Copyright © 1999 Anou Tsutomu / Fujisaki Ryu / Shueisha / TV Tokyo / Houshin Project 1999

WEEKLY JUMP is not only a magazine to find some of the most popular mangas in Japan today, but it is also often a source for television (and satellite) anime series. Currently three TV anime shows are running on the airwaves of Japan (ONE PIECE, HUNTERxHUNTER and KOCHIRA KATSUSHIKAKU KAMEARI KOUEN-MAE HASHUTSUJO), with another series based on an old JUMP series (NINGYOU SOUSHI AYATSURI SAKON) and a second TV anime series of YU-GI-OH! due in April. But not all of these shows get prime-time slots. SENKAIDEN: HOUSHIN ENGI, which aired from July to December of 1999, was one of the more "unfortunate" series, airing every Saturday at seven o'clock in the morning, but it managed to pull an audience share between 2% and 3% each week according to the ratings list in Newtype magazines.
The anime version of HOUSHIN starts in much the same way as the manga, with Taikoubou coming down to the human world with the list of people to "seal away" for the sake of humanity. The early episodes serve as a digest version of the comrade-collecting aspect that the early manga series was, albeit slightly out of order from the manga. As the show progresses, it speeds up to present a digest version of the still ongoing manga, yet it starts to diverge to tell its own story, which is slightly different from both the manga and the original Chinese tale.
Viewers will notice immediately that this series depends on computer animation in many occasions. However, the results of the computer usage vary with each scene. The computer-colored scenes are obvious to the eye—some scenes are done relatively well in the likeness of SOL BIANCA: TAIYOU NO FUNE (SOL BIANCA: THE LEGACY in the U.S.), but others are not done as well (for instance, there was a scene where the background was relatively dark, yet the character seemed to have a bright light shining on him). Furthermore, some of the switches from hand-painted people to computer-painted people in the same scene are slightly disturbing, as the character's clothes seemingly change color. Some computer pans and zooms are very smooth, but others are slightly on the pixelated side.
However, despite these nitpicks, the series is very well animated. In fact, my friends who saw the first eight episodes together with me didn't realize that the show was a "Saturday morning cartoon" until I told them—they had judged, from the quality, that it was a prime-time show with a slightly lower budget than others. This might have been a valid assessment; the show's creators took much care in animating fine details, and their action scenes seemed to flow smoother than many low-budget shows as of late.
The story moves at a relatively fast tempo, and tries to tell the plotlines of two different places at the same time (much like many daytime and prime-time soap operas in the U.S.). If you are able to switch gears easily, this should be no problem to you. However, if you enjoy watching an entire sequence of events before the focal point changes, you might find some of the scene changes jarring, even though they timed the scene changes very well.
Some fans of the original manga might disagree with this, but I think that the vocal cast does a pretty good job of trying to match their voices with the designs of their respective characters. This is an added bonus to being able to see the characters fully animated, complete with what character development they can cram in while trying to completely finish telling such a vast story in twenty-six episodes. As for the opening song, "WISH," and the ending song, "Friends," they match the overall atmosphere created by the series—they should, because JUMP reported last summer that the lyrics to these two songs were written by the singer, Yonekura Chihiro, after she read all the compilations of the HOUSHIN ENGI manga that were out.
All in all, SENKAIDEN: HOUSHIN ENGI turns out to be a good television adaptation of the manga (which is worth a look for those interested in adaptations of old fantasy novels), or just a "strange" series. However, due to the nature of the setting and the goings-on, you need to be comfortable with Japanese more so than the average anime series. Otherwise, you will most likely be lost amongst all of the things that are going on at different places at the same time.

And thus, according to dictionaries in China, the "Three Great Occult Stories" in China supposedly are SAIYUKI (Legend of the Monkey King / Journey to the Western Sky), SANGOKUSHI ENGI (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), and SUIKODEN (Star of 108 Heroes). However, despite the advertisements by the "cultural mafia," as already illustrated, there is no doubt that HOUSHIN ENGI is in many ways one of the "Three Great Occult Stories"—and further has the value and qualifications to hold the top spot of the three. Besides, for example, even if we were to acknowledge the "cultural mafia," it is against their common sense to call SUIKODEN an "occult" story. It is true that SUIKODEN is an excellent novel. However, it is not "occult" at all. This is because making kabobs or barbeques out of human flesh, or to eat a human heart with sake does not qualify as "occult" from the traditional societal view of the Chinese. . . . Therefore, the "Three Great Occult Stories" in China undoubtedly are SAIYUKI, SANGOKUSHI ENGI, and HOUSHIN ENGI. —Anou Tsutomu, HOUSHIN ENGI (book 1 of 3), p.27-29

If what he asserts is true, then HOUSHIN ENGI deserves credit as one of the "biggest" tales from ancient China all over the world, and not just in Japan.

King Records
VHS/LD/DVD, 96 min.
Volume 1 - VHS:KIVA-447 / LD:KILA-447 / DVD: KIBA-447
Volume 2 - VHS:KIVA-448 / LD:KILA-448 / DVD: KIBA-448
Volume 3 - VHS:KIVA-449 / LD:KILA-449 / DVD: KIBA-449
Volume 4 - VHS:KIVA-450 / LD:KILA-450 / DVD: KIBA-450
Volume 5 - VHS:KIVA-451 / LD:KILA-451 / DVD: KIBA-451
Volume 6 (4/00) - VHS:KIVA-452 / LD:KILA-452 / DVD: KIBA-452
Volume 7 (5/00) - VHS:KIVA-453 / LD:KILA-453 / DVD: KIBA-453
¥6600 plus tax (for all 3 formats)
Available now in Japan
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