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Twelve Kingdoms: the anime, episodes 1-13
Anime: Twelve Kingdoms, episodes 1-13
I tried to watch this a while back, as I had really consistently heard that it was awesome. I failed to get past the first episode--it seemed so slow and dreary. Giving it a shot again now that I've begun to read (and really like) the original novels by Fuyumi Ono, but am forewarned that it deviates somewhat from the novels.
Impressions on the fly:
--I so came to like the vision of the first book--Yoko on her own, shaped and scarred and nearly destroyed, but absolutely changed within and without, by her experiences traveling in this new world all alone (thanks,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookelfe! I like your brain), that I almost revolted at the idea of her classmates coming with her. Still am not resigned to it. I went through a brief period of wondering if the female classmate--Yuka?--wasn't going to fill the narrative function of the monkey (destructive force of the evil inner voice, the doubts, the refusal to trust, self-questioning, etc) while also filling whatever her other narrative functions are in this version. But then the monkey showed, so maybe not.
--Speaking of the monkey, love this version of Yoko's visions of her parents, with the monkey acting out each role, using dramatic masks. That works so, so much better on the screen than actual visions would--tiny little visions in the sword works fine in prose, with its interior focus, and non-visual-ness, but that kind of thing doesn't translate well into a visual medium. I question other things about this adaptation, but I quite like that as an adaptation choice.
--And then they totally do visions-in-the-sword in the next episode, and onwards. Oh well. I guess that's okay, too, the way they keep changing around the way we get the monkey/vision segments. Keeps it from getting stale. I miss the masks and pseudo-theater, though; that really was cool.
--I don't blame myself for not being sucked in by the dreary world of the first episode, but I understand it better now--as in the books, Yoko's Japan (and Taiki's Japan, too) is a dull and inhospitable place. It's not just real world vs. fun fantasy world--Japan is a world where Yoko doesn't belong and isn't thriving, no matter how attached she feels. Yoko clings to the idea of Japan because she's scared of the new, of change, of the mortal peril this world represents to her, but the text of the novel, and the visuals of the anime support this vision of Yoko truly belonging to the Twelve Kingdoms world, needing to be there to become a stronger, better more able person. There is an aesthetic justification for that dreary beginning, so I have to forgive it, because it absolutely works.
--SO SICK of boring Asano and Yuka horning in on Yoko's path, dammit. SICK OF IT. GO AWAY AND LET YOKO DEVELOP.
--Yay mousie!!! Mousie! What is your name, I have forgotten it. Rakushun? Rakushun, I love you.
--OH MOUSIE. I love you. In your episode, Yoko's arc returns to normalcy. I think we skipped a lot of important shit related to how she got so broken, and we substituted unsatisfying Yuka and Asano drama instead, but hey. I'm just glad we're here.
--The masks return! Hooray!
--I like the way Yoko's look evolves over her part of the series, from schoolgirl to clothing and hairstyles that are both fitting to the world, and boldly independant. Very fitting and non-exploitative, and oh god why is non-exploitative something I need to point out? Her ponytail rocks. I, personally, love the ponytail as a practical accommodation for my long hair when a bun or braids or pigtails or loose doesn't cut it, and it's got a great warrior vibe besides.
--Speaking of which, I am unclear on why they re-envisioned the character designs, such that most of the residents do not have funky technicolored hair. I thought anime loved funky technicolored hair. And the technicolored hair is important! It's pat of how we know Yoko is belongs here--her hair was dully red even in Japan, and became super-red in Kou, and she thought she'd stand out, but it turned out that everyone else in Kou had technicolored hair, too, so she was normal. Is this because they had to accommodate Asano and Yuka's normal hair without giving the game away? I will kill people if that's why.
--OMG I am once again so interested in Ono's thoughts on divinity (and divine right/will, but that's another post in the making, I think).
"This is a world where gods...exist, so people know that praying won't solve anything."
When you function in an environment where absolute proof of divinity/the supernatural/the mystic is abundant, accepted by all, unquestioned by all, including yourself, how do you account for injustice, pain, fear, suffering, failure? How does your theology address that? Ono's take is relentlessly practical: God exists, but God's role in this world is clearly, explicitly, uncompromisingly delineated, and God doesn't work on your level. Prayer is meaningless. How do you work with that? In Ono's mind, or at least in this world as imagined by Ono, that means you set God/divine justice aside as being not relevant in your daily life. (In Yoko's bitter and cynical eyes, when she realizes this, that means you also set aside compassion, trust, and altruism, and do not trust those qualities when you see them, and that is her tragedy, at least until she gets over it.)
