Decision and SAIYUKI COMMENTS (REALLY LONG)
Okay, I'm seriously changing this blog. It will no longer be friend protected at all. I'm no longer posting personal crap. It's going to be my general anime/manga/cartoon blog, and I'll vent somewhere else.
My mood swings are getting in the way of my good time. I hate that.
With that in mind, I am bidding adieu adieu to the old way and starting anew anew. HA HA. (NOTE: I'll still suck.)
Saiyuki
I finished off what I could of the Saiyuki series, and I mean the whole thing. I found a site that not only had ALL the manga in scanlations, but the artbooks, the side stories, and other random things. I was quite please with it. Unfortunately, I haven't finished off Gunlock but I suppose that will come.
Kazuya Minekura, as a mangaka, is interesting. I have to say I never gave Saiyuki a chance because there were too many YAOI fangirls creaming their pants over it (and I can see why.) and it's the same reason I was hesitant over GetBackers and I basically QUIT Gundam Wing. Wild cries of "1/3" and ragings of "NO!! 5/3" scared me a bit too much.
Back to my point.
Kazuya Minekura's general characterizations, from what I've seen of Wild Adapter and Bus Gamer, is a set of 3+ male characters with the following characteristics: 1) Quiet and absolutely terrifyingly dangerous 2) Nonchalant and intelligent/tactical 3) Brightly innocent and cheerful, who tries really hard and whose personality wins over the other two.
Is this a BAD thing? Hardly, seeing as those are MY personal favorite types. Perhaps my biggest personal problem is this favoring of GUNS that she has, but this personal bias is actually outweighed by the number of characters have outrageous bad habits (e.g., drinking, womanizing, SMOKING is a big one). Sorry, my preference for gritty corrupted characters with strong personal morals is rather played into by Minekura. She gets extra <3 points because she uses a lot of Aries. XD (ha ha.. one of the few reasons I like enjoy certain CLAMP manga, ne?)
Let me get to my point. It's long overdue.
Quick Synopsis
Genjyo Sanzo is instructed to take the three youkai, the Earth-child Son Goku (The Monkey), the kappa Sa Gojyo, and the once-human Cho Hakkai. The world of Togenkyo, otherwise know as the paradise Shangri-la, is in danger, as youkai are losing control across the land and going on rampages, killing humans and generally going mad. The cause is a series of experiments being done in the west, in India, experiments to free the demon-king Gyumaoh from a 500-year sleep. But these experiments are a mixture of black magic and science, a forbidden art, and the mixture is creating a Minus Wave that causes youkai to lose themselves.
Forced to live together on the road, confront their own personal demons, and real demons, including the demon-king's son, Kougaiji. Hopefully (because I honestly don't know) they won't kill each other before they get there.
Manga
Gensomaden Saiyuki (the first part of the Saiyuki series)
I've always liked Minekura's drawing style. It's effeminate, but not Shoujo-flowery. Considering the story revolves around four severely PTSD men with just ODDLY intimate relationships, it's built for Slash.
This first set had more to do with these guys and their personal angst. With the exception of Goku, who doesn't really remember his past, this was a series of the guys' angsting over mommy, brother, incestuous loves, daddy-figures, and overall regrets. Peppered in there are a lot of battles and introductions to the Kougaiji group.
Really, if there weren't a lot of Sanzo just being an absolute TYRANT and thinking/saying things that I generally think/say, I would have lost interest a lot sooner.
The sheer fact they don't really GET anywhere is rather annoying, and the progress of their journey, 1) because it IS all the way to INDIA in a dragon-jeep and 2) they get jumped several times a day by youkai, is REALLY slow makes me want to hurl things around the room in a purely Hulk-ish fit of rage.
The NICE thing about the manga is that it is that it's a straight shot from Shangri-la to India with no "god" interference ( mostly). I'll explain that more when I get to the anime. It also has a lot of small character details that are lost in the anime, such as Hakkai's relationship with Kanan was incestuous and that she was a replacement sacrifice for a different girl in the village. The Hakkai information is actually the most interesting, because they skipped over most of it in the anime.
