TAG WARNING : futa, tentacle
No spoiler overview: Great animation, character design and sound design. The story is a bit confusing at the beginning but it is actually quite engaging. Art style is more vintage so some people may not like it, there are a few unusual tags (tentacle, futa) but it's not gross in any way. If you can get past the tags, it is a must watch hentai.
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Oh boy, where do I even start with this one. A hentai parody of Journey to the West (Monkey King and pals) which touches on electronic waste in 2007, just reading that it already sends a whirlwind of emotions and by no means is there any exaggeration in that description. What may be even more surprising is just reading the staff of this hentai which explains the quality it has head-and-shoulders above the competition, while I won’t name anyone specifically I implore you to browse through the staff and read the works that they had contributed to after this hentai with legendary anime under their repertoire such as One Piece, Samurai Champloo and Code Geass [https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=8055]. This hentai has great pacing, great characters, great fight scenes and a genuinely good and environmentally conscious message but that could just be me reading too much into things.
Story and Characters: 8
After reading the source doujin this is adapted from, the actual story that is adapted is basically a 1:1 for the actual Journey to the West section while the initial cutesy anime intro + gritty futuristic flashforward seems to be original to the hentai which really is the more confusing part as it seems like they are trying to promote two other unrelated things to the core story due to them using basically the same characters. I have my own headcanon that may tie it all together but for a first time viewing this is seriously confusing, but if you can get past the intro the rest of the story is solid.
The characters are quite good in my opinion with the Monkey King being perfectly portrayed with his more relaxed and laid-back attitude while still ultimately being an ultra powerful badass. The two other attendants to the monk Zhu BaJie and Sha WuJing kinda fell flat individually as they weren’t given much to do but the banter between them and Tan SanZang helped the three shine brighter as a group. This dynamic works well due to Tan SanZang being somewhat more fleshed out and bombastic which plays off Sha WuJing who is more stoic in nature while gelling with Zhu BaJie’s gluttonous behavior. In the original works, Tan SanZang is canonically a Buddhist monk who is a reincarnation of the a disciple of Buddha so the juxtaposition between the pious nature of the original and the representation in the hentai of this young boy bursting with lust is quite amusing which adds an extra layer of comedic context to his actions.
The story and pacing are also very good with the way they go from the monk and his two attendants to Monkey King trying to catch up with them. Not only does this create some anticipation for the next scene of each story-line but it also slows down the pacing of the somewhat sparse amount of erotica on display. This allows for a better buildup and mixes things up to prevent the hentai from growing stale. With the fight scene in between the two sections of actual hentai, it adds genuine entertainment to the experience and lets you finish off on a wholesome note. It is astounding that they managed to mash that all into 35 minutes but with the way everything is edited and put together, it is a testament to the story-boarding that despite a 35 minute run time, you feel like you get so much more out of it.
Time for me to put on my “reading way too deeply into a hentai” hat on.
The story starts with an introduction to essentially the same cast of characters featured in the Journey to the West setting in modern times as our Monkey King rushes to the mechanic shop she works at where along with her two coworkers (presumably Zhu BaJie and Sha WuJing), they use the power of a pendant to repair vehicles and electronic devices that are broken. Seeing as this story is centered around a piece of Chinese literature featuring Buddhism where in the religion there is a strong belief of reincarnation I would infer that this intro is actually the reincarnations of the characters from later on as a good way to introduce the characters, their dynamics and the pendant which allows them to repair objects.
For me, that timeline is separate from the rest of the story while the android abuse scene and the rest of the hentai with the Journey to the West motif are both in the same timeline. While the first scene we see of the androids looks super futuristic and cyberpunk, the medieval Chinese setting of the Journey has androids so it isn’t such a stretch to say that this isn’t a purely medieval setting and it is a hybrid of the genres. For the second part, the story focuses on these androids going haywire due to the years of abuse they have felt and in losing their way they are just trying to please their customer to an extreme they do not realize is hurting them due to the abuse. In the end the girls end up repairing them similar to the power demonstrated by the pendant and they literally ride off into the sunset.
Now ask yourself, how many useless electronics do you have around your house? Even from a cursory glance when you go outside, you can see numerous people with smashed phone screens, headphones with fraying wires and abused charging ports. In 2021, 57.4 million tonnes of electronic waste was discarded which is a staggering amount that perfectly highlights the message of this hentai. Take care of your devices, do not mindlessly throw the around because technology is the lifeblood of our society and the resources for manufacturing these devices is finite so we must all do our best to repair our devices if they are damaged instead of throwing them out and if we must throw them out do not let them idle around in a drawer but instead make a conscious effort to recycle them properly. This hentai highlights the value of our electronics and that we do not value them as much as we should so next time you get a new device, make sure you properly take care of your old one.
Art and Animation: 9
Art is subjective so I can see quite a large amount of people disliking this due to the vintage or old fashioned art style but for me it gave me a sense of nostalgia for something I had barely experienced. There was a retro vibe to the whole thing that just made me want more, with characters that would fit perfectly on the thumbnail of a 90s city pop YouTube compilation. The animation is unsurprisingly amazing given the talent behind the work and even the fight scene was genuinely engaging with fighting that actually told a story as the characters fought. The ero-scenes were great too with a focus on both characters involved in each interaction and variety that kept me engaged throughout.
Was the manga better?: No
For this adaptation, I won’t be recommending the doujin as there is just so much extra flavor added to the hentai that it feels like the definitive way to enjoy this piece of content. The fight scenes, the ero- scenes and especially the environment just pop to life in the hentai exponentially more so than in the doujin. You feel a certain ambience in the hentai with the sound design complementing the masterful background plates that never felt disconnected and built up a great lived-in world that felt very grounded.
Enjoyment: 10
For me, this is a must watch with some of my favorite tags involved in a very tasteful way. The animation, art and comedy are all top-tier for me and I had a great time watching this. Some people may not like it and the beginning is somewhat confusing but piecing together the motif and structure of the hentai was quite fun and challenging. Besides that, it just oozes fun and that energy is infectious so even if you don’t really get what's going on I don’t see how anyone would have a bad time with this.
