Fushigi Yūgi
Encyclopedia
, also known as Curious Play, is a Japanese manga
series written and illustrated by Yu Watase
. Shogakukan
published Fushigi Yûgi in Shōjo Comic
in its original serialized form from May 1992 through June 1996. Viz Media
released the manga series in English in North America starting in 1999. Spanning eighteen volumes, Fushigi Yûgi tells the story of two teenaged girls, Miaka and Yui, who are pulled into "The Universe of the Four Gods", a mysterious book at the National Library.
The series became very popular and was later adapted into a 52 episode anime
series by Studio Pierrot
. The series originally aired from April 6, 1995 through March 28, 1996 on the anime satellite channel Animax
and the regular cable channel TV Tokyo
. The anime series was followed by three Original Video Animation
releases, with the first having three episodes, the second having six, and the final OVA, Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden, spanning four episodes. A thirteen volume Japanese light novel series also followed Fushigi Yûgi. The novels were published by Shōgakukan
from January 30, 1998 to September 26, 2003. On October 25, 2003, Watase began releasing a prequel to the manga series, Fushigi Yûgi Genbu Kaiden
.
The series describes the various trials that teenagers Miaka and Yui face, both quest-driven and personal. Feeling betrayed, the two oppose one another as priestesses, bringing together their own respective warriors and vying for the chance to be granted one wish by the gods whom they hope to summon.
Megumi Nishizaki gained the inspiration to write the novel Eikou Den after a meeting with Watase and hearing her proposal of a story-idea in which Miaka gathers the re-incarnated Suzaku Seven. However, Nishizaki regarded Miaka's story as complete, so she invented a new character, Mayo Sakaki, intending her as someone whom people love to hate and to whom they can relate. Many regard Mayo as an evil type of person, but she is very soft on the inside. Nishizaki saw Mayo as representing all of the weakness in human character. She appears single-minded to the point of recklessness, impulsive, jealous, and bitter - but at heart she is a good person. Nishizaki points out that due to all of the hardships she has faced, she has become very jaded, and it takes meeting the Suzaku Seven to realize her innocence again.
, Fushigi Yûgi originally appeared in serial form in the monthly manga magazine Shōjo Comic
. It premiered in the May 1992 issue and ran for over four years, with the final chapter appearing in the June 1996 issue. The series was simultaneously published in eighteen collected volumes
by Shogakukan, with new volumes being released on a quarterly schedule.
In 1992, Viz Media
licensed the manga for an English language release in North America. The series was originally released in a flipped trade paperback format, starting in August 1998. Viz kept the original Chinese names of characters and places, at the request of Watase, causing some confusion for fans as the anime version uses the Japanese names. For example, in the manga, Hotohori's country is named "Hong-Nan" rather than the "Konan" found in the anime series. After eight volumes, Viz stopped publication of Fushigi Yûgi, reviving it in June 2003 when it released the first two volumes in unflipped standard manga size volumes. The remaining volumes were released on a quarterly schedule, including the remaining ten volumes. The final volume of the series was released in April 2006. In the table below, the dates and ISBN numbers given for the first eight volumes are for the second edition releases.
Viz also serialized Fushigi Yûgi in their manga anthology magazine, Animerica Extra
, starting with the October 1998 debut issue and running until the December 2004 issue, the magazine's final issue. In January 2009, Viz is slated to re-release the series as part of their "VIZBIG" line, which usually combines two or three individual volumes of the original release into a single, larger volume.
, the fifty-two episode Fushigi Yûgi anime series premiered on Animax
and TV Tokyo
on April 6, 1995. The series aired weekly, until the final episode aired on March 28, 1996. The series was licensed for English-language release to Region 1 DVD
and VHS
format by Geneon Entertainment, then named Pioneer, under the expanded title "Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play." It has been suggested that Geneon chose to license the series based on its popularity among the fansub
community. The main series was released in eight individual volumes and as two box sets, the "Suzaku" and "Seiryū" sets.
(OVA) works appeared. The first, spanning three episodes, takes place a year after the events of the main series and has no ties to the original manga. It was released to DVD on October 25, 1996. The second OVA, which has 6 episodes, animates the last four volumes of the manga series that had been left out of the main series. The episodes were split across two volumes, with the first released May 25, 1997, and the second coming over a year later on August 25, 1998.
