Twelve Kingdoms, ep. 01-05

[oyceter]

Er. I really didn't like this

Comments

[ext_59120]

Yoko's passivity is addressed as a product of her always trying to be what others expect her to be. I've never watched Fushigi Yuugi because I liked 12 Kingdoms and I've been told that Fushigi Yuugi's triteness would upset me.

I don't know how else to explain Juuni Kokki except to say you're supposed to dislike the main character and see her faults and then watch her pick herself up and actually do and learn and mature. The world and music intrigued me enough to keep watching.

I thought most of us who recced it had warned you that the main character starts off in a place where you wouldn't like her but that the journey is psychological as well as physical?

[meganbmoore]

FY and 12k don't compare at all. I don't mean that as "one is better than the other" but more as "you might as well compare Ouran High School Host Club and Revolutionary Girl Utena, since both are set at elite schools and include genderbending." I encountered both (12k anime and FY manga) at about the same time, and it never occurred to me that they would be compared on any level until after I'd finished both. (Which was a couple years later.) The similarities begin and end with "modern schoolgirl finds herself in world based on Chinese mythology."

[ext_59120]

JK reminds me of why I fell in love with fantasy and why I wanted to be a fantasy writer when I grew up (still do). I love the smart twists on tropes. I love the mythology. I love the characters (their growth and pains and highs). I love the damn thing so much that I've scoured the internet for fan translations of the book and even found myself listening to a japanese podcast of a CD short story. Didn't understand a word of it, but recognized all the voices.

[meganbmoore]

Ditto.

[oyceter]

People may very well have warned me and I might have forgotten! But yeah, I was like, I'm sure this must get better, because I remember a lot of commenters saying that they loved Yoko...