Fushigi Yuugi tv Review

Miaka is like any ordinary schoolgirl. She loves to dream, eat and enjoy her life rather than concentrate on her studies. She doesn't mind the fact her mother wishes for her to resemble her intelligent best friend, Yui, and life seems pretty normal.

Things change when they both enter the forbidden section of the local library, and consequently fall into a book. The two girls find themselves in a place that resemble ancient China, where they meet their first love, Tamahome, and get caught up in a jealous love triangle. Miaka and Yui are no longer best friends and become enemies due to several misunderstandings, and are recruited as Priestesses for the Suzaku and Seiryuu Constellations in order to summon their Sacred God (in the form of a giant beast).
The complicated battles between the Seiryuu and Suzaku end up in a fatal battle and race against time, involving the past and the present, where it is decided by fate. Fushigi Yuugi draws viewers into the fantastic realms of the imagination, love and friendship, to inform everyone of their importance in daily lives.

Synopsis by: Kuroimisa

Story & Characters

My first introduction to a romance/action anime. I had read the first 7 manga novels and had then purchased the second box set: Seiryuu.

All in all, I really enjoyed the series. Beautiful character designs *although Miaka is a pain in the A$$, she is really hilarious sometimes, especially during chibi-moment* an interesting storyline and more than a few tears during the various moments of tragedy.

Since others have done a review, I wont go into that but just point out bits and pieces that were interesting to note (spoilers might be here)

It is surprising that a major character, one I thought would be there till the end of the series, dies off *SOB !*
The major villain has his reasons for being such a devil, but i couldnt help but like him even though he sometimes acted like a complete PIG.
An ending that didnt make 100 % sense to me, but then a few things were strange with this series :D

So for the standard type review: Miaka is supposed to be an average, everyday high school girl (who has a really hearty appetite and can be a clumsy clod) trying to study for her entrance exams to an elite school: Jonan High (sp ?) alongside her best friend Yui. While in the national library, they stumble upon an unusual book that is actually The Universe of the Four Gods which transports them to ancient China. Their first experience is an almost nasty one where they are troubled by common thieves/vagabonds and are thankfully saved by a handsome chap called Tamahome, whÃƒÂ³ is only interested in monetary rewards for his effort.
While Yui is transported back to the library, unbeknownst to Miaka (who is looking for her), our esteemed heroine constantly finds herself in some kind of trouble. This trouble leads both tamahome and her to the Emperor who decides that Miaka must be the one who is supposed to save his lands - Konan. From then on it becomes a point of searching out the seven celestial warriors of Suzaku (who is 1 of the 4 animal gods - a red peacock) which are identified by a character marking somewhere on their bodies *

[* NB The Universe of the Four Gods is divided equally into 4 parts: North, South, East and West; where each quadrant have seven constellations. These constellations are represented by characters on the body, making the bearer a seishi or celestial warrior]

Somewhere along the way, while Miaka lands herself and her gang into various kind of trouble, Yui has been transported back and deemed the priestess of the god Seiryuu, where she now also has to find her seven warriors. Somewhere along the way, through deceit, misconception and miscommunication, Yui decides that Miaka betrayed her and thus deems her the enemy, vowing to revive the Seiryuu god (the blue dragon) and help bring victory to Kotou.

And so the battle truly begins where love and hate mingles into chaos and trust seems to be a wary issue. Who will survive, who will perish, will things ever be the same ? Will Miaka save Konan, her beloved friends and herself ?? Do watch to find out...

A few character tidbits:

With the characters such as that of Hotohori *who knows how beautiful he is* or Tamahome *who can be so money orientated it is startling* we don't exactly have the ideal masculine hero(s) yet they always manage to redeeem themselves and make you question why you were questioning yourself on their characters *lol* Though why on earth they are attracted to miaka is truly a bermuda mystery but i guess this is how this genre works.

Nuriko: Lol, hahahaha, always fun watching this (wo)man though i wonder whether anyone ever wondered why he had such a feminine voice *aside from the obvious ;)

Nakago (Seiryuu gang): *sigh* beauiful, bad and tortured. He seems to have no soul at times, and yet just when I'm expecting the worst, something he says will pull me right back.

Miaka: no words could describe O_o the anguish she puts me through everytime she opens her mouth in that bubble-head :D

Taitsu-kun (sp ??) : creepy little woman who always freaks tamahome out *lol* wow..she's a nut, maybe miaka's grandmother in another life *not alot of airtime on her part, maybe for good reason ??*

The rest of the Suzaku gang:

Chichiri *i love your strange face all the same* His hat is like Mary Poppins carpet bag :D
Tasuki *fang-boy with one of the shortest fuses I've ever seen, always fun watching him rile
the others, especially Tamahome*
Mitsukake *gentle giant*
Chiriko *I thought this little cupcake was a girl originally O_o*

Rating: 9

Art

Holy Smokes, what can I say O_o

I thought the character designs of Hotohori, Nakago and Tamahome were FANTASTIC. I drooled me a puddle over those 3. For each of the characters, their personalities matched their physical features - which is always great...no use having a beautiful character who looks like a warrior only to have him acting like a coward :D

I thought the art was elegant, nothing ugly or out of place, there didn't seem to be much hair-gel anywhere *thanks goodness* for that DBZ effect. While the background was a little plain at times, it didn't bother me much.

