Saiyuki and Journey to the West
Note: So far I have only read up to Saiyuki vol. 4. Spoil me and die. Or, er, get virtually glared at an awful lot. *virtually glares*
My mom was super nice and gave in to my repeated requests (aka, annoying whining on the phone) to buy me all of Minekura Kazuya's Saiyuki in Chinese and mail it to me. Joy! It's very interesting rereading it in Chinese -- I read vols. 1-3 in English while sitting in Borders, but I don't remember much of it. Also, I find that reading them in Chinese makes me read much, much slower, so I actually have time to digest the images and the words at the proper pace.
The bad thing is that when I get tired, I start skimming and not realizing that I didn't understand, oh say, the last third of the book.
I am constantly of two (or three) minds when it comes to languages to read manga in. There is Chinese, which is how I first started reading manga. The pluses are that buying manga in Taiwan is much, much cheaper than getting Japanese imports here or English translation. Also, the Taiwan editions are generally very close to the Japanese ones (cover art and size and all), which I like, and there's not the word orientation problem. Chinese goes up and down, right to left, like Japanese, so the text doesn't look funny in the word bubbles. I also like that they keep most of the proper names the same so that I know what the kanji looks like. And it means I get to practice my Chinese, which is always of the good. However, I suck at reading Chinese, particularly Chinese dealing with things like youkai and magic and random things like that.
Then there's Japanese, which has the obvious advantage of being the original language, in the intended fonts and layouts and everything, with the fun of seeing how casually or formally a character speaks, what pronouns they use, what they call the other characters, if they speak in dialect, what slang they use, if they "talk" in katakana or hiragana, all that stuff that tends to sound a little more awkward when translated. And as of now, getting the imported Japanese comics from Kinokuniya is actually cheaper than buying the translations! And it means I get to practice my very rusty Japanese. Of course, that means I read even slower than I read the Chinese (wouldn't have though it was possible), with even less understanding, especially for non-shoujo content.
And of course I read the fastest in English. Alas, I have discovered that when I read manga or comics fast, I tend to lose half the content, because I don't pay enough attention to what's going on. Also, I think I tend to skim too quickly and mess up the pacing, which is somewhat dictated by the panel arrangements. It feels the weirdest reading manga in English, just because place names and the like are a little more similar with Chinese and Japanese. On the plus side, in English, at least I don't have to guess at the Japanese pronunciations of the names like I do in Chinese. But everything just feels a little more awkward in English, from the horizontal words being crammed into little vertical bubbles to the way the text flow and the page flow oppose each other (reading sentences from left-to-right but reading the pages from right-to-left).
I give this completely extraneous introduction that has absolutely nothing to do with Saiyuki because I think it's one of the first manga that I've read a fair amount of in two different languages.
Plus, the whole Journey to the West connection feels a whole lot more real when I can see the Chinese characters.
As you know, Bob-people, Saiyuki is based on Journey to the West. And by "based on," I mean Minekura retells it like she's a fanfic writer who decided to create an AU by naming all the characters the same and keeping the same skeleton plot but otherwise completely doing what she wants. Not that this is a bad thing, because I am entertained! And by that, I mean in a good way, not a snicker and roll my eyes way. Er. Not that I would ever do that. Er. Yes.
Note: I used to read Journey to the West in English translation so long ago that I don't even know who translated it. I also have vague memories of my mom reading aloud a comic book form to me and my sister. I haven't read it for years and years so my memory is very, very fuzzy.
I am, of course, very amused that Genjo Sanzo is a gun-toting Buddhist priest of sorts, as opposed to the all-too-holy Triptaka that I remember. I used to get very annoyed with Triptaka because he'd always lecture Monkey, Sandy and Pig (Goku, Gojo and Hakkai equivalents) and just flail around and be saved by them like a damsel in distress. What actually surprised me the most were the personality transplants for Gojo and Hakkai.
Originally the Gojo character was a fearsome river demon who had lots of skulls around his neck and was fierce and scary. I don't actually remember much about him, but I do think that he cleaned up fairly nicely once Triptaka/Sanzo got him aboard the sutra mission. But Hakkai! The "Cho" of "Cho Hakkai" is "pig," and in Chinese, Cho Hakkai (pronounced "Zhu Bajie") is used as a way to call someone a dirty slob (or it might be more insulting, I am not sure). The character was greedy and always chasing after women and never was quite as good a disciple as Monkey (way powerful) or Sandy (way nicer) were. So I am very amused that Gojo turns out to be the drinking womanizer while Hakkai is the nice polite guy who never seems to say too much but always seems to be hiding something.
Also, am curious as to why Hakkai calls himself Hakkai instead of his past name "Gonou." Checked Wiki and found that Gonou was indeed the Buddhist name that Triptaka gave to the character in Journey to the West. Plus, Goku and Gojo are both using their Buddhist names, so why does Hakkai deny his and insist on people calling him "Hakkai"? I wonder if "Cho Hakkai" is used as a synonym for slob in Japanese like it is in Chinese. Hrm hrm.
