DVD
Saiyuki Reload
Volume 2

Starring (voice): Toshihiko Seki, Soichiro Hoshi, Hiroaki Hirata and Akira Ishida
MVM
RRP: £19.99
MVD2146
Certificate: 15
Available 05 March 2007


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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