Watase Yuu - Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

I picked this up because both coffeeandink and rachelmanija mentioned that they liked it, despite me never having read Fushigi Yuugi. Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden is apparently a prequel of the events in the original FY, but so far, it seems to be ok that I haven't read the original yet.

Okuda Takiko is a young girl living in Taisho Japan (1920s). Her mother is sick, her father is lost in his world of scholarship and woefully neglects his family. Takiko seems pretty cool -- she learns naginata (some weapon that's a long stick with a blade on top) at school and doesn't seem too irritating. Anyhow, Taki basically feels abandoned by everyone she loves in the real world and ends up being sucked into a mysterious book that her father has translated from Chinese.

I have no idea how close this is to the original FY.

Regardless... Taki is apparently the mystical priestess of Genbu and needs to find the seven celestial warriors to save the world. I personally don't care too much about the prophecy plot/plot coupon type thing, but the warriors she has been finding so far are really cute.

Also, one of the warriors turns into a girl when he uses his powers! Ahh shoujo manga, how I love you and your on crack gender-bending devices!

So far all the warriors seem to be men -- are there ever cool girl warriors? Or does that completely defeat the point of having seven guys in love with Taki? I want a cool girl warrior, damnit, and warrior-who-turns-into-girl doesn't count.

I am also deriving great joy from the setting in Japan! It's not quite Meiji Japan, but it's close enough! I really like the little historical notes that Watase puts in the side, down to Taki's hakama and boots being historically accurate, along with her naginata classes. (I adore hakama. That was the best part about taking kendo.)

Only... obviously the majority of the story isn't going to be taking place in Taisho Japan, since it's in the Universe of the Four Gods. Oh well. It is one of my favorite historical periods though, just because it's so interesting seeing the blend of what's thought of as "traditional Japanese culture" and "Western culture."

I am completely confused by some of the transliteration. I get why they have given!name surname, as opposed to the opposite way around, but I have no idea why the extended "u" in Watase Yuu is spelled out, while it's indicated by a macron in "Yûgi" (or whatever that thing over the "u" is called). And then instead of using either a macron thing or a doubled letter for the long "o" in "Ohsugi," they spell it with "oh." No clue.

At least.. I'm pretty sure it's a long "o." That's the only time I've seen "oh" used in transliteration...

And then I was a little confused by the spelling of "Chamka" and "Limdo" and etc. because I was wondering at first why the "n/m" sound was being transliterated as "m" when it would sound like an "n" in front of the final "ka" and "do" sounds. Then I was thinking it was probably "chamuka" and "rimudo" to get the "m" sound and that it was being transliterated without the extra "u" because they were supposed to be foreign names (sort of like how "Alexiel" could be "Arekushieru" in katakana but is supposed to sound like "Alexiel"). Plus

I am just going to stick with that thought, but was trying to figure out what language it was and how they knew it was "L" instead of "R." I also figured that "Chamka" and "Limdo" were spelled out in katakana instead of hiragana, indicating that they are foreign names.

And then I got completely confused by all the pseudo-Chinese place names and people names that I didn't recognize. "Qu Dong" looks like Chinese transliteration, right? Pinyin system and all... But then, they've got all these funny accent marks everywhere, and I was trying to see if it corresponded with Chinese tones or whatnot and if I could recognize any of the names, but I couldn't.

Also, some of the tones don't seem to make sense, just because there were a lot of dippy tones (third tone, sort of goes down then up), and that's hard to say in Chinese. But then, they do have them, so I could be wrong.

And I was wondering how the translators knew which accent marks to use -- were they somehow indicated in the Japanese version? How? I've never seen accent marks in Japanese, that would be neat! Did they go from the kanji w/ katakana as furigana to indicate the Chinese pronunciation and just look up the Chinese?

Wah, this is now driving me crazy! I really want to see if I recognize any of the place names now!

On the plus side, they replicate the Chinese in the first page, and I can actually read it! Joy! I feel much more competent now! I will now happily tell everyone that I can substantiate that:

- "Seiryuu" (again the doubled vowel! Why? Or is it not that way in the manga and I'm totally remembering wrong?) means "green/blue dragon"
- "Byakko" means "white tiger"
- "Suzaku" means "red sparrow" (with the now-not-as-common word for "red")
- "Genbu" means "obscure warrior/martial" (I admit it, I cheated and looked up "gen" because I had no idea what it meant in Chinese)

I am so confused why Genbu is supposedly a turtle. Maybe that means "colored turtle" in classical Chinese and I am too dumb to realize. Also, I sort of figured everyone knows all this already, but I am just happy that I could read it! Yay!

Also, the Chinese used for "priestess" could potentially be translated as "witch girl" as well! Ok, maybe not in classical Chinese. But still! I thought it was funny.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Can't comment on the Chinese, but of the other miko, two had at least one woman warrior, and one had a male-to-female transsexual warrior. So Limdo may or may not fill that slot.

The basic plot set-up is the same as in FY, but the Daddy issues are unique to this story.

Finally, the significant thing about naginata is it's traditionally a woman's weapon.

[oyceter]

Ooo ok. Good!

