What is the Fushigi Yuugi Challenge, you ask? Why, it's when
you point a dramatic finger at some of your guy-friends and dare them to watch Fushigi
Yuugi, the mother of all Chick Anime, from beginning to end. If they can
make it all the way through without trying to break in their DVD players, they
are granted a 6-month supply of Pocky. If they can't... well, they're probably
a twitching pile of goo anyway, so there's really nothing worse you could do to
them. Now, behold!
The Suckers Challengers: Daren
& Drew, two guy-friends notorious for their love of romantic comedies
and/or shojo anime. They have no idea
what they are getting into.
The Witnesses: Myself (Rihga) and
Friends Alicia and Cara, who really just wanted a good excuse to watch FY
again, since it's been a few years. The gang would periodically be joined by
outsiders, such as a pair of Nathans and an Alex. They also had no idea what
they were getting into.
The Scene: Rihga’s apartment
basement, amid a pile of delivered Chinese food (as all anime should be
watched) and dangerously high levels of estrogen.
(As Amiboshi plays his flute and the bats start smacking into the trees) "Oh no, the bats caught retarded from Miaka!"
DREW: “Wow, they found the seven warriors a lot faster than I thought they
would.”
RIHGA: “Yeah... Actually, only the first 26 episodes are about gathering the
seishi and summoning Suzaku. The last 26 are just Miaka and Tamahome staring
deeply into each other's eyes.”
DAREN: “So that's why it's a Challenge!”
ALICIA: “You guys, stop making ejaculation jokes!”
ALICIA: (leans over and whispers to Rihga) “Can't you just imagine
Chichiri and Nakago singing Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better, to
each other?”
(After Tasuki gets the crap beaten out of him thanks to Miaka's idiocy
[grr]) MIAKA: "Tasuki! Speak to
us!" DAREN: (as Tasuki) "You're... a bitch."
"How'd that happen?"
"The power of his FEELINGS!"
Miaka: (to Tamahome as he's dying) "I've always, always loved
you." ALICIA: How long is "always" here?
DAREN: At any given moment for a teenager.
The Viewing (Ashitare shows up) DREW: "Who's that?"
RIHGA: "One of the bad guys. You can tell because he's ugly."
(Nuriko talks about how, after he cut his hair, he started to see Miaka as a
woman) "So apparently one's sexuality is determined by one's hair
length."
NURIKO: "I love Hotohori. I love Tama. I love Tasuki..."
DAREN: "Nuriko's a giant whore!"
(As Ashitare runs off to face Nuriko -- after Nakago has whipped the hell out of him) "Ooooh, I bet he is in prime fighting condition!"
(Nuriko gets stabbed by Ashitare and everyone senses it) CHIRIKO: "Did you feel that,
Chichiri-san?"
CHICHIRI: "Something happened... to someone."
RIHGA: "Okay, now say that again, but be even more vague this time!"
DAREN: "Well, Chichiri knows everything that's happened and everything
that will happen, but he can't say it. That wouldn't make him a
very good plot device."
RIHGA: "Oh, so he's not even a character anymore? He's just a deus ex
machina?"
DAREN: "Yeah, pretty much."
(As Nuriko staggers to the rock, dripping blood) DAREN: "I wish my blood glittered. I could cut myself at raves
and be the life of the party."
As Nuriko is getting ready to move the rock, Daren and Drew demand to know
why he doesn't wait until the others get there and Mitsukake
heals him, since dragging that boulder around is just gonna hurt him worse. I
explain to them that Nuriko has no idea where the others are and doesn't know
if he has time to wait... Which led to this: NURIKO: (drops the rock out of the way and starts to collapse) TAMA & MIAKA: "NURIKOOOOO!"
DAREN: (AS NURIKO) "Wow, I could've waited. Son of a bitch."
DREW: "Wait, why didn't Miaka and Tamahome bring the healer guy with
them?"
RIHGA: "They thought they would be able to help on their own. With their
love... and their Band-Aids."
(As Nuriko dies, and first Tama and then Miaka go Black-and-White from
shock) DAREN: "Little known fact: I also turn black-and-white when something
sad happens to me. After my grandpa died, I didn't have color for a week."
DREW: "You can bring [Nuriko] back!"
CARA: "Just collect the Dragon Balls!"
DAREN: "In the meantime, Nuriko can train and just get stronger! It's a
bonus!"
As Miaka kind of snaps, saying "No, Nuriko's not dead," I have to
clap my hands to my mouth to keep from laughing hysterically and ruining the
moment. Drew and Cara both look at me questioningly, but I shake my head and
wave them back to the TV. Once the scene finally switches over to Nakago &
Yui -- and isn't quite so intense anymore -- I pause it and say: "Okay, so when Miaka was like 'Nuriko's not dead,' I had
this image of her propping up Nuriko's head and moving her jaw up and down and
saying around the corner of her mouth, 'That's right, I'm totally fine! How are
you guys today?'" And then we all started giggling.
(Miaka runs away from the tragedy) DAREN: "Throw yourself off the cliff in a dramatic gesture!"
(As Tamahome remembers Nuriko's death in the next episode -- with far too
many sparkles and bubbles) DAREN: "That's not how it happened!"
RIHGA: "In Tamahome's memory, everything is sparkly."
(Miaka encased in ice) RIHGA: "Well, it turns out she wasn't the Priestess after all!
Surprise!"
DAREN: "Nuriko was!"
(Fake Taiitsukun tells Miaka that she can use bouchou-jutsu to drain
Nakago's life force)
DAREN: "SHE'S A SEX VAMPIRE!"
(Tama finds Fake Taiitsukun) DREW: "Oh man, I hope she tells him to have sex with Nakago,
too!"
(Nakago uses his ki to pin Miaka to the side of his tent) DREW: "It's almost as if there were a wall behind that tent."
(Amiboshi's adopted mother suggests that "Kai-Ka" marry Miaka) HIS MOTHER: "...And now that you've killed that giant weasel..."
RIHGA: "That makes you a man!"
DAREN: "Maybe 'killing the giant weasel' is a euphemism for
masturbation."
(As Amiboshi's adopted father is explaining how they found him...)
DAREN: "You know, they're kind of a creepy couple. (In old-man voice) 'A
random boy washed up on our shore so we named him after our son and pretended
he was the same person! Merhahaha!'"
(Miaka imagines Tamahome as she stares into the Forgetfulness Potion) RIHGA: (AS TAMA) "I'm in your sooouuuup...!"
(EVERY time Tomo would use his feathers) RIHGA: "Tiiiiiickle... tiiiiiiickle..."
(Tomo's feathers shoot out) RIHGA: "Tickle!" (And stab Tamahome through the chest) RIHGA: "Oh! No tickle."
DAREN: "I''m ticklish there. You know, in my innards. I believe
that's a lung and... a kidney..."
DREW: "I like Tomo. He's funny."
RIHGA: "Wow, Drew, you're kinda fucked up."
(In the Illusion World, "Aono" tells Miaka he needs to go home and
keep studying) DAREN: (AS AONO) "If my parents catch me not studying they will flay
me."
AONO: "I'll never let go of you."
RIHGA: (AS MIAKA) "What if I have to pee?"
DAREN: "He might like that. Tomo's a big freak."
(Sadly, the joke of this next one is lost since I can't find a screenshot of
the hat Miaka is wearing. But while she and "Aono" are heading back
to his house in the Illusion World, she's wearing this flat-yellow-thing on her
head, and...) RIHGA: "Something died on her head. (pause; considers it) I
think it's a pancake. A pancake died on her head."
(Tama is lying in a bed, writhing in pain from Tomo's illusion. Tokaki comes
up to break the spell by doing…) RIHGA: "Titty twister!!"
(As Miaka and Aono/Tomo are about to do the deed, she starts recalling the
library, and 'something' that happened there...) DAREN: "I think it's a sign that you shouldn't be having sex if you're
thinking about the library!"
(Amiboshi and Suboshi are reunited) AMIBOSHI: (to his brother) "I didn't forget about you..."
DAREN: (as Amiboshi) "...I just, didn't really care."
(Nakago is speaking with Miboshi as a few Kutou assassin hover in the
background) DREW: "Wait -- is that Steve?"
RIHGA: "Oh, yeah, it looks like Steve is back. Awesome!"
DAREN: "You know, I think that's what the problem was with these last few
episodes: A severe lack of Steve."
DAREN: "This entire thing has been nothing but a giant cocktease!"
(As Tamahome "breaks up" with Miaka in Sairou) DREW: "WHAT?!"
DAREN: "Step on his dick, Miaka!"
Night Four Moral: No One Ever Dies From Falling Down an Extremely Deep, Dark
Hole This one' s got a bit of a story behind it. Now as fellow FY-watchers will
know, the Rape-isodes tend to get a little tedious as well as a little
ridiculous. With a runaway Miaka, reunited long-lost twins, memory-alterating
drugs, sex illusions, tickle-feathers, and giant weasels around every corner,
it starts to feel like a Soap Opera from Hell. Eventually it got to the point
where, when Miaka is running away from Tamahome (AGAIN!) and she slips and
falls down the ravine, Daren finally just threw a stuffed animal at the screen
and shouted:
"Are you fucking kidding me?! She fell down a fucking hole?!"
Hole-falling, as it turned out, became the night's ongoing theme, as the same
thing later happens to Tamahome... "Wait, he's okay? He's not even banged up?"
"Nah, he's fine. He just fell into a hole."
"How did those people find him, anyway? Do people just wander around at
the bottom of holes looking for people who fell into them?"
...And, as Miaka stands at the edge with Suboshi attempting to - surprise! -
take her virginity, she promises herself that she'll jump and die before she
lets that happen. "Oh, come on, Miaka! Everyone knows falling down a hole won't kill
you!"
...And finally, when Tamahome returns, ready to kick ass and take names... "Wait. Did he fall down that hole and come back to fight all in one
night?"
"Well, yeah."
"I mean, come on. He just fell down a hole. It's not like anything dangeroushappened to him."
So, there you go. When you're uncertain how to escape your arch enemy, just
drop yourself down a hole. Because, as FY has taught us, you'll be fiiiiine.