Gensomaden Saiyuki Requiem - Four Songs (Anime Music Review)

The full title is Gensomaden Saiyuki Requiem Character Song Mini Album - Four Songs. But it's rather too long to fit in the title at the top so it unfortunately had to be cut off. The essence of the title should still be there though.

The really long title of this music album also makes it very difficult to find. This includes information about the album and even its track list. If you do a search for this music album on the Internet, you most likely will not find relevant information and this is likely due to the fact that this music album has been mislabeled and misnamed.

If you look at this music album featured on the right (the first product), you can see a case-in-point of what I'm talking about.

As you can see, the music album is rather horribly misnamed.

How will those looking for the Saiyuki Four Songs music album find what they're looking for if it's being labeled as a Drama CD?

Hopefully, this hub will help people find what they're looking for.

I know how difficult it can be to scour the Internet and click on practically all the pages in Google's search results just to find what you're looking for. I must have typed every variation of this music album's title as well as practically all possible keywords related to the Saiyuki series just to get something from the search results.

Know that the series is also known as simply "Saiyuki". The spelling of Gensomaden also varies. Sometime, you'll see it spelled as "Gensoumaden" and, for some reason, even, "Genso Maden", which just adds to the difficulty of finding what you're looking for.

This hub will be making a lot of references to Gensomaden Saiyuki Requiem Movie because of its relation to the music album in question.

If you want more information about this movie, then you can just look at this.

Information regarding the 4 main characters of the Saiyuki series (the Sanzo-ikkou) as well as the Saiyuki series in general can also be found in this hub but if you want some more information, you can look at this.

This album contains 11 tracks but only 4 are songs. The rest are all instrumental music.

The 4 songs are each sung by the Sanzo-ikkou's respective seiyuus (voice actors).

Here is the track list for this album:

1. Solitude
2. Proud Of My Loneliness
3. Crimson
4. Sei Mei Sen... Something In My Mind
5. Solitude - this is the instrumental version
6. Proud Of My Loneliness - this is the instrumental version
7. Crimson - this is the instrumental version
8. Sei Mei Sen... Something In My Mind - this is the instrumental version
9. 劇場版BGM「最遊記」未発表バージョン1
10. 劇場版BGM「最遊記」未発表バージョン2
11. 劇場版BGM「最遊記」未発表バージョン3

The last three are all background instrumental music from the movie Gensomaden Saiyuki Requiem.

However, running the titles through Google Translate doesn't exactly bring results that necessarily make sense.

For instance, these are the meanings that Google Translate attributed to the last three numbers: Number 9 is this - Theater version BGM "Saiyuki" unreleased version 1. Number 10 is this - The Movie BGM "Saiyuki" unpublished version 2. And number 11 is this - The Movie BGM "Saiyuki" unreleased version 3.

But if you go to Amazon Japan's information page on the Four Songs music album, you'll be able to listen to very short samples of the entire album's track list.

This was sung by Seki Toshihiko who is Sanzo's seiyuu.

You can definitely hear Sanzo's voice in listening to this song.

This song sounds serious but it also has a nice catchy tune to it.

The words 'can't you see? It is my solitude' are sung in English.

The translated lyrics has much meaning with words and phrases like 'my wounds that demand a meaning have opened again, although I know there are no answers', and 'I who am searching, what do I want to see?'.

This song seems to be speaking of Sanzo who does have a dark and tragic past.

Aside from being an orphan, he had had to see his mentor and father figure, Komyou (or Koumyou) Sanzo, die right in front of him when he was still but a young child.

To top it off, the demons who offed Komyou also stole his Seiten Kyomon (the light sutra), which now rightfully belonged to Sanzo.

Now Sanzo is searching for his mentor's stolen memento.

Before he met Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai, it can be said that Sanzo was pretty much alone in spite of being surrounded by many other people because he wasn't close to any of them.

This was sung by Hoshi Soichiro who is Goku's seiyuu.

The song has a different tone to it that seems to sound like a mixture between serious and not-so-serious.

The title of the song is sung in English.

The translated lyrics has a lot of meaning with words and phrases like 'I'm free, the sadness forgotten, I have no interest in returning to that far off evening', and 'in unloosening chains, my heart is bound, unchanging, the sky I am gazing at is oppressively blinding'.

The song seems to be speaking of Goku who, in spite of his cheerful and happy-go-lucky nature, does have a sad past. He has previously been imprisoned in a cave for years where he was all alone.

He, of course, longed to be free, and he kept calling out to someone to come and save him.

It was Sanzo who eventually came to free him from that cave.

Sanzo had said that he could hear Goku's voice calling him and it was irritating and annoying him.

So he set out to look for Goku to tell him to shut up and stop calling him. In the end, when he found Goku, he ended up taking the brunet with him. With his three friends by his side, Goku isn't alone anymore. He's free and he has people to be there for him.

This was sung by Hirata Hiroaki who is Gojyo's seiyuu.

This song sounds very lively with such a catchy tune that really fits Gojyo's wonderful voice. The fun beat of the song is rather ironic though, considering the seriousness of the translated lyrics.

The translated lyrics has a lot of meaning with words and phrases like 'though I've looked for love this much, I haven't fallen', 'rather than living long, I want to end it all', 'I haven't stepped down from important things', 'I gave up on what I wanted long ago', and 'pain left behind from struggling fingertips, I can just call that the truth'.

The song seems to be speaking of Gojyo who, like the rest of the Sanzo-ikkou, has his own sad past.

Gojyo is actually a hanyou (a half-breed, half-human and half-demon) and this is signified by his red hair and eyes.

There are many people who consider hanyou as bad luck and say they are cursed, which leads to hanyous being shunned by most people.

Gojyo has had to experience this too. He sees his hair and eyes as the red color of blood.

And he hates this, having a lot of issues with this. Once, he even cut off his shoulder-length red hair.

This was sung by Ishida Akira who is Hakkai's seiyuu.

This isn't really like a song though because it's mostly Hakkai talking.

But there is background music and some parts are sort-of sung like the English words 'I have something in my mind, something so sweet'.

The translated words of what Hakkai is saying does have a lot of meaning to it with such lines as 'speak the words of beloved reasons and the purpose of human life', 'that day I chose to leave that town without so many things from long ago', and 'living embracing nothing but hatred'.

This is really like Hakkai speaking and telling those listening what's on his mind.

He also seems to be referencing his tragic past.

Hakkai's lover, Kanan, was abducted by demons.

He went to try to save her.

In his quest to do this, he ended up destroying a thousand demons, which turned him from a human into a demon.

His efforts were in vain though as, when he'd finally reached Kanan, he had to watch her end her life right in front of him. Hakkai still has issues and regrets about that of course. But, being with his three friends helped him not to dwell on the past and not let his demons keep haunting him all the time.

Gensomaden Saiyuki Requiem Character Song Mini Album - Four Songs is definitely a must-buy if you're a Saiyuki fan.

Not only are the songs amazing and great, they have also been sung by the seiyuus of the 4 main characters.

If you're unsure, then check out the song samples. You might find that you actually like the voices of the Sanzo-ikkou. Even the background and instrumentals sound good.

Pic credits: The images are enlarged pics of the products from Amazon.com

Sources:

• holdthelight.net/Pages/SaiyukiSongs via waybackmachine (for references to the translated lyrics)
• amazon.co.jp (for the track list)

Saiyuki and all things related to it is copyright to Kazuya Minekura.