The final OVA, Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden, spans four episodes and is based on two of the light novels written by Megumi Nishizaki. Released on December 21, 2001, it focuses on a new character, Mayo Sakaki, a sixteen-year-old girl who attends Yotsubadai High School. Upon finding "The Universe of the Four Gods" in a trash bin at the park, Mayo soon discovers that the story remains incomplete. In the unfamiliar world of the book, Mayo must come to terms with her own life and the unhappiness within it.
Geneon Entertainment also licensed the OVAs for Region 1 DVD release. The first two OVAs were released together in a set titled "Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play OVA". Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden was released as a single disc volume. The OVAs were released with similar packaging as the main series, to give them a consistent look. As with the main series, the English releases of the OVAs are now out-of-print.
s based on Fushigi Yûgi. With illustrations by Yuu Watase, Fushigi Yûgi Gaiden primarily explores the lives the various Celestial Warriors before they are seen in the manga. The only two novels to be set after the manga, Eikō Den (Jōkan) and Eikō Den (Gekan), later became the basis for the third Fushigi Yûgi original video animation, Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden. Originally published by Shogakukan
, none of the novels have been licensed for English release.
released a Sony Playstation 2 video game based on the Fushigi Yûgi series called Fushigi Yûgi: Suzaku Ibun (ふしぎ遊戯 朱雀異聞). It was released in Japan on May 29, 2008 on the Playstation 2, and is available in regular and limited editions.
Drazen considers the humour in Fushigi Yûgi to be based on super deformed
caricatures and therefore strange to Western audiences.
Winnie Chow of Animerica
was disappointed by the ending of the anime adaptation, finding the final battle that resolves the series to be "lame at best" that left her cheering more for Nakago than the "good guys". Throughout the series, she notes that the scenes between Miaka and Tamahome became "increasingly sickening" and "overdone".
Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden was panned by THEM Anime Reviews, which considered the animation to be its only strong point. In particular, the reviewer found the new main character to be unlikeable.
OVAs
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series written and illustrated by Yu Watase
Yu Watase
is a female Japanese shōjo manga artist. She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" , Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series...
. Shogakukan
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...
published Fushigi Yûgi in Shōjo Comic
Shojo Comic
is a shōjo manga magazine published twice monthly in Japan by Shogakukan since 1968. It was originally published weekly and it continued to be published weekly until the 1980s. Many influential shōjo manga ran in Shōjo Comic during the 70s. Moto Hagio's works and Keiko Takemiya's works in...
in its original serialized form from May 1992 through June 1996. Viz Media
VIZ Media
VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...
released the manga series in English in North America starting in 1999. Spanning eighteen volumes, Fushigi Yûgi tells the story of two teenaged girls, Miaka and Yui, who are pulled into "The Universe of the Four Gods", a mysterious book at the National Library.
The series became very popular and was later adapted into a 52 episode anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series by Studio Pierrot
Studio Pierrot
is a Japanese animation/animation studio, founded in 1979 by former employees of Tatsunoko Production. Its headquarters is located in Mitaka, Tokyo.The company has a simple logo of the face of a clown...
. The series originally aired from April 6, 1995 through March 28, 1996 on the anime satellite channel Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
and the regular cable channel TV Tokyo
TV Tokyo
is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...
. The anime series was followed by three Original Video Animation
Original video animation
, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...
releases, with the first having three episodes, the second having six, and the final OVA, Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden, spanning four episodes. A thirteen volume Japanese light novel series also followed Fushigi Yûgi. The novels were published by Shōgakukan
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...
from January 30, 1998 to September 26, 2003. On October 25, 2003, Watase began releasing a prequel to the manga series, Fushigi Yûgi Genbu Kaiden
Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden
is a manga written by Yuu Watase. It premiered in Japan in 2003 in Sho-Comi, moved to an off-shoot magazine, Fushigi Yûgi Perfect World, in 2004. It was serialized sporadically in Monthly Flowers until 2008 when the series went on hiatus until spring 2010, when it began serialization in Rinka...
.
Plot
Middle-school student Miaka Yūki feels a lot of pressure to pass the entrance exam for the competitive Jonan Academy. Her friends do not believe she will get in, but she is determined to because her mom expects her to. Her best friend, Yui Hongo, has applied for the same school because she's smartand wants to go to the same school. While at the library one day, Miaka and Yui encounter a strange book known as The Universe of the Four Gods. As a result of reading this book, they are then transported into the novel's universe. However, Yui is transported back to the real world almost immediately. Inside the novel Miaka discovers that she is the Priestess of Suzaku and destined to gather the seven Celestial Warriors of the god Suzaku in order to summon Suzaku and obtain three wishes. She falls in love with the Celestial Warrior Tamahome, who eventually reciprocates and Miaka's desire to use a wish to enter the high school of her choice begins to shift towards finding a way to be with Tamahome. Yui, who is also drawn into the book when she was trying to help Miaka to come back to the real world, becomes the Priestess of Seiryuu, working against Miaka out of jealousy over Tamahome and revenge for the humiliation and pain she had suffered when she first came to the book world.The series describes the various trials that teenagers Miaka and Yui face, both quest-driven and personal. Feeling betrayed, the two oppose one another as priestesses, bringing together their own respective warriors and vying for the chance to be granted one wish by the gods whom they hope to summon.
Production
Megumi Nishizaki gained the inspiration to write the novel Eikou Den after a meeting with Watase and hearing her proposal of a story-idea in which Miaka gathers the re-incarnated Suzaku Seven. However, Nishizaki regarded Miaka's story as complete, so she invented a new character, Mayo Sakaki, intending her as someone whom people love to hate and to whom they can relate. Many regard Mayo as an evil type of person, but she is very soft on the inside. Nishizaki saw Mayo as representing all of the weakness in human character. She appears single-minded to the point of recklessness, impulsive, jealous, and bitter - but at heart she is a good person. Nishizaki points out that due to all of the hardships she has faced, she has become very jaded, and it takes meeting the Suzaku Seven to realize her innocence again.
Manga
Written and illustrated by Yuu WataseYuu Watase
is a female Japanese shōjo manga artist. She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" , Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series...
, Fushigi Yûgi originally appeared in serial form in the monthly manga magazine Shōjo Comic
Shojo Comic
is a shōjo manga magazine published twice monthly in Japan by Shogakukan since 1968. It was originally published weekly and it continued to be published weekly until the 1980s. Many influential shōjo manga ran in Shōjo Comic during the 70s. Moto Hagio's works and Keiko Takemiya's works in...
. It premiered in the May 1992 issue and ran for over four years, with the final chapter appearing in the June 1996 issue. The series was simultaneously published in eighteen collected volumes
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
by Shogakukan, with new volumes being released on a quarterly schedule.
In 1992, Viz Media
VIZ Media
VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...
licensed the manga for an English language release in North America. The series was originally released in a flipped trade paperback format, starting in August 1998. Viz kept the original Chinese names of characters and places, at the request of Watase, causing some confusion for fans as the anime version uses the Japanese names. For example, in the manga, Hotohori's country is named "Hong-Nan" rather than the "Konan" found in the anime series. After eight volumes, Viz stopped publication of Fushigi Yûgi, reviving it in June 2003 when it released the first two volumes in unflipped standard manga size volumes. The remaining volumes were released on a quarterly schedule, including the remaining ten volumes. The final volume of the series was released in April 2006. In the table below, the dates and ISBN numbers given for the first eight volumes are for the second edition releases.
Viz also serialized Fushigi Yûgi in their manga anthology magazine, Animerica Extra
Animerica Extra
Animerica Extra is a monthly shōjo manga magazine that was published in North America by Viz Media from 1998 until 2004. Established as a complement to its monthly review magazine Animerica, Animerica Extra was the first manga anthology to be published by Viz.The titles published in Animerica Extra...
, starting with the October 1998 debut issue and running until the December 2004 issue, the magazine's final issue. In January 2009, Viz is slated to re-release the series as part of their "VIZBIG" line, which usually combines two or three individual volumes of the original release into a single, larger volume.
Anime
Produced by Studio PierrotStudio Pierrot
is a Japanese animation/animation studio, founded in 1979 by former employees of Tatsunoko Production. Its headquarters is located in Mitaka, Tokyo.The company has a simple logo of the face of a clown...
, the fifty-two episode Fushigi Yûgi anime series premiered on Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
and TV Tokyo
TV Tokyo
is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...
on April 6, 1995. The series aired weekly, until the final episode aired on March 28, 1996. The series was licensed for English-language release to Region 1 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
format by Geneon Entertainment, then named Pioneer, under the expanded title "Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play." It has been suggested that Geneon chose to license the series based on its popularity among the fansub
Fansub
A fansub is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program which has been translated by fans and subtitled into a language other than that of the original.-History:...
community. The main series was released in eight individual volumes and as two box sets, the "Suzaku" and "Seiryū" sets.
