A review by kimdokjaa
The Journey to the West, Volume 1 by Wu Ch'eng-En

4.0

orv brainrot so bad it's making me pick up 16th century chinese literature

anyways, a classic for a reason! i love you wukong!!! it's crazy how influential every part of this is 400 years later. the overarching themes, companion gathering, and powerup sequences are still prevalent in so many modern stories, especially in shonen anime. hell even the chapters ending with a tune in next week esque closing was so crazy to see- it's super interesting how many hundreds of years of storytelling have built up for even small parts of the modern media we enjoy

this volume ends on a cliffhanger, but i think i'm going to take a short break before getting into the next one to fully appreciate these characters without overlaying them with the kimcom members who played them in that arc of orv