There can be no happy ending?
Dec. 8th, 2009 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteDespite all the impending insanity of finals and graduation, I still find time for fandom. Or rather, fandom finds its way to my head whether I like it or not, and the best way to clear my head and actually study is to get these thoughts "out," even if it's merely in blog form.
Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden is just about over, with the 10th and final volume coming out in English in Spring 2010. The way things are looking...well, for the uninformed, I shall not spoil you. Check the cut. Supposedly we all knew how FY:GK was going to end because of the things Miaka found out about the Genbu priestess, Takiko Okuda, when she went searching for the Shinzaho/Shentsupao. Supposedly, it was a very bloody battle, resulting in the death of at least two of her Seishi, Hikitsu and Tomite, who guarded Takiko's Shinzaho--a necklace (later revealed in the manga to have been given to her by Priestess Anrou, who entrusted the living stone Seishi Namame to her).
But Hikitsu and Tomite have yet to die in the manga yet, and I'm thinking it's more like they sacrificed themselves to protect her Shentsupao or lived full lives and simply guarded the cave after their death in spirit form. Since the story "moved" on from Genbu, and later Byakko and Seiryuu/Suzaku, I'm guessing Takiko DOES successfully summon Genbu and end the premature ice age that the country is undergoing.
I'm confused about something, though: at the beginning of the story, she was in love with Takao Ohsugi, the father of the future Byakko priestess, Suzuno. At the time of the story, she's only five years old, which contradicts the idea that Takiko and Suzuno were friends--or did I mishear? Apparently Einosuke, Takiko's father and the translator of the Universe of the Four Gods, is friends with Takao Ohsugi, and he gives Takao the book before killing Takiko and committing suicide, supposedly to prevent Genbu from emerging in the "real" world.
I don't know if I'm getting the anime and manga canons mixed up here, though.
The idea's always been that the God requires a virgin sacrifice, but both Miaka and Suzuno survive. It's starting to look like Takiko "survives" the summoning too, if only to die from the same disease that killed her mother--I'd love to believe in a happy ending for her and Uruki, but as Byakko told Suzuno, there's no way for a priestess to remain in the "book" universe with her love. Since "history" says Takiko was killed by her father, I'm betting she doesn't get the chance to die from the disease: Genbu sends her back to her world (again), apart from Uruki, but because it's either die from the disease or let Genbu consume her, Takiko, who WOULD let Genbu consume her, gets killed by her father instead. I wonder if that causes her wishes to be revoked or undone? Or do they go into effect and then the story of the Genbu priestess ends, whether or not Genbu gets his sacrifice? Is that why the story moved on from Takiko's to Suzuno's?
Suzuno is a pretty big exception to all the "rules" --she not only survived the summoning of Byakko, but she went back to the real world and didn't bring Byakko or any other "disaster" with her. But she remained apart from her lover, Tatara, who remained young thanks to the help of another Byakko Seishi (or was it the Byakko Shentsupao, another indicator that she successfully summoned Byakko?). I would say "maybe she never successfully summoned Byakko," but we KNOW she did, not just because Yui and Miaka become the Seiryuu and Suzaku priestesses, but because she gets told BY Byakko that the one wish he can't grant is that of keeping a priestess in the book world.
So basically I'm wondering if what we "know" is accurate at all: Miaka and Yui got around the whole dying thing, as did Suzuno. That's three out of four priestesses that didn't die when the "legend" says they should have. If Takiko died, it wasn't because of Genbu, I think. Heck, maybe it's not even true that her father killed her! We know Einosuke tried to destroy the book and failed, and probably saw killing Takiko as the only solution to stopping Genbu from wreaking havoc on the "real" world while it saved the world in the book. But we don't know if it was REALLY Takiko, since we never see HER or Uruki in the anime or the manga! We see her shine, her Shentsupao, two of her seven Seishi, and that's it! So maybe she and Uruki somehow faked everyone out and lived in the "real" world, after wishing for her to be cured of her disease...or something!
