Volume 2 of Katsuya Terada's Monkey King continues the bloody, dark tale of Goku and his companions and the monk named Sanzo. Before this review continues one should know that this is a brutal, dark adaptation of Journey To The West and known in Chinese as Xī Yóu Jì.
by Jeremias de Leon
Story:
Monkey King's story follows Goku, the Monkey King, sometimes called “Ape” by his enemies. Along his travels he guards a monk named Sanzo who is bound and gagged for a good portion of the manga. The monk seems to be the attention of every demon that he comes by. The demons want to devour the monk for the power she would give or for the eternal life she would grant them. Goku goes on to defeat these demons and meets a recurring villain named Naga that seems to always be able to get away, so the story can continue. Goku has Sanzo because he looks to get to Tenjiku which is the Japanese word for India. Goku wishes to go there because he wants to destroy the Buddha. Goku's other companions Hakkai the pig and the demon that only has his head, Sha Gojyo/Sha Wujing don't have too much in the spotlight. But worth noting without getting into spoilers is that Hakkai does get some solo time and Sha Gojyo does a pretty impressive feat for being just a head.
There are also parts of Journey to the West that are actually recognizable to those who read the original story before, even with Terada's restylings.The story itself isn't really convoluted but the way the story is told with focus on the characters especially Goku makes it far from one dimensional.
Art:
Katsuya Terada knows how to make his art match the dark story. Goku is drawn as a big, hulking ape to match his intimidating personality. Hakkai the pig is drawn with features like his fat to be exaggerated to match his slovenly, gluttonous personality. The monk Sanzo being treated almost like she isn't even living is drawn as a bald, bound and gagged woman. The environments have different color schemes almost as if they are their own character on top of the monsters that inhabit the locations. Terada also knows how to draw action Goku and his enemies make and making it look like what they do has weight and leaves an impact.
Characters:
The characters are a little different from their original Journey To The West counterparts. Goku being one of the more radical changes. In the original story Goku was an arrogant, yet humorous and mischievous character. Whereas Goku in Monkey King is intimidating, and brooding. Cho Hakkai acts pretty much the same as he did in the original story and Sha Gojyo as well. Sanzo, however like Goku is a big departure from the original story. Besides being female, which actually isn't rare in adaptations of Journey To The West, think Bulma from Dragon Ball, she is silent in Terada's story. In Journey To The West Sanzo was the one who stopped Goku's antics for the most part and was a pretty forceful character wheras in Monkey King she basically is just carried around and in a couple spots in the volume has horrible violent things done to her. These characters are pretty unique without being completely different to their original story counterparts.
Verdict:
At the end of the day the question is, is this manga worth it? Well, with the action, the haunting, dark, yet beautiful art style and simple, yet intriguing storyline it is worth it. Just a word of warning however, if the gore, sexual scenes, or grotesque monster designs are too much then it's best if you just leave this one alone.
This manga gets a rating of 8.5 out of 10
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