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Fushigi Yuugi season 2 rewatch
Feb. 23rd, 2008 04:27 pmI decided I needed to watch some anime, and I wanted to watch it on the giant TV that belongs to my brother that's currently taking up 1/4 of my room (or at least it feels that way.) Since I already rewatched Princess Tutu, I thought I'd watch the DVD boxset of season 2 of Fushigi Yuugi that I got about 2 years ago and has been sitting on my shelf. I finished this series back in high school, when I was about 16. I have rewatched season 1 since then (I had them all on VHS) but only saw season 2 once, on my friend's borrowed videos. It's been YEARS since I watched this.
Based on episode 26 & 27, these things I still love:
-the opening music & animation
-the Never-Ending-Story type premise of falling into a book
-the complex friendship, rivalry, and eventual war between Miaka & Yui-- this is as much their love story as the Miaka/Tamahome love story
-Tamahome is still too good a boyfriend for Miaka. He's too good to be real, honestly. It's no wonder he's a character in a book.
-Miaka is still annoying, but she grows up a lot in season 2, I remember
-still crushing on Genro/Tasuki and his super speed and fan that shoots fire.
-Nuriko, who is still one of my top ten favorite anime characters. ever. Nuriko rocks so hard, and is also my favorite of all the transvestite anime characters I've seen since then.
-I still hate Nakago and his evil bastard sociopathic ambitious sadism ways.
-it's funny
-still think Yui's character is much better handled than Miaka's; she has more complex emotional arc and her situation more delicately written.
-many a mystery is solved by... going to the library! Yes, you never know when research will save your life.
I remember that the second half of the series was a lot more fatal than the first season, and a lot more serious plotlines, and the best part-- the meta episodes where the book and real life begin to overlap and blend together. That was the best thing about season 2, the idea that fictional characters can cross into the real world just as easily as Miaka, a "real" person can. If you liked the meta aspects of Princess Tutu, there's some very similar ideas in Fushigi Yuugi. It really comes of as a mix of The Never-Ending Story, Sailor Moon, and Dragonball Z, though ultimately it gets much darker than any of those shows.
The characters are the best part of this show, aside from the meta. Also, the magic that's everywhere (there's magic and fighting and there's also magic-fighting!) and the music is cheesy but so addictive.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of romantic melodrama that also happens, a great deal of which got annoying after a while. Oh well. These things balance out.
Based on episode 26 & 27, these things I still love:
-the opening music & animation
-the Never-Ending-Story type premise of falling into a book
-the complex friendship, rivalry, and eventual war between Miaka & Yui-- this is as much their love story as the Miaka/Tamahome love story
-Tamahome is still too good a boyfriend for Miaka. He's too good to be real, honestly. It's no wonder he's a character in a book.
-Miaka is still annoying, but she grows up a lot in season 2, I remember
-still crushing on Genro/Tasuki and his super speed and fan that shoots fire.
-Nuriko, who is still one of my top ten favorite anime characters. ever. Nuriko rocks so hard, and is also my favorite of all the transvestite anime characters I've seen since then.
-I still hate Nakago and his evil bastard sociopathic ambitious sadism ways.
-it's funny
-still think Yui's character is much better handled than Miaka's; she has more complex emotional arc and her situation more delicately written.
-many a mystery is solved by... going to the library! Yes, you never know when research will save your life.
I remember that the second half of the series was a lot more fatal than the first season, and a lot more serious plotlines, and the best part-- the meta episodes where the book and real life begin to overlap and blend together. That was the best thing about season 2, the idea that fictional characters can cross into the real world just as easily as Miaka, a "real" person can. If you liked the meta aspects of Princess Tutu, there's some very similar ideas in Fushigi Yuugi. It really comes of as a mix of The Never-Ending Story, Sailor Moon, and Dragonball Z, though ultimately it gets much darker than any of those shows.
The characters are the best part of this show, aside from the meta. Also, the magic that's everywhere (there's magic and fighting and there's also magic-fighting!) and the music is cheesy but so addictive.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of romantic melodrama that also happens, a great deal of which got annoying after a while. Oh well. These things balance out.