I do hope Suzuno's story gets told in the manga soon...or someday, I should say. I'm betting Watase is pretty sick of the FY universe by this point. Of course, that is what fanfiction is for, eh?
Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden is just about over, with the 10th and final volume coming out in English in Spring 2010. The way things are looking...well, for the uninformed, I shall not spoil you. Check the cut. Supposedly we all knew how FY:GK was going to end because of the things Miaka found out about the Genbu priestess, Takiko Okuda, when she went searching for the Shinzaho/Shentsupao. Supposedly, it was a very bloody battle, resulting in the death of at least two of her Seishi, Hikitsu and Tomite, who guarded Takiko's Shinzaho--a necklace (later revealed in the manga to have been given to her by Priestess Anrou, who entrusted the living stone Seishi Namame to her).
But Hikitsu and Tomite have yet to die in the manga yet, and I'm thinking it's more like they sacrificed themselves to protect her Shentsupao or lived full lives and simply guarded the cave after their death in spirit form. Since the story "moved" on from Genbu, and later Byakko and Seiryuu/Suzaku, I'm guessing Takiko DOES successfully summon Genbu and end the premature ice age that the country is undergoing.
I'm confused about something, though: at the beginning of the story, she was in love with Takao Ohsugi, the father of the future Byakko priestess, Suzuno. At the time of the story, she's only five years old, which contradicts the idea that Takiko and Suzuno were friends--or did I mishear? Apparently Einosuke, Takiko's father and the translator of the Universe of the Four Gods, is friends with Takao Ohsugi, and he gives Takao the book before killing Takiko and committing suicide, supposedly to prevent Genbu from emerging in the "real" world.
I don't know if I'm getting the anime and manga canons mixed up here, though.
The idea's always been that the God requires a virgin sacrifice, but both Miaka and Suzuno survive. It's starting to look like Takiko "survives" the summoning too, if only to die from the same disease that killed her mother--I'd love to believe in a happy ending for her and Uruki, but as Byakko told Suzuno, there's no way for a priestess to remain in the "book" universe with her love. Since "history" says Takiko was killed by her father, I'm betting she doesn't get the chance to die from the disease: Genbu sends her back to her world (again), apart from Uruki, but because it's either die from the disease or let Genbu consume her, Takiko, who WOULD let Genbu consume her, gets killed by her father instead. I wonder if that causes her wishes to be revoked or undone? Or do they go into effect and then the story of the Genbu priestess ends, whether or not Genbu gets his sacrifice? Is that why the story moved on from Takiko's to Suzuno's?
Suzuno is a pretty big exception to all the "rules" --she not only survived the summoning of Byakko, but she went back to the real world and didn't bring Byakko or any other "disaster" with her. But she remained apart from her lover, Tatara, who remained young thanks to the help of another Byakko Seishi (or was it the Byakko Shentsupao, another indicator that she successfully summoned Byakko?). I would say "maybe she never successfully summoned Byakko," but we KNOW she did, not just because Yui and Miaka become the Seiryuu and Suzaku priestesses, but because she gets told BY Byakko that the one wish he can't grant is that of keeping a priestess in the book world.
So basically I'm wondering if what we "know" is accurate at all: Miaka and Yui got around the whole dying thing, as did Suzuno. That's three out of four priestesses that didn't die when the "legend" says they should have. If Takiko died, it wasn't because of Genbu, I think. Heck, maybe it's not even true that her father killed her! We know Einosuke tried to destroy the book and failed, and probably saw killing Takiko as the only solution to stopping Genbu from wreaking havoc on the "real" world while it saved the world in the book. But we don't know if it was REALLY Takiko, since we never see HER or Uruki in the anime or the manga! We see her shine, her Shentsupao, two of her seven Seishi, and that's it! So maybe she and Uruki somehow faked everyone out and lived in the "real" world, after wishing for her to be cured of her disease...or something!
I do hope Suzuno's story gets told in the manga soon...or someday, I should say. I'm betting Watase is pretty sick of the FY universe by this point. Of course, that is what fanfiction is for, eh?
