Current mood:	pessimistic
Current music:	news-hit and run driver
Entry tags:	medium: manga

While looking to see if maybe I had some of the old Jademan comics, I ran across the first issue of Animerica Extra. Back in 1998, Viz Comics published a magazine called Animerica that had anime and manga news, as well as some actual translated manga. It was successful enough to spin off an all-manga monthly.



And hey, let's take a look at the first chapter of Fushigi Yuugi, by Yu Watase. We'll focus on the part that's different from the first episode of the anime version, Miaka's relationship with her mother. 13 pages of 39, safe for work, but may be triggery for domestic abuse.



Read left to right; this is before Viz finally gave in to "no flipping."


Middle school student Miaka Yuuki is sitting down to a feast of her favorite foods, when it vanishes, to be replaced by--



She wants her food back and attacks only to find it was a dream and she's just assaulted the teacher. At a nearby Matt Donald's after regular school, her friends warn her about drifting off in class. The high school entrance exams are coming up, and if she wants to get in Yotsubadai High with her average buddies--what, you're applying to Jonan High, which only total brainiacs like best friend Yui qualify for? Miaka stops eating and requests stopping by the library so she can copy Yui's notes for the class she slept through.




Miaka and Yui discover the Restricted Library, and its copy of "The Universe of Four Gods." They start reading it and are transported to the world inside the book. They're attacked by slavers, saved by a handsome but greedy boy (Tamahome), and sent back to the real world. The librarian kicks them out of the special collections room, and it's off to cram school.

Miaka is distracted in class, but when challenged by the teacher, is able to parrot back his rote motivational speech word for word. (Apparently the teacher is unaware how predictable he is.)





After school the next day, Yui heads to the library to check on that book again, but Miaka heads straight off to cram school like the good girl she is. Unlike Yui, Miaka has to grind grind grind to absorb information. To make her mood even more down, she's walking down a street mostly occupied by couples. Why, look at those two, walking so close together...









She was just trying to make her mother happy. Hey, she's at the library somehow. The librarian isn't watching the forbidden room. There's no sign of Yui, but The Universe of Four Gods is lying on the floor, open to the middle. Miaka decides to kill some time reading the book to punish her mother. And sure, it'd be nice to have a wish. She's slightly freaked to see that the text matches the weird incident from earlier. And then the book sucks Miaka inside again.



Your thoughts, comments?

suggested tags
creator: Yu Watase
medium: manga
publisher: Viz Communications
title: Animerica Extra
title: Fushigi Yuugi