It's a little weird; to me, this kind of literalism of the divine strips all the mysticism and the wonder out of the idea of God, and the unknown and unknowable generally; how can the idea of the unknown inspire you when you know absolutely, or when you at least believe you know absolutely? If nothing about the nature of the world is unknown to you, the known must inspire a lot of reverence, to keep you functioning, particularly in an unjust, flawed known world. Or else....you must be sad and sick and bitter, I think. Atheists can accept the flawed world as being no one's fault, as being the accident of creation, needing no answer, an acceptable random thing; deists cannot write creation off as being accident: creation must make some kind of sense, so matter how inhumanly cruel it is. As Bujold's Ezar claims in Shards of Honor, deists are more ruthless than atheists.*
--You know, I'm not a hundred percent positive, but I think the monkey gets more monkey-like with every appearence. I remember thinking that he looked kinda human-ish in his first appearance. He's most monkey-like when he's insisting to Yoko that she is, as she said she was during the fight with the Youma birds outside the town, a beast. That's good! I like that! He gets more animal-like as she gets rawer and more broken and begins to question her humanity.
--She refers to Rakushun by his name for the first time at a dramatic moment when she embraces her humanity, and declares that she won't be a beast. Nice touch.
--You know what your problem is, Yuka? You don't belong in this story. That's why you're so frustrated. And the viewers sympathize with your frustration, because YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE. Please go away. Take dull Asano with you.
--Oh thank god we're in En and back with Rakushun and back on plot ad I am so grateful. (Whiny Yuka is still trotting around derailing the story--good god, she's whiny; and yes, I know Yoko was whiny at the beginning, too, but half the point of this story is that Yoko is forced to look at herself closely, see every flaw and every hideous detail, and she manages to survive that and become a strong, centered person who embraces her challenges and choices and relationships. Whereas Yuka has mostly regressed, and I still haven't forgiven her for being in the story in the first place. But at least dull Asano isn't here right now.)
--Rakushun's precious little mousie arms make me want to snuggle his little mousie nose. He's so adorable. His friendship with Yoko and his overall adorable steadfastness and fundamental decency are among the highlights of both versions of the story for me.
--JUST DIE ALREADY, YUKA.
--The king of En is hot.
--I totally love Enki. I loved him in all of his random appearances through the anime, too; adult competence in a child's body is one of my random narrative sweet spots.
"Please come to my home, although it's nothing special." Heh heh heh. I love En's sense of humor.
--I forgot how gorgeous and how COOL En's palace is--especially the sea above the clouds. It's one of those bits, like the baby-trees, or the strictly defined divine order of the kings and gods and kirin that helps to cement the sense that this is a truly another world, with rules that do not make sense according to the rules our world. (I also kinda like the idea that normal kaiyakyu have a really hard time learning the language and feeling like they belong, even in an enlightened kingdom that welcomes them, like En--there is travel, usually one-way, between the worlds, but these worlds are truly apart from each other, and their inhabitants are aliens to each other. It's one of the things I ended up really digging from the novels.)
--Human-shaped Rakushun is hot.
--Yoko looks very royal in her robes!
--The word "shitsudou" keeps making me think "shitstorm," which is actually not an inappropriate misreading.
--"You cannot be in charge of the land if you are not in charge of yourself." Damn straight.
--I loved this in the book also: that Yoko hesitates to accept her role as ruler, even though rejecting that role would mean her death, sooner or later. It might strike some people as dumb--what choice does she have? she has to do it or she'll die, which by most lights is no choice at all--but Yoko understands that this is not a responsibility that you can take on just because you feel forced into it. You have to want to do it, to consciously, deliberately, actively accept the role and the challenges, or else you will not be able to carry it through. It's like having a baby--you might become a parent by accident, but you cannot be a good parent unless you choose to accept the role, and act as a parent.
--I like all this background for Rokuta and whatsisname, whatever En's name used to be [Shouryuu, apparently]--it's interesting in its own right, but even better with the cuts to present time and to Yoko, who also hails from Wa/Japan, and is suddenly grappling with the idea of ascending to the position of a king. I kind of like seeing this fairly mature version of Yoko reacting to hearing Rokuta and En's story, their mutual paths to king and kirin. Yoko's just fantastic.
Are the details of the Rokuta/En backstory something we get later on in the novels? [The internet tells me that this is so.] I don't remember it being so clear from the first one. Maybe I just forgot it?
