Rating: 
Summary: Give the English dub a try - It's hilarious!
Review: A friend of mine just picked this dvd up and I watched the english dub of the first couple of episodes. I personally thought it was hilarious and suggest trying it out. A lot of people I know dismiss the English dub track without giving it a chance, it's just not their cup of tea. But I really thought this was one of the funnier ones I have seen in awhile. I have also seen some of ADV's other anime titles in the past and I believe that they do a great job in casting and this series is no exception. While this may not be one of the most deeply intellectual series of all time, it certainly is entertaining. So, if your looking for a great comedic/action anime I highly recommend giving Saiyuki a try.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but flawed, interpretation of a classic
Review: First, this series is intriguing. I like it. Honestly, I rented this DVD on Saturday, and liked it so much that I sunk $100 into buying the first four volumes. Still, this series has flaws.First, for the uninitiated, "Saiyuki" is the Japanese name for the ancient Chinese classic "Journey to the West". The very famous fable of the the Monkey King (Wukong in Chinese, Goku in Japanese) is presented in the book, and the anime series is a (very loose!) retelling of this amazing tale. All in all, the series is fresh and interesting. Here, the priest Sanzo is commanded to undergo a journey to the land of India to fetch stolen scriptures from a demon and a trio of mad doctors attempting to resurrect a horrible monster. He is accompanied by three unique beings, each demon himself, who possess both mighty powers and mysterious pasts. The story takes a bit to find its footing, but the relationship of the four "friends" keeps it afloat early. In later DVD's, the character's pasts are presented, and the story becomes MUCH better. The animation of the series may not appeal to all, but I find it novel and exciting. There are many still shots, but the camera work is excellent. However, some parts are annoying (including the cheesy deaths of the demons, and the CRAPPY drawings of the spiders and crabs - maybe the animator should stay away from eight-legged monsters?). As I mentioned above, the story takes time to lift off, and the writing (or maybe translation) is very uneven. Sometimes, the wit will leave you in stitches, but many times you will groan at the lines. By far the worst aspect of the series is the English voiceover. It's a shame - for once, the dialogue isn't stilted, but wow, are the voices bad. Some are lovably awful (Gojyu sounds like our old friend Butthead!), but others are just terrible (the lead doctor's voice screams hunchback Igor, not genius Dr. Frankenstein). This is the reason for the deduction of a star. Still, I would recommend this to anyone, particularly those who know the tale of the Monkey King. It is fun to watch!
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of disappointing
Review: I bought this anime's first volume outright for a few reasons: 1) I have always been fascinated by the "Journey to the West" story of Chinese legend, and 2) I owned a wallscroll of this anime and thought I might as well try to get into a new series, since 3) I had just finished collecting the entire Excel Saga collection. Don't expect much development of plot. Some anime take three or four episodes before the ball gets rolling (some times even an entire series!) but right off the bat, episode 1, you get thrown into the conflict. From their explanation, a gas is moving through the land and making demons kill things. This is bad because demons for a long time have mingled among the humans. Apparently a group of individuals are not starting a race war between demons and humans, but they also want to revive an ancient evil spirit! To counter this, the gods (who can't do some divine intervention-style smack down I guess) hire Sanzo the priest to travel westward to combat the evil ones. He is accompanied by three demons: Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai. Goku is the monkey king of fame. Gojyo is a water sprite who can't swim and likes to hit on women. Hakkai is...er...well he's got this monocle that looks like half a pair of glasses fell off his face, and his pet is a tiny dragon that can turn into a jeep and not much else. I couldn't help but notice some thing as I went through episodes 2-5...namely how PREDICTABLE this thing was. When they went to an inn I thought to myself, "They're going to get attacked aren't they?", and sure enough they were. When they went to a Buddhist temple I thought, "They're going to get attacked, aren't they?", and sure enough they were. On Episode 4 they go to a house where the woman used to love a demon, to which I thought, "He's gonna come in the episode isn't he?", and sure enough he did. I kind of wish the series wouldn't try to throw in cheap action every episode and instead centered around their characters, since we've just been introduced to them and our only knowledge is that they're