As an avid cel collector, I was disappointed at first to learn that Saiyuki's anime incarnations have all been "CG" productions. The drawings themselves are done by hand--first the animator's rough genga, and then the cleaned-up douga--but the douga are then scanned into a computer system where they're digitally colored and recorded, rather than the traditional path of tracing the douga onto clear celluloid sheets, painting the cels and filming them.
But Pierrot, the studio that has produced all the Saiyuki animation except the introductory two-part OVA, is well aware of fans' desire for production art. Over the past several years, Pierrot has packaged and sold their production cels at special events. But nowadays, with their move to cel-less CG production and the continued fan demand for cels long gone from their older hits too, Pierrot now makes and markets official fukusei ("reproduction") cels for several of their properties, including Saiyuki. (Check out the section for Saiyuki Official Fukusei Cels!)
With Saiyuki, though, Pierrot also took the pioneering step of releasing the actual douga for sale, starting in November 2001. Cel collectors are used to seeing douga one sheet at a time, coupled with the corresponding cel--but Pierrot served up Saiyuki douga packaged by the entire sequence, each sequence in its original studio storage envelope, shooting instructions and all! Called a "cut" in the industry, a sequence can range from one sheet to more than 50, with most douga sheets about 9 1/2 inches by 10 3/4 inches; some are as large as 10 3/4 inches by 16 inches.
(Saiyuki anime genga, settei, layouts, storyboards and scripts also turn up for sale, although not through official channels. Items that have wandered out of the studio find ready buyers through cel dealers, specialty shops and Internet auctions. A Saiyuki RELOAD settei of designs for episode 2, which aired October 9, 2003, was on auction at Mandarake's Nakano cel shop just five weeks later! I'll be doing a separate page on some of these other production items soon.)
Watching the anime gives you the impression of the whole. But take a douga cut, look at its sheets one by one, and flip it or scan it in an animation program (one of my hobbies ;^) ), and you get a real appreciation for not only the work and skill that creates the illusion of movement, but also all the expression in the individual drawings. Saiyuki has some engaging character animation, and with its episodes spread among a handful of animation studios (Pierrot and the subcontracted Group TAC, Shaft and Studio Kikan) with several directors, the differences in style and technique are also interesting to see.
For the heck of it, here's a list of my Saiyuki douga collection. I'd thought it would be fun to pick which ones to scan as examples, but some of the best ones turned out to be too big to scan in a way that makes much sense, and some just don't reproduce well at this small size. For Gensomaden Saiyuki episodes with more than eight cuts, I looked at them four at a time, and picked the one of the four that I thought would show up best at this size, while trying to also show a variety of characters. (Have acquired some more douga for episodes 11, 16, 18 and 19 after this page first went up, so the ratio is currently a little out of whack there.) For episodes with five to seven cuts, I chose two. For episodes with four or fewer cuts, I chose one.
Some of the most highly coveted cuts were first available in 2002-2003 at special "random sale" douga events where cuts were doled out, face down, to buyers; when the stack had been doled out to everyone, you turned your share over, selected the cuts you wanted to buy, and offered any rejects to the person to your right. The cuts that I got by sheer luck at those events are noted with their cut number in BLUE instead of black.
A cel is one colorful moment in time; douga are about character and movement. (Many douga are lightly colored on the back in colored pencil, though--usually in colors far removed from the correct color--as a quick reference for differences in shading and what areas shouldn't be colored. The front and back of a Sanzo douga sheet from Gensomaden Saiyuki Episode 21 Cut 17 is at right.) People collect douga because they want a certain image, or a particular cut (me, I'm a sucker for "Gojyo whips out his shakujou" sequences), or both--and since Pierrot packages its douga with just one sheet visible (the episode number and cut number are labelled on the back of the envelope; occasionally a list of the characters appearing in that cut is pencilled on the envelope flap, in Japanese), it helps to know the sequence well enough to recognize it at any point, as sometimes the visible sheet isn't the first or last of the sequence.
CONTINUE TO SAIYUKI DOUGA PARTY, PART 2: Gensomaden Saiyuki #23-44
CONTINUE TO SAIYUKI DOUGA PARTY, PART 4: Saiyuki RELOAD #11-25.
CONTINUE TO SAIYUKI DOUGA PARTY, PART 5: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK #1-15.
CONTINUE TO SAIYUKI DOUGA PARTY, PART 6: Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK #16-26.
