7.1/1036 votesLoading...#1 - The Great Journey Begins
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/15/1978
Tripitaka and the ever-impatient Monkey begin their perilous journey. Arriving at a village terrorised by a greedy and lustful monster, Monkey thus faces the wrath of Pigsy and his deadly muckrake. To cross the Mighty River of Flowing Sands, they must first pass the cannibalistic water monster Sandy. A sandstorm, an army of tiger ghosts - will Tripitaka end up as cat food, or will Monkey save the day?
Director: Daisuke Yamazaki
Writer: Tetsurô Abe
7.1/1022 votesLoading...#2 - Pigsy Woos a Widow
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/19/1978
When Monkey saves a pretty widow from the Demon Spirit of Great Snakes, amorous Pigsy falls snout over trotters in love with her, but she only has eyes for the celibate boy priest Tripitaka. The pilgrims move on, but Pigsy stays behind and tries to win the widow's heart; but time and time again, his true pig nature is revealed. When Monkey goes to fetch Pigsy, Tripitaka and eel-phobic Sandy end up in big trouble.
Director: Yasutaka Tanaka
Writer: James Miki
7.1/1020 votesLoading...#3 - Pearls Before Swine
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/17/1978
The once-prosperous land of Codslow is ruled by three animal-strength immortals, and its enslaved people are dying of hunger. The immortals depend on pearls, paper and wine for their magical powers. The pilgrims offer to help a young girl and her family restore their land to its former glory. When lovesick Pigsy almost becomes roast pork, Monkey hatches a plan to end the immortals' reign of terror.
Director: Daisuke Yamazaki
Writer: Fumio Ishimori
7.2/1040 votesLoading...#4 - Monkey Turns Nursemaid
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/8/1978
Buddha sends a messenger, the Boddhisattva Kuan-yin the Compassionate, to find a holy man to make the journey from China to India to fetch the large vehicle scriptures. She chooses the boy priest Hsüan Tsang, and bestows upon him the name Tripitaka. Joined by the irrepressible Monkey - with his magic wishing staff and magic powers - and a talking horse, this could be a journey to remember...
Director: Jun Fukuda
Writer: Mamoru Sasaki
7.3/1052 votesLoading...#5 - Monkey Goes Wild about Heaven
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/1/1978
Mischievous King Monkey is summoned to Heaven, where he steals the heavenly peaches, and eats them to gain immortality. He fights two of the Emperor's officials, and all three of them are expelled to Earth. Monkey gets imprisoned under a mountain of rocks, while the other two are transformed into a pig monster (Pigsy) and a water monster (Sandy). Buddha says that a holy man must be sent to fetch holy scriptures from India, to save the world.
Director: Yūsuke Watanabe
Writer: Isao Okishima, Mamoru Sasaki
7.3/1025 votesLoading...#6 - The Power of Youth
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/29/1978
In his mountain kingdom, the immature King of Youth dictates that everything old is useless. When the pilgrims approach, he decides to kidnap Tripitaka to gain the attention of Heaven and Earth, in an attempt to stop living in the shadow of his father, the King of Ox. When Monkey's powers prove no match for the King's fiery temper, and Pigsy and Sandy are otherwise engaged, who will save Tripitaka?
Director: Daisuke Yamazaki
Writer: Motoo Nagai
7.3/1021 votesLoading...#7 - What Monkey Calls the Dog-Woman
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/26/1978
When the magistrate Lord Li's stepdaughter is kidnapped by bandits, Monkey reluctantly takes on the job of catching them. He soon learns that the bandits are not what they seem, but their bark is far worse than their bite. Meanwhile, Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy spend the night at an inn that's owned by a wicked dog-woman. She has a big surprise in store for Tripitaka.
Director: Jun Fukuda
Writer: Yu Tagami
7.3/1020 votesLoading...#8 - Pigsy's in the Well
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 12/3/1978
Tripitaka is visited in a dream by the restless spirit of the deceased king of the land of Cockcrow. He tells Tripitaka he was murdered by a Taoist magician and thrown into a well; for the past three years this magician has been impersonating him. With the help of the king's son, Tripitaka and his disciples set out to prove that the current king is a fake.
Director: Jun Fukuda
Writer: Yu Tagami
7.3/1021 votesLoading...#9 - The Difference Between Night & Day
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/10/1978
An invisible wall separates the land of night from the land of day. The blood-sucking Queen of Night terrorises the inhabitants of her land, while everyone in the land of day is forced into slavery by their merciless king. Tripitaka finds the task of reuniting night and day very difficult, especially when Monkey becomes hopelessly besotted with a pretty girl and Pigsy falls for a lady of the night.
