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Near the beginning of the Fushigi Yuugi anime, Miaka and Yui find a copy of The Universe of the Four Gods in the National Library. Miaka is surprised that Yui can read this book, which is stated to be in Classical Chinese rather than Japanese or any other language.

How did Yui learn enough Classical Chinese to read this book? At the beginning, Miaka and Yui are both 15 years old, attend the same school, and are studying for the same entrance examinations, so it would seem unusual for their studies to have diverged significantly. Is this explained anywhere in the manga or in supplementary materials?

  • Is this a particular interest of Yui?
  • Did Miaka pick a different language to study in school (if so, which one?)?
  • Is Yui simply far more intelligent than Miaka?
  • Is there some other explanation?
Robert Columbia
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1 Answers1

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It is unlikely to have an explanation since it is an anime original setting.

In chapter 1 of the original manga, the book was described as a Japanese translation of a Classical Chinese novel.

This is also shown later that the book was written in Japanese and Miaka could read the book without any problem.

Thus, if a reason is needed, the only thing that is both true in the anime and manga is that Yui is simply far more intelligent than Miaka.

*Note: the anime adaptation has some differences from the original manga. After Yui read the book for the first time, unlike in the anime where only Yui came back to the real world and immediately read the book again, both Miaka and Yui came back to the real world in the manga, but Miaka later read the book alone and got transported again.

Aki Tanaka
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