Saiyuki Reload

In 2002, Saiyuki Reload began serializing in Ichijinsha's josei manga magazine Monthly Comic Zero Sum, finishing in 2009 with ten volumes.[4][5] In North America, the series has been licensed by Tokyopop,[6][7] and published Saiyuki Reload in nine volumes from August 2005 to January 2009.[1] [8] Madman Entertainment then published the series nine volumes from October 2009 to October 2010.[9][10] A new paperback edition consists of 5 volumes out of 10 volumes it was published from September 2015 to January 2016 by Ichijinsha.[11]

Saiyuki ReLoad adapted the manga series of the same name. It aired from October 2003, to March 2004, concluding with 25 episodes. [12] A 26-episode sequel titled Saiyuki Reload Gunlock aired from April 2004, to September 2004. The other two series are licensed by Geneon in North America.[13][14] In February 2006, Geneon and Tokyopop agreed to cross promote several properties. Tokyopop's translation of Saiyuki GunLock was advertised on Geneon's DVD releases for the same series, and vice versa. [15]

In April 2007, a new original video animation (OVA) series was released by Studio Pierrot, which covers the "Burial" arc of the Saiyuki Reload manga titled Saiyuki Reload: Burial.[16] In January 2021, Liden Films announced a new anime series titled Saiyuki Reload: Zeroin, which was directed by Misato Takada, and scrpted by Michiko Yokote and Aya Matsui. Noriko Ogura designed the characters and served as chief animation director, and Yūsuke Shirato composed the music. The main cast members reprised their roles.[17] It aired from January 6 to March 31, 2022, on AT-X and other networks.[18][19]

Ash brown of Manga Bookshelf reviewed the first three volumes, praised the manga art and called it more polished, but criticized the story and called it simple and suffered from a lack of character development.[25] Jarred pine of Anime on DVD praised the packaging of the first volume but criticized the story and stating: "Saiyuki Reload so far seems to have lost a lot of its charm and magic, relying much more on posing bishies and their oozing cool guy attitudes rather than crafting interesting stories to tell."[26] Michael deeley of Manga life like the premise and the style of sequel series and describing the manga as "a good balance of action and drama" and he called the manga "bipolar, an action-comedy, one part and the other part is dark and dour.[2]

Manga News give average score to the first three volumes of the series stating that Sayuki Reload has moved away from the original plan, it could not function as smoothly as the first series.[27][28][29] Later volumes were high score and they were praised.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] Nicolas demay of Planete BD stating that the manga "as very interesting cuts and selected shots are cinematic", But he criticizes volume 6 and described as "a transition volume that isn't really gripping."[37][38] M. Natali of Bd Gest gave a 3 out of 5 Score, stating that "Saiyuki Reload more or less skillfully relaunches the adventures of the shock quartet created by Kazuya Minekura."[39]