History Manga / Saiyuki

* AbusiveParents:

* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Tenkai in ''Ibun''.
* AffablyEvil: Most of the antagonists don't really qualify as evil. [[NobleDemon Kougaiji]] and his group sometimes make the main characters look like the bad guys. Lirin is basically a female Goku (except she's an complete idiot), Dokugakuji is a PunchClockVillain purely out of loyalty to Kougaiji, and [[MsFanservice Yaone]] is considered a possible love interest for Hakkai, outside of FanDumb.
* TheAgeless: The gods are immortal, most of them appearing like humans in the prime of life -- particularly Kanzeon, who hasn't aged a day in 500 years.

* [[spoiler: AttemptedRape:]] Genjo Sanzo's ''Burial'' chapter reveals that, just after witnessing his master's death, 14 year-old Genjyo was [[spoiler: waylaid by a band of thugs who attempted to rob and rape him. He shot his attacker at point-blank range, the first time he had ever killed another person.]] This could also be considered [[spoiler: RapeAsBackstory]] because it's clearly tied to his trust and distance issues as an adult.
* BadassCrew

** Gojyo [[HalfHumanHybrid somewhat]] qualifies. While Hakkai and Goku can remove their limiters for a power boost, Gojyo doesn't undergo any changes other than a mystical weapon and [[LetsGetDangerous taking things up a notch]].
*** [[spoiler:At least until they get to Tibet, where the Minus Wave is far stronger. For the first time, Gojyo's the one developing youkai marks and ''Hakkai's'' the one worried about his battle partner losing control.]]

'''''Gensomaden Saiyuki''''' (''Saiyuki RELOAD'', ''Saiyuki RELOAD Gunlock'', etc.) is a manga and anime series kinda-sorta inspired by the Chinese classic ''JourneyToTheWest'' (which is ''Saiyuki'' in Japan).

* RelationshipVoiceActor: Goku is SoichiroHoshi and Hakkai is AkiraIshida.
** And Sanzo is ToshihikoSeki. We've got [[GundamSEED Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala and Rau Le Creuset]] hanging around like [[WithFriendsLikeThese 'buddies']].

''Saiyuki'' is a somewhat large franchise, with three TV series, three [=OVAs=], stage plays, drama [=CDs=], and a movie, along with the six manga everything is based on. [[note]]Just for reference, the titles for the various series that are used throughout this article: Manga: original ''Gensomaden Saiyuki'', sequels ''Saiyuki Reload'' and ''Saiyuki Reload Blast'', prequels ''Saiyuki Gaiden'' and ''Saiyuki Ibun'', and ''Saiyuki Gaiden: Ants of Heaven'' (TBR September 2012). Anime: original series ''Gensomaden Saiyuki'', sequels ''Saiyuki Reload'' and ''Saiyuki Reload Gunlock'', [=OVAs=] ''Gensomaden Saiyuki: Kibou no Zaika'', ''Saiyuki Gaiden'', and ''Saiyuki Burial'', theatrical movie ''Saiyuki Requiem''.[[/note]] One could argue that this series has MultipleDemographicAppeal, with an overwhelmingly {{Bishonen}} cast and multiple opportunities for HoYay, but also has some elements of {{Shonen}} series, such as MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours.

* AbusiveParents: Li Touten, who uses his [[spoiler:bio-engineered]] son to gain military and political power. He's also implied to be sexually abusing him.
** The relationship between Gojyo and his older half-brother and their abusive stepmother. Gojyo was continuously beaten to a pulp and taught that he was evil and worthless; his older brother wasn't physically assaulted, but forced to participate in a sexual relationship with his biological mother/ Gojyo's step mother in order to keep Gojyo safe. Interestingly, Gojyo still loved her and hoped for her love in return, while his older brother (who feels an occasionally crippling sense of shame about both the incest and not being able to protect Gojyo) seems to have hated her outright.

* ActuallyIAmHim: Happens every time the Sanzo party enter a new town that doesn't recognize who they are.

* AffablyEvil: Most of the antagonists don't really qualify as evil. [[NobleDemon Kougaiji]] and his group sometimes make the main characters look like the bad guys. Lirin is basically a female Goku (except she's an complete idiot), Dokugakuji is something of a PunchClockVillain that loyally follows Kougaiji, and [[MsFanservice Yaone]] is considered a possible non FanDumb love interest for Hakkai.
* TheAgeless: The gods.
* [[AlternateCharacterReading Alternate Character Meaning]]: How the title is written is a pun; instead of the kanji for "west" it uses another with the same reading that makes the whole thing mean Journey [[AC:to the Max!]]

* Angst: Most incarnations of this series are extremely angst heavy. The characters all have tragic back stories and a plethora of psychological problems which were constantly being explored in detail, via the bad guy's psychological tactics or extended flashbacks. Even the show's light relief character had serious abandonment issues ( not surprising given that he spent hundreds of years being chained up and abandoned without food).

