Name:	Houjun Li (芳准･李)
Anime:	Fushigi Yuugi/Mysterious Play
Nickname:	Chichiri (井宿)
Age:	24
Birthday:	May 21
Height:	175 centimeters
Blood type:	Unknown
Family:	Unknown
Hobby:	Fishing
Powers/abilities:	Magic
Voice Actor/Actress:	Tomokazu Seki

Chichiri is one of the Suzaku Shichiseishi and his character is 井 (pronounced shou and means water well) on his left knee.

In addition to being one of the Suzaku Shichiseishi, Chichiri is also a Buddhist monk. The cape (called a kesa), staff (called a shakujou), and the beads around his neck (prayer beads) are traditional items associated with his denomination. He also sometimes wears a kasa, is which an umbrella-like hat woven out of some reed/grass-like material.

In Chichiri's case, he uses the kesa and kasa to teleport from place to place. His staff is occassionally used for attacks, but more often for defense, and his prayer beads are used to focus his magic, which is his primary way of attack (generally an electric blast). In addition to these skills, he can transform into other people, detect the chi of others, block others' chi using his own, deflect chi blasts, communicate to others over long distances, and make a magic mask. He also has the random (non-chi related) skill of being able to go super-deformed whenever he feels like.

That Chichiri is hiding something in his past is obvious because of the scar over his right eye. He cannot see out of that eye, but usually hides this scar by wearing his mask, which makes his face look fox-like. Apparently he has had the opportunity to have it healed, but opted not to because he wanted it as a reminder of the past. He has a generally cheerful demeanor, but it's difficult to tell if this is just a show or if it's really the way he feels. However, one thing that is clear, is how much Chichiri cares about his friends. He rarely loses composure, but when he does, it's because his friends are in trouble.

Chichiri is one of the oldest of the Suzaku Shichiseishi, and so often acts as their advisor.

This section has been censored because of spoilers. To read the rest of this section, please highlight it.

When he was young, Chichiri lived in a village near a river called the Shoryuu. He had two very close friends, Hikou (male) and Kouran (female). When they were 18, Chichiri and Kouran got engaged. Unfortunately, Hikou was also in love with Kouran, and confessed his love by kissing her when they were alone. Although she was truly in love of Chichiri, she felt unworthy of Chichiri because of that kiss, and ended up breaking off their engagement.

To make matters worse, Chichiri had accidently seen Hikou and Kouran kissing, and jumped to the conclusion that he had been betrayed by his two best friends. In a fit of deadly rage, he attacked Hikou with a knife.

During the fight, Hikou slipped and fell into the Shoryuu River, which had swollen into a raging dangerous monster due to recent flooding. At this moment Chichiri realized how much he still cared for Hikou, and grabbed him. However, when a log struck his eye and gouged it out, Chichiri accidentally let go, and Hikou drowned. Later, you find out that Kouran, Chichiri's family, and the rest of his village also died in the flood.

Sometime within the next three years, Chichiri became a buddhist monk, but this did not bring him any peace and he eventually tries to drown himself in a river. He's rescued by a girl named Kouran who lives by the Shouryuu River. After Chichiri regains his strength, he goes to Mt. Taikyoku to learn how to use magic fro Taiitsukun for three years. By this time Kouran's village is in danger of being flooded, so Chichiri joins forces with her fiance to save the village. Soon after he makes his entrance into the manga.

You can read more about Chichiri's past in Shoryuu Den, but it also has spoilers for the anime/manga.

Chichiri has a strange speech pattern in Japanese (ie he ends every sentence with "no da"). In the US commercial version of Fushigi Yuugi, this was translated as "you know", although it was not used very consistently. However, this is not a very accurate translation since "no da", or as it is more frequently used "ndesu" or "nda", is simply used to emphasize what is being said. In my opinion, the best way to convey this in translation would be to add an exclamation point to the end of every sentence. Of course, you can't do that with a dubbed anime, but as I hate dubs, I don't care too much.

Chichiri's voice actor, Tomokazu Seki, has sung several songs as Chichiri, some solo and some with other characters. I have posted the song lyrics (both translated and untranslated) on this site in HTML and text document formats. Please keep in mind that both use Japanese characters, which your computer may not be able to read unless you download a special character set.

The Beauties of Nature	HTML page	Text File
Blue Freedom, White Desire	HTML Page	Text File
It's a Cinch to Often Transform at Will	HTML Page	Text File
Really Fired Up and Bursting with Guts	HTML Page	Text File
Wate-Mirror	HTML Page	Text File

As is probably very obvious, Chichiri is my favorite anime character. Mostly I like his personality - kind (doesn't want to hurt other people) and wise, but not proud, and a little mysterious. He'd prefer to see himself hurt rather than hurting others and tries to make other people happy by always acting happy himself, even if he might not feel that way inside. As a result, he's generally very calm in the face of adversity, unless someone he cares for is in danger. That is the kind of person I admire a lot. Especially since he can do a ton of cool things on top of it. ;)