you know?

Hopefully I've at least interested one of you guys to check the series out. Also out of all the shounen heroes out there Taikoubou is defiantly my favorite.
Another thing, do you guys thing when it comes to a series that has a manga and anime version which do you think is the superior of the series? I usually say manga, but that's because a lot of the anime counterparts that are based on manga deviate from the source material. Be it because they've caught up and are waiting for new chapters so they put fillers in everything or it isn't finished and they want to make an ending. Though the opposite can be said, there are series where it was an anime only or anime first.

Oh the anime counterpart of Houshin Engi/Soul Hunter ends up not introducing a lot of the characters, or they only get a little screen time, and there's an anime ending which doesn't even relate to the manga ending and things are taken in a different direction. I think the dub is pretty good though. The series is still enjoyable like I said earlier but if I had to choose one it'd be the manga of course.