Fushigi Yugi - The Mysterious Play - (Boxed Set 3, Eikoden) - Limited Edition

Well, Taka and Miaka get married, but there is a reason for the rush of the wedding, Miaka is pregnant! To make things worse, yet another girl has become infatuated with Tamahome, her name is Mayo(she is the kind of character you love to hate! omg i really do hate her!). She finds the Universe of the Four Gods and enters it and becomes the new priestess of Suzaku with the goal of stealing taka for herself. Not only that, Miaka's baby is inside of Mayo now! Taka enters the book so he can find the suzaku warriors and so he can bring back Mayo and "reclaim" his baby. And I'm not gonna give anymore away than that.

My friend got a copy imported from japan, it had only chinese subtitles with a japanese audio or english audio, so i was forced to listen to the horrible dub (it is painful to listen too, it really is!) i found it not to be quite up to par with the tv series, and it did have it's share of corny moments (like all shoujo anime does i suppose) but all in all, i liked it.

The difference between the limited edition and the normal edition is that the limited one comes with 10 mini pencil boards.i would really recommend this if you are a FY fan!


And then there were four..   October 13, 2002
Carl Cheng (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

So many incarnations of this series. While I love Watase Yu's stories and this one was the one that sparked my love for anime, I think.. there should be no more additions to Fushigi Yugi. This Mysterious Game should just end. Well, this new OAV series was brought to my attention two years ago at Anime Expo and was a big shock for me. After 52 Episodes, a 3 episode OAV, and another 6 episode OAV, comes 4 more episodes of another OAV titled "Eikoden."

This story sort of starts like the other OAVs have. Normal life between Miaka, Taka, Yui, etc. except Miaka is pregnant! All the Suzaku Warriors have been revived/reincarnated. Well anyway, the Universe of the Four Gods keeps popping up and causing trouble. In this chapter of the story, the antagonist, Mayo, is a high school student who is infatuated with Taka. She's very similar to Yui in the TV series in how she wanted Taka/Tamahome and would do anything to take him away from Miaka and stuff like that. For some reason, she has the book and enters the world in Konan and becomes the second Priestess of Suzaku. The first twist in this whole story is that she didn't take just herself to Konan, she took Miaka's baby..

Being an anime that has not even been a year old, the animation quality is very nice. It keeps true to the original drawings that fans have been accustomed to in the past. The lines are very clear and the colors very bright.

The packaging for this DVD box set is probably its strongpoint. It follows a trend for the past DVD box sets that come with a slip cover. The cover for this set has Suzaku over a green granite background. The color contrasts with Suzaku very well. The lettering will probably be gold and shiny. Like past DVDs, this will include a full-color booklet spanning 28 pages filled with information about the story and characters. Also, the benefit for buying this limited edition set is the pencil boards. You don't just get one pencil board, you get TEN of them. They feature Miaka, Yui, and the Seven Suzaku Warriors, as well as one with a picture of characters from Eikoden. On one side, the characters are behind beautiful cherry blossoms. On the other, they are holding flowers in their hand. Red flowers for Suzaku and Blue for Yui (Seiryu). This is an incredible treat that is worth the extra dollars.

Final Note: Fushigi Yugi is my favorite anime but still, I feel that all these new additions are lessening my love for it. I love seeing all my favorite characters again but I felt it was good enough on its own. I'd rather more of her new series come out. I am eagerly awaiting Alice 19th, Watase Yu's current manga, which is extremely well written.

And also, the reason Pioneer is my favorite DVD distributor still is because of the fact that they treat fans well with the extras that come in their packaging. It's the icing on the cake, and the wrapping paper for a present.


More Fushigi Yuugi! The JOY!   November 25, 2002
Nella Williams (New York, NY United States)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful

I was so excited when I heard this was coming out! More of my beloved Fushigi Yuugi? Someone up there liked me.
So, of course, I bought the DVD.
The animation is so much better than in the TV series and OAVs 1 and 2. The lines are crisp and the colors are bright. It's a real visual treat. Not to mention the scenes with computer graphics...
Now here's what gave it a 4 and not a 5: The story line. It's a bit...different than the rest of Fushigi Yuugi, and it sort of seems like a soap opera. A new miko is just abit too much for me, I just wanna see all the old characters and have fun!
Speaking of the old characters, they're so prettily animated! 10 years have passed in the book world which makes Chichiri 36, Tasuki 29 and Nuriko, Chiriko, Mitsukake and Hotohori are all reincarnated as kids! And let me say, they are SOOOOOOO cute!! It's worth getting this DVD just to see them.
If you're a Fushigi Yuugi fan, this is a must-buy. If you're not a fan, it's definately worth a look anyway.


Where's Miaka?   November 19, 2002
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Plot: Miaka and Taka/Tamahome get married and Miaka is pregnant. A young girl, Mayo, who is in love with Taka and jealous of Miaka finds "The Universe of the Four Gods" and goes into the book to become the Priestess of Suzaku, putting Miaka into a coma and taking Miaka and Taka's baby with her! Taka follows her into the book and finds the remaining two of the Suzaku seven, Chichiri and Tasuki, but they must find the other four, who have already been reborn, before it's too late and Miaka and the baby are lost forever.

