Okay, I haven't seen any of the Reload series to date but I really liked the previous season and Saiyuki Movie. Suffice it to say that a change in domestic releasing company for the third season kind of threw me and by the time I had the chance to check out the show, it was practically over with. The dynamics of the series are the same as ever though; the four members of the team are traveling to India to stop the complete destruction of the world by a powerful and evil demon said to be so strong that none could stop him once fully materialized on this plane of existence. They run into a lot of creatures (and humans) that want to stop them from their mission, all for various reasons that range from simple to infinitely complex, and fight them as many anime shows provide these days. These sideline fights all serve a purpose, either for the story or to show something about the characters for the viewer in terms of where they (the characters) need to evolve, and they also manage to entertain those anime fans caught up in the fight of the week club.

Accepting the realities that I haven't been privy to the previous five volumes in the Reload series, the three episodes show the team at a crossroads with one another. The episodes were 20) Prelude, 21) Fight, and 22) The Broken. They obviously dealt with another side deity (God) that advances them on their path but Gojyo apparently has reason above the other three to break off and fight the being all by himself. Needless to say, for all the wonderful powers the team has as a whole, when it comes right down to it, they are not all that powerful individually; part of the reason for the lengthy journey in order to bind them as a working team willing to fight together. Sanzo leaves him behind, even though he and the others "know" that without all four of them acting together, their ultimate mission can't possibly succeed so they end up fighting the deity unsuccessfully by the time the final episode ends. I refuse to spoil it for you (I've made some reasonable guesses about what has happened to this point in time and why things happened as they did) but the spirit of the show seems much like the seasons released by ADV Films and that makes me want to look for a sale of the previous five volumes in the series. Still, I'm going to rate it as a Rent It unless you've watched the volumes that went on before it since there's a whole lot of background material that renders this volume as a standalone rather weak and limited apart from the context of the show to date (if you read the second third of any book without the knowledge gained from the previous section, you'd be a little disoriented too).

Picture: Saiyuki Reload V6 was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was produced in by director Tetsuya Endo. This being a third season, and also released by Bandai instead of ADV Films, I wanted to scrutinize it more thoroughly than previous volumes but it looked similar to the original run of the show. The colors looked identical and the animation style seemed just slightly different (I had to dig up one of my old copies to see if I could figure it out; the best I could come up with is there was less frames used and more of the "moving the anime cel" style than was used in the past). On the other hand, there was less of the video noise employed in these three episodes than before so that helped balance out any noticeable deficiencies.

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice between a 2.0 Dolby Digital original Japanese track or an English dub. The voice actors on the dub sounded weird to me since I had grown accustomed to the ADV Films crew over the span of a number of reviews in Season One & Two, though they were not bad (and may also grow on me if given the chance). The audio effects on the dub were not as rich or spread out as the previous season but they fit the subject matter well enough and seemed to be a director port from the Japanese track with regard to the music and special effects. The Japanese track was, on the other hand, very similar to what took place before; from the voice actors to the audio mix. Both tracks had some measure of worth to them, so feel free to disregard the lame arguments found on web forums how terrible the dub was (or how mechanical the original track came across as being).

Extras: The extras on Season One & Two included background data that helped fill in some of the curious details the storylines would bring up so I expected them here too but that was not the case. There were some cute little comedic bits at the end of the credits for each episode (called URA-SAI) which I found immediately appealing but in fairness to Bandai, these were geared towards young kids and didn't really assist in understanding what was going on in regards to some of the mythology (and there were times when I got the impression that the dub track was dumbed down to accommodate the complexity of such material). There were also some trailers and commercials for the original broadcasts of the show but that was it.

Final Thoughts: Saiyuki Reload V6 harkened back the glories of the first two seasons and Saiyuki Movie from a few years ago for me; reminding me of how much I appreciated the complexities of the show even with the more common "fight of the week" material that felt tacked on at times. Lacking the context of the previous volumes didn't help my complete understanding of the volume in hand but it did reinvigorate my desire to catch the rest of the show and may well serve that purpose for you too. The team is just as cantankerous as ever, just as disrespectful to one another, and just as vulnerable when they aren't on the same page as one another, though it was apparent that they had grown some in the time between by reviews. The dub cast will take some getting used to, as will the liberties taken with the translation of the original Japanese content, but I think it may prove worth the wait (so I'll see what I can do about those missing back volumes).

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.