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)