3x3 eyes is a fantasy-horror manga which takes inspiration from oriental legends, but heavily mixed with original elements from its author's own (insane :) fantasy.
Until recently, it was difficult to find in Italy, but now it's going to be reprinted. In the US, AFAIK 3x3 Eyes is running on Super Manga Blast monthly anthology

3x3 eyes (original title: Sazan Eyes, written 3x3 Eyes) - Fantasy/Horror by Yuzo Takada, published in Japan since 1987 by Kodansha

The main character is a young girl, Pai, last of the Sanzhiyan Hum Kara, three-eyed people, ancient and powerful demons famous for knowing the secret of immortality and eternal youth.
Pai, though, wishes to give up her powers and become a human being; a normal Japanese student, Yakumo Fujii, would help her to achieve this goal, but when she at last finds him he has a mortal accident. Pai then saves Yakumo's life thanks to her powers, making him her Wu (immortal servant)... Yakumo can only turn back to human together with her.
Things are of course not so simple: Pai, for instance, has two personalities, one naive and sweet, the other (her more adult half) ancient and experienced. Many dark beings want to get their hands on her powers, among them Benares, Wu of the powerful and evil Sanzhiyan who destroyed his own race and who had been imprisoned by a magic seal.
Benares of course wants his master's resurrection...

This is a rather long manga series: it spreads through 40 volumes (and ended in Japan in november 2002).
In plot construction and ideas this is my favourite seires ever. It may not be the state of art, especially since after a while it lost some of its appeal; but we're talking about something good, Yuzo Takada certainly knows how to tella a tale by mixing a few details a time, almost frustrating sometimes the reader's curiosity - almost, revelations are interrupted by the story going on with great style.
By the way, this is the very reason it's a good choice if you like to read things through many times: in fact, one is often likely to miss small connections the first time one reads, and I just like the feeling of seeing plot twists fitting just as logical consequences of what was prepared before. A thing you don't see so often, unfortunately I must say. I highly recommend 3x3 Eyes then, especially if you're looking for a good action or fantasy manga story.

The artwork goes through a significant evolution in the series, and we see two main style changes. In general, Takada seems to like solid, round shapes; and he seems to love creating new supernatural beings, often at least part human.
These monsters show a wide variety, and so do the various magical elements presented. Characters are well diversified, even secondary characters have each their own characteristics and are easy to tell apart one from another even after a long time since their last apparition (well, almost always that is, considering the changes in art styles - especially the latter is quite a radical one).
Expression of emotions is very good; "special effects" in the first few volumes sometimes don't feel just quite right, but the art improves afterwards; backgrounds are well detailed, without exceeding though.



The script well merges story and art; especially when revealing plot elements (the critical points) it always goes on smoothly, with a good sense of rythm. Characters are well diversified from the point of view of the plot too: they all have their personality, shown by carefully placing details, and acts consequently.
In fact, the story can be divided into two parts: the first (the first two story arcs, from the author's point of view :) has a plot revealed little by little, like the pieces of a puzzle slowly put each into its place, always perfectly fitting into what was already known (apart a few very small changes); while in the second part, perhaps because (almost?) all the pieces seem to have been shown, the story becomes more linear (though there are flashback details revealed at the very end of the story, so linearity is not complete). Here and there the suspence is broken by small comic episodes, really enjoyable. And then there are a number of "interludes", right from the beginning in fact, though later they tend to stretch across more pages (perhaps too many?). The general effect if of having a coral story, anyway, and they give importance to many secondary characters: they also give the story more vivacity, certainly without these interludes 40 volumes would become pretty repetitive. In some of these interludes the main characters may even not make an appearance, or just be seen in the background, but usually it's just the "main story" that's put away for a moment. They are much more than just fillers anyway, whether those secondary characters come out later or not. Sometimes it's a way of introducing new characters which are to become of utter importance for the main story arc (like Ushas).
Without spoiling you anything, I can just say that the ending of the story is in tune with certain premises; perhaps not that much of a surprise, especially if you collect hints here and there, but certainly not without emotions, nor completely open and somewhat frustrating like some endings by Rumiko Takahashi (and many others); on the contrary, there's a small twist in the end I really, really enjoyed.
Violence is all in all (remember this is a horror manga) not that much, though especially at the beginning we get blood and some gore - nothing terrible anyway; especially Yakumo gets wounded a lot (he's an immortal Wu, so he can suffer his and some of the others' part too ^__^). There are a few nude scenes, but never so explicit. Last, the story is inspired by Eastern (especialli Indian and Chinese) myths, mixed and used in a very original way: no D&D clones here.

When this manga first appeared in Italy, it had immediately very positive comments by readers. But, at the same time, it seems that the number of people who loved Yakumo & Pai were not equal to their enthusiasm, and so the title changed format several times.
The first episodes were on Kappa magazine, then it had its own issues on a mag called Young, but not reprinting the beginning, and sales were bad. So on Young magazine appeared other titles too (less space for 3x3); eventually, at the end of a narrative unit, it moved on to individual volumes twice a year (Storie di Kappa series), as Trinetra.
Back issues are now out of print and if you manage to find some they have impossible prices; let's hope that this means, as I think, an increase in interest, and that the upcoming reprinting brings more readers for the regular series going on.

Here's the shopping list fans had to face until now:

Kappa Magazine: 1*, 2*, 3*, 4*, 5*, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 16, 16 e 1/2 (special issue), 18, 19, 21, 22, 23.

Young individual 3x3 issues: 1*, 2*, 3*, 4*, 5*, 6, 7*, 8*;

Young magazine: 9, 10*, 11*, 12*, 13, 14, 15 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

Storie di K (as Trinetra): 37, 49, 53, 62, 69, 75, 83, 86

(*) = out of print