English Dub Review: Saiyuki Reload Blast “Cloud Mirror”

Longest. Cigarette Run. Ever.

Spoilers Below

The Sanzo party are on the road again, and like every other fantasy anime from my youth, they’re out of food, drink, and smokes. Gojyo laments on how they left their home town two years ago as if they were headed out for a cigarette run, and they’re still going. They find themselves at the edge of a lake. A salt lake, so drinking is out of the question. Fortunately, the village nearby is a bustling town of industry, refining salt from the lake. After saving one of the workers from a demon attack, they are offered a job. The wagons of product keep getting mugged by a gang of demon marauders, which threatens the town’s livelihood. If they protect the next shipment of salt, the Sanzo party will have lodging for the night and all the provisions they could ever want.

While Hakkai negotiates the terms, the other members of the party head off to take care of whatever business suits them. Gojyo finds a guy selling hand-rolled cigarettes. Problem is, after seeing a beautiful girl, he drops the cig and it rolls under a hole beneath the porch. He reaches under for it and gets his arm stuck. Oops. Goku, on the other hand, finds some kids his (mental) age and runs off to play with them. They hear his stomach growling and take him back to the orphanage to get him fed. That… kinda makes his mind check out. And Sanzo? Oh, Sanzo just slept. Yeah, he curled up on a couch and passed right out. That leaves Hakkai to protect the shipment all by his lonesome. When they run into the demon marauders, he’s able to handle them easily enough. He did become his demon self by killing 100 demons as a normal human. Now that he’s a demon, a few dozen is nothing. Strange thing is, there should have been twice as many. It’s a trap! Fortunately, just as the trap is sprung, the rest of the party arrives on the scene to save the wagon and its driver. And it’s donkey. They don’t however, save the salt, as a tactic used by Sanzo dumped all the salt back into the lake. The stingy mayor of the town refuses to pay them. They may have killed the marauders, sure, but they lost the shipment. So, they have to leave by sundown, and with no provisions. Fortunately, the friends they made around the town won’t let them leave empty handed, and Hakuryuu (the dragon jeep) is loaded down with all the dumplings, water, and hand-rolled cigarettes he can carry. This really is the longest cigarette run ever.

This episode liked to play with your expectations of the series. If you follow patterns and try to look ahead, it feels as if there’s something nasty about to go down at every turn… but it doesn’t. Every time you see one of the parties interacting with a villager, you somehow expect that all this kindness is going to turn sour in a few more scenes, and the party is going to be served up to the demons for supper. It doesn’t happen. You expect the three irresponsible members of the party to goof off and be of no help. Maybe Hakkai gets kidnapped and they have to get him back. Nope. Nah, the boys show up and everything is right as rain. This is what the whole episode is about. Early on, the gang talks about how they have to be close to their goal since there’s so much more demon activity. That’s making the villagers all paranoid and xenophobic. Then, we meet a village where the people are all super-nice! So, given our knowledge of how the show has gone thus far, we expect them to be secretly evil. This episode spins the mirror around, showing how we ourselves have become paranoid and distrusting of others and their altruistic intentions. But, it’s subtle, and not heavy handed. The characters rejoice over how the mayor was a jerk, but the villagers were generous. Like we should have been rejoicing the whole time.

This episode also featured an aside from the main villains of the show, proving that nothing has really changed since I watched the original season. Sure, Jianyi is missing, but Gyukumen Koushou and Kougaiji are still in the same tense relationship as ever. After the credits, a trio of funny shorts called Ura Sai (or “Other Saikyuki”) play up scenes about summer fun. Like a water slide that… leads to wherever Kougaji is at that moment. Even the bathroom. Awkward. The other two are all about busting up a watermelon. It’s all about the funny and feels as if it’s inspired by the little 4koma at the end of graphic novel chapters. It’s a nice bit to add on, though I can see them being a bit out of place with a more serious episode than this.

Visually, this episode is rather stunning. Attention was paid to give the art all the edge, flair, and attitude the series demands. Again, they don’t put much into animation, using good direction and amazing style to give you the same dynamic action feel. I finally managed to get my hands on the list of voice actors, thanks to one of our readers, and I am pleased that half of the Sanzo party have returned from the original. Greg Ayres and David Mantranga reprise their roles as Goku and Sanzo respectively, and I still love the results. Goku is still a kid, a kid whose voice is still changing. It screeches a bit here and there, but it doesn’t actually hit any high notes that hurt my ears. Mantranga’s Sanzo is still every bit as menacing and grouchy as ever, don’t change a thing. Joining the cast are Ian Sinclair as Gojyo and Micah Solusod as Hakkai. Oh, and Felecia Angelle as Hakuryuu, don’t think she isn’t getting a mention. Ian has been in the game a little over a decade and most recently has tickled my ear as Whis in Dragon Ball Super. Micah, on the other hand, just finished up being Willem in WorldEnd a little while ago (Still a bit raw from that, TBH). I don’t know why I didn’t hear it in them already because while they don’t sound exactly the same as their characters from other shows, there is still affectations I notice now that I know it’s them. They feel right in the roles, honestly, and I hadn’t noticed they slipped in while I wasn’t looking. Good job, gentlemen.

So, between the thoughtful writing, the awesome style, and the solid voice work, I have to give this episode nine lost cigarettes out of ten. Or they could just take from the dozen or so boxes Gojyo scored.