Saiyuki Requiem: The Motion Picture (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Running Time 95 minutes Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by: ADV Films Extras: - Interview with creator Kazuya Minekura - Character Profiles & Art Gallery - Movie Commentary with the English Cast - Original Japanese Promos and TV Spots
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Saiyuki Requiem: The Motion Picture (DVD)

Your favorite demon hunters are back in action!

The rebel priest. The hyperactive monkey-king. The carousing, womanizing half-breed. The cool, calm, collected demon and his pet dragon. They’re all back for their most exciting adventure yet!

The Sanzo Party has always been haunted by the past. And they’ve always been able to deal with their ghosts. But when they enter the House of Dougan, they may have met their match. Lured to the mysterious shrine by a beautiful girl, Sanzo, Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai become ensnared in a trap of dangerous shikigami, murderous doppelgangers, and a malevolent monster who has destroyed his own soul for a demented purpose. Don’t miss this stunningly animated full-length motion picture, starring the coolest cast of demon hunters in the history of all anime!

Anime “movies” can be a deceiving title for feature films for a running series. Most of the time, the movie is nothing more than a long episode of the series that is a slightly higher quality of animation and may or may not be a part of the continuum of the main series. Saiyuki loosely follows the Eastern story about the trip to the West (which is a rather rich source of material for anime with many other series using both the character Goku or the concept of teams forming against a common evil) and instead makes the characters Demon Hunters and extremely pretty, for men that is.

The main plot revolves around the Sanzo Party helping a young girl being attacked by a large bird, and out of graciousness for saving her life, she offers the group night’s lodging at her master’s castle. The group is tired and hungry and so they readily accept the offer. The castle that they arrive at is strange, despite its’ size there are only two people in it – the master and the one young girl.

Each person is given their own bedroom to sleep in, and from this point the attacks begin. Gojyo is attacked in the shower by the young girl wielding a knife, but once he overcomes her and gets her to talk about what is happening in the house he is met by Hakkai, who gets him to lower his guards then stabs him in the stomach. Hakkai himself is being led away from everyone else by a duplicate of Goku; and Goku is led away from the team by a copy of Sanzo who eventually ends of chaining the monkey (which sounds perverted, but actually isn’t).

Advertisement

As each member of the team must battle against their own senses, only Sanzo is not being directly attacked, and he is being drawn towards the master of the house. The master is someone who knows the team quite well, and is actually a former disciple of Sanzo who was not brought along on the pilgrimage. The constant feelings of being left out cause the boy to learn control of Shikigami and even slaughter enough demons until he becomes one himself. This demon wants only to be recognized by Sanzo, and is willing to kill the rest of the team so that Sanzo must take him along.

Advertisement

Saiyuki Requiem is pretty much just a longer episode of the TV series with better animation quality than you usually get. As long as you are already a fan of the series, you won’t be disappointed, if you’re not or don’t know anything about the series, I wouldn’t start with this disc.

- Tazman

(April 11, 2005)

"Hello 911? This is Quagmire. Yeah, it's caught in the window this time."

- Quagmire (Family Guy)