fushigi yuugi

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – OVAs (Part 2 of 2)

The grand finale, Part Deux!

A close-up of a teen girl in a school uniform smiling at the camera. To her right and behind her some distance, a monk with flyaway bangs wearing a robe and prayer beads presses a finger frantically to his lips as if to say "shhh"

The 10th and final (sniffle) installment of our Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Vrai, Caitlin, and yours truly! We finished up the OVAs in trademark rollercoaster fashion by both basking in one of the series’ highest highs and suffering through one of its lowest lows. And yet, when all was said and done, we still came out the other side fighting for this flawed but earnest franchise.

Highlights include: A whole lot of gushing about Chichiri, a fair bit of griping about Eikoden, and Mayo doing damn near everything wrong.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – OVAs (Part 1 of 2)

We discoursed so hard it couldn’t be contained by a single podcast!

A shouting redhead holds a comically wide-eyed child upside down by its feet. To one side, a monk with flyaway bangs holds his staff like a baseball bat, and to the other a young man in modern-day clothes sits on a chair, one hand raised to his mouth in shock. Everyone else is wearing traditional Chinese clothing.

The multi-part Fushigi Yugi watchalong continues with a pair of bonus episodes covering the OVAs! Here in Part 1, we talked about Oni 1 and half of Oni 2. There’s a lot about these episodes that I really like, but woof, is there a lot that I hate, too.

Highlights include: Studio Pierrot’s drunken fanfic, Hotohori’s absurd-yet-emotional homecoming, and a Tasuki episode so unpleasant even I got angry about it.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 47-52

The grand finale(ish)!
A close-up of a teenage girl in a battered school uniform, looking determined, her hair flaring out around her. She glows with a red light.

Part 8 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Vrai, Caitlin, and me! As gods rise, characters fall, and the TV series comes to an explosive conclusion, the team discusses the highs and lows and argues for the show’s place in the anime canon. We’re not completely done (there’s still the OVAs to tackle), but I hope you’ll permit me a little sappy nostalgia even so.

Highlights include: Tasuki and Chichiri having their Helm’s Deep Moment, Nakago’s BackstoryFail, and Miaka and Tamahome getting by with a little help from their friends.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 41-46

Hope you got your umbrella ready for this plot downpour.

A short-haired girl in a school uniform, looking exasperated, points over her shoulder at a girl with medium-length hair wearing the same uniform. This girl is kneeling on one knee, a mirror clutched to her chest and a rose held out in one hand as if she's trying to woo someone. In the foreground is the back of a man's head.

Part 7 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Caitlin, Vrai, and me! With the badlands safely behind us, we can return to the show’s usual mixed bag of big adventure and even bigger emotions as the series heads into its action-packed home stretch. It’s a wild ride, but a largely entertaining one, with a few dollops of emotional resonance and forced dramatic bullshit on the side. It just wouldn’t be Fushigi Yugi without both, would it?

Highlights include: Geriatric Celestial warriors, various folks meeting various makers (not necessarily their own), and Miaka continuing to be a delightfully thirsty protagonist.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 35-40

Welcome to the badlands, folks.

A close up of four people and a cat looking exhausted and annoyed. The people are a man wearing two headbands around his head, a young man with fluffy hair and a jacket, a man with flyaway bangs, and a boy with a tall ponytail

Part 6 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Vrai, Caitlin, and me! This week we find ourselves in a desert both literal and figurative, as the series subjects us to a repetitive, joyless hell where our only escapes are headcanon AUs, visual novel tangents, and Riff Raff impersonations. Grab some margaritas, ’cause you know we got the salt (…and some of the margaritas, too), and we’ll all get through this wasteland together.

Highlights(?) include: The episode that won’t end, the hole that keeps on giving, and the ensemble cast that time forgot. Content warning for depictions of attempted rape and sexual assault. (Like, a ludicrous amount of it.)

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 28-34

“Fushigi Yugi: You will have an emotion” has never been a truer tagline.

