The Twelve Kingdoms
Feb. 11th, 2011 10:32 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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halfamoonLast month I wrote up a rec post for The Twelve Kingdoms. I decided to make a few changes and post it here. This is a female centric look at this amazingly constructed fantasy world.
The Twelve Kingdoms is a complicated thing to describe. The anime, which contains 45 episodes is adapted from a series of light novels written by Fuyumi Ono. Both versions are unfinished, but the light novels are further along and covers plots the anime doesn't. I'll rec the anime and light novels because I think that both of them are worth looking at, even though I think the novel gets off to a much better start.
One of the key story lines in The Twelve Kingdoms centres around Youko Nakajima, a shy high school girl is thrown into the Twelve Kingdoms, a Chinese based fantasy world, and struggles to survive in a world that's very different from the one she knows. But Youko eventually discovers she is the rightful ruler of one of these kingdoms. The main part of her story line is overcoming her shyness and the need please others in order to become a great leader.
The series takes stock tropes in the "displaced girl" plot found in many fantasy tales and either subverts or explores them in intelligent and thoughtful ways. The concept of Destined Rulers is explored and even challenged at times. The world-building is amazingly in-depth, and addresses the fact that a teenage girl living in modern day Japan wouldn't understand the economic needs of a country that's reminiscent of Ancient China.
Youko with her Kirin, unicorn like creature that serves the chosen ruler. Illustration from the light novels.
But in my opinion, the best thing about this series is the characters. This story has has an extremely believable and interesting cast of characters. One story arc follows three women, Suzu, Shoukei and Youko, who have parallel character arcs that eventually intertwine. They later become friends fight in a rebellion together! The character development in this series are very detailed, beautiful and realistic. I haven't seen many works of fiction with character development this good. It really is incredible! One of the central themes that make the character development so powerful, is the theme of overcoming strict social conventions. This shown mostly in regards to the female characters, particularly Youko. It truly helps to give the series its human dimension and makes it an extremely moving story.
Suzu, Youko and Shoukei. Illustration from the light novels.
The anime. Images provided by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
queenofthecute
Many consider the fan translated version of the novels superior to the Tokyopop translation. Here is a link to the fan translated version. www.eugenewoodbury.com/
The Twelve Kingdoms is a complicated thing to describe. The anime, which contains 45 episodes is adapted from a series of light novels written by Fuyumi Ono. Both versions are unfinished, but the light novels are further along and covers plots the anime doesn't. I'll rec the anime and light novels because I think that both of them are worth looking at, even though I think the novel gets off to a much better start.
One of the key story lines in The Twelve Kingdoms centres around Youko Nakajima, a shy high school girl is thrown into the Twelve Kingdoms, a Chinese based fantasy world, and struggles to survive in a world that's very different from the one she knows. But Youko eventually discovers she is the rightful ruler of one of these kingdoms. The main part of her story line is overcoming her shyness and the need please others in order to become a great leader.
The series takes stock tropes in the "displaced girl" plot found in many fantasy tales and either subverts or explores them in intelligent and thoughtful ways. The concept of Destined Rulers is explored and even challenged at times. The world-building is amazingly in-depth, and addresses the fact that a teenage girl living in modern day Japan wouldn't understand the economic needs of a country that's reminiscent of Ancient China.
Youko with her Kirin, unicorn like creature that serves the chosen ruler. Illustration from the light novels.
But in my opinion, the best thing about this series is the characters. This story has has an extremely believable and interesting cast of characters. One story arc follows three women, Suzu, Shoukei and Youko, who have parallel character arcs that eventually intertwine. They later become friends fight in a rebellion together! The character development in this series are very detailed, beautiful and realistic. I haven't seen many works of fiction with character development this good. It really is incredible! One of the central themes that make the character development so powerful, is the theme of overcoming strict social conventions. This shown mostly in regards to the female characters, particularly Youko. It truly helps to give the series its human dimension and makes it an extremely moving story.
Suzu, Youko and Shoukei. Illustration from the light novels.
The anime. Images provided by
queenofthecute Many consider the fan translated version of the novels superior to the Tokyopop translation. Here is a link to the fan translated version. www.eugenewoodbury.com/
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Date: 2011-02-11 12:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-11 12:31 pm (UTC)