Sep 12, 2009
HATE FUN 2000! Saiyuki
This was the state of the art in bishounen in the year 2000. Well, bishounen shot through the prism of Yuji Moriyama.
Based on Kazuya Minekura’s manga (which in turn was based on Journey to the West), it had already had an OAV series the year before. Like a lot of G Fantasy strips (E’s, Kuroshitsuji, Nabari no Ou), it feels a lot like shonen written for a female audience. Given that it started in 1997, before we really started to see a big shift to attract a fujoshi audience in Shonen Jump, I wonder if it was something of a trend setter in that respect?
The Yuji Moriyama designs though give the whole thing a weird vibe, like they weren’t quite willing to go all the way with the prettiness of the main characters so had Moriyama come to butch them up and make female characters more appealing to male viewers.