English Dub Review: Saiyuki Reload Blast “Kouten”

WHAT? Dr. Ni is a Sanzo? When did that fact come out?

Overview (You may have already got one spoiler…)

All our flashbacks are over. It’s time to continue on with our story. The team are high up in the mountains, and most of them are stricken with altitude sickness. A group of warrior monks arrive to rescue them from a demon ambush, then take them back to their headquarters. There, the gang meet Sharak Sanzo, a scarred-up, rough-edged lady priest who holds the Kouten Scriptures. She has been using her powers to protect the villages with barriers projected by sacred artifacts. After a demon attack nearly burns down one of the villages, the team is surprised when one of the monks turn coat and breaks the sacred bell. Without it, all of the artifacts in the villages are powerless!

Oh yeah! We’re getting into some plot now! Already, this series is far better than the original. This episode hits you quickly with action and revelations. For example: creepy Dr. Ni is actually a Sanzo, holding the Muten Scripture of Death and the Void. With the Uten (Life) and Seiten (Light/Healing) Scriptures in the possession of Gyokumen Koushu, this puts the heroes at a one scripture disadvantage! Then again, the two we have are passed around attacking and defending, so they’re pretty good for fighting and getting the others back. The information about Ni being Ukoku Sanzo looks as if it was revealed in a previous series, but I have a hard time figuring out where. Ni’s recent disappearing act from the bad guy castle also suggests that Gyokumen Koushu is not the true villain of this franchise, Ukoku is. He is also shown to have significant involvement in the events of Reload and Gunlock that were not filler.

We also get to see a bit more about the life of a Sanzo. We don’t know a massive amount about the Sanzo order, given that Sharak is the only other active one we’ve met. All of them seem to eschew romantic entanglements, with Sharak repeating that she has ascended above gender. Despite that, her right-hand man has the hots for her. At first, they play this off as a joke, but later in the episode, he makes a pass at her. He is revealed to have been rejected as a potential Sanzo. When Sharak got the job, he followed her around. We also see why the Scriptures, and thus the Sanzo, were split up in the first place. When they were used together, the Scriptures resonated and boosted in power. Since this power was potentially uncontrollable, Sharak and Genjo agree not to use them near each other again.

Our Take

The episode isn’t weighed down by its exposition. It continuously breaks it up with humor or action. And it’s good on both counts. Though it is still using its parallax montage style of animation, it is excellently directed and kept my attention. The entire fight, they are cracking jokes that do the chicken dance all over the fourth wall. This is the humor I expect from this show. Really, there wasn’t any part where the goings-on bored me, quite the opposite. It was masterfully laid out, and put in the right place in the series. Placing this right after the flashback arc acts as a great recap to bring us into the story proper.

For the most part, the visuals are solid around these parts. We have the characteristic attitude in the style of the series, and no effort was spared in the details. There aren’t any issues with how things are drawn. I have only one bone to pick. The flames we see in the village are all either CG or actual flames that have been recorded. They stand out like sore thumbs because they look nothing like the surrounding animation. I know it is easier to do, but it looks amateurish.

Coming off the highly emotional flashbacks, the voice acting of this episode doesn’t really have as much impact. David Matranga did have some good work for Genjo. He and Sharak sounded like they had some baggage that only the two of them could understand as Sanzos, even though nothing was said about it. The other three guys delivered their lines well, amping up the humor. Juxtaposed against the brooding we saw from everyone but Goku, it feels like a different show. I kinda like that. It actually divides the past from the present.

This was a good episode to come back into the modern stories. It was entertainingly written, full of action and humor, and had good voice acting. Though the poor choice in those flames does hurt it a bit, the real reason this doesn’t get a full ten is that it doesn’t have that emotional impact and tension that you need to have an episode stick with you. That’s primarily because it isn’t the end of any particular arc, so it’s only set up. Still, I will give it nine sacred relics out of ten.

And in looking for where we discover about Dr. Ni, I’m realizing I missed a little under half of the original series… Oh well, it was a filler arc, and it’s on Hulu anyways.