The FYML (Fushigi Yuugi Mailing List) is said to have over 300 members (and not every FY fan is even on the list), and used to have a lot of activity: postings on whether or not Tamahome and Miaka should have been together, intense Nakago discussions, and general silliness...but recently, activity seemed to...cease.

At first, I thought "Ah, so it's finally happened. FY is finally getting to be just a bit old and we've all moved onto bigger and better things". The very reason I'm writing this article is because this lovely fanzine was short on writers. So I thought I would do a survey from members of the FYML and then write my article on how "Interest in Fushigi Yuugi has declined recently..." but the results of the survey...surprised me.

The first question I asked "How long have you been a fan of FY?" was just to determine what I was dealing with. If someone said "I've been a fan for 4 months" and then the person said that he/she hasn't lost interest in FY, I would know the reason why. The average length of time a fan has been acquainted with this series is 15.7 months. The lowest response was 6 months, and the highest was 47 months (were you lying, Felicia? >: )= So, in general, everyone who responded to this survey has known FY for a good amount of time; long enough to tire of it, if it were "just another anime". Keeping this logic in mind, let's look at where FY stands in the eyes of most fans...

To the question "Is FY your favorite anime?", I got Yes 57% and No 43%. Most of the "No"s, however, provided me with an answer like Janine's "Um. It was my fave. It might still be my fave. I don't really keep track. If it's not my favorite, then it's up there in the top five somewhere." I think I only got one answer that said FY was third favorite.

This is understandable. While I have moved on to other anime, I can still say without a doubt that FY is my favorite anime...but after being obsessed with it for 30 months...shouldn't I be getting bored? This is what those surveyed had to say about that: only 5 people out of 21 expressed even the slightest decline of interest in FY (and I was one of them). The other 76 percent seemed surprised that anyone could lose any amount of interest in the series. Even Felicia (the person who's been the longest fan of FY, according to my survey) said "i still like it alot (listen to mp3s more often then cds, get excited over the 2nd ovas, still love new merchandise), defend it to non-believers, and generally spread its joy around the net and world." Now, she could have been lying, but that's unlikely. She still updates her FY web page, which is enough to show that she's still interested in the series.

So what is it about Fushigi Yuugi that has been able to keep people's interest? (some as long as 47 months, mind you). It's over! (though we can always hope). But according to the other questions in my survey, it's pretty easy to see why FY has kept its fans for so long.

Fanworks. Fanfiction, fanart, fan-music, fan-music videos, fan-costumes, fan-webpages, and the list goes on and on. If you go to the Fushigi Yuugi links section of the Anime Web Turnpike, you will find quite a few links to FY websites made by fans. Owning three of these myself, I know that running an FY web page alone is enough to keep you wired on FY, but going to all these pages must help, too. The average number of webpages people estimated they visited was around 50. (Though I can't say I've seen that many).

Fanfiction is another biggie. Most of the people on the survey said that they have read FY fanfiction and that they have enjoyed it. When Kristi and Priya used to host the Fushigi Yuugi Fanfiction Archive, there were so many fics and works in progress that they were divided into sections. Some of these fics are so long (I myself am guilty of one that's over 300 pages) that it would take a year of non-stop reading to read them all. And more fans are writing more and more. Surely with all these strange twists to the story, there's no need for more animation; the fans can keep the story alive.

And regarding FY fanfiction, these are the things people have said about what kind of fanfiction they like to read:

Felicia: "i tend to like the ones that take lesser used themes from the story and expand on them. in the past, i have enjoyed drama... comedy, parodies..., yaoi, and especially the reborn seishi ones.... i tend to shy away from cross-overs though, some have been good or entertaining at least, but usually they just try to do *too* much and lose focus, etc...."

Anonymous: "alternate endings and nice, NOT Miaka&Tamahome-like romance."

Ryuuen no Aisai: "Current World ficcys with the Seishi as normal guys(with their abilities of course! ^_~)"

Anonymous: "a story that explains certain characters more. Like I read one about Chichiri and how he got his mask. I don't really like any story that interfers with the original story line."

Janine: "I'd like to see someone introduce the reincarnation of Seiryuu sei-kun's beloved. She could show up and be a true friend to the Seiryuu seishi, like the miko is supposed to be. I'm thinking she'd appear after Amiboshi's "death," sometime. The author would have to deviate from the actual story in order to make this new character a life-changing force in the seiryuu seishi's lives. The twist, though, is that Yui despises her. Yui says the new girl reminds her of Miaka, and the miko considers her a rival, but what she is actually feeling is a contender for seiryuu's attention. Little does Yui know that she doesn't *want* seiryuu's attention. Anyway, the Seiryuu's girl is ordered assassinated by Yui-sama, and that could create some havoc in the Kutou-koku camp. Maybe, she could be kidnapped (and thusly rescued) by the Suzaku seishi."

[Interesting idea there...anyone wanna try it?]

>From the rest of the comments, I got the impression that most people liked fanfiction based on events that were hardly looked into in the series (a couple people expressed interest in a fic about Miboshi's past). Fics about undiscovered characters (like the Genbu and Byakko seishi) were also fics people wanted to see more of, and many like fics with alternate endings to the original storyline, or fics that basically continue the series. And as for the genera of fic preferred, it seemed to be split between drama and comedy (which is pretty much what FY is).

Fanart, too, is popular. Many people on the survey said that they enjoyed looking at fanart (most even had responses like "Do I like fanart? Doesn't everyone?"). Many people like fanart because it lets them see situations that wouldn't normally happen (like Ashitare and Yui kissing, or Hotohori and Tasuki taking a bath...or less kinky ones like Chichiri and Nuriko having a picnic; and then, my own personal favorite, Miboshi in Miaka's school uniform >: )= A few people said, though, that they didn't like certain fanart because the style was too different from Watase-sensei's. This seems consistent with what people expect from FY fanfiction. They want the fanart and fanfiction to be as close to the original feel to the story as possible; perhaps, so through the fans, the story will never die.

And there are still new FY things being produced even now. The FY Gaiden (character novels) started with Tasuki, and the latest one will be about Hotohori. Watase Yuu herself even expressed interest in writing a Genbu seishi manga. And of course, there is the new Fushigi Yuugi dub. But I must say that it's the fans who have kept FY alive all these years, and who have kept everyone's interest from dying. What would FY be if it were just a bunch of episodes on a shelf? Or a bunch of manga? We would all still love it, but perhaps, instead of writing this article, I would be writing one on Chou Kuseninarisou, and instead of reading this fanzine, you would be reading one made by fans of Weiss Kreuz. And (this may sound cheezy, especially coming from me) Fushigi Yuugi has really inspired me. Because of it, I learned HTML, learned how to operate my synthesizer, made three costumes, spent nine months on making Nakago armor and nine months writing my 300+ page FY fanfic, made three FY webpages, and got me interested in learning Japanese. Without FY, I would probably be off at San Francisco Ballet now training as an apprentice, or maybe even *gulp* college. But as it is, I'm leaving in less than three weeks to be an exchange student in Japan. Who would have ever guessed that an obsession with a TV show could ever take a person that far...

If Watase Yuu had any idea how much she has touched, inspired, and entertained all of us little American fans...I don't know what she would think. Let's all hope that she continues to plan her character novels, and write her manga, and draw more and more fans to the wonderful world of anime.



article copyright 1999 Tetris no Miko