Fushigi Yuugi (Mysterious Play), is a prime example of shoujo (girls’ anime). While certainly not lacking in adventure, sword play, and political intrigue, Fushigi Yuugi is, at heart, a story of two lifelong friends, Miaka and Yui, and the trials their friendship undergoes as fate, lies, and love intervene.
Both girls are fifteen and just getting ready for high school. Yui, the smarter of the two, is all but assured a place in a prestigious Tokyo school. Miaka, on the other hand, is more interested in cramming food than cramming lessons — more interested in food than anything else, for that matter!. But she’s sworn to stay by Yui’s side, not wanting to lose her friend. Late one afternoon, after studying in the library, the two encounter an odd book in the rare book section. Yui translates the title as “The Universe of the Four Gods,” and begins to read aloud for both of them.
And before either of them is quite aware of what has happened, the two young women have been quite literally sucked into the book and into a precarious situation. Beset by bandits, Miaka and Yui are rescued by a cute young man, who promptly ditches them when they can’t pay him for his service. Miaka, fear driven from her by righteous indignation, storms after him, not paying attention to Yui, who gets pulled back to the real world, now able to follow Miaka’s progress only by reading the book.
So goes Miaka and Yui’s inauspicious introduction to the world within the mysterious book, which turns out to be ancient China. The young man is named Tamahome and, unsurprisingly, both girls fall in love with him as the story progresses, creating much angst and tension for everyone involved. Royal prophecy has foretold of Miaka, a girl from a distant land, who will serve Konan (the land of her arrival) as the Priestess of Suzaku, fiery Chinese guardian of the southern skies. Her task is to assemble the seven seishi (celestial warriors) of Suzaku, so she may summon the god and help the Emperor defeat Konan’s enemies – namely, the rival kingdom of Kotou.
Miaka’s task is no easy one — to find seven warriors among a land of many thousands. It becomes even harder when Yui is pulled back into the book and falls under the control of Nakago, the manipulative, deceptive general of Kotou’s armies. The once close friends are now in bitter opposition as Yui, accepting the role of Priestess of Seiryuu, watery guardian of the west, also seeks to assemble her warriors and defeat Miaka — for power and for Tamahome. Miaka’s direct efforts at reconciliation meet with disdain and even mortal danger for herself and her companions.
At 52 TV episodes, the story unfolds at a leisurely pace, introducing a slew of wonderful characters and allowing plots and subplots to develop fully. Between Miaka, her seven warriors, and Yui, there are love triangles, squares, and probably even pentagons! Miaka loves Tamahome. Tamahome loves Miaka. Yui loves Tamahome. Emperor Hotohori of Konan loves Miaka. Miaka might love Hotohori. Nuriko, one of Miaka’s warriors, does love Hotohori, but might well love Miaka by the end of things. Miaka is not unlike a kid in a candy store. After all, as one internet commentary has it, a good alternate title for this show is “Ancient China, Land of Beautiful Men.”
With both Yui and Miaka essentially trapped within the book, observation falls to Miaka’s college-age brother Keisuke and his friend Tetsuya, who follow the story (with no small amount of nail biting) from Japan, and do some sleuthing on their end to try to help. Their devotion to the two girls is very sweet and funny to watch.
Faced with betrayal, setbacks, screwups and even death, Miaka remains true to her heart. She’s occasionally — okay, often — self-absorbed and gluttonous, but she’s passionate, good-hearted, and always means well, even when she does the dumbest things. While she’s not every viewer’s cup of tea, Miaka still makes a good heroine for a food-crazy teenager, and earns her right to be with Tamahome, even if he is just a character in a book, and the right to be reunited with Yui, her best friend.
Watase Yuu, original creator of the manga on which Fushigi Yuugi is based, has taken a fairly straightforward plot and peppered it with a good dose of Chinese mythology, dark twists, and just enough humor to be a welcome relief when things are too laden with angst. Her character designs are lovely and, even if her biases show through (Nakago was her favourite character, and he’s rather mightier-than-thou on more than one occasion), she has fleshed out her characters well. Many of those characters (Tasuki the bandit, Hotohori, Nuriko, Chichiri the religious sorcerer, Tamahome) are major favorites among female anime fans. The show is rife with symbolism, such as the astrological signs each character represents and the kanji (Chinese character) symbolizing each. For example, Tamahome is the Crab, bearing the kanji for Ogre on his forehead. He is tenacious and loyal, and utterly ferocious at hand-to-hand combat.
As an introduction to the world of shoujo anime, there are few series which better demonstrate all that is fun and worthwhile about the genre. A definite must-see for both the curious and the aficionado.
(Geneon Entertainment (USA), Inc., 1999 [orig. Studio Pierrot, 1995])
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