#Saiyuki Spoilers

[nothingenoughao3]

Is there a dream fanfiction project you've always wanted to tackle but haven't had the chance to yet?

Actually, uh, yeah, I do! I even have an esoteric title!

The dream project is called "a wonder and a terror", in reference to Keanu Reeve's answer for how it feels to grow old. I want to go back and revisit most of the worlds I used to visit in fanfic. That would include Final Fantasy 7, Sorcerer Hunters, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Hellsing, Slayers, Gensoumaden Saiyuki, Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Trigun, Gargoyles, and Generation X--aaaaaaaaall stuff I once obsessed over.

The thing is, I was writing/reading fic for those works when I was a teenager. And most of these works also feature teenagers, or very young adults. In a lot of cases, these shows are literally about child soldiers, or extremely young/inexperienced adults being forced to take on The Good Of The World.

The theme I'd take on in all these fics will be threefold:

What happens to child soldiers when the war ends and they grow up?

What happens to folks who thought they'd die on the battlefield who live long enough to experience aging?

What happens to characters who became powerful/famous under one gender identity who try to transition?

In addition to flipping characters' genders or their cis status, I plan on doing a LOT related to characters having chronic disabilities, physical as well as mental. And there will be a lot of shipping, many of it for ships I never explicitly wrote for in the past. (Specifically, I'm very glad that Barret/Cloud's time has come 'round at last.)

Some fics are already released on my account. "Entering King" is where I introduce the idea of trans man!Sanzo, which ties into some of the stuff I wanted to do for the Gensoumaden Saiyuki fics. My Gen X work is going to take place in the same canon already established here. Not a lot has been completed yet, but I do hold out hope that I'll get there!

[bijectiveandinvertible]

Our main cast.

(Of the five, Gojyo's clothing design changes the most).

Of course the artwork improves a lot from these first chapters to the latest ones from Saiyuki: Reload Blast

[final-fantasy-as-literature]

Japanese Cultural Context and Its Dismissal With Regards to My Preferred Study of Final Fantasy VII

Shouldn't be any spoilers under the split, but the split is there for length.

Something that frustrates me when I point out that Journey to the West, Xiyouji, acts as a Bloomian precursor to Final Fantasy VII, intentional or not, is that a lot of people who are absolutely convinced that's impossible seem to fail to realize that Xiyouji is the major precursor to much of the most popular and influential Japanese media. When you think of the spikey-haired anime, manga, or JRPG protagonist who isn't quite human but loves or respects (usually coming to love or respect) his companions enough to use his immense power to protect them on a journey while negotiating the contradictions in his own being, you're thinking of an archetype laid out by interpretations of Xiyouji common to Japan from the '50s to the '80s. Popular examples of this archetype are Luffy from One Piece, Son Goku from Dragon Ball, and Naruto from Naruto. These range from adaptation (Son Goku), to negotiating with the work without relying on it (Luffy), to simply being inspired by so many works based on it that it recreates elements of the work anyway (Naruto).

Modern, popular anime, to continue discussing that sphere, came into being because of Xiyouji. When Osamu Tezuka's manga based on Xiyouji and heavily inspired by the 1941 Wan brothers' film Princes Iron Fan, My Son Goku (Boku no Son Goku, 1952-1959), was adapted into the film Alakazam the Great (Saiyuki, or Journey to the West in English) in 1960, it sparked Tezuka's interest in animation and directly led into Astro Boy's (Tetsuwan Atomu, 1952-1968) adaptation into an anime of the same name in 1963.

Ignoring that Tezuka's Astro Boy shares a lot of abilities and beats with Son Goku (from his bright eyes to his ability to discern good and evil to advance the plot, and begins to cement the archetype I mentioned above), My Son Goku and Alakazam the Great were popular and compelling enough to have their own influence outside of Tezuka's work. A lot of the metatextual humor and criticism in anime and manga can be traced back to My Son Goku, with even the title commenting on the story itself. Even Bowser, a villain from the Mario series that is distinctly not in a Bloomian precursor relationship with Xiyouji through the authors, was inspired by the Bull Demon King in Alakazam the Great before adopting a shell to go with his horns.

As the Bowser example kinda shows, people who make things don't do so in isolation. It would be difficult to do so, and it would be exceedingly difficult to be a fan of any kind of art in Japan from the late 1950s to the 1990s without coming into contact with something inspired by, adapting, or retelling Xiyouji.

Goku no Daiboken from Mushi Productions came out in 1967. NTV's Saiyuki aired from 1978 to 1980, but they also aired other Saiyuki media like their 1994 release. Akira Toriyama released Dragon Ball in 1984 and it received a Toei adaptation in 1986. In 1997 Enix was about to release its own Saiyuki manga.

