Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden 8

I just… this makes me want to read the first series.  I didn’t think that would ever happen.  But… this is good, and the first series comes out in those big editions… maybe… maybe it’s time I gave it a second chance.

Yeah, I like this series a lot.  I had trouble following the first half of this volume.  Uruki is still recovering from what happened last volume, and actually, all the celestial warriors gather back together under the protection of a friendly rebel clan and a forest that forms a magical barrier against enemies.  They’re all pretty critically injured, and after what happened at the end of last volume there also needs to be some closure.  I actually like the way the event was dealt with, it was quite tasteful and stuck with the spirit of the series as far as… priestesses and magic and stuff go.  I wasn’t really familiar with what was going on last volume, but this was touching all the same.

The second half of the volume is strategy as to how to recruit Teg and his brother, the final Celestial Warrior.  This will be tricky since apparently they are both under the thumb of the emperor.  They’re sort of hostile and sort of not in that shoujo-manga-enemies-that-are-supposed-to-be-friends kind of way.  It’s handled much better in this series than it was in Fushigi Yugi, at least (except in FY, it was kind of backwards, if I remember right).  I mean, it is kind of transparent, and it’s pretty obvious that Teg is a good guy at heart, but the conflict of interest is better at keeping him on the other side.

And a fairly obvious plot development happens at the end where everyone pretends to hate the priestess so she’ll go away.  I suspect it’s because her death has been foretold, but that is left for the next volume.  I can see it coming a mile away, but I still want to read it badly.

I actually like this a lot, and this is even with all the stuff I don’t understand about the character backstories and political climate.  While I do want to read the beginning of this series, I’m actually more set on Fushigi Yugi at this point.  I know it’s much shallower than the fantasy I’ve been favoring lately, but it’s still really girly manga, and maybe I’ll like it better than I did when I was reading it all those years ago.  It’s a classic, and I suspect it’s a lot closer to Genbu Kaiden quality-wise than I’m remembering.  At the very least, reading FY in a big edition will help me weather the wait for new volumes of this, new volumes only seem to come out twice a year in Japan and the US version is one volume away from catching up.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.