I was also sad to find that Goku is very not a main character! I mean, he is, but Monkey is the star of Journey to the West! I mean, the book starts with him being born and everything! I liked Monkey a lot too -- he was this great trickster character like Anansi or Coyote who was always getting the better of people but would always get caught some way or the other. So the childlike Goku is a bit odd as well, although I do like that they hint about his relationship with Sanzo going back somehow. I also looked up Journey to the West on Wikipedia and was amused to discover that Goku's youkai inhibitor headband was actually something Triptaka gave to Monkey to keep in him control, as Triptaka could tighten it and give Monkey horrid headaches.
Was also happy to find that what is translated as "Shangri La" in the published version is actually "Tougenkyou" (Tao yuan xiang) or "Spring/source of the peaches" which probably no one cares about but me. Lalala. Anyway, "Tao/tou" is "peach," "yuan/gen" is "water's source" and "xiang/kyou" is "hometown or village." Anyhow, it looks a lot like "tao hua yuan xiang" (peach blossom land), which is this sort of utopian paradise -- some guy wrote about it way back and told a story of a fisherman who accidentally sailed into Peach Blossom Land and found people living in harmoney, but then could never find it again (alas, I cannot remember the author! But I remember I had to memorize it!). So it amused me that this was used as the demon/human Shangri-La. Plus, I draw even more wacky connections because the whole reason why Monkey was imprisoned in that rock for Triptaka to find was becaus he wreaked havoc in heaven and ate the peaches in the Jade Emperor's peach orchard. Anyhow. The peaches, they are important! I swear! Well, at least in the stories they are peaches of immortality.
And while having the bodhisatva Kanzeon (aka Kuan-Yin/Guan-Yin/Kannon) be a hermaphrodite is sort of shocking and fun, it also makes sense in a wonky sort of way... I think the original figure of the bodhisatva was male in the sutras, but since s/he was the bodhisatva of compassion, the Chinese eventually made him/her out to be a female figure. Hee.
Also cheered when I saw Nataku/Nezha in the story, as he is one of the main people sent to battle Monkey when Monkey was wreaking havoc in heaven. I wonder if this Nataku and Goku have some sort of hidden history.
No ideas about Gyuumaou, except that in Chinese, his name means "Demon Cow Lord"! This amuses me.
Am also amused by the random bits and pieces that Minekura decided to stick in, like the spider demon ladies and Goku's collapsible metal rod of doom! (Monkey stole it from a dragon. I'm not sure where Goku got his.)
Wish I remembered more of Journey to the West, because I'm sure there are a whole bunch of injokes or something that I'm completely not getting =(.
Want to see an episode of Goku and the banana leaf fan! I only vaguely remember that story, but I remember it involved a whole bunch of fire and that I liked it.
My mom was super nice and gave in to my repeated requests (aka, annoying whining on the phone) to buy me all of Minekura Kazuya's Saiyuki in Chinese and mail it to me. Joy! It's very interesting rereading it in Chinese -- I read vols. 1-3 in English while sitting in Borders, but I don't remember much of it. Also, I find that reading them in Chinese makes me read much, much slower, so I actually have time to digest the images and the words at the proper pace.
The bad thing is that when I get tired, I start skimming and not realizing that I didn't understand, oh say, the last third of the book.
I am constantly of two (or three) minds when it comes to languages to read manga in. There is Chinese, which is how I first started reading manga. The pluses are that buying manga in Taiwan is much, much cheaper than getting Japanese imports here or English translation. Also, the Taiwan editions are generally very close to the Japanese ones (cover art and size and all), which I like, and there's not the word orientation problem. Chinese goes up and down, right to left, like Japanese, so the text doesn't look funny in the word bubbles. I also like that they keep most of the proper names the same so that I know what the kanji looks like. And it means I get to practice my Chinese, which is always of the good. However, I suck at reading Chinese, particularly Chinese dealing with things like youkai and magic and random things like that.
Then there's Japanese, which has the obvious advantage of being the original language, in the intended fonts and layouts and everything, with the fun of seeing how casually or formally a character speaks, what pronouns they use, what they call the other characters, if they speak in dialect, what slang they use, if they "talk" in katakana or hiragana, all that stuff that tends to sound a little more awkward when translated. And as of now, getting the imported Japanese comics from Kinokuniya is actually cheaper than buying the translations! And it means I get to practice my very rusty Japanese. Of course, that means I read even slower than I read the Chinese (wouldn't have though it was possible), with even less understanding, especially for non-shoujo content.
And of course I read the fastest in English. Alas, I have discovered that when I read manga or comics fast, I tend to lose half the content, because I don't pay enough attention to what's going on. Also, I think I tend to skim too quickly and mess up the pacing, which is somewhat dictated by the panel arrangements. It feels the weirdest reading manga in English, just because place names and the like are a little more similar with Chinese and Japanese. On the plus side, in English, at least I don't have to guess at the Japanese pronunciations of the names like I do in Chinese. But everything just feels a little more awkward in English, from the horizontal words being crammed into little vertical bubbles to the way the text flow and the page flow oppose each other (reading sentences from left-to-right but reading the pages from right-to-left).
