(no subject)
It's Saturday! I am in my office doing work! The reason for this is that this upcoming week is the Big Conference of Epicness that my entire job revolves around, which means that today I am frantically printing out all the lists of Things I Need to Do And Places I Need To Be. In other words, this is basically a notice of absence - I may be around in the evenings, but don't expect to see much of me between now and next weekend.
In the meantime, I am way behind on my booklogging and likely to get more behind. SO: Fuyumi Ono's Sea of Wind. This is the second Twelve Kingdoms book and the sequel to Sea of Shadows, which some of you may have noticed me falling into PASSIONATE LOVE with when I read it. Sea of Wind takes place about ten years before Sea of Shadow and follows a different character, Taiki.
I didn't fall in love with Sea of Wind the same way, but I did not really expect to, because I imprinted SO HARD on Yoko, and it seemed unlikely that I would feel the same way about Taiki. Which is not to say that Taiki is not a fun character! Taiki is a kirin, a magical creature-person who has divine mandate to choose and advise the king of one of the kingdoms. Each kingdom has its own kirin, and when one dies, another is born. Unfortunately, Taiki gets blown away over the ocean into Japan by accident and born as a human child, which causes some awkwardness when the oracles who are supposed to be taking care of him finally find him again. 10-year-old Taiki, abused by his family, is perfectly willing to believe that his real home is in another world where everyone loves him and thinks he's special - but he can't do anything a kirin is supposed to be able to, and his insecurity issues just keep growing the more the oracles dote on him and tell him what an awesome kirin he's going to be.
I think Taiki isn't as unusual a fantasy protagonist as Yoko - he's a total sweetheart, of course, but either Ono or the English translator occasionally lays on the "poor little kid" angle a little thick - and so the plotline of the book didn't feel as subversive to me. The book picked up pretty quickly halfway through once the other characters appeared, though. Best were the scenes with Keiki, who is an important but not-often-visible figure in Sea of Shadows, where he mostly takes on the role of Cryptic Blonde Bishounen. In Sea of Wind, however, it is revealed that he is not so much cryptic as hilariously lacking in social skills - my favorite scene is the one where like twenty oracles are shouting at him because HE MADE THE BABY KIRIN CRY, DAMMIT. But even better is how Ono is all, "So he hung out with Taiki and learned to be a little nicer and a better person! WHICH LED TO TERRIBLE TRAGEDY FOR THE REALM. Oops. :D?" Now that is the kind of subversive I am talking about. And then you get into interesting political stuff, and that is cool too! I hear that there is more interesting politics in the next one, so I am excited for that.
Sidenote: the translation felt way more awkward to me in this one than it did in Sea of Shadows. And it is very weird to label clearly Chinese and Japanese-inspired creatures as faeries and lamia. WTF?
ALSO WHILE I AM TALKING OF WTF: y'all who know the Fullmetal Alchemist storyline, and I know there are several of you, I NEED VERY IMPORTANT CONFIRMATION ON SOMETHING. OKAY so I saw the most recent Brotherhood storyline last night, and, okay, is Scar's angsty backstory ACTUALLY that his brother GAVE HIM HIS OWN ARM? Just, like, grafted the damn thing onto his shoulder? I had to stop and laugh for like ten minutes!
In the meantime, I am way behind on my booklogging and likely to get more behind. SO: Fuyumi Ono's Sea of Wind. This is the second Twelve Kingdoms book and the sequel to Sea of Shadows, which some of you may have noticed me falling into PASSIONATE LOVE with when I read it. Sea of Wind takes place about ten years before Sea of Shadow and follows a different character, Taiki.
I didn't fall in love with Sea of Wind the same way, but I did not really expect to, because I imprinted SO HARD on Yoko, and it seemed unlikely that I would feel the same way about Taiki. Which is not to say that Taiki is not a fun character! Taiki is a kirin, a magical creature-person who has divine mandate to choose and advise the king of one of the kingdoms. Each kingdom has its own kirin, and when one dies, another is born. Unfortunately, Taiki gets blown away over the ocean into Japan by accident and born as a human child, which causes some awkwardness when the oracles who are supposed to be taking care of him finally find him again. 10-year-old Taiki, abused by his family, is perfectly willing to believe that his real home is in another world where everyone loves him and thinks he's special - but he can't do anything a kirin is supposed to be able to, and his insecurity issues just keep growing the more the oracles dote on him and tell him what an awesome kirin he's going to be.
I think Taiki isn't as unusual a fantasy protagonist as Yoko - he's a total sweetheart, of course, but either Ono or the English translator occasionally lays on the "poor little kid" angle a little thick - and so the plotline of the book didn't feel as subversive to me. The book picked up pretty quickly halfway through once the other characters appeared, though. Best were the scenes with Keiki, who is an important but not-often-visible figure in Sea of Shadows, where he mostly takes on the role of Cryptic Blonde Bishounen. In Sea of Wind, however, it is revealed that he is not so much cryptic as hilariously lacking in social skills - my favorite scene is the one where like twenty oracles are shouting at him because HE MADE THE BABY KIRIN CRY, DAMMIT. But even better is how Ono is all, "So he hung out with Taiki and learned to be a little nicer and a better person! WHICH LED TO TERRIBLE TRAGEDY FOR THE REALM. Oops. :D?" Now that is the kind of subversive I am talking about. And then you get into interesting political stuff, and that is cool too! I hear that there is more interesting politics in the next one, so I am excited for that.
Sidenote: the translation felt way more awkward to me in this one than it did in Sea of Shadows. And it is very weird to label clearly Chinese and Japanese-inspired creatures as faeries and lamia. WTF?
ALSO WHILE I AM TALKING OF WTF: y'all who know the Fullmetal Alchemist storyline, and I know there are several of you, I NEED VERY IMPORTANT CONFIRMATION ON SOMETHING. OKAY so I saw the most recent Brotherhood storyline last night, and, okay, is Scar's angsty backstory ACTUALLY that his brother GAVE HIM HIS OWN ARM? Just, like, grafted the damn thing onto his shoulder? I had to stop and laugh for like ten minutes!