The thing about Gensomaden is that it doesn't end. Thus... we get:
Saiyuki Reload
Continuation of the long ass journey. Kougaiji has a power-up, and it's revealed who the hell the mad scientist in the youkai's pocket is. The boys get their asses handed to them on a sparkly platter, and it's a genuine shock because they have never lost like that.
As of where *I* have personally read (which is, granted, only the scans because I'm too lazy and I don't care enough to buy/find the raws), they still haven't made it to India, but at least a lot of angsting is DONE.
Since this was more of the same, I have to say I was getting tired at this point. I just wanted the main point to occur, but Minekura's main points' are ALWAYS buried and tend to take forever to get to. Maybe there is no point and I'm imagining it?
Regardless, I will say that there was a lot of character information that is lost in the anime, so I recommend reading it.
Volume 6 has apparently just been released in Japan, so the story is not over. They still haven't made it to India. Now... really. -_-;
We come to side-stories:
Saiyuki Gaiden
Back story of the Sanzo group's past lives, including stuff with Goku. As far as I know, what Goku did to be imprisoned for 500 years is not said, but it's implicated that he did something to protect Konzen Douji, Genjyo Sanzo's past incarnation.
You get to meet all four characters, including why Sanzo and Goku are close, where Goku came from, and how those four originally met and why it's their (to borrow a term) hitsuzen to meet in "this" life.
Okay, I really liked Gaiden out of all the Saiyuki stuff I read, despite a definite loss of Sanzo. You can see a lot of the general characteristics that make up the reincarnations, and you can see the depth of their affections. In my opinion, you can see that they are being punished for their crimes in heaven, mostly in not conforming to the rules. Gojyo's previous incarnation, Kenren, is interesting in particular, because out of all of them, he's the LEAST able to follow the rules because he has an especially gentle side and easy-going nature. His general behavior is exaggerated in Gojyo's life, but there's less edge to Kenren.
Hakkai's incarnation as Tenpou is interesting contrast, since as Hakkai he's neat and tidy, but as Tenpou he's filthy as hell. Also, as Tenpou, he was a chain-smoker, something the prissy Virgo Hakkai would never do. I like that Tenpou's temperament is less stable than Hakkai's, but he carries responsibility as heavily as Hakkai.
Ah, but KONZEN... well... prissy, bored, violent... but still not as interesting as Sanzo. Konzen, because of the similar repression of emotion, still comes off the leader of the group of four, but all the men are dangerous. In contrast to the corrupt and very human Sanzo, Konzen is reserved, more expressive, wanting to feel more. In Sanzo's case, it always seems he wants to feel less. Both men, however, have horrid tempers, but recognize sacrifice when they see it. Konzen is the least interesting (I think) of the previous incarnations, but he's at his most interesting when interacting with Goku.
Now, SON GOKU is a complete innocent when he's brought to heaven. His innocence is what draws out the other three men, but especially Konzen. He's basically given to Konzen as a pet by the Kanzeon Bosatsu, and Konzen is instructed to give him a name and keep him. With a fit of temper, he does, but Goku is drawn to Konzen for reasons (posssiiiibly YAOI reasons??) he can't explain.
Overall, Gaiden was really my favorite after reading the other stories. The plot is stable and structured, the characters are established, and Minekura has a good handle on what she's doing here. Mostly, I think it's because she's giving away the story she was masking in Gensomaden and Reload so it made it easy for her to just get it out of her head.
Saiyuki Offroad
Apparently a set of five separate stories, including a preview of Gaiden that was only available in Japan. I've read like 14 available pages, and although I have some idea of what's going on, it's NOT translated and I'm honestly too lazy to translate.
Other stories I don't know where to put
There was a series of stories in here about Sanzo's youth, his experiences getting the Maten scripture, his experiences trying to accept the bloodshed associated with both the Scripture and just trying to survive, and how he started smoking. Additionally, after that's sorted out, there are a few stories about his finding and keeping Goku, and what happened right after. In the anime, it IS said that Sanzo warned Hakkai and Gojyo about Goku's power suppressor, but in the side-stories, you get to see how Sanzo discovered that.
