This semester, CJAS will be showing both of the OVA series for 3x3 ("Sazan") Eyes, a story based on a very long-running manga by Takada Yuuzo. Takada's other works include Every Day is Sunday, All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl ("Nuku Nuku"), and Blue Seed. Takada not only has a certain affinity for good-looking women, mean-looking monsters, and military hardware, but his Takada Band has done most or all of the soundtracks!

Sazan Eyes, like many other anime we show, is based on a manga which isn't yet finished. The OVA series we'll show cover roughly the first two story arcs in a manga over thirty volumes long. The most important thing to know about are the Sanjiyan, a race of mythical three-eyed beings with mystical powers that are almost godlike in scope. Ancient and mysterious, this race and its kingdom supposedly perished somewhere in the Himalayas long ago -- but letting it go at that would of course be too boring. That's where Yakumo, a schoolboy who works part time at a bar in the red-light district, comes in. His father is a famous archaeologist who's been on a quest for the Sanjiyan's origins; when a real live Sanjiyan comes home to stay with Yakumo, the trouble's just beginning.

I won't give too much away about the series in this article, but there are a couple of interesting things for which to watch. Hayashibara Megumi (whose voice credits are too numerous to list here) voices the Sanjiyan "Pai" in both her innocuous and menacing moments. The amount of range displayed could serve as some sort of yardstick by which to judge other seiyuu [voice actors -Ed.]. Another note: the bar Yakumo works in features cross-dressing "waitresses" and manager "Mama-san". According to Nicholas Bornoff's Pink Samurai, such practices are relatively common in Japan's "entertainment" industry; the workers there are not overly out of place, and are not necessarily gay.