Previously: Goku and Gojyo

Here's the sections on Hakkai and Jeep


Cho Hakkai
☆ In the original, his religious name is Gonou (Hakkai is his nickname). He was exiled from Heaven (see the section on Field Marshal Tenpou), but when he fled to the Lower World he mistakenly dove into the stomach of a boar. He became a boar demon (in recent years this has been translated as pig, but it is actually a boar. There were no pigs in ancient China) because he was born of a boar. He decides to become Sanzo’s disciple at the passing Kannon’s recommendation, but when Sanzo arrives Hakkai has already taken a woman and is indulging in lewd activities. After taking some blows from Goku, Hakkai joins the journey.

☆ Although the original “Hsi Yu Ki”’s Hakkai fights with a nine-pronged muck-rake with high attack power, Saiyuki’s Hakkai and Gojyo switch their attack-types and pervy power (laughs), so I ventured to have Hakkai hold no weapon.

☆ In Japan, “Cho Hakkai” is more popular than “Cho Gonou” (Note 3). Incidentally, “Hakkai” comes from the phrase “separated from the five viands and three foods”. In Buddhism, it is forbidden to eat the five viands, “garlic (two types), onions, green onions, and Chinese chives”, and the three foods, “the geese of the sky, the dogs of the earth, and the fish of the water”. The original Cho Gonou is a character obsessed with eating, so Sanzo gave him the nickname “Hakkai” as a warning to avoid those eight forbidden foods. Because “Saiyuki”’s Hakkai is a non-Buddhist, I employed a contrary tactic and had the Three Aspects give Hakkai a name based on the eight “obstacles to perfection”, the origins of the Catholic “Seven Deadly Sins”. Incidentally, the obstacles to perfection are “pride, envy, gluttony, lust, sloth, greed, wrath, and vanity”, but it’s said that “pride” and “vanity” were later combined, forming the “Seven Deadly Sins”, the origins of all other sins.

☆ The original Cho Hakkai confessed to biting to death the female boar who birthed him, beating to death all her fellow boars, and living alone on the mountain. I compared “Saiyuki”’s Hakkai with the original on that point, and made him a “mass murderer”.

☆ I wrote this in Sanzo’s section as well, but for some reason Sanzo easily accepts what Hakkai says, even though Sanzo is a stubborn man who won’t lend an ear to what Goku or Gojyo says. Hsi Yu Ki’s Priest Sanzo is overly tolerant of Hakkai, but I get the feeling that my Hakkai is becoming “an opponent Sanzo can’t stand up to” in the complete opposite sense (laughs).

Note 3: “About religious names”
Sanzo’s three followers all have various names they go by.

“Son Goku” is the religious name given to Goku by the Subodhi Immortal who trained him in Buddhist ways. On top of that, the nickname Sanzo gave him is “Pilgrim Son”, and the name the youkai use to insult him is the title of his position in the Heavenly Palace, “Pi ma wen”.

The religious name “Cho Gonou” is one given by Kannon, and the nickname given by Sanzo is “Hakkai”. Incidentally, the name Hakkai went by himself in the past is “Cho Gouryou” (猪　剛鬣) [Boar Strong Mane].

The religious name “Sha Gojyo” too is one given by Kannon, and the nickname given by Sanzo is “Sha Monk”.

Jeep

☆ In the original he’s a “dragon horse”. Following Kannon’s guidance, the dragon that attacked the Sanzo Ikkou in the middle of their journey joined up with the Ikkou, changed into a white horse, and journeys with Sanzo riding on his back (since this guy devoured the horse Sanzo had been riding in the first place). His true form is the Dragon King of the Western Ocean’s third son. Kannon saved him from his death sentence for causing a fire in the Dragon Palace and burning a treasured jewel, and he descended to the Lower World.

☆ In “Saiyuki”, I decided from the beginning to “make him a Jeep, not a horse”, so I went with the setting “his original form is a white dragon”. I thought it’d be useful because in places a Jeep can’t go, he can change into his dragon form and fly after the guys on his own (laughs). In the “Saiyuki” novels it’s made clear that Jeep too is “a heretical creature born of the synthesis of magic and science”, but now that I think about it, it hasn’t come up in the manga yet…… In the anime version of “Saiyuki”, Hakuryu was given the attack power to spit fire, but it doesn’t look like the manga’s Jeep has that ability at this point. The original dragon horse helps out Goku and the others by turning into a beautiful woman, and marking with golden poo and the like.

Next up: Kanzeon Bosatsu, Jiroushin, and the Three Aspects