ike Dragon Ball Z, the anime series Saiyuki is based on a classic Chinese legend about a monk questing into the forbidding West with a group of demonic companions. But the original story certainly didn't look like Saiyuki—among other things, it certainly didn't include Jeeps and guns in addition to its demons and dragons.
Saiyuki begins as the latest version of the monk, a Buddhist high priest named Sanzo Genjo, is dispatched from Shangri-la to travel to India and investigate a cult attempting to revive a centuries-dead demon named Gyumoah. In the past, demons and humans lived together in harmony, but recently demons have been "losing their sense of self" and turning against humanity, slaying and devouring their former friends and lovers. Gyumoah's followers may have something to do with the change—Gyumoah was an early rebel who openly killed humans.
Oddly, Genjo's masters order him to travel with three demonic companions he's been linked to in the past. Even more oddly, given their casual disgust for Genjo and his religion, those companions never question him, they just slaughter the demons in their way, then head west. Two of them, Son Goku and Cho Hakkai, wear "power limiters" to keep their demonic energies in check; the third, Cha Gojyo, is half human and doesn't require such extreme measures. But all three are tremendously powerful. Throughout the first five episodes of this series, they're set upon by wave after wave of killers working for another half-demon named Kougaiji, but they rarely even break a sweat. In fact, most of these episodes would be half as long if the protagonists didn't waste time fighting among themselves and mocking their enemies before dispatching them.
On the road, Genjo and company repeatedly encounter humans who have suffered due to the demon rebellion. Some are grieving for people killed by demons; others mourn for the changed demons themselves. The protagonists show some sympathy for the human victims, but none for the demons; by the time this opening disc ends, most of Genjo's team members have openly stated their antisocial contempt for everyone but themselves.
Another new twist on a popular old fable
ADV's dubbed dialogue tends to be looser, more colloquial and often raunchier than its more literally translated subtitled scripts, but Saiyuki sets an offensive new standard for translation discrepancies—the dub turns the script's repetitive squabbles between Goku and Gojyo into virtual foulmouthed creative-writing exercises. For instance, in a scene where Gojyo demands Goku fetch him a beer, and Goku answers with typical rudeness, subbed-Gojyo responds "Is that any way to speak to your elder?" Dubbed-Gojyo, on the other hand, shouts, "OK, you're going to get me another beer or I'm going to take this can and shove it up your whiny little ass!" Goku promptly accuses Gojyo of looking for "an excuse to get your hands on my ass," and Gojyo calls Goku a "little fag" and accuses him of projection. This rarefied level of discourse is typical throughout the series.
As a result, fans of serious themes and stories will want to steer clear of Saiyuki, though Outlaw Star fans will probably like it reasonably well; it presents a similar squabbling, lanky, pretty-boy crew semi-united under a similarly contemptuous jerk. Genjo is a far-from-typical monk; he seems to hate his allies, his religion and the rest of the world equally. Those allies generally respond to his scorn with good humor, but then virtually everything seems to amuse them, except their own sporadic fights. They're so arrogantly confident that they casually rate their frothing enemies' hygiene and fashion sense while waiting for them to attack. Only Kougaiji himself seems to pose a moderate challenge.
As a result, Saiyuki isn't as exciting as it could be. The combats that seem to be the show's raison d'être are visually interesting, though they rely too much on the blurred-action-background shortcuts that went out of style circa Voltron. But the conclusions are foregone and the pacing is sporadic. The characters have some personal style, but there's nothing terribly unique about them. The show's most distinctive feature is the repeated use of strange overlapped images and split screens, and while that does show some stylistic creativity, it still won't win back fans who've seen too many snarky-jerk teamups to care.
Saiyuki's DVD extras include a character guide with a lot of useful details, and a "cultural background" section, which presents several screens of information about the original Chinese legend that spawned this and Dragon Ball Z. The text is interesting and useful; too bad the designers made it so difficult to read.
— Tasha
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