3x3 Eyes

Overview:

3x3 Eyes is a series most older anime fans have heard of, but relatively few have actually seen. The manga is a 40 volume epic that ran from 1987 to 2002. In the United States, Dark Horse adapted the first few volumes of the manga thanks to some generous financing by rock musician Rob Zombie. Thanks Rob! Unfortunately, nobody bought it and Dark Horse soon cancelled. Basically, this was never a very popular franchise in America despite the best efforts of a certain Hellbilly. On the other hand, 3x3 Eyes was a huge hit in Japan and I guarantee you've all seen tropes that this series started.


Adaptation issues:

I mentioned the manga was 40 volumes, but guess how long the anime is? Just 7 episodes! The first OVA is 4 episodes and the second is 3 episodes! Both OVA series were made long before the manga finished, so the anime just kind of ends with no real conclusion. It also has a VERY rushed feeling. It doesn't have any time to really build up its characters or explain the little details. In the first episode, the demon girl Pai runs into a drag bar and meets our main character. He claims he's not a transvestite and only does this for money, but nothing further is explained. How the HELL did he stumble upon this job of all things? Why is he so desperate for money? The manga has time to explain stuff like this, but the anime just wants to cover as much plot as it possibly can. You'll have a million questions and the answer is always "Go read the manga".


Plot and characters

Deep in the mountains of Tibet, there was once a powerful race of demons. These demons were immortal and immortality tends to lead to eventual insanity and endless suffering. So, the demons created a magical statue that turned them human and gave them the gift of mortality. Unfortunately, one of the demons wasn't present for the ceremony and has spent 100 years searching for the statue and trying to become human. This last member of the 3 eyed, Tibetan demons is a girl named Pai. A Japanese archeologist discovers Pai and promises to help her, but soon contracts a fatal illness. On his death bed, he sends Pai to find his son Yakumo in Tokyo, so that Yakumo can carry out the promise in his stead. Too bad for Pai, other species of demons desire her powers and pursue her relentlessly. One of these demons quickly kills Yakumo, but Pai absorbs his soul and saves his life by making him an immortal undead. Now he's bound to Pai as her immortal servant and together they need to search for the statue, which could potentially turn both Pai and Yakumo back into mortals.

While only 9,000 people on MAL have seen 3x3, around 250,000 have seen "Is This a Zombie". That series was basically created as a spoof of this one. A magical girl turns a hapless guy into her immortal undead servant. Remember Highschool DxD? That was ALSO created as a complete ripoff/spoof of 3x3. Familiar of Zero? Also wouldn't exist without 3x3.

However, 3x3 wasn't just a huge influence on a sub-genre of echii. Pai's immortality caused her to lose her sanity and develop an extra personality she talks to. Whenever Pai is in danger, she switches between her sweet and innocent persona to her bad bitch persona. Both Chobits and Elfen Lied were originally created as tributes to 3x3 Eyes. While almost nobody outside Japan has seen this series, almost ALL anime fans have seen something it directly inspired.

Art:

The art is actually some solid work by Toei, which is something I rarely get to say. This was a 1991 OVA and Japan still had plenty of money for generous animation budgets back then. 3x3 effectively uses a dark color palette to create a moody and gothic atmosphere. The character designs are pretty neat, although it's kind of weird to watch an anime where everyone has teeth. Every time somebody opens their mouths, they have teeth and prominent incisors. It's shocking for me to not just see an upside down red triangle that flaps open and shut.

Music:

It's a Kaoru Wada soundtrack. Have you seen Inuyasha? Have you seen Ninja Scroll? You've basically heard this soundtrack.


Overall,

While far from a perfect adaptation, 3x3 is a pretty decent OVA and is fascinating for fans of anime history. Before watching this series, I had no idea how incredibly influential it was on other anime! Since this is only 7 episodes, I highly recommend giving it a try!

