www.monkeyheaven.com

Monkey Heaven is a tribute to the cult classic live action Japanese TV series Monkey (sometimes known as Monkey Magic), made by NTV in the late 1970s, and starring Masaaki Sakai, Toshiyuki Nishida, Shiro Kishibe, Masako Natsume, Tonpei Hidari, Shunji Fujimura, Mieko Takamine.

It's based on one of the great quest stories, a 16th century Chinese epic called Hsi Yu Chi (= Journey to the West). The title Monkey is probably from Arthur Waley's English translation. The tales, set in 630 AD, describe the demons and monsters who try to stop the Tang Priest Hs�En Tsang (Tripitaka) from reaching a Buddhist monastery in India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures. The whole series recounts the exploits of the resourceful, brave, and humorous Monkey, the real hero of the fantasy, as he escorts Tripitaka, the pig monster Pigsy, and the water monster Sandy, on their perilous mission.

Hs�En Tsang (Tripitaka) actually lived and really did go to India in 629 A.D. to get Buddhist scriptures.

Click here to translate this page into Japanese automatically! (please be patient, as it may take a short time)

[Subscribe to Monkey Heaven YouTube channel!]
Don't miss exclusive NEW videos!

Follow @MonkeyHeavenCom Tweet to @MonkeyHeavenCom

LATEST UPDATES:

Monkey Cast - Masaaki Sakai - Sakai Masaaki to MAGNETS

15 June 2025: Masaaki Sakai's news band has announced new dates on their world tour 2025!

Monkey Cast - Masaaki Sakai - Sakai Masaaki to MAGNETS - All about Masaaki Sakai's new band that he joined with Mickie Yoshino, founder of Godiego, and Shishido Kafka in 2024! Includes details of the Osaka and Yokohama dates on their world tour 2025!!!

15 March 2025: Amazon.co.jp - Masaaki Sakai: The Best Second Place - Masaaaki Sakai has just released an autobiography! Snippets of the content have emerged online, which includes in-depth stories of his work, and relationships with the other actors, on "Monkey".

15 March 2025: Movie review: Spirit World - Masaaaki Sakai co-stars with legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve in this new film! Watch the Spirit World trailer on YouTube!

2 February 2025: Godiego celebrate their 50th anniversary!
Godiego, the band who did all the legendary music used in Monkey, will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2026!!

Godiego 50th official site

Godiego Live! 2025 - Details of their celebratory concerts throughout Japan during 2025!

17 October 2024: Monkey Cast - Toshiyuki Nishida
Toshiyuki Nishida, the actor who played Pigsy in the first season of "Monkey" died on 17th October 2024

8 May 2024: UNSEEN: Masaaki Sakai interview (2000) about "Monkey" 1970s TV show (Eng subs)

It brings me great pleasure to be able to share this extremely rare interview with Masaaki Sakai with Monkey fans all around the world!!

20 June 2021: Gandhara Covers (a Monkey Heaven YouTube channel playlist)
Check out lots of cover versions of "Gandhara", the much-loved ending song to Monkey!
Includes a famous cover by 2 Englishmen in a band called Splinter, a heavy metal version, a ukelele version, an anime character version and lots more!

6 June 2021: Monkey Magic Covers & Remixes (a Monkey Heaven YouTube channel playlist)
Check out lots of cover versions and remixes of "Monkey Magic", the theme song to Monkey!
Includes a Korean reggae version, 100% Japanese version, chorus line version, ukelele version, and so many more!

16 May 2021: Monkey Pictures - Page 10
Check out this new page featuring very rare black-and-white behind-the-scenes and press conference photographs featuring the Monkey cast!

25 March 2021:Monkey Episode Picture Quiz
Can you help me identify the Monkey episode for all the episode stills in this online album?
Browse the picture gallery and add a comment with the episode number (Japanese or UK) from the Monkey Episodes - Full Mapping of all 52 Monkey Episodes page!
It's easy to comment - just click the Comment icon at the top right of each photo page in the gallery!

3 October 2020: Monkey: The Complete Series (Restored) Blu-Ray
The entire series of Monkey was released on Blu-ray for the first time ever in October 2020!!!

