Title: 3x3 Eyes

Creator: Yuzo Takada

Year:  2002

Manga Incarnations:

3x3 Eyes - 40 Volumes (Dark Horse Comics - 8 volumes only)

Anime Incarnations:

3x3 Eyes - 5 part OVA series (Manga Entertainment - VHS)

Computer Game Incarnations:

3x3 Eyes - Super Nintendo(Yutaka)
3x3 Eyes: Juuma Houkan - Super Nintendo (Banpresto)
Seima Densetsu 3x3 Eyes - Sega Mega CD (Sega)
3x3 Eyes - Sega Saturn (Nippon Create)
3x3 Eyes - Sony PlayStation (Xing Entertainment)
3x3 Eyes: Tenrinou Genmu - Sony PlayStation (King Records)
3x3 Eyes: Sanjiyan Hensei - PC Engine CD (NCS)
3x3 Eyes: Sanjiyan Henjyo - FM Towns PC (Nippon Create)
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Overview:
A schoolboy is granted the curse of immortality by Pai, the last survivor of a mythical demon race.  The boy, Yakumo, must learn to deal with his curse and also his duty to protect Pai and her demonic alter ego, the Sanjiyan.  In order to help Pai achieve her goal of becoming human Yakumo must face demons, death and fear, leave behind all that he knows and embark on a quest that will take him across Asia and across dimensions.
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Random Trivia:

1.  Yuzo Takada continued the 3x3 Eyes manga alongside his other projects from 1987 to 2003.

2.  There are a staggering 40 collected volumes of the manga available in Japan.

3.  '3x3' is pronounced 'sazan' in Japanese, and is used in the title as a phonetic pun on the name of Yuzo Takada's favourite band - the Southern All Stars.

4.  The 3x3 Eyes anime has been shown in the UK on Channel 4.

5.  Despite the popularity of the series in the West, none of the computer games listed above were released outside of Japan.

6.  The early manga has been re-released in Japan in a series of immense 700 page books.

7.  The original English language release of the first volume of the manga featured a foreword by former White Zombie frontman and House of 1000 Corpses director Rob Zombie.

8.  The later manga heavily references Hindu mythology, for example principal villain Kaiyan-Wang is often referred to as Shiva - the Hindu god of destruction.  Several of the spells are written in Sanskrit too.

9.  3x3 Eyes also draws inspiration from Osamu Tezuka's classic series The Three Eyed Prince.

10.  Despite the popularity of the series Dark Horse Comics stopped releasing the English translation of it at volume 8 after poor pre-sales of volume 9.

11.  Yuzo Takada admits that Pai is an evolution of a character called Pink from his earlier series Tokonatsu Bank.
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If you like this try:

Blue Seed  (Anime - ADV Films)
Inu-Yasha A Feudal Fairytale (Anime/Manga - Viz)
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