Alternate Titles: Hakkenden, Hakkenden Touhou Hakken Ibun
Novel Adaptation by Studio DEEN
Simulcast on Crunchyroll

Premise: The Catholic Church wants to gain the power of several demon tribes around Japan… I think?

Iro’s Verdict: Uhhh…

Yeahhhh, I have no real idea what was going on in here. None of the scenes have any context to them, and very little (if any) explanation is given for anything; it all just sort of… happens. I guess there’s a dude who almost died, and then he made a contract or something with a sword? Maybe? Again, none of this is clear. I’m completely guessing. It doesn’t help that the entire episode is mostly a bunch of people who we have no reason to care about sort of lounging around their church or something. But they don’t want the village kids playing around the church, and then ninjas show up to take the girl who’s hanging out there? And then a monster shows up and the main guy turns his bird into a sword, but the ninjas from earlier manage to kidnap the girl while this is going on. I guess this is supposed to be bad somehow?

Seriously, there is just no context for any of this. I think it’s supposed to be based off some classical samurai novel, and maybe it makes sense if you’ve read that, but otherwise I was utterly lost. It was completely unremarkable in the most bland way possible; you should not watch this show.

Oh, and since I guess I’m the Type-Moon fan around here, here’s the obligatory DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!

Lifesong’s Verdict: Kill it with fire

Stuff happens, context is never established. Characters do things, no reason to care is given. I am not sure if this has an awful source or if this is just DEEN doing their thing, maybe both? This anime is like taking a punch to the gut from a fist full of anime cliches only to then realizing it did no damage as you are incapable of caring. For those of you who watched Inuyasha I will say that the first thing that this anime reminded me of was Inuyasha filler. Unless you are up for something that aspires to ripoff Inuyasha filler I wouldn’t think twice about this one.