During the Meiji period Shoyo TSUBOUCHI, in "Shosetsu shinzui" (The essence of the novel), criticized "Hakkenden" as the typical gesaku literature from another age which must be overcome by early-modern literature, insisting that 'the eight dog warriors were monsters of Jingi-hachigyo instead of being human beings,' but such criticism gives evidence of the major impact that "Hakkenden" had in those days.
明治に入ると、坪内逍遥が『小説神髄』において、八犬士を「仁義八行の化物にて決して人間とはいひ難かり」と断じ、近代文学が乗り越えるべき旧時代の戯作文学の代表として『八犬伝』を批判しているが、このことは、当時『八犬伝』が持っていた影響力の大きさを示している。