Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK, the continuing anime incarnation of Kazuya Minekura's "Saiyuki RELOAD" manga, 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...but what the hell! 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 GUNLOCK screencap gallery, Still Not There Yet--please don't abuse it, folks!)
Almost exactly word-for-word adaptation of "Saiyuki RELOAD" manga Acts 8 and 9 "against the stream-3" and "against the stream-4" and first few pages of Act 10 "against the stream-5." Who needs a doofy-ass yammer when you can go read Jeanne Johnson's superb translation of these manga chapters at Aestheticism.com?
Almost exactly word-for-word adaptation of "Saiyuki RELOAD" manga Acts 6 and 7 "against the stream-1" and "against the stream-2" and first few pages of Act 8 "against the stream-3." No yammer this week; you're much better off reading Jeanne Johnson's superb translation of these manga chapters at Aestheticism.com!
Opening title visuals are all the same as last week..
At Houtou Castle, Dokugakuji and Yaone have finally gotten out of that room we left them in at the end of Saiyuki RELOAD #16. They're eating quietly together, and Yaone remembers when they and Lirin and Kougaiji had unknowingly had their last meal together. Now they haven't seen Kougaiji in a month, while Nii Jen'ii has been doing something to him... Nii's voice suddenly comes over a speaker: Their presence is requested in Rasetsunyo's chamber, where the "prince of rabbits" awaits. There they find Kougaiji, who slaps away Dokugakuji's hand and then seems to stare right through them.
Elsewhere, the Sanzo-ikkou is on foot, hiking through forest terrain. At the rear and fading fast, Gojyo decides to park himself on a fallen log for a cigarette break. Sanzo keeps the others moving; Gojyo will just have to catch up later. Stretching out for a rest on his log, Gojyo hears a rustling sound--and looks up to find a fierce bear looming overhead!
Back at the castle, Nii has promised Gyokumen that Kougaiji will do whatever she asks. She tells Kougaiji to kill the unfortunate youkai guy combing her hair--and he does so quickly and coldly, to Yaone's horror. Gyokumen then orders Kougaiji to bring her Sanzo's kyoumon and one of Sanzo's arms while he's at it. "As you wish," says Kougaiji.
Gojyo sprints past the other three members of the Sanzo-ikkou. Hakkai and Sanzo take a calm look back to see the oncoming problem, and after Goku looks too, he turns back to find Hakkai and Sanzo already running like hell! Goku follows, with the bear now hot on his heels.
Dokugakuji confronts Nii, who's safely behind an observation window and is smug in his assertion that he's done Kougaiji a favor. Dokugaku demands that Nii return Kou to the way he was.
"Return him to that weak thing that couldn't beat Son Goku by himself?" Nii scoffs, and then questions what Dokugakuji is attached to--his precious prince, or his younger brother that his mother wouldn't love and he couldn't save? "Are your motives just to atone for your past, Sa Jien?"
Yaone rushes in after the dropping of that bombshell. Kougaiji is already leaving to do Gyokumen's bidding, and she and Dokugaku head after him.
Commercial break. Y'know, there were a couple disturbing differences between Nii's speech here and in the original manga. In the manga, Nii pointed out that Kougaiji couldn't kill Goku by himself--not just "beat"--and that Dokugakuji had an intimate relationship with his mother (yep, that kind of intimate...). C'mon, guys, this isn't the lead-in to Pokemon anymore--we're in (almost-)anything-goes After-Midnight Land, so STOP KIDDY-FYING IT!!
*ahem* Sorry...
Running alongside Hakkai, Sanzo takes some off-target shots back at the bear, nearly hitting Goku...and then they do it all over again. (Guess the episode had some empty time to fill...) That spooks Goku into overdrive, and he charges to the front to lead the parade into a dark cave--where he crashes into Gojyo, already hiding inside!
Fortunately, Hakkai has a flashlight; unfortunately, the bear has followed them in, and knocks the flashlight away. A gunshot from Sanzo flashes wildly off the cave walls, giving some snickersome glimpses of the panicked group! Hakkai creates a new exit with a chi blast, but while three of the group run outside, the fourth, Gojyo, winds up deeper inside the cave. The sound of growling prompts him to light his Zippo for a look--and now there are four bears!
