Fushigi Yuugi's popularity isn't difficult to explain. The series contains all the ingredients that modern anime series need to achieve success. There's a rocky romance between a cute schoolgirl (Miaka) and a mysterious older man (Tamahome), just like Sailor Moon. There are several love triangles, which add to the intrigue. There's fast-paced martial arts in a medieval Chinese setting, like many anime series. There's a quest to locate Seven Guardians, most of which possess fighting techniques which would be at home in Dragonball Z. There's an epic scale to the storytelling and several elements of sword-and-sorcery, just like Lodoss Wars. And, like the best long-running anime, there are heroes who turn into villains and villains whose shifty alliances cause them to fight alongside our heroes. To relieve all these tensions are super-deformed sequences in which characters revert to a child-like image, just like in CLAMP's work.
Such a dissection of elements, though not inappropriate, is misleading. Fushigi Yuugi never seems like a patchwork while youre watching it. Instead, it's gripping storytelling and highly addictive. The series quickly hooks us on Miaka, a modern-day schoolgirl who is transported to a mythical kingdom via a magical book, and the cliffhangers at the end of many episodes ensures that we will want to see what happens next. Fushigi Yuugi, then, can be thought of as the anti-Invasion America, a recent series whose stitched-together inspirations fell apart in each episode. Furthermore, the animation is outstanding for a TV series, nearly at an OAV quality.
Since this is a serial, revealing too many of the plot twists and surprises would be unfair. The episodes take a more serious and mature turn as the series progresses, which definitely means that Fushigi Yuugi is not a series for the younger crowd. None of the twists - no matter how unexpected - seem arbitrary once they've occurred, just as in the better soap operas. And despite a growing cast of characters, the series never becomes too complicated to follow. Toss in some of the best theme music in recent anime history, and Fushigi Yuugi is a winner.
Fushigi Yuugi is a great introduction to anime, since it contains
so many of the elements that make other anime series so entertaining. It’s
easily worth a rental, and many of the better episodes are worth buying.
 |
Other Anime Reviews Mononoke Hime Review* Oh My Goddess OAV Review Project Eden Review Record of Lodoss War Riding Bean Review |
Get
your ownFree Home Page