Don't read, is bad for you.
Series in more sentences:
Two high school friends become part of an ancient Chinese world when they happen to find an enchanted book. After a short separation and a back and forth between worlds, they both get sucked in and become enemies over a misunderstanding.
Their foreign status earned them the destined job of priestess, and they race each other to summon their God first, as to secure the safety of their respective kingdom and have their desires fulfilled.
The drama in Fushigi Yugi feels exaggerated because of this. Little to no time was spent on showing the relationship between these people grow, and I'm not sure if I care about a desperate, teary-eyed romance between two characters that have only known each other for maybe 3 days. Whereafter they've had no contact for 3 months. From the boy's side, that is; time works differently inside the book. Except at the end of the series for some reason, when it doesn't.
The love between the school girl, Miaka, and her guardian, Tamahome, is argued to be strong and genuine, apparently enough so to cause a long-standing childhood friendship to end. Miaka's friend, Yui, is also in love with this same boy, even though she's interacted with him a whole impressive 0 days, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds.
I don't understand where her feelings came from. In the first few episodes, Yui is immediately kicked out of the book and proceeds to read it like it's The Neverending Story, and not even then does she look at Tamahome's passages and comments something like "Wowzie, this guy is so awesome, I think I'm falling in love with him, too!". She never expressed interest in the kid and barely talked to him before she made her confession, much like Miaka.
Why is everyone after Tamahome's dick in this? The only defining personality trait he has is that he wants money.
Miaka had more chemistry with the emperor and shared more dialogue with her feminine friend, but both men are shoved aside for this bland romance. Tamahome gets a hug, the emperor gets a smile after doing the same job. I've only been able to figure out that she loves him because he uttered some standard sappy shit like existing to protect her, but the emperor literally did the same..
As the series progresses, the drama becomes a bit cheap and repetitive. Miaka and Tamahome keep "breaking up" over "good" reasons they don't bother to clarify to the other, so they act like bitches a mere day after announcing their eternal love, and at one point the story is all about Miaka being in danger of getting raped by the fucking whole world, because virginity is argued to be important for a priestess to maintain. What a nauseating plot, I was happy when it was over.
Fushigi Yugi entertained me for the most part, though. It feels like the bare bones of a longer and more detailed story, but was still good for what it was. I loved the humor, even though it was misplaced at times, and also liked the characters that were given actual development.
This development was still relatively lacking, but that's something you can't avoid when you introduce so many characters in a show.
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