--Young En--and henceforth, I think I will call him Young'en--is very kingly already, isn't he? Although, while I realize that all his bantering with his refugee followers is meant to highlight his natural charisma, camaraderie, and leadership ability, it comes across as being slightly soulless-sitcom-esque.
"Even the older men will join the war effort!"
"No, if you old men join the war effort, you'll shoot us by accident. Because you're so OLD."
[LAUGH TRACK]
"The women will join the war effort!"
"You women are too hot to die."
[LAUGH TRACK]
"The old women will join the war effort!"
"You older women are also too hot to die!"
[LAUGH TRACK]
"Fuck it all, I'm surrendering. If you don't like it, take off. Won't I make a great servant?"
[LAUGH TRACK]
Aaaaaaaand then everybody dies.
Seriously, though, Young'en is obviously a good and decent person and a natural leader-type who in an hideous position--he's the inevitable losing general in a war that he knows will end with the mass slaughter of the losers. If this portion of the story was decompressed a bit more, I expect I'd be crying for him.
--"Do you want a kingdom?"
"Yes."
"Even if it's impoverished and dying?"
"That doesn't matter."
And that, folks, that is the moment when Enki can be sure that Young'en will make a good king--when he sees En's fervent desire to act as a leader because he wants to serve the people and the land, even if the service is difficult and painful.
--And more on Yoko's careful deliberation regarding this queenship thing (although I am reminded that technically, it's a done deal), and her asking about her predecessor. There was something awfully pathetic about Yoko's reunification with Keiki at the end of the novel, and how Keiki declined to assume human form, and feeling it better to remain in beast form for awhile, after his human form had done so much damage. Yoko winces when she hears the history, saying, "She fell in love with him," and yet it strikes me that it really was not falling in love with Keiki that did that damage; it was the irrationality, the insane fixation on the idea that other women were seducing Keiki away from herself. Being love doesn't have to make you insane, even being in love with someone who cannot or will not love you back in the same way. I can't really blame Keiki for his desire to avoid a repeat of that fiasco, but it's still kind of a gesture of a less than total faith in Yoko that he won't appear to her in a human shape. That's one place where the addition of Yuka kind of supports the narrative, actually, with Yuka's instant, obsessive crush on Keiki and her subsequent violent and insane behavior based on the belief that Keiki had whisked her away to be the chosen savior of a charming little fantasy world. Twit.
--Goddamn Yuka is back. The kaiyakyu teacherly dude keeps saying that maybe Yoko will help Yuka go home--does that mean that maybe Asano and Yuka will get shipped back to Japan at the end of this arc? I hope to god yes. I'm not homicidal! I just want them gone.
Also, while I am normally all about the mercy, I can't help wonder why the hell teacherly dude didn't at the least have Yuka hauled off to prison after he witnessed her enthusiastic betrayal of Yoko, a couple of episodes back. Does he not realize what's at stake? Does he just not realize her potential for serious physical harm, not to mention the potential catastrophe for the kingdom of Kei? He knows what the stakes are for Kei, that Yoko is Kei's queen, and that Yuka sincerely means Yoko ill-will. Even if he randomly wants to save her tormented soul by letting her run around loose to cavort with local children, that isn't a very good short-term plan, given the fragility of Yoko/Kei's situation. For shame, teacherly kaiyakyu dude.
--We get all this kirin exposition in this arc, instead of the next, including how kirin don't normally have names, and the part about the shirei eating the corpse of the kirin.
Enki: "I hear the kirin taste good." Hee! We don't have poor baby kirin Taiki around to be traumatized by that, but Yoko looks suitably appalled.
--She's going to go back into town. Dammit, this is just so she can have some fucking final confrontation with fucking Yuka. Die, Yuka! Die, Asano! (Asano, I appreciate that you haven't been around to intrude on the story for several episodes for, but I know you'll show up eventually, probably even at a dramatic moment. Please just die now, off-screen, and save me the grief.)
--Yuka killed the teacherly kaiyukyu dude! Fuck off and die, Yuka!
--Okay, he's not dead. Good. Die anyway, Yuka.
