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So while I was reading Monster Blood Tattoo I was thinking that I was a little bit sick of teenaged protagonists and their fantasy coming-of-age tales . . . and then I read the first of Fuyumi Ono's Twelve Kingdoms books, Sea of Shadows, and I was like "I TAKE IT ALL BACK, COMING OF AGE IS AWESOME!" OR MAYBE it is just that this book is awesome.

Okay, so if I summarize Twelve Kingdoms it is going to sound a lot like a collection of tropes we all know very well: Yoko is an Ordinary High Schooler, quiet and shy, who doesn't quite feel like she fits in and is set apart by her super special red hair! AND THEN some crazy dude shows up, swears fealty to her as a destined chosen one, takes her to a magical land, hands her a magic sword, and tells her to fight monsters with it! Awesome wish-fulfillment, yes?

Well, no, actually, not at all. After Yoko is given the sword (and reacts with "No, no, WTF, you're insane, I want to go home, and more no!") she is almost immediately separated by a monster attack from the person who brought her, leaving her completely alone.

In a poverty-stricken country that has severe laws and prejudices against kaikyaku, people from the other world.

With monsters attacking her wherever she goes.

Basically, Fuyumi Ono apparently takes great glee in rounding up her super-magic-wish-fulfillment-fantasy tropes and then kicking them in the face. Let's make it clear from the start, Yoko is not noble or instantly likable or an independent thinker, or in any obvious way a heroine in the making. On the contrary, Yoko is passive and frightened of conflict and has spent her whole life trying very hard to please everybody and do nothing controversial, with the result that she's never successfully made a connection with anybody - the rest of her classmates rightly judge her as two-faced, because she'll say whatever she thinks the person she's talking to wants to hear. And while the situation she finds herself in does change her, this is not your standard Growth Through Adversity - on the contrary, although she gets pretty good at killing monsters in a badass fashion, the constant grind of hardship and betrayal nearly breaks her, turning her into a bitter and feral outcast who's in danger of losing her humanity altogether.

It's not easy to become a fantasy heroine. In fact, it's really hard. And that's a lot of the reason why I loved it so much - because the fact that it is so hard makes it all the more satisfying as Yoko does start to rebuild herself. I love her for a lot of the same reasons that I love Dave in the Fionavar books - she starts out with a full back catalog of issues, and they don't go away, but by the end, she's determined not just to survive, but to make her own choices and become the kind of person she wants to be. She even manages to grow a sense of humor! And - guys, you might want to take my review with a grain of salt here, because I am not capable of objectivity, I love Yoko like crazy. I did even from the beginning of the book - I've seen reviews saying it was hard for people get through the beginning before Yoko starts to go through some of her more significant character development because they were so frustrated with her, but I was identifying with her like a maniac. (Confessions time: I am always terrified that I am far more like Early Yoko than I want to be. That girl, that girl who doesn't want to actively pick on the social pariah so she can feel good about herself, but is too scared to be seen being nice to her either, so ends up hovering in a miserable middle ground? Oh, have I ever been that girl. I'm not proud of it, but I so have.)

Um, besides how much I love Yoko, there's other good stuff about the book too! The world is really unusual and interesting - based largely on Chinese mythology, I believe - and there's setup for cool political stuff and some really cool secondary characters who enter about two-thirds of the way into the book and I like the whole thing a lot, but basically for me it is all about Yoko. (Except not really, because I understand the next two Twelve Kingdom books that are published in English are not at all about Yoko, and I am still going to hunt them down and devour them ASAP. But I am most excited for the one that has Yoko again, which is coming out next year.)

I also desperately want to see the anime based on it, but I kind of want to wait until I've read the rest of the books. But they are only being published once a year and there are four to go, so that is like four years to wait! D: D: DILEMMA!

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Apparently they are publishing them at the rate of one a year! Which is WAY TOO SLOW but could be worse. *clings to them*

Okay, so I am really curious - what function do the other kids from Yoko's world serve in the anime storyline? Because as far as I know they do not exist in the book; Yoko comes through alone and stays essentially alone until she meets Rakushun.

