Gensoumaden Saiyuuki


Saiyuki

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Gensou Maden Saiyuki
Japanese: 幻想魔伝 最遊記
English: Saiyuki
German: Saiyuki
Spanish: Saiyuki
More titles

Information

Type: TV
Episodes: 50
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 4, 2000 to Mar 27, 2001
Premiered: Spring 2000
Broadcast: Tuesdays at 18:30 (JST)
Producers: TV Tokyo, Dentsu, Group TAC
Licensors: ADV Films
Studios: Pierrot
Source: Manga
Genres: ActionAction, AdventureAdventure, DramaDrama, FantasyFantasy
Theme: MythologyMythology
Demographic: ShounenShounen
Duration: 23 min. per ep.
Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 7.551 (scored by 2157621,576 users)
1 indicates a weighted score.
Ranked: #17412
2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity: #2957
Members: 55,492
Favorites: 798

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Preliminary Spoiler
Jul 30, 2008
::QUICK REVIEW::
Story: 5 (another "Journey to the West" spinoff)
Art: 6 (Pretty above standard fare for its time)
Sound: 7 (English voice acting was impressive don't miss it)
Character: 8 (first male team that didn't make me feel gay)
Enjoyment: 9 (Main characters made this show great)
Overall: 35/50 = 7.0 (Didn't mean to make the score look like that)


::FULL REVIEW::
Ever since Dragon Ball, there have been a large influx of anime basing themselves on the "Journey to the West" epic piece. It's storyline is perfect for an anime iteration, but then again, any idea can become an anime. Well what I'm getting at is that this is another ...
Nov 9, 2006
Saiyuki is one of those animes that just grabs you from the very first episode, and won't let you go, even though, it is an episodic anime. Most of the storylines only take 1 to 2 episodes to tell, as you follow these 4 travelers, sent by the gods, to prevent the reawakening of an old, extremely dangerous demon.
My only complaint about this anime would be the animation. There are a lot of "still shots" used during the battle scenes, but you can overlook that. The animation is also not as clean as I would like to be, but I think, maybe, ...
May 13, 2008
What is there to say? For one, Saiyuki has quickly crawled to the very top of my "favorite anime" list, and I don't believe it will be leaving anytime soon.

Story: Based on an old Chinese story, the story of Saiyuki is addicting and entertaining. The simple idea of four total opposites finding a way to travel together on a journey to "save the world" is kind of hilarious. Now, the story itself isn't quite as interesting as the comedy or the characters, but with an "evil" group trailing the Saiyuki boys, a few crazy demons here and there, and a huge secret from the past ...
Aug 20, 2012
Well, I have to say that this is one of my favorite shows even if it does have some flaws. We open with one of the most epic narrations by Sanzo and then get into the bad ass additude as he attacks Goku. The why the show introduces the characters is actually one of the reasons why I really like this show. We see each character in their ‘element’ so to speak and not all at once. It also doesn’t give us a whole lot of narration about these characters because they don’t really need it this early in the show. We get small tastes ...
Apr 14, 2016
Minekura Kazuya is an absolutely phenomenal storyteller. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love lots of mangas of all genres and whatnot but Minekura’s story is definitely a one of a kind gem. The main cast of this series, the Sanzo Ikkou a.k.a the Sanzo Party are made up of four emotionally-charged personalities. Sanzo, the stubborn and quick-to-shoot Buddhist priest, Goku, the ravenous but extremely adorable Seiten Taisei, Gojyo, the flirt who walks and talks like a casanova but wonderfully clicks into a comedic duo with Goku and last but not least, Hakkai who is a sweet but simultaneously a scary man with patience ...
Jun 20, 2010
How would you know if Saiyuki is right for you? Simple; Do you like bishounen [pretty boys]? Action anime shows with a heavy bishounen cast but very few females, like Weiss Kreuz or Gundam Wing? Mild homo-eroticism and sensitive male EMO-angst-ishness? What I just said my seem like I'm making fun of the show...but I'm not, I'm quite serious. This series has a lot of it, but I'm not necessarily saying it's a bad thing. What I'm saying is that if you have issues with these traits in this or any type of program then Saiyuki is definitely NOT FOR YOU! Because all you're gonna ...
Oct 27, 2014
The characters are brilliant, but also cliche. The music is awesome, but the voices are awkward. The design is wonderful, but the animation is clunky.

Ultimately, this show somehow became one of my favorites.