--Yoko, I have nothing, I tell you, nothing but respect and love for your reluctance to rush into being a monarch, but wanting Yuka's advice at this point--Yuka, who has been unrelentingly hostile to you for every step of your acquaintance, including during your hesitant and faily attempts at friendship to her while she was an outcast at your school; Yuka, who abandoned you and Asano to die in the forest, Yuka, who unmistakably attempted to MURDER you on the ship to En, and who brought down youma on all your heads, resulting in the deaths of dozens of innocent people; Yuka, who's been screaming insults and death threats and generally acting violent and jealous of you ever since you landed in Kou--to look at Yuka and actually desire her input on anything, much less something as important as whether you should step up and be a queen, is INSANE. I can't even write it off as some kind of grasping at the familiar, this fellow traveler from her home (I mean, homicidal derangement is really much more behaviorally in keeping with Yoko's Kou-and-onwards experiences than the peaceful anomie of her life in Japan); it's just naive and blind to a degree that borders on madness. I believe in Yoko, but I am hugely irritated by the narrative need to have Yoko still approach Yuka as some kind of a friend, because that makes her look too damn stupid to be a queen.
--Oh for god's sake, she ditches her Hinman just in time to get into an epic swordfight with Yuka? Another one? DO NOT WANT. I find it so maddening how the shreds and themes of the actual story keep coming up and giving me hope, only for me to have to see them pushed aside by the narrative demands of the story that the animators keep imposing on top of it.
--Whoop de doo, Yuka realizes that Kou's been using her, and she gets a hug from Yoko. She wants to go home now! She knows she doesn't belong! (NO SHIT, YUKA). The true friendship between Yoko and Yuka in this version of the story! Gag me.
Although actually, that last one has some resonance. Not that this Yuka remotely deserves to be the recipient of Yoko's friendship, or that I can feel that Yoko's devotion to being Yuka's friend means a damn thing, given how one-sided it is, but as Yoko's not-really-meaningful feeling that she was Yuka's friend in the beginning of the story was sort of a symptom of her cowardice and pathological need to please all, no matter how insincere her efforts, the idea that Yoko ended up acting as a true friend to Yuka at end of the travails is thematically very satisfying. If only the show I've been watching actually justified that in some way beyond Yoko randomly having blind faith in Yuka's general goodness, and unflagging concern for Yuka's welfare all through Yuka's multiple attempts at murdering her.
--"I was incomplete as a person. That's why I had shallow relationships with others. OH MAN ONO your brain I LOVE IT.
--Rakushun is really the best thing ever. He's just so frickin' sensible and grounded and good and forward-thinking (if , say, more Americans voted in the general mindset Rakushun brings to these issues of ascending to rulership, I think we'd be better off as a country), and he was exactly the right person for Yoko at the right time. AND SO CUTE. When he twitches his mousie ears! And clutches his mousie paws against his mousie chest! Egads. I think I have a crush on a mouse...
--omg, naked surprise comfort hug from human Rakushun ("Don't turn around right now...I couldn't reach your shoulders as a rat."). This is not helping with the crush. You know, I've been trying so hard not to go there, because I think there's a really gorgeous platonic friendship between Yoko and Rakushun that doesn't need anything else, but reader, I think that I ship them.
--"I would love to see what kind of kingdom that you'd build." Dammit! That is so romantic!
--Yuka is now randomly nice. I don't know why; she doesn't seem to have been a very nice person even before she thought she was a chosen hero type who needed to kill people, and she didn't like her world even before she thought she had an alternative. Why should the feeling of being utterly rejected by this world mellow her out so much? Well, I don't care.
--Oh man, Asano still hasn't turned up? I had a brief glorious moment where I thought that meant he was just dead, but no, it means that Yoko will want to go find him, and gag, he'll turn up in some future arc.
--Um, is that Taiki? OH MY GOD. TAIKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.
*Disclaimer: I am an agnostic, and so neither a deist nor an atheist. I don't believe in God, but the universe is vast and complex beyond the comprehension of my human brain--I failed out of chemistry and never even GOT to physics in high school--so I do not feel I can rule out all imaginable variations of divinity and spiritual being as possibilities. Practically speaking, those possibilities don't intrude much on my day to day existence--I just like to keep an open mind about stuff I don't know.**
**As you might imagine, this gets me nowhere with door-to-door proselytizers.
I tried to watch this a while back, as I had really consistently heard that it was awesome. I failed to get past the first episode--it seemed so slow and dreary. Giving it a shot again now that I've begun to read (and really like) the original novels by Fuyumi Ono, but am forewarned that it deviates somewhat from the novels.