As Yaone and Dokugakuji search the landscape from above on their flying dragons (which this go-round have alligator bodies...th'hell?!), Yaone recalls when Kougaiji rescued her from being given to Hyakugan-maou. Now, she wants to rescue him.
Below, Kougaiji encounters a group of marauding youkai who aren't at all impressed with him. They won't get out of his way...Whoa, Kougaiji's eyes are truly scary!
(Okay, that shot of sideways-sidling youkai settled it--Mrs. Michiguchi's 3rd-grade class should not be animating shows that air 'way past their bedtime! Several sequences in this episode are barely animated, several more are strangely animated, and several others are just piss-poorly drawn. It's not all bad--but a lot of it is pretty dismaying...)
Meanwhile, back at the mouth of the cave, the other three are calling for Gojyo--but then hear his shouts from a distance, somewhere outside the cave. Sanzo and Goku run off in search of him, but Hakkai hesitates when Hakuryuu wants to stay behind. Hakkai is startled to see Hakuryuu hover over something small and brown that's moving on the cave's floor.
Goku is distraught to find Gojyo passed out on the ground, surrounded by eight huge bears! He leaps to Gojyo's side and tries to shake him awake, shouting, "Don't die, Gojyo, don't die!!" Gojyo hisses to him that he's playing dead. Goku is too busy shaking him and shouting "Don't die, Gojyooooo!!" to notice! Gojyo finally gives up and shouts back (I love Goku's quack of shock when Gojyo's abruptly alive again and in his face!)--and nine red-eyed hell-bears surround them.
Sanzo tries to distract the bears by firing. A bear looms behind him, and knocks the gun from his hand. (About now, you may expect Sanzo to remember how he had no problem communicating with a bear as a youngster. Unfortunately, Sanzo is suffering scriptwriter-induced amnesia...). The bear moves in to finish him off while the other bears, uh, stand around watching, but it's Goku to the rescue with his nyoibou! Sanzo has the gun again, and after another warning shot, takes dead aim on the leader. This time he won't miss, Sanzo growls...
But Hakkai comes up and asks Sanzo to stop. Why, he's carrying a bloodied baby bear in his arms! Hakkai heals the baby and reunites the li'l woogums with the relieved leader bear, who turns out to be its mother. (Hey, kids, it's fun to animate a bear's head with one biiiiig circle and two rectangles for a beak-like snout and lower jaw! First, put a bowl on your official Studio Pierrot genga paper and trace a biiiiig circle...)
Dokugakuji and Yaone find dozens of scattered youkai bodies: Kougaiji's trail. He had left with blood still dripping from his claws. (Although in the close-up shot, are those blood drops or tiny stones falling to the ground?)
"Maybe there's nothing we can do," Dokugakuji says quietly. He admits to Yaone that Nii was right--from the start, Kougaiji reminded him of his younger brother. Their eyes and the color of their hair were the same, and he superimposed one over the other. So it's devotion based on selfishness, and if that's his only qualification to be Kougaiji's protector...Yaone slaps him hard, furious that he'd say such a cowardly thing. If he means it, she says, she'll never forgive him. Dokugakuji apologizes, and gathers her into a hug.
Back in the forest, the Sanzo-ikkou are continuing on foot, Gojyo again the caboose. Goku points back behind Gojyo--"A bear!" Gojyo doesn't believe it...but behind him, there is indeed an angry bear rearing up! The end.
Huh. Well. Um.
Ending titles. Looking at this episode's main staff, am not sure why the quality was so spotty this time; they've all done fine before... Next week: The Sanzo-ikkou is driving along. Yowza, that is one spudly kid with them! "Gekiryuu ~Against the Stream~."
And again no "UraSai." *sigh*
There's nothing like the anticipation in the moments before the first episode of a new series...oh, wait, you've heard that one. ;^)
Monochrome opening shot...the rest of the opening title is mostly monochrome, too. Much of the animation in this opening title was recycled from the Saiykuki RELOAD anime series (possibly all of it, but there are a couple of shots I don't recall having seen before)--but at least it's been recycled into a very stylish package! I like the effect of adding the arid desert and almost live-action-looking clouds near the end (although the shot was somewhat spoiled by using such a recognizable sequence of Sanzo, from the end of RELOAD #23).