I have read various reviews where it has been said the art is not as good, somewhat outdated, grainy etc. True that sometimes it appeared grainy but for me personally, I loved it.

Rating: 10

Sound

I have not heard the original japanese voices, only the english dubing but for what it's worth, i thought the dubbing was excellent. For the most part the voices again matched character, though with Nakago, he reminded me of an african-american actor I have seen on a karate film *lol* was really strange to watch that INSANELY deep voice coming out of him. LOL, I wonder how many will laugh when they see him speaking ??

Miaka is shrill, like most of the anime females, she seems to be a nitwit for the most part and that certainly plays out in her voice but, after all she does bring in a major part of the humour factor.

I enjoyed the soundtrack playing throughout the film. I can't say I remember a specific piece but on the whole, everything meshed well. the music enhanced the film, rather than detract from it or worse, over take it.

Rating: 8

Presentation

Humour was first class, to me humour is an important part of anime...regardless of how serious the series is. I am usually irritated by how annoyingly fragile the female characters tend to be, while i am not expecting a butch female with a crew cut and bulging muscles, having one that does not have to share brain cells with a friend would be one hell of a surprise.

Somethings in the anime did not make complete sense, like the fact that there were supposed to be 2 different languages spoken but somehow everyone managed fine O_o but then again I have never come across an anime where everything was 100 % perfect, i guess you have to fill in the blanks here and there with imagination and to be kind, ignore certain things that make you go huh ??

I enjoyed watching the second half of the tv series and was really heartbroken when i saw the final moments. Call me a party pooper but I love happy endings, and this one did not have the ending I wanted, not sure what the ending would have been, but all i know is that i wish a certain someone did not die.

A great anime all the same *sniff* and one which I do not have the heart to watch again for a very long time.

Rating: 8

Final Verdict

8.6667 (very good)

Reviewed by fatimahj, Apr 27, 2006

Comments

strawberrt Apr 27, 2006

you forgot to say something about tasuki xD
Kori Apr 27, 2006

Overall pretty nice review, but I think you could've improved the Story and Characters part. You could tell more about what you thought of the story in general and connect it with a very quick summary of the story . And also, spoiler-free review would be nice. Although you have hinted what you write might contain spoiler, people who haven't seen Fushigi Yuugi will be looking at your review for hints to see if it's worth checking out.

Other than that, keep up the good work. :)
shoujoboy Apr 27, 2006

I'm not exactly too sure that this review style helps people make rational decisions on a specific show. I wasn't able to pay attention to the content so much as the writing itself because it proves to be quite disjointed and virtually unintelligible. You certainly may consider this being mean, but throwing your quick opinion in on a forum post itself may be better than actually writing out a review since your word usage is more privy to that kind of atmosphere. That's just my two cents.

As for the show itself, I found it to be quite good. It was one of my earlier forrays into the anime world, so it took quite a while to find anything that I could compare to it. It stands the test of time though.
fatimahj Apr 27, 2006

lol :D fair enough, I'll edit this one *though my word usage is my way of speaking were i to be doing a formal review or not*

I love the series too :D
Clarryn Apr 28, 2006

Where's Tamahome's personality T_T he's sooo kakui~~ i fell in lve with him too XD well the review is not bad and u gave the scores quite high and everybody must admit that this anime rocks lolz it's an old time show but it's worth to watch it!
fatimahj Apr 28, 2006

Ah :) hi clarryn, i guess I added Tamahome and Hotohori in the same paragraph, not too much of info on them but then again *grin* my review has upset a few people because it's not the standard type that would give you 'good solid information' to make up your mind about whether to watch or not ;) story of my life :D Fushigi Yugi is excellent though
cagalli88 May 11, 2006

Tasuki! Tasuki! My love! U didnt include him?!

Okay, *down girl down....*

I have to TOTALLY DISAGREE with you regarding the english dub. (I heard both, jap and eng) Miaka's voice is totally FLAT and Yui's totally STIFF. Tamahome's voice actor could have tried harder cos he have such beatiful voice.

HOWEVER! Their voices sounded somewhat the same as the originals. Their voices suits the characters well. I assume u from Singapore, cos i guess, only singapore has two set boxes..Suzaku and Seiryuu. Haha!

I love this anime cos it was my FIRST and it got me hooked to other animes as well. Miaka is a pain in the ass but she's the 2nd Maiden who's strong enough to not be eaten alive by the Suzaku God. That's why i love her. She is a very strong individual.
norine07 Jun 06, 2006

oh loved the review thank you so much for sharing...!^^ see ya around ja-ne...!^^

*sakura-chan*
jjjsss111 Jun 18, 2006

Already saw this anime and it was great! =] personally, i like the japanese version better.
charcoal9046 Jul 02, 2006

Fy is awesome, this was my first manga that i collected. hehe i'ma fanatic!
auraderecca Aug 10, 2006

I love this series and it was one of those that actually spurred on my interest on anime. Own's the 2 box sets too! lol.. plus all the OVA's and movie. Currently collecting the recent manga of FY 2. =P

Anyway, the Jap version for this series was way better than the subbed version. Always felt the Eng Subbed audio never made the mark (just my view). I agree with cagalli88.. totally STIFF.. *disappointed* & I love Tasuki too! ^5

But good attempt on this review! =)
Sanisa Feb 24, 2010

Thanks for the review! Nice ^__^
jenny123311994 Jun 27, 2010

this anime is really good i totally recomend (:

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