* BadassNormal: Gojyo [[HalfHumanHybrid somewhat]] qualifies. While Hakkai and Goku can remove their limiters for a power boost, Gojyo doesn't undergo any changes other than a mystical weapon and [[LetsGetDangerous taking things up a notch]].
** Hakkai was an apparently ordinary human when he carried out the murder spree that transformed him into a youkai: killing a thousand youkai on his own, armed only with a knife. That was also before he learned the energy attacks he uses during the main series.
* BaldOfEvil: Rikkudo
* BecauseImJonesy: Happens early on in the Saiyuki Reload manga and in several filler episodes of the anime.

''Saiyuki'' is a somewhat large franchise, with three TV series, three [=OVAs=], stage plays, drama [=CDs=], and a movie, along with the six manga everything is based on. [[hottip:*:Just for reference, the titles for the various series that are used throughout this article: Manga: original ''Gensomaden Saiyuki'', sequels ''Saiyuki Reload'' and ''Saiyuki Reload Blast'', prequels ''Saiyuki Gaiden'' and ''Saiyuki Ibun'', and ''Saiyuki Gaiden: Ants of Heaven'' (TBR September 2012). Anime: original series ''Gensomaden Saiyuki'', sequels ''Saiyuki Reload'' and ''Saiyuki Reload Gunlock'', [=OVAs=] ''Gensomaden Saiyuki: Kibou no Zaika'', ''Saiyuki Gaiden'', and ''Saiyuki Burial'', theatrical movie ''Saiyuki Requiem''.]] One could argue that this series has MultipleDemographicAppeal, with an overwhelmingly {{Bishonen}} cast and multiple opportunities for HoYay, but also has some elements of {{Shonen}} series, such as MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours.

* MediumAwareness: Jiroshin can't prove that Kanzeon really is a hermaphrodite, cause the rating isn't high enough. Also extremely prevalent in the drama CDs in which the boys comment on how they do the gag where they order a lot of food and the waitress has to repeat it all back a lot.

* MismatchedEyes: Homura has a gold eye and a blue one.

* HoYay: And HOW!

** Hakkai was an apparently ordinary human when he carried out the murder spree that transformed him into a youkai: killing a thousand youkai on his own, armed only with a knife. That was also before he learned the energy attacks he uses during the main series.

* CostumeCopycat - Kami-sama, the huge fanboy. He just needs ONE MORE THING to finish it.
* CreepyChild : Hakkai was an extremely cold, isolated child. Other kids stayed away from him because he never smiled.

* FirstLove : Hakkai's sister wasn't only his first romantic partner, she was also probably his first close friend, ever.

* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation : this seems to be one of the main reasons that Hakkai had trouble relating to the other orphans and the holy sisters. It's remarked that if he'd wanted further schooling he could have had his choice of scholarships.

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Queen Gyokumen Koushou cares nothing about her people and family [[spoiler:and has deliberately caused chaos to revive Gyumao]].

* JamesBondage: Oh holy cow, does Sanzo ever suffer from this in the anime adaptations. Sucks to be like this as well in the [[JourneyToTheWest original source]].

* LightIsGood / DarkIsEvil: Genjyo Sanzo is heir to both the Seiten (heavenly/yang energy) and Maten (infernal/yin energy) sutras (although the Seiten has been MIA since his ascension), making his role to balance the sacred and the profane. There is a more conventional light/dark dichotomy between goodguy!Genjyo (deeply associated with imagery of the sun and daybreak) and badguy!Ukoku (deeply associated with moonless nights and carrion crows).

* MediumAwareness: Jiroshin can't prove that Kanzeon really is a hermaphrodite, cause the rating isn't high enough. Also extremely prevalent in the drama CD's in which the boys comment on how they do the gag where they order a lot of food and the waitress has to repeat it all back a lot.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Pretty much every other main character is stronger than Gojyo in one way or another, whether by kyouryouku or sutra or being-seiten-taisei. But in his favor, he is usually the last one still standing at the end of the battle, which corresponds to the source material, where Wujing was weak compared to Wukong and Baijie, but had incredible stamina. The Kami-sama arc also proves that Gojyo is necessary to keep the group dynamic from going completely nuclear. Without him, Sanzo and Hakkai both get wound too tight and Goku alone can't keep them from driving each other craz(ier than they already are).

* PaperFanOfDoom: Owned by Sanzo, usually used on Goku when he's being annoying.

* ShootingSuperman: Generic Youkai going after the Sanzo party is pretty much this, but Gyokuman Koushu [[MoralEventHorizon keeps sending them out anyway]], since she wants her henchmen to always be doing something - even if it's trooping off to be mowed down week after week.

