"Saiyuki" vs. "Journey to the West"

Zephyrias · Post by **Zephyrias** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:44 pm

Well, I've never watched Saiyuki, but I from what I heard from this forum, I think it sounds rather interesting. I was especially surprised when someone brought up the point that is was based off of the famous Chinese story Xi You Ji (Journey to the West).

I've read the story Xi You Ji in and also saw a movie for it (not a very good one though...), and after reading info online about the anime series, I can't really find any similarity between the two stories. The only one that I can find is that the characters Goku and Song Wu Kong are both monkey-ish people (whatever you want to call them).

The main characters of Xi You Ji are Song Wu Kong, a monkey humanoid dude, Tang Sheng, a priest/monk person who's flesh grant immortality to whoever eats him, Zhu Ba Jie, a pig humanoid dude, and Sha Sheng (I'm not sure if I got that name right), a long-bearded guy that carries a trident thing and can breathe underwater. (No relation to Tang Sheng.)
Tang Sheng is basically the most important (and weakest) character among them, and they're trying to protect him. He gives Song Wu Kong a hard time by causing the ring around his head to get tighter and give him a massive headache. He does this every time Song Wu Kong does something naughty/bad/too violent.

Does any of this sound slightly familiar to Saiyuki fans? I really would like to know how much of it is actually based off of Xi You Ji. All of the internet info I read doesn't even say a thing that sounds even vaguely similar, and frankly, it's driving me nuts!

And it's okay if you don't really find any similarity. If you may please explain to me what the general storyline is and what the main characters are like (more like powers, past, family, etc. rather than personality), I can probably figure it out!

greenjinjo · Post by **greenjinjo** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:51 pm

animenfo.com wrote:The Heaven (Tenkai) which looked at the grieve situation summons a high rank monk (Genjou Sanzo) and assigns him to go to the west to stop the revival process of Gyumaou. The Heaven also assigns Son Goku, Sha Gojyo, and Cho Hakkai to join Genjou Sanzo to assist his mission.

The second installment of Saiyuki anime is also based on a well known story in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan about a real journey of one Buddhist monk (AD 629) who travelled from China to India.

I'm dying to know as well, because I'll be buying the series if it is anything like it. From the above description, it seems as though it may be somewhat linked, as the priest of the story is assigned by the heaven a task to head to the West (India), pairing him with the Monkey, the Pig(sy), Sandy (Sha Sheng).

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:57 pm

I've just started the manga series myself, but here's what I know.

Genjyo Sanzo - based on Tang Sheng. He's a Buddhist monk who is sent on the journey to begin with. Sanzo is pissy and violent, not a great trait in a monk, but so it goes.

Son Goku is indeed based on the Monkey King. He was imprisoned for 500 years, Sanzo got him out, he's rabidly devoted to Sanzo (he has a loyal-but-yappy-dog kind of thing going), he loves to eat, and that's about it.

Sha Gojyo - based on Sha Sheng (as you wrote it, I'm not sure myself). Lecher. Loves to drink, smoke, play cards and wench. Smartass. Angsty past, which is a spoiler.

Cho Hakkai - based on Zhu Ba Jie. Iiiii haven't gotten to his backstory yet, but I know he has one. He's very polite and cordial. He has a dragon that transforms into a jeep (um...yeah), which is the quartet's main means of transportation.

Minekura kept the structure of the story and recast it josei-style with the bishified versions we see now. No doubt this will inspire a round of bitching from somebody or other, but as I understand Dragon Ball (the original) was based on it too, so maybe that's more your style.

From your description, a few other tidbits were kept, like Gojyo and Goku being at loggerheads constantly. But yes, it was based on "The Journey West" . I could probably dig up some comparisons if necessary.

Hope that helps, and somebody probably posted before me while I was grabbing my book and writing this all up.

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:59 pm

oh. And: from what I've heard, the animation in the anime version is hellacious, which is unfortunate. The second series (Reload) has somewhat better animation, but not by much. I'm in the process of becoming rabid about the manga, myself.

Zephyrias · Post by **Zephyrias** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:17 pm

Well, so far, I can only see a slight similarity with the characters. But they got all the personalities somewhat messed up.