CONTINUE TO SAIYUKI OFFICIAL FUKUSEI CELS
BACK TO JOURNEY TO THE REST: A Roadside Revelry in Saiyuki and Its Doujinshi.
This page was created December 6, 2003. Last updated July 12, 2007.
This page's text and source code are copyright Kagenami Q. All douga shown are from the collection of Kagenami Q. DO NOT REPRODUCE. Saiyuki, Saiyuki Gaiden and Saiyuki RELOAD are copyright Kazuya Minekura/Ichijinsha; Gensomaden Saiyuki is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, Saiyuki Project and TV Tokyo 2000; the Saiyuki RELOAD anime is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Pierrot 2003; Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Pierrot 2004. All images are copyright their respective artists and creators. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.
STUDIO PIERROT; Storyboards Hayato Date, Episode Director Hayato Date, Animation Supervisor Shin'ichiro MinamiCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 97 (5; 4 seconds) Sanzo Kosuge 
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GROUP TAC; Storyboards Shintaro Inokawa, Episode Director Shintaro Inokawa, Animation Supervisor Haruo SotozakiCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 61 (6; 9 seconds) Kouryuu, bear Harada 63 (4; 5 seconds) Kouryuu, bear Harada 
- 119 (5; 3 seconds) Goku, Hakkai Nakamura 
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STUDIO PIERROT; Storyboarder Masahiko Murata, Episode Director Masahiko Murata, Animation Supervisor Joudo SaihouCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 7 (4; 5 seconds) Shuuei Satou 39 (2; 7 seconds) Seiten Taisei Son Goku Ooki 59 (5; less than 1 second) Seiten Taisei Son Goku Saitou 60 (6; less than 1 second) Gojyo Saitou 98 (10; 10 seconds) Kanzeon, Gojyo Tsugai 
131 (4; 4 seconds) Gojyo Abe -
GROUP TAC; Storyboarder Toshio Matsuhashi, Episode Director Toshio Matsuhashi, Animation Supervisor Takuji YoshimotoCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator
16, 18 (24; 4 & 2 seconds) Nii, Kougaiji Fujita 
89 (1; 1 second) Kougaiji (illegible) 92 (4; 5 seconds) Dokugakuji Takekoshi 94 (5; 2 seconds) Dokugakuji Takekoshi 148B (10; 12 seconds) Dokugakuji Gotou 152A (17; 8 seconds) Kougaiji, Jien Gotou 
153A (4; 3 seconds) Dokugakuji Gotou 157 (11; 17 seconds) Gojyo, Sanzo, Hakkai, Goku Kawamori 158 (14; 4 seconds) Lirin Kawamori 179A,B (15; 3 & 6 seconds) Dokugakuji Fujiwara 
182B (24; 14 seconds) Dokugakuji Fujiwara -
SHAFT; Storyboarder Rion Kujou, Episode Director Rion Kujou, Animation Supervisor Yukito OotsuboCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 17 (11; 2 seconds) Goku Morita 
23 (1; 5 seconds) Kougaiji Morita 18 (17; 3 seconds) Kougaiji Morita 23 (1; 5 seconds) Kougaiji Morita 24 (2; 10 seconds) Rasetsunyo, Kougaiji Yamazaki 
36, 38 (4; 2 & 3 seconds) Kougaiji Muramatsu 39, 41 (27; 11 & 5 seconds) Gojyo, Dokugakuji / Kougaiji, Goku / Yaone, Hakkai Muramatsu 43, 45 (4; 4 & 1 seconds) Kougaiji Muramatsu 62 (8; 3 seconds) Yaone, Dokugakuji Morita 82 (1; 10 seconds) Chin Iisou Sekiguchi 87 (8; 2 seconds) Yaone, Hakkai Aoyagi 103, 104C (12; 4 & 3 seconds) Kougaiji Sawada 105, 107 (32; 8 & 3 seconds) Goku, Kougaiji Sawada 