There is also a set of stories about Hakkai and Gojyo's living together and how THAT worked itself out (and it was a true pain in the ass). It also give you the information that those two were doing errands for Sanzo WAY before the anime starts, in fact, right after Hakkai is given that second chance. Oh, and that those four were hanging out a LOT more than the anime ever gave them credit for.
These were VERY interesting to someone who finds herself driven by characters and not plot in this series. If you can find them, EAT THEM UP.
Final Notes
Okay, so as previously mentioned, the fan-base for Saiyuki is huge, not only in the USA, but internationally. I was a bit put off by its popularity when I first deigned to even look at it, but I decided WTH? Why not? I'm not mentioning the fanfiction, doujinshi, or anything else because, honestly, I hate reading fanfiction and I'm too lazy to look for doujinshi at this point in my life.
So, that's the manga. Here's the Anime
Gensomaden Saiyuki
I watched this with dual English/Japanese dubbing, and I swear it was one of the most WOODEN English dubbing I've heard lately. I can't even stand leaving this one on REPEAT because Core Media Player automatically defaults to English and that's like putting a drill to my head.
Regardless of poor English dubbing, the thing that distinguishes the anime from the manga is the complete DEVIATION somewhere around episode 30 (I believe). I mean, I'm used to some altering of the manga to anime; it's fairly common. My annoyance is that they completely deviated by adding the Gods to the mix.
My suspicion is that Gaiden was released around this time and the animators wanted to add that backstory. Thus you get to see Kenren, Tenpou, and Konzen ANIMATED. I was a happy monkey, even if they did change Kenren's appearance so you associated him with Gojyo more easily.
Regardless, the use of CGI was infantile and annoying on occasions. They also switched styles between something that was extremely stylistic in expressing emotion, like silhouettes on red backgrounds to profile shots in shadow, and the normal animation style. It was jarring when you are watching 50 episodes in a row (which of course, a NORMAL human would NOT do, but an OTAKU would). I had moments that I thought my eyes would bleed, but I grew accustom to the crap animation and all was good in the world.
The War God Deviation
You not only get information on Gaiden, but you are introduced to a "rebellion in heaven." Now, I'm all for rebellion, but it seems this is tied to the role of "War God" or a god who has been considered an unclean being and given the right to slay people. This right isn't given to any god, but to those born as heretics, such as a child of a god and human. According to the anime (and I've not seen it in the manga), you can tell because the creature has golden eyes.
The interesting thing here is that the War God/Prince (whatever you want to call him) is not any where in the manga. Homura's got his own PTSD, along with the other two gods who join his rebellion, Shien and Zenon.
Homura spends a LOT of time playing with Goku, trying to power him up.
Really, this deviation wasn't... BAD. Not... in a... uh... Black Cat deviation way. It was at least in keeping with the characters, which was a smaller switch than usual.
But watching Goku power up and power up, and watching the interactions with the Kougaiji group... when I got to Reload and it was... well... COMPLETELY BACK 30 EPISODES, I was a tad peeved. Just a touch. Because the storyline DIGRESSED 30 episodes and Goku wasn't as powerful as all that. DAMN IT. I THOUGHT I WAS CLOSE TO THE END!!
Saiyuki Reload
Interestingly enough, this followed the manga REALLY closely. I actually just skimmed the manga at this point because it was so close. I didn't mind, per se, but I'm always looking for either character improvements or plot movement.
As I mentioned before, the manga gives a lot more information for this series than the anime, so read up before jumping into this one.
HOWEVER, that being said, there is ONE giant benefit to the anime: Urusai. If you can wait through it, at the end of each episode of Reload, there is an ADORABLE short called Urusai. It's often just silliness, but here's a couple example scripts:
Goku: Hakkai, what are you doing?
Hakkai: It's getting cold, so I thought I would knit us scarves.
Goku: Oh. But why is the scarf so long?