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3x3 eyes is originally a supernatural manga series of the same name, which spans over 40 volumes, but this OVA made in 1991 gives us a taster of the manga by covering the first two volumes. And they do this quite well, firstly by not falling into the trap of trying to give us a conclusion and neither does it rely on previous knowledge of the manga, which many short running OVAs of long running mangas do. It does exactly what it should do, introduce newcomers to the world of 3x3 eyes and let fans already of the series get an idea of what an anime adaption of the whole series would possibly (and hopefully) look like.

3x3 eyes is about Yakumo, a sixteen year old student, who is working in a gay bar, as a cross-dresser in order to make ends meet. He meets Pai, an immortal, who has been sent by his estranged and now dead father from Tibet to help her become human. To really make sure he follows through with this, Yakumo is turned immortal himself and the only way to turn back is by helping Pai. This is the first episode and the basic premises of the plot has been set, you are already pulled into the supernatural world of monsters, immortals and magic with Yakumo. Usually something like this would come off a bit unnatural due to the fast pace of the story and all the elements being introduced so quickly, but somehow it works, especially when you watch all the OVA. The four episodes gives you a good idea of what type of story of 3x3 eyes is and also leaves you on a bit of a cliffhanger at the end just to leave those who haven't read the series to want more.

I thought what was quite well done is after their little adventure in the first episode was how Yakumo still found the whole thing quite unsettling, since he couldn't just get up and leave his whole way life like that. It is realistic for anyone in his position, as it isn't the easiest thing to go off and leave your friends and your whole way of life to go off on an adventure with someone to become human. Most series of this kind have the protagonists suffer this kind of dilemma, but they related it very well to a major point of the series: what's so great about being mortal, or better said what's so great about being human? They tie this in quite nicely.

The art is quite nice and has certainly stood against time and each character is realistic looking, Yakumo actually looks like a Japanese boy. How many times do you get a Japanese boy actually looking like, well, a Japanese boy in anime? Yakumo's eyes is a good example of this, they are mostly closed since they are supposed to be slit eyes, you know the eyes Japanese actually do have. The animators uses the art also to show the split personalities Pai has, by making her have more gentle features to represent her cheerful and child-like personality. The second personality is not only distinguished by the opening of her 3rd eye, but also alter her whole face expression to represent her arrogant and cold personality.

I'll give a special mention to the background of Hong Kong, I loved it! The grittiness of the markets in the final episode is tastefully done.

There is very little to say about the sound, nothing too out of order. A bit dated, but typical of its time, 90s background music with synths thrown in for good measure. It suits the mood of the anime, as it's quite dark, especially the main theme.

Our two protagonists are both interesting characters, who don't fall into the trap of cliché anime characters. Yakumo is a good-hearted sixteen-year-old, who means well. It was nice to find an anime character, who I thought I could actually be friends with. He is just very likable. (Seriously people, most of characters in anime do you think you could actually handle them for more than 10 minutes in real life?) Pretty much by the end of the series, most of his body has been broken in some kind of way, good thing he's immortal, isn't it? So you'd want to like him.

Now, Pai really is up there with one of the most original characters in anime, a schizophrenic girl: one personality is sweet and innocent, the other is stoic and ruthless. Both have their merits and neither of them irritate you, even the colder persona grows on you, unlike another schizophrenic in another series I could mention! Her multi-personality is also reference to the Hindu deity of Parvati, since firstly that's the name of her second personality, who was known to have several personalities. This was another favourable aspect of the series since they used some culture background to help create characters and certain plot devices, but neither wholly relied on it that you suddenly needed to start picking up textbooks or wikipedia -(ing) on the Hindu religion.

The other characters each proved their worth and were all likable. I had a little soft spot for Lee Ling Ling, deputy editor for an occult magazine, but doesn't believe in the occult and just uses it as a vice to make money. And she can really kick ass!

