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| Dec '14 cover of Zero-Sum featuring Saiyuki |
Background Information
Inspired by the Asian legend of a Buddhist monk named Genjo Sanzo who traveled from China to India in the year 629, Saiyuki takes place in a world in which human and demon kind once lived together in harmony. The balance of power has shifted, however, and now demon forces are attempting to resurrect a demon of such power that dark spiritual energy will permeate every corner of the world. Now is the moment of truth for a wordly priest, a monkey king, a lecherous half-demon, and a kind-hearted former human. They have every intention of saving the world, and of having a good time in the process.
Standing in the Battledome
While it has always been a very powerful verse due to the highest god and his artifact, the series has been experiencing a power creep for everyone not Buddha with the final series. Fortunately, it wasn't as if the signs weren't there for this jump and it doesn't come off as artificial.
Determining where the series rank is a bit difficult to ascertain, since speed is still not something that's prominent (though the sutras benefit from ftl speeds), but they are definitely bringing a lot more muscle than they have in the past (especially with Buddha active in the series).
One aspect that the series have never seemed to lack is hax. While most of this resides with the cloth originally owned by Buddha, there have been increase in other instance of hax that do not involve them. Recently, it was found out that a little girl possessed the capability to place her home outside the physical world (and Genjyo subsequently acted as if it wasn't a thing for his sutra to dispell), and officially being instances of dimension creation by characters rather than items. There are a host more examples, but those are a sample
If speaking about the sutras themselves, not much to work with due to 4 of the 5 having little to no screentime, but it should be noted that Genjyo's sutra, the Maten, is quite broken for a power that's only meant to govern Evil and Yin (known mostly as the darkness sutra). If his sutra is any indication, the other 4 have a horde of potential yet to be tapped.
Character Profiles
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