A stylish urban fantasy about the Monkey King, a powerful immortal banished to the human world, and a young woman who can see ghosts and spirits. Their intertwined destinies and a contract made years ago lead them to clash and become allies, battling evil and exploring themes of fate, love, and redemption.
This urban fantasy was tons of fun. We really grew to love these characters. I especially enjoyed watching Son O Gong (Monkey) behaving in such a monkey-like fashion as he ignored what anyone wanted but himself and acted on whichever whimsy occurred to him.
This is a very loose riff on the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West about a Buddhist monk on pilgrimage accompanied by protecting deities atoning for their sins. It certainly broadened my horizons as I wound up reading The Monkey King, Vol. I and 2, graphic novels by Chaiko Tsai looking for a few clues as to the characters or symbols from that story. You don't have to know anything about Journey to watch the show, but it does make it more fun to be able to identify a few things such as the Geumganggo.
The female lead was the weakest actress and her story was also the weakest but the engaging side stories more than made up for that problem. Of course, we were invested in the main romance/fighting evil story but you just can't resist the sweet and zany cast of demon characters masquerading as humans — including an octopus prince in a pop star's body, a friendly and sweet zombie who willingly lives in the fridge, the loyal dog secretary, or a winter deity who runs (of course) an ice cream stand.
And there was plenty of romance. With Monkey wearing funky fur coats. Of course.
I enjoyed this as much as Tale of the 9 Tailed, even though in some ways they are very different.
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