Hakkai: Well, I thought we could wear one long scarf together. :: smile smile ::
Sanzo & Gojyo imagine all of the wearing the scarf with Goku in the lead. Goku is running to one side of the bubble yelling, "I smell Curry! Curry!" and then running to the other side yelling, "Oh, look RAMEN!" Sanzo and Gojyo look pissed off as they are dragged to and fro and choking on the scarf, while Hakkai is smiling and "ha ha"-ing at the end of the scarf.
Sanzo: (thinking) YADA. (No way.)
Gojyo: (thinking) ZETTAI YADA. (No way in hell.)
#2 -- Knitting part 2
Goku: Oh, Hakkai! You're knitting again? What is it now?
Hakkai: Well, it's going to be Valentine's Day soon so I thought I would knit some matching Mittens. (He pulls out white mittens with red hearts on them)
Goku pulls on the mittens: But why are they all sewn together?
Hakkai: Oh, I thought it would be fun to wear them all together.
Sanzo & Gojyo imagine all of the wearing the mittens with Goku in the lead. Goku is running to one side of the bubble yelling, "I smell Yakisoba! Yakisoba!" and then running to the other side yelling, "Oh, look nikkuman!" Sanzo and Gojyo look pissed off as they are dragged to and fro by the mittens, while Hakkai is smiling and "ha ha"-ing at the end of the line.
Gojyo sits up on the bed he's laying on and hits Hakkai with his pillow: WHY THE HELL ARE THEY ALWAYS ALL TOGETHER!??
NOTE: I don't remember the ACTUAL foods that Goku is running about after; I'm just... guessing because I'm at work and not at home with my precious anime collection.
Any way, it's a good reason to watch Reload. I was just SO amused by the shorts.
As for PLOT -- they are STILL on their way to India. They are getting attacked by more and more youkai and the difficulty and frequency of the youkai attacks are wearing on them a bit. They are getting a reputation as youkai slayers, when in truth they are attracting the youkai.
You run into Ginkaku and Kinkaku here, and Kamisama. You get background information on Dr. Nii and who he really is. The gang gets their asses whooped and are pissed off. Sanzo is interesting because you forget as you watch that he's human, and every now and again you remember that he's much more fragile than the other three.
Saiyuki Reload Gunlock
Continuing Reload, Gunlock actually has somewhat better animation. The expressions of the characters are much more cartoony than before, but I personally find that more interesting.
Kogaiji comes back after being brainwashed, and Goku has his hands full as he tries to save a village's worth of people from a village's worth of youkai all by himself. When the brainwashed Kougaiji runs into him, Goku's already at the end of his rope, but the other three guys are having issues of their own with an illusionist yaoukai. Goku does pretty well, but Kougaiji is a serious opponent even WITH his personality intact. Without his personality, he's like a zombie. Fortunately, he's rescued. Aren't we all happy?
My favorite episode thus far, however, has to be Gojyo and the bears.
I don't know if it's the end, but it's two full season (26 episodes). Sadly, I've only seen 14. I also still need to see the movie and the OVAs. (if you've got info on these, share. I'm curious.)
UWAH... way longer than I thought. I was TRYING to be brief too.
In general, if you're a YAOI fangirl, you'll love the characters. I don't like the storyline, because, even if it's not AIMLESS, it's meandering a whole hell of a lot. I don't LIKE meandering. Get to the point.
The drawing style of the manga is actually interesting, but the anime leaves one wishing for a Banishing Gun to shoot the screen.
In my Not-So-Humble-Opine, I give this a B-, mostly for characterization.
Random Saiyuki things I found while writing this
Which Blood Type are You? (Saiyuki flavored)
What Saiyuki Bishounen Are You?
Hosted by theOtaku.com: Anime. Done right.
Saiyuki Personality Quiz
You are Sanzo!
Take this quiz!
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WEBSITE: Journey to the Rest: A rather comprehensive overview of Saiyuki and all its variations, including lives, music, doujinshi, fanfiction, dl's and all that.
http://www.shinrin.ic.cz/fscans.html
I have a couple of others, including where I dl'd stuff, but that's at home. Will do it later.
You know... if I cared more, I'd build a page, but, really, I just care about Sanzo and the rest can go hand. *_____* SANZO...
