11/10-16/2003: Didja know the letters of "Gensomaden Saiyuki" can be rearranged to spell "da monkey is a genius"?
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BACK TO JOURNEY TO THE REST: A Roadside Revelry in Kazuya Minekura's Saiyuki.
This page was created November 17, 2003. Last updated October 14, 2007.
This page's text and source code are copyright 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.
11/17-23/2003: Didja know Gensomaden Saiyuki episode 5 "Pure Assassin" was originally called "Drug And Booze," the title of the Saiyuki manga chapter it was based on?
11/24-30/2003: This one is in "honor" of last week's Saiyuki RELOAD episode...Didja know the letters of "Saiyuki Reload" can be rearranged to spell "I use okra daily"?
11/31-12/06/2003: Didja know Gojyo's voice actor, Hiroaki Hirata, is also the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Japanese-dubbed version of movie Pirates of the Caribbean?
12/07-13/2003: Didja know the white dragon called Jeep in the Saiyuki manga was renamed Hakuryuu ("white dragon") for the TV animation because, first-series character designer Yuuji Moriyama explained, "Jeep" is a copyrighted product name...but the dragon's name remains Jeep in Saiyuki's ongoing non-anime forms, such as the manga and audio drama CDs?
12/14/2003-1/10/2004: Didja know "Kazuya Minekura" is a pen name? Her real first name is Hitomi. Her family name starts with the letter A--but she'd probably prefer it not be known now, so we'd better leave it at that!
1/11-17/2004: Didja know the gold credit card Sanzo is using belongs to Jiroushin in Gensomaden Saiyuki, and to the Sanbutsushin in Saiyuki RELOAD?
1/18-24/2004: Didja know that in Gensomaden Saiyuki's second opening titles, in the shot where Gojyo is tied to Dokugakuji, Dokugaku's pants are buttoned at the top but look like they, uh, need to be zipped up? ;^) (That's because the buckle of his undone belt hangs down in exactly the wrong place, and some staff smart-alec made the belt the same color as the pants and the buckle the same color as Dokugaku's flesh...)
1/25-31/2004: Didja know Sanzo is ambidextrous, according to Minekura-sensei? Gojyo is left-handed, Hakkai is right-handed, and Goku can use everything--including his feet!
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2/01-07/2004: Didja know Minekura-sensei has a miniature dachshund named Kurosawa?
2/08-14/2004: Didja know Sanzo's voice actor, Toshihiko Seki, holds the rank of 2nd Dan in kendo?
2/15-21/2004: Didja know that according to the storyboards for Gensomaden Saiyuki's first opening titles, Hakkai's hands reaching up (right after Sanzo starts emptying his gun's shells) are supposed to be "smeared with blood," and Gojyo is supposed to be "floating in a sea of blood"? The same executive changes that made Gojyo's hair an unbloodlike color also toned down those blood references in the finished opening titles.
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2/22-28/2004: Didja know that when singer Hidenori Tokuyama recorded Gensomaden Saiyuki's two opening themes, "For Real" and "Still Time," he was 18 years old? (He was born January 30, 1982.)
2/29-3/06/2004: Didja know Nii Jen'ii is in his mid-30s, according to Minekura-sensei?
3/07-13/2004: Didja know that Gensomaden Saiyuki's second opening titles' silhouetted fight scene was originally created for the first opening titles? It was storyboarded to underlie the scenes of the Sanzo-ikkou in action during the lines "Nani o mitsukete yukou, kokoro o hakidashite, mata koko de aeru yo, sore ga shinjitsu nara." The silhouetted fight scene was ultimately not used there, but was later able to be incorporated in the second opening titles, with part of its Gojyo footage cut to fit its new slot.
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3/14-20/2004: Didja know that Sanzo's waist measurement is "about 56 centimeters," according to Minekura-sensei? (That's just over 22 inches!)
3/21-27/2004: Didja know March 23 is Minekura-sensei's birthday? She was born in 1975.
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3/28-4/03/2004: Didja know that when Gensomaden Saiyuki was first marketed for sale to U.S. distributors, agent Enoki Films USA Inc. gave it the whiz-bang secondary title "Paradise Raiders"? (Check out Enoki's unintentionally hilarious page on the series! My favorite part is "Chin-Ih-So: A dubious fortune-teller manipulating Mahjong pies," but there's much, much more...!)
4/04-10/2004: Didja know that according to Minekura-sensei's second Saiyuki doujinshi, Gojyo is about 7 years younger than his half-brother, Jien?
4/11-17/2004: Didja know the end theme of Gensomaden Saiyuki's first 26 episodes and the end theme of the Gensomaden Saiyuki: Requiem movie are both named "Tightrope," but are completely different songs? (Well, there is a technical difference in their titles: the TV theme by CHARCOAL FILTER is officially spelled "Tightrope," with only the first letter capitalized, while the movie theme by TETSU69 is "TIGHTROPE," all capital letters...)
