Concept
Saiyūki is the Japanese name for Journey to the West, or Xīyóujì (西遊記 "Record of the Journey to the West") in Chinese. While Saiyūki is normally written "西遊記", or "Journey to the West", Kazuya Minekura writes the title as "最遊記", or "Journey to the Extreme". This is her pun, as both are pronounced saiyūki.
Saiyūki is not the first anime to adapt the story of Journey to the West, with the more famous Dragon Ball series being a primary example.
Minekura's Sanzō-Ikkō bears only a superficial similarity to the original four in the Chinese novel. Their names are the same as the names of the characters in the Chinese novel, but given Japanese pronunciations:
- Genjyo Sanzo (玄奘三蔵) is Xuánzàng (玄奘) or Táng-Sānzàng (唐三藏, Tang's three scriptures).
- Son Gokū is Sūn Wùkōng (孫悟空), or the Monkey King.
- Cho Hakkai is Zhū Bājiè (豬八戒), a pig monster. His original name, Cho Gonou is actually Zhū Wùnéng (豬悟能), the Buddhist name given to Zhu Bajie by Guan Yin when they first met in the original novel.
- Sha Gojyō is Shā Wùjìng (沙悟淨), a water demon, classified as a kappa in some translations.
- Gyūmaōh is Niumowáng (牛魔王) Ox King
Read more about this topic: Saiyuki (manga)
Famous quotes containing the word concept:
“the full analysis of the notions of saying something and understanding what one said inevitably involves a concept which, as I will show in detail, essentially corresponds to the Cartesian idea of thought.”
—Zeno Vendler (b. 1921)
“Terror is as much a part of the concept of truth as runniness is of the concept of jam. We wouldn’t like jam if it didn’t, by its very nature, ooze. We wouldn’t like truth if it wasn’t sticky, if, from time to time, it didn’t ooze blood.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“The new concept of the child as equal and the new integration of children into adult life has helped bring about a gradual but certain erosion of these boundaries that once separated the world of children from the word of adults, boundaries that allowed adults to treat children differently than they treated other adults because they understood that children are different.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)