Customer Reviews

Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play, Vol. 1: Priestess

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yu Watase is an extraordinary comic book artist. One of the resons is because she made this great comic series, Fushigi Yugi, the mysterious play. I'm so happy I decided to try out this series. I've always liked her other creations of Ceres, Celestial Legend, Alice 19th, and Imadoki!.

The main characters that are introduced in this comic is Miaka Yuki {the main character, a 15 year old who's mother is making her study for her high school entrance exam and depriving her of fun, The Priestess of Suzuku}, Tamahome { a gorgoues guy who saves Miaka and her best friend Yui when they first go into Universe of the Four Gods, he expects to be paid whenever he helps someone, a constellation of Suzuku}, Hotohori {the emporer of Hong-Nan, he is one of the seven constellations of Suzuku who cares deeply about Miaka} and Nuriko { a girl who is actually a guy, he has a thing for Hotohori and doesn't like Miaka, another constellation of Suzuku}.

The series is about a girl named Miaka Yuki who has to study every night for her high school entrance exams. One day at the library, Miaka and Yui find a book titled The Universe of the Four Gods, and they actually go into the book. And after not spending that much time in the book {they meet Tamahome who saves them from some whakos}, they somehow comeback to the library. On the second time in Miaka goes alone to escape from her mother. She meets Hotohori {and mistakes him for a woman
^-^}, who tells her she is a girl from a legend who must become the priestess of suzuku to save the empire, Hong-Nan {Suzuku is one of the four gods of China}. And that means Miaka has to the seven constellations of Suzuku. But what happens if the book becomes closed!?

The series takes place in Ancient China, inside the universe of the four gods.
Highly Recommended

It's Fushigi Yuugi! I first began this series a little over a year ago, when I recieved the first two volumes for my birthday. I killed them both off in one night, grateful that I possessed the second volume as well as the first. I yearned for more Tamahome and Miaka romance, more of Nuriko's hilarious antics, and more devoted Hotohori!

While this series may be compared to Sailormoon by the more ignorant anime otaku, I find it to be simply the best shoujo manga out there. The story begins with Miaka Yuuki, a dim-but-serious exam student and glutton extrordinaire, frivolously dreaming of food in the middle of class! Miaka and her intelligent best friend, Yui Hongo, later visit the local library and find a mysterious book called the Universe of Four Gods. When an earthquake causes the pages to turn, they are sucked into the world of the book, where they are attacked by slave traders. Luckily, the dashing miser Tamahome comes to their aide. Upon their return, Miaka has a conflict of interest with her mother and returns to the library to "kill some time reading". She returns to the book's version of ancient China, looking for Tamahome. After a dangerous brush with the emperor Hotohori, Miaka is asked to remain in China's southern kingdom, Hong-nan as the priestess of Suzaku. Thus begins the tale of the fierce rivalry between the Suzaku and Seiryu chosen.

The series may seem very light-hearted, but it eventually evolves into a grim epic filled to the brim with sorrow, death, sabotage, and other unfortunate events. You'll fall in love with characters like Tamahome, Hotohori, Tasuki, Amiboshi, Suboshi, and Tatara at first sight, but others, such as Miaka, Nuriko, Yui, and Nakago grow on you over time. Still others, namely Tomo, Miboshi, and Tai yi-Jun will never appeal to you. Fushigi Yuugi is the most involving, absorbing, and exciting manga you will ever read!

Yu Watase is an excellent author of mangas, outdoing herself in this book. Miaka, our heroine, is an ordinary junior-highschool student who's trying to get into a good school to make her mother happy. She comes upon a book titled "The Universe of the Four Gods" while with her friend, Yui. They somehow enter the story, or universe, where Yui narrowly escapes being sold by slavers, being rescued by a handsome mercenary-warrior with the demon mark on his forehead. After that, they return home abruptly, apparently without any reason. Miaka gets in a fight with her mother and storms out of the house, feeling lost and guilty, and finds herself in the library where she found that mysterious book. Opening it again, she returns to that strange world where she met that warrior. After getting put in the emperor's dungeon for attempting to steal a few jewels off his crown to repay her debt to Tamahome, the mercenary-warrior, the book is found by the librarian and closed, sealing her exit from the strange medieval China world she is in. To escape, she must become the Priestess of Suzaku and gain the power of Suzaku.

Meanwhile, Miaka developes a budding love for Tamahome, but the emperor's love (or obsession?) for her makes things awkward. Things get worse when she finds her third Celestial Warrior is Nuriko, who's in love with the emperor. Nuriko nearly gets Miaka drowned, and is determined to make her pay for attracting the notice of the emperor. Being amazingly strong and unfortunately charged with protecting Miaka as the Priestess of Suzaku, as Nuriko, the emperor, and Tamahome are her Celestial warriors, Nuriko is a formidable enemy, if not the smartest one. Can Miaka reconcile their friendship, or will Nuriko kill her inch by inch, and will she ever return home?

