Saiyuki RELOAD, the anime incarnation of Kazuya Minekura's manga of the same name, is now airing weekly in Japan. But TV Tokyo and its affiliate stations aren't the only place episodes can be seen, what with pirates making them available for download worldwide on the Internet scant hours after broadcast. With episodes so accessible so soon, there doesn't seem much point in writing about them in detail, as I had planned to do before the series started. But it's hard not to comment after watching...so, here's some random yammering after (and sometimes even during!) each week's broadcast! (Grateful thanks go to Lux for maintaining her tremendous Saiyuki RELOAD screencap gallery, Are We There Yet?--please don't abuse it, folks!)
This week's pre-show promo is Goku's. Wonder if I blinked and missed it last week...
From last episode, Sanzo has a feeling someone is behind the brat who imprisoned Hakkai and Goku's souls in the bottle gourd... The youkai boy in question, Kinkaku, steps from the shadows of the forest. "Why did you come? You're really a bad person too, after all..." Kinkaku tells Gojyo.
As Hakkai and Goku watch, Kinkaku's twin brother, Ginkaku, floats down to the ground. Angry Goku thinks it's Kinkaku, but Hakkai points out that this is someone different. Silver-haired Ginkaku introduces himself, and explains that they aren't dead; his older twin brother put their souls into this world inside the bottle gourd. Ginkaku has a favor to ask of them: "Please save my brother..."
Outside, Kinkaku has that bottle gourd, and the bottle gourd's tentacles have Sanzo. Gojyo demands that the boy let Sanzo go, but Kinkaku tries to keep him at bay with some Sanzo abuse. It has the opposite effect, with Gojyo leaping to attack with his shakujou--but as fast as the shakujou flies, the tentacles are faster, snatching the blade out of the air. Kinkaku tells them that fighting against the bottle gourd is useless, "because it's something Kami-sama gave to me."
Ginkaku tells Hakkai and Goku that he and his brother had lived happily in a youkai village, until one day when their parents and the rest of the village went berserk. (Hakkai notes that the Minus Wave didn't affect children, who were still developing, and those with a strong sense of self.) The brothers went into the forest alone together, with Kinkaku assuring Ginkaku he'd protect him. It was there that Kami-sama found them.
Kami-sama had golden hair, and was dressed all in white and was beautiful. He took them in. He took care of them and gave them whatever they wanted. He didn't tell them his name, so they called him Kami-sama.
But somehow, Ginkaku started to feel afraid of Kami-sama--there didn't seem to be real sincerety behind his beautiful smile. Ginkaku finally decided to run away. Kinkaku couldn't understand why--after all, Kami-sama will give them anything, and he's a good person. Ginkaku starts to explain that he's scared...but then Kami-sama arrives. "Running away from me? What a bad boy you are!" proclaims Kami-sama, and transforms Ginkaku into a monster!
"He's a bad boy, so he turned into this monster," Kami-sama tells the distraught Kinkaku. "What can I do to turn him back?" Kinkaku pleads. "Do a lot of good things," says Kami-sama. "Get rid of bad people."
Gojyo pooh-poohs Kami-sama, and Kinkaku shouts that Kami-sama is Kami-sama. Kinkaku has to save Ginkaku; if he can get rid of the bad people, then Ginkaku can return to the way he was--Kami-sama told him so! Sanzo snorts at the brat for believing Kami-sama--"Did your brother tell you that you had to murder people to save him?"
Kinkaku's screams for him to shut up send the tentacles shooting to smash Sanzo into a tree--but Gojyo leaps between and takes most of the impact. "I'm not really interested in riding guys..." grits out Gojyo, but Sanzo snaps at him to stop joking and use the gun. A wild couple of shots near Kinkaku's feet startle the boy into dropping the bottle gourd. "If we can grab the gourd," says Sanzo, "maybe we can get Hakkai and Goku back..."
Too late. Another shot from Gojyo has just shattered the gourd!
"I have a really bad feeling," says Goku...
Commercial break--and here's a commercial for Bandai's "Saiyuki RELOAD" PlayStation 2 communication RPG game! It goes on sale March 18.
First Goku and then Hakkai wake up on the bed. At first it's hard to move--"That's rigor mortis," jokes Hakkai, the only one laughing. Both remember what happened and what Ginkaku told them about Kami-sama. Hakuryuu greets them, and they prepare to set off.
