English Dub Review: The Heike Story “Heike Flowing”

Overview:

A chance encounter leads Biwa to her mother. The Heike take refuge in Dazaifu, but their respite is cut short.

Our Take:

One thing that throws me off about The Heike Story is trying to figure out just how much time has passed. Some of the characters seem significantly older and more mature. It’s a bit frustrating but if you have watched any historical drama you’re probably used to that sort of thing.

Another thing you might be used to if you have experience watching historical dramas is how ridiculously depressing they can be. History is full of bad things happening to people and usually, if your story is interesting enough to get told through generations there are probably some pretty big tragedies that happened. I am not personally familiar with the story of the Heike but I have a feeling it’s a sad one.

I really like the subdued animation style here and the storytelling is first-rate. I’m not really sold on it in episodic format though. Again maybe it’s just my experience with historical drama’s but I think a mini-series would suit this better. To be honest I have never seen an anime in mini-series form except for maybe the old school OVA’s so that would be pretty cool.