Wikipedia is totally my friend, as it sums this up quicker than I could -- But! Two classmates, Yuka and Asano. Yuka is effectively Youko's rival, and she's REALLY jealous when she finds out Youko is the chosen one -- she reads fantasy novels, see, and is therefore TOTALLY prepared for this whole adventure and is easily manipulated by King Kou to believe it was a mistake that Youko was chosen and that she can take her 'friend's' place.

And since I am running late now, I rip wholesale from Wiki re: Asano: "[He] is another one of Youko’s classmates and has known Youko since childhood. He is transported to the kingdom of Kou with Youko and Sugimoto, but goes missing after a battle between Yuka and Youko and is not seen by either of them for some time. Asano eventually becomes part of a group of Shusei and works for them as they traveled through the kingdoms. However, being in a completely alien country and lacking the ability to speak or understand the language, the strain has taken a toll on his sanity. Eventually, Asano questions the reason he was ever brought to Kou and seemingly can't find a reason for his life to go on. He dies at some point later in the anime. In the novels, Asano does not exist and Youko attends an all girls school."

Wikipedia is totally helpful! I could have gone and just looked there probably . . . but, uh, we'll say I'm avoiding spoilers, so it is probably a good thing I didn't!

And, hm. I am not sure how I feel about the descriptions of those storylines (although my kneejerk response to 'Yoko's rival who is jealous of her!' is 'DO NOT WANT.')

(although my kneejerk response to 'Yoko's rival who is jealous of her!' is 'DO NOT WANT.')

This is true... but my kneejerk response to 'girl who reads fantasy novels and is hopping mad that somebody reluctant got chosen to be another world's chosen one when she was TOTALLY READY AND PREPARED FOR THAT PLOTLINE, GUYS' is 'AWESOME!'

Um, not that I have read the book or seen the anime, so here have a handful of saltshakers. But still! It would be a crime to make that character and her plotline an irritating one. :(

That is also true! But from my knowledge of the tone of the book, at least, I suspect it would not be taken in that awesomely hilarious direction, but would be played a lot more straight in terms of PEOPLE YOU CANNOT TRUST. *SAD* I would be very happy to be wrong, though!

Well boo to THAT.

It is indeed an awesome concept! But from what I remember of what I saw of the anime, it was carried out in a more "LOOK AT THIS BITCH BEING BITCHY. See why she was an outcast back home?"

One of the reasons I found the anime very disappointingly sexist compared to the book.

Baaaaah! That is an annoying way to carry out any character's plotline, let alone one with so much potential coolness.

Mmph.

The whole way she was treated was very annoying! The book kind of roundaboutly attacks Japan's whole "Outsiders are BAD" ethic, it seems like the anime decided it had to enforce that ethic somehow and so treated a potentially very interesting character very badly. >/

Man, don't you hate it when adaptations completely miss major points of the original work? Oof.

So much. It often makes me want to hit people with the book(s).

...Except the rare cases where an adaptation adds interesting themes. But at the moment I can only think of one of those.

I knoooooow.

I can think of a couple adaptations I've liked very very well; I suspect a couple of those have added interesting themes, though the ones I'm immediately thinking of, I'm not sure which came first. But it's true that the good ones are far outnumbered by the lousy ones. More's the pity.

Oy vey. Am sorry, Becca! I forgot that some info could be seen as spoilery. >.< Mea culpa? Apologies? I haven't ruined anything major, I swear? Um? ♥?

And I will just not type what I started to type as it could be a spoiler and I think I will just say that I know I love Rakushun. He is such a LOVE!

*ahem*

... so I'm totally picking up the books myself OMG soon so I can continue reading where the Anime left off. Yes.

Oh no no no, you're fine! Those are the spoilers I asked you for. *grins* I just meant, this way I get the spoilery information I wanted without any others! Which I am glad of!

And RAKUSHUN YES. <3333 From what I've seen of him so far I kind of adore him.

Read the books! Sadly I don't think the ones that go beyond the anime will be out for another two years, but there is still lots of awesome in the meantime!