Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Hachiyousou~ =/= Fushigi Yuugi
Especially since all of the bloggers admit that they didn't even read/watch the manga or the anime before coming to that conclusion.
(This is actually the reason why I groaned and buried my head in my arms when I heard that it was licensed.)
Okay, let's recap this:
Fushigi Yuugi Girl and girlfriend reads a book and falls into ancient China. Girl and girlfriend hops back and forth between the WoFG and RW. Girl falls in love with Bad Boy boyfriend, they will proceed shrieking each other's name for the rest of the series. Girl gathers her seven guardians who all have powers that derives from the god that she is the miko of, about half of them instantly fall in love with her, others learn to like/love her later on. Girlfriend becomes rival miko because she thinks she was raped because random handsome stranger tells her so (and of course, it's Miaka's fault!). Keep in mind that Yui is supposed to be the smart one, and that she would have felt it if she was raped without any sort of arousing/lube (there's lots of bruising and tearing, heck, even when you're aroused you might want to keep some lube handy, especially if you have a tendency to be rather dry). Yui's greatest wish is to steal Tamahome away from Miaka and Nakago wants to take revenge on everyone. Miaka whines about food and almost only dresses in modern clothes, sticking out like a sore thumb, and jumping headlong into danger against other's advice (and she has no means to fight unless Suzaku chooses to feel charitable at that moment). The story is about a girl thrown into the past and having to fight against the selfish reasons of her enemies (no shades of grey here, I don't care how horribly Nakago and Yui thinks they've been treated, you don't hurt innocent people just because you decided that they were to blame, too.). For goodness' sake, Yui's master plan is either seducing Tamahome for herself or just separating Tamahome and Miaka out of spite. |
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de Girl and two boyfriends are kidnapped through an old well by a demonic overlord and ends up in ancient Kyoto (or Kyou). Girl and boyfriends are stuck in Kyou until they resolve the war. Girl meets demonic overlord and falls in love with him but resolves to defeat him because he's killing and torturing people (and she barely angsts about it). Girl gathers her eight guardians who all have power from four different gods, which she isn't the miko of (she's Ryujin). One is quite literally an artificial human without emotions, one's her bodyguard by the orders of the princess (oh my, another leading girl which isn't evil), two are her best friends from the future, two she hardly interacts with and they are probably gay for each other, one is her age and somewhat clumsily interested yet more of a friend, another is shyly interested but doesn't really act. Of course this is a dating sim adaptation so there's alternate endings for them all. Best friend's lost sister turns out to be the miko of the dark side of Ryujin, she has no memory of who she really is (and therefore blames no one) and is brainwashed. Once she remembers her biggest concern is not to harm anyone anymore. (Also, her MO is to do miracles that the inexperienced Akane can't do, gaining the support of the people, rather than attacking.) The Oni simply wishes for all the discrimination they've faced to end, even if it means killing all the humans and taking over Kyou. Akane realises that her needs need to take a backseat (not that she likes it) and dresses in the clothes she's given by Fuji-hime, listens and thinks about what everyone says and only occasionally (I think three times if you count the movie) runs headlessly into danger (and most of the time, her powers save her anyway). Most of the time danger sought her out or she was called out or innocent people would die, and then she'd make sure to take at least two guardians with her. The story is about a girl that's thrown into the past and having to fight against people she halfway agree with and/or starts to like. She watches as the people she protects discriminate against one of her guardians because he's a blond (and one of her own guardians keep spouting it until he learns better and another is nervous with their miko being around the blond until he gets to know the blond). It goes so far that the blond has to cover his hair whenever he leaves the house, or the people will throw rocks at him. One of their enemies are simply controlled by the Oni and is an old friend and he choose to die rather than continue as their mind-slave... There's a lot of love/family/friendship and more shades of grey than you can shake a stick at. And everyone in the main cast is confronted with it. |
To summarise: Haruka is a story about discrimination, love, hope, revenge, forgiveness and is based on a dating sim game. FY is a story about love, jealousy, revenge, forgiveness and is based on a manga.
Also to point out: FY is a story about Miaka and Tamahome, with her Seishi taking a somewhat backseat part in comparison. Haruka is a story about the Hachiyou, and Akane is simply the vessel and catalyst to the story that we watch.
To me, when I read/watch Haruka, I feel completely different from when I read/watch FY. For one, I don't want to strangle the main heroine, hero, villain and villainess whenever they show up.
Haruka is as much of a rip-off of FY as Shounen Onmyouji is a rip-off of Yami no Matsuei. Sure, Touda did attack and nearly kill the summoner in both, but no one can claim that they are, feel or is a rip-off of one another.
Or to make a more famous example: Code Geass is a cheap rip-off of Gundam [all series]! *Gets bombarded with flames about how the two is and feels different.*
Even better, Tokyo Mew Mew is a rip-off of Sailor Moon! Bleach is a rip-off of Naruto (or the other way around)! Ouran High School Host Club is a rip-off of Fruits Basket! Magic Knight Rayearth is a rip-off of freaking Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne! Heck, Inuyasha rips-off Yu Yu Hakusho! Don't forget Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch [Pure] and Full Moon wo Sagashite! Or Slayers and Lodoss War!
See what I mean? All of these titles are superficially alike, but when it comes down to it, they're all fundamentally different. Now, apply those feelings to Haruka and FY and you'll realise that there's a difference.
Why can't people get that not everything can be Pet Shop of Horrors or Moyashimon?! And not everything should be. Also, if you have a blog that's supposed to be for manganime reviews (and some of you claim that you'll help the reader avoid the trash) shouldn't you at least, oh I don't know, WATCH it before you tell your readers that it's a trashy rip-off to be avoided at all costs (because you thought that FY was trash and that Haruka is exactly like it, because you looked at the cover or barely read the summary and realised that it was about a miko with a bunch of guys around her)?!
It's just like those Fantasy publishers that keep saying that the book is just like Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Eragon except not really once the reader has read the book and concludes that said publishers are crazy.
Okay, I'll stop now before I start ranting about how Nuriko suddenly fell in love with Miaka because everyone must love Miaka! Hell, Tomomasa/Akane was waaay better than that [though outside the alternate endings, it didn't happen] (and their build up was about Tomomasa teasing and flustering Akane and Fuji-hime scolding him).
To finish:
I can accept Final Fantasy: Unlimited being sucky to most of everyone else (even though I loved it).
I can accept that some just can get past the visual similarities between Wedding Peach and Sailor Moon even though plot is a lot different (like the main heroine not becoming Queen of the Solar System by the end).
I can't accept it when people call Haruka an FY rip-off. Plenty of FY fans will hate Haruka and plenty of Haruka fans hate FY. I like both (though Genbu Kaiden a bit more than original FY), but they aren't the same.
