Once a year, my university's Anime
Club hosts our own miniature version of Animarithon, where we sit
around and watch anime together from three in the afternoon to three
in the morning. This year was particularly good; we got to see
selections from Space Brothers, Full Metal Panic, CLANNAD (I
picked that one out), Gurren Lagann, Gotham Knight, Guilty
Crown, and various
reincarnations of the original Pokemon. There
was also a raffle for club members, with prizes including DVDs, manga
series, novelty items, and school uniform t-shirts up for grabs. My
own raffle ticket was picked midway through the night while there was
still a considerable collection of prizes to choose from. I was torn
between a DVD of Case Closed/Detective Conan episodes
and a similar collection of
Saiyuki which included
a mini notebook featuring the main characters on the side. I ended up
taking a gamble on Saiyuki after
realizing that the plot focused on a group of four bishounens
traveling on an epic journey to the west together. I like bishes a
lot, okay? So sue me.
 |
| With bishies like that, it has to be good. Go Team Sanzo! |
It
was a gamble that paid off in the end, although it was a longer
journey than I thought it would be. I had no idea that Saiyuki
would end up being such a long
series, especially considering the relatively small number of Saiyuki
manga released, at least
compared to series like Naruto and
Bleach, which can
pretty much take up a whole shelf at the bookstore. I also took a bit
of a hiatus from the show after I started watching it, but I'll get
to that later.
Saiyuki,
based off Chinese novel Journey to the West, follows
grumpy monk Genjyo Sanzo as he makes his way to Shangri-La
accompanied by affable demons Sha Gojyo (the skirtchaser), Cho Hakkai
(the sexy smiler), and Son Goku (the cute scamp) in order to
investigate the recent change in the demon population. Demons and
humans used to be able to get along swimmingly, but sinister waves
originating from an elaborate experiment to revive evil Demon Lord
Gyumaoh have been destroying the demons' sense of self and leading
them to openly attack their human neighbors. The demons in the Sanzo
party are exempt due to their strong sense of identity as well as the
nature of their powers, which similarly applies to the demons in
charge of the revival experiment, including evil matriarch Gyokumen
Koushou, redheaded stepson Kougaiji, bratty lil cutie Lirin,
Kougaiji's devoted guard Dokugakuji, and team medic Yaone.
 |
| Team Kougaiji vs. Team Sanzo. And just where are your fingers going, Kougaiji-sama? |
Naturally, the
journey is far from easy. Sanzo is in charge of protecting a founding
scripture of the Buddhist faith, a scripture that contains a power so
great that several parties are after it, first and foremost being the
Shangri-La group led by Lady Gyokumen Koushou, one of Gyumaoh's
concubines. While she sits around having her nails painted, she
orders her stepson Kougaiji to do her dirty work. Kougaiji is a
genuinely nice demon who loathes his sinister stepmom with a passion,
but if he does his part in reviving his father Gyumaoh, Lady Gyokumen
will undo the seal placed over his mother and set her free (yup, he's
a total mama's boy).
Kougaiji
and co end up attacking Sanzo and co several times, but these fights
usually end up in draws, or with one side retreating in order to care
for an injured party member. This is in fact a reoccurring theme
throughout the anime. Each arc or continuation of Saiyuki
(Reload, Gunlock, etc) features
baddies who enjoy taking their time actually reaching the final
battle with the Sanzo group, instead fighting until one side is half
dead and then inevitably yelling out, “I'm letting you go this
time! Next time I'll take the scripture without fail!” before
retreating. And yes, Kougaiji, Homura, and Dokugaku, you are most
definitely the main culprits.
Much of the anime
is actually filler (and most of it is fairly good, although there are
several cases of repetitiveness), but the main themes of the
relationship between the main party, their feelings about demons, and
their battles with their own past and current identities stays pretty
standard throughout. Here is a closer look at our boys (their pasts
are spoilered, but since these details are brought up fairly early in
both the manga and the anime, it's nothing too alarming):
Genjyo
Sanzo: Sanzo, as the one
initially requested by the three aspects of the Buddhist faith to
undertake the journey, is the de facto leader of the group. He is
prickly and irreverent, even though as a monk you would expect a bald
head and pious attitude to go along with his flowing robes and Maten
sutra. However, Sanzo unabashedly drinks, smokes, swears, has a full
head of blonde hair, and gambles (and, if Gojyo is to be believed,
might be batting for the other team). As it so happens, Sanzo isn't a
monk because he's particularly fond of Buddhism. As a child, he was
abandoned and tossed into the river like trash, and ended up nearby
the temple of a Sanzo priest, Koumyou Sanzo. Koumyou takes the young
boy under his wing, causing several of the other monks to instantly
dislike him and give him the mean-spirited name Koryuu, meaning
'River Orphan'. Young Koryuu doesn't really care all that much; his
master is a good, supportive guy, and that's all the care and
consideration our hero needs.
 |
| Are people born badass or do they have badass thrust upon them? I'm thinkin both in Sanzo's case |
His lack of
religiousness aside, Koryuu is trained by Koumyou as his successor to
the Sanzo title, which manages to piss off the monks even further.