Impressions on the fly:
--I so came to like the vision of the first book--Yoko on her own, shaped and scarred and nearly destroyed, but absolutely changed within and without, by her experiences traveling in this new world all alone (thanks,
bookelfe! I like your brain), that I almost revolted at the idea of her classmates coming with her. Still am not resigned to it. I went through a brief period of wondering if the female classmate--Yuka?--wasn't going to fill the narrative function of the monkey (destructive force of the evil inner voice, the doubts, the refusal to trust, self-questioning, etc) while also filling whatever her other narrative functions are in this version. But then the monkey showed, so maybe not.--Speaking of the monkey, love this version of Yoko's visions of her parents, with the monkey acting out each role, using dramatic masks. That works so, so much better on the screen than actual visions would--tiny little visions in the sword works fine in prose, with its interior focus, and non-visual-ness, but that kind of thing doesn't translate well into a visual medium. I question other things about this adaptation, but I quite like that as an adaptation choice.
--And then they totally do visions-in-the-sword in the next episode, and onwards. Oh well. I guess that's okay, too, the way they keep changing around the way we get the monkey/vision segments. Keeps it from getting stale. I miss the masks and pseudo-theater, though; that really was cool.
--I don't blame myself for not being sucked in by the dreary world of the first episode, but I understand it better now--as in the books, Yoko's Japan (and Taiki's Japan, too) is a dull and inhospitable place. It's not just real world vs. fun fantasy world--Japan is a world where Yoko doesn't belong and isn't thriving, no matter how attached she feels. Yoko clings to the idea of Japan because she's scared of the new, of change, of the mortal peril this world represents to her, but the text of the novel, and the visuals of the anime support this vision of Yoko truly belonging to the Twelve Kingdoms world, needing to be there to become a stronger, better more able person. There is an aesthetic justification for that dreary beginning, so I have to forgive it, because it absolutely works.
--SO SICK of boring Asano and Yuka horning in on Yoko's path, dammit. SICK OF IT. GO AWAY AND LET YOKO DEVELOP.
--Yay mousie!!! Mousie! What is your name, I have forgotten it. Rakushun? Rakushun, I love you.
--OH MOUSIE. I love you. In your episode, Yoko's arc returns to normalcy. I think we skipped a lot of important shit related to how she got so broken, and we substituted unsatisfying Yuka and Asano drama instead, but hey. I'm just glad we're here.
--The masks return! Hooray!
--I like the way Yoko's look evolves over her part of the series, from schoolgirl to clothing and hairstyles that are both fitting to the world, and boldly independant. Very fitting and non-exploitative, and oh god why is non-exploitative something I need to point out? Her ponytail rocks. I, personally, love the ponytail as a practical accommodation for my long hair when a bun or braids or pigtails or loose doesn't cut it, and it's got a great warrior vibe besides.
--Speaking of which, I am unclear on why they re-envisioned the character designs, such that most of the residents do not have funky technicolored hair. I thought anime loved funky technicolored hair. And the technicolored hair is important! It's pat of how we know Yoko is belongs here--her hair was dully red even in Japan, and became super-red in Kou, and she thought she'd stand out, but it turned out that everyone else in Kou had technicolored hair, too, so she was normal. Is this because they had to accommodate Asano and Yuka's normal hair without giving the game away? I will kill people if that's why.
--OMG I am once again so interested in Ono's thoughts on divinity (and divine right/will, but that's another post in the making, I think).
"This is a world where gods...exist, so people know that praying won't solve anything."
When you function in an environment where absolute proof of divinity/the supernatural/the mystic is abundant, accepted by all, unquestioned by all, including yourself, how do you account for injustice, pain, fear, suffering, failure? How does your theology address that? Ono's take is relentlessly practical: God exists, but God's role in this world is clearly, explicitly, uncompromisingly delineated, and God doesn't work on your level. Prayer is meaningless. How do you work with that? In Ono's mind, or at least in this world as imagined by Ono, that means you set God/divine justice aside as being not relevant in your daily life. (In Yoko's bitter and cynical eyes, when she realizes this, that means you also set aside compassion, trust, and altruism, and do not trust those qualities when you see them, and that is her tragedy, at least until she gets over it.)
