FORUM - Start - Facts - Story - History - Names - Characters - Episodes - Collectables - StarCrowd - Fan-Stuff - Downloads Silverfang History The story of Starzinger is a modern reinterpretation of an old Chinese saga. The saga is also somewhat based on a real event occurring more than 1300 years ago.   Peter Johansson, a student of religious studies at the University of Dalarna in Sweden, has written a detailed history of this. To go deeper into the world of Starzinger and appreciate it in another level you can read the full document here. Or if you prefer to download the word-document you can do so here. Peter Johanssons The Understanding of Starzinger Peter Johansson, johansson_p@home.se Student of Religious Studies at the University of Dalarna, Sweden The understanding of Starzinger 1.1, 2001-03-31 Originalets titel: The Understanding of Starzinger The story behind Starzinger/Spaceketeers To fully understand the wonderfully exciting and involving saga of Starzinger (known as Spaceketeers in the US), one must go many hundreds of years back in time. The easiest way to describe the origins of the saga, is to divide the historical aspects into three sections. The first one is the authentic facts about Hsüan-Tsan and his pilgrimage to India. The second is the writings of Wu Ch'eng-en, who wrote about Hsüan-Tsan and his travels. The third is when the writings of Wu Ch'eng-en are being re-interpreted and re-written into Starzinger. Hsüan-Tsan Hsüan-Tsan was a Buddhist monk and a pilgrim who lived between the years 602 - 664. His fame rests in his work on the great many Buddhist scriptures written in Sanskrit that he translated into Chinese, but also the records on his travels to Central Asia and India. Hsüan-Tsan was born into a Confucian family in China, and therefore also received a classical Confucian education in his youth. Being dissatisfied with the Confucian views, he soon converted into Buddhism along with his older brother. Hsüan-Tsan began studying Buddhist philosophy but was troubled with the many contradictions in the texts. Dissatisfied with the solutions that his Chinese masters presented, he decided to travel to India to gain knowledge about what Buddhism was all about. He arrived in India in 633. In India, Hsüan-tsang visited all the sacred sites connected with the life of the Buddha, and he journeyed along the east and west coasts of the subcontinent. The major portion of his time, however, was spent at the Nalanda monastery, the great Buddhist centre of learning, where he perfected his knowledge of Sanskrit, Buddhist philosophy, and Indian thought. Hsüan-Tsan went back to China in 645 where he spent the remainder of his life translating the Buddhist scriptures, numbering 657 items packed in 520 cases, that he brought back from India. His efforts were so greatly appreciated by the Emperor that he was given the honorific name of Tripitaka. (Note: do not confuse this with the tripitaka meaning "the three baskets" which are the canonized scriptures that are essential to Buddhist philosophy.) Hsi-yu chi Countless stories and legends about Hsüan-Tsan's journey were told. Because of a strong oral tradition in China, the stories soon became unbelievable. Stories were being told about how Hsüan-Tsan encountered various demons, monsters and fiends along with his journey. Then, somewhere along the line, after years of storytelling, someone introduced a monkey (Sun Wukong) into the story. This was a monkey who escorted Hsüan-Tsan to India. The idea of the monkey became popular and soon, all stories about Hsüan-Tsan's journey included the monkey disciple. Gradually, the monkey became more and more popular until he eventually took over the story as the main character. Though there were already plenty of accounts of Hsüan-Tsan's journey, it became really popular when Wu Ch'eng-en (1500 - 1582) wrote a complete account of the entire journey. It was named Hsi-yu chi (The Journey to the West) and along with Hsüan-Tsan (named Sanzang Fashi in Hsi-yu Chi) and the Monkey, there was also a pig (Zhu Bajie) and a water demon (Sha Wujing). The pilgrimage took nearly twenty years and there were demons and monsters in every corner. His-yu chi is called Saiyuki in Japanese, which is loved by millions of children in Asia through stories, videogames and cartoon series. Starzinger/Spaceketeers Starzinger is simply a re-interpretation of His-yu chi (or rather Saiyuki, since Starzinger is Japanese) and when we look at the details, this becomes obvious. In Starzinger, princess Aurora and her journey to Great King to restore the galaxy energy represents Hsüan-Tsan's journey to India. The Swedish names of our three heroes are seemingly better than the US names in our understanding of how to connect Starzinger to Saiyuki. On a side note, their English names are also influenced by the names of Dumas' famous novel "The Three Musketeers" which easily connects to the English name of the cartoon series. In the table below, you will see that the Swedish names better resemble their real names in Saiyuki, but there is an important visual factor there as well: Swedish Engelska Japanska Japanska Kinesiska Engelska Starzinger Spaceketeers SF Starzinger De tre Musketörerna Sayuki Hsi-yu Chi Journey to the West Princess Aurora Princess Aurora Princess Aurora - Sanzo-hoshi Sanzang Fash Tripitaka Jan Cogo Jesse Dart Jan Coogo D'Artagnan Son Goku Sun Wulkong Monkey Don Haka Porkos Don Hakka Porthos Chohakkai Zhu Bajie Pigsy Sir Djorgo Arimos Sir Jogo Aramis Sagojo Sha Wujing Sandy 1. The monkey in Saiyuki is represented in Starzinger as an extremely powerful cyborg (half robot, half human). His hair goes down his ears and reminds of how the monkeys looked like in the film "The Planet of the Apes". 2. The pig is represented as a very chubby and food-loving cyborg. Maybe the best resemblance with Saiyuki is that he is from the Mud planet. Also, the English name is Porkos, which should speak for itself. 3. The water demon is represented as a cyborg who has a trident as his weapon. He is also web-footed and he is the only one who can fight under water with his ship. Other comments I find that Starzinger is interesting in a religious point of view, and many of my questions concerning this may be resolved if I knew Japanese and would have access to the original Japanese series, because I feel that the Swedish version is translated very poorly indeed. Sometimes, the characters react very strangely to what they are saying, sometimes, as in the last Swedish episode, the translation is clearly wrong; We can hear when Princess Aurora is thinking out loud and saying -"How is Djorgo going to make it without his Astro lance…" or -"I am contacting Doctor Kitty on Great King". Doctor Kitty is on planet Earth and Cogo is the one with the lance. I am also wondering if the many instances of Christian derivations are because of a bad translation. You will be able to hear that most characters are praying to "God" when help is needed. Even Doctor Kitty is giving up on her scientific believes in the last Swedish episode and asks God for help in the last battle. I am asking myself, what is really said in the Japanese original? Though, one cannot help but to connect the last battle in Starzinger with the Christian concept of Armageddon… for instance the evil monster that is putting his armies together for the final battle is called "Satan Golga" or just "Satan". What does the Japanese original say about that I am wondering. Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica Gombrich, Richard "The World of Buddhism" 1984. Thompson, Laurence G. "Chinese Religion" 1996. Copyright © 2003-2008 Emil Wickman. All Rights Reserved.