SarahtheBoring wrote:Son Goku is indeed based on the Monkey King. He was imprisoned for 500 years, Sanzo got him out, he's rabidly devoted to Sanzo (he has a loyal-but-yappy-dog kind of thing going), he loves to eat, and that's about it.

That sounds somewhat familiar. Song Wu Kong seemed to have the closest relationship with the priest, even though they get on each other's nerves. ^_^ The original didn't have him really devoted. In fact, he's just there to protect him, and he's like the younger, more immature brother of a love-hate relationship.

SarahtheBoring wrote:Cho Hakkai - based on Zhu Ba Jie. Iiiii haven't gotten to his backstory yet, but I know he has one. He's very polite and cordial. He has a dragon that transforms into a jeep (um...yeah), which is the quartet's main means of transportation.

O_o;; ...Well, aside from the fact that the characters in Xi You Ji traveled by foot, Zhu Ba Jie is probably the least polite. He's constantly stuffing himself with food like no tomorrow, and he's the second biggest trouble-maker of the group (ahead of him is Song Wu Kong). I believe he was also a human at some point before he got transformed into a pig person. (Song Wu Kong just happens to be a mutated, super powered monkey)

SarahtheBoring wrote:Genjyo Sanzo - based on Tang Sheng. He's a Buddhist monk who is sent on the journey to begin with. Sanzo is pissy and violent, not a great trait in a monk, but so it goes.

...That's different. Well, Tang Sheng is a monk, but he is most certainly not violent or pissy. He's curtious to everyone, even the enemy, and everyone seems to know of his good reputation, and therefore is the group's ticket to getting them a free meal and a roof over their heads.

SarahtheBoring wrote:Sha Gojyo - based on Sha Sheng (as you wrote it, I'm not sure myself). Lecher. Loves to drink, smoke, play cards and wench. Smartass. Angsty past, which is a spoiler.

Er, I don't really remeber much about Sha Sheng, since he was the last to join the group. He doesn't seem to do any of those said things. I just know that he looks very scary and barbaric but seems to have more common sense than the monkey or the pig of the group.

And another point to make, they didn't all get introduced at once. The group first started with Song Wu Kong and Tang Sheng (forgot how they met, sorry! ^_^;; ). Then they met Zhu Ba Jie (again, don't remember), and finally, Sha Sheng in a battle. People who are familiar with Xi You Ji, please correct me if I accidentally give out false information (which I'm pretty sure I did...)

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:27 pm

It's not that they "messed them up", it's that they used the original story to spin off a new story.

It's not literally "Journey to the West" - it's merely based on it. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that before.

And the group does form as you described in the manga, but I listed them all at the same time just because it seemed like too much needless detail to get into at once.

Did people have this problem with Dragon Ball? Doesn't seem that hard to understand to me.

Movies/books/etc. are based on old stories, legends, myths, that sort of thing all the time.

Zephyrias · Post by **Zephyrias** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:51 pm

Yeah, I know it's just based on it. I was rather surprised that they changed the characters' personalities. But I have to admit, there are definately A LOT more bishounen in Saiyuki! That I like!

SarahtheBoring wrote:Did people have this problem with Dragon Ball? Doesn't seem that hard to understand to me. Movies/books/etc. are based on old stories, legends, myths, that sort of thing all the time.

Er... I hadn't watched that much DB or DBZ, so I wouldn't know, sorry! ^_^;

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:24 am

Zephyrias wrote:That sounds somewhat familiar. Song Wu Kong seemed to have the closest relationship with the priest, even though they get on each other's nerves. ^_^ The original didn't have him really devoted. In fact, he's just there to protect him, and he's like the younger, more immature brother of a love-hate relationship.

You mentioned the collar and how he'd tighten it when the monkey misbehaved. Goku has the collar, but Sanzo (the monk) usually hits him over the head with a paper fan when he acts up. Both would give him a headache, so now I see where that comes from. And they do have a sort of love/hate relationship, at least on Sanzo's part of it.

