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Do you see the image on the left? It's Tamahome and all the Suzaku Seishi
surrounding each other in happiness and love. There is no animosity
between them, no hate, no anger. But there is great animosity
between the FANS of these characters. Why?
Sometimes, love for a character can lead to resentment against another character (or more than one) who fans feel don't deserve as much as their favorite Seishi should. This is all well and good, but when it comes to the point where the fans of say Tasuki, and the fans of Hotohori and fans of Tamahome begin to butt heads on who is better or who is the best character or who deserves Miaka more, the whole point of the series is lost. There is NO best FY character, no Seishi is better than another. To argue such a case is to bring about friction between the fans to foster negative feelings about the character. I remember once when some one left an anonymous message for me on the site saying 'Tasuki is better than Tamahome!' and I just rolled my eyes and thought to myself, "What an idiot. Does he/she expect me to actually LIKE Tasuki better now that she's written me a cocky, bullshit opinion?" All this person succeeded in doing was to make me DISLIKE Tasuki. Why should I like a character whose fans insist he is better than another character? The FANS are the ones ruining the character(s) for others. Fortunately, I can just read the manga or watch my anime eps and see for myself that Tasuki and Hotohori are beautiful characters and neither are better than another seishi and no seishi better than them. To think otherwise is to kill the true meaning of Fushigi Yuugi.
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Throughout this wonderful tale, we see the Seishi constantly SUPPORTING
and LOVING each other. They treact each other as more than just best
friends, but like BROTHERS, like real family. At the end of Ep. 52, we see
how all the seishi pooled their powers to Tamahome - they joined in
support for a common cause - none individually is better than another.
Tamahome comments on how he feels all of them inside him, their strength,
love and friendship. All the Seishi show this again in the OAVs when they
tell Taka (Tamahome's reincarnated soul) how much he means to them.
Hotohori cared a GREAT deal about Tamahome, especially when bad things happened to Tamahome's family....Hotohori's heart went out to Tamahome. Tasuki, also showed GREAT friendship to Tamahome when he was possessed by the 'evil water' in Manga volume 15 (17?) where he is about to burn Tamahome with his tessen but screams out 'I can't betray a friend' and burns himself. His friendship with Tamahome was more important than any hidden feelings he may have had towards Miaka. Same is true for Hotohori. They both chose to put aside any feelings they had for Miaka because of their friendship for Tamahome and Miaka both. What was more important to these characters was not petty rivalries on who is better, or who should be with Miaka - what was important was friendship. Hotohori died thinking about how happy he was to have finally made real friends, to have a real family in the Suzaku Seishi since he had been all alone all his life. Nothing meant more to him or the other Seishi then the bonds the seishi formed with each other, and you see this time and time again throughout the anime and manga.
 So these arguments about 'This seishi is better than that one' are pointless - they defeat the true spirit of Fushigi Yuugi. Between friends and love ones, no one is better than another. True friends sacrifice in the name of friendship, true friends give up their happiness for the happiness of their loved ones. THIS theme is what we, as fans of the series, should uphold. Nuriko, Hotohori, and Tasuki didn't all sacrifice their feelings for Miaka to have us, the fans, later argue on their behalf. They dropped their feelings because
(1) They wanted Miaka to be happy with the man she loved
To argue otherwise is to insult the loyalty to the friendships they had with each other. Nuriko, Hotohori and Tasuki would and will never step into the path of Miaka and Tamahome ever again. The series showed us that they valued true love and true friendship more than anything else. And Miaka and Tamahome repaid them for all their support and friendship at the end of the manga and OAVs when they left their bodies and so enabled the salvation of the universe. This is why there is such happiness in that picture above and the picture below. When you realize how much more important being loyal to friends and valuing true love is, there is harmony in everything. Nuriko, Tasuki, and Hotohori all felt they did the right thing by stepping aside and letting Miaka be with Tamahome. It would only hurt Miaka to have people vying for her love when she herself only loves Tamahome. It would also hurt Tamahome to have his close friends trying to betray him by taking theonly woman he has ever loved away. None of the Seishi did this to Tamahome. They all loved him and Miaka too much to hurt them and wreak havoc upon their fragile love lives. Again, this is the meaning of true friendship - wanting another's happiness more than anything else. For our dear Seishi's benefit though, we all know Hotohori marries his empress Houki and has a son with her, and he loves her very much, and we know that men as beautiful and lovng as Nuriko and Tasuki will both find the right women (or men in Nuriko's case) who will be their one and only true love.
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