The series' main staff--producers, chief director, character designer, music, everything--remains entirely the same as that of RELOAD. The title is different, of course, and so has a new copyright, which is "Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu, Pierrot 2004." (And remember, kids, you can sell a 50-episode series once, but having two 25-episode series gives you two properties to sell...;^) )
SaiyukI RELOAD GUNLOCK's opening theme, "Don't Look Back Again," is performed by WAG with music by Akihito Tokunaga--the same basic pedigree as Saiyuki RELOAD's second ending theme, "Fukisusabu Kaze No Naka De." (WAG wrote the lyrics to "Don't Look Back Again," but not to "Fukisusabu Kaze No Naka De.") ZERO-SUM described this song as "aggressive." To me it sounds a tad disjointed, but the chorus is cool!
As cherry blossoms fall, Kanzeon and Jiroushin observe the Sanzo-ikkou's progress to Tenjiku, or lack thereof... Down below, our four are driving through a forest. They reach an abandoned-looking village with tons of crows around. Suddenly, a thrown rock whips toward them, but the jeep stops alertly and the rock just misses Sanzo.
A boy, Taiga, leaps out in front of them. He demands that they leave; since Sanzo's a priest, they must be in league with the bad priests here. Taiga's older sister, Reika, appears and tries to get him back in line, but he runs off. Reika apologizes for her brother's rudeness. Gojyo tries some pick-up tactics on her, but hungry Goku interrupts--can she feed them?
She recommends that since Sanzo's a priest, they go to the town's temple. "The temple that kid said had bad priests?" asks Goku. Oh, no, she assures them, no bad priests there. Her little brother is against this temple, but it actually protects the village from youkai. The temple offers such good protection, it welcomes townpeople from all the neighboring villages, fleeing from the threat of youkai.
Amid dozens of people paying to move in, the Sanzo-ikkou goes to the temple, hoping to spend the night. The priests are so impressed by Sanzo and his kyoumon, they serve up a feast for our four! As they enjoy fine food and fine drink, Hakkai happens to look outside and notice Taiga sneaking around the temple's palatial grounds.
It turns out the temple's head priest answers to someone even higher: Doushi, a mysterious-looking, pink-eyed fellow in fancy robes on a fancy throne. He wants the head priest to bring him Sanzo's kyoumon. The head priest isn't very happy about having to carry out the request. As his flunky frets, Doushi goes to the window and finds the lurking Taiga.
Walking the temple grounds in the setting sun, Hakkai, Gojyo and Goku find Reika being confronted by two temple guys, who won't allow her to search an off-limits area. Gojyo interrupts, and the temple guys scramble away. Reika is worried because Taiga hasn't come home. Hakkai explains that he saw him earlier that day. Reika starts to admit something to them, but Gojyo suddenly stops her, and they watch and wait as Doushi strolls past. His earring does not go unnoticed.
Reika explains that he's the head priest's wise advisor. The others get an idea of what might be going on, and Hakkai suggests that they all head to their room.
Commercial break. The opening theme CD single, WAG's "Don't Look Back Again," goes on sale May 26 (no wonder it sounds kinda disjointed--even in this commercial their mouths don't match the words coming out... ;^) ). The end theme CD, Flow-War's "Mitsumeteitai," goes on sale April 28; their live performance schedule for next week is listed too, with club dates in Oomiya, Chiba and Yokohama. (Bummer of a time to be broke...)
In the Sanzo-ikkou's quarters, Reika is shocked to have been told that youkai are involved at the temple. She realizes that what Taiga had told her was true after all, that he had seen the head priest together with youkai. Reika explains that half a year ago, people started disappearing one after another in the area. People who can afford it are going to the temple for protection. Her family can't afford it, but last week her father went to the temple to see what could be done...and never came back. So Taiga has been looking for him.
First Gojyo, then Goku, then Hakkai head quietly for the door, Reika in their wake, to go search for Taiga. Sanzo elects to stay behind, and before long has a visitor in the head priest. Sanzo flatly turns down the head priest's request to borrow the kyoumon for a closer look; the head priest gets desperate, but Sanzo stops him at gunpoint. Doushi is listening just outside the door, but Sanzo realizes he's there and calls him in.