basic archetypes. Goku is the bratty kid, Gojyo is the womanizer, Sanzo is the slick n' smooth leader, and Hakkai is the effeminate male which dorky otakus across America will claim is gay for the rest of time. Plus, Goku and Gojyo fight over food in scenes that I had already seen about 1000 times before in the "Slayers" series. Come to think of it...I noticed A LOT of cliches as I watched this - they overdo the stereotype anime affects to the nth degree. There are a lot of eye close-ups, pose-shots during a fight, and pre-battle tauntings. Not to mention every episode seemed to be on the verge of being melodramatic - for example in the second episode Goku meets a girl at an inn who hates demons because they killed one of her friends. When they get attacked by assassins she finds out Goku is a demon and says she hates him because he lied...which is a really bitchy thing to do considering the poor guy was defending her life right in front of her! I wouldn't mind things like the human-demon love affair in episode 5 except that its dragged on for almost 15 minutes of the episode's timespan. It wasn't any thing new, and Gojyo's involvement with knowing the demon lover is yet another anime storyline cliche: one of the heroes always knows one of the villains from a past life. Another reason I wish they hadn't done too much action was because...well...the animators weren't GOOD at it. Action scenes usually consisted of a character in a fighting pose with lines flashing behind them, followed by a picture of the villain flying in another direction. I couldn't really call it exciting since I barely knew what was going on - editing problems made it seem like they didn't plan the fight scenes out at all ("Hey wait, he was over there...and he was over there...AAAAAAH!!"). Also, the affects are awful! You remember back in the day when you have that software called "Goo" where you could morph shapes? For a character exploding in episode 2 all they did was slowly expand their body out like you could do in the Goo program. It doesn't look like they blew up, it makes it look like it turned into two big donuts!! They tried the same thing in episode 3 with a slowly forming mist, but its so painfully obvious what they used to make the effect that its almost as bad as having a space ship with bright white string holding it up. I was about to decide to sell this DVD and start anew with another series...but then I found out there was a sixth episode. I sat through it, and was impressed! They had action scenes that were actually well choreographed...and actually had MOVEMENT! Granted they still had melodrama, what with the love story between nominal villain #1 and his female sidekick (why is it so easy to have good looking women fall in love with you in these things?). Right now I've decided to hold on to the 1st DVD, but I'll probably rent the second one first. If I don't like where the series is going I'll have to abandon all hope with it (although frankly I'll probably start on another series any way...). Reading the other reviews, I might be missing some thing or the series might get better. Oh well...I write this review with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Kind of disappointing
Review: I bought this anime's first volume outright for a few reasons: 1) I have always been fascinated by the "Journey to the West" story of Chinese legend, and 2) I owned a wallscroll of this anime and thought I might as well try to get into a new series, since 3) I had just finished collecting the entire Excel Saga collection. Don't expect much development of plot. Some anime take three or four episodes before the ball gets rolling (some times even an entire series!) but right off the bat, episode 1, you get thrown into the conflict. From their explanation, a gas is moving through the land and making demons kill things. This is bad because demons for a long time have mingled among the humans. Apparently a group of individuals are not starting a race war between demons and humans, but they also want to revive an ancient evil spirit! To counter this, the gods (who can't do some divine intervention-style smack down I guess) hire Sanzo the priest to travel westward to combat the evil ones. He is accompanied by three demons: Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai. Goku is the monkey king of fame. Gojyo is a water sprite who can't swim and likes to hit on women. Hakkai is...er...well he's got this monocle that looks like half a pair of glasses fell off his face, and his pet is a tiny dragon that can turn into a jeep and not much else. I couldn't help but notice some thing as I went through episodes 2-5...namely how PREDICTABLE this thing was. When they went to an inn I thought to myself, "They're going to get attacked aren't they?", and sure enough they were. When they went to a Buddhist temple I thought, "They're going to get attacked, aren't they?", and sure enough they were. On Episode 4 they go to a house where the woman used to love a demon, to which I thought, "He's gonna come in the episode isn't he?", and