My mood swings are getting in the way of my good time. I hate that.
With that in mind, I am bidding adieu adieu to the old way and starting anew anew. HA HA. (NOTE: I'll still suck.)
Saiyuki
I finished off what I could of the Saiyuki series, and I mean the whole thing. I found a site that not only had ALL the manga in scanlations, but the artbooks, the side stories, and other random things. I was quite please with it. Unfortunately, I haven't finished off Gunlock but I suppose that will come.
Kazuya Minekura, as a mangaka, is interesting. I have to say I never gave Saiyuki a chance because there were too many YAOI fangirls creaming their pants over it (and I can see why.) and it's the same reason I was hesitant over GetBackers and I basically QUIT Gundam Wing. Wild cries of "1/3" and ragings of "NO!! 5/3" scared me a bit too much.
Back to my point.
Kazuya Minekura's general characterizations, from what I've seen of Wild Adapter and Bus Gamer, is a set of 3+ male characters with the following characteristics: 1) Quiet and absolutely terrifyingly dangerous 2) Nonchalant and intelligent/tactical 3) Brightly innocent and cheerful, who tries really hard and whose personality wins over the other two.
Is this a BAD thing? Hardly, seeing as those are MY personal favorite types. Perhaps my biggest personal problem is this favoring of GUNS that she has, but this personal bias is actually outweighed by the number of characters have outrageous bad habits (e.g., drinking, womanizing, SMOKING is a big one). Sorry, my preference for gritty corrupted characters with strong personal morals is rather played into by Minekura. She gets extra <3 points because she uses a lot of Aries. XD (ha ha.. one of the few reasons I like enjoy certain CLAMP manga, ne?)
Let me get to my point. It's long overdue.
Quick Synopsis
Genjyo Sanzo is instructed to take the three youkai, the Earth-child Son Goku (The Monkey), the kappa Sa Gojyo, and the once-human Cho Hakkai. The world of Togenkyo, otherwise know as the paradise Shangri-la, is in danger, as youkai are losing control across the land and going on rampages, killing humans and generally going mad. The cause is a series of experiments being done in the west, in India, experiments to free the demon-king Gyumaoh from a 500-year sleep. But these experiments are a mixture of black magic and science, a forbidden art, and the mixture is creating a Minus Wave that causes youkai to lose themselves.
Forced to live together on the road, confront their own personal demons, and real demons, including the demon-king's son, Kougaiji. Hopefully (because I honestly don't know) they won't kill each other before they get there.
Manga
Gensomaden Saiyuki (the first part of the Saiyuki series)
I've always liked Minekura's drawing style. It's effeminate, but not Shoujo-flowery. Considering the story revolves around four severely PTSD men with just ODDLY intimate relationships, it's built for Slash.
This first set had more to do with these guys and their personal angst. With the exception of Goku, who doesn't really remember his past, this was a series of the guys' angsting over mommy, brother, incestuous loves, daddy-figures, and overall regrets. Peppered in there are a lot of battles and introductions to the Kougaiji group.
Really, if there weren't a lot of Sanzo just being an absolute TYRANT and thinking/saying things that I generally think/say, I would have lost interest a lot sooner.
The sheer fact they don't really GET anywhere is rather annoying, and the progress of their journey, 1) because it IS all the way to INDIA in a dragon-jeep and 2) they get jumped several times a day by youkai, is REALLY slow makes me want to hurl things around the room in a purely Hulk-ish fit of rage.
The NICE thing about the manga is that it is that it's a straight shot from Shangri-la to India with no "god" interference ( mostly). I'll explain that more when I get to the anime. It also has a lot of small character details that are lost in the anime, such as Hakkai's relationship with Kanan was incestuous and that she was a replacement sacrifice for a different girl in the village. The Hakkai information is actually the most interesting, because they skipped over most of it in the anime.
The thing about Gensomaden is that it doesn't end. Thus... we get:
Saiyuki Reload
Continuation of the long ass journey. Kougaiji has a power-up, and it's revealed who the hell the mad scientist in the youkai's pocket is. The boys get their asses handed to them on a sparkly platter, and it's a genuine shock because they have never lost like that.
