For those of you who haven't met him yet, Tasuki made his first appearance in the 14th episode of Fushigi Yuugi....and the choirs sang !!!! He was the fifth seishi to be found in Miaka's quest to gather her seven seishi in order to summon Suzaku.

Tasuki is his constellation name; he was born Kou Shun'u in Konan Country on April 18th (did you hear them sing again???). In addition to the usual two parents, Tasuki has five older sisters who picked on him as he grew up. We don't know much about these terrorists who are responsibile for his emphatic insistence that he abhors women, but the names of his sisters are: Li'an, Jiang, Mai, Pa'liu and Aidou.

Tasuki is graced with fiery-red hair and beautiful cat-like eyes. His seishi symbol, "Yoku" or "Wing" appears on his right forearm.  He's a lean 5'10".  And we must not forget the fangs. His favorite activities include brawling, drinking, swearing and frying things to a crisp. In the Japanese version of the anime, Tasuki is given a Kansai dialect, which is a rough, sometimes rude-sounding dialect from the Kansai area in Japan. Typically, Tasuki speaks his mind without much tact. And before I forget, he is the Leader of the Mt. Leikaku Bandits.

Our fanged mountain bandit has many talents and unique weapons (which do not include swimming. He is in fact, teased for being a hammer, which sinks in water).  While traveling, Tasuki came across a Taoist priest who gave him Summoning Papers.  When tossing the papers and yelling the incantation "Genjitsu Shinzarou!", the papers turn into whatever is written on it. Since our bandit is partial to summoning wolves, his nickname is Genrou which translates to "Phantasm Wolf". However, Gen-chan's favorite weapon is his tessen, which is a magic fan made of iron. While yelling the incantanation "Lekka Shinen!", which translates into "Blazing Holy Flame!", the fan throws flames of fire capable of roasting an opponent. This weapon was passed down to him from the previous Leader of the Mt. Leikaku Bandits. Tasuki excels in the martial arts and is comparable in skill with Tamahome. Lastly, Tasuki has the gift of speed; however he seldom shows this ability.

Though the bandit of the bunch, and the one who loves to fight, swear and fry things, Tasuki displayed loyalty and kindness towards his miko, despite swearing that he despised women due to the abuses of his older sisters. He took responsibility for his obligation as a Suzaku no Seishi and followed Miaka even though he wanted to remain in the stronghold. Regardless of what difficulties they were up against in their quest, he continued to remain supportive and enthusiastic till the very end. The young man who swore up and down that he hated women, who were so cunning, wound up with a friend/miko/sister who could wrap him around her little finger. It was also this young man, who claimed to only like girls who cry, that we found out couldn't stand to see a girl cry after all.

Tasuki tried to act tough and brash, but he was really sensitive and caring. He often put himself in danger for Miaka and would do so for the other Suzaku no Seishi. He was livid when poisoned Tamahome broke Miaka's heart and he compromised himself in that situation to avoid her further pain. He fell in very easy with the other seishi, was faithful to them and worked with them to achieve their goal. Tamahome and he had a love/hate relationship that resembled the love/hate betweeen brothers. He took care of Chiriko, the youngest seishi. He became very good friends with Chichiri. He took Nuriko's "punishment" for being blunt and tactless as if it came from an older brother. Though he regarded Hotohori a friend, he had respect and loyalty towards him and continued to fight for him even after all the Suzaku no Seishi temporarily lost their powers. Though Tasuki and Mitsukake never became close (Mitsukake wasn't close with anyone), Tasuki had enough charisma for even Mitsukake to tolerate his antics. He became close to them all and was crushed when Nuriko and Chiriko died and wasn't ashamed to show his love for them and his grief of losing them. He was cool, but not too cool to share his emotions with those around him.

He was a tough and determined fighter. It is very easy to give up when something goes bad, but Tasuki continued on even when the situation became hopeless. Some fans might say he was stupid for continuing to fight when the it looked like things were quite over for them all, however there is something to be said about not giving up until it's really over, and in Tasuki's case (as well as the other Suzaku no Seishi) sticking it out to the very end paid off.

Tasuki had a wonderful sense of humor and had many of the funniest scenes and SD time. High up there among the favorite-things-to-do list is beating up Tamahome and getting beaten by Tamahome. Some fans might consider Tasuki stupid because he antagonizes Tamahome to the point of Tamahome poucing him. But they forget that Tasuki enjoys his love/hate relationship with his friend and the pouncing quite often goes both ways, and that is often the case between close friends and even siblings. Besides, it's too much fun being a brat, even if you get in trouble for it. Tasuki and Tamahome became very good friends, and Tasuki shows just how good a friend in the second OAV series when his loyalty and trust in Tamahome wavers and he has to struggle to get it back.

Tasuki is one of those characters that suprises you because when we first meet him, he seems the wayward bandit. But when we get to know him, we realize how sweet he is and it's the little things he does that makes him so adorable. For example, for the sake of innocent civilians, Tamahome allowed himself to be a prisoner of Kutou until all the seishi were assembled. When it came time for Miaka to liberate him, Chichiri went with her, but Tasuki bribed Miaka into letting him come along so he could protect her and help her reunite with her loved one. On the way to Hokkan, Tasuki cried when he thought that Tamahome, Miaka and Nuriko had drowned while trying to rescue him when he was thrown overboard. Still another example is while walking in the cold, Nuriko asked Tasuki to warm him up with his tessen. Tasuki flatly refused but then did it anyway. Later, in Sairou, when Miaka tried to cook for everyone to impress Tamahome, she ended up making a terrible meal. Tasuki was the one who tried to cheer her up.

Whether Tasuki fans melt at the gaze of his beautiful eyes, or drool over the washboard abs, or whether they are touched by the softness of his heart or his sweet gestures, or even if they enjoy watching him go SD playfully pouncing on someone or even being pounced on, or whether they enjoy his Kansai dialect or him flying off the handle about something...there is much for the choirs to sing about.

Comments go here: rence@mindspring.com

Rence's homepage: Rence and Frankie's Fushigi Yuugi Shrine


Article copyright 1999 Rence