English Dub Review: Saiyuki Reload Blast “Nataku”

Ack! Flashback Episode! Batten down the hatches! Dive! Dive! Dive!

Spoilers Below

Long ago in a distant realm, a sacred scripture was passed down to the first god, who used it to create the universe. He separated the Scripture into five Maten Scriptures and hid them in the earth. Then, he buggered off and left his creation to fend for itself. What does that have to do with our story? Well, other than the fact that Sanzo is carrying one of those scriptures around his neck like a scarf, not much. In fact, most of our story today doesn’t even happen with Sanzo and the gang. It all happened long ago, 500 years, and before most of the party was even born. Instead, we are watching a young god by the name of Konzen, nephew of Kanzeon Bosatsu, the goddess that will later send Sanzo on his mission. Hey, this guy looks familiar. He looks just like Sanzo… eerie. He’s just been put in charge of a little bundle of trouble from the earth: a creature that was born of a relic, and has unlucky golden eyes. He’s a bit of a prankster, though, and runs away after using some of Konzen’s paperwork for origami. While he runs about, he meets up with Prince Nataku, who is also hiding for his own purposes. The two become fast friends, but Natau doesn’t know what to call the critter. Later, the earth monster comes to Konzen and begs for a name. Goku.

The next day, Goku sneaks back into the same portion of the palace that he met Nataku, hoping to tell the boy his name. That’s when he sees Natau being dispatched for a mission: Kill Gyumaoh. Yeah, that Gyumaoh, the one whose concubine trying to bring him back made all the demons go crazy. The one who seems to be the big bad of the entire series! Well, Nataku returns, having killed Gyumaoh. The soldiers that went with him gave no support, however, and the boy is heavily injured. Goku stays at his side through his whole recovery. Later, at a speech by one of the great leaders of the gods (I’d say the Jade Emperor, but I’d probably be wrong), Goku bumps into some jerks that give him a hassle. He mouths off, and they decide to bust his head open. Before they can, however, two of the generals of the army step in. From there, it devolves into a donnybrook. Oh, hey… they look familiar, too. Kinda like Gojyo and Hakkai. Konzen arrives and breaks up the fight, accepting responsibility for the brawl, but now that the ancient doppelgangers of our modern heroes are gathered, what might transpire?

So, remember all that stuff I was talking about with their past lives in the last episode? Well, here it is! I’m not sure what that is going to mean for the canon, but I am interested in seeing things develop. By the way, Nataku is also a character from the original Chinese epic, Journey to the West. There, however, he is called Nezha. The Japanese transliterated the name differently. Nezha is pretty much a one-for-one match for Nataku in this series. In the original, he was the son of one of the great so-and-so’s, and their relationship was not great at all. Nezha was pretty much a living weapon. Though he was initially sent to quell Son Wukong, the two became fast friends, and Nezha would later show up to help Tripitaka take down some of their toughest enemies. That is also the same story here, though we haven’t seen Nataku fight with Goku yet. Since Nataku was able to take down Gyumaoh, I’m hoping that he’ll be able to jump in later in the series to deus ex machina all over the place.

The art, as always, is incredible. Loaded with character and attitude, even when illustrating heaven. This wasn’t as much of an action episode, and that’s fine because the animators did a bit more with their work this time around. The episode was pretty well animated, though perhaps it was a bit vanilla. Their movements didn’t have the same attitude that the art and even opening animation does. The episode focused heavily on Goku, and Greg Ayres stepped up to the challenge. The character fully portrayed his thoughts and feelings on his sleeve, just as a monkey should. I’d also like to site Nataku’s voice actor, but I’m still looking for that name. There was a sense of sullenness to him that was befitting of a living weapon/child. The series is starting to piece together now, and I’m looking forward to where it leads. In the meantime, I give this episode eight past incarnations out of ten.

Oh, and for your Urusai, a bit of fan mail inspires the team to show how Goku washes his hair since his diadem is a heavy-duty limiter. Without it, he goes berserk. Watch as he takes it off, lathers super fast, and puts it back on. Take it off, rinse clean, put it back on. It was really funny, and a great question I never thought to ask before.