Oh, I had no idea naginata were traditionally women's weapons! That is very nifty (and now I want one).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

In fact, naginata is still mostly studied by women. It's not as popular as kendo, especially outside of Japan, but I saw a naginata class at the Kyoto Budokan, and the sensei was a women and the students were about thirty women and girls, and about three men.

I need a Genbu Kaiden icon.

[octopedingenue]

Limdo and Chamka are called "Rimudo" and "Chamuka" in the fan scanlations of FYGK that I have. I can send them to you (and maybe track down some Japanese raws) if you want to compare. I can never remember what name to call or think of Limdo/Uruki and Chamka/Tomite, since their birth names and Celestial Warrior names are used by other characters almost interchangeably. (And Limdo/Uruki has a third really long name. I CRY.) The original FY was much more consistent (possibly to an unrealistic extent) about calling the Celestial Warriors by their Celestial Warrior names.

I thought the god Genbu was a weird turtle/snake hybrid-mutant-thing. I don't know enough about the mythology behind it to say why, though.

I adore "Fushigi Yugi" the original (I only got into it this past spring), but it's a flawed and often frustrating work regardless and clearly an early series for Wutase. I think the anime works better by virtue of coming later and being able to hastily patch some of the more gaping plot holes. "Genbu Kaiden" is a much smoother work both in art and story. It hasn't made me want to throw the manga against the wall even once!

I am dying for a "Genbu Kaiden" anime. There's a brief glimpse of a couple of Genbu Warriors in the original FY manga/anime, but it's not the saaaame; GK is a prequel, so they're both ghosts, already dead. And there's no Takiko at all.

Re: I need a Genbu Kaiden icon.

[oyceter]

Ohhhhh I would so love any Japanese raws that you had.

I got totally confused by the multitude of names that everyone had as well.

I really want to watch FY now, just to get more of the Genbu backstory!

Re: I need a Genbu Kaiden icon.

[octopedingenue]

This site distributes shoujo manga raws, if you can use IRC. (I'm dependent on it, since my college ITS has blocked Bittorrent.) Next time I'm on there looking for Fruits Basket, I'll look for GK as well. The scans will undoubtedly be spoilery, though--the series is ongoing and well ahead of the American English release, and scanlations of the series stop mid-volume 3.

I mostly think of Chamka/Tomite as "the adorable guy with the hat and the arrows" and Limdo/Uruki as "the not!Tamahome who is much cooler than Tamahome", and then blithely miss when people are talking about them by name.

The little cat-person!Limdo and dog-person!Tamahome sketch Wutase has in volume 2 made me giggle a lot.

The Genbu Warriors are only in the original FY very briefly--a few chapters in volume 9 of the manga, and episode 34 of the anime. I don't recommend skipping directly to that part of the story if you think you'll want to watch/read all of original FY someday, because volume 9/ep 34 are very spoilery for major character deaths in both FY and GK. There's mention of Takiko (though not by name) throughout the series as priestess Miaka and her companions learn more about the earlier priestesses, and it's dramatic stuff--one of the reasons I'm looking forward to reading more GK so much. I wonder if Wutase is going to do other prequels or sequels in the FY universe.

Re: I need a Genbu Kaiden icon.

[oyceter]

Oooooo! I have sort of figured out IRC, but probably need to do so again sometime. I should be ok with spoilers, especially since I'll only understand half of what's going on anyway ;). My Japanese is ok when it comes to high school shoujo ("I made you lunch!" or "I like you!" are pretty easy to figure out), but mystical universes baffle me.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure whether to be delighted or annoyed when (after having watched 75% of Fushigi Yugi at the anime club--this was the point at which Joe and I would leave and then come back) I discovered, through my sister, that these are the compass-point guardian creatures for Korea (also?). I am quite pleased by the white tiger. Were tigers extant in Japan at all? I could have sworn that I read some reference to Japanese emissaries visiting Korea and coming back with pelts from leisure tiger-hunting...

[oyceter]

They are? That's so neat! I can't figure out if they are for China as well... Wikipedia only mentioned Japan =(.

I wish I knew if there were tigers in Japan. If not... maybe they got them from Chinese literature or something...

[sheep-gotohell.livejournal.com]

Did you see this Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssu_Ling)? It's pretty interesting. I rather badly want to see the Fushigi Yugi Byakko Kaiden now, just for completeness. I...think a few of the past Byakko Warriors showed up in FY? And one of them was a woman? I could be imagining it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You're not imagining it. Tatara was the plant-growing guy, Subaru was the woman who could alter time, and there was the man who was Tamahome's sensei, but I forget what his name and power was.

[octopedingenue]

I just now realized that I previously commented with my RP journal. Ummm, that was me, FYI. I am a dork.

Yeeeeessssssss, I remember the time-altering woman now. Was the plant-growing guy the same as the guy with the angsty romance with the Byakko priestess, or was there a fourth warrior guy? (Since there's ALWAYS a warrior with an angsty romance with the priestess. Usually more like four warriors. It's the priestess-pheromones. It's like the Akito-attraction to the Jyuunishi only less somewhat less sadistic.)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Tatara the plant-guy was the one who was having the Love That Transcended Time with the miko with the cute little braids.