sure enough he did. I kind of wish the series wouldn't try to throw in cheap action every episode and instead centered around their characters, since we've just been introduced to them and our only knowledge is that they're basic archetypes. Goku is the bratty kid, Gojyo is the womanizer, Sanzo is the slick n' smooth leader, and Hakkai is the effeminate male which dorky otakus across America will claim is gay for the rest of time. Plus, Goku and Gojyo fight over food in scenes that I had already seen about 1000 times before in the "Slayers" series. Come to think of it...I noticed A LOT of cliches as I watched this - they overdo the stereotype anime affects to the nth degree. There are a lot of eye close-ups, pose-shots during a fight, and pre-battle tauntings. Not to mention every episode seemed to be on the verge of being melodramatic - for example in the second episode Goku meets a girl at an inn who hates demons because they killed one of her friends. When they get attacked by assassins she finds out Goku is a demon and says she hates him because he lied...which is a really bitchy thing to do considering the poor guy was defending her life right in front of her! I wouldn't mind things like the human-demon love affair in episode 5 except that its dragged on for almost 15 minutes of the episode's timespan. It wasn't any thing new, and Gojyo's involvement with knowing the demon lover is yet another anime storyline cliche: one of the heroes always knows one of the villains from a past life. Another reason I wish they hadn't done too much action was because...well...the animators weren't GOOD at it. Action scenes usually consisted of a character in a fighting pose with lines flashing behind them, followed by a picture of the villain flying in another direction. I couldn't really call it exciting since I barely knew what was going on - editing problems made it seem like they didn't plan the fight scenes out at all ("Hey wait, he was over there...and he was over there...AAAAAAH!!"). Also, the affects are awful! You remember back in the day when you have that software called "Goo" where you could morph shapes? For a character exploding in episode 2 all they did was slowly expand their body out like you could do in the Goo program. It doesn't look like they blew up, it makes it look like it turned into two big donuts!! They tried the same thing in episode 3 with a slowly forming mist, but its so painfully obvious what they used to make the effect that its almost as bad as having a space ship with bright white string holding it up. I was about to decide to sell this DVD and start anew with another series...but then I found out there was a sixth episode. I sat through it, and was impressed! They had action scenes that were actually well choreographed...and actually had MOVEMENT! Granted they still had melodrama, what with the love story between nominal villain #1 and his female sidekick (why is it so easy to have good looking women fall in love with you in these things?). Right now I've decided to hold on to the 1st DVD, but I'll probably rent the second one first. If I don't like where the series is going I'll have to abandon all hope with it (although frankly I'll probably start on another series any way...). Reading the other reviews, I might be missing some thing or the series might get better. Oh well...I write this review with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad but.................
Review: I first watched the japanese with the english subtitles. In english they seem to change the characters personality's which I did not like. Hakkai is suppose to be a nice and gental person that fights with a smile and stay's some what culm. But in the english he is a smart month with a smile. I did not like that at all. People write reviews on the cartoon it self. People need to write about the DVD's as well as the plot and amagination of the cartoon. They changed Sanzo to but, he sometimes has his attitude which in the japanese voice he always has a attitude. Goujo is still the same and Goku some what. I can say that the english voices was not very well done. Japanese is better it shows the real emotions of all what they are going throw. Even the evil demon prince and his female Yaone changed their personalitys too. What was they thinking seriously. They seem to do this to alot of great anime. The dvd it self has plus points. like a poster with each DVD. The art work with some funny notes and it only has the theme and ending theme song on the dvd without credits. The show you the japanese and english voice acters. Well I guess that's it but I really wasn't please with the english. I really wish the company's in USA would stop trying to improve it in their way cause they just make it worst. This DVD has english and japanese with english subtitles and english with japanese subtitles. The series itself I give a 5 but how america messed it up a 3. So I'll give it a 4.
And the english version has way to many cuse words. What is up with that? UNKNOWN TO ME. Well great series and this DVD has 5 episodes.
