Here is the Saiyuki overview and character analysis compiled for those interested in Saiyuki anime and manga fanfiction.

Many thanks to whymzycal for her beta skills and fact-checking. I couldn't have done it without her corrections and support!

Some scanned images from AnimePaper.Net, some screencaps from Saiyuki Reload and Gunlock Gallery.

( WARNING: Spoiler and Image Heavy. )

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series
Pairing: Xander gen (mentions Xander/Cordelia and Cordelia/Wesley)
Author on LJ: fiareynne
Author Website: Whedonism (out of date, for more current storiesyou can search her tags by pairing or fandom)
Why this must be read: Among those of us who are Xander fans, there was a small outcry that Xander was not referenced after the events of Angel's season four and season five's "You're Welcome". He was Cordelia's boyfriend, he loved her in his own way. So fanfic has made up for it. Fia's Fire and Rain gives us Xander finding out about her death and making his way to Los Angeles and talking with both Angel and Wesley. All the while we get flashbacks to conversations he had with her from the moment she left Sunnydale. No matter what happened between them, Xander and Cordelia will always have feelings for each other and Fia gives us that friendship. The very poignant end gives the reader all of Cordelia's men (Xander, Angel and Wesley) mourning for her. It's a beautiful thing.

Fire and Rain

I'm delighted to drive the anime/manga fanfic rec van this month, which features mangaka Kazuya Minekura's exciting adventure story, Saiyuki. I hope the recs will inspire you to look up her beautiful artwork and storytelling.

Cheers,
Phae

Fandom:: Anime/Manga, Saiyuki
Title: One Bird to Sing: Origami Remix
Pairing: Genfic.
Author: Oyce springgreen
Author Website: none
Rating: G

Why this fic must be read:

When reincarnation is one of the main themes of Saiyuki's overarching story, leitmotifs arise, and for Goku, one of the main recurring ones would be of a bird; for 500 years, the only creature that came to visit him was the single bird which flew through the bars of his cage, its ability to fly bearing the weight of all his formless desires. The freedom of flight, itself, becomes another leitmotif in the form of folded paper airplanes, those that Sanzo Koumyou made for his young charge, Kouryuu, which later became the carriers of Go Dougan's curses. Both the birds, origami paper cranes and the paper airplanes would meet through sensitivity and teaching skills of Field Marshal Tenpou or in their more vulgar "crumpled ball of paper" form. Oyce's story --- a very original take on two drabbles (sadly, friendslocked) by tadity --- wheels through Saiyuki with the lazy ease of a paper airplane flying over many of the subplots, many manifestations of the same characters, many ages and periods, accumulating all sorts of meaning, but remaining light as air.