Genzo Sanzo Hoshi

Genzo Sanzo Hoshi
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Age	Unknown (adult)
Hair Color	N/A (bald)
Eye Color	Brown
Affiliations
Family	None known
Uses
Attribute	None
Dinosaurs	None

Monk Genzo(/Genjo) Sanzo Hoshi (typically just Sanzo Hoshi or Sanzo) was a well-known and well-respected monk encountered in the Ancient China arc of Mesozoic Meltdown (ep. 59-62), in AD 636. He is based on both his real-world and literary counterparts, and is voiced by David Lapkin in the English dub.

Character Design

Appearance

He is always seen wearing white and yellow robes, usually with a similarly colored hat with long drooping sides. His earlobes are very elongated, and his head is bald, which are both hidden by his hat. He wears a necklace of purple beads, the largest at the center being called the Purple Plum of Tranquility; despite resembling a Cosmos Stone, it is simply jewelry.

Personality

Being a proponent of harmony with and within the Universe, he is opposed to all forms of fighting and violence, even to the point of attempting to intervene in the D-Team's battles with the Space Pirates. However, he is also a coward, and will be terrified of any actual danger most of the time, though will attempt to resolve to stay the course anyway, whether he ultimately manages to or not.

Anime

Mesozoic Meltdown

He and his disciples, who promised to protect him till the end, are introduced in Four Part Harmony cowering from Foolscap's rampaging Shantungosaurus in a Chinese town; upon being discovered, his disciples swiftly file out of the building, leaving Sanzo to be snatched up, the arriving D-Team seeing him and his Cosmos Stone-resembling necklace in Foolscap's Pod Ship as he leaves. Forced down after a crash with the timesick Dr. Z's wayward Alpha Jet, they walk until Sanzo stops, finally being told he is only meant to chant open a mountain protected by a mystical seal. As "a championship chanter", he is relieved, but has to realign himself before continuing, a process Shantungosaurus is summoned to hasten, but the monk faints instead, being carried on its back. Sanzo soon realizes the dinosaur is inherently gentle, leading to him begging the D-Team not to fight it (or fight at all) when they catch up, but a battle begins, Zoe's Metal Wing Pteranodon grabbing him before Green Impulse's Tupuxuara tries to fight for him back, eventually being deposited on the ground. After Sanzo unsuccessfully tries to stand between the fighting dinosaurs again, Foolscap is driven off, and Sanzo mourns the destruction of the many defeated dinosaurs before it is explained to him how dinosaur card summoning works.

After Max retrieves his missing necklace from a high tree branch in Elements of Surprise, it is realized not to be a Cosmos Stone, but the D-Team decides to accompany him back home to set a trap for the Space Pirates. After the heat starts making Sanzo delirious, they ride on Chomp, Sanzo telling the D-Team about balancing one's elemental harmony. They find a village preparing a defensive wall, and Sanzo's fame lands them a big dinner and the tale of the nearby Fire Mountain and Lady Tessan and the Bull King's return, realized to be Shear and a dinosaur. To avoid endangering the D-Team, Sanzo heads out the next day to deal with the "demons" peacefully, but faints when Shear summons Mapusaurus, being dangled over a lava pit to wake him up. Mapusaurus tosses him away when the D-Team arrives to fight, but Ace uses Cyclone to grab and save Sanzo from falling into the pit. Wanting the fighting to stop, Sanzo starts chanting until Ace grabs him to retreat from Fire Mountain's unintended eruption, insisting he can chant the lava into stopping, even through another failed attempt at being stolen by Shear; while the D-Team deal with the problem, the villagers see and credit Sanzo with the deed, who believes it himself, responding he asked the Universe for balance.

Meanwhile, the stranded Alpha Gang had been caught raiding a peach garden after hearing about the Fruit of Eternal Youth, being mistaken for and gladly pretending to be the famous Sanzo Hoshi (Ursula) and "his" three followers, pigging out on a meal before agreeing to return the water to a parched cropland. Ursula sends Tank underground to find an aquifer, but finds lava instead, and they beat a hasty retreat.

