I’ve been watching the English dubs of Saiyuki. I have been renting the DVD’s from netflix and watching them slowly. I can’t seem to sit and watch the entire DVD in one sitting, but I have managed to sit and watch it in less than a week. It used to take me a little more than a week to work my way through one Saiyuki DVD.

What am I telling this to you for?

It occurred to me that I was watching an anime I didn’t like, but I couldn’t stop watching it. I have no intention of blogging this particular show. If I wanted to blog about a crappy show, there are crappier shows than Saiyuki.

There is a medical condition commonly known as cutting, more prominent in teenage girls, in which the affected individual finds pleasure in causing themselves bodily harm by slicing their skin. This can also be related to the term masochism, were the individual actually enjoys pain. This is apposed to Sadism, in which the individual enjoys inflicting pain. There appears to be a strong psychological component to these behaviors.

When I was in high school and my early college days when I worked part time in grocery stores and fast food, I knew people who did enjoy cutting themselves. . .or other people. I can’t say that I don’t like a little pain physical/mental now and then, but I don’t exactly seek it out. However, I think my inability to stop watching Saiyuki man be psychologically related to these behaviors.

Notes: I’m still working on my Jigoku Shoujo final thoughs post. It should be the next item I post.