The outrageous young warriors...

tirwen has brought the Enoki Films, USA description and episode synopsis of the Gensomaden Saiyuki anime to my attention.

Highlights:

♦ Saiyuki: Paradise Raiders

♦ This vicious change is the result of an experiment to revive the great monster, Gyumao (Bull Satan).

♦ Sanzo recruits his old comrades, Son Goku, Sha Gojyo Jo and Cho Hackai

♦ [Goku] is agile and tenacious in battle, using his elastic pole skillfully.

♦ Sanzo is a typical depraved priest ... He is looking for a keepsake of his foster father, Sanzo Senior, who lost his life in a great battle with the monsters.

♦ Sha Gojyo is an extreme feminist

♦ Hakkai is also an impersonate creature.

♦ Cheer-Rat (Yaone), one of Kogaiji's followers, wants to please her master.

♦ When Sanzo is severely injured, the head ring of Goku's head ring comes off.

♦ When Sha Gojyo skips out to find pretty ladies he meets a mall girl who tags along with him.

♦ Five Sutras possessed by Sanzo and his comrades are needed for reviving Gyumao the Bull Satan.

♦ Our heroes come to a Village with big canons sticking out in the sky. They are surprised by a ceremony that offers a sacrifice to the evil monster ruling the folks. What an anachronism it is!

♦ Suddenly 4 coffins of equal size to each of our heroes are pushed out and the illusion of the creature called "The Undertaker" appears. The undertaker shows excessive courtesy to Sanzo and his comrades. Sha Gojyo is upset and Goku is about to burst out with rage. The undertaker keeps telling disgusting stories on and on. He rubs our heroes the wrong way and pushes their minds to the extreme gradually.

♦ Goku is stunned when he sees his mother-in-law crying in front of him.

And bonus points for anyone who can figure out what section of the story this is referring to without looking at the hints, masked in white text on a white background:

"Chogo-Noh flees into the woods to carry out his self-imposed mission. Suddenly, he is attacked by Crow-Man whose family perished at the hand of Chogo-Noh. In the fierce battle, Crow-Man is shocked by Chogo-Noh's incredible fighting spirit - no hesitation to stop at skin and flesh if he could crash his opponent's bones! Then, Sanzo and Goku who were tailing him arrive followed by Sha Gojyo."

WTF?!

And hard on the heels of my previous post about Enoki Films USA's delightful mangling of English on their Saiyuki webpage, we have ... oh God, you just have to go see it. I started to poke around their site to see what else there was and ... oh dear God there are just no words...!




After Episode #2, she begins to live with Ursula, who defeated Kevin Simon in a duel.


ETA: Note that after episode 13, the descriptions ahve been taken from somewhere that spell out the plot in great detail, and aren't Engrish-fied at all, so if you don't want spoilers, don't bother reading past that. The crack is all in the episode 1-12 descriptions.

Writers on the list...

...the Field Guide to Surreal Botany is open for submissions. (up to $5 + contributor's copy, but the entries are small and the idea is nifty. :D)

Comic & manga advice, people!

riofriotex said, in a comment on my post about librarians discussing manga:

I really need to learn more about graphic novels. I've just been hired as a university librarian, but part of my domain includes the curriculum collection (including picture books, juvenile literature, textbooks, etc.). It's mostly used by local teachers and education majors at the school, so graphic novels that are particularly suited for school libraries and use in the classroom would be needed in the collection, in my opinion. I would love some suggestions on where/how to learn more about the genre.

I fanpushed Usagi Yojimbo and said I'd ask you guys. Howzabout it? :D

More recommendations!

This time for anime! puppleball asks me:

I have a friend who wants some anime recommendations to watch. All he's told
me is:
He loves Naruto for the characters and story and wants to watch more anime
with characters and stories he can get into.

Aside from anime we chatted a bit on live action, which he's seen a bit of,
mentioning specifically versus for the fight scenes (versus is yakuza vs.
werewolves) that mimicked streetfighter action more than the US movie did.
Jap Horror was mentioned, he likes that too.

Woodchuck recommended Cowboy Beebop as a starting point, but I wanted to
give him more options. WC mentioned something else, but I'm drawing a blank.

Any recommendations for him?

I do not know if he wants only US releases or if he's OK with downloaded fansubs, so recommend both but make a note of what's available for rent and what isn't.

Recommend anything!

Yup, that's right. In the spirit of my previous two posts taken to the logical extreme, this post is to recommend anything: food, art, books, philosophy, jokes, cars, quasars, blogs, refrigerators, whatever.

So recommend away!

Hah!

Well, I am now a true believer in karma, because my SUFFERING through Saiyuki Reload Gunlock ALL FOR YOU! has paid off in spades. Today:

- I solved a Javascript problem in the library webpage that had been bothering me for two days
- a book from England that I'd ordered that was presumed lost and the money refunded to my credit card arrived
- my April 18th BPAL order showed up
- an Amazon.com order arrived and is at the apartment office waiting for me to get it in the morning
- *another* Amazon.com order shipped
- Something Else Very Good happened that I'm not talking about because I'm not sure I can yet SO YOU WILL ALL HAVE TO SPECULATE FRUITLESSLY
- a book on a Chinese martial art developed, they say, by a Tibetan monk showed up through interlibrary loan today and it's going to be quite useful in the Gay Tibetan Martial Artists thing
- a friend I hadn't talked to in almost ten years emailed me

And now I've got to work out what I'm going to have for dinner.