Ask John: What is Gensomaden Saiyuki?

Question:
What is Saiyuki? Has it been, or will it be, released to the US? Is it still playing in Japan?

Answer:
Gensomaden Saiyuki, created by manga artist Kazuya Minekura, is a heavily bishonen revisionist telling of the classic Chinese Saiyuki myth, Hsi-yu Chi, more commonly known to Westerners as “Journey to the West.” This story is the origin of the Monkey King Son Goku and a major influence on Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball and Buichi Terasawa’s Midnight Eye Goku, among others. The Gensomaden Saiyuki manga was first animated in a 2 episode OAV series that premiered in Japan on April 23rd, 1999. The release of the second OAV episode on February 29th, 2000 was quickly followed up by the premier of the tremendous successful 50 episode long TV series on April 4th. Saiyuki proved popular enough to get a theatrical motion picture released in Japan during the summer of 2001.

The story of the monk Genjo Sanzo being ordered by one of the five gods in heaven to travel to India accompanied by three demons, Sha Gojyo the water demon (kappa), Cho Hakkai the pig spirit, and Son Goku the monkey king. However, the basis in Chinese myth is virtually where the similarity ends. Gensomaden Saiyuki is an adventure story, and an anachronistic revisionist version of the original myth because Genjo Sanzo uses a magic handgun as his main weapon, the characters wear an odd mish-mash of ancient Chinese and modern fashions, and Cho Hakkai’s pet dragon has the ability to shape shift into a military jeep. The characterizations are also quite contemporary, involving excessive cursing, drinking, smoking, womanizing, fighting and bad tempers, along with excessive emotional bishonen angst similar to what fans of the Gundam Wing boys will be used to.

AD Vision has acquired the American translation and distribution rights to the television series and may begin to release it in America as early as the end of this year or sometime next year.