Kinkaku looks almost as shattered as the remains of the bottle gourd. Sanzo is loose and grabs back his gun before it can "get infected with idiot germs." Kinkaku is shaking--what should he do? This precious thing Kami-sama gave him was destroyed, and Kami-sama is going to be angry... Gojyo asks Kinkaku if he doesn't have some doubts about Kami-sama, seeing how scared the boy is, but trembling Kinkaku insists that Kami-sama is righteous. Kinkaku suddenly reminds Gojyo of himself as a child--so fearful, and just wanting to be loved...
Suddenly, from behind them, the monster attacks! Gojyo counters with the shakujou, but hesitates as he remembers Kinkaku's feelings for his brother, and gets slammed to the ground. Sanzo aims to fire, but Kinkaku grabs his arm. Held down by the monster, Gojyo manages to reach his fallen shakujou, and slices at its head.
Kinkaku rushes to the downed monster's defense, pleading with Gojyo not to kill the monster--Ginkaku isn't bad, and Kinkaku would die to save him. Gojyo is again reminded of his childhood, how he had thought his mother wasn't the bad one, and how he'd thought then that if only he died...
Gojyo places a reassuring hand on Kinkaku's head, and explains that just like Kinkaku only wants to get his brother back, he and Sanzo just want to get their comrades back. "But aren't they bad people?" asks Kinkaku. Gojyo explains that everyone has good times and bad times together.
The monster stirs. Kinkaku starts to tell him they should stop what they've been doing, but the monster suddenly swipes at him, sending him flying! Gojyo is its next target, but Goku makes a surprise entrance, knocking it out of the picture with his nyoibou. Hakkai arrives a moment later in the jeep, and Gojyo is smug at having freed them after all.
Hakkai gently breaks the news to Kinkaku that the monster isn't really Ginkaku, just something created by Kami-sama. Kinkaku can't believe it--why would Kami-sama lie to him? Hakkai explains that Ginkaku's soul was in the bottle gourd with them, and that when they were freed, Ginkaku told them he couldn't go back to his body. We see a lifeless, skeletal hand. (In the manga, we see Ginkaku's entire dead body.)
Kinkaku shrieks that it has to be a lie--but a row of beads abruptly appears and cannons into him. He falls to the ground, and Gojyo rushes to the dying boy's side. Kinkaku reaches to the night sky--"Why, Kami-sama...?"--and his hand drops.
"Why?" comes a voice. "Because I didn't need you anymore."
Behind them is a bead-bedecked blond man in the garb of a Sanzo. Is he a Sanzo? "You're right, but you're wrong," he laughs, floating toward them. Teasingly, he tells Sanzo that he's stronger than him. Sanzo whips out the gun and fires, but suddenly Kami-sama is behind him; "it's too bad, but I'm God [Kami-sama]," he says.
Goku is ready to come after the stranger, but Gojyo grimly tells the monkey to step aside. Closing Kinkaku's eyes, Gojyo asks what Kami-sama is laughing about, and why he would make a child into a murderer. "It's a secret," smiles Kami-sama. That triggers Gojyo's attack--but Kami-sama is gone, leaving a clatter of loose beads and echoing laughter behind.
The next day, they're back in a room at the inn, with Gojyo and Goku fighting over pizza. Hakkai is concerned because ever since they got back from burying Kinkaku's remains on the mountain, Gojyo has been acting completely unaffected by it--very unnatural for him.
Goku gets to wondering about that Kami-sama guy. Sanzo doesn't know what he's after, or if he's a real Sanzo or just a cosplayer--but since he isn't one of Gyuumaou's assassins, it's no relation to them.
Goku protests. Sanzo says they aren't champions of justice, and they'll go where he says they'll go. Hakkai is curious to see if Gojyo will add anything, but instead, Gojyo just decides it's time to head to bed. He tells Goku the two of them will take the two beds in the other room...a rare offer.
The next morning, Hakkai goes to wake Gojyo and Goku--and discovers Gojyo's empty bed.
Next episode, the remaining three are driving. Gojyo is off by himself. Sanzo and Hakkai explode at each other! Gojyo needs a shave. It's "Jokyoku ~chase~."
UraSai: "Amimono, Vol. 2" ("Knitting, Vol. 2"). Hakkai is knitting four pairs of mittens, adorned with little hearts, as a Valentine's day present for the group. They're all strung together so the four can wear them together. Won't that be fun? Gojyo and Sanzo imagine Goku dragging the group around in pursuit of ramen and curry. Goku and Hakkai are looking forward to it. From across the room, a protesting Gojyo fires a pillow at Hakkai's head--bullseye!
And the answer to tonight's big question: Daisuke Namikawa is the voice actor portraying Kami-sama! (Your trivia fact for the day: He also does the voice of Frodo in the Japanese-dubbed Lord of the Rings movie trilogy...)
