Film:
DVD:

Original story by Kazuya Minekura
Directed by Hayato Date

Features:

• Poster
• Cultural background notes
• Production sketches
• Trailer
• Japanese opening and closing

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Tragic pasts
• Cranky stepmother
• Violence
• Angst

Released by: ADV
Region: 1
Rating: 15+
Anamorphic: N/A; episodes appear in their original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Buy it.

Saiyuki is a refreshingly different take on the traditional tale of Genjo Sanzo, a monk in search of sacred scriptures. Sanzo, a trigger-happy, cranky, boozer is on the ultimate road trip across China and India with a rather odd collection of friends: the uber-powerful, ever-hungry Son Goku; Sha Gojyo, the half-breed who loves not wisely but too well; and Cho Hakkai, whose bookish exterior hides a tragic, violent past and who has a pet dragon (who is sometimes a Jeep). Sounds bizarre, no? And yet somehow it works, and works brilliantly. Four very different men must pull together for the good of the quest and try to become something together than they never could have become alone.

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