3x3 Eyes: Legend of the Divine Demon

Original Title: 3x3 EYES 聖魔伝説
Romanized: Sazan Eyes - Seima Densetsu
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Four years have passed since the events of the first series. With Pai mysteriously missing, Yakumo has trained himself into a competent demon-fighting warrior as he searches for her. When he finally finds her, living quietly as an average high school student in Tokyo, he's shocked to find that she has no memory of who--or what--she is. Almost as shocked as she is to have a stranger who for all intents and purposes looks like a wandering lunatic insist his life has been devoted to finding her! But not as shocked as either will be when the forces of darkness bear down on them, and leave them with no choice but to seek out a way to finally end the war that begun hundreds of years earlier, a journey that will take them into the wilds of Tibet and across the paths of treasure-seekers, both friend and foe.

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-07-19

This sequel series takes up four years after the previous one abruptly ended, and was produced about the same amount of time later. The changes, both in production values and story, are numerous. Amusing supporting cast is largely gone, and Pai and Yakumo have reversed roles--panicky but sharp normal girl and competent demon fighter. The much darker story is more coherent and evenly paced, but still suffers from some of the same mythology overload for those watching it for the first time. The changes all make sense within the plot, but they're more than a little jarring. Visually, however, Divine Demon builds on the strengths of the original, adding sharp kung-fu action, imaginative backgrounds, improved art and character designs, and some creepy horror scenes to the creativity, grit, and gore of the first series. The acting lacks the variety of the previous series, but replaces it with much meatier drama and some impressive performances.

In all, this follow up series presents a darker, more coherent plot with more emotional depth, but it's still a little confusing and blunt with the moral. Backed up with a few rollicking action scenes and the same gore and drama as the first series (and even a little of the humor), 3x3 Eyes: Legend of the Divine Demon is a solid, watchable adventure.

US DVD Review

The DVD set includes all 7 episodes of both OAV series on two discs (one for each series) in a double-sized clamshell case. To start with, it includes the expected English and Japanese (both stereo) dialogue and a subtitle track. The video transfer is fine, although the first series does look grainy and a bit harsh (probably because the source material wasn't great, and the high-quality video brought the flaws out). The audio is better; even the older Japanese track sounds crisp. The animated menus provide chapter access to sections of each episode, and a small collection of goodies.

The extras on each disc consist of some black and white character design sketches, a gallery of color art from the creator of the manga, and a list of the cast. The cast list is actually pretty cool--it includes a photo of most of the voice actors, a small picture of the character(s) they play, and a list of other roles they've been in. Most of the cast covered are from the dub, but the second disc includes a few of the Japanese actors as well. The credits, of course (this is Pioneer), cover both languages in their entirety, though oddly they threw the voice credits over some dialogue at the end of the first episode and left the Japanese credits intact (probably because there was an image under them--if that's why, I commend the choice, but it'd have been better to have left the actual production alone).

Content Guide

Pioneer rated it 16-up, appropriate on account of the gore and somewhat mature themes.

Violence: 4 - Little actual death, but Yakumo still gets ripped up in graphic detail several times and there's plenty of harsh violence.

Nudity: 2 - Some scantily clad Pai and a naked female monster.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Light mature themes.

Language: 2 - Nothing particularly strong.

Notes and Trivia

Based on the manga series by Yuzo Takada. The manga, recently concluded, consists of 40 volumes published between 1987 and 2002; this series is based on the second story arc ("Book of the Legend of the Divine Demon"), spanning books 3-5.

The manga is also available in English from Dark Horse, first serialized as part of the now-discontinued Super Manga Blast anthology, then in compiled book form. They've apparently ceased translating it as of book 8, however. Way back in the mid-90s Dark Horse also published a few issues in the more traditional US comic format, one of their earliest manga translations.

The title, for those wondering, is something of a pun. "Sazan" is the way you say "three times three" if you're reading the multiplication tables in Japanese, which fits how its written. It also sounds the same as the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "southern." This is apparently not a coincidence, as the author is said to be fond of the band "Southern All Stars" ("Sazan Ooru Sutaazu"), very popular in Japan since the late '70s.

In addition to the two OAV adaptations of the manga, there were a number of video games produced throughout the '90s, none of which are available in English.

Availability

Available in the US from Pioneer (Geneon) on a hybrid DVD set that includes the second OAV series as well. Was also available on subtitled or dubbed VHS. Note that this second series was never released by Streamline--it didn't even exist at the time.

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