dangermousie | Saiyuki

Doctor Who's episode "Dalek" was the best one yet, and I have a separate post about it coming up, but for now, I want to post about something else. I've just started watching Saiyuki, so decided to have a little intro post about it. After all, I'll be talking about it for a week or so. And by 'little post' I mean one the size of a short novel.

Saiyuki involves fighting, fantasy, really cool and complicated characters, humor, a kick-ass intro song and bizarre credits. It's also really really good. The plot of Saiyuki centers around Genzo Sanzo, a high ranking Buddhist renegade priest (

crumpeteer is right on the money when she describes him as Saito off his midol). In the realm of the story, humans and demons have coexisted for aeons, but lately demons have been unable to control their nature and have been attacking humans, and thus chaos threatens. This situation is a side effect of someone in India conducting experiments to re-awake a very powerful demon who's been sealed away. Sanzo is charged to travel to India and put an end to it. He is also commanded to travel with three demons: Goku (a boy who Sanzo has sort of adopted. He rescued him from horrible imprisonment in his cranky fashion and now does take care of him), Gojyo (a womanizing half-demon gambler) and Hakkai (who is well-spoken, extremely polite and mild-mannered).

Why do I like this anime? A lot of reasons, but the main one is the characters. Take Kougaji, the leader of the opposing forces. He is the bad guy but he is a good person. There is a reason why his retainers are so dedicated to him. He is kinda Aoshi-ish. He is in an untenable situation, as he is working for the horrid bitch who is planning all of this. Of course, the bitch happens to be his father's mistress, as he is the sealed demon's son. And why does Kougaji do this? He wants to free his mother, who is likewise imprisoned. Talk about FUBAR. But while taciturn (but being made to feel your powerlessness day after day would make anyone unhappy), with issues up the wazoo, and of course on the side of the bad guys, he is honorable, and honest, and extremely good to his retainers. No wonder Yaone, the woman he rescued from being murdered (in his own reserved fashion) is willing to die for him. And when she tries to kill herself after she failed a mission (where he commanded her to not take any risks and on which he didn't want her to go in the first place), he prevents her. He shows up to save her, and he blows up at her because he doesn't want to lose her.

I don't usually like bad guys. But I do him. And of course, he is forthright and honorable and a it boyish and the real villain is the mistress of his father (talk about evil and stone cold). The attitude of Kougaji seems to be "yeah, we are your enemies and we will REALLY fight you next time, but meanwhile, how about some tea and scones?" Sanzo and Gojyo even comment on this. Actually, I take it back. He isn't the bad guy. I think your bad guy status gets revokes when you declare a truce with your enemies to beat a big beastie, rescue strange women from being raped and eaten, protect your retainers to the best of your ability, and have an adoring younger half-sister who you are kinda embarassed by.

Also, if you want an OTP for this show, they are bound to be it, as the rest of the characters don't seem tohave anyone. I don't even want to check the amount of slash for this show, what with three hot guys travelling together.

My favorite character so far is Hakkai, the quiet, mild-mannered one. I am so predictable. I am a sucker for uber nice guys who have amazing levels of angst and can fight really well. I am very curious about his backstory. We saw him flip when Yaone tried to kill herself and he flashbacked to a woman telling him she was sorry but she was pregnant with someone's spawn and she was going to kill herself. And he really lost it. Did someone rape the woman he loved? (Don't spoil me). The guy has got to be majorly FUBAR, and not just because of his reaction when the fortune-teller tells him that he hides behind his pleasant manner but he has the eyes of a sinner. No one gets to be that pleasant without some prior terrifying cutting loose, not when his pleasantness is combined with this deadly fighting. And there is something about his having a horrible stomach wound. I really wonder. He has this incredible sweetness to him that I love. He even apologizes and is polite when he fights. But he is horribly affected by the fortune teller's words and by his cards saying 'sinner.' There must have been something truly awful in his past.

And then there is Sanzo, who is giving Hakkai a run for his money as my favorite character. Hakkai and Sanzo are the grown-ups of the group (Gojyo is a grown up but he is very boyish). He is arrogant, and sharp-tongued, and doesn't suffer fulls at all. He argues with the divine messengers and slaps the Merciful Goddess herself. Sanzo tries to stay detached and uncaring about others because of his own traumatic past (he is an orphan found by the previous Sanzo who adopted him and took care of him, but then got murdered). And yet he fights for good, he takes in Goku and takes really good care of him in his ascerbic way. I think he stays detached as a way to stay sane. The interesting thing is, when he muses about not wanting to care about anyone, it's not the typical "because I don't want to be hurt as I've been hurt before," it's because he doesn't want to hurt them, because if he cares for them and dies, it would hurt them, as he knows the pain of being left behind. Of course, that doesn't work. Goku for one, loves him (see how literally berserk he goes when Sanzo is wounded). He can't help but care and he has a soft spot no matter how hard he hides it and how small it is. See how Kougaji's little sister just pesters him and he buys her a meat bun (as they hilariously seat and watch the fighr between his ward and her brother). Heck, she ends up sitting on his shoulders and he grumps but doesn't dislodge her. And the way he attempts to control Goku is hilarious (he doesn' buy him the meat bun because the boy needs dsicipline).

It's an odd thing to say about the toughest character of the show, but there is a certain brittle fragility to Sanzo. I think Hakkai gets it (and Sanzo is at his most normal with Hakkai. See his telling Hokkai that if he wants to leave and go get revenge (on who? don't spoil though), he should do so. He knows the backstory and he is as close to treating him as equal as he gets). Sanzo's goal is to recover the scroll stolen from his master. He is an irreligious monk who had felt no calling and only became one because his master annointed him. His loyalty was to the dead man. And I do love his thinking about the real thing is to have somewhere to return to.

Gojyo is also, of course, more than his womanizing happy-go-lucky mask. He grew up in an abusive family, as in 'born of a mistress of his father and the wife hated him and tried to kill him and abused him and yet he sort of thought it was OK because she was the only mother he knew.' Yeah. And his brother is Kogouji's retainer.

And Goku? He is a cool kid, ruled by his stomach. He is also the most powerful of the bunch. And I do wonder what his backstory is.

My favorite ep so far is either the very angsty and unusually colored one where Sanzo has to kill a long-time friend and we learn a lot about what makes him tick, or the hilarious one where Sanzo and co get thrown in jail because impersonators are doing a better job as a pious priest etc (and Sanzo is happy because being in jail means he doesn't have to lecture. And when all is straightened out at the end, and villaage folk try to thank him, he tells them he fought for himself and when they tell him that at least it must have taken hard work to learn all that, he tells them he hates hard work more than anything).

The thing I like the most is that all of them are tremendously damaged but they don't whine and moan, they deal and act.

Oh, and I like Hakkai's 'car', with a yin/yang spare tire.

Sanzo: