Fushigi Yuugi

Title:  Fushigi Yuugi
Mangaka:  Yuu Watase
Length:  18 Volumes
English Translation?  Yes.  All released by Viz Media.
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Fantasy/Adventure/Romance/Action/Comedy

How did I hear about it?  It's pretty popular, so word gets around.  Plus, I loved Ceres, Celestial Legend, and given that this is Watase-sensei's most popular work, I knew I had to read it.

Miaka Yuki is under a great deal of pressure from her mother to get into a top-notch high school.  While studying at the library, she and her best friend Yui find themselves in a restricted section, where they discover an old translation of an even older Chinese tale.  Upon opening this book, they are both sucked into the Universe of the Four Gods.  After a brief encounter with a handsome young man, they return to their world.  Later, after an argument with her mother, Miaka returns by herself, where she is then believed to be the Goddess of Suzaku.  If she can gather the seven Celestial Warriors, the god Suzaku will appear to grant her three wishes.  She's already met two of the Warriors: Tamahome, the handsome man from her first trip into this world, and Hotohori, Emperor of the land.  Meanwhile, Yui has entered once more, only she landed in a neighboring country, where she is appointed the Goddess of Seiryu.  Now the two former best friends are rivals.  Who will collect their warriors first and gain their three wishes?

Does that premise sound cheesy?  It does?  Good.  'Cause it is.  Ceres, Celestial Legend was the first series I ever read by Watase-sensei, and I loved it.  When I heard that FY was even more popular, I thought that it would surely be just as good, if not better, than Ceres.  Boy, was I let down.  I didn't expect the artwork to match up.  Ceres was written later, and it was during that one that Watase-sensei's artstyle shifted, so I knew that FY would be in her old style.  Despite that, it really wasn't too bad too look at.  But then there's the plot and characters...

Everything just felt so...amateur.  I've said many times that I am willing to overlook cliches in manga if they're done well.  This was not (in my opinion).  As I read on, I was met with cliche after cliche.  Too many of the "serious" plot points had little to no impact.  I felt that they were added for shock value alone.  While I didn't outright hate the characters, I never fell in love with any of them either.  That made it difficult to care about them or their circumstances.  Well, maybe I did genuinely dislike Miaka a bit.  She was young, but she felt considerably more childish than many of the other protagonists I've read.  Sarasa (from Basara) was also fifteen, but look what she accomplished!  Hell, Gakuen Alice's main protagonist  was 10-12 throughout that series, and she felt a hell of a lot more mature than Miaka ever did.  I didn't find Miaka's antics funny, nor did I ever take her seriously as a protagonist.  I was never wild about her love interest, Tamahome, either.  He starts off looking like he'll be a promising tsundere character, but whoops... within the first three volumes he has shed his prickly exterior to become a smotheringly affectionate deredere type.  Not really my style at all.  Naturally, I didn't find myself getting invested in their relationship.  Worse yet, their relationship was of the "on again, off again" sort.  I much prefer couples that fight through their obstacles, never wavering.  The supporting cast and villains just didn't do it for me either.  They all seemed to follow their set cliches.  If you read my review of Fairy Tail, you may remember that I mentioned that many cliche personalities appeared in that manga, yet I really liked it.  So what's the difference?  Well, FT was funny, and FT still managed to give its cliche (is there another word for "cliche" that would fit?  I feel like I'm using "cliche" a lot.  Oh no!  "Cliche" is becoming a cliche!!) characters unique pasts and quirks that made you forget just how cliche they were (there's that word again!!!!).  This just felt uninspired.

The plot was terribly predictable.  "Hmm, that happened a little too easily.  I bet someone's a traitor."  Dum, dum, DUUUUM!!  You guessed correctly!  "Something tells me that so and so is about to die."   Dum, dum, DUUUUUUM!!  Right again!  "Oh geez, so and so's about to redeem themselves, aren't they?"  Dum, dum, DUUUUUUM!!  Ain't you smart?  It's a shame that such a promising and original story idea became such a contrived plot.  Also, I'd like to add that the actual story ends in either volume 12 or 13.  The rest is sort of a semi-sequel that picks up some time later.  I really felt that that entire section of the story was unnecessary.  It felt tacked on and lacked any purpose, instead only managing to convolute the plot with strange dilemmas that I felt were better left untouched.

Most of the pics my google search turned up were from the prequel, FY Genbu Kaiden (more on that in a sec), and I had no desire to go digging through the manga for something acceptable.  I chose this chapter page because it perfectly embodies my feelings for this manga.  Just looking at it makes me cringe.

Watase-sensei has since started up a FY spinoff called Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden.  It follows the tale of another girl (who was briefly mentioned in the original FY) who became the Goddess of Genbu long before Miaka ever entered the Universe of the Four Gods.  I haven't read it yet, but I actually really want to.  From what I've seen on the interwebs, people who really liked FY, didn't like the Genbu Kaiden as much, but fortunately, the vice versa is also true.  So since I wasn't a fan of FY, I think there's a chance I could actually like this spinoff.  Time will tell.  I'll read that one eventually.  I have no plans to collect Fushigi Yuugi.