alt title(s): Sazan Eyes; Three By Three Eyes
Zombies have it made.
3x3 Eyes: The Legend of Trinetrâ
It has been a long time since I last thought of myself as a human being, my humanity taken away from me so long ago by an act of mercy by a creature of legends. A creature I would soon learn to love and to hate, a creature... no, a woman I would soon fall in love with, and for whom I would endure endless quests, always searching for my lost humanity, and for her redemption.
I have seen more pain and sorrow through these eyes of mine than I would deem possible for any living creature to endure and still keep its sanity. But I have also seen love, hope and happiness, and now, as an outside observer, I find myself able to better understand the miracle of life.
For now I dwell in the ways of the undead, fulfilling my duties as a Wu, the immortal guardian of one of the last of an ancient and powerful race of magicians, the Sanjiyan Unkara. And so shall I do until the day when I will earn back my right of final rest, either along with my beloved Pai's right of being human, or with our souls' final transmigration.
Yakumo Fujii is just an ordinary high school kid... with
a runaway mom and a missing anthropologist father and the resulting need to hold down a part-time job as a "waitress" in a gay bar. Then a mysterious
Tibetan girl named Pai shows up, claiming that his now-dead father sent her to Yakumo to "help her become human." Yakumo is not inclined to believe his dad's last message, to the effect that Pai is the last of a race of three-eyed demons called the Sanjiyan Unkara... until a thief accidentally unleashes her "pet," a giant bird-monster that goes on a rampage ending in Yakumo's death.
Except Pai isn't about to allow that to happen... as a third eye opens in her forehead, and Yakumo's soul is sucked out of his body and into hers, turning him into her Wu, or "undead" protector and slave. Now, their fates inextricably bound, Pai and Yakumo must navigate the perilous occult underworld in search of a way to change them
both into true human beings... and to foil the world-conquering plots of
Kaiyanwang, "Demon-Eye King" of the Sanjiyan, and his own Wu,
Benares.
Created by Yuuzo Takada, the author and artist of
Blue Seed and
All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku, 3x3 Eyes (pronounced Sazan Aizu) ran in Young Magazine from 1987 to 2002, was collected in forty manga volumes of which nine were translated by Dark Horse Comics, and spawned an OAV series adapting the first five. Plans for a 2003 TV series were scotched by Japanese censorship laws.
Although Dark Horse's official translation has been cancelled, an ongoing and nearly-complete
scanlation project may be found
here
.
This series provides examples of:
- Badass Normal: Yakumo sort of qualifies, as despite his phenomenal powers of regeneration he doesn't have any other superhuman capabilities and must get by on normal speed and strength. He does, however, learn a form of summoning magic early on, so...
- Body Horror: a lot, but most horrifying when it comes to the Hyouma Tribe and pregnancy...
- City In A Bottle: Amala; for bonus points, the bottle is in the Phantom Zone.
- Cute Little Fangs: Pai, very much so.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Happens a lot, but the results are haphazard -- there's no telling whether the foe will do a Heel Face Turn or a redeeming Heroic Sacrifice.
- Eyes Always Shut: Yakumo, although seeing them open isn't necessarily a sign that you should run away...
- First Episode Resurrection: and how.
- Gattaca Babies: the God Citizens of Amala.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Yakumo takes an amazing amount of punishment; fortunately he has a...
- Healing Factor: a Wu can regenerate any amount of damage up to and including complete vaporization.
- Lethal Chef: Pai's idea of cuisine is to gather a bunch of ingredients and use magic to fuse them together... into a rampaging building-size food monster, no less.
- Masquerade: subverted; demons and monsters hold humans in utter contempt, and have been in hiding only because of Kaiyanwang's orders to that effect. The masquerade begins to break down when Kaiyanwang is believed to have been killed, and by the end of the series the situation has devolved into a worldwide supernatural war.
- Meaningful Name: the Sanjiyan are all named after (or, seeing as how most of them are many thousands of years old, probably inspired the names of) Hindu gods -- Parvati, Shiva, Ratri, Ushas...
- Mons: Juuma (Beast Magic) creatures, apparently created by Benares as combat familiars; somewhat subverted in that they're mindless servitors rather than fighting "partners".
- One Hundred And Eight: Referenced through a demon that needs 108 paper talismans to bind it into the world.
- Our Souls Are Different: Wu retain their personalities and humanity (if they had it to begin with) despite having had their souls removed and "stored" in their Sanjiyan partners. One could argue that they're operating their bodies by remote control.
- Phantom Zone: the Voidspace.
- Sealed Evil In A Can: Kaiyanwang, within the Seima Stone.
- Shamgri La: the Seichi (Holy Land/Sacred Land), a pocket dimension accessible through worldgates called "kunlun."
- Soul Jar: any Sanjiyan with a Wu.
- Split Personality: innocent Genki Girl Pai and haughty hyper-Tsundere Parvati the Third. A common trait of aged Sanjiyan or those wearing a Shiva's Claw.
- The Mole: Shunkai poses as the benevolent Ms. Huang, financial backer of Yougekisha and patron of our heroes, for five years. (Not a spoiler, as the readers know this from the moment she first appears.)
- The Power Of Friendship: Pai is very, very devoted to the concept. Parvati... not so much.
- Time Skip: the four-year gap between volumes 2 and 3.
- Tomato In The Mirror: the snake demon Houasyou, amnesiac, disguised as and believing herself to be Pai.
- Took A Level In Badass: Yakumo takes advantage of the Time Skip to take several.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: the
Nine Three Dragon Generals, Uukai, D.D., and Talisman (nine is clearly too many for a Q.M.S., so their numbers were brutally cut in their first appearance).
