Hitori no Shita

Summary: >

Cho Soran intended to visit his grandfather's gave, only to encounter undead and a strange creepy girl at the site. Soran is the successor of Ketaigen kung-fu, so capable of handling a few undead. But the next day he encounters the girl again, and she's harder to handle. Aside from her chilling stalker-ish style, she's an incredibly powerful martial artist herself, and is under orders to follow him around. His skills will soon be tested in conflicts between factions, many of which show interested in his power.

Thoughts: >

Hitori no Shita: The Outcast, is an oddball anime based off a Chinese web comic called Yi Ren Zhi Xia. While failing in many respects, it's a decent martial arts anime. It's very rough around the edges, and sits in a fairly incomplete state right now, among other issues but there are good points too.

As a martial arts anime, Hitori no Shita has a very Chinese feel, which is very cool. It's a kung-fu anime that feels kung-fu. Better still, this anime has easily some of the best fight chirography I've seen this year. The animation as a whole is inconsistent, but some fights are damn impressive.

If I were to describe the big problem with Hitori no Shita, it would be immaturity in the approach of story. It's a martial arts anime, but the way fights are injected into the story at every turn is really goofy. It's like every interaction requires people talk with their fists. It provides plenty of action at least, attempting to distract the viewer from noticing the story is kinda dumb (well most of it).

The stand out character is most certainly Houhou. She's a spaced out distant girl, who is very creepy. Through most of the anime she abuses Soran for comedic effect. It's kind of messed up, but the way he's a dope makes it work. While most of the story in Hitori no Shita didn't work well, the final episodes dig into Houhou's past, or what's known of it anyway. I thought this was a great side story, especially how it ends. This actually turned my opinion to the positive side, as it otherwise seems to lack a good enough feature to recommend it.

The story isn't that great, and the characters aren't stellar either. It has a kind of armature-ish feel, but I liked that unpolished aspect. Anime so often feels far too calculated, so a more off the cuff show was a nice change for me. It's probably not a good watch unless into martial arts anime (or kung-fu movies like me). Might be worth a shot. One last thing, the opening sequence is so damn lame.

Screen Caps: >