I give this completely extraneous introduction that has absolutely nothing to do with Saiyuki because I think it's one of the first manga that I've read a fair amount of in two different languages.
Plus, the whole Journey to the West connection feels a whole lot more real when I can see the Chinese characters.
As you know, Bob-people, Saiyuki is based on Journey to the West. And by "based on," I mean Minekura retells it like she's a fanfic writer who decided to create an AU by naming all the characters the same and keeping the same skeleton plot but otherwise completely doing what she wants. Not that this is a bad thing, because I am entertained! And by that, I mean in a good way, not a snicker and roll my eyes way. Er. Not that I would ever do that. Er. Yes.
Note: I used to read Journey to the West in English translation so long ago that I don't even know who translated it. I also have vague memories of my mom reading aloud a comic book form to me and my sister. I haven't read it for years and years so my memory is very, very fuzzy.
I am, of course, very amused that Genjo Sanzo is a gun-toting Buddhist priest of sorts, as opposed to the all-too-holy Triptaka that I remember. I used to get very annoyed with Triptaka because he'd always lecture Monkey, Sandy and Pig (Goku, Gojo and Hakkai equivalents) and just flail around and be saved by them like a damsel in distress. What actually surprised me the most were the personality transplants for Gojo and Hakkai.
Originally the Gojo character was a fearsome river demon who had lots of skulls around his neck and was fierce and scary. I don't actually remember much about him, but I do think that he cleaned up fairly nicely once Triptaka/Sanzo got him aboard the sutra mission. But Hakkai! The "Cho" of "Cho Hakkai" is "pig," and in Chinese, Cho Hakkai (pronounced "Zhu Bajie") is used as a way to call someone a dirty slob (or it might be more insulting, I am not sure). The character was greedy and always chasing after women and never was quite as good a disciple as Monkey (way powerful) or Sandy (way nicer) were. So I am very amused that Gojo turns out to be the drinking womanizer while Hakkai is the nice polite guy who never seems to say too much but always seems to be hiding something.
Also, am curious as to why Hakkai calls himself Hakkai instead of his past name "Gonou." Checked Wiki and found that Gonou was indeed the Buddhist name that Triptaka gave to the character in Journey to the West. Plus, Goku and Gojo are both using their Buddhist names, so why does Hakkai deny his and insist on people calling him "Hakkai"? I wonder if "Cho Hakkai" is used as a synonym for slob in Japanese like it is in Chinese. Hrm hrm.
I was also sad to find that Goku is very not a main character! I mean, he is, but Monkey is the star of Journey to the West! I mean, the book starts with him being born and everything! I liked Monkey a lot too -- he was this great trickster character like Anansi or Coyote who was always getting the better of people but would always get caught some way or the other. So the childlike Goku is a bit odd as well, although I do like that they hint about his relationship with Sanzo going back somehow. I also looked up Journey to the West on Wikipedia and was amused to discover that Goku's youkai inhibitor headband was actually something Triptaka gave to Monkey to keep in him control, as Triptaka could tighten it and give Monkey horrid headaches.
Was also happy to find that what is translated as "Shangri La" in the published version is actually "Tougenkyou" (Tao yuan xiang) or "Spring/source of the peaches" which probably no one cares about but me. Lalala. Anyway, "Tao/tou" is "peach," "yuan/gen" is "water's source" and "xiang/kyou" is "hometown or village." Anyhow, it looks a lot like "tao hua yuan xiang" (peach blossom land), which is this sort of utopian paradise -- some guy wrote about it way back and told a story of a fisherman who accidentally sailed into Peach Blossom Land and found people living in harmoney, but then could never find it again (alas, I cannot remember the author! But I remember I had to memorize it!). So it amused me that this was used as the demon/human Shangri-La. Plus, I draw even more wacky connections because the whole reason why Monkey was imprisoned in that rock for Triptaka to find was becaus he wreaked havoc in heaven and ate the peaches in the Jade Emperor's peach orchard. Anyhow. The peaches, they are important! I swear! Well, at least in the stories they are peaches of immortality.
And while having the bodhisatva Kanzeon (aka Kuan-Yin/Guan-Yin/Kannon) be a hermaphrodite is sort of shocking and fun, it also makes sense in a wonky sort of way... I think the original figure of the bodhisatva was male in the sutras, but since s/he was the bodhisatva of compassion, the Chinese eventually made him/her out to be a female figure. Hee.
Also cheered when I saw Nataku/Nezha in the story, as he is one of the main people sent to battle Monkey when Monkey was wreaking havoc in heaven. I wonder if this Nataku and Goku have some sort of hidden history.
No ideas about Gyuumaou, except that in Chinese, his name means "Demon Cow Lord"! This amuses me.
Am also amused by the random bits and pieces that Minekura decided to stick in, like the spider demon ladies and Goku's collapsible metal rod of doom! (Monkey stole it from a dragon. I'm not sure where Goku got his.)
Wish I remembered more of Journey to the West, because I'm sure there are a whole bunch of injokes or something that I'm completely not getting =(.
Want to see an episode of Goku and the banana leaf fan! I only vaguely remember that story, but I remember it involved a whole bunch of fire and that I liked it.