Saiyuki: Complete Seasons 1 & 2 [DVD]

Product Description The Saiyuki franchise upholds the ideal of samurai anime: cool character design, a nonconformist loner lead, and razor-sharp violence. Great value and an exciting new package make this thinpack a must have! Amazon.com The long-running animated series Saiyuki (2000) is based on Minekura Kazuya's manga adaptation of the landmark Chinese novel "Journey to the West." But little remains of Cheng'en Wu's original tale of a spiritually powerful monk traveling to India to obtain the Buddhist sutras, attended by three supernatural beings. Instead, rogue monk Sanjo Genjo is dispatched to India prevent the resurrection of the demon-lord Gyumoah by his former mistress, the evil Gyukumen Koushu. Her efforts have destroyed the peace that reigned in Shangri-La, causing the demon inhabitants to attack the humans and vice-versa. Genjo takes three obstreperous demons with him as companions/assistants: chain-smoking womanizer Sha Gojyo; Cho Hakkai, whose pet dragon turns into a jeep; and eternally hungry Son Goku. (The Dragon Ball continuity is also loosely based on "Journey.") The quarrelsome quartet travels from place to place, fighting demons and helping people.   Their adventures offer lots of action and slapstick comedy, but little in the way of sustained storytelling or character development. Unlike Inu-Yasha and other picaresque anime adventures, the relationships among the characters in Saiyuki remain fixed. The animation clean-up artists did very sloppy work on this series: Genjo's features change noticeably from scene to scene. But these problems don't deter the show's many fans: Saiyuki ran for years in Japan, and spawned three direct-to-video sequels and a theatrical feature. (Rated TV 14 VL, suitable for ages 13 and older: violence, profanity, risqué humor, tobacco and alcohol use) --Charles Solomon