Who doesn’t like to read a good romance novel and picture themselves as the protagonist? But what would you do if you were teleported into the book’s world?
Name: Fushigi Yuugi
Year: 1995-2002
Format: TV, OVA
Status: Completed
Episodes: 52 + 3 OVA (1 Season + 13 OVA’s)
Duration: 23 min
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Historical, Drama, Shoujo
Sinopse:
Miaka and Yui have been best friends since childhood and are studying together. On a trip to the library they go to a restricted section and find a book named “The Universe of the Four Gods”. Upon reading the book, they are teleported to it’s universe, in ancient China. Yui is transported back to the real world, while Miaka is stuck in the other. As she tries to find her way back, she finds out that she is destined to be Suzaku’s Priestess and that she must find the 7 Celestial Warriors.
Review
We have all watched many animated tv shows, american, french or japanese. At first, they all looked the same. But that changes at a certain point in our life, we start to pay more attention to what we watch and to what we want. For all anime fans, there is always the first one that got us into the genre, and in my case, it was Fushigi Yuugi.
The story starts with the introduction of two friends, Miaka and Yui. They have been friends ever since daycare.They are preparing themselves for the highschool entrance exam, and for that reason, they go to the library to get books for Yui. Always distracted, Miaka thinks she saw something and goes to the restricted area and Yui goes after her. The pair find a book named “The Universe of the Four Gods”.
They start reading the introduction of the book and an intense light comes out of it, swallowing them. They end up getting teleported into the book’s world. Yui eventually returns to the real world and upon continuing to read the book, quickly realizes that the Suzaku’s Priestess that the book mentions is Miaka and she follows her story inside the book’s universe. And the story unfolds from here.
The story progresses in a simple and effective manner: Miala wants to go back to the real world and, in order to do so, she must gather up Suzaku’s 7 Celestial Warriors. As the narrative moves forward, we are introduced to new characters and the interesting aspect is that they all have some portion of bitterness towards their past or they are different, but the viewer accepts them wholeheartedly. For example, Nuriko is a concubine to the Emperor, but in reality is a man; or Tasuki a member of a gang of thieves, but has a good heart.
However, we cannot leave out the story’s two co-protagonists that will make Miaka’s heart racing, Tamahome and Hotori. The first is the eldest son of a very poor family and does everything for money in order to support his siblings; the second is Kōnan’s Emperor, who always heard stories about the Priestess that would come and save his kingdom, and has deep fondness for her, even before meeting her.
The characteristic from this anime that I absolutely loved: the comedy moments between characters are in “chibi” version, which gives it an extra funnier touch, breaking the heavy passe that the plot sometimes takes.
As I mentioned before I think this is a light romance with a beautiful love story that overcomes every obstacle that comes from being from two different worlds.
For you to know the ending of this story, you also have to watch the OVA episodes, and not just the anime. After I reached the end of all these episodes I was so excited that I started reading the manga. It was then that I found out that the author also wrote stories that follow other priestesses and I recommend all the fans to read them.
Whisper of the Heart
Even though Fushigi Yuugi is a simple anime, it approaches several themes, for it is essentially about a teenager in the beginning of adulthood. For that reason, we are confronted with the dilemmas that she faces throughout the episodes, from dealing with first love, the anxiety of knowing if the other person feels the same way, the sour taste of rejection and the evolution of infatuation to love. We accompany the protagonists and we get to watch their feelings mature. The friendships that are tested, that make us wonder about the limit of trust when it comes to friends, as well as if we are capable of forgiving someone for their mistakes.
Another valuable aspect that the protagonists face is loss. How to cope with somebody that is important to us passing away and how to overcome it in a way that we can move on with our lives, without forgetting about the ones that are no longer with us.
Since the majority of this anime’s characters are young, all of these feelings are very raw and in need of the maturing that happens as the plot unravels. And this is what makes the story so rich. For this very reason, I believe that it was what impacted me the most about this anime and why I still rewatch it every now and then, because I am still able to look back on what it taught me as I grew up.
As I explained before, I chose this anime to be part of the Ecletic Heart 30 Post Challenge under the topic “very first anime you watched”, because it made me love the genre until today.
Rating - 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (8)