Director: Daisuke Yamazaki
Writer: Eizaburo Shiba
7.4/109 votesLoading...#10 - Monkey's Yearning
Season 2 Episode 25 - Aired 4/27/1980
While having lunch, the pilgrims catch a mischievous young boy called Chou trying to steal food from them. Monkey takes him home, and falls instantly in love with his mother, Shugyoku. Chou's father was killed by the fire-breathing Tiger Demon two years earlier, but Shugyoku detests violence, and insists that Monkey should not get involved. Monkey takes a break from the journey to India, and stays with Shugyoku and Chou. Will Tripitaka and the others ever see Monkey again?
Director: Jun Fukuda
Writer: Takayuki Kase
7.6/1025 votesLoading...#11 - Monkey Swallows the Universe
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/22/1978
Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy, Tripitaka and the horse enter a land ruled by the demonic Golden Horn and his wife, Silver Horn. Bewitched by a beautiful lady, Pigsy discovers that all is not what it seems. An old woman proves too much to handle even for Monkey. Tripitaka and Sandy find themselves a bit tied up when left to their own devices. When a mysterious Taoist magician causes Golden Horn to lose his bottle, things start to look up.
Director: Daisuke Yamazaki
Writer: Hirokazu Fuse
7.6/1023 votesLoading...#12 - Even Monsters Can be People
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/5/1978
When Monkey kills a girl and her elderly parents, Tripitaka is left with no choice but to punish him and send him back home to his mountain of fruit and flowers. No one believes Monkey's story that the people he killed were red, blue and yellow demons disguised as humans. When the pilgrims later discover that Monkey was telling the truth, Tripitaka finds himself in grave danger, and wishes he'd never denied the demons' existence.
Director: Daisuke Yamazaki
Writer: Motoo Nagai
7.6/1022 votesLoading...#13 - The Beginning of Wisdom
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/12/1978
Desperate for water due to the intense heat, the pilgrims find that the nearest village is completely dried up. The local water monster, who has a taste for the souls of boys, had cursed the village with a drought, because the villagers had no boys left to sacrifice to him. With Monkey's cloud out of action, brave Pigsy volunteers to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Director: Yasutaka Tanaka
Writer: James Miki
7.6/1022 votesLoading...#14 - The Minx and the Slug
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/24/1978
A village headman and his wife grieve for their beautiful daughter Hai-Min who disappeared a year ago. Lecherous Pigsy offers to go and look for her. He finds a slug monster who says he is Hai-Min's reluctant husband, and tells Pigsy he can have her. Pigsy disguises himself as the slug monster and goes to live with selfish Hai-Min. How long will it be before she discovers he's not her slimy husband?
Director: Yūsuke Watanabe
Writer: James Miki
7.6/109 votesLoading...#15 - Stoned
Season 2 Episode 23 - Aired 4/13/1980
Disowned by his parents for being unable to do sorcery, the young demon Shosanpu practises on the unsuspecting pilgrims, but is soon found out. After listening to his story, Monkey decides to give him special training, against Tripitaka's wishes. Using Monkey's staff, Shosanpu turns the four pilgrims into stone statues, and goes to fetch his father, Yuzankun. While he's away, the four statues are stolen and taken to an auction. Will Shosanpu find them in time, to change them back?
Director: Akira Inoue
Writer: James Miki
7.7/1017 votesLoading...#16 - Catfish, Saint and the Shape-Changer
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/7/1979
The pilgrims enter a volcanic land that is plagued by earthquakes caused by the frequent quarrelling of two local demons; a catfish demon and a faceless shape-changer demon, who can take on the shape of anyone. The holy priest San-Chung tells Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy and Tripitaka that one of them is the shape-changer. Unable to cope with this revelation, they go their separate ways.
Director: Yūsuke Watanabe
Writer: Kei Tasaka
7.7/1016 votesLoading...#17 - Pigsy's Ten Thousand Ladies
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 11/11/1979
Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy become disillusioned with the pilgrimage and go their separate ways. Monkey flies home to his Kingdom of Fruit and Flowers. Pigsy goes back to China seeking rewards from the Emperor. Sandy returns to the Western Heaven, hoping the Jade Emperor will forgive him. Tripitaka continues his journey. He's flabbergasted when lightning strikes the horse and it turns into a human called Yu-Lung. Deserted by his disciples, Tripitaka soon finds himself in grave danger.
Director: Jun Fukuda
Writer: James Miki
7.8/1013 votesLoading...#18 - Truth and the Grey Gloves Devil
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/28/1979
Following a terrible sandstorm, the pilgrims find a village where everyone has been killed by the evil Grey Gloves Devil, a magician with the power to hypnotise and control anyone who looks into his eyes. While Pigsy lags behind, the others break their journey at another village. A bitter old woman insists Tripitaka is her long-lost son, Su Fung. Meanwhile, Pigsy gets captured and the Grey Gloves Devil looks for a new village to target.
