From ancient Buddhism, to iconic manga hair, to Keanu Reeves: a PC Gamer Causality Chain™

Causality chain: Keanu Reeves, Goku, and Buddhist monk Xuanzang — (Image credit: Keanu Reeves, Paramount, Bandai Namco)

Causality Chain is a series at PC Gamer exploring the unlikely links between history, culture, and videogames. And ocassionally hedgehogs.

The arc of history curves in mysterious ways. Beloved actor Keanu Reeves—Ted, Neo, John Wick himself—may not be Buddhist, but he does, in fact, owe the existence of one of his blockbuster roles to the teachings of one of Buddhism's most important figures.

How, you ask? And what exactly does this have to do with videogames? Excellent questions that can only be answered by a causality chain, tracing the butterfly effect of a man walking westward 1,400 years ago to the modern day movie star known for his iconic delivery of the word "Whoa."

The origins of Chinese Buddhism 🔗 Keanu Reeves big dogging Sonic the Hedgehog

The foundational text

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620s AD: Around the year 627, Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang begins a 17 year journey from China to India in search of Buddhist texts...

He returns in the year 645 with hundreds of Sanskrit manuscripts, which he will work to translate until his death. One of Xuanzang's disciples writes and publishes a book titled Records of the Western Regions, a dictated account of his pilgrimage.¹

Art of Buddhist monk Xuanzang, artist unknown — (Image credit: Wikimedia)

A legendary journey

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1590s: Xuanzang's account inspires 1,000 years of folktales, both written and in the oral tradition. In the late 16th century, a fictional account of the journey of Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang and the monkey king Sun Wukong is published under the name Journey to the West.²

Sun Wukong art by Yashima Gakutei — (Image credit: Wikimedia)

From the west to the east

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1984: Manga artist Akira Toriyama decides to follow up his hit comic Dr. Slump, which was set in a vague satirical version of America, with a new series that has "Chinese scenery" instead.³

Toriyama uses Journey to the West as the template, saying in a 1995 interview "I thought it would be easy if that story served as the basis, since all I would have to do would be to arrange things." His protagonist Son Goku is modeled after the Monkey King.

Goku from the cover of the first volume of Dragon Ball — (Image credit: Akira Toriyama, Jump)

The Super moment

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1991: After Dragon Ball becomes increasingly popular as a battle manga, Toriyama gives Goku a power-up called Super Saiyan. He draws Super Saiyan Goku with a golden aura and blonde hair instead of black so that his assistant can spend less time inking Goku's hair each issue.⁴

The first panel of Super Saiyan Goku from the Dragon Ball Z manga — (Image credit: Akira Toriyama, Shueisha)

Sonic's power-up looks mighty familiar

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1992: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 debuts in November the following year. When he powers up by collecting the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic glows gold and transforms into Super Sonic.

Coincidence?? No.⁵

Super Sonic at the end of Sonic 2 — (Image credit: Sega)

Sonic needs a shadow

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2001: To give Sonic a more powerful rival, Sonic Team creates Shadow the Hedgehog, the "ultimate lifeform." He canonically approves of stealing candy from babies⁶, and is also maybe Vegeta.⁷

Shadow the Hedgehog in his game, Shadow the Hedgehog — (Image credit: Sega)

Keanu is the ultimate life form?

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2024: After being cast as the voice of Shadow, Keanu Reeves looks an interviewer dead in the eyes and declares that he, either as a human man or the voice of a CGI hedgehog, can beat up Sonic the Hedgehog.⁸

Keanu Reeves in a promotional interview for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 — (Image credit: Keanu Reeves, Paramount)

Sources and further reading

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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).