Fushigi Yûgi- The Mysterious Play (vol.1)

Reviewed By: Kristy Isla

DVD Geneon

Review based on Volume 1 (episodes 1-7)

Rating 13+

What it’s (basically) all about: While going to the National Library with her friend, Miaka Yuki stumbles into a restricted reference area.  Once inside she is drawn to a book entitled “The Universe of the Four Gods,” which is an enchanted book, one that draws the reader into the story.  Once the reader is trapped in the story there is no way to escape, until the conclusion of the story.  However, Miaka finds out she is the long awaited Priestess of Suzaku, who is supposed to save the world from complete destruction.  In order to do this she must find her 7 warriors to accompany her and provide her with the power she needs to overcome evil.   All Miaka wants to do is make it home in time to take the high school entrance exams, but getting there proves to be more of a challenge than she thought it would be.

Nitty Gritty: This anime is very well done, like the style of Rurouni-Kenshin.  The voice dubs are great, yet the subtitles really need work.  In fact many times the subtitles are not even saying anything close to what the dubbing is saying.  The story itself is a little lecherous at points, as it seems that everyone in Ancient China is out to put young girls into sexual slavery at some point.  In fact our heroine finds herself at the mercy of such slave traders no less than 3 times in 3 episodes.  Luckily for her, her sworn protector, Tamahome is always around to get her out of these situations.

As for the content, while there is no graphic sexual content, there are numerous innuendos, and talk about it.  Also, it turns out that one of Miaka’s warriors who everyone thought was a girl is really a guy in girls clothing.  However that doesn’t stop him from lusting after the guys.  With a couple of fan-shots, minor nudity and a whole lot of foul language (think "pussy-whipped" and lots of 4-letter words), the story actually moves along at quite a good pace.  Overall, the characters are really engaging and believable, even in this far-fetched scenario.

Survey says: While you may have these manga in your YA graphic novel section, the animated version should really be in the Adult section of the library.  The amount and type of language used really sends this anime out of the YA section, even though they may hear this at school.  Overall, while this anime from Geneon says it is for 13 and up, it would do best in the Adult section, and I would not suggest this for an anime club showing, unless your members have read the manga before.    

Personal Ad: I really enjoyed watching this anime, while the story was far-fetched it was really well written, and the characters really have some great personalities. However, the language was even shocking to me at times too.