|themes|
Reading is not reading unless your brain starts to hum with ideas after you've put down the book. As far as getting ideas to pump goes, Saiyuki is great reading. Each new issue brings thoughts, questions, and discussions right along with it. Although I won't tax you with putting down every single topic that pops into my head after reading Saiyuki [i.e. who exactly does the laundry, anyway?], I've decided to share some of the bigger topics that have come up in regards to Hakkai.

 
|hitomi|
Character descriptions of Hakkai will tell you he is partly blind from his right eye. In volume 4 we learn that this is because his right eye was wounded during his battle and massacre of Chin Ii Sou's clan. Later, in the manga, after he meets Gojyo, Hakkai rips out his right eye in order to meet a surviving clan member's demands for revenge [in the anime version, however, he never gets to rip out his eye; Goku stops him].

Now, after almost a year, and several very kind and informative E-mails later [domo to all who wrote in], I finally have the answer to the mystery of Hakkai's eye. In vol. 5, after Sanzou has brought Hakkai to stand trial, he asks how his eye is, and several people have told me that Hakkai does in fact have a surrogate or glass eye. The puzzler now is: Why wear a monocle if his real eye is gone? People joining in on the puzzling via E-mail have suggested that Hakkai's surrogate eye might still grant him some level of vision, but, in all, the puzzling continues.

Hakkai is certainly not the first character in manga to have lost an eye. Good old Seishiro Sakurazuka has also lost an eye, as well as Subaru Sumeragi (in X). André, from Versailles no Bara, also received a wound in his eye that left him partly blind. This similarity between André's and Hakkai's situations is where my mind begins to buzz again. In Versailles no Bara, as in real life, André's damaged right eye eventually begins to take a toll on the left. Sadly, by the end of the manga he has gone blind. It's not improbable that the same will happen to Hakkai. Minekura has already hinted at this possibility. In volume 6 (p. 118), Hakkai is slumped over Jeep's steering wheel, preoccupied because his eyesight has gone blurry. In the Saiyuki OVA, exposure to bright fireworks causes his eyesight to blur as well. This is exactly how André's near blindness began, until the blurring became more and more acute and he lost complete vision in his right eye. Because this places so much strain on the left eye it also begins to fail and can eventually go blind as well. It would be interesting to know what kind of aid or problems Hakkai's wearing of a monocle might entail. In theory the monocle would bring his right eye's vision up to speed with the left's. Something tells me a monocle might not be the most practical solution, though, since it would generate a difference between Hakkai's right and left eyes anyway, therefore still putting pressure on them. Not to mention that balancing that thing on his nose must give Hakkai terrific mid afternoon headaches.

 
|seinen ai|
Whether you're a fan or not, there's really no running away from YAOI [an acronym used loosely by the Online manga community to identify any homosexual situations in manga or anime] when it comes to stories with male characters that number somewhere around four or five. It's a fact of life. Usually this phenomenon is called shounen ai [boy's love], but since three of the four Saiyuki characters are 20 something [Hakkai is 22] the term can't be used here. That's why this section is called seinen [adult] as opposed to shounen ai. But I digress. My point is that you just can't run away from YAOI or shounen ai. It'll spring out of the woodwork and either draw you right in or send you running for the hills. In my own personal case, homosexual themed manga has brought me to a neutral position: I'm not as big a fan as most of my friends and family and their friends and most of the world, but I don't hate it at all. I quite like it sometimes if the story is sweet, realistic, honest, and unabashedly romantic.

Another reason I don't bother to search out Saiyuki YAOI is that I'm not a big fan of Saiyuki fan art or doujinshi. I am fully enamoured of Minekura's art style, and I really can't picture the characters as anything but what I see in the manga. This is not to say that there isn't some great Saiyuki fan art out there, but my favourite pictures are usually those that stick closely to the original. I should tell you that this is usually not the case with me, since one of the perks of fan art is precisely that: to see new renditions of the characters. But in Saiyuki's particular case I'm keeping my distance, therefore also placing a distance between myself and the many Saiyuki fan art and doujinshi [i.e. YAOI] being made public.

However, I do have my own, rather strong opinion on the matter. This is also an oddity for me. I usually recognize the validity of most pairings if the story gives good reasons for them. Saiyuki, however, has re-awakened memories of the teeth gnashing frustration Gundam Wing fan's preference for Treize and Wufei rather than Treize and Zechs [as I personally preferred to have it] occasioned in me. You see, as I surf Saiyuki sites I keep coming across the following pair: Sanzo and Hakkai. Every time I see this I think: why do so many fans do this? My theory is that these fans realize it's quite a feat to talk to the monk and live to tell about it. Hakkai's ability to talk to Sanzo and emerge unharmed must have been interpreted as Sanzo having feelings for Hakkai. There's also the fact that in volume 5 Sanzo seems to go out of his way to get Hakkai to join him in his journey. So support exists for this pairing, and there's no logical reason for me to oppose it. But it still doesn't quite strike a note with me.