As of where *I* have personally read (which is, granted, only the scans because I'm too lazy and I don't care enough to buy/find the raws), they still haven't made it to India, but at least a lot of angsting is DONE.
Since this was more of the same, I have to say I was getting tired at this point. I just wanted the main point to occur, but Minekura's main points' are ALWAYS buried and tend to take forever to get to. Maybe there is no point and I'm imagining it?
Regardless, I will say that there was a lot of character information that is lost in the anime, so I recommend reading it.
Volume 6 has apparently just been released in Japan, so the story is not over. They still haven't made it to India. Now... really. -_-;
We come to side-stories:
Saiyuki Gaiden
Back story of the Sanzo group's past lives, including stuff with Goku. As far as I know, what Goku did to be imprisoned for 500 years is not said, but it's implicated that he did something to protect Konzen Douji, Genjyo Sanzo's past incarnation.
You get to meet all four characters, including why Sanzo and Goku are close, where Goku came from, and how those four originally met and why it's their (to borrow a term) hitsuzen to meet in "this" life.
Okay, I really liked Gaiden out of all the Saiyuki stuff I read, despite a definite loss of Sanzo. You can see a lot of the general characteristics that make up the reincarnations, and you can see the depth of their affections. In my opinion, you can see that they are being punished for their crimes in heaven, mostly in not conforming to the rules. Gojyo's previous incarnation, Kenren, is interesting in particular, because out of all of them, he's the LEAST able to follow the rules because he has an especially gentle side and easy-going nature. His general behavior is exaggerated in Gojyo's life, but there's less edge to Kenren.
Hakkai's incarnation as Tenpou is interesting contrast, since as Hakkai he's neat and tidy, but as Tenpou he's filthy as hell. Also, as Tenpou, he was a chain-smoker, something the prissy Virgo Hakkai would never do. I like that Tenpou's temperament is less stable than Hakkai's, but he carries responsibility as heavily as Hakkai.
Ah, but KONZEN... well... prissy, bored, violent... but still not as interesting as Sanzo. Konzen, because of the similar repression of emotion, still comes off the leader of the group of four, but all the men are dangerous. In contrast to the corrupt and very human Sanzo, Konzen is reserved, more expressive, wanting to feel more. In Sanzo's case, it always seems he wants to feel less. Both men, however, have horrid tempers, but recognize sacrifice when they see it. Konzen is the least interesting (I think) of the previous incarnations, but he's at his most interesting when interacting with Goku.
Now, SON GOKU is a complete innocent when he's brought to heaven. His innocence is what draws out the other three men, but especially Konzen. He's basically given to Konzen as a pet by the Kanzeon Bosatsu, and Konzen is instructed to give him a name and keep him. With a fit of temper, he does, but Goku is drawn to Konzen for reasons (posssiiiibly YAOI reasons??) he can't explain.
Overall, Gaiden was really my favorite after reading the other stories. The plot is stable and structured, the characters are established, and Minekura has a good handle on what she's doing here. Mostly, I think it's because she's giving away the story she was masking in Gensomaden and Reload so it made it easy for her to just get it out of her head.
Saiyuki Offroad
Apparently a set of five separate stories, including a preview of Gaiden that was only available in Japan. I've read like 14 available pages, and although I have some idea of what's going on, it's NOT translated and I'm honestly too lazy to translate.
Other stories I don't know where to put
There was a series of stories in here about Sanzo's youth, his experiences getting the Maten scripture, his experiences trying to accept the bloodshed associated with both the Scripture and just trying to survive, and how he started smoking. Additionally, after that's sorted out, there are a few stories about his finding and keeping Goku, and what happened right after. In the anime, it IS said that Sanzo warned Hakkai and Gojyo about Goku's power suppressor, but in the side-stories, you get to see how Sanzo discovered that.
