• As far as the characters are concerned, there are a multitudinous amount in this series. There are seven Celestial Warriors to protecting the priestesses of fate from the opposing factionsーthe warring territories of the Gods: Suzaku & Seiryuu; exactly like the rivalry between the Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth in X/1999 (CLAMP). Unfortunately, I found the main two love interests DREADFULLY annoying.
• The main girl, Miaka, is an air-head who’s only talent is eating and having a pure heart―and since this is a shoujo manga, the “mary-sue” trope makes the female lead the most desirable to all of the male characters, even if she does nothing to earn the power of priestess and her main superpower isn’t kicking ass, but rather, whimpering about her boyfriend and turning down other men who make advances towards her. Admittedly, she does develop a little bit as the story goes on and becomes a little less whiny when the war causes families to be slaughtered and leavess villages in ruin, but through 95% of the series, all she does is whine about Tamahome (the first person who saved her when she was transported into a celestial Chinese world).
• Tamahome, on the other hand, is more likable, I guess? He at least has a motivation for his actions: he’s greedy because he’s feeding his impoverished family. That’s great, but he’s a really terrible boyfriend to Miaka, breaking up with her and repeating the same old, tired Twilight tropes of “we can’t be together” and then dramatically leaving Miaka to swoon in her overly-dramatized heartbreak. They had as much conflict as a couple as Inuyasha and Kagome; one of them is being seduced by another person, OH NO, but it turns out that it’s just a huge misunderstanding or the character is brainwashed and they get back together.
• I’m not a huge proponent of stories having a good “message,” because I personally feel that a story should be able to stand on its own without shoving some kind of “life lesson” propaganda down your throat, but when there’s an elderly lady narrating the beginning of every episode, talking as if this is a story that has merit because of the character’s strong and tenacious spirits, then I expect a female lead would dump a male protagonist who gets brainwashed and cheats on her, while beating the crap out of her and breaking her arm, AND she still whines about it instead of getting pissed, even though she doesn’t even KNOW that Tamahome is brainwashed. It’s like the lonely James Cameron, Titanic fantasy of, “I’ll always wait for you,” because that’s apparently what docile shoujo heroines are supposed to do―sigh and stare out the window until their long-lost love returns.
• Two particularly likable characters in this series is a trans-woman named Nuriko and one of Miaka’s love interests, Tasuki; Tasuki was refreshing as suitor because he actually focused on his duties as the protector of the priestess and wasn’t pinning her down on a bed and confessing his love to her every other episode, not until the OVA at least. Nuriko is a badass who has super strength, but still manages to stay feminine and refined. She also is still an incredible best friend and protector of Miaka; despite the man that she’s in love with, Hotohori, having the hots for her friend. After watching and reading, Fushigi Yuugi, I wanted Nuriko to be my friend!
• There’s an interesting dynamic with the war between Suzaku and Seiryuu; during the last half of the series, it is revealed that two identical twin brothers were chosen to be on opposite sides of the war, it was something that was supposedly decided by fate and I thought that plot twist made a better statement towards to cruelty of pre-ordained destinies than the other chipper warriors. The series focuses on this with another twist that’s revealed, but I won’t ruin it the people who want to be surprised about it later. The most irritating thing about this series is that the “plot,” for the most part seems to accommodate romantic tensions and drama rather than focusing on the actual horrors of war. It’s more like the two factions are houses in the Hogwarts dormitory, rather than soldiers forced to risk their lives in battle, for the vague motive of having the priestesses’ wish granted by the Gods.
• Overall, Fushigi Yuugi is an iconic series of its generation, but it has so much contrived drama that it’s hard to take seriously. I have nostalgia of plugging my earbuds in and listening to the MIDI version of “I Wish” on the way to school, but I believe that this series is a relic that only the young could enjoy with all of the juvenile stereotypes laid into its framework; unless you’re an older person with the tastes of a prepubescent who’s constantly tormented about their unrequited love and sniffling into a tissue somberly while writing a fujoshi fanfiction about twincest. I honestly think that Yu Watase’s best work was Ayashi no Ceres, Fushigi Yugi never made me get emotional, but Ceres did. Volume 8 of the manga made me sob like a baby when I was fifteen. I liked her other “dark” series, Alice 19th, as well, but I felt like it was short-lived and could have been more than what it was, since it was invoking a Kaori Yuki style of dark dreamscapes. Fushigi Yuugi is admittedly better than ONE other series in Yu Watase’s mangaography: Absolute Boyfriend, which is a reverse harem version of Chobits and pure terribad trash. Overall, Fushigi Yuugi is like an animated fanfiction, I give the TV series a 4/10, the two OVA(s) a 3/10 because of feeling that they were unnecessary after the series’ conclusion, Fushigi Yuugi: Eikoden a 1/10 because it’s filler trash, and I give the manga for Fushigi Yuugi a 5/10 because Yu Watase has pretty art and the Miaka’s whininess doesn’t have a voice.
