Release[edit]
Two 26-episode seasons ran in Japan: the first season ran from October 1978 to April 1979, and the second one from November 1979 to May 1980, with screenwriters including Mamoru Sasaki, Isao Okishima, Tetsurō Abe, Kei Tasaka, James Miki, Motomu Furuta, Hiroichi Fuse, Yū Tagami, and Fumio Ishimori.

Saiyūki was dubbed into English from 1979, with dialogue written by David Weir. The dubbed version was broadcast under the name Monkey and broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, in New Zealand by TVNZ and in Australia on the ABC.

However, only 39 of the original 52 episodes were dubbed (and broadcast by the BBC): all of series 1 was, but only half of series 2 was prepared for a version in English. In 2004, the remaining episodes were dubbed by Fabulous Films Ltd by the original voice acting cast, following a successful release of the English-dubbed series on VHS and DVD; later these newly dubbed episodes were broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK.

A Spanish-dubbed version of Monkey aired in Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic in the early 1980s. While the BBC-dubbed Monkey never received a broadcast in the United States, the original Japanese-language version, Saiyūki, was shown on local Japanese language television stations in California and Hawaii in the early 1980s.