The Twelve Kingdoms
Aug. 9th, 2011 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI just finished all ten disks of the anime, and I really liked it (Thanks to everyone who recced it, and to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bunny_m for lending me it). Parts of it dragged and certain aspects of the storytelling bugged me, but overall it was a really good fantasy story, with an engaging plot, detailed worldbuilding and compelling characters with complex relationships and genuine character growth.
There's no romantic plots apart from two unrequited things that are done with early on, but the platonic relationships between people are strong enough that I didn't miss it (I love when platonic relationships involving women are taken seriously ^_^) Speaking of which, there's a LOT of female characters, the show isn't perfect on gender but they're definitely central and taken seriously.
I could be here all day describing the setting but: the twelve kingdoms are based loosely on ancient Chinese mythology(*), created by the gods to run as smoothly and fairly as possible while still leaving room for free will (which means they often don't run very smoothly or fairly at all, people being what they are) I thought this was very well done, I really believed in the world despite some pretty bizarre fantasy elements.
The story flips between a lot of characters, and back and forward in time, but the closest thing to a main character is Yoko, a sixteen year old girl who is told she has a Destiny then gets catapulted into the twelve kingdoms with no real idea what's going on. The story follows her as she first tries not to die (at the hands of actual enemies, and just because a medieval world full of monsters is a dangerous place to be when you don't have any connections or know anything about the culture), then as she figures out her place in the world and tries to do her best to become who she needs to be. She starts out really annoyingly passive and helpless, and her journey to becoming genuinely badass without losing sight of herself is really well done.
There's several characters who start out pretty annoying and self centred then become better people. One of the major themes is that you have to accept the way things are, rather than being restricted by your ideas of the way you think things should be, and that we all have a responsibility to be the best people we can be with the situation we are given. One thing I really like is that there are God Given Destinies (as well as people who decide they have a Destiny when they don't), but they don't make life simple or fair, and while it's usually a bad idea (both morally and practically) to go against Heaven sometimes it's necessary despite the heavy cost.
This is one of the few fantasy settings I've encountered with The Divine Right of Kings and active and sympathetic gods which hasn't totally set my lefty secular humanist teeth on edge, though I did have some problems with it here and there. It reminded me a little of Dickens, oddly enough: implicit support of a rigid class system, but genuine compassion and respect for everyone in the complex ecosystem of the lower, middle and upper classes. It's possible that if I was Japanese it would hit too close to home and rub me the wrong way like "Downton Abbey" did, but since I'm not it didn't :) It's certainly less simplistic than Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was all about restoring the status quo and letting the rightful ruling classes take care of everything.
Everything's played completely straight, it's like the author started with a Mary Sue self insert story about a schoolgirl with a destiny and a unicorn friend and a magical feudal fantasy land etc and decided to take it absolutely seriously and make it work. I'm curious to read the novels now and see what they're like.
One thing I will warn for: there are four sub-stories, roughly divided into disks 1-3, 4-5, 6-9 and 10. They all end fairly abruptly, then are followed by a clip-show summary episode with very little new content, then flip to an new story that may have only loose connections to the previous one. Most of the loose threads get tied up in the end but the second story is very much left hanging, apparently the anime got cancelled suddenly so they never got a chance to get back to it. Also it doesn't do fantastically on disability/chronic illness/mental illness etc.
And now that I've finally gotten through a bug episode (blech) I can get back to finishing Farscape...
(*)I'm too ignorant of Chinese mythology to say how loosely. But it certainly all held together well.
bunny_m for lending me it). Parts of it dragged and certain aspects of the storytelling bugged me, but overall it was a really good fantasy story, with an engaging plot, detailed worldbuilding and compelling characters with complex relationships and genuine character growth. There's no romantic plots apart from two unrequited things that are done with early on, but the platonic relationships between people are strong enough that I didn't miss it (I love when platonic relationships involving women are taken seriously ^_^) Speaking of which, there's a LOT of female characters, the show isn't perfect on gender but they're definitely central and taken seriously.
I could be here all day describing the setting but: the twelve kingdoms are based loosely on ancient Chinese mythology(*), created by the gods to run as smoothly and fairly as possible while still leaving room for free will (which means they often don't run very smoothly or fairly at all, people being what they are) I thought this was very well done, I really believed in the world despite some pretty bizarre fantasy elements.
The story flips between a lot of characters, and back and forward in time, but the closest thing to a main character is Yoko, a sixteen year old girl who is told she has a Destiny then gets catapulted into the twelve kingdoms with no real idea what's going on. The story follows her as she first tries not to die (at the hands of actual enemies, and just because a medieval world full of monsters is a dangerous place to be when you don't have any connections or know anything about the culture), then as she figures out her place in the world and tries to do her best to become who she needs to be. She starts out really annoyingly passive and helpless, and her journey to becoming genuinely badass without losing sight of herself is really well done.
There's several characters who start out pretty annoying and self centred then become better people. One of the major themes is that you have to accept the way things are, rather than being restricted by your ideas of the way you think things should be, and that we all have a responsibility to be the best people we can be with the situation we are given. One thing I really like is that there are God Given Destinies (as well as people who decide they have a Destiny when they don't), but they don't make life simple or fair, and while it's usually a bad idea (both morally and practically) to go against Heaven sometimes it's necessary despite the heavy cost.
This is one of the few fantasy settings I've encountered with The Divine Right of Kings and active and sympathetic gods which hasn't totally set my lefty secular humanist teeth on edge, though I did have some problems with it here and there. It reminded me a little of Dickens, oddly enough: implicit support of a rigid class system, but genuine compassion and respect for everyone in the complex ecosystem of the lower, middle and upper classes. It's possible that if I was Japanese it would hit too close to home and rub me the wrong way like "Downton Abbey" did, but since I'm not it didn't :) It's certainly less simplistic than Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was all about restoring the status quo and letting the rightful ruling classes take care of everything.
Everything's played completely straight, it's like the author started with a Mary Sue self insert story about a schoolgirl with a destiny and a unicorn friend and a magical feudal fantasy land etc and decided to take it absolutely seriously and make it work. I'm curious to read the novels now and see what they're like.
One thing I will warn for: there are four sub-stories, roughly divided into disks 1-3, 4-5, 6-9 and 10. They all end fairly abruptly, then are followed by a clip-show summary episode with very little new content, then flip to an new story that may have only loose connections to the previous one. Most of the loose threads get tied up in the end but the second story is very much left hanging, apparently the anime got cancelled suddenly so they never got a chance to get back to it. Also it doesn't do fantastically on disability/chronic illness/mental illness etc.
And now that I've finally gotten through a bug episode (blech) I can get back to finishing Farscape...
(*)I'm too ignorant of Chinese mythology to say how loosely. But it certainly all held together well.
