Volume 1-15
Story and Art by Fujisaki Ryu, loosely based on the translation of the Chinese text by Anou Tsutomu
Copyright © 1996-1999 Fujisaki Ryu

Chinese mythology always had a distinct appeal to the Japanese market. Or, more precisely, a certain number of tales have gotten massive recognition in Japan. The most well known would be the legend of the Monkey King (known as Saiyuuki in Japan), and everyone knows a story that derived its basic concept from this tale—DRAGON BALL. Many Japanese folks know about the legend of the Three Kingdoms, or even SUIKODEN after Konami made a series of role-playing games about the tale of the 108 stars. But the last of the "four big ancient Chinese tales" as seen by the Japanese culture, HOUSHIN ENGI, had seen little time in the limelight.
However, halfway through 1996, Fujisaki Ryu returned to the pages of Weekly Jump (the first time since his short-lived series PSYCHO+) with a comic series loosely based on a Japanese translation of this ancient Chinese tale which some people dub "the first science-fiction novel in history." However, the key word there is "loosely", as what we see in this comic series was not exactly what the ancient Chinese authors had in mind.
The basic premise of the comic version is the same as that of the original novel; and that is basically what this reviewer has been writing in the Jump capsule synopses: Taikoubou is a sennin (a wizard of sorts) sent on a mission to seal away the souls of the evil temptress Datsuki and her henchmen because she is ruining the land of Chouka (also called "Ying") by controlling Chuuoh, its king. The task seems easy enough in the beginning, but Taikoubou notices that some of the names are names he didn't want to see—namely, some of them are known to be ultra-powerful. Add to that the fact that the list of beings to be sealed away is only about half full (i.e. leaving lots of room for stray casualties), and you've got one massive project that ends up spanning years and years. And this project (aptly named the Houshin Project) is more than meets the eye, and soon starts to involve the homelands of the sennin as well as the human world.
So, why is this considered a "science-fiction" work? That is because each sennin has what is called a Paopei—and these things are items with magical effects ... but they are used in much the same way as the characters in STAR TREK use phasers. (Really.) And in Fujisaki's rendition, we see characters with what can only be described as lightsabers!
And even then, how can someone change things around in such a story? Well, there have been minute changes of when a given character gets sealed away. So even if you are indeed familiar with the original novel (in either the original Chinese text or a translation), Fujisaki will keep you guessing as to who will survive in his rendition. And despite all the strings of kanji that are really hard to find (this reviewer notices a lot of katakana in the names of characters in fan sites), the series is strewn with many furigana to make it rather simple reading if you realize that a lot of the "harder" words are proper names!
What appeals the most to the fans of this comic series is the art. Not only has Fujisaki shown much improvement as the series goes on, he takes the utmost care in making sure that each and every character that he introduces has a different look and feel. Thus, you can immediately tell the main characters apart by sight (now, mind you, whether or not you learn to match their names with their faces is a completely different question ...) And even more so, his art style is such that it can successfully render an "old" tale in a more "modern" sense. His illustrations on the cover pages, especially those in color, give a feeling of the ancient times—yet his lines are not as heavy or detailed as what most perceive as "old-school" art. This mix of old and new, both in plot and in art, seems to have hit it home with many doujinshi authors in Japan, amateur to professional. You would be amazed at just how many HOUSHIN fan-sites there are in Japan!

Published by Shueisha (serialized in Weekly Jump from #28, 1996)
15 vols out, ongoing
approx. 200 black/white pages each
vol. 1: ISBN4-08-872141-1 c9979
vol. 2: ISBN4-08-872142-x c9979
vol. 3: ISBN4-08-872143-8 c9979
vol. 4: ISBN4-08-872144-6 c9979
vol. 5: ISBN4-08-872145-4 c9979
vol. 6: ISBN4-08-872146-2 c9979
vol. 7: ISBN4-08-872147-0 c9979
vol. 8: ISBN4-08-872529-8 c9979
vol. 9: ISBN4-08-872552-2 c9979
vol. 10: ISBN4-08-872575-1 c9979
vol. 11: ISBN4-08-872602-2 c9979
vol. 12: ISBN4-08-872627-8 c9979
vol. 13: ISBN4-08-872654-5 c9979
vol. 14: ISBN4-08-872698-7 c9979
vol. 15: ISBN4-08-872723-1 c9979
¥ 390 plus taxper volume
Available now in Japan
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