Before they can do anything about it, however, Koumyou bestows the
Sanzo name and chakra upon Koryuu, and shortly after dies protecting
Koryuu and the founding scriptures from demon bandits. In order to
atone for being unable to protect his master and his master's
scripture, the Seiten sutra, Koryuu, now Genjyo Sanzo, leaves the
temple to chase down the missing sutra.
 |
| With a few incidents like these on the side. |
Before
the current timeline begins, Sanzo hears an unknown voice calling out
to him over and over again. When he is annoyed enough to look for the
source, he finds Son Goku imprisoned on a mountain, the very same
place where he has been for the past 500 years. Goku claims not to
have been calling out about anything, but Sanzo takes him along for
the ride anyways, figuring the voice he heard had to be indicative of
something. A later
mission brings the two in contact with Gojyo and Hakkai, but that
particular incident falls more under Hakkai's back story.
Sanzo is portrayed
as largely apathetic and sometimes even downright violent towards his
companions, but at heart, this persona is quite far from the truth.
Because of what happened to his master, Sanzo is extremely resistant
to relying on people and having people rely on him. He treats his
companions with indifference and smacks them with his paper fan of
doom to keep them from developing emotional dependance on him, but
when it comes down to it, if they are seriously in danger, he will
not hesitate to extend himself to help them.
 |
| Many of Sanzo's hang ups sprout from the tragedies of his childhood |
SPOILER:
As we learn in Saiyuki Gaiden and
the Homura arc of the anime, in his former life, Sanzo was a minor
god known as 'Konzen,' the aimless nephew of the Merciful Goddess. He
didn't have very much going on with his life, so his aunt/uncle
(she's a hermaphrodite in the manga, but since her boobs are her most
distinguishing feature, I'm going to refer to her using feminine
pronouns) put him in charge of Goku, a taboo child born of the excess
energy of the earth itself. Konzen is at first resistant to having
the little monkey in his care, but grows to dote on him as if he were
a son or little bro. Unfortunately, Goku is also a being known as
Seiten Taisei, whose destructive powers manifests itself whenever his
power limiter crown is removed. Konzen and friends (including the
past Gojyo and Hakkai) protect Goku from the rage of the heavens
after he unintentionally goes on a killing spree, but they each end
up banished as a result. In his next life as Sanzo, Konzen is led to
find Goku where he has been imprisoned by the deities, and their
group is reunited. D'awww. SPOILER END.
Son
Goku: As
already mentioned, Goku was imprisoned due to being a heretical,
taboo child, and was rescued by Sanzo, and then eventually joined
together with the rest of the dudes in order to journey west.
Although Sanzo is the leader of the little group, Goku is the
powerhouse. The majority of the strongest enemies latch on to him as
The One to Beat, which is a fair assumption to make on their part.
He's a beast with his battle rod Nyoi-Bo, and when his power limiter
comes off, prepare to have your ass thoroughly kicked. Whenever the
group matches off against the Gyumaoh demons, he's usually the battle
partner of Kougaiji himself.
| Sanzo may be team leader, but Goku provides the muscle to their battles. |
Despite his strength, Goku starts off as the biggest doof of the
group. He has a one track mind about food, and enjoys picking fights
with Gojyo and annoying the crap out of Sanzo. However, he is
probably the member most willing to show affection to his companions,
especially Sanzo. As the anime and especially the manga progress, he
becomes less of an idiot, and more sensitive to the pressing issue at
hand of what humanity means, and what place demons have in the world.
SPOILER: The details of his early history can be found in the Sanzo
spoiler section, but it should be noted that Goku has no memories of
this part of his life, at least not until much later in the story. An
observant viewer/reader can probably note the differences between
when Goku goes into demon mode and when Hakkai does and guess that
something is a wee bit different about him. Unlike Sanzo, he retains
his former name of 'Goku,' which Konzen!Sanzo had given him waaay
back in the day when Goku wanted to have a name to give to his BFF
War Prince Natauku. D'awww. SPOILER END.
| Out of all the men, Goku has more to him than meets the eye. |
Sha
Gojyo: Gojyo
is a half-demon pervert born of a demon daddy and his human mistress.
