I received this book from the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

I was so confused when I read this one. My thoughts were that it was a manga adaptation of the light novels, and in a way it is, but with a spin to it. Instead of just following the first light novel’s stories it just grabs random stories from all the volumes so far released and throws them together. This isn’t always working for me who has read the light novels. The light novels always felt like the stories were connected (and quite often they were as we along with Fushigi would travel towns) and that one event followed the other, but in this one it just felt as if someone had grabbed the most interesting one and threw them together and hoped it would work. I missed the connection and it felt way too rushed. For instance we don’t meet the blue umbrella guy until much later but in this one he is already around in the background. Or how Jimmy the human dog is there from the start which just feels weird/off. Or how quickly we meet with Himitsu instead of it taking a few volumes. Maybe if I hadn’t read the light novels/wasn’t such a fan of them, I would have liked this one more, but for now it just felt like a cash grab.

Of course, it isn’t all bad. I do love seeing some of my favourite stories in manga form and see them became even spookier now that the whole story is illustrated. I loved the urban legends, that is something this series is always so great at, picking some really spooky urban legends. Known ones, but also some unknown ones (at least for me). The art style for the manga is also fantastic and fits very well with the series. I loved how the cover for this one matches with the light novels series, which always features Fushigi along with a blue border, in this one the blue border is replaced by butterflies. I loved that they kept the endings as being a mix. You have some great endings and some very dark endings.

So all in all, while I wasn’t always enthused about this, I still am very happy I got to read this one. I think for now I will stick to Light Novels though. Maybe when those are done and the story is wrapped up there I will read more of the manga should more volumes have been released.