That doesn't even include board game adaptations or uses of Xiyouji, card games with Xiyouji-themed cards or rules, reproductions of ehon adaptations of Xiyouji, Xiyouji children's books centered on Sun Wukong, use of Xiyouji in classrooms, video games like Capcom's SonSon in 1984, and on and on.

I think a big part of the push back I get on pointing this precursor nature of Xiyouji with Final Fantasy VII out over the past year is the wave of people playing Black Myth: Wukong or watching Overly Sarcastic Production's Journey to the West series and doing that "Guy who has only seen The Boss Baby" thing. Pointing out anything like the capture-rescue-recapture plot device, the focus on limits and breaking them, the spirituality inherent, or the ambivalent and multivalent nature of the protagonists connecting Xiyouji and Final Fantasy VII gets drowned out by people's feelings of being sick and tired of people going, "So I just got done watching the new BM:W trailer/playing BM:W and I was thinking..." Can't even start talking about Bloomian precursors or Bakhtinian chronotope before people disengage because of BM:W or the feeling that I'm being pretentious.

The other major part, that pretentious part, is that a lot of people have a dual-hatred of finding any depth in media they consider to be for children or for media from Japan in general. I don't have much to say about that, and I think that's a battle that's only just started in media. Just frustrating that saying, "I think this thing is doing something academics haven't really talked about much in Japanese media yet!" is drowned out by thought-stopping clichés becoming popular on the internet. "This is a Wendy's." "Put the fries in the bag." "Curtains are just blue." "Not that deep bro." "Just a silly JRPG."

With that said, I personally believe a deeper reading of Final Fantasy VII can be found in acknowledging this context. Cloud and Tifa can be read as sharing an expression of chronotope with Monkey and the Monk, with Cloud and Monkey moving and existing outside of the physical, human bounds of Tifa and the Monk. The capture-release-recapture structure is a huge part of both stories and is subverted to a degree with Tifa rescuing Cloud from self-capture on more than one occasion. There is even exploration of what can be read as heart-mind monkey in Final Fantasy VII with Cloud struggling against an indecisive and fractured mind, and I suggest that Cloud, Sephiroth, Zack, and Roche make up the elements of this heart-mind monkey in the same way that Monkey, the Sixth-Eared Macaque, the Bare-Armed Gibbon, and the Red-Buttocked Baboon do in Xiyouji with similar conclusions.

Oh well. As much as you can't stop people from writing fanfiction, you can't stop people from applying literary theory to the media they like. That is to say, I cannot be stopped unless I magically develop a platform and suddenly have academics in related fields telling me I am wrong. If M.J. Gallagher can suggest myths from across the globe impacted the game, I can suggest the narrative structure, characters, and even the UI itself (every character has a gold band of limits, something new to the series at the time) are deeply interacting with a text that has been immensely popular for readers and scholars in Japan since the late 1800s. That isn't a dig at him, but a confidence booster for me. I'm not even selling a book or speaking authoritatively to a large audience.

I'll probably return to more academically-minded posts after this, focusing more on the game than offhand discussion of discussion.

[ciaossu-imagines]

Sleepover Evening!

So, one of my lovely commissioner's have given me the go-ahead to kind of allow myself a break so that I can spend the evening on here, since I have a very rare day off and I deeply appreciate the chance to jump on here. So, I'm going to be having a 'sleepover' evening! On top of some prompts I'll list, feel free to pop into my inbox and talk to me about anything and everything! I'm always down to talk, because all of you lovely readers are absolutely incredible people and I always feel a little astounded that I get to talk to people as cool as you guy's are!

I'm going to post the prompts in a separate post, divided into two categories - one will be prompts for the admin, for fun and to allow you guys to get to know me better or hear me rant about fandom stuff and then one category for prompts you can ask about for characters! From the character prompts, you can ask for characters from the following fandoms:

A3! Act! Addict! Actors!

Akudama Drive

All Out!!

Assassination Classroom (only 100 chapters in, so no major spoilers and understand I won't know everything)

Bakumatsu

Black Cat

Bleach

Blue Lock

Disney's Ultimate Spider-Man

My Hero Academia (again, rereading but only caught up to the start of the school festival arc so please don't spoil past that point - my reread's are going slow 😔)

Buddy Daddies

Bungou Stray Dogs

Chainsaw Man

Class of the Titans

Deadman Wonderland

Demon Slayer (anime only so only up to Swordsmith Village Arc)

Dogs: Bullets & Carnage

Eyeshield 21

Fairy Tail

Gangsta.

