Fushigi Yugi- The Mysterious Play - Suzaku Boxed Set 1

Like the heroine of Sailor Moon, Miaka is a ditzy 15-year-old girl who's crazy about junk food and boys. She and her scholarly friend Yui find an ancient Chinese volume, The Universe of the Four Gods, about a girl "who made her dreams come true after she came to possess the seven stars of Suzaku," and are literally drawn into the book. Miaka is hailed as the girl from another world destined to become the priestess of Suzaku, the protecting deity of the Empire of Konan. She soon finds herself caught in a web of adventures, magic, deadly perils, intrigue, and counterintrigue.

Miaka gains the affection of the seven Celestial Warriors of Suzaku: martial artist Tamahome; the exquisite emperor of Konan, Hotohori; the transvestite Nuriko; sorcerer-in-training Chichiri; mountain bandit Tasuki; physician Mitsukake; and the flute-playing Chiriko. The Warriors and the Priestess are all needed to summon Suzaku to save Konan from an invasion from the rival kingdom of Kutuo. Complicating matters are Yui's estrangement from Miaka and their rivalry for the dashing Tamahome.

The animation is extremely limited, even by anime standards: director Hajime Kamegaki often uses pans over comic book-style artwork in place of character movements. But the adventures are enjoyable and the side characters are often engaging, especially Chichiri. The weakest aspect of the series is Miaka, who comes across as a whiny twit: Tamahome and Hotohori fall in love with her, but it's difficult to understand why.

Mysterious Play began as a girl's manga, then became a weekly TV program. It's more entertaining to watch one or two episodes at a time: after too many at one sitting, the story begins to feel repetitious and padded. This four-disc set includes only the first half of the story (the TV series' entire first season), ending on a real cliffhanger. The supplemental material offers a well-organized chart of the characters and their relationships, keyed to scenes in the story. --Charles Solomon

The only thing that slightly miffs me a bit is that they translated Chichiri's oh-so-kawaii "no da" to "you know," and the fact that they made Tasuki say, "homie" (! O.o;) one time near the end of the collection...

The Suzaku DVD boxset contains the first half of FY (Episodes 1-26) with options of dubbed version or subtitled. This also includes interesting footnotes, a interview with Watase-sama, relationship chart, and some other things ^_^. Wai! My wallet's recovering from the purchase, but this is a series that is *definately* worth seeing and owning!

Warning: Not for those who are too weak to withstand regular appearences of BISHONEN! ^_^ Wai wai! FY is full of handsome guys! Like, half of them are in love with Miaka though -.-;; Lucky twit (j/k)...

Just a lil' note... I believe Pioneer sticks that "Ages 13+" sticker on FY, though I think it's for a bit more mature audiences... it's not like there's a lot of profanity, but rape is mentioned or implied at least once and there is slight nudity at times (but not very detailed, don't worry ^^)... but I hope everyone can handle that because you *cannot* miss this wonderful series, minna-san! ............


Flawed, but Great Nonetheless   August 1, 2002
Omar Khan (Von Braun)
35 out of 40 found this review helpful

Every once in awhile some anime comes along that has otakus saying "DUDE!! DUDE!! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!!! THIS IS THE GREATEST ANIME EVER!!!" And it turns out that the anime in question turns out to be so hyped up that it ends up dissapointing. Well, "Fushigi Yugi" is no exception. However, even though "Fushigi Yugi" may not be the greatest, it is certainly light years ahead from mediocre. And is definitely worth watching...many times over.

By now, you probably have read the plot either from some other otaku or from someone else's review. Basically, two girls find a book that sends them to a mythical universe, the Universe of the Four Gods to be correct. There they meet a vast array of heroes and villains, face the trials of love and hate, and are even pitted against one another. There's more but I'll let you all figure it out for yourselves. Behind it all is a remarkable (if not cliched) love story.

The show is based on Yu Watase's popular shoujo (basically meaning "for girls" ) manga. Now the instant I say "shoujo" I end up turning off the attention of the male otakus. However, they must know that "Gundam Wing' was meant for a shoujo audience as well. So , if you've watched "Gundam Wing" and liked it, you will like/love this.

