User reviews

We had some great shows to watch growing up and this was one of them. It just got crazier and crazier as it went on watching the characters evolve new abilities. It was sad when it ended but it may have been for the best, I'll never know I guess. What I do know is that I will always have fond memories of it, its writing, music and adventures. For the record I noticed that Mieko Takamine has not been given credit here for acting as Budda.

I was surprised to find out this is not a series spawned out of Hollywood. The show tells of a monkey man on his quest to India to retrieve some sacred scriptures in a bid to save the world. He recruits a rag tag bunch of travelers including a fellow with a pig face. There's a lot of laughter to be had during their adventures as well as some pretty comedic fighting scenes.

The show is of course dubbed, but the English voice actors do a great job of drawing you in.

I truly hope Hollywood can pick this series up and produce a modern day take on what was a unique narrative. 2 series simply wasn't enough.

'Monkey!' was obviously created, imported, & then overdubbed by mad geniuses. It's cheesey, it's deranged, it's surreal, it's brilliantly, hysterically funny. And it's better now than when I was 9, which is astonishing.

Like so many other reviewers on here, my memories of this show are universally warm. In fact, so fond are said cherished memories, that I recently purchased the DVD box set in order to revisit that happy and carefree period of childhood, whereby I used to sit utterly mesmerised, as I watched the ongoing quest of Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy, Tripitaka and later Yu Lung a horse/dragon/man (you'll really need to watch it to understand), when the much loved show initially aired on BBC 2 on Friday evenings, as I recall.

Well, I'm pleased to say that even after all these years and now viewing this with adult i.e. more cynical(!) eyes, the show has lost none of its inimitable charm.

Simply wonderful entertainment, from the magical characters and their comical interactions with one another to the perhaps not so special effects (which actually serve to heighten the fun) and of course, not forgetting the hugely memorable opening title sequence from the first season, the passing of time has not in any way, shape or form diminished any of Monkey's spellbinding charm.

As Monkey himself would probably say, 'Oi! You there! Go out and grab yourself some nostalgic fun.'

How good was this show. I watched it in the UK, aged 10 years old. It was on at dinnertime, everyone watched Monkey.

I live in Japan now, every Japanese my age knows this show as well.

My Japanese son has just starred as Monkey in a school play.

How about that for full circle?

Best show ever while i was a kid. Now that i'm an adult, i still cant shake that theme song out of my head. Even the ending song (Gandhara) is memorable to me. Some shows will last forever in our hearts. I wish i could find all the episodes and expose my children to this show.

I hope that one day, when Hollywood is done with re-making Marvel Comic stories that they look at something like this.

Jackie Chan would play a great Monkey.

I bet it would be a box office hit!

Opening dialog

In the Worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order, but the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeon's wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of Heaven, the moistures of the Earth, and the powers of the Sun and the Moon all worked upon a certain rock - old as Creation, and it magically became fertile. That first egg was named Thought. Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, 'With our thoughts we make the world.' Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch: from it there came a stone Monkey. The nature of Monkey was ... irrepressible!

In fact, the nature of the whole series is irrepressibly funny! But not always funny... there are moments of extreme poignance as the deeper aspects of human emotion are touched on.

Over and again, the series comments on the frailties of human nature and the life long, or in this case eternal, struggle to overcome them. Monkey is both smart and stupid at the same time, his arrogance and reliance on his own martial skills lead him into trouble in almost every episode. Pigsy is just plain gross. Sandy has a philosophical turn of mind. He has many of the wittiest lines.

The English translation is a delight. "Ignorance can always be improved upon," drawls Sandy in his laid-back manner, "but you can't do anything to help stupidity!" "Who are you?" the group of travellers are asked. "We three kings of Orient are," says Monkey.

This is not just for children, it is a magical romp for anyone who can suspend reality

MONKEY is surely one of the best shows to have ever been shown on TV. I remember when I was a kid, I'd go to my grandma's house every Saturday morning and I'd turn on the TV so I could watch MONKEY. I loved it. It had kickass action scenes, cool special effects, a great story, a fantastic theme song that was guaranteed to never leave your head and hilarious dubbing. But it is kind of weird that it's set in China and the actors are Japanese and filmed in Japan, but that is no stop towards making this TV show lovable.