My thoughts: FY is tied for my favorite anime, but this OVA still isn't more than 3 stars. Miaka isn't in this one much, which is a little strange. Mayo is the kind of character some would say you love to hate. Tasuki's hair is different, which took some getting used to. My DVD is an import and just has Chinese subtitles, so I had to sit through the dub with a different voice for Tamahome, which was annoying. Has some CG effects but they don't blend with the animation well. It's worth getting for the scenes of Tasuki holding baby Chiriko (very funny) and the back story about Hotohori. If you're a big fan of FY it's worth it, otherwise... maybe not.


An overall review of all Fushigi Yugi...   July 13, 2006
Niko
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

I will try to write a review of the entire Fushigi Yugi series so that you can have a complete (and overall) picture of this wonderful anime. Therefore, if you don't want to know what happens next then please stop reading the specific section because spoilers will be included all over in the review that is to follow.
Apart from it, I will try to maintain an overall review so that to inform the reader as much as possible without giving too much away.

Fushigi Yugi - The Mysterious Play - (Boxed Set 1, Suzaku)
Two fiends, Miaka and Yui - the typical Japanese high school girls- will come across a book called the `Universe of the four Gods' and will be drawn into it (SPOILER! The book basically presents itself to be something like a gate to a parallel universe with the difference that the gods of this parallel universe are the ones who `choose' whom to allow to enter and why, something that will be implied latter on, in the second box set).
There, the two girls will be confronted with a world that is divided into four kingdoms and resembles Ancient China, but each of the girls will end up in a different kingdom as a priestess of the kingdom's god; and their goal will be to gather the seven `holy' warriors in order to summon the god. The catch: the girls will be enemies. On top of that, Miaka will deeply fall in love with one of her warriors, Tamahome, who will love her deeply as well but: Yui will want him two; the emperor will love Miaka etc.
The first arc, deals more with the story and character development, the viewer learns a lot about the world/kingdoms, the citizens agony etc. Of course all this will be accompanied with a lot of action as well.

Fushigi Yugi - The Mysterious Play - (Boxed Set 2, Seiryu)
This is the continuation of the first arc. Now that the viewer has gotten into the anime, the story takes off. After failing to summon Suzaku, the warriors will have to find two holy ornaments in order to achieve it. The story starts to get darker and darker, very emotional and the actual conflict between the two parties of holy warriors takes place, and the true feelings of the love triangle (Tamahome-Miaka-Emperor) will be tested; is their love destined to fail? Additionally, characters that you will learn to love, from the first arc already, will die (be it children, men, women, warriors, emperors or whatsoever)... Last but not least, the final battles will also occur not only in the Four Gods Kingdoms but also in our world as well, because the universes will start to collide (may sound confusing but once you watch the anime it is easy to understand, it is just if I will start to explain it I will give the story and twists away, sorry guys). What will be the end?

Fushigi Yugi :The Mysterious Play OVA Boxed Set
Tamahome is now Taka (well, re-incarnated) and lives together with Miaka in our world. However, trouble occurs once a very powerful and dark force tries to escape from the world of the four kingdoms and wants to come and to destroy our world. Now again, the couple will be drawn back into the book, travel forth and back into the universes, the Suzaku Seven are gathered again and hell brakes loose; because the love of Miaka and Tamahome is in serious danger (not to mention the worlds as well).

Fushigi Yugi - The Mysterious Play - Eikoden
This is, for the time being, the last of Fushigi Yugi that is out there. In these OVAs, Tamahome and Miaka are married and she is pregnant. However, a girl named Mayo will enter the book of the four gods as a new priestess of Suzaku and will try to: steal Tamahome from Miaka, who will fall into a coma, kill the Suzaku Seven, take the child of Tamahome and Miaka as her own etc. Tamahome will enter the book but the world he once knew is starting to fall apart...


Overall opinion about the series:
Personaly, I believe that this anime alongside with Escaflowne, tops every other anime in the Fantasy genre. It is very emotional, has strong character development, solid and very interesting story with way too many twists and will keep you hooked up till the end (that is something that will happen for sure hehehe)

As for the animation:
The first arc has a fair animation but still a good one (in order to get a picture, the animation is something like crave of the fireflies). The second one is updated (something like Trigun). In the first OVAs the animation is definitely updated (something like FMP). Last but not least, in the last OVAs the animation remains in the same level as the previous OVAs but the creatures' animation is something like the ones you see in Digimon (well, personally I preferred the way they used to be in the previous OVAs).

Music:
The music, no matter arcs or OVAs, opening or ending, is very - very good and emotional. You will love the music in it.

Worth buying or not?
I will be honest. Personally I love these series and bought all of them. However, the price may present itself to be an obstacle (took me two years to buy the complete show). Therefore, if you can afford it than buy it for sure and you will not regret it; if not, than try to rent it if possible because these shows are definitely worth watching. Not to mention the fact that the series all together are very long (something that I liked).


Well, I hope that I could help you by presenting you with an overall picture of Fushigi Yugi. If so then please click on the yes button below ^_^