Monkeeeey

Ohh baby ... irrepressible Monkey is being reborn. My favourite show from childhood is getting a 21st century rework-over in Japan. This can only be good news and apparently the Japanese are lapping it up too; one in three Japanese viewers have been watching.

Of course the original for me will no doubt be the best. All the bits that made it great; the opening credits, ".. Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch; from it then came a stone monkey. The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!". And Tripitaka; was it really a chick playing a priest? I could never tell. And then the whistle to call the cloud; often mimicked. And of course Masaaki Sakai who plays Monkey himself, he certainly made the show the cult which it is.

When I was growing up I loved the show so much. Mainly I think because it was actually violent and I was allowed to watch it. It did get me hyped up after each episode that I used to attempt to beat up my sisters. After this happened a few times, the oldies set up a bean bag hanging up out the back of the house and I was forced to go and beat that up instead. And there were also a few tomato stakes that got pulled up and twirled about as well.

I still love the show today. My cat, which I got for my 21st birthday, is actually called .. yup you guess it .. Monkey. The rest of the family didn't approve at the time, but the name stuck. Unfortunately I only see Monkey every once and a while when I head home and she is not so much my cat anymore (although she was never really anyone's cat). If I get around to having another cat it will be called Tripitaka.

There is one thing that I don't have, the DVDs. I have seen them out in the shops before, but now I have noticed that you can get all 52 episodes in a box set. This will be added to the credit card soon.