A close shot of a purple-haired androgynous person leaning their chin against their hands, eyes closed and expression calm. Behind them, a young man spits out his drink.

Part 5 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Caitlin, Vrai, and me. Emotions run high as the team grapples with the loss of a beloved character and the many, many problems with the story’s handling of gender and sexuality. Meanwhile, I struggle to balance my emotional reaction with my analytical one, and fail pretty spectacularly. But hey! it also features one of my favorite goofs, so it ain’t all gloom ‘n’ doom, eh?

Highlights include: Tamahome and Miaka slowly fusing into a single being, hilaribad (and sometimes just bad) gender essentialism, and Nuriko discourse. Lots and lots of Nuriko discourse. Content warning for phobia, erasure, and just generally terrible handling of trans issues.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 21-27

One last celebration before we hit the rocky trail.

Three people at a festival. In the foreground is a grinning redheaded man; slightly behind him, standing next to each other, are a girl holding a lollipop and a person extending one arm as if gesturing for the other two to follow them. All three are in period Chinese clothing and are smiling.

Part 4 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Caitlin, Vrai, and yours truly! In another strong week, the ensemble cast shines and even the romantic beats land… but there are storm clouds on the horizon, and we ain’t just talking about Soi’s lightning powers. Highlights include: Unintentional ace power fantasies, the fine line between emotional resonance and emotional manipulation, and Chichiri giving me a lot of feelings. Buckle up, homies. 

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 15-20

Two monster movies, a spy caper, and an action-packed throwdown? It’s fun for the whole family!

Three chibi figures are piled awkwardly atop each other in a tree: On top is a man with flyaway bangs and smiling eyes wearing a tunic; below him is a girl with her hair in two buns, teeth gritted and eyes squinted; and at the bottom of the pile is a redhead in a dark jacket, looking below him with a wide-mouthed look of shock

Part 3 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Caitlin, Vrai and me! We recorded this one late on a weekday evening, so if you listen closely you can hear the sleeplessness slowly consume us! It’s another fun batch episodes as Miaka wraps up her road trip and my favorite duo takes their comedy show on the road. Highlights include: Resurrected ‘shipping wars, a new tag line for the DVD box sets (you’re welcome, Discotek), and Tasuki being a very good boy.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 8-14

My boys are back in town!

A chibi man with flyaway bangs wearing a tunic and prayer beads smiles wide and pulls off a mask that looks identical to his current smiling face. Next to him, a girl in a modern school uniform watches with bugged-out eyes, sweatdropping.

It’s Part 2 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Vrai, Caitlin, and yours truly! This week, the series hits its stride as an engaging fantasy adventure and tackles some difficult topics, with… mixed results. Highlights include: Questionable decisions from teenagers, the introduction of my favorite anime character in the history of anime characters, and a pair of trash banditz I wasted years of my life not ‘shipping together.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 1-7

I have been training FIFTEEN YEARS for this day.

A smiling brunette girl wearing a party hat and a school uniform holds up both hands in a "V" shape. Behind her is confetti and another image of the same girl, this time holding a long scroll with kanji on it.

Now that I’m recording Chatty AF podcasts on the regular,  I figured it made sense to host the links to those here on JND as well. This seems like the perfect place to start, as I am ridiculously excited for this new project.

I got together with Caitlin of I Have a Heroine Problem and Vrai of Fashionable Tinfoil Accessories to record a “newbie friendly” multi-part podcast series on an old problematic fav. Fushigi Yugi is very near and dear to my heart, and getting together with two of my favorite AniFriends to revisit and discuss it from a feminist perspective has been a super fun, supremely fascinating, and surprisingly emotional experience. I hope you’ll flip the page and join us on our ’90s isekai adventure!

To kick things off, the three of us take a trip down FY memory lane. Surprise! Everybody still loves Nuriko. Miaka and Tamahome have aged better than expected. Hotohori, though? Not so much.

You can click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

(Oh–and if you’re interested in my backlog, you can find the full list of episodes I’ve been involved in on my new Podcasts page. Happy listening!)

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!