Soul Hunter is based, abate loosely, upon one of the more interesting (and rarely translated) Chinese classic called Investiture of the Gods (or Creation of the Gods). This work is centered around one of the most tyrannical king in Chinese legends, king Zhou (roughly 1100 BC) and his offending the goddess, Nu Wa (Dakki, in this translation) that ultimately led to the downfall of the Shang dynasty (Yin, here... i think). interestingly (for me anyway), Investiture of the Gods was written in a very pro-Taoist manner, in contrast to Pilgrimage to the West (with the Monkey King) where the most powerful deities were Buddhists... just my $0.02.
BUT ENOUGH of that boring background stuff... on to the anime.
Soul Hunter is a series spanning 6 dvds and follows Taikoubou's (a taoist seer) journey to bind 365 demons (including Dakki herself) to prevent unbalancing the order of things in the mortal world.
animated in the style of Slayers and El Hazard (a funny anime in its own right) in both its model art and tongue in cheek humor, Soul Hunter is light hearted and very well translated (the English voice acting is very good) -- in fact, on the dvd, there are 'Translator's Notes' that explains little tidbits that might be missed during the first viewing of the series.
the first few episodes are a little slow until the different characters had some time to develop and then it picks up pretty quickly with all of the usual manic skirmishes between different mystical powers.
cleanly drawn and well acted, get past the slightly slow start and you'll be hooked.