MONKEY is about the adventures of three people: Pigsy (Toshiyuki Nishida), Sandy (Shirô Kishibe) and of course, the unforgettable and most lovable character, Monkey (Masaaki Sakai) who travel from China to India to get a bunch of holy scrolls in order to save the world.

MONKEY is great fun and it's magic.

Easily one of the best shows ever made, & it just gets better with age.

For me , one of the chief reasons for this was the English adaptation done by David Weir.

A Japanese friend of mine once told me that the show in it's original language was more whimsical & less flat-out hilarious that the version we all know.

The fact that the show resonates so strongly for its non-Japanese fans is , I think, largely because of Mr Weir's inspired efforts & some winning voice-over work.

Well done, sir!

Monkey Magic is just the best childrens(?) series in the world. I remember watching it on Children's Tv when I was 5 or 6 years old - despite the time gap, I could still vividly remember the music, Monkey's kung-fu fights and his magic staff. As soon as the videos came out, I was determined to buy a copy..... and I was not disappointed! The fact is, Monkey is an oaf who wants it all (he's still likeable just because of his effrontery - challenging Buddha, what chutzpah!), but as he sets on his mission with Tripitaka you can see that he does have plenty of good qualities. Pigsy is amusing because of his lustful nature, Sandy is a bit earnest and Tripitaka is just untouchable. The soundtrack is funky man! The dated nature of the fx just add to the appeal of Monkey and the fights are still wicked. You do learn a bit about Buddhism as well. Buy the videos and have a good night in with your friends.

I grow up watching this series and really enjoyed it. It was all we talked about at school. Even my brothers would copy Monkey's two fingers and blowing them for his cloud to appear epic. I finally got the boxset and I'm looking forward to watching it with my grand kids.

How this NHK TV production found it's way out of Japan and onto the TV screens of English speaking children in the 1908s is something of a testament to how good the series is. Not many Japanese TV shows manage to reach escape velocity from their own domestic market. Monkey was many a child's formative exposure to the world of the far east, and my goodness, did it leave an impression!

Smashing onto the screen with some incredibly catchy 1970s rock music courtesy of band Godiego, the power of Monkey was irrepressable! It's strange to think in hindsight that this genre of music would fit with it's setting of ancient China, but it certainly does. Songs like Monkey's title theme, "Thank You Baby", "Havoc in Heaven", and "Ghandara" are seared onto my consciousness and those of the same generation.

Monkey had everything. Wild English dubbing, crazy jokes, ham-fisted performances, extravagant costumes, hokey special effects, and violent fight choreographed scenes. Amongst it all were sentimental and serious Buddhist teachings and philosophy about the human condition, delivered by a narrator and handled with great sensitivity. Most of this went over our heads as children, as we treated the Buddha as a make believe fantasy character peculiar to the world of Monkey Magic. We were more fascinated by the violence. Going beyond this, rewatching Monkey as an adult is considerably more... enlightening!

Unlike the source material of the "Journey to the west", Monkey doesn't really resolve itself properly in line with the overarching plot of the journey to India. This is expertly cast into the themes of it's final episode. I am not alone in feeling a desire for more episodes. Yet as the Buddha teaches, the source of all our suffering is desire. It is very hard to want nothing and to keep moving, but if we are to be enlightened, we must discover that this is in fact very easy.

This is one of the best things on TV in the early 80s.

As a child it was absolutely fantastic. Great character dubbing, very very funny, very very weird and one of the things I used to look forward to when I came home from school. Not to be matched.

This show was the best! I used to love the craziness of it.

I remember the pilot episode( i have it on video somewhere) where monkey went to heaven to "kick off" with the Jade emperor was a hoot!

especially when monkey meets the dragon kings daughter to claim his weapon (the magic wishing staff).

Dragon kings daughter calls monkey a "passionate Primate" and tells monkey to make his stick "grow Big!".

An absolute classic. A must see!.

What are you reading this for?

Get out there and grab a copy now!

You wont be disappointed!.

Warning - once you hear the theme tune to this show, you'll never totally get it out of your head!

