Journey to the West/Shout-Out

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Shout-Outs to Journey to the West include:

Anime and Manga

  • One villain in the Read or Die OAV series
  • A group of villains in Yu Yu Hakusho
  • A children's play staged by the main characters of Love Hina
  • The Digimon franchise has taken to doing this in recent years; it started with Kamemon's Perfect form, Shawujingmon, in Digimon Savers, and years later Digimon Jintrix introduced a whole slew of mons based on it: Gokuwmon, ChoHakkaimon, Sagomon, Sanzomon, Shakamon, Kinkakumon and Ginkakumon, several of whom have shown up in Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time.
  • A School Play staged by the characters of Urusei Yatsura
  • The appropriately titled episode, "Lupin's Big Saiyuuki" of the second Lupin III TV series, where the Lupin gang are cast as the characters from the tale. It's likely a Homage to Monkey, which debuted shortly before the Lupin version came about. To be specific: Fujiko is Sanzo (carrying forward the gender-bending casting gag), Jigen is Hakkai, Goemon is Gojo, and Lupin is, of course, Son Goku.
  • The time travelers in Dinosaur King spend several episodes visiting with Sanzo Hoshi, aka Tripitaka.
  • A Villain of the Week in the Inuyasha anime's 6th season is a boar demon who claims to be a descendent of Zhu Bajie, while he hauls around a goofy looking kappa and monkey that he insists are, likewise, descendents of Sha Wujing and Son Wukong respectively.
  • In Yoroiden Samurai Troopers aka Ronin Warriors, Shu Lei Faun/Kento of the Hardrock (Diamond) is a clear homage of Sun Wukong from his Chinese origin (in the original version,) gold headband, element, headband, staff, antics and comparisons (in both versions) to being a monkey.
  • Dirty Pair TV episode 4 briefly showed a pro wrestling match with one wrestler in a Sun Wukong costume (including the circlet and staff).
  • In Naruto, two of the Edo Tensei'd villains, Kinkaku and Ginkaku, derive their names, weapons, and abilities from a pair of half-youkai warlords.
    • The Four-Tailed Ape is named Son Goku, and even introduces himself with all the titles he has in Journey to the West.
  • Secret Journey is an H-Manga that gender-flips the disciples as Goku is now punished for having a harem of boys and trying to jump Buddh] with the seal resulting in a hair-removing bikini, Pig being roughly the same, and Sandy (a Meganneko and Pettanko) needing that type of facial to access a Super Mode giving her Femme Fatalons.
  • High School DxD introduces the descendant of Son Goku named "Bikou" who also has his staff. Also, the original one appears in this series too and he's really strong.

Comic Books

  • At the end of Lucifer, Yahweh tells the title character a story about the Monkey King (drawn as a literal monkey in golden armor, able to leap from one end of the universe to the other in a single bound) and the Buddha.
  • Recurring character Monkey Khan in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book.

Fan Works

Film

  • A Sci Fi Channel Original Movie where bad special effects and worse writing conspire to force a scholar who has devoted his life to the story to go through a shallow ripoff of its plot after an argument with his wife about it.[context?]

Literature

  • The short story "Sir Harold and the Monkey King", from the Harold Shea series of fantasy short stories
  • The title character of Paprika manifests at one point wearing Sun Wukong's trademark outfit.
  • The first chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt is written in the style of Journey To The West.
  • In Dragon Cauldron, and the other books in the same series, Monkey makes an appearance as a main character, constantly referencing the events that led to his imprisonment under a mountain.
  • Kitty's Big Trouble takes place largely in San Francisco's Chinatown, and title character runs into a fellow named Sun around halfway through the book.

Live-Action TV

  • Go Go Sentai Boukenger, where Wukong's size-changing staff was one of the treasures sought by hero and villain.

Puppet Shows

  • In Big Bird Goes to China, Sun Wukong in full theater glory gives Big Bird the clues to find the Phoenix i.e. Feng Huang.

Tabletop Games

  • The Handsome Monkey King is one of the gods included in the Celestial Bureaucracy in Scion, and is available as a player character's divine parent.

Video Games

  • One of the productions of the Imperial Theater Troupe in Sakura Wars.
  • The theme to the above-mentioned Monkey series was included as a bonus stage in the second Ouendan game.
  • The Genesis Unit of Wily Tower in the Sega Genesis remake collection Mega Man: The Wily Wars, Hanumachine from Mega Man Zero.
  • The character Wukong the Monkey King in League of Legends.
  • One of Soulcalibur V's new fighters, Xiba, is very clearly inspired by (if not outright implied to be) Sun Wukong.
  • The Chimchar line in Pokémon is at least partially based on Sun Wukong, especially the gold armor on Infernape.

Web Original

  • The Bladedancer stories of the Whateley Universe, especially the first one, in which Chou's journey to Whateley Academy is closely based on Xuanzang's journey. Sun Wukong has in fact been established as a recurring supporting character, and he's still good at stealing the show each time he pops up.

Western Animation

  • The Monkey King antagonized the heroes a few times in Jackie Chan Adventures
  • An episode of Mighty Max invovled him teaming up with four "washed up" literary/legendary figures from around the world; one of them was Sun Wukong, who had given up life as the Monkey King to laze about at a zoo.
  • Sun Wukong from RWBY, who is a monkey faunus, fights with a staff weapon, and at one point makes a comment about a journey to the east. RWBY being RWBY, he's just one of dozens of characters inspired by folklore, fiction and mythology.


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