 And now for a blast from the past with a look at Fushigi Yuugi.. no, wait, it just feels that way. It's really Harukanaru Toki no Naka de...
1 - You, the Priestess of Ryuujin
The four gods of the land of Kyou (Suzaku, Byakko, Seiryu & Genbu)
have been sealed away, and only the Priestess of Ryuujin can bring them
back. Ordinary schoolgirl Akane is drawn into Kyou's world by 'Oni' in
order to become the Priestess - and with the role comes awesome power.
The leaders of the land are aware of Akane's arrival, and a group of
warriors is dispatched to look for her. Meanwhile, friends Tenma and
Shimon have also been drawn to Ryou...
2 - One Who is Entranced by Demons
Akane and Shimon are brought before Fuji, a Princess of Ryou, who
offers to serve Akane in her role as Priestess. The whole 'priestess'
thing is still very new to Akane, and she's not at all willing to fill
the role or deal with the power it seems to have bestowed on her, until
Fuji explains the situation to her. She also tells her of the Eight
Leaves, eight warriors (bishonen all) who are sworn to protect her.
Meanwhile, Tenma is still missing - following up a lead, Akane runs off
on her own to find him, which as ever turns out to be a bad plan...
I'm sorry, can you say "shameless ripoff"? That feeling of deja vu
you may be experience is mainly because this has been done before, in a
little show called Fushigi Yuugi. I wonder if Akane will be as
quick to get her clothes off as Miaka was. The only real differences I
can see so far are that there's no real equivalent of Yui, and Akane's
role comes with a lot more real power than Miaka had - apart from that,
you'd have a hard time telling the two shows apart.
Not that that's a bad thing. Once you learned to ignore the whole "MIAKA!! TAMAHOME!!" thing, Fushigi Yuugi was one of the better shows of its day, and Harukanaru 'imitates' the feel of the show fairly well - at least so far - and it's like a little time warp to watch it.
That said, I'm hoping the show will develop some characteristics
that it can call its own as it goes on - there are some possibilities
in the setting that could be used to good advantage, it just remains to
be seen if they're followed up on. As far as it goes, though, Harukanaru is off to a good, if unoriginal, start. |
