Less-than-average middle-school student Miaka Yuuki isn’t exactly your archetypical heroine. She’s lazy, feckless, and thinks more about food and falling in love shoujo manga style than homework. Her friend, Yui Hongo, is the yin to Miaka’s yang and very much the typical stereotype of a driven Japanese honors student. Neither of them are the sort who could go off and have adventures of their own design, but when they find themselves in the restricted section of the public library (after Miaka swears she saw a red bird fly in there), a mysterious book known as “The Universe of the Four Gods” takes such matters completely out of their hands. The girls are transported into the book into a land that greatly resembles ancient China; the country of Kounan.
Almost instantly the two girls from another world are put into danger when dropped (literally) into the midst of human slave traders. A young man named Tamahome is on hand and helps them out, though much to their chagrin he demands money afterward for his services. The girls part ways with the obnoxious guy, but soon after Miaka is seperated from Yui as Yui is transported back to the library to read as Miaka’s real adventure begins, when she (and, through chance) Tamahome are taken to the palace of the emperor and he declares that Miaka, a woman from another world, is their prophesied priestess of Suzaku—one of the four beast gods that reigns over a portion of the celestial heavens. In order to bring peace to the warring nations of Kounan (presided over by Suzaku, the firebird) and Kutou (presided over by the blue dragon, Seiryuu) by way of being granted three wishes by Suzaku, Miaka must assemble the seven celestial warriors of Suzaku which present themselves generally through fated happenstance. When near Miaka, a kanji mark appears on various parts of their body that mark them as a Celestial Warrior.
All this sounds very straight forward, right? There’s a bit of a major wrench thrown in early on as Yui was reabsorbed into the book—as the priestess of Seiryuu and the nation at war with Kounan. Not only that, but the leader of Kutou’s Celestial Warriors, Nakago, has deftly manipulated Yui into feeling deeply betrayed by Miaka. So not only are the countries at war, but now so are their respective priestesses. The story has everything—romance, love, unrequired love, political intrigues, action, and engaging characters. There’s not a lot more you can ask from one of the premo examples of shoujo anime.
Fushigi Yuugi was released years ago to DVD by Pioneer (later Geneon), but once the collected sets went out of print, the series got lost in the vaults as nearly unobtainable through insane pricing of the popular show. As of 2012, Anime Works has rescued and revived the license to distribute the series at a much friendlier cost to wallets. Sadly, one of the downsides to being cost-efficient is that the packaging is rather lackluster compared to the old releases and all four discs are crammed into one standard DVD box with pretty box art, but not much in the way of frills. The box itself is pretty inadequate as well, and really isn’t strong enough to hold the DVDs in place so they end up rattling around and getting scratched. I had to repair my own box by replacing the disc holders with stick-on replacements. That seemed to do the trick, but some scratches had already happened, so buyers should be aware not to shake the case around too much before getting it home. There’s also not much to see in the way of extras or frills either, but with a series as great as Fushigi Yuugi you don’t really miss them.
One thing I was sad to see is that the animation itself hasn’t really been given a remastered face-lift and still has the look of the traditional cel animation that hasn’t changed much since the VHS releases back in the late 1990’s. Personally, I’m a huge fan of such retention because I’ve a strong love/bias for older animation, but viewers not used to it might find it slightly off-putting that the show isn’t sleek like newer digital animations. But, beyond that, the animation really has stood the test of time just as much as its manga predecessor has. The animation is a bit dodgy for some of Miaka’s many weird facial expressions in the first couple of episodes, but you know when the animators started hitting their stride pretty quickly. And the show’s soundtrack is quirky and full of charming character themes and situational musics. The English dubbing, however, is a bit less than stellar. Miaka’s voice will quickly wear on your nerves and the Japanese audio is the best option for this anime.
Fushigi Yuugi has just about all you could want from a fantasy shoujo story and is among the best Japan had to offer in the genre from the 90’s. Yuu Watase is nothing if not an expert at crafting characters you care about, even if you hate them, and this series really was not only her break-out series but her magnum opus. It set the bar high for anime to follow for years. So what if it hasn’t gotten the great repacking that Pioneer had given it when it had the doing of the DVDs? This show is every bit worth the money spent and then some.