Monkey Magic is probably the craziest and most enjoyable TV series of the 1970s and I have very fond memories of watching it as a small child, growing up. Recently, the videos became available and I bought one just to see if it was as fun as I remember - and it is!!

Monkey Magic rules!

I watched this show as a child and revisited it recently when I purchased the boxset. Unlike shows such as the A-team and Knightrider which by today's standards are lame, Monkey is absolutely timeless. Based on the novel "Journey to the west" its plot lines are interesting and allow you to see each character develop along the journey. Combine this with excellent fight scenes and good humour, this show is a hit! The biggest thing for me about the show was its morality and one liners of wisdom from the narrator - pure gold. You don't have to be a buddhist to appreciate the humanistic side of this saga and more than one scene can leave you with a tear in your eye. Finally the soundtrack is ridiculously good. I simple love that song "Ghandarra" and obviously the intro. The only thing I didn't like about the show was that there was only two seasons made. "Even in Heaven, they say desire ends in tears."

This series has achieved a cult following and for very good reasons. It's wacky, off-the-wall and just plain weird.

The story focusses on a small band of pilgrims travelling from China to India to fetch the holy scriptures. Leading the party is Tripitaka, a Buddhist priest and played by a girl, Masako Natsume. Following him is Monkey, Sandy and Pigsy. Apart from the priest, all are effectively spirits, cast out of heaven for causing mischief of various forms, and sworn to help the priest in his quest.

Now, the effects are cheesy, the acting is typically overacting, and the script of each episode typically has the band of pilgrims defeating some horde of demons in order to continue on their way. The demons are typically just actors with theatrically painted faces and occasionally horns and goofy teeth.

The English language version is fairly-well dubbed, and you get used to the voices not matching the lips straight off. Of interest to fans of the original LOTR animated movie is the fact that the voice of Pigsy was done by Peter Woodthorpe, who voiced Gollum in the animated film. The voices are virtually identical, except of course, Pigsy never goes on about "his Precious".

Monkey is the main star of the show, though, and has a number of magical powers at his disposal. His fighting staff can shrink or expand at his command (he often hides it in his ear!) and he can summon clouds to ride around on (which is just plain silliness, and brilliant anyhow!). I seem to recall he could also create duplicates of himself by plucking hairs from body.

Pigsy, as mentioned above, sounds just like Gollum, and is hedonism personified. He constantly craves women, food and alcohol to excess, though he rarely ends up satisfied.

Sandy is a fish spirit and is the only "heroic" character I can think of who goes around sporting a necklace of skulls.

Tripitaka is the priest who tries to keep them all under control. In reality, he only appears to have any direct control over Monkey, and he usually keeps the others in line.

In the second series, the actor playing Pigsy changed, though the voice remains the same. Also a new character appears in the form of Tripitaka's horse, which is apparently a dragon spirit (though he's a pretty cowardly dragon) called Yu-Lung.

The fight sequences are silly, and the weapons are very obviously rubber for the most part. But there is something about "Monkey" that transcends this and entertains you regardless of its technical failings. In the end, all the silliness just becomes part of the fun of the show and you watch it mainly for the interplay between the characters, not the plot or anything else.

Before there was humans on the earth, there was just monkeys and demons. Saiyuki (monkey) was the king of the monkeys, loud, rude and aggressive he demands the gods that he be made powerful, because he defeats the demons. After a trip to heaven he gets all the magic and power he wants, but he annoys in the gods and he manages to urinate on the finger of the Buddha.

So he is banished to earth thousands of years later with the task of protecting a young Buddhist preist Tripitaka. Along with a Pigmonster called Pigsy and a Fishdemon called Sandy he gets in too all sorts of kung fu fights while protecting Tripitaka.

Monkey can rides on his own cloud, make himself small, change into animals, stuff like that.

Very entertaining, with a funky soundtrack, and hilarious English dubbing. Ahhhhhhh Monkey!!!

