90s Manga Return: Descendants of Darkness, Fushigi Yuugi

Well, okay, Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden.

By gia manry | Jan. 25, 2010

Descendants of Darkness

It's been a good week for 1990s manga! Word is that mangaka Yoko Matsushita is planning to return to her most famous work, Descendants of Darkness , a dark fantasy manga revolving around quirky shinigami who investigate supernatural phenomena and uncover mystical conspiracies.

Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden

Also returning is Yuu Watase, to Fushigi Yugi-- well, okay, the 2005 spinoff Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, but the ORIGINAL FY manga came out in the early to mid '90s. So it counts.

Kuriousity reports that Watase has managed to squeeze the spinoff back into her production schedule, and given the popularity of this series-- especially relative to most of Watase's other works --I'm betting VIZ'll be all over publishing more of the books.

11 Comments

FoxxFireArt moderator on Jan. 25, 2010 at 9:35 a.m.

Ohh, you had me interested in this series up until a possible publisher name (holding my tongue).

I had never heard of the series, but most things that normally involve investigations grabs my interest. What do you think the series leans more toward, Bishonen or Bishojou?

giaon Jan. 25, 2010 at 3:47 p.m.

@FoxxFireArt: Descendants of Darkness? DECIDEDLY bishounen-- it's more or less yaoi-light, and there are only a few female characters at all It's not "real" yaoi though, just slashable, so if you're particularly interested in supernatural mystery kinda stuff, you could definitely still enjoy it.

But both are published by VIZ, alas. ;)

Actually, FWIW, I was at a party and bumped into the woman who edits Case Closed at VIZ. She says that at least for the names and whatnot, they had to go with what FUNimation picked for the anime, and since they started it that way they had to keep it. So maybe you need to redirect some of your anger ;)

(Seriously, though, I don't mention this in defense of VIZ so much as in the interest of clarification.)

constanzadellarosaon Jan. 25, 2010 at 4:21 p.m.

Whoa...long time I hadn't heard of FY. It was quite popular at the time, and I still remember my little sister saying 'Tamahome is SO HOT' while reading the manga, and the fact Miaka makes all the girls mentioned in the essay about stupidity and main female characters look like rocket scientists.

FoxxFireArt moderator on Jan. 25, 2010 at 4:27 p.m.

@gia:
More implied yaoi then? Yeah, not really my thing. I kind of figured from the art.

I had heard about the VIZ/FUNimation connection, but never heard anything concrete. It also seems like apathetic excuse. Seems they didn't seem to even bother to check into the series before altering content. I don't need to redirect my anger since they are still continuing the practice in the manga giving readers no other options. It will effect the story, but make no effort to change. I know how these names will actually effect cases in the future.
It also doesn't change the fact that Detective Conan in the way they have published it have errors in translation, in the few volumes I actually bought. In a series where little details mean a lot. Proper editing is important.....not to mention their names.

I should add. Thanks for asking about that.

Dreamon Jan. 25, 2010 at 4:41 p.m.

Get CLAMP to resume work on X and I'll be happy to hop back on that bandwagon.

Count_Alucardon Jan. 26, 2010 at 9:08 a.m.

The dub to the Descendants of Darkness anime sucks ass.

John_Martoneon Jan. 26, 2010 at 12:18 p.m.

@constanzadellarosa said:

" Whoa...long time I hadn't heard of FY. It was quite popular at the time, and I still remember my little sister saying 'Tamahome is SO HOT' while reading the manga, and the fact Miaka makes all the girls mentioned in the essay about stupidity and main female characters look like rocket scientists. "

Is she really that bad? I can't quite imagine it

giaon Jan. 26, 2010 at 5:30 p.m.

@John_Martone: I don't think Miaka is as straight-out "dumb" as, say, Usagi in Sailor Moon, at least as she's viewed by her peers within the manga. But she does a lot of really dumb stuff that makes (some) readers go "...seriously?"

Addfwynon Jan. 28, 2010 at 9:32 p.m.

I like FY a lot actually, was one of the first series I decided to make the plunge to in Japanese, so holds a special place in my heart for that. It's also ridiculously easy reading, so I appreciated that.

Interested in that, Descendants of Darkness, probably not so much my thing.

giaon Jan. 29, 2010 at 12:14 p.m.

@Addfwyn: I have pretty fond memories of Fushigi Yuugi-- I barely touched the actual series but I had a real fascination with Nuriko. ;) I dug Watase's follow-up, Ayashi no Ceres, probably more than FY, but I haven't followed her much after that. I had a friend who bought me some of Alice 19th and Imadoki!, but neither really got me hooked. ^^;

John_Martoneon Jan. 29, 2010 at 12:32 p.m.

@gia said:

" @John_Martone: I don't think Miaka is as straight-out "dumb" as, say, Usagi in Sailor Moon, at least as she's viewed by her peers within the manga. But she does a lot of really dumb stuff that makes (some) readers go "...seriously?" "

So basically, its like me, but in manga form?

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