Impressions of Disk 2 of Twelve Kingdoms

[major_kerina]

*Warning - this will be spoilery*

This show managed to surprise me again, but by turning from what I didn't expect into what I figured I would get. And that still made it a bit of a surprise. Because I knew I couldn't trust the darn thing for a minute.

Last that we checked in with our poor, low-self-worth-ful heroine, the loner girl, who thought SHE should be the chosen one, had bascially sold her soul to the bad King of Kou (if I know my people right). The only boy in the mix was last seen falling into a raging river and our heroine was collapsing on the shore, near death.

It surely can't get worse, can it?

Actually, it doesn't get worse. In a stunning turn for this show, it actually stops screwing her over for a bit. But, we do get a preview of the havok going on in a land which seems like it will eventually become important, Kei. Plus there's a talking fox and a guy who has shown up from time to time saying things which sound foreshadowing, so it's a good bet.

The loner girl, thinking she'll get the hero treatment, gets exiled with 40 acres and a mule (except they've misplaced the mule).

Our heroine, however, seems to be doing a little better. She's been nursed back to health by a humanoid rat. Anyone who reads or has heard of fantasy stories, knows that rats are usually represent the most trusted allies you can have. As opposed to RPGs, where they just represent tutorials and killing time. Since our heroine has had her heart ripped out by even the nicest-seeming people in this land, she's quite willing to slice the rat open if he looks at her funny. But the rat seems to be a nice guy...rodent...so far.

Evil monkey voice is still talking Gollem thoughts in her ear though...and he hasn't been wrong yet. He's still an asshole though.

Rat also gives our heroine a much-needed overview of the world and where all the countries sit.

Despite this, our heroine is still plagued by notions to slice the mousie open before he turns her in and feeling like a monster herself anyway.

When the rat's mom comes home, some questions are called for when it's revealed she's a normal human (although I wondered if that was some drunk night by the old hole in the wall...okay, actually I just figured she adopted him :-p ). The truth is quite interesting and helped explain imagery from the opening sequence. 12 Kingdoms babies are born in something resembling a tanabata ritual, but where they emerge from a fruit blossom.

Rat does everything kind possible but Youmu remains tense and threatening due to her past experiences. He will take her to En, which sounds like the safe haven of this world.

Their journey goes nervously...then they are attacked. Mousie is hurt...maybe dead...back to darkness? I sure thought so. Youmu pretty well loses it, she's killing all the monsters in sight. She runs off...and then we get THE MOST AWESOME INTERNAL CONFLICT SEQUENCE IN THE HISTORY OF ANIME....

Youmu vs. the Evil Monkeyman Voice in Her Head/Sword-thing. There are no words to describe how badass her confrontation was. She makes active choices to change her life. She fights the darkness. She kicks....its...ass...in the most amazing way possible. I'm not going to say more about it except...you must all at least watch to the end of episode seven of this series at least once in your lives. The sequence felt a lot like a scene out of Evangelion and I've seen some of the images used in AMVs...but it is Evangelion internal struggles....the way they should've been!

Needless to say, the sequence is so awesome that the rest of the disk felt rather anti-climactic and peaceful by comparison. But that's okay. It still rocked.

Since Youmu has fought her dark desires, she is now her own person and because of her newfound freedom, only good seems to be happening to her now. Sure, she doesn't find out what happened to her rat friend (yet) but a nice troup of gypsy-types take her in (although two of them were the people she was going to try to rob).

Meanwhile, loner girl tends the crappy 40 acres.

New Youmu is no only stronger but she's also smarter, as she deals with some guards looking for Japanese-borne-bad-luck people in a very clever way. She also reconciles with the people in the troup who she wanted to rob. And they forgive her.

Smooth sailing ahead! Or is it?

Well, loner girl finally comes out of exile and the evil king turns her....into a boy? @_@ Fluffy mousies...boy zappy...this series is a catboy away from touching every Musa love I've ever seen.

Loner Boy does his searching for the chosen one she thinks is a poseur and finds out why so many people are assholes in this world...they don't fear gods (because they're all around them). But there still do seem to be some form of gods in another realm but I didn't quite get that part.

For Youmu, things are still going good, as the gypsy who was thinking of turning her in, actually helps her out and gives her his dead sister's gypsy-pass so she can get on the boat taking everyone to the safe-haven of En.

At this point...we naturally have the Loner Boy standing right next to....a CATBOY. Well, a catboy who can become human. But still. ^^

There's a battle between Loner Boy and Youmu but it didn't really affect me that much. I mean Youmu has survived all sorts of shit, she's got friends now, and beat a fucking monkey man in her head! Does Loner Boy actually think he can do anything to our heroine now (plus she proved her innate goodness by helping catboy)? Too late!

Sadly, the catboy doesn't fare so well when monsters attack, but the boat and Youmu's friends are okay.

And who does she meet when she arrives in En....her rat friend!!!! SO AWESOME!

And btw, En totally is Awesome Town, especially compared to the rest of Shithole Land we've been through. I mean the people of En even know what phone numbers and zip codes are. I bet they'll have wireless internet before long!

Because of the battle, Loner Boy's fighting spirit has abandoned her, reverting her back to girlhood, and leaving her feeling really abandoned by the evil king (shame she doesn't drop him likewise). But she soon follows a blondie boy who seems interesting and can talk Japanese. All throughout this section of the story, there is a lighter-style to characters which really feels like a sorely-needed release from the beginning tone.

It doesn't take long for our heroine to find out that she's not a normal girl, she's the next Queen of Kei! @_@ It also puts a kink in any plans to return 'home' though. Apparently she grew on a special tree but landed in someone's womb in our world. The King of En is also an awesome guy and helps our heroine out too. He suggests that her sword, despite it being a bit of an ass until she showed it who was the boss, is actually pretty powerful and can show the past and future. ^_^. And rat friend shows his human side @_@ sooo cute!

I really liked this disk of the series. It wasn't quite as dramatically tense as the first one, but that's also why it worked. The 7th episode is definitely up in the pantheon of all anime episodes for that one particular sequence. But there is a bit of a lull after putting the knives in so deeply to begin with. It kinda feels like we're past a point of conflict. I'm sure something will come up but now I feel like our heroine has the tools and allies to rise to meet those challenges. As I said, anti-climactic. But I still loved that things weren't quite as horrific. I look forward to the next disk but I'm now even less sure where the series can go now to really surprise me. I look forward to see what it offers though.

Comments

[jaimehlers.livejournal.com]

Did they explain why people in the Twelve Kingdoms tend to be so "look out for #1"-ish?

[major-kerina.livejournal.com]

The gods being in their midst parts right?

[major-kerina.livejournal.com]

Jaimie said in an IM it's like this -

"The people of the Twelve Kingdoms don't believe in luck or divine favor. They believe that people get what they work for. No more, no less. If you have a bad day, it's just a bad day. With no such thing as a godsend, no luck, and no good fortune, the only way to get anywhere without working hard for it is to basically look out for yourself and not worry about other people."

[(Anonymous)]

Yup, the fact a lot of people in Kou are jerks? They've only got themselves (and their king) to blame for their problems. Of course, on the other hand, that can bring out the best in people if they can manage to keep from getting the depression on, like Post-Monnkey Man Youko.

[jaimehlers.livejournal.com]

Or just about anyone in En. Incidentally, have they introduced Enki yet?

Ugh, I want to talk about this, but I don't want to spoil the story.

[maychanlj.livejournal.com]

and just think, Kerina isn't even near the epic parts yet ^_^