GetBackers (anime only)

Gintama

Golden Kamuy (again, not fully finished reading - no heavy spoilers)

Gravity Falls (Jesus fuck, but I love Stan Pines, great character)

Haikyuu!! (anime only)

High Card

Hinomaru Sumo

Hunter x Hunter

Ikemen Revolution

Joker Game

Jujutsu Kaisen

K Project

KHR!

Karneval

Kokuro no Basuke

Magi (again, currently reading - no huge spoilers please)

Mashle: Magic & Muscles

Mob Psycho 100

Mystic Messenger

Nabari no Ou

Nanbaka

Naruto

One Piece (only up to the Arabasta Arc, though have been massively spoiled...)

One Punch Man

Ouran High School Host Club

Ronin Warriors

Saiyuki

Salaryman's Club

Servamp

Sk8 The Infinity

The Covenant

The Outsiders

The Royal Tutor (anime only)

The Vampire Dies in No Time!

Tokyo Revengers (again, currently reading - no major spoilers please...though I've gotten a crap ton from friends who recommended the series)

Trickster

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun!

[saiyukiitaliaandinternational]

Month of Saiyuki (day 4)

What is your favourite episode in the Saiyuki Anime (Gensoumaden, Reload, Gunlock, Zeroin, Blast*)?

*I added Zeroin and Blast because they finally got animated.

Saiyuki Reload Blast, episode 8 and 9 "Barrier" and "A Chance Encounter"

I put "read more" as spoiler warning since some people might not have watched the series

Asides from animations which I love to death, I just love the fighting sequences between Genjo and Kougaiji, the overall tension in the villages hit by the youkais' attacks, hearing Sharak's mantra, the power of her sutra (I love its defensive nature and I love Sharak so much after watching the series), Dokugakuji's death (damn....I didn't expect this, I am seriously worried for Gojyo) and Nataku's arrival.

An intense emotional roller-coaster.

[sakuplumeria]

Hello, I am using my main account since I can't ask questions with my sideblog. Thank you again for the questions choices, they were all awesome: 2), 4), 8), 17), 32), 38), 46), 52), 61), 67), 73)

Thank you for the ask!! Interesting choices~

2) A character in Saiyuki that grew on you

I always like Goku. I don't know why I liked him when I was little, but the more I know his story the more I like him. I'm quite sad when people see him like a child, he sees so much more than it seems. I'm thrilled to see how sensei developed his character, specially in Even a Worm arc, and how sensei drew him much more mature in Blast. Not only Sanzo, but he's like the sun to me too :3 There are many characters that grew on me as I spent more time with Saiyuki, Sanzo, Koumyo, Tenkai, Jikaku, Gat…

4) Favorite member of Kougaiji’s group

Is Zakuro part of his group? Yeah? No? Then Instructor Wang it is. I'm… oddly attracted to eccentric old men lmao.

8) Which character do you really dislike?

This is a hard question, I never really dislike a character as they all have their background stories… If I have to choose though, Li Touten, probably, for using Nataku like that :/

17) How long have you enjoyed Saiyuki?

I watched Reload and Reload Gunlock on TV when I was in elementary school, and you know they used sensei's art for the ending songs? I was so captivated that I searched for the manga. That's the first time I really worked myself to search for something. I just realized it's been around 20 years… omg

32) Do you enjoy writing/drawing/creating fan works for the Saiyuki fandom?

Absolutely! I write and draw and make covers, also translating the songs to English. I used many websites and you can see them here. I wish I have the energy to create more… at least to finish the ones I started..

38) Do you binge read the entire series or read selected chapters?

Sometimes I binge read, sometimes I read selected chapters. Mostly I read selected chapters when I'm in the mood!

46) If [character] died, what do you think they’d be reborn as?

Since you didn't give me the character, I'll go with Goku for the next two questions. By the way, I don't think Goku will die soon, I headcanon him aging very slowly… I wrote a fanfic about this, where Goku lives in the modern world lol. But anyway, I kinda imagine him reborn as a celestial being, much like Jeep, with powers and big responsibility for the world. A dragon maybe? I never thought about this before actually so I just type whatever pops up in my head lol

52) What are 3 tropes that describe [character]?

Amnesiac Hero :(

Innocent but Powerful

Bottomless Pit, as they always say

61) Do you seek out spoilers or avoid at all cost?

I don't mind spoilers, sometimes it helps me to get into the story better.

67) What’s something you think would improve the series?

Remake all the animated versions, with quality. Let's say, by Platinum Vision, the one who produces Reload Blast. Honestly, I like Saiyuki so much, but I don't rewatch it that much, besides Burial, because of the quality of the animes… It's also the reason why it's so hard to tell my friends about Saiyuki. People tend to watch rather than read, but I don't really want people to watch Saiyuki with the quality they have now. So yeah…

73) What character is still a mystery to you?