109 (1; 3 seconds) Kougaiji Sawada 118 (12; 16 seconds) Lirin, Sanzo, Gojyo Baba 145 (14; 16 seconds) Nii, Gyokumen Yagi 157C (1; 7 seconds) Gyokumen, Kougaiji Yamamoto 
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GROUP TAC; Storyboards Eiji Nakayama, Episode Director Takashi Yamazaki, Animation Supervisor Kazuhiro SasakiCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 13 (23; 5 seconds) Goku, Gojyo Oda 
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STUDIO PIERROT; Storyboarder Toshiyuki Tsuru, Episode Director Masaaki Kumagai, Animation Supervisor Shin'ichirou MinamiCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 14 (13; 4 seconds) Hakkai, Gojyo Miyagawa 21 (10; 4 seconds) Hakkai, Gojyo Miyagawa 34 (39; 3 seconds) Gojyo, Hakkai Shigemoto 40 (9; 6 seconds) Gojyo Shigemoto 55A (36; 9 seconds) Sanzo, Hakkai Miyagawa 
77 (30; 13 seconds) Sanzo, Hakkai, Gojyo Miyagawa 91 (22; 3 seconds) Sanzo, Gojyo Minami 118 (7; 6 seconds) Chin Iisou Minami 130 (15; 4 seconds) Gojyo, Sanzo, Hakkai Yoshioka 134 (13; 5 seconds) Hakkai, Gojyo, Chin Iisou, Sanzo Yoshioka 165 (10; 4 seconds) Gojyo Motoyama 167 (15; 14 seconds) Hakkai, Chin Iisou, Goku Motoyama 
175 (8; 6 seconds) Chin Iisou, Gojyo, Hakkai Tanaka 179 (9; 2 seconds) Chin Iisou, Gojyo, Sanzo, Hakkai Tanaka 183 (11; 4 seconds) Goku, Hakuryuu Tanaka 199 (8; less than 1 second) Gojyo Tanaka 205 (6; 9 seconds) Sanzo Tanaka 
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GROUP TAC; Storyboarder Shintarou Inokawa, Episode Director Shintarou Inokawa, Animation Supervisor Yoshiaki TsubataCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 23 (15; 5 seconds) Hakkai, Sanzo Miyamae 37 (57; 6 seconds) Chin Iisou, Hakkai Maezawa 46A (1; 3 seconds) Hakkai Maezawa 79 (6; 1 second) Sanzo, Hakkai Nagai 
82 (19; 1 second) Hakkai, Sanzo Nagai 92 (20; 4 seconds) Goku, Gojyo Yasuda 97 (7; 7 seconds) Chin Iisou, Gonou Yasuda 
104 (1; 4 seconds) Hakkai, Sanzo, Chin Iisou Takagi 107 (12; 8 seconds) Hakkai, Chin Iisou Takagi 137 (4; 2 seconds) Hakkai, Chin Iisou, Goku Harada 181 (2; 9 seconds) Goku Nakamura -
GROUP TAC; Storyboards Tomoki Kyoda, Episode Director Tomoki Kyoda, Animation Supervisor Takuji YoshimotoCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 148 (4; 2 seconds) Gojyo, Meihou Miyamoto 
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SHAFT; Storyboarder Rion Kujou, Episode Director Rion Kujou, Animation Supervisor Yukito OotsuboCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 19, 22 (32; 8 & 6 seconds) Tonpuu, Gojyo, women Baba 23 (10; 6 seconds) Gojyo, woman Baba 37 (20; 4 seconds) Gonou Baba 
- 112, 114 (21; 11 & 4 seconds) Gonou Yagi 131 (6; 3 seconds) Gojyo, Gonou (illegible) 
143 (10; 7 seconds) Gojyo, Hakkai Muramatsu 149 (4; 3 seconds) Gojyo Aoyagi 152 (15; 1 second) Gonou, Goku Aoyagi 183 (4; 4 seconds) Gojyo Sawada -
GROUP TAC; Storyboards Takashi Yamazaki, Episode Director Takashi Yamazaki, Animation Supervisors Kazuhiro Sasaki and Yuuji MoriyamaCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 36A (1; 11 seconds) Youkai mother and baby Kuwano 141 (22; 9 seconds) Gojyo, women Oda 