All 52 episodes have been fully-restored from the original HD masters!
The release includes the 13 "lost" episodes dubbed by the original dubbing actors in 2004!

UK release [Fabulous Films]

Blu-ray: Amazon.co.uk

DVD version: Amazon.co.uk.

Australia / New Zealand release [Umbrella Entertainment]

Blu-ray: EzyDVD.com.au

DVD version: EzyDVD.com.au.
The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!

15 September 2020: Monkey Cast - Shiro Kishibe
It is with a very heavy heart that I have to break the news that on 28th August 2020, Shiro Kishibe, the much-loved actor who played the character of Sandy in "Monkey", died of acute heart failure. He was 71 years old.

Be notified of
page updates

Quick Links

Move your mouse over an item below for more info, or click on it to go to the page.

Monkey soundtrack CD Buy the legendary Monkey soundtrack!	The Day I Met Monkey! Masaaki Sakai himself!	Monkey Greeting Cards Send a musical Monkey card!	Monkey Ringtones Monkey ringtones (inc. polyphonic) for your mobile phone!	Monkey Dubbing Major update all about the dubbing of the unseen 13 episodes in 2004!	Monkey Desktop Themes Wonderful new Monkey wallpaper images, icons and cursors for your computer (+ link to sounds)!
Monkey Gifts Perfect gifts for Monkey fans	Monkey Bloopers Ever spotted any continuity errors in Monkey?	Videos / DVDs - Buyer's Guide Advice on which Monkey videos / DVDs / boxsets to buy!	Monkey Costumes - For Hire In The UK You too can be Monkey for a night!	Monkey Videos / DVDs Buy Monkey on video / DVD!	Monkey Screensavers Official Monkey screensaver!
Site Map Full guide to this web site!	Random page Feeling lucky?	So you can keep coming back.	Monkey Music - Doing Songs From Monkey On Karaoke In London Sing Monkey Magic with your friends!	International Monkey Meetup Day Meet up with fellow Monkey fans in your area once a month!	The Water Margin DVDs

More:

Navigate the Monkey Heaven web site

Search:

search tips

advanced search

site search by freefind

Browse:

Info - [Episodes] [Facts] [Links] [People] [TV Guide]
The stories of the day I met Monkey, Pigsy and the Horse (indepth articles), cast biographies, episode reviews, dubbing information, information about "missing" episodes that were never dubbed into English, trivia, episode ratings, bloopers / continuity errors / mistakes, episode summaries, fans' memories, links, quotes, and details of where you can catch Monkey on TV around the world.
Downloads - [Animations] [Desktop Themes] [Fan films] [Gallery] [Movies] [Pictures] [Screensavers] [Sounds]
Get pictures, sounds, digital movies, screensavers and desktop themes from Monkey here, and see fans' drawings (fan art) of characters from Monkey, plus animations and fan films.
Media - [Books] [Costumes] [Events] [Fan Fiction] [Games] [Gifts] [Lookalikes] [Magazines] [Memorabilia] [Music] [Related TV / Films] [Videos / DVDs]
Monkey fan fiction, memorabilia, autographs, Monkey tribute stage shows, Monkey games, gifts, posters, postcards, t-shirts, lifesize Monkey cutouts, fans dressed as characters from Monkey, costume hire, on video, DVD, Monkey soundtrack CD by Godiego, record, karaoke, in books, magazines, films, other related TV shows, and video games.
Communicate - [Chat] [Feedback] [Greeting Cards] [Mailing List] [Message Board] [Penpals]
Give me feedback, get a penpal, post messages to the Monkey Message Board, join the Monkey mailing list, take part in live chat about Monkey.

Wanted - A list of things / information wanted by Monkey fans.

  (OLD)

Last updated: Sunday, June 15, 2025 at 04:05 (GMT).

Between Wednesday 5th March 1997 and January 2002, this site was called "Monkey!" and resided at Geocities (note: the title of the TV show is simply "Monkey", not "Monkey!" - no exclamation mark)

Use the wonderful Internet Archive: Wayback Machine to look at old versions of this web site - e.g.: http://www.monkeyheaven.com/, and its old web addresses http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/ and /http://www.geocities.com/saiyuuki/