Saiyuki and its affiliate mangas are in a class of their own, with the characters and story maturing gracefully along with the mangaka. But they were unique right from the start, and only get better as time goes on.

Unlike Saiyuki: Reload, this anime catches the style of Minekura's early work extremely well, though if you want to see what the characters truly grew into, take note of the closing credits where, as so often happens, they use the mangaka's actual artwork. The story is yet one more retelling of Journey to the West, and without doubt it's the quirkiest and sexiest version ever made...but ultimately, it's the story of the Monkey King, Goku, and his maturation from a wild creature born of the earth to taking his place as the ruler of his own fate is what the manga and this series truly is about. The other three are important characters and do grow but nothing like what happens to Goku.

Character development, of antagonists as well as protagonists, is subtle and elegant. Story lines have exquisite subtext. And unlike Reload, which devolves into ridiculous when the anime passes the manga's extant storyline, in this one, when the writers used up the ready storylines from the manga, they did an excellent job of melding the amazing Saiyuki Gaiden prequel into the anime's "real time" storyline.

My only caveat is that I think it's real audience is older than teenage, as is listed here. Late teen and older would, I think, be more appropriate, not because of the language and sexual content, tho that's probably reason enough, but because I think that's the age the story and characters will speak to most strongly. (show less)

Saiyuki is an entertaining anime, but I wish the character development was a bit more in depth. It gets better in the latter seasons and the OVA's. Don't get me wrong I really do like the series and I continue to watch the other installments. It is the interactions of the main characters that keeps me entertained. I found the english dub to be quite hilarious and definetly not for younger viewers as foul language is always present. The episodes posted are all dual language guess the previous reviewer didn't notice. To bad there are only 32 of 50 posted at the moment. I will post the rest if I can. (show less)

The story is like inuyasha. They have their long journey to stop some demons and save the world...and they never get anywhere. The action is ok but if you are watching this for the action you will be disappointed. Whether you love it or hate it is all about the comedy. Give it 2 or 3 episodes if you don't think it's funny stop watching it won’t get any better for you. I haven't checked to see what episodes anime-access has but the dubs are actually good in this anime for the first season and movie the rest are beyond crap.

I supported the official release. (show less)

Saiyuki was an anime I watched and it seems odd anf rather goofy at first because it is circa 2000 when anime was just starting to really kick up the very deep and moving storylines.

Without telling plot or the synopsis which is given when you download. Saiyuki had a storyline without as complex as those today, but it did have a compelling moving pace that made you attach and wish for the sucess of the characters.

The Reality is a world of humans and demos is here (seen it, right) but this has a quite entertaining cast of mamber a Priest of great power venturing with 3 demons with power limiters to keep them from going full monster while maintaning immense skills and strengths. The first few episodes crawl a bit, but then the humour and action and importance of encounters and the battles draw you in. Genjo Sanzo is one of the great priest and carries a 38 special with a crucifix for a front sight with blessed silver bullets (bad for demons) The other cast inlcude Goku (not the orange jumpsuit man) but he does use a pole. is a young demon sanzo elped, and the others fall in too.

The story has the priest keeping these rowdy miscrients in line 2 of them always have very comical interaction and the third is super technical with science and spells he owns a pet dragon tha can morph into object including vehicles they ride in.

It does have a compelling cataclysmic scenario, A long time brother fued, and many plot turns to make it interesting. If you like good Shoujo give this a try if you aren't filled with all the awesome new anime.
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***NOTE, NOTE*** ASLO- it says episode 4 is missing but the uploader actually mistakenly put both episodes in episode 3's -they are not different downloads, they are different episodes 3 & 4.
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