Original video animations
Following the anime adaptation three original video animationOriginal video animation
, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...
(OVA) works appeared. The first, spanning three episodes, takes place a year after the events of the main series and has no ties to the original manga. It was released to DVD on October 25, 1996. The second OVA, which has 6 episodes, animates the last four volumes of the manga series that had been left out of the main series. The episodes were split across two volumes, with the first released May 25, 1997, and the second coming over a year later on August 25, 1998.
The final OVA, Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden, spans four episodes and is based on two of the light novels written by Megumi Nishizaki. Released on December 21, 2001, it focuses on a new character, Mayo Sakaki, a sixteen-year-old girl who attends Yotsubadai High School. Upon finding "The Universe of the Four Gods" in a trash bin at the park, Mayo soon discovers that the story remains incomplete. In the unfamiliar world of the book, Mayo must come to terms with her own life and the unhappiness within it.
Geneon Entertainment also licensed the OVAs for Region 1 DVD release. The first two OVAs were released together in a set titled "Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play OVA". Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden was released as a single disc volume. The OVAs were released with similar packaging as the main series, to give them a consistent look. As with the main series, the English releases of the OVAs are now out-of-print.
Novels
Over a series of five years, [Megumi Nishizaki] wrote thirteen Japanese light novelLight novel
A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...
s based on Fushigi Yûgi. With illustrations by Yuu Watase, Fushigi Yûgi Gaiden primarily explores the lives the various Celestial Warriors before they are seen in the manga. The only two novels to be set after the manga, Eikō Den (Jōkan) and Eikō Den (Gekan), later became the basis for the third Fushigi Yûgi original video animation, Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden. Originally published by Shogakukan
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...
, none of the novels have been licensed for English release.
| Volume | Title | Release Date | ISBN |
|---|
Video game
Idea FactoryIdea Factory
is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded on October 26, 1994 headed by company president Koichi Ota and vice president Shingo Kuwana.-Games published:-Games developed:-External links:* * * * from IGN* from GameSpot...
released a Sony Playstation 2 video game based on the Fushigi Yûgi series called Fushigi Yûgi: Suzaku Ibun (ふしぎ遊戯 朱雀異聞). It was released in Japan on May 29, 2008 on the Playstation 2, and is available in regular and limited editions.
Reception
THEM Anime Reviews preferred the manga to the anime, criticizing the latter's production values, repetitious dialogue, and reuse of footage in flashback episodes. DVD Verdict criticized the "convoluted" plot and "nonsensical" dialogue. Another review noted that although Miaka "makes out with her boyfriend quite a bit", the climax is "of the heart and soul", despite the many battles that the characters go through. Her strength and belief in herself give her the strength and courage to change the world.Drazen considers the humour in Fushigi Yûgi to be based on super deformed
Super deformed
Super deformed or SD is a specific style of Japanese caricature where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads, to make them resemble small children...
caricatures and therefore strange to Western audiences.
Winnie Chow of Animerica
Animerica
Animerica is a quarterly digest published by Viz Media. It initially started as a monthly magazine featuring reviews of anime and manga titles, as well as related works. After a preview issue was released in November 1992, the magazine's first issue was released in February 1993 with a March 1993...
was disappointed by the ending of the anime adaptation, finding the final battle that resolves the series to be "lame at best" that left her cheering more for Nakago than the "good guys". Throughout the series, she notes that the scenes between Miaka and Tamahome became "increasingly sickening" and "overdone".
Fushigi Yûgi Eikoden was panned by THEM Anime Reviews, which considered the animation to be its only strong point. In particular, the reviewer found the new main character to be unlikeable.
See also
- Ao no FūinAo no Fuinis a shōjo manga series by Chie Shinohara which was serialized in the manga magazine Shōjo Comic from issue 22 in 1991 until 1994. The story is about a high school girl, Sōko Kiryū, who finds out she is the latest reincarnation of Sōryū , the demon queen who once ruled the earth with her demon...
, a manga series based on the same legendsFour Symbols (Chinese constellation)The Four Symbols are four mythological creatures in the Chinese constellations. They are:*Azure Dragon of the East *Vermilion Bird of the South *White Tiger of the West *Black Tortoise of the North...
.
External links
Fushigi Yûgi- Official Viz Media Fushigi Yûgi manga series site
- Official Studio Pierrot Fushigi Yûgi anime series site
OVAs