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Saiyuki Anime is popular in Japan. It was actually first introduced as a live-action film on TV. Then the remake of it played over and over with Japanese famous actors and actresses. The most recent one is done by the famous JPOP SMAP member, Shingo-chan or Shingo Katori playing SonGoku and Fukatsu Eri acting as Sanzohoshi. Many previous live-action films were casted by stars in Japan. That fact speak itself that it is a great story and have been passed on to the next generation, and now to the animation ear. Once you see the anime, you will see why it is so popular.
For those of you who does not know anything about Saiyuki, here is a quick overview of the story.
The origin of Saiyuki was a written novel not in Japan but China in Min period on 16th century. It is a story of journey to Tenjiku to earn ching by overcoming many difficulties in the way. The main character is a monk named Sanzohoshi, accompanied by SonGoku, which is the origin of DragonBall Goku by the way, Chohakkai, and Sagojyo. Though Sanzohoshi is the main character, SonGoku plays an important role in this story. He is a strong fighter and monkey like looking, and he is actually promised to become a fighting budda from Shaka in the after life.
Chohakkai is the funny one. He has the form of pig body. When he fell off to the earth from the heaven, he was supposed to be born as a human, but went into pig's womb so he was born as a pig. Sagojyo interceds SonGoku and Chohakkai. In Japan, he is in the form of Kappa, the legendary green river monster. If you are interested in Buddism as a whole, this anime gives you a quite nice and fun details on each terminology. In the anime, many Buddism related characters such as Syakanyorai and Kanzeonbosatsu appear, so it might be a good study subject as well.
If you are claiming that you are a Japanese mania and have not seen this, I would strongly urge you to buy this import version of anime. The story inspired so many anime & manga in the later times. Even though it was originated in China, it is very popular in Japan and many authors have written their version of Saiyuki on top of the original one. The example of them are WEST, GyahahaSaiyuki, GoGoGoku, PSIYuki, and many other animation that are not well-known in out side of Japan. Unlike cartoons like Fruits Basket, the image of Saiyuki Anime is classic. You can browse the net for a cute pic in gallery as well.
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