User blog:Astral writer/Review of "Kibou no Zaika"

Okay, so this is more of a bashing, but if you are a true Saiyuki fan you understand why. Kibou no Zaika is an interactive movie/game that was meant to go along side the anime. But it fails...

It does, it does, it does! At first I thought It would get better. Bad things tend to get better right? Right? But by the end of it, I was wished I'd never heard of it. No, rather I wished it was never written. The movie is like bad fanfiction at its worse!

Over all plot
The plot, over all, really is a distraction. The Sanzo party don't need one of those. They've been on this trip going three years now. Something is definitely wrong with Hakkai's maps. But also, it follows a lot of simple anime movie plots. Here arrives a temporary thing that can fix everyone's problems and everyone and their stepmother wants to get their hands on it. Where does this item come from? Heaven? Why is Heaven, the Heaven we know of Saiyuki, letting something like this end up in the hands of the humans/youkai? And the name of the item? Pearl Jade? Um, pearls are made from sand in oysters and jade is a stone. Do they mean the the Jade has a pearly glow? I just think the name sounds silly. Whatever, point is that this is not what Saiyuki fans have come to expect from this series.

And another thing. Does anyone find it odd that Sanzo knew all about this? He said he read about it, but since when has Sanzo looked like the type to read holy shit? Yeah he reads newspapers, but that's another story. I thought it was random that he knew about all this little stuff to get the jewel. Where the village was to get the "treasure box", what was inside the treasure box and how to use it, etc, etc. Something seems really off and random here...

Kansane
Then here is the Mary Sue or Mary sues. We meet our heroin that, I really did try to like, but in the end she failed. She just couldn't hold up my high standards of girls that can associate with the sanzo party. Lirin's a strong, spunky, stupid and silly characters so she's chill. Yaone board-lines on Mary Sue, but she never actually tries to "get" with anyone and she's protective of her friends in a loyal way that I like. The other girls that you toss in like Houmei from the first episode, Shunrei, Houran, etc; they weren't that bad either. They also weren't the spot light characters. The Saiyuki story is about the Sanzo Party. Not some village girl! Kasane felt like a self-insert or a random, yes, Mary Sue and here are the reason why:

First her appearance. She has gold eyes. What the Mother F*cker!? Gold Eyes? That is the trait of a Heretic and we have only met three heretics in the saiyuki world ever: Son Goku, Nataku taishi, and Homura Haishi. That's it. Why does she have gold eyes? And her hair! It's turquoise, not to say that we haven't seen weird hair color before, but still. And it's up in stupid pigtails like something out of Negima!. Her blouse doesn't match the time era (though the time era is debatable) and her skirt looks like the middle school skirt form Gaia. And what is with the arm band? None of her matches. There is no over all theme to her wardrobe and the colors all clash. You could say that she's poor and can't afford much, but her outfit doesn't look poor. She looks likes he got dressed in the dark. Houran from the other Saiyuki movie was way better looking then this chick.

But it's not all about look, I know. Her personality sucked too. First, I know Sanzo's intimidating, but when the man asks for something, you usually don't lie to him like she did. Such a blatant lie. I mean, yeah, she could have not known about the Pearl, but then why was she being so defensive? Then she drops it, like, right in front of them. Then she yells and runs off. When Sanzo and Goku come to warn her, she's all high and purposeful like she knows better. Hello, I think Goku and Sanzo would know better then her what's going on. That, and she's selfish. Yeah, you heard me selfish, but here's why! She wanted to heal people, not because he wanted them to be healthy, but because she wanted them to love her. She was doing it so people would worship her in a way. It may have not seemed that way, but she wanted to be the center of attention, and to be loved, which is not such a bad thing, but because her purpose was selfish, that's why she died.

Now to her back story, or just story in general. I admit, it had a nice twist on the whole "daddy was abusive" thing by having mother run away leaving her and then having him turning into a serial killer. Nice touch! But she didn't really act like this background story matched with her personalty. I've met people who have had abusive parents and she didn't act like an abused child. The people turning against her the way they did also seemed a bit to brash, so quickly their feeling turn...

I felt like the Sanzo party didn't really have a good part in the story and, Hello?, this is their story. She was the star the moment we met her. The center of attention. She was either loved by everyone or Hated by everyone. That is one of the most common traits of a Mary Sue.

What Was Just Wrong In General
The Fight scene between the Sanzo party and Kougaiji's gang was okay, but the parts with Yaone and Hakkai were stupid. Did you see the way that Yaone glared at Hakkai? That didn't fit at all.

They weren't the main characters of the movie, like I said earlier. Goku got really attached to the girl and her history even though none of them ever talked to her, like seriously. Since when has it been the Sanzo party's style to sit back and wait. They wasted so much time in that village doing what? Stakeout? Tch. When she died Goku got so upset I almost thought they were going to make his limiter break and then I was going to be really pissed. 'Cuase that's only supposed to happen for Sanzo people and I don't care what you say.

Then we get to the end and Goku's really grieving. What? and Sanzo's words of comfort weren't right. It all failed... OH, but what failed the most was Goku asking Sanzo to pray for. It almost made sense, but what didn't was that he said yes. Who the H*ll is she to get Sanzo to pray for her? Sanzo told Gojyo, in episode 16, that he didn't pray for the dead. I was floored and wanted to shoot the writers with Sanzo's Banishing gun, seriously! And then all the villagers show up and everyone's sad. Why? Didn't she make them all hate her? I don't get it? And the cliche end was only worse 'cause of the message that she got what she wanted... after she died... Bleh!

Oh, and one more thing, it took me forever to find Kasane's name because there were no ending credits and no voice actress given in any documents. I found it on another review cite altogether. Here's my review. The movie wasn't worth the time I spent watching it and I swear to you, I love Saiyuki! I only watched this movie once because it was associated with the series... *Face Palm*