Saiyuki rules!

Now that I've read the SAIYUKI manga volume 1 (only 1 is out now) and watched the first three DVDs, I can confidently say that the series, in both its incarnations, is way cool.

I should also point out a few things I missed when I started. It's not just a made-up series about four buddies fighting demons, but a whacked-out re-telling of the ancient Chinese legend of The Journey Into the West. I didn't realize that at first because I am almost completely unfamiliar with that story, but the manga comes right out and says so, and also includes a helpful Cliff's notes version. You don't need to know anything about the source material to understand SAIYUKI, but a lot of elements gain an extra level of humor if you know what they're based on.

Oh, and Cho Hakkai the Demon Slayer, who is a pig demon in the original but a cute and extremely polite young man in SAIYUKI, does not wear an eyepatch. It's a monocle. His pet mini-dragon which turns into a Jeep is named Jeep in the manga, and Hakuryu (White Dragon) in the anime. In any incarnation, Hakkai is not too imaginative with the pet names.

Goku, who I thought was a kid, is the Monkey King.

Gojyo is a kappa, a water spirit. In this version he smokes incessantly.

Sanzo is apparently a very holy and upright priest in the original, but here he's a bad-tempered bad-ass with a demon-slaying pistol.

The image of the four mighty heroes driving around ancient China in a Jeep is part of what I mean by knowledge of the source material adding to the humor. Also the goofy yet strangely consistent way that the heroes are surrounded by anachronisms-- at one point they pay for a meal with a gold card-- but the rest of the landscape is typical anime-land ancient China, except that the villains have access to sf genre tools.

This may be the all-time great road trip anime, with four super-powered bad boys tooling around, raising hell, and fighting in the back seat. This also has one of my favorite types of conflict, enemies who respect each other but must fight anyway. There's a villainnous villain and villainnous henchmen, but also a likable and honorable set of four adversaries to the protagonists, led by a guy who has to fight them or he'll never get his mother turned back from being a statue.

The manga is more violent and sexy, and the wisecracks are either better or better-translated, but the storylines are very close so far. Both takes are quite weird and very fun.

Incidentally, beware of the dub track on the DVDs. It's typically terrible and also badly translated. The subtitles seem fine.

I shall use some of that advance which people across the net are saying may doom my career to order the rest of the DVDs from ebay, for my video shop only has the first three of nine.

Saiyuki rules!

Now that I've read the SAIYUKI manga volume 1 (only 1 is out now) and watched the first three DVDs, I can confidently say that the series, in both its incarnations, is way cool.

I should also point out a few things I missed when I started. It's not just a made-up series about four buddies fighting demons, but a whacked-out re-telling of the ancient Chinese legend of The Journey Into the West. I didn't realize that at first because I am almost completely unfamiliar with that story, but the manga comes right out and says so, and also includes a helpful Cliff's notes version. You don't need to know anything about the source material to understand SAIYUKI, but a lot of elements gain an extra level of humor if you know what they're based on.

Oh, and Cho Hakkai the Demon Slayer, who is a pig demon in the original but a cute and extremely polite young man in SAIYUKI, does not wear an eyepatch. It's a monocle. His pet mini-dragon which turns into a Jeep is named Jeep in the manga, and Hakuryu (White Dragon) in the anime. In any incarnation, Hakkai is not too imaginative with the pet names.

Goku, who I thought was a kid, is the Monkey King.

Gojyo is a kappa, a water spirit. In this version he smokes incessantly.

Sanzo is apparently a very holy and upright priest in the original, but here he's a bad-tempered bad-ass with a demon-slaying pistol.

The image of the four mighty heroes driving around ancient China in a Jeep is part of what I mean by knowledge of the source material adding to the humor. Also the goofy yet strangely consistent way that the heroes are surrounded by anachronisms-- at one point they pay for a meal with a gold card-- but the rest of the landscape is typical anime-land ancient China, except that the villains have access to sf genre tools.

This may be the all-time great road trip anime, with four super-powered bad boys tooling around, raising hell, and fighting in the back seat. This also has one of my favorite types of conflict, enemies who respect each other but must fight anyway. There's a villainnous villain and villainnous henchmen, but also a likable and honorable set of four adversaries to the protagonists, led by a guy who has to fight them or he'll never get his mother turned back from being a statue.

The manga is more violent and sexy, and the wisecracks are either better or better-translated, but the storylines are very close so far. Both takes are quite weird and very fun.

Incidentally, beware of the dub track on the DVDs. It's typically terrible and also badly translated. The subtitles seem fine.

I shall use some of that advance which people across the net are saying may doom my career to order the rest of the DVDs from ebay, for my video shop only has the first three of nine.