The boys are back in town….. after a very long hiatus.
What They Say:
Episode #1 “Squall”
Humans and yokai, science and magic… all exist side-by-side on a peaceful continent free of all order and regulation, widely known as “Shangri-La.” The balance there was shattered when the Minus Wave caused all the yokai on the continent to rampage, an event known as the “Calamity.” Continuing their journey west to stop Gyumaoh’s resurrection experiments, the root of all the evil on the continent, the Three Aspects are finally drawing closer to India. But the closer they get, the more pronounced the influence of the Calamity becomes, and the more intense their battles become. Also standing before them is the tragic karma of 500 years past…
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
First up, did you know that the Saiyuki manga has been running off and on since 1997? Yes, Saiyuki is as old as One Piece. Yes, the original profanity-laden ADV dub of the meandering, 50 episode, monster-of-the-week adaptation of the first part of the series was lambasted by many. It was loved by a lot of people too, as brainless action fodder for the fangirl set. (The manga being somewhat less brain-dead, but cementing the genre Seven Seas has taken to calling ‘fangirl fun,’ which I just call ‘this ran in Zero-Sum Magazine.’)
So twenty years, several TV and OVA series, and five manga series later we get what’s being billed as the final leg of the Saiyuki journey. At least I’ll have to take their word for it because I’m not sure. A quick google translate tells me the manga seems headed for a conclusion. Tokyopop was the original publisher of the manga here and nobody ever license rescued the series. I have no idea if it’s actually close to the end or not! (Plus, the manga-ka, Kazuya Minekura, has had a long history of well-publicized major health issues which has put the manga on hiatus many times over its lengthy run.)
To further complicate the release of this series, this leg of the journey’s dub is being handled by Funimation. Not my problem at the moment because I’ll be reviewing the sub, but the series as a whole had two separate voice actor sets in English due to the middle part of the saga being handled by Geneon and the bookending sections by ADV first, Sentai second. So then you had fans arguing over which set of dub actors they liked the best. Confused yet? Yeah, it’s a huge mess (made messier by one of the lead voice actors now being blacklisted from the dub industry for… gross reasons.) I don’t know who they’re getting for their simuldub, but I kinda hope for the remaining Texas cast to reprise their roles.
So what is Saiyuki about exactly? Well, yes, it’s sort of a retelling of Journey to the West except instead of fetching holy scriptures they’re trying to stop the resurrection of the demon king. It stars hot angsty guys bickering at each other while riding in a Jeep which is actually a dragon. They kill the frenzied enraged demons they come across while trying to keep their own dark former lives and companion demons from getting the best of them.
It’s been twenty years for us, but two years on the road for the boys. This episode mostly serves as an introduction or reintroduction to the Sanzo party and lets the viewer know exactly what they’re getting into. The plot is basic reluctant hero stuff. They roll into a town on the frontier and save a group of men attacked by awakened youkai. The grateful townsmen let the road-weary group stay the night, bickering ensues. The village is attacked again, the gang fights back, a dude takes a woman hostage and at this point, even the Sanzo gang is commenting on how many times they’ve had this happen. I hope the rest of the episodes are a bit more creative, because just like the Sanzo party we’ve seen this all before and just want to get on to the plot relevant stuff! (If you’re new here hoping for backstory, that was already covered years ago.)
Animation, even the cheap stuff, has come a long way in twenty years. I mean, the last TV series was in 2004! Outside of the OVA’s and movie stuff, this is probably the best the boys have been animated. There’s a short silly bit after the end credits, and the opening and ending credits aren’t anything to write home about. Stills, action shots, poses that all look ripped from the source material set to some anime butt rock. Yup, very familiar stuff.
In Summary:
The more things change the more they stay the same. Almost alarmingly so. The road trip that never ends is back to hopefully finally reach their destination. I doubt Saiyuki is out to gain new fans after all this time. This series is more of a thank you to those who stuck around or actually remembered to come back after all this time. The first episode certainly isn’t doing much of anything to invite new viewers with this stale old episodic stuff. Heck, the original bishi bad boys of anime seem downright cliché now! At least it looks relatively nice. I hope with only 12 episodes to work with they get down to business and get around to the final fight that we’ve waited 100 episode and twenty years to see. I think we’re owed some sort of conclusion after all this time.
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