Much like "Gundam Wing" the series has plenty of love story for the girls, and lots of action for the guys. The story is unrelenting in its pacing (this is after all 52 episodes worth of story, not counting the OVAs). One minute the characters are caught in a wind of romance, next minute they're being tossed through the chaos of war, then they're faced with a new problem. Sort of an emotional rollercoaster that gives it a rather European feeling to it, and never lets go of the viewers attention.

However, the plot is uneven at times. Granted, this is a shoujo, so it is heavy on love. So heavy that at times it feels unusual when the two lovers start saying each others names...over...and over...and over again. There is almost a smothering feeling with the continuous "I love you but I can't" theme. At times it can be sweet, at other times it can drive a person to drive pins into their ears and eyes.

But, if there is one thing I can say about the love story aspect of "Fushigi Yugi," unlike most anime that feature this kind of story, the emotions the characters feel towards each other are real. So real that I couldn't believe that they were scripted.

Now, if there is one thing I could write accolades about; wonderful cast. The characters seemed as if they were created with personalities first, THEN molded into the bodies you see. The characters are so well made that viewers will feel the happiness, the pain, the sorrow, and the hope that the characters go through. You'd be hard-pressed not to like this wonderful crew of beguiled heroes and villains.

The animation is crisp and clear, almost on par with anime like "Trigun" and "Gundam X." There are only a few uses of stock-footage in battle scenes but that's forgivable.

The art is good but could have been a little better. This kind of artwork nearly reminded me of the plain art of "Berserk" or "Slayers." But like the stock footage, this can be overlooked.

Good music. Another plus. Nothing more to say on that.

Now, my MAJOR FLAW with the series is purely of an anime nature. Too many people like this anime. If you mention "Fushigi Yugi" in front of any otaku, they will go crazy. But that isn't the main problem; many of them don't even know why. Their reasons fall on the same plane; "Dude, it had a good plot" or "It was so cute!! WAI WAI WAI!!!" As one who has basically grown up with anime, it almost deters everything that anime stood for. If one wants to truly appreciate anime, you cannot do it by picking out the anime EVERYONE and their iguana know and love. There are few otaku who see beyond the "new stuff" and look at the classics that made anime what it is. Granted, this IS A GOOD ANIME (I said it, now don't lynch me) but there are others to.

In the end, "Fushigi Yugi" is like an old working golden watch you find in a treasure chest. Though it may be an old concept and has a couple of scratches, you can't help but look beyond the flaws and see it for it's real beauty and that it still gets its job done. "Fushigi Yugi" is a must watch for all anime fans.

-RW


An outstanding series of epic proportions   January 16, 2000
Duy Cuong Nguyen (Toronto, Ontario Canada)
23 out of 23 found this review helpful

Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play is definitely my favourite full-length anime series. It has an exciting plot with very believable twists that always keeps the viewer thinking. Every episode ends with a cliffhanger that makes one crave to watch more.

The series has 52 episodes, and the red Suzaku Box Set contains the first half (26 episodes). The multi-fold box set case is very beautiful and the finest I've seen to date. I would expect that the second half will be presented in a similar blue Seiryu Box Set.

The DVD version is bilingual with optional subtitles and can satisfy all audiences that may prefer original Japanese dialogue with/without subtitles, or dubbed English. Dubbed English and subtitle translations are never perfect, but I believe they've done a very good job here.

In conclusion, I highly recommend getting the Fushigi Yugi series in DVD format starting with this Suzaku box set, and hope the waiting goes well for the next DVD box set.


The Best Anime Ever.. Thank You Watase Yu!   June 27, 2000
Carl Cheng (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
21 out of 25 found this review helpful

Okay, well, I started off watching things like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Ranma and kinda just drifted out of the anime world until my friends were talking about Fushigi Yuugi. I'm like, okay, I guess I'll watch it. I start watching it..and I'm totally drawn into it, I feel like I'm inside the book too! This story starts of with two Jr. High School students, Miaka and Yui who go to the library and come across a book called the Universe of the Four Gods. Well, they are drawn into the book and meet this guy named Tamahome who saves their lives and the story starts from there. I'm being very general but I don't want to give any of this wonderful story away. Every episode is special, I've seen the entire series probably around 5-7 times. I urge all of you out there to buy this DVD set because it offers so much and is so worth it. Even though this is only half of the TV series, it is great. If you loved the first half, you will LOVE the second half so much more. You will laugh, you will cry. That is what Fushigi Yuugi is.