He is referred to as a kappa/water sprite, mostly because that's what
he was in the original Chinese novel, and there is also a possibility
his late father was a water demon. Unfortunately for Gojyo,
half-demons are taboo, and they cannot exactly hide their identity
because they are born with red hair and eyes which give them away.
Because of this, he is used to being ostracized, although the biggest
downer factor of his life originates with his demon step-mother, the
true wife of his father. Step-mommy dearest hates his guts because he
is a reminder of her husband's human lover, and she shows her
distaste by beating and emotionally abusing him. When she reaches her
breaking point, she tries to kill him, and though Gojyo is okay with
the idea of dying if it means she will stop crying and being unhappy,
his step-bro Jien stabs his mom before she can finish Gojyo off.
Jien hasn't exactly had it easy, especially since the only way he
could pacify his mother when she started hurting Gojyo was by
sleeping with her, but he is so ashamed of the murder that he runs
off and leaves poor Gojyo by himself. Gojyo's constant flirting with
every lady he meets probably has a little something to do with his
inability to win his step-mother's affections, as it is shown several
times that he views his step-mother's death as the most traumatic
experience of his life.
 |
| Gojyo: our mandatory perv |
Gojyo enjoys spending his time drinking, smoking, and gambling, and
surprisingly lives with Hakkai, even though he seems annoyed whenever
he has to hang around dudes (which is all the time). As we learn in
Hakkai's back story, Gojyo was the one to provide him shelter when he
was in hiding, so the guys go pretty far back, and are generally
quite cordial with one another. Since he is a half-demon unlike
Hakkai and Goku, he doesn't need power limiters, but happens to
naturally kick ass with his sickle-and-chain weapon. Because he
doesn't attract the Big Bads as often as Goku does and isn't as
conspicuous as Sanzo, he is often the one left standing after their
major battles.
But bad news for Gojyo: Kougaiji's main man Dokugakuji is his long
lost brother Jien. So whenever the two teams are fighting each other,
the brothers are left to duke it out, even though they both clearly
care about the other's well being. In fact, one of the causes of
Dokugaku's unwavering loyalty to Kougaiji is the fact that he can't
forgive himself for all the damage that was done to Gojyo in his
childhood, and wants a chance to redeem himself. But of course, Sanzo
Group and Kougaiji Group are pretty much incapable of killing each
other because then the series would end and they wouldn't be allowed
to say “I'll take the scripture next time without fail!” anymore.
 |
| After a mama-drama filled past, Gojyo just wants a little lovin |
SPOILER: In his previous life, Gojyo was badass general Kenren, and
was buddies with Hakkai's previous self, Tenpou. He is very much like
his reincarnation in the sense that they are both irreverent perverts
who get bored if they aren't starting shit with someone. They both
follow their own rules, and damn the consequences to hell (which
results in imprisonment for Kenren, although he is eventually
released). Like the others, he ends up banished from heaven for
protecting Goku, but he still gets to spend his next life picking on
the little monkey just like he did in the heavens. D'aww. SPOILER
END.
Cho
Hakkai: Cho
Hakkai (my favorite character) is not at all what he appears to be on
the surface. Out of the Sanzo group, he is the politest and most
mommy-like guy, and he usually has a smile on his face, even when
everyone else is causing trouble. He is an ace at gambling, but he
doesn't smoke or chase skirts, and spends half his time picking up
the other guys' messes along with his cute pet dragon Hakuryuu (who
can transform into the company's jeep). Even when he's kicking enemy
butt with his concentrated chi, he has a habit of battling very
politely, even asking about the baddies' condition or apologizing for
getting messy. When he battles his Kougaiji group counterpart, Yaone,
it gets all the more hilarious, because she's almost as polite and
calm as he is.
 |
| Hakkai provides the nurturing the an unruly group of guys needs. |
But naturally, this attitude of Hakkai's is a bit of a cover to
repress the bad memories of his past. Back in the day, Hakkai was a
human known as Cho Gonou, and grew up as a cynical little twit in a
local orphanage until he eventually mellowed out a bit and became a
school teacher. He had a beautiful lover named Kanan, who
unfortunately turned out to be his separated at birth elder sister
(they grew up in different orphanages and had no idea about each
other's existence, only finding out they're related after the fact).