There is also a set of stories about Hakkai and Gojyo's living together and how THAT worked itself out (and it was a true pain in the ass). It also give you the information that those two were doing errands for Sanzo WAY before the anime starts, in fact, right after Hakkai is given that second chance. Oh, and that those four were hanging out a LOT more than the anime ever gave them credit for.
These were VERY interesting to someone who finds herself driven by characters and not plot in this series. If you can find them, EAT THEM UP.
Final Notes
Okay, so as previously mentioned, the fan-base for Saiyuki is huge, not only in the USA, but internationally. I was a bit put off by its popularity when I first deigned to even look at it, but I decided WTH? Why not? I'm not mentioning the fanfiction, doujinshi, or anything else because, honestly, I hate reading fanfiction and I'm too lazy to look for doujinshi at this point in my life.
So, that's the manga. Here's the Anime
Gensomaden Saiyuki
I watched this with dual English/Japanese dubbing, and I swear it was one of the most WOODEN English dubbing I've heard lately. I can't even stand leaving this one on REPEAT because Core Media Player automatically defaults to English and that's like putting a drill to my head.
Regardless of poor English dubbing, the thing that distinguishes the anime from the manga is the complete DEVIATION somewhere around episode 30 (I believe). I mean, I'm used to some altering of the manga to anime; it's fairly common. My annoyance is that they completely deviated by adding the Gods to the mix.
My suspicion is that Gaiden was released around this time and the animators wanted to add that backstory. Thus you get to see Kenren, Tenpou, and Konzen ANIMATED. I was a happy monkey, even if they did change Kenren's appearance so you associated him with Gojyo more easily.
Regardless, the use of CGI was infantile and annoying on occasions. They also switched styles between something that was extremely stylistic in expressing emotion, like silhouettes on red backgrounds to profile shots in shadow, and the normal animation style. It was jarring when you are watching 50 episodes in a row (which of course, a NORMAL human would NOT do, but an OTAKU would). I had moments that I thought my eyes would bleed, but I grew accustom to the crap animation and all was good in the world.
The War God Deviation
You not only get information on Gaiden, but you are introduced to a "rebellion in heaven." Now, I'm all for rebellion, but it seems this is tied to the role of "War God" or a god who has been considered an unclean being and given the right to slay people. This right isn't given to any god, but to those born as heretics, such as a child of a god and human. According to the anime (and I've not seen it in the manga), you can tell because the creature has golden eyes.
The interesting thing here is that the War God/Prince (whatever you want to call him) is not any where in the manga. Homura's got his own PTSD, along with the other two gods who join his rebellion, Shien and Zenon.
Homura spends a LOT of time playing with Goku, trying to power him up.
Really, this deviation wasn't... BAD. Not... in a... uh... Black Cat deviation way. It was at least in keeping with the characters, which was a smaller switch than usual.
But watching Goku power up and power up, and watching the interactions with the Kougaiji group... when I got to Reload and it was... well... COMPLETELY BACK 30 EPISODES, I was a tad peeved. Just a touch. Because the storyline DIGRESSED 30 episodes and Goku wasn't as powerful as all that. DAMN IT. I THOUGHT I WAS CLOSE TO THE END!!
Saiyuki Reload
Interestingly enough, this followed the manga REALLY closely. I actually just skimmed the manga at this point because it was so close. I didn't mind, per se, but I'm always looking for either character improvements or plot movement.
As I mentioned before, the manga gives a lot more information for this series than the anime, so read up before jumping into this one.
HOWEVER, that being said, there is ONE giant benefit to the anime: Urusai. If you can wait through it, at the end of each episode of Reload, there is an ADORABLE short called Urusai. It's often just silliness, but here's a couple example scripts:
Goku: Hakkai, what are you doing?
Hakkai: It's getting cold, so I thought I would knit us scarves.
Goku: Oh. But why is the scarf so long?
Hakkai: Well, I thought we could wear one long scarf together. :: smile smile ::
Sanzo & Gojyo imagine all of the wearing the scarf with Goku in the lead. Goku is running to one side of the bubble yelling, "I smell Curry! Curry!" and then running to the other side yelling, "Oh, look RAMEN!" Sanzo and Gojyo look pissed off as they are dragged to and fro and choking on the scarf, while Hakkai is smiling and "ha ha"-ing at the end of the scarf.
