Oh
my, I’ve neglected this blog recently. Apologies for that! On the plus side, a few days ago I passed
100,000 views, which is always nice! Anyway, to today’s impressions – which this
time are of the classic series Fushigi Yuugi.
Like
several other anime I’m writing about at the moment, it took me a long, long
time to get to finishing this 1995 series and writing my thoughts. I think I
started to watch it in 2006 or 2007, when the first thought I had of this story
about two girl transported into a mysterious world by a magical book and ending
up leading legendary warriors into battle was of how strange and jarring the
rhythms of the humour were. When I saw Teen Titans, it struck me that
the sudden goofy swings between realistic and silly SD styles that were meant
to be tributes to anime were a little off – but Fushigi Yuugi showed me
that I had simply not been watching the right shows, for the same odd, jerky,
often ill-timed changes were here, too. But the story was a simple and
effective one and I found the characters very interesting – Tamahome with his skilful
fighting and that kanji character on his forehead; Chichiri with his mysterious
powers, funny way of ending sentences with ‘-no da’ and awesome hidden face;
cross-dressing, clownish badass Nuriko and, eventually, adorable little
Chiriko. Miaka was a likeable enough protagonist and the rivalry at the centre
of the story was compelling. The antagonists also had some good designs and
some interesting stories, especially Amiboshi and the psychotic Nakago.
However,
by 2010 I had tired of it, finding it quite embarrassing to watch anywhere but
in the comfort of my own home: an episode I watched on a train on March 31st
contained ‘attempted rape, girls restrained in underwear, twin boys kissing and
lots of clothes getting ripped up’. This may have been a simplification, but it
spoke to the reasons I became a little uncomfortable with Fushigi Yuugi and
how it was written. I don’t mind the reverse-harem in shoujo action series,
especially when the characters are as rich as these. I certainly don’t mind
homoeroticism. But more and more, Fushigi Yuugi reminded me, of all
things, of Twilight (though obviously predating it by years). The depiction
of the female characters did not sit well with me – they were always damsels in
distress, needing rescuing or getting abused. Again and again, the spectre of
rape rears up – invariably as a horrible fate that is actually quite thrilling
when narrowly escaped. Sex is treated as something very special and reserved
for just one person, which I thought a positive message, but it is also
presented as quite titillating to be treated as an object – if only for a
while. Plus, while I liked Amiboshi and his story, the way identical twins were
treated came over as very patronising and immature, making them seem at best
like doppelgangers who sap the energy from one another, and at worst like
sexual curios bound to be thought of as incestuous.
And,
quite honestly, it all got rather dull towards the end, with it becoming
increasingly apparent that the antagonists, the Seiryuu Seven, had no hope at
all of prevailing, and that Yui was mostly just bonkers – again, rape or the impression of rape the
rather cheap catalyst. The art was not terrible but the
animation had dated very badly by the time I saw it, and while the voice acting
was very strong, several of the voice actors still being very prominent today
(Chichiri’s has been in everything from One Piece to Full Metal Panic
to Lucky Star. Tamahome’s was Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing. And
I find it hilarious that the voice actor for the emperor Hotohori went on to
voice Excalibur in Soul Eater), the dialogue was often utter drivel with
far too much of Miaka dramatically yelling out various names. It’s also painful
when subs don’t get the nuances of ‘okama’ (here: the misleading ‘homo’). Still, I watched to the end happily, and there were tragic moments that were
really very well done.
What
delayed these thoughts by several years was having to watch the OVAs, which I
really didn’t enjoy. The first batch were anime-original stories, and apart
from some entertaining omake at the end of the episodes, they were very dull
stories about Tamahome living in modern-day Japan
and then mysteriously disappearing. Confusingly, the second batch went back to
the stories from the light novels and this time, Tamahome is reborn as Taka,
and must regain his memories of his old life. The final set of OVAs were a
little better – by 2001-2, Studio Pierrot were able to make rather nicer
animation, and these episodes, especially in the faces of (older) Chiriko, the
young reincarnation of Hotohori and Hotohori’s little brother, reminded me of
the character designs for their anime version of Hikaru no Go, no bad
thing. The anime also had some rudimentary CGI which didn’t look bad
considering the age of the anime (certainly not as jarring as the more recent MÄR
adaptation, and not that far behind the gaichuu in Tegami Bachi)
and was again based on the stories from the novels. There were episodes
focusing on the backstories of particular characters, which were the
highlights, but also a central story about gathering the reincarnated warriors
to battle a bratty new priestess trying to replace Miaka. This part was rather
more ill-judged, firstly because the antagonist girl was so over-the-top and so
lacking in backstory she was absurd. And secondly because…well, the
reincarnations apart from Nuriko’s were stupid, so we ended up getting a
talking baby and a tiny little boy with a booming bass voice. It was all
unintentionally hilarious, yet not to the extent it became entertaining.
Flashes
of brilliance, strong characters and some very funny moments sadly don’t add
up to something that warrants the ‘classic’ status this anime enjoys. 1995
actually isn’t that long ago, and there were much, much better anime out at the
time – the most obvious choice being Rurouni Kenshin.
Fushigi Yuugi is one of my nostalgic anime - it was a big hit among my group of friends in high school (we even nicknamed each other after the characters XD) I still have a FY wallscroll I bought in 2003 hanging in my room. I recall a lot of fans hating on Miaka for some reason while I always thought she was a fun, likable female lead.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched the series or read the manga since the early 2000s, so even though I loved it back then (for the reasons you suggested: good characters, some very hearfelt moments, and humor that's surprisingly done right) I wonder what I'd think of it if I watched it now nearly ten years later. I watched the OVAs too and remember liking them, but again, I wonder if that would change were I to watch them now.
Yeah, someone
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