It's a little weird; to me, this kind of literalism of the divine strips all the mysticism and the wonder out of the idea of God, and the unknown and unknowable generally; how can the idea of the unknown inspire you when you know absolutely, or when you at least believe you know absolutely? If nothing about the nature of the world is unknown to you, the known must inspire a lot of reverence, to keep you functioning, particularly in an unjust, flawed known world. Or else....you must be sad and sick and bitter, I think. Atheists can accept the flawed world as being no one's fault, as being the accident of creation, needing no answer, an acceptable random thing; deists cannot write creation off as being accident: creation must make some kind of sense, so matter how inhumanly cruel it is. As Bujold's Ezar claims in Shards of Honor, deists are more ruthless than atheists.*
--You know, I'm not a hundred percent positive, but I think the monkey gets more monkey-like with every appearence. I remember thinking that he looked kinda human-ish in his first appearance. He's most monkey-like when he's insisting to Yoko that she is, as she said she was during the fight with the Youma birds outside the town, a beast. That's good! I like that! He gets more animal-like as she gets rawer and more broken and begins to question her humanity.
--She refers to Rakushun by his name for the first time at a dramatic moment when she embraces her humanity, and declares that she won't be a beast. Nice touch.
--You know what your problem is, Yuka? You don't belong in this story. That's why you're so frustrated. And the viewers sympathize with your frustration, because YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE. Please go away. Take dull Asano with you.
--Oh thank god we're in En and back with Rakushun and back on plot ad I am so grateful. (Whiny Yuka is still trotting around derailing the story--good god, she's whiny; and yes, I know Yoko was whiny at the beginning, too, but half the point of this story is that Yoko is forced to look at herself closely, see every flaw and every hideous detail, and she manages to survive that and become a strong, centered person who embraces her challenges and choices and relationships. Whereas Yuka has mostly regressed, and I still haven't forgiven her for being in the story in the first place. But at least dull Asano isn't here right now.)
--Rakushun's precious little mousie arms make me want to snuggle his little mousie nose. He's so adorable. His friendship with Yoko and his overall adorable steadfastness and fundamental decency are among the highlights of both versions of the story for me.
--JUST DIE ALREADY, YUKA.
--The king of En is hot.
--I totally love Enki. I loved him in all of his random appearances through the anime, too; adult competence in a child's body is one of my random narrative sweet spots.
"Please come to my home, although it's nothing special." Heh heh heh. I love En's sense of humor.
--I forgot how gorgeous and how COOL En's palace is--especially the sea above the clouds. It's one of those bits, like the baby-trees, or the strictly defined divine order of the kings and gods and kirin that helps to cement the sense that this is a truly another world, with rules that do not make sense according to the rules our world. (I also kinda like the idea that normal kaiyakyu have a really hard time learning the language and feeling like they belong, even in an enlightened kingdom that welcomes them, like En--there is travel, usually one-way, between the worlds, but these worlds are truly apart from each other, and their inhabitants are aliens to each other. It's one of the things I ended up really digging from the novels.)
--Human-shaped Rakushun is hot.
--Yoko looks very royal in her robes!
--The word "shitsudou" keeps making me think "shitstorm," which is actually not an inappropriate misreading.
--"You cannot be in charge of the land if you are not in charge of yourself." Damn straight.
--I loved this in the book also: that Yoko hesitates to accept her role as ruler, even though rejecting that role would mean her death, sooner or later. It might strike some people as dumb--what choice does she have? she has to do it or she'll die, which by most lights is no choice at all--but Yoko understands that this is not a responsibility that you can take on just because you feel forced into it. You have to want to do it, to consciously, deliberately, actively accept the role and the challenges, or else you will not be able to carry it through. It's like having a baby--you might become a parent by accident, but you cannot be a good parent unless you choose to accept the role, and act as a parent.
--I like all this background for Rokuta and whatsisname, whatever En's name used to be [Shouryuu, apparently]--it's interesting in its own right, but even better with the cuts to present time and to Yoko, who also hails from Wa/Japan, and is suddenly grappling with the idea of ascending to the position of a king. I kind of like seeing this fairly mature version of Yoko reacting to hearing Rokuta and En's story, their mutual paths to king and kirin. Yoko's just fantastic.
Are the details of the Rokuta/En backstory something we get later on in the novels? [The internet tells me that this is so.] I don't remember it being so clear from the first one. Maybe I just forgot it?
--Young En--and henceforth, I think I will call him Young'en--is very kingly already, isn't he? Although, while I realize that all his bantering with his refugee followers is meant to highlight his natural charisma, camaraderie, and leadership ability, it comes across as being slightly soulless-sitcom-esque.
"Even the older men will join the war effort!"
"No, if you old men join the war effort, you'll shoot us by accident. Because you're so OLD."
[LAUGH TRACK]
"The women will join the war effort!"
