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Like the heroine of Sailor Moon, Miaka is a ditzy 15-year-old girl who's crazy about junk food and boys. She and her scholarly friend Yui find an ancient Chinese volume, The Universe of the Four Gods, about a girl "who made her dreams come true after she came to possess the seven stars of Suzaku," and are literally drawn into the book. Miaka is hailed as the girl from another world destined to become the priestess of Suzaku, the protecting deity of the Empire of Konan. She soon finds herself caught in a web of adventures, magic, deadly perils, intrigue, and counterintrigue.
Miaka gains the affection of the seven Celestial Warriors of Suzaku: martial artist Tamahome; the exquisite emperor of Konan, Hotohori; the transvestite Nuriko; sorcerer-in-training Chichiri; mountain bandit Tasuki; physician Mitsukake; and the flute-playing Chiriko. The Warriors and the Priestess are all needed to summon Suzaku to save Konan from an invasion from the rival kingdom of Kutuo. Complicating matters are Yui's estrangement from Miaka and their rivalry for the dashing Tamahome.
The animation is extremely limited, even by anime standards: director Hajime Kamegaki often uses pans over comic book-style artwork in place of character movements. But the adventures are enjoyable and the side characters are often engaging, especially Chichiri. The weakest aspect of the series is Miaka, who comes across as a whiny twit: Tamahome and Hotohori fall in love with her, but it's difficult to understand why.
Mysterious Play began as a girl's manga, then became a weekly TV program. It's more entertaining to watch one or two episodes at a time: after too many at one sitting, the story begins to feel repetitious and padded. This four-disc set includes only the first half of the story (the TV series' entire first season), ending on a real cliffhanger. The supplemental material offers a well-organized chart of the characters and their relationships, keyed to scenes in the story. --Charles Solomon
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Few Observations,
By Brian A. Montgomery (Fairfax, Virginia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fushigi Yugi - The Mysterious Play: Box Set 1 - Suzaku (Episodes 1-26) (DVD)
This is an excellent anime, yes, but it also isn't for everyone. The plot is fairly involved, and really only gets going about episode 16 or so. The first ten episodes will make you think this is going to be one melodramtic soap opera, but HANG IN THERE, it does get better. There is a good bit of action in this series, but this is not Escaflowne or Rurouni Kenshin.Also, keep in mind that FY is 52 episodes long, and if you've never seen it, DO NOT watch the last half of episode 26, of you will be on HUGE cliffhanger. Pioneer hasn't made a commitment to release the second-half on DVD until they see how well the first half does. Couple of things about the DVD, itself... The chapters are not laid out well. Every single episode is broken this way: (1) Intro (yes, they included the opening in front of EVERY SINGLE episode...) (2) Episode review/recap and Part I (before the commerical break/halfway point) (3) Part II (Post-halfway-point) (4) Ending (they also included the ending with every single episode, which is nice, because they are a little different) (5) Preview of next episode... If you are watching this more than one episode at a time, this is a little annoying. Although the opening and ending are good, seeing it 20+ times is a little much. However, if's a simple matter of skipping ahead to the next chapter, so it's a minor annoyance at worst. However, you will need to MANUALLY fast forward through the episode recap if you want to skip it... why Pioneer didn't include the review in the same chapter as the opening is beyond me. This is aggravating. To make up for it, however, the packaging is top-notch. A Plastic Slip cover keeps the four DVD holder together, and very clean. Also, Pioneer decided to dual-layer the DVDs instead of dual-siding them, which is extremely nice (means you don't have to worry about fingerprints on one side). If you are into subtitling (which I recommend because the English voice actors, while competent, are not that good), the subtitles are very clean, and well done. There were only a couple of places that the translation wasn't as good as the fan-subs I first watched this series on. All in all, this is a good deal, especially if you don't own the series already.
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Waiii! Sugoi, no da!,
By "f0rtun3c00k13" (California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fushigi Yugi - The Mysterious Play: Box Set 1 - Suzaku (Episodes 1-26) (DVD)
Fushigi Yûgi started as a shoujo manga series by Yû Watase. It's a heartwarming story of a girl (Miaka) and her best friend (Yui) who unexpectedly get sucked into a book called The Universe of the Four Gods, where they story unfolds in a fantasy version of ancient China... You'll fall in love with the charming characters (O.o; that sounds so cliché, no da). This is a must-see anime for those who enjoy romance-comedies ^_^. The art is beautiful, the story wonderful, and I absolutely love the music.The only thing that slightly miffs me a bit is that they translated Chichiri's oh-so-kawaii "no da" to "you know," and the fact that they made Tasuki say, "homie" (! O.o;) one time near the end of the collection... The Suzaku DVD boxset contains the first half of FY (Episodes 1-26) with options of dubbed version or subtitled. This also includes interesting footnotes, a interview with Watase-sama, relationship chart, and some other things ^_^. Wai! My wallet's recovering from the purchase, but this is a series that is *definately* worth seeing and owning! Warning: Not for those who are too weak to withstand regular appearences of BISHONEN! ^_^ Wai wai! FY is full of handsome guys! Like, half of them are in love with Miaka though -.-;; Lucky twit (j/k)... Just a lil' note... I believe Pioneer sticks that "Ages 13+" sticker on FY, though I think it's for a bit more mature audiences... it's not like there's a lot of profanity, but rape is mentioned or implied at least once and there is slight nudity at times (but not very detailed, don't worry ^^)... but I hope everyone can handle that because you *cannot* miss this wonderful series, minna-san! ............
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding series of epic proportions,
By Duy Cuong Nguyen (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fushigi Yugi - The Mysterious Play: Box Set 1 - Suzaku (Episodes 1-26) (DVD)
Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play is definitely my favourite full-length anime series. It has an exciting plot with very believable twists that always keeps the viewer thinking. Every episode ends with a cliffhanger that makes one crave to watch more.The series has 52 episodes, and the red Suzaku Box Set contains the first half (26 episodes). The multi-fold box set case is very beautiful and the finest I've seen to date. I would expect that the second half will be presented in a similar blue Seiryu Box Set. The DVD version is bilingual with optional subtitles and can satisfy all audiences that may prefer original Japanese dialogue with/without subtitles, or dubbed English. Dubbed English and subtitle translations are never perfect, but I believe they've done a very good job here. In conclusion, I highly recommend getting the Fushigi Yugi series in DVD format starting with this Suzaku box set, and hope the waiting goes well for the next DVD box set.
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