Wow, no promo between the end of the show before and the start of tonight's episode--think that's a first. Of course, by now they've got us trained!
Recap of last week's episode, and now onward...Sanzo and Gojyo trek through the mountain forest on a full-moon night. They aren't getting along any better than before, and things don't seem likely to improve. Sanzo asks what Gojyo knows about the brat, and Gojyo repeats what Kinkaku had told him. Sanzo speculates that the monster is the boy's brother, and that there's something behind them. Gojyo remembers that Kinkaku said he would help Gojyo "with Kami-sama."
Hakkai awakens Goku. They're in a strange place that seems deserted except for themselves and some scattered skeletons on the ground. Remembering the attack that sent them there, Hakkai observes that this doesn't appear to be heaven, so is likely hell. "Are we dead?" asks Goku. "Probably," Hakkai replies.
There's not even anything to eat there, Goku is distressed to realize--and where's Sanzo? Hakkai is hopeful that since Sanzo isn't there, he must have been saved somehow and is all right. They can't die before Sanzo, Goku insists. There must be a way out, and the two set off to find it.
Their search gets sidetracked when strange, faceless bodies--hell's guards--come up through the ground to accost them.
Sanzo ponders who or what "Kami-sama" could be. But there's another annoyance--the trees around them are full of assassin youkai from Gyuumaou! They prepare for battle, and the action is fierce.
Before long, though, Sanzo and Gojyo get bogged down in arguing with each other. "Aren't those guys comrades?" one bewildered youkai asks another. "No, we aren't!" Sanzo and Gojyo both bellow, refocusing on the fight.
Meanwhile, Hakkai and Goku have been trying to fight off their opponents--but more and more rise from the ground. Hakkai unveils his special strategy: As quickly as possible...run away! He and Goku sprint off, trailed by a parade of pursuers.
Commercial break...
Sanzo is reloading. Youkai bodies litter the forest floor. There's one youkai survivor, and Sanzo now turns his gun on him. But before the questioning gets very far, the squabbling flares again... The youkai sees his chance and leaps to sack Sanzo--carrying him off the edge of a steep cliff!
Goku has a sudden bad feeling. He doesn't know what has caused it, but it's a terrible feeling. They've got to get out of there soon, he tells Hakkai desperately. If they can't get back to Sanzo and the others, something really bad will happen. Hakkai tries to calm him, and Goku gets a grip, realizing that if he has to face this situation, he's glad to be doing it together with Hakkai.
Suddenly, an earthquake yields a gigantic, one-eyed "last boss" to battle. It would be no match for Sanzo's Makai Tenjou, Hakkai knows, but it's far too huge for them to be able to fight like this. It heads for them...but Hakkai moves to the fore, and tells Goku to stay back behind him. "Because if you're too close," he quietly warns the wide-eyed Goku, "I might kill you."
As the monster lunges, Hakkai pulls off his earcuffs. Long, pointed ears. Reddish vine markings on his torso and hand. We see the back of Hakkai as he goes youkai, and a red glow surrounds him...
The chain of Gojyo's shakujou extends from the top of the cliff, clutched by doggedly determined Gojyo, to partway down, wound around Sanzo's wrist. Latched onto Sanzo's middle, the youkai is trying to pull them down--but Sanzo dispatches him with a shot at can't-miss range (we see it from a distance, unlike in the manga).
With plenty of insults hurled from both ends of the chain, Gojyo manages to pull Sanzo back up to safety. The exhausted pair recover there, and Sanzo can't help but notice that Gojyo's arms and hands are covered with deep gouges from the chain. He lights Gojyo's cigarette, then gives him a kick to get him back up and on the trail.
Suddenly, plantlike tentacles strike! Sanzo is caught and pulled into the air, choking. Kinkaku and his bottle gourd emerge from the forest. "Why did you come? You're really a bad person too, after all..." the dismayed boy tells Gojyo.
As the dust clears, Hakkai stands in human form, fastening his earcuffs. Beside him is the huge being's carcass (as opposed to the scene in the manga, in which all that remained were scattered gigantic chunks of gigantic intestines...). Goku, floored by what he saw, tells Hakkai that he likes Hakkai's usual self best!
Hakkai muses that he thought that after the "boss" was defeated, something would happen. Nothing has. Goku is frustrated too. "If this is hell, I wish Lord Enma would come out!" he yells--and a weird light abruptly fills the world from above. It comes from a boy gazing down at them; he looks like Kinkaku but has silver hair, and the marking on his forehead is different.
There's a slight shift under Hakuryuu as he sits on the bed near Hakkai and Goku's bodies. He watches them with an anxious "kyuuu."