"You women are too hot to die."
[LAUGH TRACK]
"The old women will join the war effort!"
"You older women are also too hot to die!"
[LAUGH TRACK]
"Fuck it all, I'm surrendering. If you don't like it, take off. Won't I make a great servant?"
[LAUGH TRACK]
Aaaaaaaand then everybody dies.
Seriously, though, Young'en is obviously a good and decent person and a natural leader-type who in an hideous position--he's the inevitable losing general in a war that he knows will end with the mass slaughter of the losers. If this portion of the story was decompressed a bit more, I expect I'd be crying for him.
--"Do you want a kingdom?"
"Yes."
"Even if it's impoverished and dying?"
"That doesn't matter."
And that, folks, that is the moment when Enki can be sure that Young'en will make a good king--when he sees En's fervent desire to act as a leader because he wants to serve the people and the land, even if the service is difficult and painful.
--And more on Yoko's careful deliberation regarding this queenship thing (although I am reminded that technically, it's a done deal), and her asking about her predecessor. There was something awfully pathetic about Yoko's reunification with Keiki at the end of the novel, and how Keiki declined to assume human form, and feeling it better to remain in beast form for awhile, after his human form had done so much damage. Yoko winces when she hears the history, saying, "She fell in love with him," and yet it strikes me that it really was not falling in love with Keiki that did that damage; it was the irrationality, the insane fixation on the idea that other women were seducing Keiki away from herself. Being love doesn't have to make you insane, even being in love with someone who cannot or will not love you back in the same way. I can't really blame Keiki for his desire to avoid a repeat of that fiasco, but it's still kind of a gesture of a less than total faith in Yoko that he won't appear to her in a human shape. That's one place where the addition of Yuka kind of supports the narrative, actually, with Yuka's instant, obsessive crush on Keiki and her subsequent violent and insane behavior based on the belief that Keiki had whisked her away to be the chosen savior of a charming little fantasy world. Twit.
--Goddamn Yuka is back. The kaiyakyu teacherly dude keeps saying that maybe Yoko will help Yuka go home--does that mean that maybe Asano and Yuka will get shipped back to Japan at the end of this arc? I hope to god yes. I'm not homicidal! I just want them gone.
Also, while I am normally all about the mercy, I can't help wonder why the hell teacherly dude didn't at the least have Yuka hauled off to prison after he witnessed her enthusiastic betrayal of Yoko, a couple of episodes back. Does he not realize what's at stake? Does he just not realize her potential for serious physical harm, not to mention the potential catastrophe for the kingdom of Kei? He knows what the stakes are for Kei, that Yoko is Kei's queen, and that Yuka sincerely means Yoko ill-will. Even if he randomly wants to save her tormented soul by letting her run around loose to cavort with local children, that isn't a very good short-term plan, given the fragility of Yoko/Kei's situation. For shame, teacherly kaiyakyu dude.
--We get all this kirin exposition in this arc, instead of the next, including how kirin don't normally have names, and the part about the shirei eating the corpse of the kirin.
Enki: "I hear the kirin taste good." Hee! We don't have poor baby kirin Taiki around to be traumatized by that, but Yoko looks suitably appalled.
--She's going to go back into town. Dammit, this is just so she can have some fucking final confrontation with fucking Yuka. Die, Yuka! Die, Asano! (Asano, I appreciate that you haven't been around to intrude on the story for several episodes for, but I know you'll show up eventually, probably even at a dramatic moment. Please just die now, off-screen, and save me the grief.)
--Yuka killed the teacherly kaiyukyu dude! Fuck off and die, Yuka!
--Okay, he's not dead. Good. Die anyway, Yuka.
--Yoko, I have nothing, I tell you, nothing but respect and love for your reluctance to rush into being a monarch, but wanting Yuka's advice at this point--Yuka, who has been unrelentingly hostile to you for every step of your acquaintance, including during your hesitant and faily attempts at friendship to her while she was an outcast at your school; Yuka, who abandoned you and Asano to die in the forest, Yuka, who unmistakably attempted to MURDER you on the ship to En, and who brought down youma on all your heads, resulting in the deaths of dozens of innocent people; Yuka, who's been screaming insults and death threats and generally acting violent and jealous of you ever since you landed in Kou--to look at Yuka and actually desire her input on anything, much less something as important as whether you should step up and be a queen, is INSANE. I can't even write it off as some kind of grasping at the familiar, this fellow traveler from her home (I mean, homicidal derangement is really much more behaviorally in keeping with Yoko's Kou-and-onwards experiences than the peaceful anomie of her life in Japan); it's just naive and blind to a degree that borders on madness. I believe in Yoko, but I am hugely irritated by the narrative need to have Yoko still approach Yuka as some kind of a friend, because that makes her look too damn stupid to be a queen.
