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Shangri-La is a world where magic and science exists together,
it is an unsafe land, a land in chaos. Experiments to release
the demon Lord Gyumaoh have turned the world's demon population
mad. The only hope for the land is the Sanzo Party, four disparate
adventurers who travel to India where they must stop the revival
of Lord Gyumaoh. Along the way they have to contend with both
angels and demons who have their own agenda...
So
here we have disc two of Saiyuki Reload, directed by
Tetsuya Endo, which contains episodes five through eight of
this above average anime show, which ran for twenty-five episodes.
A quick jump over to the review for Volume
One will fill in a lot of the background details.
Following on from episode four we still find the Sanzo Party,
Son Goku, Sha Gojyo, Cho Hakkai and the, not averse to violence,
priest Genjyo Sanzo travelling towards India in an effort
to halt the resurrection of the demonic Gyumaoh.
Episode
five, Slumbering Memories, and the gang roll up to
a new village only to meet the beautiful demon Suika, who
seems too good to be true. She emanates no evil presence and
provides a feast for the lads. However, not all of the Sanzo
Party are convinced that things are as pleasant as they seem.
During the night Suika's hypnotic singing invades their dreams,
as she removes painful memories.
This
show just gets better with each episode. There is quite a
good philosophical argument being made through the show, which
is that a complete person is made up of both their pains as
well as their joys. Ok, so it gave me an unwanted flashback
to Star
Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), but this
is presented in a much more subtle way.
Episode six, Rescue, is the conclusion of the two part
Suika story. Finally realising that the villagers are being
held in thraldom by Suika, following the removal of their
painful memories - cue another bad Star Trek flashback
- the crew have to break through a magic shield in order to
release the memories and return the villagers back to normal.
Episode
seven, Little Partner, and it's one for all the cat
lovers out there. Actually, this episode is very simple in
its construction. The basic premise is that the gang find
a cat which takes an instant liking to Sanzo, who of course
is allergic - cue the sneezing jokes. Sanzo, being a tough
guy spends his time trying not to become attached to the kitty,
even though it insists on sleeping with him. Of course you
can see where this is going. Cue attack by demons and the
kitty getting hurt in order for Sanzo to mellow. In the end
the cat's owner turns up before the gang move on to the next
village.
Given
the rather darker preceding episode Little Partner
comes as a nice release, and let's face it anything with cute
kitties in it will always make you go "Ahh".
Last episode on the disc is Tasty Cooking, and you
get the feeling that at least one of the creator's wives is
not that great a cook. Another episode and another village,
this one contains a woman whose cooking is so bad that it
is used as a weapon against demons. Hakkai wants to be a good
cook for her partner, but keeps coming up with food that's
only good for demon acid.
There are no surprises with either the audio or extras as
they are the same as Volume One. The show is presented
in the original aspect ratio 4:3 and the audio set-up consists
of both English and Japanese stereo with the options for signs
and subs. Extras are creditless opening titles and the original
Japanese opening as well as the usual trailer section.
Overall the quality of the animation continues to remain high
and the mix of different types of shows stops the overall
arc from becoming boring.
Charles
Packer
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