Rating:
Summary: Saiyuki!!
Review: I have had a copy of this anime for the longest time and didn't get around to watching it until recently, and it is one of the BEST animes I have EVER seen in a LONG time! The characters are fun and interesting, they make you want to keep watching, just to see what will happen to them, and to learn more about them. There is a nice balance of comedy and drama, and there is an interesting plot along with many other fascinating subplots. It's based on a Chinese myth, but don't think you need to know chinese folklore just to understand it. It's great and I recommend it to ANY anime fan!
Rating:
Summary: Extremely limited animation?
Review: I suspect that the Amazon review only watched the first episode, which does, in fact, feature still shot fight scenes. The rest of the series is not like that at all. The lack of coherent storyline comment is also erroneous. Saiyuki is made up of several short story arcs and stand-alone episodes, but the basic story is quite clear and easy to pick up on. I found both the subbed and dubbed versions entertaining; despite violence and the dark tone, this is a funny series. All four main characters have interesting pasts and sharply defined characters, and they soon feel like old friends. Son Goku shares the same basic characteristics here that he does in the original "Journey to the West", Dragonball, and all the other stories he's appeared in: he's eternally hungry, an excellent fighter, and he has a feral, almost uncontrollable side which could be dangerous to his friends. He's also adorable. Don't be misled into thinking this has anything to do with Dragonball (a series I'm also fond of). Anyway, there's 5 eps per disc and 50 eps total, plus a gorgeous movie and 2 OVAs, so go ahead and take the plunge! Saiyuki is great fun.
Rating:
Summary: Only one of my favorite anime series ever...
Review: I've only been watching anime for a little over 6 months now, but I've managed to see a LOT of it, and Saiyuki has to be one of my favorites. The interaction between the characters, the bishounen, the interesting stories... the bishounen...(oh wait, I already said that.) Seriously, though. Saiyuki has a truly individual feel to it - part Western, part fantasy, part comedy buddy movie. I, personally, love the crazy little anacrhonisms like the dragon that turns into a jeep and Sanzo's credit card of the gods. Another thing I enjoy about this series is that it tends to be very episodic. While there are overarching plot arcs, (Hakkai's past, how the group got together, etc) once you've met the main characters, you can skip around in the series and not get too lost. As for packaging and how the DVD was presented, I'm fairly happy with my pretty colector's box. The X-large t-shirt it came with is way too big for me, but it's very nice. The menus on the DVD are a little difficult to navigate sometimes, too. I would have to agree with another reviewer about the English dub. I'm usually one of those purists who won't watch in anything but subtitles, but the curiosity got the better of me the other night and I watched the last episode in English instead of Japanese. I was pleasantly surprised. The voices were pretty on, except I think that Hakkai sounded a little young and Yaone (I can never remember how to spell her name) sounded a little old. Also, there is quite a bit more swearing in the English version for some reason. I just can't seem to get my mind around Hakkai saying... some of the things he says in the dub... it's just not right. Other than that, it's very watchable. The Japanese is still my preferred language, though.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely amazing beginning...
Review: Oh my! I am completely stunned by this new series. The artwork is beautiful and the characters are the best! This is a series that is a great addition to anyone's collection.
Rating:
Summary: You cant miss it!
Review: Ok, I bought this DVD without knowing what was it was a bout, but my friend told me that there's a very good anime called Saiyuki, so that's more or less why I got it.
The characters are very unique and they will practically always send you laughing, the constant fighting between Gojyo (a pervy water demon whose afraid of water) and Goku (An ever-hungry monkey god) are the main high points.
Now I know people's feelings about dubs, but trust me on this one, this dub aint half bad. I started watching it in English first (No I don't like to read for EVERY frame, so sue me) and they did a very good job, one low point is that Hakkai (A VERY polite and quiet member) swears and in Japanse he doesnt, that annoyed me, but to be honest the English version made me laugh more than the Japanse version.
But I say that any anime fan HAS to have a look at this series!
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