Fushigi Yuugi
By: Yuu Watase
Genre: Romance/Fantasy
Rating: PG Mild Nudity and Mature Contents
Length: 52 Episodes
Year released: 1995
Reviewing: 52 Episodes - Anime
Overall Rating: 78.8%
"You idiot, I said I'd take care of you! No matter when, I will always protect you!" - Tamahome


Reviewer: Chibiwonton

Synopsis
The full adventures unfolds the very day when best friends Miaka Yuuki and Yui Hongo enters a library and opens the cursed book titled as 'The Universe of Four Gods'. Immediately the book emits red light, sucking the two girls into the book, and into a world of fantasy. From there and on, the two best friends are put into a trial of fate, love, betrayal, and trust which gradually burns their friendship away. Miaka was quickly recognized as the Suzaku no Miko in the new world, where the seven constellation seishi is destined to protect her and aid her in fulfilling her wishes. On the other hand, Yui becomes the Seiryuu no Miko, who wishes the worst for Miaka to become due to her negligence, and also the influence of Nakago's (leader of the Seiryuu Seishi) negative deeds. Miaka must cope with the fact that Yui became her sworn enemy, and she must also cope with the forbidden love she have created with one of the Suzaku seishi, Tamahome. Will the best friends survive the pain of being enemies, or will they have to face the deaths that they all hold dear in order to reconstruct the ties that have been severed?

Story/Plot: 8.5
A story cannot get any more original than Fushigi Yuugi, and yet a story cannot be as cliched as Fushigi Yuugi. Confused? Well, let's just say that the story was fabulous and almost flawless. You don't see people sucked into books and fall in love with a character in a book everyday. The idea of this anime was very unique and favorable to watch. However, the plot had many twists and turns, all too similar to the 'I love you but I can't love you' plot. Other than that, the pacing was perfect to follow, and something's always happening that keeps your eyes glued to the tv screen.

Characters: 9
I can't help it but to give such a high rating in this category. Yuu Watase just did a spectacular job in characterization everyone in the Fushigi Yuugi cast. You can easily understand each character's motives and recognize their hard and soft spots. Even for Nakago, one of the Seiryuu seven that I hated with all my guts (I won't give any reasons to avoid spoilers), I can feel his side of his story and why he chose to be so negative. Every character had a story behind them, one as tragic and the next, and their story continues as the anime progresses.

Art: 7
Each and every character is drawn beautifully, and the setting in ancient China made it an even more challenging anime to be drawn out. Yuu Watase's style is among one of the best, and Fushigi Yuugi is by far her most popular work. Watase-sensei have a great talent to make all her characters excessively charming, especially the male roles *winks*. The flaw would be the lack of consistency and the quality of animation, but since Fushigi Yuugi is an older anime, the low quality of animation should be expected.

Music: 7
The main artist of Fushigi Yuugi, Satou Akemi, did a great majority of it's soundtracks. She has one of the most beautiful voices, which fits perfectly well with the series. The insert song, 'Wakatte-ita Hazu' has got to be the BEST Fushigi Yuugi song. Also, I have noticed a pattern that all ending themes of Fushigi Yuugi is very upbeat and rhythimic, and definitely worth listening to. But the reason for this decent rating is the character songs. I found them very boring to listen to, and it lacks the style that keeps you addicted to the song. It's very ordinary, but there are some worthwhile ones like Nuriko's character songs.

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