While Gonou is off working, Kanan is kidnapped and raped by a demon
noble, and when he at last is able to rescue her, she kills herself
right in front of his eyes so she won't have to bear the demon's
child. Gonou goes nuts and begins to kill all of the demons in the
area, ending up with a total death count of one thousand (and he did
it single-handedly, too!). Alas, if a human kills one thousand
demons, they become a demon themselves, and this is the fate that
befalls poor Gonou.
He is later found half-dead by Gojyo, who gives him shelter and
takes care of him while he recovers. However, Gonou is being
investigated by Sanzo and Goku and hunted down by surviving demons,
so he runs off and attempts to atone for his crimes first by ripping
out his right eye, and then by trying to rip out his left (CLAMP, did
you secretly write this scene?). Thankfully for my poor
sensibilities, Goku stops him short and gets Gonou to kill himself
metaphorically rather than literally, and Gonou is reborn as Cho
Hakkai, the nice and smiley guy we know and love now. But don't let
the pretty smile fool you: when Hakkai removes his limiters or is
pissed for some reason or another, he goes berserk and will kill you
with a complacently killer smile that could put the fear of god in
the hearts of even the freakiest baddie.
 |
| Hakkai's grin veils a bitter past, although his optimism wins out in the end. |
SPOILER: Hakkai's former life was spent as deity General Tenpou, who
is just as cool as Hakkai, but not quite as straight laced. He smokes
with as much fervor as second life Gojyo and Sanzo, all while buried
under a pile of books and looking like a sexy, lovable dweeb. Like
Hakkai, he has a nurturing personality, and tends to look after
Kenren!Gojyo whenever he gets himself in trouble. But of course, he
is a major ass-kicker, possibly even more than all the other guys,
excluding Goku when in full on Seiten Taisei mode. D'awww? SPOILER
END.
I loved the manga to death, and the premise of the series was
something that hooked me from the very beginning. Pairing bishies,
battles-to-the-supposed-death, and questioning the fine line between
good/bad, human/inhuman, and living for others/living for the self is
always welcome by me, and I liked how there were very few
stereotypical evil characters, especially among the Big Bads of each
arc (although Lady Gyokumen Koushu and Ni Jianyi easily win the Crazy
Magnificent Bastard Award). HOWEVER, the anime got off to a bad start
with me, first and foremost because of the horrible animation
utilized in the beginning. It was one of those scenarios where they
went out of their way not to animate anything they didn't have to,
which ended up with a lot of sequences of staring into a character's
unmoving eyes so that the act of talking didn't have to be rendered.
There was also this rather odd technique used where a shot of the
characters would be on screen, and then floating boxes of their faces
would start sailing around. I'm a stickler for the animation being
just as excellent as the text, so I was going half-crazy watching my
beloved characters being so poorly represented. I had to give up at
one point because I couldn't take it anymore, even though I wanted to
keep watching because of the excellent plotline I was already
familiar with from the manga. Luckily, I gave it another shot, and
the animation slowly started getting better part way through the
first season.
 |
| Sometimes a guy just can't decide if he wants to be gruff or pretty |
Speaking
of Gunlock, people
who like their anime to be as manga-canon as possible (*raises hand*)
might end up disappointed by some of the arcs, namely the 'Even a
Worm'/Hazel arc. Going by the manga, this was supposed to be our big
moment to learn the background of Ni Jianyi, but the anime included
his part minimally and made the arc more about Hazel and Gato than
about how Sanzo and Ni Jianyi's pasts intersect. A real missed
opportunity, if you ask me.
Also,
Saiyuki has
yet to be resolved in either the anime or the manga. We leave off
with the boys still traveling west (if they just stole Kougaiji's
dragons, they could have reached Shangri-La in the first volume, but
alas, it is not the destination that matters, but the journey
itself). This truly kills me, because I want to know how things will
resolve between the Kougaiji Group and the Sanzo Group, because they
could totally be BFFs if Kougaiji wasn't so fixated on having his
mother released (a valid desire on his part, but still). My
prediction is Sanzo and/or Kougaiji will end up incapacitated in the
final battle, someone will announce that they will get the scripture
next time without fail, and everyone will end up best friends.
To
make a long story short, Saiyuki
is
a fabulous adventure, but if you want to get into the anime, you're
going to have to make it through a handful of craptastically animated
episodes and a whole lot of filler of varying quality. The manga is
the safest bet, but don't count the anime out: I ended up curled on
the couch watching with rapt attention on several occasions, and it
is definitely on my rewatch list should the occasion ever arise
(although I'll probably skip the bad animation parts).
Next up will be Tokyo Babylon!
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