I've disappeared for weeks... only surfacing just recently to express my horror at KHR's failling plot at makeste's weekly KHR commentary. Reasons for my disappearance are aplenty: my life was pretty much hectic in the past few weeks. Ended my internship, whisked off for an extremely short holiday, started school, anime/manga flooding... basically, I had a lot to think about (final year project, job prospects, company culture, fanfiction, manga, anime, anime, anime...) and I get overwhelmed periodically. Staying true to my earlier decisions, I won't reveal much about realities that are biting me in the ass. Or maybe I am just a lazy ass.
Whatever it is, I have to admit that I was consuming anime like crazy for the past few weeks. During my short holiday, I bought a couple of anime titles and using my sister's laptop, I indulged in anime marathons every night till 1 am at the hotel. And since I'm pretty guilty about MIAing for the past few weeks, I've decided to give Shonen Onmyouji fans something to cheer about.
I know this is not a new anime but surprisingly, this title is not on the radar of many anime fans. Story summary in a sentence: Abe no Masahiro aims to step out of his grandfather's shadow by becoming the best onmyouji ever. Cheesy & cliche summary? I assure you the story is anything but. However, at 1.37am, I am far too tired and lazy to present you a convincing case on how Shonen Onmyouji is worth your time. I will just emphasize that the plot has a healthy amount of charcter torture/angst. I'm not even going to elaborate on the potential yaoiness of this title.
This anime was adapted from the novel, which spans across 26 volumes and 5 (or is it 6) arcs. Thankfully, the novel is fantastic - which means that after going through the usual plot butchering, the anime - praise the heavens - doesn't suck... that much. Like 'The Twelve Kingdoms', the anime of Shonen Onmyouji has a rather accurate portrayal of the novel plot. The anime however, covers only 2 arcs - the Kyuki arc & Kazane arc.
Que MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT
The first arc - vol 1 to 3 - features demon Kyuki's desire for Masahiro's spiritual strength/reserves for wound remedy (aka have Masahiro for breakfast). The second arc- vol 4 to 8 - centres round the resurfacing of Semei's (Masahiro's grandfather) old enemy. The Lord of the hell fire Guren, Masahiro's guardian aka close friend aka potential yaoi pairing in fanfic world, turned evil and Masahiro as a result is forced to kill him and yadda yadda (typical shonen shit). Anime/ 2ne Arc ends with (1) Guren lost all memories of Masahiro & (2) Masahiro was revived by his grandmama. As a side note, Masahiro has died twice, periodically bordered death, and sustained severe injuries countless of times in a short span of two arcs (26 episodes). Granted, the anime is a lot milder than the novel or drama CD. Ratings for the latter two should be bumped higher - I mean when Masahiro suffers, he seriously goes through the mill man. The anime just breezes past his angsty periods.
Back to my previous point, fangals, as expected, will be hurling profanities at the shitty, half-assed ending. Though it isn't much, I'm presenting Shonen Onmyouji fans certain resources to ensure plot continuity.
http://zips-17.livejournal.com/?skip=10 Zips 17 provides novel translations of the beginning of the third arc from bk 9 chapter 1 to chapter 6 part 3.
http://community.livejournal.com/shounenonmyouji/ http://shounen-onmyouji.deviantart.com/gallery/23975908 The translations for the rest of book 9 can be found in these two sites.
Book 9 focuses on a recuperating Masahiro (Took him 5 months to drag his corpse outta bed - but what do you expect? the dude just came back from the dead) as he struggles to cope with Guren who treats him with contempt.
After you are done reading book 9, do listen - you have to, phppsmss commands you to! - to the drama CDs (vol 9). Downloads from english sites are a PAIN IN THE ASS (stupid torrents), so I went to baidu and started unearthing, killing my brains along the way. Be grateful to phppsmss!
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=200524640 This forum provides you three links to vol 9 Shonen Onmyouji drama. For those who are clueless as to how chinese sites roll, lemme give you a short tutorial. You will see download links like this (part 1, 2, 3 of vol 9 drama) when you click the URL above
The download links will lead you to a filehosting site (similar to megaupload, mediafire). The string of numbers aren't mumbo jumbo. They are security codes for file downloads. Yes, chinese file hosting sites, or at least this one, requires a 16 DIGIT NUMERICAL CODE. WTH. Well at least you can download the damn thing, unlike coughmegauploadcough.
So click one of those download links, copy the string of BS aka 16 digit code and stuff it in the space indicated in the picture below. Then click ok.
The page will refresh and look as if you haven't done shit. Essentially, the site is "unlocked" and ready for download. Scroll down and click on this freaking small link as shown below (I got conned by the site repeatedly and thought that it didn't register my security code with its repeated page refreshing. It took me 45 min to snap out of my repeated keying in of security code to locate that tiny download link.)
Internet explorer users - please click the black link. For users of other browers, click the red one. Vol 9 drama downloads are in wma, not mp3.
You have to crawl through the english sites for drama cds of the earlier volumes. I find it pretty redundant, for now, to listen to them when you can watch the anime. (but then again, I have the first volume of shonen onmyouji drama in my com, ahaha). Unforutnately, the english translation for vol 10 to 26 is unavaliable. I haven't checked if the drama cds are avaliable - most probably not. For those who can read chinese, the full series is avaliable at
http://book.sky-fire.com/Novel/2634/MainIndex/ Any enthu Shonen Onmyouji fan is welcome to engage in philanthrophy by translating the rest of the volumes to english for the betterment of mankind. You have my blessings.