4/18-24/2004: Didja know that in their "Hayabusa Brothers" guise, Sanzo is "first son" Tarou, Gojyo is "second son" Jirou, Hakkai is "third son" Saburou and Goku is "fourth son" Shirou?
4/25-5/01/2004: Didja know that according to Minekura-sensei, Jeep/Hakuryuu has no memories of his prior incarnation?
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5/02-08/2004: Didja know that when Minekura-sensei first created Saiyuki, as a doujinshi in 1995, she originally had Sanzo in the driver's seat for the journey West? (Between that and a sketchbook piece she did for a fan in June 1995, maybe in that embryonic stage she was considering giving Sanzo the relationship with Jeep that ultimately went to Hakkai...?)
5/09-15/2004: Didja know the kanji Šì ("ki") on Gojyo's blue bandanna means "joy" or "pleasure"?
5/16-22/2004: Didja know that in Japan, Geneon Entertainment--which will release both the Saiyuki RELOAD and Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK anime series in North America--was a broadcast sponsor of Saiyuki RELOAD since episode 14, and a frequent broadcast sponsor of Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK (episodes #1-8 and every other episode from #15 to 26) too? Geneon has also distributed Frontier Works' Saiyuki-, Gensomaden Saiyuki- and Saiyuki RELOAD-related CD and DVD releases in Japan since last fall.
5/23-29/2004: Didja know that the gun Sanzo uses in the Saiyuki and Saiyuki RELOAD manga is a Smith & Wesson M-10 with a three-inch barrel?
5/30-6/05/2004: Didja know that although Sanzo uses his gun from the manga, a Smith & Wesson M-10 with three-inch barrel, in both the Saiyuki RELOAD and Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK anime series, his gun's design had been changed to something nonexistent for the earlier Gensomaden Saiyuki? First-series character designer Yuuji Moriyama explained that Sanzo using a gun not seen in real life was intended to help downplay the shooting and killing in that series.
6/06-12/2004: Didja know that according to series director Tetsuya Endou, the "UraSai" segment of Saiyuki RELOAD was conceived as something playful for children to enjoy? Saiyuki RELOAD was the lead-in to Pocket Monster Advance Generation when first broadcast in Japan, and "UraSai" made for a more kid-friendly transition.
6/13-19/2004: Didja know that Toshihiko Seki and Hiroaki Hirata, who provide the voices of Sanzo and Gojyo, occasionally act in person too? Both will perform in Tokyo stage productions later this year--Hirata-san from July 30-August 1 in "Otodama," and Seki-san in "Love Love Buddy Boy," a two-man drama with Ryuusei Nakao, on October 6-11.
6/20-26/2004: Didja know that Minekura-sensei's blood type is A?
6/27-7/03/2004: Didja know that Daisuke Namikawa, voice of Kami-sama in Saiyuki RELOAD, also provided the voice of Anakin Skywalker in the Japanese-dubbed Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones?
7/04-10/2004: Didja know that under his robes Sanzo wears jeans, according to Minekura-sensei?
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7/11-17/2004: Didja know that Tonpuu, an old acquaintance of Gojyo and Hakkai's who was an important part of Gensomaden Saiyuki episode 18, was voiced by singer Hidenori Tokuyama? Tokuyama also performed that series' two opening themes, "For Real" and "Still Time."
7/18-24/2004: Didja know that one member of Doa, the trio that performs Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK's new ending theme "Shiro No Jumon," is Akihito Tokunaga? Tokunaga not only wrote the music and lyrics for "Shiro No Jumon," but also wrote the music for GUNLOCK opening theme "Don't Look Back Again" and Saiyuki RELOAD's second ending theme, "Fukisusabu Kaze No Naka De."
7/25-31/2004: Didja know that Yuuko Minaguchi, the voice of Yaone, also provided the voice of Sailor Moon's Sailor Saturn?
8/01-07/2004: Didja know that in Gensomaden Saiyuki: Requiem's first-run theatrical release in Japan, theaters showed a music video of TETSU69 performing end theme "TIGHTROPE" immediately before the movie?
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8/08-21/2004: Didja know parts of the two-minute "shooting star" sequence near the end of Gensomaden Saiyuki #50 were redrawn after that episode first aired on Japanese TV? The new version, with Requiem-style work replacing the more cartoonily-drawn characters that had been filmed first, was used for the show's DVD release in Japan. The scene on the left is from what Pierrot now calls the TV On Air Version. The corresponding douga used in making the DVD version is shown at right. (Another difference between the two versions is that the TV On Air Version did not use the regular ending titles; credits were superimposed during the last 1 1/2 minutes of the episode itself. In the DVD version, credits were not superimposed during the episode, and the regular ending titles were used.)