I spent months looking for this volume, and it was well worth the wait. The story is captivating and you want to keep reading until the end. The art is superb, and the story, well...
Miaka is the hero of the story. She is a 15 year old junior high student who is sucked into The Universe of the Four Gods, a book in the library, and a completely new dimension, a version of ancient China that never existed. She meets two dashing celestial warriors, Tamahome and Hotohori, and becomes the priestess of Suzaku, a woman whose task is to gather the seven celestial warriors and summon the god in order to have her wish granted.
You won't stop until you have read the very last page.

Fushigi Yugi was the first anime I ever saw, and the manga (for the most part) tells the same story. Miaka, a lackluster junior high school student, escapes the pressure of cram sessions and trying to get into a prestigious high school when she is magically transported into a book she finds at the library. During the course of this series (and there will be eighteen volumes in all), she must unite seven warriors and summon Suzaku, a phoenix-god that acts as guardian of the country she was transported to. My favorite part of this series is watching Miaka develop from a ditzy girl into a mature adult as she deals with betrayal, misunderstanding, building confidence, and (ultimately) love. Although written for young women, this story will appeal to guys as well. Fushigi Yugi has a great balance between adventure, romance, comedy and action. If you've never read shojo manga before, this series is a great place to start. I hope you enjoy it.

When I first got this book and opened it up, I really did not think I would like it at all since I'm not a big fan of shojo/romance stories and the characters are much prettier than I'm used to but oddly enough, I actually love this series now. O.o It's so weird, but I couldn't put the book down until I'd finished it and the artwork in particular is fantastic and very detailed, the best I've ever seen in manga.
The plot's pretty good and Yu Watase definitely deserves credit for her creativity and talent.
Not everyone will like this but just like everything else, it deserves a chance.
The only bad thing I can find about this book is that it's unfortunately been flopped... anyways, I highly recommend it and if I can change my initial views of it, I know others can too.

Yu Watase, Fushigi Yugi: Priestess (Viz, 1992)

Viz wastes little time telling us on the back cover that Fushigi Yugi is the most popular manga in America. (Really? I'd have thought Fruits Basket held that honor.) There's got to be a reason for it, yes? Thus, I have started down the path that so many others have trod before me. That way lies obsession, folks.

Miaka is a typical Japanese schoolgirl (assuming there is such a thing). While cramming for high school entrance exams one night, she and her best friend Yui take a quick break and, somehow, find themselves in the rare books room. They check out a book called The Universe of the Four Gods. Upon starting to read it, the two of them are transported to China two thousand years ago for a very brief time, during which they meet Tamahome, a very pretty, but miserly, chap who saves them from being carried off by slavers. They then return to present-day Japan and cramming.

The next time Miaka goes through, she is alone, and there her adventures begin...

It's a good beginning to a series; not too slow-paced, not confusing at all (both flaws that scarred the first volume of Fruits Basket), with likable characters and relatively constant action. (For a modern Japanese interpretation of an acient Chinese folktale, though, it does feel an awful lot like the first ten minutes of The Seven Samurai, but with Japanese schoolgirls.). *** ½

About four years ago, my friend introduced me to the whole aspect of manga with this book. I instantly loved it and couldn't get enough of the story.

Years later, after reading hundreds of manga, this series still remains as my favorite for its beautiful artwork (the artist just gets better as the story unfolds!), a humourous and engaging plot about a teenage girl who finds herself as the herione in a book where she finds love and the true meaning of friendship, and for its memorable charachters.

This story has become very important to me over the years, as it is one of the few manga that I still follow with an eager heart and mind. While it may seem like a silly story at first, there is really a lot of depth to everyone and what happens to them.

If you want to read a wonderful story that will make you both laugh and cry, over and over again, choose this one.^_^

Also, Hotohori is my favorite character...<3

I picked up this book (recognizing the author) at a bookstore after i couldn't find the Ceres book i was looking for, and boy, was i pleased!!!!!! This is by far the best Manga series i have ever read, save for Yu Watase's other masterpieces.Fushigi Yugi has a great plot that can twist around and surprise out of your socks!!! This manga has all the elements of a great story, comedy, romance, action, horror, fantasy, not to mention some REALLY hot guys!!!!! I reccomend buying this book right now, and the 12 others in this fantastic series, anything else by Yu Watase is also a great and worthwhile read!!!!!

I don't know manga, but I know what I like. It's fairly good, this one. A girl named Miaka is trying to get into the high school of her mother's choice, but would rather be eating. She's a bit of a scatterbrain too. She stumbles on a book on Chinese mythology, a book that when read puts Miaka into the story, though she can leave whenever she wants as long as the book's open. She gets caught in the world, however, when the book is closed, and she discovers that the only way out is to gather together the "seven constellations of Suzaku" together. She develops a crush on one, another of them develops a crush on her, and another becomes jealous of her. Will she be able to find the others?

It's fast paced and silly at times, rushing around with Miaka's personality. Cute pictures too. There's also some little comments from the author, Yu Watase, in the margins sometimes, which is interesting.