Gensomaden Saiyuki
The first season of the Saiyuki anime series, was directed by Yuto Date and produced by Studio Pierrot and Dentsu entitled . The series adapt Kazuya Minekura's manga, directed by Hayato Date, written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and composed by Motoi Sakuraba. The season follows the first adventures of Genjo Sanzo with three demons, named Son Goku, Cho Hakkai, and Sha Gojyo, travel to the west, are questing to put a stop to whoever's trying to resurrect the ancient and powerful demon god, Gyumao. Of course, there are armies of other demons just aching to get in the way. The season initially ran from  April 4, 2000 to March 27, 2001 in Japan on TV Tokyo, spanning 50 episodes. Enoki Films holds the U.S. license to Gensomaden Saiyuki under the title Saiyuki: Paradise Raiders. Also ADV Films licensed the series, released in July 2003 to 2009. Madman Entertainment announced its license of the series in October 2009 for Australasia. The episodes was released at a rate of one a day for all 50 episodes and will remain online until 20 January 2010. Four pieces of theme music are used for the episodes—two opening themes and two ending themes. The first opening themes is "For Real" by Hidenori Tokuyama, used for the first twenty-six episodes and the second opening themes is "Still Time" by Hidenori Tokuyama used from episode twenty-seven to fifty. The two ending themes, "Tightrope" by Charcoal Filter and "Alone" by Mikuni Shimokawa. Plot

When chaos still reigned over the world, it was a country where humans and demons finally live in peace and harmony. However, somewhere in the west, someone is trying to resurrect an ancient evil demon and all the demons rediscover their warlike instincts by savagely attacking Men. This is where an unorthodox monk and gun enthusiast named Genjo Sanzo intervenes who, accompanied by three half-man, half-demon beings with powerful powers, is responsible for stemming the evil surge, they set off on a fabulous journey to solve this problem. Home media release

Japanese

Reception
Gensomaden Saiyuki won Animage magazine's Anime Grand Prix Award in 2000 and Genjo Sanzo won the best male character category. On January 17, 2001, "Gensomaden Saiyuki" was ranked second on Animage list of 100 most-important anime ever published. In May 2002, Gensomaden Saiyuki was ranked fourth as chosen by Animage reader's poll of Top 20 Picks Best of 2001, and in August 2001, the series was ranked ninth in Newtype website's poll of top 10 Anime, and Genjo Sanzo was sixth in the top ten male characters. On October 8, 2004, It was reported research has shown in recent years, Saiyuki anime has become extremely popular among Japanese young women. In September 2005, Japanese television network TV Asahi broadcast a popularity poll based on a nationwide survey in which Saiyuki was placed 96th of the channel's Top 100 Anime. In 2007, a large-scale survey by TV Asahi voted Gensomaden Saiyuki as the 27th-most-appreciated anime in Japan. On August 2020, Japan’s biggest ranking site Goo Ranking published its list for the most popular anime that debuted in the last 20 years. Among these titles, Gensomaden Saiyuki was ranked eighth. Critical response

Enoch Lau of THEM Anime Reviews gave the series a three-out-of-five-star review, describing the series as a low-budget presentation that is entertaining and fun, which mixes mythology and religion beyond recognition. Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network criticized the anime series but gave an above-average score to DVD 7: The Gods of War praised the art, described the show with a brightly-colored, well-designed world, admires its cinematic moments and fight scenes, and considers the character design to be the best. compares the improvement of the series to Rurouni Kenshin, which is becoming a great show over time. Layla Lawlor and Barb Lien-Cooper of Sequential Tart give an above-average score to Saiyuki Volume 1: The Journey Begins. Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart gave a 9-out-of-10 grade to first volume, praised the art and animation, which has new styles of overlapping frames and the use of static such as shading. considers its story excellent with a new twist on the relationship between humans and demons who coexist peacefully, and also tries to combine the quest with a "good vs. evil" battle, calls the themes and characters as "fascinating." Later volumes of anime were also praised; Sequential Tart's Sheena McNeil praised the art style, gave a high score to Saiyuki Volume 3: Confronting Their Demons, Loves that the main characters have dark pasts and aren't entirely "good guys", and stating that The art techniques used for the background, flashbacks, are seen differently from other anime Barb Lien-Cooper, reviewing Saiyuki Volume 6: Demon Rising, graded 8 out of 10, said that the plot is interesting with varying tones, some unexpected twists and turns, and the characters, the audience can see the depths of the characters and understand them. It interprets the themes of the anime completely allegorically and in a kind of enlightening "good choice." References

External links

Official TV Tokyo Gensomaden Saiyuki website 
Official Studio Pierrot Gensomaden Saiyuki website {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org

Saiyuki (manga)
Saiyuki
2000 anime television series debuts
Fantasy anime and manga
Adventure anime and manga
Chinese mythology in anime and manga
TV Tokyo original programming
Madman Entertainment anime
Pierrot (company)
ADV Films
Works based on Journey to the West