Intro: Yet another adventure based on the "Journey to the West" legend.
Background: Started as a manga of course, this story is more closely based on the Chinese legend than Dragonball is and incorporates many of the characters from the legend. It's still a fairly loose representation of the story though.
Brief Story Description: Weird things are happening in Shangri-La and Sanzo & company must travel to India to put an end to the disasters happening in the world.
Story: 7/10 Starts out slow, well, not literally, but it took me a while to care for the story. Eventually it picks up as more is learned about the characters and their tragic pasts. An air of mystery helps to keep people interested, but it's fairly subtle. What is most interesting is to learn about the basic story of the Chinese legend and read the cultural notes on the DVD that explain it more in depth.
Characters: 8/10 The main cast of Sanzo, Son Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai have quite the relationship. Mostly due to fighting with each other (sans Hakkai). Nonetheless they make a great team and really help to move the story forward (unfortunately with cheesy dialogue at times). The villians/antagonists add even more twists, but all have strong personalities that are easy to identify.
Quality: 8/10 Clean animation and colors, including some fun special effects. There's just a few scenes that use 3D animation that doesn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the style. Has a fun opening for the second season.
Music: 8/10 Very catchy music and noticible background music themes throughout the series. "Open Up Your Mind" is probably a favorite of mine, using a beautiful mixture of Japanese and English lyrics (not "Engrish" thank heavens). I would love to have a soundtrack.
Little Kid Factor: Not recommended, due to language. But the anime has a lot less blood and boobs than the manga does.
Bottom line: I didn't like it at first, I had to watch the first volume twice before I cared, but it grew on me rather fast. Despite the flaws it has and some of the factors of cheesiness, it's really worth a try, if anything for at least the amusing interactions between the Sanzo party.