Gensomaden Saiyuki

In Saiyuki, a land of paradise know as Shangri-La is transformed into a picture of hell by a “minus-wave” which causes the demons that once befriended the humans to loose their personalities and go berserk. The wave is being caused by the attempts of the resurrection of the Demon King Gyuumaoh, who was sealed for terrorizing the land before man and demon befriended one another.

The Sanbutsushin, or “Three Aspects of Buddha”, appoint an extremely high ranking monk, Genjo Sanzo, and his three companions to journey to India to stop the resurrection and return Shangri-La to it original form.

Xi Yoú Ji

Xi Yoú Ji relates the tail of a monk sent by the emperor of China to journey to India in order to retrieve five sacred Buddhist Sutras. Along the way the monk, Xuanzang, meets and tames the legendary Monkey King who accompanies him on the rest of the journey. While crossing a river, Xuanzang encounters a river dragon (known as a kappa in Japanese). The monk manages to convince the kappa to shave its head and become his disciple, and the kappa accompanies them the rest of the way to India. Shortly after befriending the kappa, Xuanzang and his party come across a town being controlled by an evil pig demon—the embodiment of gluttony. The pig demon demands large amounts of food and women, and the town begs the monk to get rid of the demon. Xuanzang then converts the demon to Buddhism, and he joins their party as well.

Comparison

In each story, four companions are journeying to India from China, but there are some distinct differences. In Gensomaden Saiyuki, Genjo Sanzo already possesses one of the five sutras that Xuanzang was sent to retrieve: the other four are in India and are needed for the resurrection of Gyuumaoh. In a way, this means that not only is Sanzo journeying to stop the resurrection of a demon lord, but he is also trying to recover the sutras, similar to his counterpart, Xuanzang. Xi Yoú Ji focuses more on how Xuanzang meets all of the characters, whereas in Saiyuki, Sanzo is already acquainted with the other three travelers and their story is more about their trials as they journey to India.