#012 Television and Memories
Can you believe I have to do a hundred of these?!
FUSHIGI YUUGI: THE MYSTERIOUS PLAY
When I was a baby/toddler, I did a lot of bouncing around between Singapore and Indonesia and Australia. These were the trifecta of islands* that my whole world revolved around and now that I think about it, that is probably the reason I am so very culturally confused today. Also, I am only fluent in English, which is a bummer.
We stopped going to Singapore and Indonesia once I started going to school, because schools do not look kindly upon children who don't turn up to class for weeks at a time. And since I had to basically do a last-minute conversion to Catholicism in order to attend the school my mother wanted me to, getting into the school was too much effort just to waste it all on not actually being there.
Also I guess my parents wanted me to have a solid education.
Anyway, there was a long gap between visitations and the next time I went to Indonesia, I was about 11 years old. I could only speak English and had a limited understanding of Indonesian, so I was kind of nervous about interacting with my relatives whom we were staying with. I was pretty reliant on my mother and my older cousin, who had also come over from Australia but was born and partially raised in Indonesia and was enviably bilingual.
I spent a lot of time reading in my room, which was perfect for me because I didn't have to talk to anyone and risk looking like an ass, and the room was heavily air conditioned, which is important because have you ever been to Indonesia? Unless it's raining, it's a goddamn oven. But being shy and insecure is not an excuse to ignore your family, so I would try and hang out with them sometimes but I am an awkward person, so it was always just difficult for me to be a part of any kind of group, even if it was just my family.
In a way to try and combat my antisocial behaviour, my older cousin invited me to watch this anime she had just procured on VCD -- Fushigi Yuugi. It's basically about two high school girls named Miaka and Yue who get transported into an alternate world called "The Universe of the Four Gods". Miaka turns out to be the Priestess of Suzaku and has to collect the seven celestial warriors in order to make three wishes so they can get back to their own world. This was my first foray into subbed anime, and I really enjoyed it.
The series has 52 episodes, each with a runtime of about 40 minutes, I think. It also has three OAVs which I think I've seen one of? My cousin and I spent the better part of two days watching all the episodes that were on the set of VCDs and I'm not sure where we left off, but I do remember that we never actually finished watching the series, or were left at a cliffhanger, because it turned out the set of VCDs she had purchased did not include all the episodes.
One time a couple of years ago, I got really nostalgic about the series, and decided to try watching it all again, but it does not hold up as well as it does in my memory. I think I only got through one and a half episodes, and it was all just Miaka and Tamahome screaming each other's names.
(but hey, if anyone wants to get together for a Fushigi Yuugi drinking game, I would totally be up for that. though your liver might not be...)
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*Technically, Indonesia is like, 17,000 islands, but I mean, we mostly went to Java, so that's one island to make up the trifecta, okay.
FUSHIGI YUUGI: THE MYSTERIOUS PLAY
When I was a baby/toddler, I did a lot of bouncing around between Singapore and Indonesia and Australia. These were the trifecta of islands* that my whole world revolved around and now that I think about it, that is probably the reason I am so very culturally confused today. Also, I am only fluent in English, which is a bummer.
We stopped going to Singapore and Indonesia once I started going to school, because schools do not look kindly upon children who don't turn up to class for weeks at a time. And since I had to basically do a last-minute conversion to Catholicism in order to attend the school my mother wanted me to, getting into the school was too much effort just to waste it all on not actually being there.
Also I guess my parents wanted me to have a solid education.
Anyway, there was a long gap between visitations and the next time I went to Indonesia, I was about 11 years old. I could only speak English and had a limited understanding of Indonesian, so I was kind of nervous about interacting with my relatives whom we were staying with. I was pretty reliant on my mother and my older cousin, who had also come over from Australia but was born and partially raised in Indonesia and was enviably bilingual.
I spent a lot of time reading in my room, which was perfect for me because I didn't have to talk to anyone and risk looking like an ass, and the room was heavily air conditioned, which is important because have you ever been to Indonesia? Unless it's raining, it's a goddamn oven. But being shy and insecure is not an excuse to ignore your family, so I would try and hang out with them sometimes but I am an awkward person, so it was always just difficult for me to be a part of any kind of group, even if it was just my family.
In a way to try and combat my antisocial behaviour, my older cousin invited me to watch this anime she had just procured on VCD -- Fushigi Yuugi. It's basically about two high school girls named Miaka and Yue who get transported into an alternate world called "The Universe of the Four Gods". Miaka turns out to be the Priestess of Suzaku and has to collect the seven celestial warriors in order to make three wishes so they can get back to their own world. This was my first foray into subbed anime, and I really enjoyed it.
The series has 52 episodes, each with a runtime of about 40 minutes, I think. It also has three OAVs which I think I've seen one of? My cousin and I spent the better part of two days watching all the episodes that were on the set of VCDs and I'm not sure where we left off, but I do remember that we never actually finished watching the series, or were left at a cliffhanger, because it turned out the set of VCDs she had purchased did not include all the episodes.
One time a couple of years ago, I got really nostalgic about the series, and decided to try watching it all again, but it does not hold up as well as it does in my memory. I think I only got through one and a half episodes, and it was all just Miaka and Tamahome screaming each other's names.
(but hey, if anyone wants to get together for a Fushigi Yuugi drinking game, I would totally be up for that. though your liver might not be...)
---
*Technically, Indonesia is like, 17,000 islands, but I mean, we mostly went to Java, so that's one island to make up the trifecta, okay.