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ANNCast Series Review: Yuu Watase's Fushigi Yugi




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meruru



Joined: 16 Jun 2009
Posts: 473
PostPosted: Fri Aug 30, 2019 7:57 pm Reply with quote
I was a bit pleasantly surprised about how positive the reviewers were to Fushigi Yuugi given all the hate its gotten. I honestly pretty much agree. It stands up pretty well even watching it near twenty years later. It definitely has some really strong points, like how I really like the device of the book, and how it really gets into the consequences of the fact that the other world seems to be a book, and that it never forgets that stuff is still happening in the real world.

I don't know if Watase Yuu intended it, but one interpretation that I find interesting is that it's a character contrast between Yui and Miaka. Yui is smart, about to go to a top school, pretty, etc, and even though she's friends with Miaka, you can see she's a little smug that she's so much smarter than her too. For Yui, this stuff comes naturally, while for Miaka it's all a struggle. When they go into the book, horrible things happen to both of them. But Miaka is resilient, where Yui becomes extremely bitter against Miaka in particular.
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fuuma_monou



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1829
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 3:50 am Reply with quote
I liked what I read of the manga when it was serialized in Animerica Extra. The anime didn't really click with me due to the Tagalog and the AXN Asia (this was before Animax Asia was launched, so AXN had a healthy amount of anime on the schedule) English dubs being terrible. Should probably give the show another shot.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4973
PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 4:15 am Reply with quote
Fushigi Yugi was a show I really enjoyed back when I was high school though it wasn't as big a part of my life as Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura were. I always loved the over the top soap opera drama and the show knows how to hook you in with it's cliffhangers and catchy ending theme song that always starts playing during the big dramatic moments. I've been doing a binge rewatch lately and I'm still enjoying the show a lot. I still can't decide between Tamahome and Tasuki as best boy even years later. As far as dubs go, I haven't seen the Pioneer dub in a long time but I thought it was pretty decent for a 90s anime dub. It had Bridget Hofman as Miaka, Wendee Lee as Yui, and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Nuriko. But I also really like the Japanese version with Kae Araki as Miaka, Mamoru Miyano as Tamahome, and Tomokazu Seki as Chichiri.
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2894
Location: California
PostPosted: Sun Sep 01, 2019 10:31 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
But I also really like the Japanese version with Kae Araki as Miaka, Mamoru Miyano as Tamahome, and Tomokazu Seki as Chichiri.

Midorikawa Hikaru was Tamahome's voice.

I know I've said it before but I really wish there were transcriptions of ANN Cast...

Fushigi Yuugi was the first anime I watched that wasn't aired on TV, and it was my introduction to the seiyuu fandom so you could say it's had a huge impact on me. I still love it all these years later.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4973
PostPosted: Sun Sep 01, 2019 10:47 pm Reply with quote
I got the casting mixed up with the video game where Mamoru Miyano is Tamahome in the game.
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2427
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 11:49 am Reply with quote
Eh, I never liked Fushigi Yuugi. I tried reading the manga, but it was so stupid and cliche that I stopped reading at volume 3. I never saw the anime, either. Then again, I can't get into Watase's work. I tried reading a bunch of her stuff, like Imadoki and Alice 19th, but they were all so melodramatic that it was annoying, and she seems to have this weird obsession with panty shots and putting girls in near sexual situations for the sake of comedy and shock value, and it doesn't work. I've only ever liked TWO of her works: Fukugaeru, a two chapter short manga about a woman who meets a talking frog, and Sakura Gari, a yaoi manga, ironically enough, that's actually considered one of the best in the genre.
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zrdb





PostPosted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:32 pm Reply with quote
I've watched both of her series that have been made into anime-Fushigi Yuugi and Celestial Legend Ceres. I've always found Watase's style to be melodramatic soap operaish in style which I like but she goes over the top violence wise a lot.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4973
PostPosted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:45 pm Reply with quote
It should probably be pointed out that Yuu Watase has come out as x-gender trans and identifies with them pronouns.
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Graceful Nanami



Joined: 24 Aug 2011
Posts: 303
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Sep 04, 2019 8:02 am Reply with quote
FY is such cringe drama but I love it so much and it is a very important series to me and a lot of others, as shown in this fun podcast. Thank you for doing it.

And sorry not sorry but Chichiri is my fav. There's nothing wrong with loving him, come on. That said, I hate Yui and I generally don't hate very manga manga/anime characters. I really wonder if my opinion would change at all if I could make myself rewatch/reread...
Chiriko is adorable but needed more to him, yeah. He was Tomoko Kawakami's debut role, RIP.
Nuriko is unique, indeed and is understandably a favorite of many. Not the end all of greatness or anything and there were others before. But yeah, Watase did well there.

Sakura Gari is amazing and is shocking when you think about how versatile a storyteller Watase is. And I would die for a Byakko Senki anime (Suzuno and Tatara are the best) but I guess we need the manga to go off hiatus first. I still need to read the last couple volumes of Genbu Kaiden but it was a good ride.

(Also, what did Tomokazu Seki do? lol)

Fushigi Yuugi is special, not amazingly written or groundbreaking but it is so greatly entertaining at the very least.
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