Saiyuki

 

Saiyuki...where to start...? This is an anime and manga that is very near and dear to my heart. It is now considered an oldie but is a goodie. It's production was the most active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So before I go too much into it I want to let you know why it is so near and dear for me. While I was doing college up in Fort Collins I had a group of friends where our personalities at the time really matched the characters. We even did a group cosplay as our respective characters at NDK a few times. Even though it is a mostly male cast we did it as a female cosplay group. One of my friends was once even misidentified as a male, but she took it in stride. For us even the episodes sometimes resonated with what was going on in our lives. That is why this series is very important to me personally.

The anime is loosely based of the classic Chinese tale of Monkey or Journey to the West. A lot of anime actually use this as their base. This is actually a good example of where one culture takes something from a different culture and uses it in their own way. In America many complain that this is cultural appropriation when this is actually common to all cultures and is how cultures evolve and change with the times. This concept actually gets even more interesting if you have ever studied the history of the Japanese writing system, but I'll try not to go off on too many points here. If you've actually read Monkey, it's actually kind of fun to line up the characters with their respective forms to compare traits and how the characters represent the base personality natures.

You have humans, demons, dragons/Jeeps (yes I did say Jeep, you'll see what I mean), and gods running loose in this series as the team moves west to stop the resurrection of Gyumaoh. This series does a good job of character development and goes into the sad past of the characters. The episodes are basically looked at from the daily perspective and there are a lot of filler episodes. Even with this each episode helps to build a better understanding of the characters if not the overall plot. 

Voice Actors

I actually only watch this in English (depending on the version) because of how amazing some of the voice actors are. Two of my favorite are Greg Ayres (who some how manages to pop up in most anime or at least it feels like he does) and Illich Guardiola. I have gotten to meet Greg Ayres at NDK, but I've never gotten the chance to meet Illich. Both of these voice actors have such distinctive voices that they are easy to pick out when they are in other series. Not much of Illich has been heard of since 2014 when there was some craziness in his personal life.

Manga

The manga for this series is really good and also well worth the read.

Merchandise:

Even at the height of its popularity it was hard finding products in the U.S. and at anime conventions. The most common items that could be found were either art books or pencil boards. If you do online shopping you can find more things there.

As a little funny side story is how I got one of my Saiyuki items. While at NDK my friend was with me when I was trying to buy a mystery bag. I wanted the one on the very corner of the table and when the dealer grabbed a different bag I told him that I wanted the one on the corner. He shrugged and exchanged it for the one I wanted. My friend asked me why I had been so picky and I told her I just had a gut feeling about this bag. When I got outside we opened it together. Inside was a deck of Saiyuki playing cards. If you're going to do a grab bag, sometimes it's worth following your gut on which one you get.

 9/6/21 Update:

So I was actually slightly amazed that I was able to find Saiyuki products at NDK this year. Not a lot, but some. One vender had keychains of several of the popular characters. I bought a few extra as gifts for my friends mentioned above. Then the dealer that makes scenes with figures had one of Goyjo. I was slightly tempted to buy it, but it had a $60 price tag on it. For me personally that was a little steep to spend on one item, but I hope it found a good home.

Picture 1 From: https://theanimedork.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/hold-nothing-a-gensomaden-saiyuki-review-2/

picture 2 From: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FKILt94w.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FQUALITYanime%2Fcomments%2F5808sc%2Ffriends_let_me_introduce_to_you_the_quality_of%2F&tbnid=Kr2Rs_kwrJTvqM&vet=12ahUKEwjwovTi-cfyAhWILs0KHf2HD78QMygGegUIARCaAQ..i&docid=OH8_zWRTRd8nPM&w=640&h=480&q=Saiyuki%20funny%20scenes&ved=2ahUKEwjwovTi-cfyAhWILs0KHf2HD78QMygGegUIARCaAQ

Picture 3 From: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.angelfire.com%2Falt2%2Fbound_in_chains%2Fgoku_sanzo25.JPG&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.angelfire.com%2Falt2%2Fbound_in_chains%2Fmisc_images.html&tbnid=0V8XVedPydLplM&vet=10CBUQxiAoA2oXChMIgNTN3PvH8gIVAAAAAB0AAAAAEAI..i&docid=VLUDaX5lJEQM_M&w=241&h=375&itg=1&q=Saiyuki%20manga%20funny&ved=0CBUQxiAoA2oXChMIgNTN3PvH8gIVAAAAAB0AAAAAEAI

Picture 4 From: https://www.google.com/search?q=Saiyuki+Merchandise&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS943US943&sxsrf=ALeKk01a7uFfuKvd8wkVW9wbHo4_PLnDFw%3A1629747829652&ei=dfojYbnbJpa3tAbc8JqwAQ&oq=Saiyuki+Merchandise&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQgAEIAEOgcIABBHELADOgcIIxCxAhAnOgcIABCxAxAKOgQIABAKOgoILhDHARCvARAKOgoIABCxAxCDARAKOhAILhCxAxCDARDHARCvARAKOggIABAHEAoQHjoHCCMQsAIQJzoHCAAQsQMQDToECAAQDToKCC4QxwEQrwEQDToQCC4QsQMQgwEQxwEQrwEQDToKCAAQCBAHEAoQHkoECEEYAFCiuAFYn4oCYPaTAmgBcAF4AIABdYgB4waSAQQxMi4xmAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwj56dXj88fyAhWWG80KHVy4BhYQ4dUDCA4&uact=5