The story is one of the most important parts of an anime, and to be honest, it's a bit lacking. Many individual episodes stand on their own, and sometimes it's hard to discern what is filler and what is driving the plot forward. The ending felt rushed. However, where it fails in tying together a plot, it succeeds in creating characters you want to root for, which is my second point....

The characters are ...
Nov 17, 2009
There are few anime I have loved as much as I have Saiyuki. The characters are fantastic, the storyline is entertaining, and the filler episodes aren't nearly so painful as in most other anime.
The art surely does Kazuya Minekura's original series justice. Although, the anime is old (anything older than 3 years is old by today's standards), so the action scenes are a bit less than interesting (yaaaaay for still shots!), but aside from that, the anime is very well-drawn.
The characters are excellent, (and sexy), and it's hard not to fall in love with each and every one of them. (but Sanzo is the best, ...
Jun 30, 2013
I used to watch this anime when I was 12 years old. This anime is basically an adaption on the "Journey to the West" a Chinese novel. I also watched this show on TCS 8 Singapore Channel. However, the characters here are normal unlike compared to the one I watched in Singapore Channel.

Now, the music is so engaging even the ending song which says "You must fight against yourself". This is the quote I will never ever forget. In fact, in life we all learn to fight against ourselves, defeat evil.

Sanzo is a priest who has 3 followers who are youkais just like in ...
Feb 7, 2016
Saiyuki was the first anime I had ever watched and it remains the best. I don't think I will ever get over the feeling I have when I hear the opening theme or the piano version of 'For Real'. The characters and their relationships are all so well developed and wonderful, the story is brilliant and the art/music is spot on. You will definitely have a favorite character/character you relate to most, however, you will love and deeply respect all of them. Goku's story and his subsequent relationship with Sanzo will stay with me for a very long time. As this anime is slightly older, ...
Nov 16, 2017
Saiyuki is the story of Genjo Sanzo a monk that the gods charge to find why the peaceful demons are becoming mad and killing the humans. So with his 3 friends, Cho Hakkai, Son Goku and Sha Gojyo, they head west and have many adventures along the way.

My thoughts:
I truly loved watching this anime. The animation is very good and there's just something about a gun-totin' monk that just gives a 'je ne sais quoi' to the story. Following Saiyuki is Saiyuki Requiem (the movie), Saiyuki Reload and then Saiyuki Reload: Gunlock. Although sometimes the characters don't seem to like each other, it's my opinion ...
Apr 5, 2010
There are so many words to describe Saiyuki but i will try to keep it as short as possible. Saiyuki grabbed you from the first episode and it dident let go throught the whole series (Plus OVA's) Saiyuki hit you right of the bat with comedy and alot of it every episode there were many amazing comedy scenes that made you run out of air because you were laughing so hard but not only did it have comedy it had amazing fighting scenes and outstanding characters that grew in their ability to know who they are and also grow in power and understanding of ...
Aug 18, 2012
A badass, gun-toting priest (Sanzo) has to team up with two equally badass demons (Hakki and Gojyo) and a really freaking annoying monkey demon (Goku) to prevent the resurrection of a terrible super demon.

Here's my breakdown of the characters: I'm in love with Hakki, I like Gojyo, I tolerate Sanzo, and I would strangle Goku if I could.

Lots of violence on this boys-only road trip, everybody gets hurt, everybody kills somebody else. Character-building is something this series does really well, and it's much more interesting than the fights.
Aug 29, 2019
I'm very late to the game with this one. I saw a couple episodes of Reload Blast and instantly fell in love with the characters. I was talking about it to a friend who is an intense fan of the original so I went back and started from the beginning, and I'm glad I did. I could have enjoyed Blast without having seen the others but I know now that I will enjoy it so much more having seen what comes before.

Watching this twenty years later is pretty hard on the eyes. Animation has come a long way since then. If you can get ...
Mar 27, 2013
The story is fantastic, but that and the fun characters were pretty much it for me. I couldn't get over the lack of action in the fights, things were very slow moving, and still shots of things here and there. Just not very exciting. If your looking for a good story its worth the watch, but if you like to have an exciting visual stimulation with your story I would pass.
Jul 8, 2021
It should be noted that I have not read the manga so this review is based on the anime so if I write something out of place I'm sorry.

Gensoumaden Saiyuuki is an anime that for the long duration (episodes) you can expect something good but the reality is that there are 50 episodes in which you see practically the same thing (except for some episodes in which it tells the past of each character or something that is of interest to the story) as in each chapter are the same dialogues (Gokuu all the time saying that he is hungry and Sanzou scolding him or ...