* {{Shotacon}}: A lot of fans seem to be uncomfortable with the idea of Goku in any kind of romantic or sexual relationship, given his childish nature and appearance, despite the fact that he's physically 18 ''and'' ReallySevenHundredYearsOld. This is especially bad for those who have only seen the anime--while it showed the very beginning of his CharacterDevelopment in the Kami-sama arc, it quickly OvertookTheManga and tended to treat Goku like a standard [[IdiotHero stupid]] {{Shonen}} protagonist.
** Faceless bystanders tend to spread rumors of this nature about the relationships between Koumyou and Kouyruu and Konzen and Goku.

* BadassAbnormal: Sanzo, thanks to his Sutra.

* {{HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday}} Yes yes, Gojyo, we get it. You're not deep in the closet for every guy in your party.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: pretty much the dynamic of the Sanzo party. Don't make the mistake of thinking they're friends. Sanzo constantly is shooting at the others, Hakkai once smilingly broke Gojyo's arm when the latter abandoned them (it turned out to be a mirage, but Hakkai didn't know that at the time) Goku... well Goku and Gojyo're actually too nice to do more than call people names, but they certainly complain about the others (and each other) enough.

* MsFanservice: Yaone and Lirin.
* TheMedic: Yaone in Kougaiji's group, Hakkai in the Sanzo-ikkou.
* MismatchedEyes: Homura has a gold eye and a blue one.
** Alternatively Hakkai has similar gold eye and a green one when he takes off his limiter. (Proving to many fans that his right eye was indeed artificial.)
* MoralityPet: Goku to Konzen in ''Gaiden,'' Lirin to Kougaiji.

** Chin Yisou gets his arm chopped off and doesn't bat an eylid ([[spoiler: although he is a shikigami he created from his own corpse so...]])

* OrphanageOfLove : Perhaps surprisingly, the (vaguely Catholic) orphanage where Hakkai grew up was full of warm and sympathetic nuns who seemed to genuinely care about the children there. It didn't take, mainly because [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation Hakkai was just too analytical and booksmart to fit in with the other children - or to have any reverence for God]].

* RedHairedStepchild : Not only does Gojyo have red hair, but it's a sign of his mixed heritage, which is in turn one of the key reasons his stepmother beats him so much. Once, [[PrecociousCrush he brought her red flowers]], and she brutally beat him specifically because they reminded her of his hair color. Given that it's a Japanese franchise, the whole story is surprisingly similar to the Italian/Irish stepfamily situation which purportedly started the expression in the first place.

* SelfHarm : Hakkai tore his own eye out in a fit of guilt and despair.

* SenselessSacrifice: In Saiyuki Requiem [[spoiler: the girl introduced in the story sacrifices her life in order to destroy the big bad in the movie for good, so that she can die knowing her life was worth something.]] Too bad that accomplished absolutely nothing and the BigBad is ''completely'' unaffected.

** Like Hakkai, Gojyo smiles a lot but has a lot of emotional pain he hasn't dealt with at all. He's still fairly messed up from a horrifically abusive childhood at the hands of his stepmother (who he loved, though she despised him); this, in addition to the stigma associated with being a mixed breed ("taboo vhild" in series parlance), has left him with absolutely no self-worth.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou
* ThePowerOfFriendship: Although the main characters rarely, if ever, accept this. Even the villains are not immune from this trope.
* RedHeadedStepchild: Gojyo, quite literally.
** Lirin as well - her hair colour ranges in art from orange to strawberry blonde, but boy howdy thanks to her mom does she ever count.
* {{Reincarnation}}: [[spoiler:Sanzo, Gojyo and Hakkai are the reincarnations of three gods who apparently died trying to save Goku from being persecuted or turned into a second Nataku]].

* TheGunslinger: Sanzo, type A.
* TheRival

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes : In the Saiyuki Party Drama CD, Sanzo is terrified of a kitten.

* WithFriendsLikeThese : pretty much the dynamic of the Sanzo party. Don't make the mistake of thinking they're friends. Sanzo constantly is shooting at the others, Hakkai once smilingly broke Gojyo's arm when the latter abandoned them (it turned out to be a mirage, but Hakkai didn't know that at the time) Goku... well Goku and Gojyo're actually too nice to do more than call people names, but they certainly complain about the others (and each other) enough.

* VitriolicBestBuds: This defines how the Sanzo party relate to each other. Except Hakkai, who is basically the team mom, and tends to give and receive more respect and less snark than the other other three. Or maybe they've just [[yandere got the good sense not to p*ss him off too much]].

** The relationship between Gojyo and his older half-brother and their abusive stepmother. Gojyo was continuously beaten to a pulp and taught that he was evil and worthless; his older brother wasn't physically assaulted, but forced to participate in a sexual relationship with his biological mother/ Gojyo's step mother in order to keep Gojyo safe. Interestingly, Gojyo still loved and wanted to protect her, while his older brother ( who feels an occasionally crippling sense of shame about both the incest and not being able to protect Gojyo) seems to have hated her outright.