Sanzo: (thinking) YADA. (No way.)
Gojyo: (thinking) ZETTAI YADA. (No way in hell.)
#2 -- Knitting part 2
Goku: Oh, Hakkai! You're knitting again? What is it now?
Hakkai: Well, it's going to be Valentine's Day soon so I thought I would knit some matching Mittens. (He pulls out white mittens with red hearts on them)
Goku pulls on the mittens: But why are they all sewn together?
Hakkai: Oh, I thought it would be fun to wear them all together.
Sanzo & Gojyo imagine all of the wearing the mittens with Goku in the lead. Goku is running to one side of the bubble yelling, "I smell Yakisoba! Yakisoba!" and then running to the other side yelling, "Oh, look nikkuman!" Sanzo and Gojyo look pissed off as they are dragged to and fro by the mittens, while Hakkai is smiling and "ha ha"-ing at the end of the line.
Gojyo sits up on the bed he's laying on and hits Hakkai with his pillow: WHY THE HELL ARE THEY ALWAYS ALL TOGETHER!??
NOTE: I don't remember the ACTUAL foods that Goku is running about after; I'm just... guessing because I'm at work and not at home with my precious anime collection.
Any way, it's a good reason to watch Reload. I was just SO amused by the shorts.
As for PLOT -- they are STILL on their way to India. They are getting attacked by more and more youkai and the difficulty and frequency of the youkai attacks are wearing on them a bit. They are getting a reputation as youkai slayers, when in truth they are attracting the youkai.
You run into Ginkaku and Kinkaku here, and Kamisama. You get background information on Dr. Nii and who he really is. The gang gets their asses whooped and are pissed off. Sanzo is interesting because you forget as you watch that he's human, and every now and again you remember that he's much more fragile than the other three.
Saiyuki Reload Gunlock
Continuing Reload, Gunlock actually has somewhat better animation. The expressions of the characters are much more cartoony than before, but I personally find that more interesting.
Kogaiji comes back after being brainwashed, and Goku has his hands full as he tries to save a village's worth of people from a village's worth of youkai all by himself. When the brainwashed Kougaiji runs into him, Goku's already at the end of his rope, but the other three guys are having issues of their own with an illusionist yaoukai. Goku does pretty well, but Kougaiji is a serious opponent even WITH his personality intact. Without his personality, he's like a zombie. Fortunately, he's rescued. Aren't we all happy?
My favorite episode thus far, however, has to be Gojyo and the bears.
I don't know if it's the end, but it's two full season (26 episodes). Sadly, I've only seen 14. I also still need to see the movie and the OVAs. (if you've got info on these, share. I'm curious.)
UWAH... way longer than I thought. I was TRYING to be brief too.
In general, if you're a YAOI fangirl, you'll love the characters. I don't like the storyline, because, even if it's not AIMLESS, it's meandering a whole hell of a lot. I don't LIKE meandering. Get to the point.
The drawing style of the manga is actually interesting, but the anime leaves one wishing for a Banishing Gun to shoot the screen.
In my Not-So-Humble-Opine, I give this a B-, mostly for characterization.
Random Saiyuki things I found while writing this
Which Blood Type are You? (Saiyuki flavored)
- Which Saiyuki Character Would You Sleep With?
- Goku (GACK. SHOUTACON TENDENCIES SURFACE AGAIN! NOOO!!)
- Hakkai
- Ni Jieni
- Dokugakuji
- Sanzo
- Chin Ii Sou
- Kami-sama
- Gojyo
- Nataku
- Kougaiji
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WEBSITE: Journey to the Rest: A rather comprehensive overview of Saiyuki and all its variations, including lives, music, doujinshi, fanfiction, dl's and all that.
http://www.shinrin.ic.cz/fscans.html
I have a couple of others, including where I dl'd stuff, but that's at home. Will do it later.
You know... if I cared more, I'd build a page, but, really, I just care about Sanzo and the rest can go hand. *_____* SANZO...