I wanna say Koumyo but well, I'm more interested in Tenkai and Taruchie. They're the ones with connection, connecting Ibun, which I see as the oldest story of Saiyuki on earth, and Blast, which will be the ending of it. Even though they're not the center of the plot, I believe they took an important part in it. That also brings me to Sai Tai Sai... but I guess we'll find out about Sai in the future. I hope to see Tenkai and Taruchie lore as well :3

[madhogthymaster]

Brain Bubble: Monkeys Violating The Heavenly Temple (My Mind is The Temple)

On occasion, my mind wanders back to that Tails solo-game on the old SEGA Game Gear system. You do know the one, right?

When I do so, I think about the lad himself. His jaunty walk cycle, to be specific. His jolly, not-a-care-in-the-world, confident yet adorable, serotonin-producing strut. That walk.

The memory of such occurrence brings me back in time even further, back to a period when I would sit in front of the television, tune in on a future defunct channel that would constantly play older Japanese animated series imported to my country a decade before my birth. On occasion, I would see a certain jolly, not-a-care-in-the-world, confident yet adorable strut.

And I would get my serotonin.

But enough of me deconstructing my own autistic brain! What you just witnessed was the closing sequence for Gokū no Daibōken, a TV adaptation of Xiyou ji (also known as Saiyuki or Journey to the West), one of the most renowned Chinese literary works. The anime was produced by Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production in 1967 and then localized for the Italian market by SINCROVOX in 1980. What you just watched (and heard) was indeed the Italian sigla, an original composition played over the end credits sequence. We've had plenty of those, back in the day.

As an aside, this show was simply known as The Monkey during our local TV run. It came to us during the Anime Boom of 1978-83, along with hundreds of other series. Many of which would include plenty of Tatsunoko IPs, Doraemon and its many clones, other Tezuka series and every Super Robot anime under the sun. If you are more curious about the subject, there is an ancient podcast of mine in which I go into more detail on the key figure responsible for it. Spoilers: the whole story somehow involves that infamous animated Titanic film. No, not the rapping dog one, The Other One.

Anyway, I simply wanted to share with you a primordial memory of my childhood, a weird random thought that spiraled out of control - as it's wont to do. Indubitably, you must be feeling enriched by the experience. I might post more of these unstructured brain bubbles in the future as a way to get my mental juices flowing if I can't be bothered to write full articles or essays. To summarize: this monkey lives in my head and he does not pay rent.

---

Find Madhog on:

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[sonnets-and-snowdrops]

“I-is Goku -?!”

“Yeah. He’s back to normal.”

Saiyuki Reload Zeroin | Episode 7: “Seiten Taisei”

SO MANY OF US HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR YEARS OKAY

[nieniinque]

Hi yes I'd like to file a complaint

[seiten-taisei]

Now that it’s confirmed that Sai Tai can shapeshift (I mean it was confirmed in a character profile page awhiiile back) now I can’t stop thinking about it and I’ve drawn some doodles.

Spoiler-y ones will be under the “read more”. These are all meant to be silly and based on conversations in discord

--------------------------

Sai Tai Sai and Ukoku

-------------------------- 

Sai Tai Sai (Lion Guardian) and Taruchie

--------------------------

Sai Tai Sai training possibly fellow heretic, Seiten Taisei Son Goku

Make bunny boys in Saiyuki Canon!

[uneplumesombre]

my name is goku!

[skipthemeds]

Their underwears are their eye colors.

[bijectiveandinvertible]

We are off to the West!

[ellcrys]

What’s gonna happen when you get there?! You… You already know, right?! So Why?! I’m sure there are tons of fun stuff in the future for you! Like, you can see snow… As much as you—

Goku. This is the way I live.

Bonus:

[fabiosofabz]

still the most important exchange. Kou is my favorite derp.

[official-sanzo-party-blog]

hey, so like, don't get me wrong? Saiyuki is my life and I love blast so far? But is anyone else kinda just... legitimately worried for how this is going to end..? This is supposed to be the FINAL season (or that's what I heard at least?), there's only going to be 12 episodes and we're NINE in, and we're almost caught up to the manga-- which isn't even finished yet. Assuming next episode is the one where they get fired, that only leaves two episodes for the ULTIMATE CLIMAX OF THE SERIES. I love minekura, i trust her, but saiyuki is like.. infamous for having terrible anime adaptations. Idk, I'm just worried it'll be like gunlock all over again. Correct me if I'm missing something here ?? I just... ohhh boy