I strongly believe Hakkai belongs with Gojyo. Like Quatre and Trowa in Gundam Wing, these two characters share a wholly comfortable and easy friendship that can easily be interpreted as something deeper than friendship. In volume 5, for example, Gojyo is shown leaning over Hakkai as he sleeps in Gojyo's bed, their faces merely inches apart (p. 15). This scene strikes me as cheerfully blatant homosexual innuendo, and it's hard to ignore. It's also pretty hard to ignore the fact that Hakkai and Gojyo have exchanged one too many secret smiles, and that Minekura placed a very poignant emphasis on how Gojyo's short separation from the group (volume 8) affected Hakkai. It isn't Sanzo or Goku who look at Gojyo's abandoned beer cans and cigarette stumps; it's Hakkai. This scene [the first of chapter 43, "Be Lacking," in volume 8] speaks volumes to me. There is an unmistakable bond between these two characters, and anyone who knows that Minekura is a regular at Chara, a popular homosexual themes manga magazine, would be a bit blind to not realize that homosexual innuendo is part and parcel of Minekura's stories. We're supposed to pick up on these signs between Hakkai and Gojyo, and for the first time in my life as a manga fan I'm quite happily picking up these signals and unabashedly championing this sweet, comfortable couple. It's because of this that I feel a bit defensive when anyone breaks up the pair. Not that I torch Sanzo x Hakkai exponents, of course. I still believe in everyone's right to pair whatever characters they feel would look great together. But in my heart of hearts it will always be Gojyo and Hakkai forever.

 
|tsumi|
It never ceases to amaze me how spirituality and travel seem to go hand in hand. All the way down from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales to the modern era people have been hitting the wide open road in order to find themselves. The grand journey of life, if you will. Saiyuki is no exception. Whether on foot or piled into Jeep, the Sanzoikkou [that marvellous time-saving term that stands, more or less, for "Sanzo and those travelling with him"] have set out on a journey whose aim is not so much Gyuuma Ou but themselves. This spiritual quality of their journey is both a plus and minus in Saiyuki. It's a minus because the plot, stopping the resurrection of Gyuuma, takes one great back seat to the personal growth of the characters, which is in its turn the plus. In other words: the actual plot of Saiyuki is really rather weak, but it's upheld by the many interesting characters hurtling towards it. Gyuuma be damned. It's the journey we're here for.

Unlike other spiritually charged manga and anime, though, who use their Western religion images as little more than exotic embellishment [X and Neon Genesis Evangelion come to mind], Saiyuki seems genuine in its religious questioning. The concept of sin is in itself one of Saiyuki's firmest backbones. Sanzo openly questions the existence of gods, Dokugakuji has sexual relations with his mother, most of the characters murder in cold blood, Kinkaku and Ginkaku set out to judge "evil" people, and Hakkai is in love with his own sister. All of these themes come together to form a larger picture, a picture of people striving to come to terms with their sins, seeking forgiveness and understanding.

I believe that, after Sanzo and his avowed atheism, it is Hakkai who embodies the most questions of sin and forgiveness. His sin is one that makes many people uncomfortable, even in this modern world where sex is much more openly and honestly presented. Hakkai is in love with his own sister, Kanan, and lives with her for a time as her lover: incest. The manga, however, doesn't judge Hakkai. He judges himself [he openly calls himself a sinner] and presents himself to the others in the hopes that they'll forgive and understand him. Because this is a book, though, with an active audience, the reader finds her/himself being asked to forgive Hakkai as well. As active readers we also take part in the Sanzoikkou's spiritual journey. You can almost hear priests, whether Buddhist or Catholic, intoning "find compassion within yourself, learn to forgive." It's a strange yet powerful feeling.

What's strange is that Hakkai's greatest guilt doesn't really seem to come from incest, but from the murders he committed when Kanan was kidnapped and raped. Is Minekura asking us then to understand Hakkai's position? Not forgive him because we believe he might change the way he feels, but forgive him without any change in him. Accept him as he is. For some this might be asking too much. "What's next?" they might say, "forgiving child abusers?" I agree with them. But, at the same time, Hakkai's case opens up one more point that has generated much theological discussion: what is the extent of Hakkai's sin if both he and Kanan became lovers willingly?

This is a hard question to answer, and I am unable to give an answer. I am not a priest, and my opinions on the matter don't carry much weight. My faith is not particularly strong, either. I have come to see the world as stretching out beyond gods and one particular theological belief. To me Hakkai's intense guilt is a source of pity. If Sanzo is right and there are no gods, then why feel guilty? Hakkai might be putting himself through mental anguish for no reason. But what if Sanzo is wrong? What if there is a God or gods? Either way, Hakkai certainly believes, so in his case the answer to the question of whether gods exist or not is irrelevant. Faith is funny that way. Once you believe it's hard to shake off the beliefs you've carried with you since childhood. Hakkai was raised by Catholic nuns [as can be seen in an extra story at the end of volume 7], so the concept of sin must be strongly ingrained in his mind. Even if he stops believing in God guilt will still creep in. It's been programmed into him, as it has been programmed into all of us, regardless of which religion we grew up with.

I believe it's not hard to forgive Hakkai, though. I have chosen to forgive him. It's not my place to judge or question him, and if Saiyuki helps anyone else to be less judgmental, then amen.