9 out of ten

I was about 7 years old when Monkey was first aired in this country (Australia). Now days I don't remember too much about the experience, other than that my dad made me my very own Monkey staff, made from a 6 foot length of orange electrical pipe, and complete with rubber protected ends to prevent me from hurting myself (and anyone else). That pretend staff got a stack of use over the next 12 months, and with it thousands of imaginary demons were destroyed. Now I'm in my early 30s and I have begun collecting the series on DVD, and I have to say that the reason for the show's huge popularity should be no mystery. The special effects are not much greater than those used by my dad with the electrical pipe, and the stories are repetitive and simple, but what makes the show special is the 4 central characters. Masaaki Sakai (Monkey), Toshiyuki Nishida (Pigsy), Shiro Kishibe (Sandy) and Masako Natsume (Tripitaka) are all very likable and charismatic people, and it is largely thanks to them that the show got everyone's attention. Monkey was of course the most important and popular character, with his huge friendly grin and lovably arrogant personality demanding the lion's share of the attention in every episode. Pigsy too was a very likable character, despite his piggish tendencies, and his fabulous portrayal of a pig in human form combined wonderfully with Masaaki's character. Next was Sandy, another friendly and lovable goof who was the more steady of the three, but who still managed to get himself into serious jams in nearly every episode. And lastly was Tripitaka, easily the most puzzling of the 4. Both beautiful and determined, Tripitaka was the perfect leader for such a bunch of ignorant misfits, but why on earth did they choose a woman to play the part? It has puzzled me ever since I first watched the show, but I never felt disturbed by it. Instead, I always imagined Tripitaka to be what she really was: a girl! Whenever I heard Monkey refer to her as 'that boy' or 'master', I simply ignored it. But why they did it in the first place did indeed perplex me. I was also puzzled as to whether the show was Japanese or Chinese, though I now know it to be the former. Just how important these particular actors are to my enjoyment of the show became clear recently when I watched the first episode of series 2, which appears out here on the end of Vol 9 of the DVDs. The dragon they had to defeat was ridiculous, as was the battle itself, but I could bare that if it meant being able to see the gang together again. The new addition of the horse in human form seemed odd but was acceptable, as was the higher level of emotion that Tripitaka seemed to be showing. But what I absolutely could not accept was the new Pigsy. It's terrible to say, and he's probably a great guy, but he completely lacked all of the character that Toshiyuki had.

Every time Pigsy came on screen I couldn't watch it, and it made up my mind that I would not be buying any volumes past No 9. Other people may disagree, but for me it appears that the show is ruined once just one of the four is replaced. Thank goodness I still have 26 43 minute episodes from the first series to enjoy whenever I wish.

How can this be faulted. The great dubbing!! the fight scenes!! the monkey magic!!

I am not joking, this is just full of magic, the charicters, Pigsey, Monster, Monkey. And the indeterminable sex of the master.

And the excellent storylines, you almost felt you had become buddist after watching an episode.

9/10

This series is now being played every Thursday in England on Channel 4 thank god.

I won't explain what it's about because it is too crazy. Just watch it, it's the funniest series I think ever made.

Rating 9/10. Fantastic for those who like watching a good fight every episode!.

Seeing Tripitaka and realising he was actually a she really confused me. I was just starting to get those feelings and this REALLY confused me.

Despite the sexual ambiguity this series rocks! Kudos

Ok I will admit, I only know the dubbed version. But by all accounts the English language track was pretty much in the spirit of the original Japanese show.

Based on one of my favorite books (which I read first when I was 15 in memory of this show) "Saiyuki", or "Monkey!" as it was know in England tells the story of a Buddhist Monk: Tripitaka (an authentic historical character)who travels to India to collect Buddhist scriptures. Though to be honest thats all incidental, the important thing is Tripitaka's companions: Monkey, the Great Sage Equal of Heaven, a creature born from a stone egg (don't ask, those wacky Chinese eh). Sandy, a former lake monster, and Pigsy, a pig demon.

Basically, in their travels they meet up with various monsters and evil doers and beat the living daylights out of them. Thats about it. There is even some philosophy amongst the slapstick and cool as hell, if incredibly cheap, visual effects.

People of England you are fortunate because this series is available on Video in Blighty, not just the episodes shown but every episode made. I'm not sure about the rest of the world, if it's available in any form in America I'll be getting it now I've moved here, but sadly I doubt it.

Like I said, a gem of a show, find a way to view it if you can, you won't be disappointed.

Oh and the theme tune by Godeigo rocks! (the end credit song most certainly does not).