** Also, his extreme protectiveness over Kougaiji is motivated strongly by his guilt at not being able to keep his biological half-brother safe, and a way to gain redemption for not being able to do so. (He's aware of this, and has commented on how much Kougaiji resembles and reminds him of Gojyo.) His complete psychological breakdown in the manga (when he thinks he cannot keep Kougaiji safe) reflects this.

** The three older members of the Sanzo party all treat Goku like an annoying little brother they need to protect; Gojyo and Goku's big brother/little brother dynamic is particularly obvious. Right down to the teasing, it's virtually identical to the relationship between Gojyo and his elder brother (sans the insane stepmom). Sanzo and Goku's relationship is particularly heartwarming, because despite all Sanzo's insults and abuse, he clearly puts a lot of effort into raising Goku semi-responsibly.

* BrainyBrunette: Oh, Hakkai.

** Hakkai gradually makes a slight peace with his crippling sense of guilt [[SerialKiller over the terrible crimes he's committed]], as well as his grief and depression; Gojyo's relationship with Goku and random stray urchins allow him to reframe his childhood from an adult perspective, which lets him start to make peace with his past and his brother; Sanzo is Sanzo- by definition, a moody, bratty jerkass who doesn't publicly display affection or kindness towards others- so it's hard to tell exactly how much he's growing as a person, but his relationship with the other three members of his crew (especially Goku) is probably helping him trust and care about other people a little bit more. Everybody in the part is probably too damaged to heal completely, but over the course of the manga they all become slightly better psychologically adjusted.

* IAmNotLeftHanded: [[spoiler:Goku and Hakkai, being demons, have immensely greater powers without their RestrainingBolt accessories. However, his comes with a loss of control and most rational thought, and as such is only left for the most dire of situations.]]
* ImplausibleHairColor: Pretty much almost all of the Saiyuki Characters asides from a select few.

* OrphanageOfLove : Perhaps surprisingly, the (vaguely Catholic) orphanage where Hakkai grew up was full of warm and sympathetic nuns who seemed to genuinely care about the children there. It didn't take, mainly because [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation Hakkai was just too analytical and booksmart to fit in with the other children - or have any reverence for God]].

* StepfordSmiler: Hakkai. He generally plays the role of a cheery pseudo-mom/housewife of the group, but he used to be a CreepyChild who eventually ended up in a loving romantic and sexual relationship with his older sister, murdered 1,000 demons and an entire village because she was kidnapped, and can [[EyeScream cheerfully pluck out his own eye.]]
** Like Hakkai, Gojyo smiles a lot but has a lot of emotional pain he hasn't dealt with at all. First of all, he's still fairly messed up from a horrifically abusive childhood at the hands of his stepmother (who he loved and spent a long time grieving over, even if she despised him); this , in addition to the stigma associated with being a mixed breed, has left him with absolutely no self-worth. There's also the little matter of the vow he made to kill his once-beloved older brother Dokugakuji, to get revenge for [[spoiler: that time Dokugakugi murdered his mother in order to prevent her from beating Gojyo to death]], and the combination of envy and self-blame he feels about [[spoiler: the incestuous relationship that D. initiated with his mother to distract her from harming Gojyo ]].
** YMMV on that last one.

* ShootingSuperman: Generic Youkai going after the Sanzo party is pretty much this, but Gyokuman Koushu [[MoralEventHorizon keeps sending them out anyway, since she wants her henchmen to always be doing something - even if it's trooping off to be mowed down week after week.]]

* ShootingSuperman: Generic Youkai going after the Sanzo party is pretty much this, but Gyokuman Koushu [[MoralEventHorizon keeps sending them out anyways since she wants her henchmen to always being doing something if what that is essentially going out to get killed week after week.]]

* OrphanageOfLove : Perhaps surprisingly, the (Vaguely Catholic ) orphanage where Hakkai grew up was full of warm and caring nuns who seemed to genuinely care about the children in their care. It didn't take, mainly because [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation Hakkai was just too analytical and booksmart to fit in with the other children]].

** Also played with with Goku, who at the beginning of the manga is only going on this journey because Sanzo is, and he'd follow him anywhere. By the middle of Reload he has come to the conclusion that he will continue west for his own reasons, not just for Sanzo. It should be noted that Sanzo would prefer he do the later anyways.

* HiddenEyes: Minekura Loves This

* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation : this seems to be one of the main reasons that Hakkai had trouble relation to the other orphans and the the holy sisters.

** Hakkai was

* FemmeFatalons: Queen Gyokumen Koushu spends a lot of time lacquering her long nails.