O_o;; ...Well, aside from the fact that the characters in Xi You Ji traveled by foot, Zhu Ba Jie is probably the least polite. He's constantly stuffing himself with food like no tomorrow, and he's the second biggest trouble-maker of the group (ahead of him is Song Wu Kong). I believe he was also a human at some point before he got transformed into a pig person. (Song Wu Kong just happens to be a mutated, super powered monkey)

Heh, there's a parody group in the anime - another four guys pretending to them. And the guy who plays the part of Hakkai looks like a pig and acts like one, too. I bet that's the tie-in for his character. I thought it was just showing what bad actors the imposters were.

A neat connection, though, Hakkai is a demon in the anime. But he started out as a human and due to his past, he became a demon. Demon = pig? Not really, but he was quite a trouble-maker in his past life.

A part of Saiyuki is that all four of them had a past life as Gods, where Hakkai was a lazy loaf who mostly sat around reading in his pigsty (pun intended) of a library. He also acted a lot more like a troublemaker than he does in the 'new' life as a human-turned-demon.

...That's different. Well, Tang Sheng is a monk, but he is most certainly not violent or pissy. He's curtious to everyone, even the enemy, and everyone seems to know of his good reputation, and therefore is the group's ticket to getting them a free meal and a roof over their heads.

The only connection I see here is the free meal. The group gets invited into quite a few places based on Sanzo's name alone - the fact that he *is* a monk, even if he doesn't act like one. His master sounds more like the original monk, he was the softspoken boring character.

Er, I don't really remeber much about Sha Sheng, since he was the last to join the group. He doesn't seem to do any of those said things. I just know that he looks very scary and barbaric but seems to have more common sense than the monkey or the pig of the group.

In the past life, Gojyo was pretty dark (cross-skulls on his jacket, he looked like a goth). That might count as scary. And he was a lot more sensible than Hakkai in at least one of those 'past life' scenes (no spoilers). Everyone's smarter than the monkey, so that's a given. I can't think of any other similarities except that Gojyo is a kappa - a water sprite, which is what the original character was supposed to have been.

And another point to make, they didn't all get introduced at once. The group first started with Song Wu Kong and Tang Sheng (forgot how they met, sorry! ^_^;; ). Then they met Zhu Ba Jie (again, don't remember), and finally, Sha Sheng in a battle. People who are familiar with Xi You Ji, please correct me if I accidentally give out false information (which I'm pretty sure I did...)

This sounds right. o.O Sanzo met Goku (monkey-boy) first, when Sanzo was still rather young. Then they went looking for Hakkai (a criminal at the time), and that ended with Sanzo fighting Gojyo (the battle). I'm not sure how they all met in the 'past life', but I know Goku was first there as well, and Hakkai didn't introduce Sanzo to Gojyo (the kappa) until Gojyo got into a fight in public that involved both Hakkai and Goku.

I don't know, I can see quite a few bits that were based off the original story. But I'm glad they didn't mellow Sanzo down to a polite guy. That would ruin half the fun. It's a comedy/drama/angst anime - a nice mix.

I haven't seen Reloaded yet, so I'm just speaking of the original series (first season).

Zephyrias · Post by **Zephyrias** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:24 pm

Thanks a bunch, Arigatomyna, that was really helpful! ^_^

Also, after some reviewing, I remembered that Song Wu Kong was a creature from heaven, but he was banished because of all his misbehavings. He went to a place with all these lil' monkeys and became their king (I guess that's where the title 'monkey king' comes from). He was then sealed up in a stone for several hundred years until Tang Sheng released him. He released Song Wu Kong because the heaven's god wanted him to retrieve some sort of sacred, Buddhist book from India, and they knew that Song Wu Kong would be a valuable asset to Tang Sheng. I think that's the part that SarahtheBoring mentioned when Sanzo released Goku.

I'm starting to see lil' similarities here and there (especially with the character's past lives), thanks guys!

Adlea Evanstar · Post by **Adlea Evanstar** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:44 am

Well I think everyone here is confuse (or at least I am) cause when one person writes about Journey to the West someone else says about Saiyuki.

Ju Pak Chie- used to be in heaven in one of his past life. He fell for another goddess in heaven whereelse this goddess liked another god. Anyway they were found out as gods were not aloud to fall in love the goddess and the god was banish to the moon and Chu Pak Chie ad to face 50 incarnations. One of them was a pig and he told the Goddess of Mercy he was happier this way.

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"Saiyuki" vs. "Journey to the West"

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