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elle_white) wrote2011-01-15 06:36 pm
elle_white) wrote2011-01-15 06:36 pm
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12 Kingdoms Rec Post
I think it's finally time I did this post. I've been thinking about it for a while and here it is at last: a big post recommending a series that is quickly becoming one of my favourites. It has a woefully small fandom and liked to see if I can change that!
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 and the main part of her story line is overcoming 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 realistic ways. The concept of Destined Rulers is explored and challenged at times. The world-building is amazingly indepth, 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 to Ancient China.
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queenofthecute
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 ladies 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 as good as this. It really is incredible!
So, if you like stories with political intrigue, epic world-building, awesome ladies and complex characters, then you'll love this series!
Here is a link to the fan translated version, which is apparently superior to the Tokyopop translation. 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 and the main part of her story line is overcoming 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 realistic ways. The concept of Destined Rulers is explored and challenged at times. The world-building is amazingly indepth, 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 to Ancient China.
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queenofthecute 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 ladies 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 as good as this. It really is incredible!
So, if you like stories with political intrigue, epic world-building, awesome ladies and complex characters, then you'll love this series!
Here is a link to the fan translated version, which is apparently superior to the Tokyopop translation. www.eugenewoodbury.com/