Saiyuki review (disc 1-11)

Having watched 11 discs of Saiyuki, believe me when I say that you will be properly disappointed after the first 4 or 5, when the series start to autopilot on empty steam and all the initial novelty will have worn out. In the beginning, I too was intrigued by the Chinese folk lore remake and the many lofty reviews about the interesting characters. Although all of the characters have generic shounen mannerisms and generic shounen personal baggages that give them generic shounen depth, the dynamics between the characters were nevertheless interesting and fresh in the beginning. Part of the freshness is due to the decidedly modern characters set in an anachronistic ancient China, part due to the borderline homoerotic take on friendship and comradery, part due to the cheap but clean and refreshing animation style. The cheapness needs to be emphasized, as one previous review blew the art quality of Saiyuki way out of proportion. Contrary to what had been said, Saiyuki not only is full of “one-trick pony CG” (ex. all the demons die precisely the same way, identical action sequences) but it also overuses a lot of very cheesy-looking visual effects (frozen and overlaid still-shots of character faces during “deep” dialogs, much like the style of old-school console RPG; cropped screen to give the “dramatic” look of wide screen; jamming several different shots in the same screen to create a comic book effect, etc). While the cheesiness can be tolerated, or even appreciated as stylish in the beginning, it gets old pretty fast. Furthermore, the story dwells on a lot of misplaced melodrama that often goes over the viewer’s head. During many episodes I’ve watched, I got absolutely nothing out of a certain character’s death or another’s loss that was surely intended to be an emotional experience. Other times the growth of characters are limited to the “I must get stronger so I can defeat so and so” variety. Two stars.