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STUDIO PIERROT; Storyboarder Masaaki Kumagai, Episode Director Masaaki Kumagai, Animation Supervisor Shin'ichirou MinamiCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 48 (25; 12 seconds) Goku, Gojyo Motoyama 
57 (13; 6 seconds) Nii, Hwang Motoyama 63 (16; 13 seconds) Nii, Hwang Motoyama 70 (12; 6 seconds) Hakkai, Sanzo, Gojyo, Goku, jeep Motoyama 92 (14; 2 seconds) Gojyo Shigemoto 149 (5; 1 second) Sanzo Kawakami 
156 (4; 5 seconds) Sanzo Tanaka 199 (50; 19 seconds) Hakkai, Sanzo, Gojyo, Goku, jeep Minami -
GROUP TAC; Storyboarder Shintarou Inokawa, Episode Director Shintarou Inokawa, Animation Supervisor Satoru InoueCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 158 (7; 3 seconds) Sanzo, Lirin Harada 
- 174 (30; 13 seconds) Hakkai, Tonpuu Ban 
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STUDIO PIERROT; Storyboarder Masahiko Murata, Episode Director Masahiko Murata, Animation Supervisor Joudo SaihouCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 14, 151 (32; 4 & 2 seconds) Shunfa, Shanfa, Shuufa, Tonfa Ban 53A (40; 9 seconds) Gojyo, Goku, Sanzo, Hakkai Kawakami 53B (15; 4 seconds) Sanzo, Gojyo, Goku, Hakkai Kawakami 102 (8; 8 seconds) Shuufa, Tonfa, Goku Nishimura 104 (27; 10 seconds) Hakkai, Shuufa, Goku Nishimura 159 (18; 10 seconds) Shunfa, Tonfa, Goku, Hakkai, Gojyo Ooki 163 (11; 1 second) Shanfa, Shuufa, Tonfa Ooki 
204 (12; 10 seconds) Goku, Hakkai, Sanzo, Gojyo, Shunfa, Shanfa, Shuufa, Tonfa Jon -
GROUP TAC; Storyboarder Jun'ichi Sakata, Episode Director Tomoki Kyoda, Animation Supervisor Takuji YoshimotoCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 20 (18; 10 seconds) Hakkai, Goku, Sanzo, boy Watanabe 38 (14; 7 seconds) Gojyo Fujiwara 
47 (7; 3 seconds) Kougaiji, Dokugakuji Takekoshi 52 (21; 23 seconds) Kougaiji, Dokugakuji, Nii Takekoshi 53 (40; 5 seconds) Kougaiji, Dokugakuji Takekoshi 54 (17; 11 seconds) Nii, Kougaiji Takekoshi 
- 112 (7; 8 seconds) Sanzo, Renrii Inoguchi 122 (12; 5 seconds) Sanzo Inoguchi 126 (11; 11 seconds) Gojyo, Hakkai Fujita 127 (24; 8 seconds) Goku, Hakkai, Gojyo Fujita 134 (18; 9 seconds) Hakkai, Gojyo, Goku Fujita 162 (18; 5 seconds) Gojyo, Goku, Hakkai Agata 
195 (4; 1 second) Dokugakuji Gotou -
SHAFT; Storyboarder Rion Kujou, Episode Director Rion Kujou, Animation Supervisor Yukito OotsuboCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 17 (16; 8 seconds) Sanzo Muramatsu 18 (19; 8 seconds) Gojyo, Renrii Murakami 22 (5; 3 seconds) Sanzo Murakami 59 (1; 4 seconds) Kougaiji, Hakuryuu, Dokugakuji Yamazaki 
- 76 (14; 2 seconds) Hakkai Sawada 91 (24; 5 seconds) Hakkai, Gojyo, Hakuryuu Muramatsu 
125 (5; 10 seconds) Dokugakuji, Kougaiji (illegible) 129F (1; 4 seconds) Dokugakuji Takegami 138 (11; 5 seconds) Kougaiji, Goku Takegami 143 (23; 6 seconds) Kougaiji, Sanzo, Goku Takegami 150A (32; 7 seconds) Kougaiji, Dokugakuji Aoyagi 193B (8; 4 seconds) Gojyo, Dokugakuji Aoyagi -
GROUP TAC; Storyboarder Hitoyuki Matsui, Episode Director Hitoyuki Matsui, Animation Supervisor Yoshiaki TsubataCut (sheets; duration) Character(s) Animator 2 (11; 7 seconds) Gojyo, Dokugakuji Mutou 38 (5; 1 second) Seiten Taisei Son Goku, Gojyo Kamura 122 (6; 2 seconds) Kougaiji, Dokugakuji Endou 143, 145 (25; 2 & 2 seconds) Hakkai, Gojyo Doi 
- 194 (30; 9 seconds) Gojyo, Goku Komori -