Sanzo is in a bad way, and Gojyo stands glaring at Kinkaku, who smiles ever so slightly as a cloud covers the moon.
End titles...itsumo kimi to issho ni iiitaaaiiii...and check it out, series director Tetsuya Endou directed this episode! Definitely one of the best-drawn to date.
Next week, we see the story of young Kinkaku and GInkaku, and how they were adopted by Kami-sama...there he is! It's "Kami-sama ~Farewell~."
UraSai: "Kimodameshi." Heart pounding, hand trembling, Goku tenatively reaches for...the ear of sleeping Hakkai, seen from the back. Goku grabs the earcuffs, there's a red glow, and Hakkai goes youkai! Goku, just this side of wetting himself, shivers and giggles with the cool scariness of it. He puts the earcuffs back. Hakkai returns to human form, and Goku is relieved--that had been so scary! After a moment, Goku can't help wanting to do it again. He reaches for Hakkai's ear..."Please stop it, Goku," says long-suffering Hakkai. (Storyboarded and directed by Tetsuya Endou--give that man a standing ovation!)
Gojyo opens the door on a nightmarish scene: The other three members of the Sanzo-ikkou are lying dead in their thoroughly trashed room at an inn!
Why are they dead? Why did this happen? Behind the horrified redhead, a youkai boy replies, "This is what you wanted, isn't it?"
We back up in time to see Hakkai worrying over a sick, feverish Hakuryuu. Hakkai asks Sanzo if they can stay in town a few extra days for Hakuryuu to recover. Sanzo agrees. Hakkai's next concern is their sizeable shopping list; since he can't do the shopping with Hakuryuu now, he presents Gojyo with the chore. Gojyo wants Goku to help, but Hakkai says no--if Goku goes along, they'll buy too much. Sanzo adds to the load, asking Gojyo to pick up cigarettes.
Later, loaded with shopping bags, cranky Gojyo is still grumbling as he walks through town. There's a disturbance nearby: Three hoods are ganging up on a nicely dressed young blond boy--but instead of getting money, they get Gojyo on the scene. One of the punks pulls a knife and threatens to kill Gojyo; it's a move that will quickly be regretted...
Afterwards, Gojyo makes sure the boy, Kinkaku, is all right. The grateful Kinkaku explains that his parents are dead, but that he still has his younger twin brother, Ginkaku. Kinkaku is impressed with how strong Gojyo is, and is full of questions for his new friend. He asks about Gojyo's friends, and Gojyo can't help making some disparaging remarks about his comrades, who aren't his favorite people at the moment. If Gojyo doesn't like them, Kinkaku wonders, then why be with them? He asks Gojyo point-blank, "Do you dislike them?"
Sometime later, Kinkaku is happily telling his brother about the good person he met. They're in a forest, and at the base of a tall tree, Kinkaku places a hand on something big and boulderlike--the back of the person he's talking to.
Back at the room, to the sound of Goku tossing Hakuryuu up and down in rhythm with his chant about how hungry he is (am so glad they kept this little detail from the manga!), Hakkai and Sanzo note that Gojyo's taking longer than expected. As Sanzo smacks Goku to stop the Hakuryuu abuse, Hakkai answers a knock on the door--and something dark storms inside.
Gojyo's in a much better mood when he finally gets back to the room--but the disaster we saw earlier awaits. Kinkaku appears behind him, and not only has the boy become youkai (he had looked human earlier, thanks to an earring limiter), he's also riding in the arms of a towering, powerful monster with lots of pointy teeth! Kinkaku explains with a giggle that he's given Gojyo what Gojyo wanted; he doesn't have to be with those people he doesn't like any more.
Commercial break...
Kinkaku is so happy to have saved Gojyo from having to be with those people, and the monster looks quite pleased, too. The response, though, is the shocking opposite of what they expected; Gojyo thinks Kinkaku must be an assassin from Gyuumaou. Kinkaku has never heard of Gyuumaou, but Gojyo summons his shakujou, and the monster moves to protect the bewildered boy. Kinkaku tries to call the roaring monster off, insisting that Gojyo is a good person. Gojyo is surprised to hear him call the monster Ginkaku.
There's a sudden gunshot; from the floor, Sanzo has wounded the monster! All are stunned that he's alive--especially Kinkaku, who's getting more distraught by the moment, and who has a strange bottle gourd in hand. Sanzo trains his gun on the boy and wants answers now: What is he trying to do? And where did he get that bottle gourd?
"I'm not doing anything bad!" wails Kinkaku. His cries remind Gojyo of his own troubled boyhood, and Gojyo stops Sanzo from shooting as the monster grabs the boy and escapes.