Continuing their journey in Monk in the Middle, Sanzo tries to avoid the temptation of food and water, managing to give away most of the supplies from the village's thanks to a wandering group of children they meet, as a monk being able to deny himself but not others, their spirits now balanced. Needing to conserve energy from here on, Sanzo immediately offers to help dislodge an overburdened cart stuck in mud on an incline, the D-Team begrudgingly helping, Sanzo also teaching the cart's owner to be kinder to the donkey pulling it. With Max and Rex beginning to argue over the amount of help they've been doling out, Sanzo chants until the circuitry in Max's visor shorts out and shocks him, Rex realizing it to be like the Monkey King's tightening headband in "Journey to the West" and finding them each to resemble a character from it. Meanwhile, the Alpha Gang has donned actual costumes to charade as Sanzo (Dr. Z this time) to another village, but Gabbro arrives and carries away Dr. Z thinking him the real Sanzo; when Dr. Z tries living up to made up claims about Sanzo, he's outed and left trapped as Gabbro searches again. The real Sanzo soon arrives at the same village, the D-Team recognizing the Alpha Gang's description as Sanzo tries helping clear debris, being given a horse for their journey. As the D-Team conclude the Cosmos Stone must be at Foolscap's mountain and expect Dr. Z to be there, they are forced to be clear to Sanzo that he isn't really much help and slows them down, and they prepare to go after Dr. Z while Sanzo helps fix the village. Sanzo follows them to help anyway, but accidentally spooks the horse into a gallop, winding up charging straight into the dinosaur battle, getting sent flying but caught and gently dropped by Gabbro. Seeing he isn't useful here, he leads the horse off amid a dust cloud from the battle to be a burden no more.

In The Third Cosmos Stone, Sanzo is quickly found again by Gabbro after his dinosaur defeat, being dragged up the same mountain he already happened to be heading towards to find Dr. Z trapped between two big rocks by his coat, who Sanzo tries to free with chanting before Gabbro directs his attention to the even bigger rock he was brought here to move. The two argue over which rocks he'll move first, until Dr. Z slips out, the two assuming he moved the rocks just enough, so now it was time for the giant rock, all three Space Pirates insisting he comply. The D-Team arrives ready to fight, but Sanzo calls them off, agreeing to move the rock if the Pirates return the D-Team's parents, and after weighting their options, Shear agrees. As Sanzo chants, Max tries telling him his chants didn't do anything before, but the others stop him, as Sanzo is so genuinely convinced he helps with his chants, and maybe they actually work in ways they can't understand. At the same time, the Alpha Trio was having Tank dig a tunnel up the inside of the mountain looking for the Fruit of Eternal Youth's garden, but reaching the Purple Cosmos Stone she was actually drawn by, Tank is given a surge of energy and charges down a cave, shaking the mountain and dislodging the giant rock from the cave's entrance; the D-Team is stunned, but the Space Pirates immediately flake on their deal and head inside, the D-Team leaving Sanzo outside to follow.

Though the Pirates manage to snatch the Cosmos Stone during another battle, Sanzo's attitude has rubbed off on Max, who isn't frustrated and will wait for their next meeting with the Pirates to try again. Sanzo wishes the D-Team harmony and balance, letting them leave to finish his journey home himself. When he makes it home, he tells his fellow monks the story of three adventurers who helped him get back while on a journey to the west…

Trivia

• Sanzo and his adventuring with the D-Team are similar to (and seemingly intended to have unintentionally inspired) the story of "Journey to the West", featuring Shwan-dzang/Xuanzang (Sanzo), his horse who is actually a dragon (Sanzo's horse he acquires from a village, who is just a horse), the Monkey King (Max), Sandy (Rex), and Pigsy (Zoe). The D-Teams' similarities to these characters are noticed and pointed out by Max and Rex (Zoe isn't happy with her character parallel).

Gallery

Dr. Z pretending to be Sanzo to be honored by villagers

Sanzo riding his horse, contemplating