@TimeChaser:

Thanks for giving it a shot. And even if the manga doesn't grab you the way it did me, you could still enjoy our story. Once I've finished off chapter 10 for re-posting on fanfiction.net, I'll see what I can do about getting ch. 1 (or at least part of it - lengthy chappies you see) up on this site. Thanks for the interest. ^^

You'll get a pic of the final OC, Chris, as soon as Shika does some editing on her. Her face and expression are my favorite of the four. Look forward to it. ^^

@TwistedCyberChick:

Hm, sound's more cost-effective to get the manga if I do become interested. I promise to at least give it a look-see and not dismiss it outright ^^

Hey, I read Angel Sanctuary, that's very shoujo too. I started off reading mostly shoujo manga. Mostly what I read is either shoujo or seinen, rather than shounen, so it doesn't bother me at all ^^ I'm very open to reading anything as long as I find it entertaining.

Can't wait to see your story start ^^

@TimeChaser:

Not that you want a dissertation on the manga or anything, but...
Aside from us adoring the english VAs (Illich Guardiola!!) and its whitty screenplay, the manga really is better than the under-budgeted anime. No filler from the mangaka. ^^ You have 9 volumes of Saiyuki, and so far 7 of Saiyuki Reload (which is of course just a continuation of the original, but was switched to a different magazine publication, hence the name change). Kazuya Minekura really came into her own with the drawing style around volume 3.

The reason I say it's mainly for chicks is because of the bishounen-heavy characters and lots of emotional and relationship happenings. Nothing shounen ai, like I said before, just a high proportion of character development and backstory in comparison to action, considering it purports to be equaling appealing to guys as it is to girls. It puts on this guise of being shounen, but it has so many aspects of a shojo piece. That's what's allowed Saiyuki to escape the notice of the masses. It can't quite make up it's mind. But that fine with me. It's exactly the feel you get from our fic, Sanzo Wannabe. Blood, violence and death drives our tale of four complicated guys meeting our own complicated girls. It fits right in with the Saiyuki feel. If you're willing to sit and read through at least one full volume, you'll get a pretty good feel for what the story is like, and whether or not you'd enjoy it. I'm glad that I can appreciate it. I hope you can too. ^^

Heh, long posts ^^

OK, I'll just respond to both in one comment:
I have of course heard of Saiyuki, I know other people who are into it, but I've never read it or watched it. Probably because it's quite long already and I'm skittish about getting into anything new these days, especially one that's rather long. Next time I'm at the bookstore though, I might pick up one of the mangas and skim through it. Who knows, I may like what I see ^^

Heh, fan-spazzing is understandable and allowed ^^

@TimeChaser:

Funny thing about that - we scanned this picture dozens of times and the stupid friggin' thing always cut off what it deemed "unnecessary empty space", which always managed to include the ends of her fingers. Weeks later, we stuck sticky notes all over it to try and force it to scan the whole thing - it finally did, but re-defuzzifying the picture for upload seemed like too much of a pain. So, what you get is me and my untrained drawing sense trying to recreate fingers. Not a good idea, but Shika was too busy with school to spend the tedious long hour or so doing it herself in paint.

I've always liked how Savannah's overall form turned out. She seems the most realistic, and since Shika likes her the most, I'm sure she had a clearer image of exactly what she wanted her to look like in mind.

Thanks for commenting on all of these. Have you seen or read any of Saiyuki yourself? It is aimed at women (girls really) but I've known plenty of guys that enjoy it, one in particular being the real reason we ever started this fanfic - Greg Ayres, Goku's voice actor in the show, and perhaps the character's biggest fan. We met him at a con, fell in love with the adorable man, and got him to read and review the first chapter of the fic on fanfiction.net. We were thrilled to hear his enthusiastic input, so the next time we saw him, we handed him a hard copy of the first four chapters, bound, complete with Shika's drawings and a CD with chapter theme music. He said it was KA and hugged us both. It's times like that that make us very glad to be writing this story.

Massive comment. Sorry 'bout that. ^_^'

Wow, I really like this character design. Great drawing ^^

Heh, I see how you kept one hand mostly out of the picture. The raised one is not bad though, index finger could be just a tad longer maybe.