White-hot Sanzo whirls on Gojyo, and nails him with a punch. "That kid is the ENEMY, remember?!" he snarls. Gojyo is mortified. Hakkai and Goku have not moved. "Is it like he said?" Sanzo demands. "Is this what you wanted?"
Gojyo thinks back to his conversation with Kinkaku. "Do you dislike them?" Kinkaku asks. Gojyo can't really say that. "But they made you do all the shopping. Aren't they bad people?" Kinkaku insists. "Well," Gojyo chuckles, "I can't say they're good people, but..."
"I'll get rid of them for you," Kinkaku offers. "I'll do it with Kami-sama."
At the time, Gojyo had thought it was a joke. He'd been woefully wrong.
Sanzo tells Gojyo what happened earlier: When Kinkaku came to their door, Hakkai had answered, bending down to speak with the friendly-looking boy. "You're bad people, aren't you?" smiles Kinkaku. "I found you, bad people!" And with that, the monster looms behind him, and plant-looking tenacles shoot out from the bottle gourd Kinkaku is carrying.
The tentacles seize the trio. After a brief struggle, the bottle gourd's single eye abruptly widens, Goku's own eyes go blank, and the tentacles drop his limp body to the floor. The same thing happens to Hakkai. Sanzo realizes that their souls have been sucked into the bottle gourd. His gun wrenched away, Sanzo is flung into a wall by the tentacles, and crumples to the floor. Kinkaku bids the bodies "bye-bye" and leaves with Ginkaku, never noticing that Sanzo's own lights hadn't quite gone out. His still-burning cigarette is on the floor nearby, and with a huge effort Sanzo manages to grab it, purposely scorching his hand, before passing out.
Now, Sanzo explains that the souls of Hakkai and Goku are in Kinkaku's bottle gourd and need to be reunited with their bodies quickly. Gojyo is determined to settle the mess he caused and starts to leave, but Sanzo is insistent on going with him.
The two ask the inn's master if he's heard anything about a boy and a monster. He doesn't know about any boys, but for about the last year, there has been talk of a huge monster in the woods of the mountain nearby. There have been a lot of unnatural deaths in that time, but the people who died tended to be bad sorts anyway.
As Gojyo and Sanzo head for the door, the tough trio that Gojyo dispatched earlier come in and confront them. Gojyo tells them he doesn't have time to play, but they're persistent. Sanzo's temper flares about getting tangled in yet more trouble of Gojyo's making, Gojyo makes a smart-ass retort, and an explosive shouting match erupts with neither holding back. Sanzo scores some particularly hurtful hits, yelling that he never wanted Gojyo along on this trip and had only allowed it under orders from the Sanbutsushin. The punks have no idea how lucky they are to have been forgotten, and make the mistake of butting in.
After the fight, Sanzo and Gojyo are still on testy terms, but head for the mountain together in search of Goku and Hakkai's souls.
Next week: Sanzo is attacked by the bottle gourd's tentacles. Hakkai and Goku are in an alien world. Off come Hakkai's earcuffs...(wow, when he becomes a youkai, those vine markings are red!) It's "Kanashii Kizuna ~Critical Day~"...and it even looks well-drawn!
UraSai: "Dousing." Gojyo's hair "antenna" start boinging--it's a kappa's innate ability to find water--and he and Hakkai and Goku whip out shovels, digging in hopes of hitting a hot-water spring. Sanzo stands apart, reading a newspaper. They hit a gusher and are ready for some onsen fun, clad only in little towels--but Sanzo is way ahead of them...!
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD Episodes #1-4
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD Episodes #5-8
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD Episodes #9-12
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD Episodes #13-16
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD Episodes #20-22
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD Episodes #23-25
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episodes #1-4
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episodes #5-10
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episodes #11-13
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episodes #14-17
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episodes #18-20
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episodes #21-23
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episodes #24-present
GO TO RELOAD RICOCHET: "Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK Episode #1" April Fool's Edition!
BACK TO JOURNEY TO THE REST: A Roadside Revelry in Saiyuki and Its Doujinshi.
This page was created October 23, 2003. Last updated September 9, 2004.
The Nama-Yammer, Yammer, and Yammer-hammering inbetween are copyrighted features of JOURNEY TO THE REST. This page's text and source code are copyright Kagenami Q. DO NOT USE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION. Saiyuki, Saiyuki Gaiden and Saiyuki RELOAD are copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha; Gensomaden Saiyuki is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, Saiyuki Project and TV Tokyo 2000; the Saiyuki RELOAD anime is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Pierrot 2003; Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Pierrot 2004. All images are copyright their respective artists and creators. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.