Changes made for the DVD version's "shooting star" sequence were:
Pan down from sky to jeep: Same.
Pan up jeep to Sanzo-ikkou inside: Same.
Goku snoring, Gojyo tries to light cigarette: Same.
Hakkai, "can't you sleep?": Same.
Gojyo looks up, "the stars are too bright": Gojyo redrawn.
Hakkai replies: Same.
Gojyo leans forward to grab Hakkai's shoulder: Gojyo and Hakkai redrawn.
Hakkai recalls his usual wish to Gojyo: Same.
Goku talks in sleep; pan to Hakkai and Gojyo watching: Goku and Hakkai are the same, Gojyo is redrawn in all but the frames when he has the ikari mark.
Goku's nose is plugged: Same.
Hakkai turns back toward the steering wheel: Hakkai redrawn.
Jeep with Sanzo-ikkou inside, Gojyo puts arms behind head: Same.
Sanzo opens eyes: Sanzo redrawn.
Gojyo delivers: Same.
Close-up of Hakkai's eye: Same.
Sanzo smiles: Sanzo redrawn.
Goku sleeps: Same.
Gojyo sits: Same.
Hakkai looks at sky: Hakkai redrawn.
Pan up from jeep to sky: Same.
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8/22-28/2004: Didja know Gato is meant to appear to come from Native American blood, according to Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK series director Tetsuya Endou?
8/29-9/04/2004: Didja know that Hazel's incantations in Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK are meant to sound close to the Elf language in "Lord of the Rings"? (That was a decision of series director Tetsuya Endou--who later learned that Minekura-sensei had been hoping for something evocative of Latin...!)
9/05-11/2004: Didja know that the design of Hazel's pendant, shown as being a Star of David in the "Saiyuki RELOAD" manga, was changed for Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK? The pendant's anime design is that of flowers from a stained-glass pattern, said series director Tetsuya Endou, who explained the symmetry of the flower pattern was felt to better suit Hazel than the "simplified design" in the manga version.
9/12-10/02/2004: Didja know that Sanzo's cigarette brand of choice is Marlboro, while Gojyo's is Hi-Lite? (Both are actual brands, with Marlboro originating in the United States and Hi-Lite found in Japan.)
10/03-09/2004: Didja know that Hakkai and Kanan were twin siblings, according to Minekura-sensei? Kanan was the first of the pair to be born, so is technically Hakkai's older sister. (The incest aspect of their relationship was downplayed in the anime version.)
10/10-16/2004: Didja know that Minekura-sensei is younger than any of the Sanzo-ikkou voice actors? She's almost three years younger than the youngest of the four, Souichirou Hoshi (Goku).
10/17-23/2004: Didja know "zakuro" means "pomegranate" in Japanese? (Might explain why that youkai guy is so seedy...;^) )
10/24-30/2004: Didja know that Gensomaden Saiyuki character designer Yuuji Moriyama's favorite character in the series was bouncy Lirin?
10/31-11/06/2004: Didja know that Akira Ishida, who provides Cho Hakkai's voice, turned 37 on November 2? He was born in 1967.
11/07-13/2004: Didja know that November 9 is Gojyo's birthday?
11/14-20/2004: Didja know November 20 is Kougaiji voice actor Takeshi Kusao's 39th birthday? He was born in 1965.
11/21-27/2004: Didja know that of the Sanzo-ikkou, Sanzo takes the longest to draw by pen but Goku takes the longest to finish with shading tone, according to Minekura-sensei?
11/28-12/04/2004: Didja know Sanzo's birthday is November 29?
12/05-12/11/2004: Didja know that in Minekura-sensei's original designs for Hazel's master, she named the man Filbert Grouse?
12/12-12/18/2004: Didja know Minekura-sensei did the January 2005 ZERO-SUM's cover illustration, of Goku in Sioux-type garb, entirely with colored pencils?
12/19-25/2004: Didja know that Tonpuu, the Gensomaden Saiyuki character voiced by singer Hidenori Tokuyama (who sang the series' two opening themes, "For Real" and "Still Time"), was actually in more than one episode? As noted in the trivia fact for 7/11-17/2004, this old acquaintance of Gojyo and Hakkai was an important part of episode 18...but Tonpuu was also seen earlier, losing at cards to Gojyo in episode 15. (Hiroaki Hirata's script for that episode has Tonpuu's name added by pen to a Gojyo line, so that viewers would hear him referred to by name and hopefully make the connection three episodes later.)
12/26/2004-1/15/2005: Didja know that 177cm-tall (just under 5-foot-10) Sanzo is the same height as Kougaiji and Nii, according to the Saiyuki RELOAD animators' reference settei?
CONTINUE TO JOURNEY TO THE REST's 2005-2006 TRIVIA FACTS OF THE WEEK!