Saiyuki Reload

 

By Kazuya Minekura (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59816-025-7

This fetching blend of martial arts and supernatural thriller is actually a sequel to a previous series wherein a small band of heroes, or more properly anti-heroes, journey to discover the origin of “the Minus Wave,” a phenomenon that has driven all the magical creatures – the “Youkai” insane. The foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, gun-toting and murderous priest Genjyo Sanzo is accompanied by the child-like Son Goku (the legendary Monkey King), a lecherous and vulgar Kappa (water spirit) named Sha Gojyo and the mysterious martial artist Cho Hakkai as they wander the land searching for answers and generally getting in to trouble.

The mix of gangster chic, mystical fantasy and Martial Arts drama is occasionally a little forced though the art is powerful and engaging, but I must admit, as I haven’t seen the first series, to a need to extrapolate a lot of the back story, and I’m not sure that I actually “got” everything that was going on.

Worth a look, and the back-up feature, an extensive comparative sound effect chart for manga and English (I know that manga’s not a language, but you know what I mean) is something worth the price of admission alone. Perhaps I’ll warm to the travails with later volumes, and, of course there’s always places to pick up back issues, no?

© 2002 Kazuya Minekura. All Rights Reserved.
English script © 2005 Tokyopop Inc.