So why did I give it 8 instead of something higher, well, the problem was 3x3 eyes isn't my cup of tea. So why all these positives you may ask? It did everything well and everything I've stated here is the truth, but you see it still does not make me want to go off and read the manga. 3X3 eyes is quite a classic and is something every enthusiast of anime and manga should read or watch at some point, as it's the first to use this storyline and do it better than most. I did want to know some more at the end of the series, since the audience is left on a cliffhanger and I'll definitely go and watch the second set of OVA, but I'll spare myself the manga. This is simply something to do with my taste of anime and manga rather than with the series. I would recommend a watch (it's only 4 episodes long) and see how you fair this!

The 3x3 eyes OVA gives us a good idea about what to expect from the manga and the producers use the 4 episodes to introduce the series quite well without trying to outdo itself. It does what it set out to do and you couldn't ask for anymore than that!

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This anime looks old and sounds even older. Although the animation and sound quality both come off as rather dated, the former is still quite pleasant whilst the same cannot be said for the latter. The voice acting is also quite unrefined by today's standards, but the sound track absolutely kicks ass, sporting a range of different tracks from oriental style instrumental pieces to jazzy, upbeat vocal songs.

The contents of "3x3 Eyes" reminds me slightly of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", as it involves a couple of people going around killing weird monsters, but it's more bloody than Buffy. The action scenes are pretty awesome, but the storyline's pretty thin: they slay monsters in order to obtain this statue of humanity thing. And then in the next episode, the statue gets lost again so they end up having to do it all over. Yeah... not exactly the most intricate of plots. Just to top it up, it had a pretty crappy ending too. I didn't really like the humour contained in the anime either. The anime's saving grace lies in its central pair of characters - they were very likeable and it was interesting watching their relationship grow.

That pretty much sums it up I think - there's really not much more that can be said about an action heavy OVA that only has 4 episodes. :P

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3x3 eyes is a hit written by Takada Yuzo. During its time it had a huge impact, getting several video games and a couple OVAs This one from Toei animation. The second from Studio Junio. It would have even had a full tv series but that was prevented by censorship laws, which may be a good illustration to my "censorship is evil" belief but it's been largely forgotten with the passage of time. The question is, why was it so big and does it hold up today?

3x3 Eyes is the story of a three eyed demon named Pai who comes to Japan to find Fuji Yakumo, the son of a professor who promised her that his son would help make her human in his place. To save his life she turns him into an immortal demon, which is lucky for him since he takes damage that should kill him a lot, and the two head to Hong Kong to find the Statue of Humanity. The story is nicely put together with a lot of epic action sequences and good suspense. It's heavily influenced by Hindu mythos which leads to some interesting moments. However, it does have issues. The biggest one is the romance. It feels really rushed, unnatural and sappy. The other issues are that, like Battle Angel, the story is incomplete, and there's a tonal shift in the third episode that's just jarring.

The characters are mostly pretty well done, although the only thing that keeps Pai from being annoying is the fact that she has two personalities and her demon personality is very interesting. The way Yakumo's friends react to him when he tells them he's an immortal demon vs. when they see proof is very nicely done and has a lot of realism. Even the minor characters are pretty interesting and there's no named character who doesn't have an impact on the plot.

The art is dated, but is pretty good regardless. The monster, set and costume designs are all very detailed. The Hindu influence on the monster design is very strong and creates a very stylised feel.

The voice work is excellent. Hayashibara Megumi uses a completely different tone for both of Pai's personalities which really helps illustrate their differences while simultaneously acknowledging their similarities. Tsujitani Kouji, Ootsuka Akio, Tanaka Mayumi and Orikasa Ai all do fantastic jobs as well. The music is spectacular. It suits the atmosphere perfectly and sounds very polished and epic. The only issue is that the sound quality suffers in a few scenes.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. This is another series where the female characters don't interact with each other much.

My final rating for 3x3 eyes is a 7/10. While it has some problems, it's easy to see why it was such a big hit. If you're trying to figure out whether or not to read the manga watching this is a pretty good way of telling whether or not you'd like it. Even if you've already read the manga it's nice to see the opening events animated and the art, voice acting and music are all good enough to merit checking out.

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