Customer Reviews

Saiyuki Reload (Vol. 6)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, I am an ardent Saiyuki fan, be it manga or anime. I am fascinated by the 3 pretty young men and one cute monkey-boy, with their troubled pasts. And the fact that they are "misfits" tops it all. I have watched Reload Vol 6&7 in the Chinese subtitled version but with my limited knowledge of Chinese, the Geneon English version is simply a must buy for me.
Vol 5 is a solid adaptation of the Saiyuki manga but Reload DVD Vol 6 is better. But watch it in the subtitled version as the English dub is just sub-standard. I still miss the pretty lankiness of the protagonists in the manga and the artwork in Gensomaden Saiyuki. However the magnificent performance of the talented Japanese vocal cast in Vol 6 more than compensate for these weaknesses. The Japanese vocal cast captured the emotional scenes brilliantly - Hakkai quarelling with Sanzo, Goko trying to get a word in, Gojyo showing his soft side, their exciting fight with "God" and their emotional defeat. Who cares if this disc has 3 episodes. I rather they stick with the manga instead of slotting in a filler.

I've stuck it out with Saiyuki Reload all the way to Volume 6, even watching the English dub version, at that, but it just fails in all respects to live up to the wonderful, original series. The artwork, storylines, voices (for the dub viewers), and even character portrayals are less than satisfactory and make even the more exciting sagas unenjoyable.

This DVD follows the manga volume 8 very faithfully, and covers everything that it did. (Even ending in the same place.) Sanzo, Goku, and Hakkai attempt to find Gojyo, who's gone off to fight "god" by himself. In the end, all four are horribly beaten by the "god," and are forced to retreat. It's all very dramatic and exciting, but something about the way it was done just fails to capture my attention/emotion the way the original series had done dramatic sequences.

All-in-all, the DVD was about as good as the other Reload DVDs, and if you've stuck it out this far, you'll probably like it, too. However, as far as I'm concenered at this point, the original Gensomaden Saiyuki series is my favorite, and it's over. I'm going to continue watching the rest of Reload and Gunlock (and keep following the manga), but I seriously doubt it will ever come close to the wonderful series that the original Saiyuki was.