--Oh for god's sake, she ditches her Hinman just in time to get into an epic swordfight with Yuka? Another one? DO NOT WANT. I find it so maddening how the shreds and themes of the actual story keep coming up and giving me hope, only for me to have to see them pushed aside by the narrative demands of the story that the animators keep imposing on top of it.
--Whoop de doo, Yuka realizes that Kou's been using her, and she gets a hug from Yoko. She wants to go home now! She knows she doesn't belong! (NO SHIT, YUKA). The true friendship between Yoko and Yuka in this version of the story! Gag me.
Although actually, that last one has some resonance. Not that this Yuka remotely deserves to be the recipient of Yoko's friendship, or that I can feel that Yoko's devotion to being Yuka's friend means a damn thing, given how one-sided it is, but as Yoko's not-really-meaningful feeling that she was Yuka's friend in the beginning of the story was sort of a symptom of her cowardice and pathological need to please all, no matter how insincere her efforts, the idea that Yoko ended up acting as a true friend to Yuka at end of the travails is thematically very satisfying. If only the show I've been watching actually justified that in some way beyond Yoko randomly having blind faith in Yuka's general goodness, and unflagging concern for Yuka's welfare all through Yuka's multiple attempts at murdering her.
--"I was incomplete as a person. That's why I had shallow relationships with others. OH MAN ONO your brain I LOVE IT.
--Rakushun is really the best thing ever. He's just so frickin' sensible and grounded and good and forward-thinking (if , say, more Americans voted in the general mindset Rakushun brings to these issues of ascending to rulership, I think we'd be better off as a country), and he was exactly the right person for Yoko at the right time. AND SO CUTE. When he twitches his mousie ears! And clutches his mousie paws against his mousie chest! Egads. I think I have a crush on a mouse...
--omg, naked surprise comfort hug from human Rakushun ("Don't turn around right now...I couldn't reach your shoulders as a rat."). This is not helping with the crush. You know, I've been trying so hard not to go there, because I think there's a really gorgeous platonic friendship between Yoko and Rakushun that doesn't need anything else, but reader, I think that I ship them.
--"I would love to see what kind of kingdom that you'd build." Dammit! That is so romantic!
--Yuka is now randomly nice. I don't know why; she doesn't seem to have been a very nice person even before she thought she was a chosen hero type who needed to kill people, and she didn't like her world even before she thought she had an alternative. Why should the feeling of being utterly rejected by this world mellow her out so much? Well, I don't care.
--Oh man, Asano still hasn't turned up? I had a brief glorious moment where I thought that meant he was just dead, but no, it means that Yoko will want to go find him, and gag, he'll turn up in some future arc.
--Um, is that Taiki? OH MY GOD. TAIKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.
*Disclaimer: I am an agnostic, and so neither a deist nor an atheist. I don't believe in God, but the universe is vast and complex beyond the comprehension of my human brain--I failed out of chemistry and never even GOT to physics in high school--so I do not feel I can rule out all imaginable variations of divinity and spiritual being as possibilities. Practically speaking, those possibilities don't intrude much on my day to day existence--I just like to keep an open mind about stuff I don't know.**
**As you might imagine, this gets me nowhere with door-to-door proselytizers.
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But yeah, real deviation from the books, though they didn't come out here until a couple years after I watched it.
Also, everyone should have a Rakashun of their own. Or at least, I should have a Rakashun of my own.
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HOW ABOUT MY SOUL. MY SOUL GOOD? ALL YOURS.
Name your price, woman!
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Also uh you are not alone in shipping Yoko/Rakushun and feeling vaguely guilty about it.
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Ahhhh, I remember, years ago, watching about half of Rahxephon with my favorite anime buddy, my little sis. We had to stop partway through, because I drove her insane with my non-stop grousing about how I'd seen this goddamn anime already when it was called Neon Genesis Evangelion. After that, she moved to Japan for two years. I think those things might be connected.
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My favorite is still the experience of watching Evangelion - my first anime, mind - with my college roommate, when one or the other of us would stop the playback every five minutes and demand of the other WHAT IS GOING ON, to be greeted inevitably with "I HAVE NO IDEA!"