From an artistic and epic story-telling perspective, Saiyuki doesn’t really have any redeeming qualities. It’s a story about a bunch of hot guys riding around in a jeep (which can turn into a dragon when it feels like it) who are going into the west, maybe to save the world, mostly because they have nothing better to do. I absolutely adore it. When someone describes something as being “character driven”, they should use Saiyuki as the primary example. I think the success of the story, and even how it survived past its first wobbly few chapters, is solely due to the dynamic characters.

Recently I have received some comments on the fact that I have a penchant for recommending a lot of older series. I'm not doing it accidently or as a way to backhandedly comment on the quality of newer works. As an “older” fan, I like to inform anime lovers who may have come in later to the hobby of some of the great older gems they may overlook due to the glut of the new shiny things that are coming out. Not that new and shiny instantly equals bad, but just because something came out within the last year doesn’t automatically make it good either.