3x3 Eyes Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-07-19 (updated 2010-12-14)
• 3 stars out of 5 (?)

3x3 Eyes is a sort-of-classic based on the beginning of a long-running manga series. It's an interesting beast: A surprisingly comfortable crossbreed between a "high school kid with supernatural powers comedy" and a gory demon-fighting flick. On the negative side, it suffers from "too much manga, too little time" syndrome, leading to uneven pacing, a story that jumps around, and a glut of confusing mythological tie-ins. It also looks rather dated, and the action, while moderately interesting, largely consists of the immortal-but-not-invulnerable Yakumo being ripped to shreds dramatically for several minutes. On the positive side, the characters are appealing, the story is dramatic yet confident enough to poke fun at itself on occasion, and there's a nice international flavor. The Japanese dialogue features big names and quality acting, including an unusual combination of extremely harsh and extremely cute yet believably awkward Chinese-accented Japanese from Megumi Hayashibara.

3x3 Eyes could have been an average-quality paranormal high school comedy, and it could have been an average-quality monster/gore horror flick. What it is is an unusual combination of both, and although fun and interesting, it never quite manages to be more than that.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-07-19 (updated 2010-12-14)
• 3 stars out of 5 (?)

Note that this review is of the first OVA series, Immortals. It and the sequel, Legend of the Divine Demon, were at one point packaged together as a set, but they were produced four years apart and are different enough that I'm reviewing them separately.

3x3 Eyes (pronounced, at least in Japanese, "Sazan Eyes") is a sort-of-classic based on the beginning of a long-running manga series. It's an interesting beast: A surprisingly comfortable crossbreed between a "high school kid with supernatural powers comedy" and a gory demon-fighting flick. It suffers from too much plot and too little time, leading to pacing problems and a rather scattered story, but is still unusual and fun.

On one hand are all the pieces of a classic anime comedy. Pai is disturbingly cute and Yakumo, though stuck with immortality and chased by demon hordes, is a nice guy and has a sense of humor about his situation. Throw in a couple more quirky characters (a tomboy schoolgirl and a money-grubbing Hong Kong psychic investigator), a hint of a high-school love triangle, and a few amusing situations, and you're done.

On the other hand, it pulls no horror punches: The demons are scary, Pai's got an alter ego who's anything but cute, there's a lot of gore (Yakumo is immortal, not invincible), and the plot is mostly serious.

Combined, you have a serious story with enough of a sense of humor to keep it fun, and enough confidence to allow the characters to poke fun at the plot once in a while. How well the mix works is a matter of taste, but it's enjoyable as long as you don't expect it to be straight horror or comedy.

That said, the story is paced inconsistently, pruning out all but the essential points from the manga. The first episode is uncomfortably rushed, things level out for the middle two, and the last is, if anything, too slow. It also jumps around a lot; just when the story seems to be headed somewhere, it veers off in another direction. The first episode sets up the search for the Statue of Humanity... then, suddenly, we're back in Japan talking to Yakumo's friends. After that, we're thrown into a dramatic rescue... followed by a slow, creepy set-up of the villain. And then it ends. At least they didn't try to fit everything in.

Thankfully there is a sequel, since the end is left wide open. (I can't imagine waiting four years for a follow-up to the cliffhanger.)

Among the things trimmed is some of the international and multilingual flavor of the manga, but it's still quite colorful. The story takes place in Japan, Hong Kong, and central Asia, and draws on mythology from all over Asia, particularly India. Pai does retain her imperfect Japanese, though the glut of mythological tie-ins pretty much lost me a few times.

For all its flaws, the story is interesting, and the heart of it--what it means to be human--kept my attention. The characters are all likable enough, but Pai and Yakumo are, not surprisingly, the most interesting. Pai is innocence embodied, simultaneously trying to become human and learning what that really means. Yakumo is just a confused guy trying to deal with the chaos around him and learning something about humanity though Pai's and his own predicament. It's disappointing that we don't get to see much of Yakumo's internal torment, and the "what it means to be human" theme is laid on thick, but overall the emotional end of the plot holds its own.

Worth a quick mention are the villains. Most of them are ugly, two-dimensional, "I wanna be immortal!"-screaming cannon fodder, but the real bad guy, who we only meet toward the end, is all kinds of scary.

The action, a centerpiece of the series, is unusual. The fights are relatively exciting and quite well animated, but mainly consist of a monster ripping Yakumo to shreds for several dramatic minutes before Pai eventually blows it up. There is a sense of tension, and it's interesting to see a hero who just isn't very effective (immortal, yes... super-powered, no), but it gets tedious after a while. On the subject, when I say Yakumo gets ripped to shreds, I mean it--he single-handedly loses more limbs and spits out more blood than a carful of teenagers in a slasher flick. Add a couple of other scenes, and you have a lot more blood and gore than you might expect.

That said, while 3x3 Eyes isn't bad-looking for its era, it hasn't aged terribly well. The animation isn't a problem (above average for an OVA of the era) and the art is good enough. The character designs, although not impressive, are faithful to the manga. (Also faithful to the original, the squinty Yakumo has his eyes closed 99% of the time, a notably annoying look.) The coloring, however, is stuck uncomfortably between moody lighting and garish hues that are anything but. Other problems include uninteresting monster designs, helmets borrowed from Imperial Storm Troopers, somewhat bland backgrounds, and grainy film stock. The series is also guilty of "no sense of space," a major pet peeve of mine--several action scenes lack a clear image of what the layout of the location is and where everyone is standing.

Kaoru Wada's musical score is split between exotic, slightly creepy drum pieces and broad orchestral themes. It's a little sparse, and a little overblown in style, but well above par and fits the production nicely.

The Japanese voice acting is one of 3x3 Eyes' strongest points. The veteran cast (although most weren't veterans at the time) turns in solid performances all around, with a lot of variety in roles that could have easily been lacking. The standout is Megumi Hayashibara as Pai--a surprising stretch in both the overly cute and very harsh directions. The latter is particularly impressive, and even on the cute end she manages a fairly convincing awkward, vaguely Chinese accent. That's a rarity in anime--usually everybody speaks perfect, unaccented Japanese or, occasionally, in a caricature of a Chinese accent, neither of which Pai does. Almost all the performances are broad, but that's well within the mood of the series (including Ai Orikasa's unmistakable voice in an amusing supporting role as the trigger-happy detective).

The newer Pioneer English dub isn't bad. Christian Campbell is very good as Yakumo, though Pai sounds a bit too mature, and her lack of an accent makes her dialogue sound unnatural. There's also an older Streamline dub, which Arcane's 2nd opinion covers and contrasts.

All in all, 3x3 Eyes: Immortals could have been an average-quality paranormal high school comedy, and it could have been an average-quality monster/gore horror flick. What it is is an unusual combination of both, and although fun and interesting, it never quite manages to be more than that.

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Related Recommendations

The closest series in the light-action-horror category are Blue Seed, and Ushio and Tora, which is also of a similar vintage. Another gory not-quite-serious horror action flick is the little-known Battle Royal High School.