Director: Yoshiyuki Kuroda
Writer: Hirokazu Fuse
7.8/1014 votesLoading...#19 - Land for the Locusts
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 2/4/1979
As the pilgrims continue their journey, Monkey sees that a nearby village is being terrorised by swarms of locusts, and they're coming in their direction. Led by the power-hungry Demon Queen Grasshopper, the locusts follow the magic Lake Lok-Nor as it moves from one place to the next. Everywhere they go they bring death and destruction. Can the pilgrims stop them, or will the Queen turn everyone into pigs?
Director: Yoshiyuki Kuroda
Writer: N/A
7.8/1014 votesLoading...#20 - The Country of Nightmares
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/25/1979
On their way to India, the pilgrims must pass through the Land of Nightmares, inhabited by all the legions of Hell, bad demons and wicked spirits. All humans who go there are eaten, and all others must take a magic test upon entry to the land. To allow Tripitaka to travel through safely, Monkey disguises him as a beautiful longhaired female demon, and teaches him some basic magic. Will the King of Bad Dreams see through Tripitaka's disguise?
Director: Kazuo Ikehiro
Writer: James Miki
7.8/109 votesLoading...#21 - The Tenacious Tomboy
Season 2 Episode 22 - Aired 4/6/1980
Mt. Sekigutsu, famous for the flowers that bloom on its rocks, is ruled by a fearful demon called Seisai, who has the power to turn anything into stone. A young stonemason from Ushizokoku called Kokanshi climbs the mountain and falls prey to the demon's magic rays. Two years later, Kokanshi's overzealous fiancée Airen travels to the mountain to rescue him, and tricks Tripitaka's disciples into helping her fight the demon. Meanwhile, Seisai abducts Tripitaka and plans to eat him...
Director: Satoshi Aoki
Writer: Motomu Furuta
7.9/1013 votesLoading...#22 - The Dogs of Death
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 11/18/1979
The evil Dogs of Plague, disciples of the Great Hound of Hell, plan to kill Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy and Tripitaka. Their leader brings the Plague of Black Dog to a nearby town. The pilgrims arrive at the town, but when Tripitaka tries to help the sick, he catches the deadly plague himself. Monkey discovers the only cure is to give the afflicted grilled fresh monkey brains from a newly dead ape. Will Monkey give up his life to save Tripitaka?
Director: Satoshi Aoki
Writer: James Miki
8.0/1011 votesLoading...#23 - The House of the Evil Spirit
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 12/16/1979
After getting separated from Pigsy and Sandy, Monkey and Tripitaka find a creepy house in the middle of nowhere. They are shown hospitality by Mr. Chin and his daughter Kohran who live there. After he befriends Kohran, Monkey discovers that there's more to her father than meets the eye. Meanwhile, Pigsy and Sandy are kidnapped by the man who murdered Mr. Chin's wife thirteen years earlier. He plans to abduct Kohran...
Director: Jun Fukuda
Writer: Yu Tagami
8.0/109 votesLoading...#24 - The Tormented Emperor
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 12/30/1979
Emperor Busoku, ruler of the country of Biku, is tormented at night by the ghost of Queen Seiko of Shitan, whose country he destroyed many years ago. Tripitaka and his followers arrive at Biku and hear of the Emperor's plight. After the ghost leaves behind a shoe, Monkey becomes suspicious and sends Pigsy and Dragon to investigate. They sneak into the women's dormitory at the palace in search of the shoe's owner. But Pigsy has other things on his mind.
Director: Satoshi Aoki
Writer: Motomu Furuta
8.0/109 votesLoading...#25 - Between Heaven and Hell
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 1/7/1980
The pilgrims arrive at a sacred shrine called Chokken Shokoku. Every day, its many visitors pay to go through a hole in the wall that guarantees them entry to paradise in the after-life. Tripitaka is sceptical, but his disciples insist on trying it. When Sandy gets stuck in the hole, the shrine's priest demands 100,000 Gen from the others to let them enlarge the hole, otherwise Sandy must die. Can Monkey, Pigsy and Tripitaka raise the money in time?
Director: Akikazu Ota
Writer: James Miki
The Worst Episodes of Monkey
Every episode of Monkey ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Monkey!
Buddhist priest Tripitaka and his three disciples Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy, travel from China to India to fetch the Buddhist scriptures. They have been sent...
Genres:Action & AdventureComedySci-Fi & Fantasy
Network:Nippon TV
Worst Episodes Summary
"The Great Journey Begins" is the worst rated episode of "Monkey". It scored 7.1/10 based on 36 votes. Directed by Daisuke Yamazaki and written by Tetsurô Abe, it aired on 10/15/1978. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Pigsy Woos a Widow".