Anime Saiyuki

[Vorvodoss]

I stumbled upon a relatively new magazine at one of my local otaku stores called [i]NewType[/i]. Great magazine and probably the best anime news source I've seen to date. The only issue with it is that some of the stuff was a little behind the times due to delayed print schedules and they were a little misleading on the cover saying they had exclusive news about [i]The Renewal of Evangelion[/i] (basically, there isn't going to be one). However, despite these two shortcomings, the magazine made up for it by introducing me to my new favorite anime -- Saiyuki!

The magazine came with a demo of the first episode. The first five will be released with a limited artbox (great art too) on April 29th. The concept is simple: four adventuring friends, three of whom are half-demons who stay in human form with the use of voluntary power inhibitors, must travel to Shangrilah(sp?) to stop the rise of an evil demon lord. The setting is psuedo-modern, though, which makes the show that much more interesting. One of the heroes has a little dragon familar who can transform into a jeep for a fast getaway.

The animation and art is pretty good and, in some places, downright beautiful. Unfortunately, there are moments when (possible for comedic effect?) characters appear like Pokemon characters. I'm a little new to studying the whys behind animation and character design choices so anyone who wants to explain this to me would be great. You see it in some of the more beautiful animes (Trigun is a perfect example). The animation will be clean and sharp one moment and then switch to big teardrops on the head, rivers of tears from the eyes, and heads exploding to gigantic proportions! Then it all switches back???? Why? :)

I'm gonna recommend Saiyuki based on this one episode. I hardly ever do this but I've watched the first episode three times in as many days and for that one alone I think it's worth the risk. So far, the only real criticism in the first episode is that we don't actually get to see the fights. If this improves in the rest of the series, I'll have nothing real bad to say. As soon as I see more I'll start posting more thoughts and comments.

I'll leave this post with this scene from the first episode (minor spoiler follows). One of the characters is attacked from behind by a demon snarling and clawing its way to our hero. The hero (Gojo(sp?)) reaches out one hand and grasps the demon's head. In a white burst of banishing light. The hero makes a smart comment (I won't run the chance of ruining that as this show's dialogue is the best I've heard in a while) and we cut to another fight. Believe me....pure AWESOME!

*walks away shaking his head muttering: "I'm such a fanboy."*