Meanwhile, Taiga wakes up to find himself caged in a roomful of youkai at the temple. Gojyo, Hakkai and Goku burst in to save him. Sanzo and his visitors can hear the ruckus, and Doushi congratulates Sanzo on forcing him to reveal his true form. He pulls off his earring limiter, and transforms into a gigantic, four-armed monster youkai!
Doushi guts the head priest, and then keeps Sanzo on the run by pitching first the priest's body and then heavy pieces of furniture at him. Suddenly the floor opens up beneath Sanzo, and one of Doushi's huge hands comes up and grabs him--krrrunch! His gun spins away across the floor.
Now the heroes of wide-eyed Taiga, Sanzo's comrades return to find grieving temple guys crowded outside their trashed room. Inside, the head priest gets the prize of Most Seriously Dead Person In A Saiyuki Episode, and the hole remains in the floor. Goku finds Sanzo's gun, and Hakkai notes that something must have come up through the hole. Suddenly, one of youkai Doushi's hands shoots in through the doorway and grabs Gojyo!
The youkai monster threatens to kill him if anyone moves, and Reika recognizes the voice as being that of Doushi. Hearing that Doushi is a youkai, the temple guys run away. Doushi brags that Sanzo is meeting his doom down the hole--but then is shocked when Goku heads for the hole, ignoring his warning not to move. Aren't they worried about Gojyo's life? Nope. Hakkai is confident that Gojyo can take care of himself, and Gojyo calls to the departing Goku to give his regards to Sanzo. Doushi flies into a rage, and his three other arms become enormous blades zooming toward Gojyo.
EEEUWW, a giant pink intestine-looking thing! In a cave-looking place far below the temple, Sanzo is hanging from the ceiling, suspended by a strand of something pink and sticky. On the floor below him is a gigantic, pink-haired lady youkai monster who appears to be attached to the intestine-looking thing. She explains that her children are inside--and the top of a section of the fluid-filled thing opens, petal-like, to reveal its contents: townspeople immersed inside, kneeling on the floor, with creepy pink-haired babies latched onto their backs and necks!
Just then Goku comes plunging down the hole, and spears her in some tender places with his nyoibou. A powerful swat from the giant makes Goku accidentally fire Sanzo's gun, and the wild shot severs the goo binding Sanzo, sending him plunging down into the opening!
As the lady youkai pins Goku to the wall with her ropy stuff, Sanzo sinks down through the fluid. Pink-haired baby things swim toward him eagerly! But the fluid doesn't stop Sanzo from chanting, and he releases the Makai Tenjou.
Meanwhile, the giant blades plunging toward Gojyo stop before they reach their target; he had already summoned his shakujou, with the chains stopping Doushi's arms and the shakujou's blade finding the villain's chest.
"Why are you youkai fighting for humans?" dying Doushi wants to know, to the shock of Taiga and Reika. "Because I'm the champion of beautiful women," smirks Gojyo. Almost as soon as Doushi falls, the temple starts to shake, and then the death throes of the giant lady youkai monster bring it to the ground.
Early the next morning, worried people have gathered at the foot of the stairway leading up to the ruins--and are relieved when the townspeople who been in the temple start to emerge! Among those coming down the steps are Taiga, Reika and their father.
Already back on the road, the Sanzo-ikkou drives on. Goku can't wait until the next village so he can eat some more.
The new ending titles are a collection of Minekura art to a Flow-War tune that ZERO-SUM called a "love song." Unfortunately, it can't touch "ID," the Flow-War song that served as Saiyuki RELOAD's first ending theme. But it's an excellent way to help fans get to sleep after having kept them up 'til 2 a.m. ...
Next week (with the very same piece of music used for the previews shown on Saiyuki RELOAD--come to that, all of the BGM this episode was also used in Saiyuki RELOAD): It's the last bit of the original Saiyuki manga to be animated, as from Vol. 8 we get cranky Kougaiji, Nii watching from behind a window, Yaone being horrified, and Kou killing that one guy who was combing Gyokumen's hair. All this, and Gojyo sees a bear, too! It's "Hanatareta Akumu ~rabbits~" ("The Nightmare Unleashed ~rabbits~").
What, no "UraSai"?! Unfortunately, no. *sigh*
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 #17-19
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 #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 October 31, 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.