Demon ChildI had finished The Twelve Kingdoms Volume Two: Sea of Wind novel a while back, and I have to say that I've enjoyed it1. Like most books, it goes further into Taiki's thoughts and experiences than the anime does. Too bad it doesn't have Takasato's experiences in modern Japan, which is told in Demon Child, the actual first book by Fuyumi Ono in the Twelve Kingdoms world before Ono was encouraged to build a fantasy world. Unfortunately, it looks like Demon Child was released by a different publisher than her other Twelve Kingdom novels, so it's likely Tokyopop was unable to license it. Fortunately, there are always fan translations2.

In other news, I did stumble on what would be a very good t-shirt...

1. 1. As expected
2. 2. Hey! That Prologue is very familiar after reading Sea of Wind.

Well, I've been holding on to some good news when it came to this franchise, but I'll get to that later...

For now, look at this:

The second volume of the Twelve Kingdoms novel, titled "Sea of Wind", is due on March 11, 2008, only a few weeks away!

Here's some links on where to get it:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• BooksAMillion

This is going to be about Taiki's journey in the land of Tai. Should be interesting to read, as his story didn't get a big chunk of the anime series to get told.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2007-03-18/fuyumi-ono-author-of-the-twelve-kingdoms

I haven't read all the way through it yet, and I'm still shaking with excitement. Here's a teaser that should make waves, though:

I was originally going to wait until I get an afternoon where I'm not so tired, but I was reading through chapter 3 of The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow when I stumbled on a passage in there that made me get up an immediately want to post on it. I've actually already read the fan-translation of this book a while ago, but I never really read it carefully since it was on screen rather than the book form that I'd prefer to read novels in. But first, my initial observations and impressions (warning, spoilers of the anime version ahead, too!).

I've been reading alot more books these days. I guess that's a good thing, even if these novels are actually official translations of Japanese books of which the anime adaptations rank among my favorites. Some of the stuff I've been reading lately include the Berserk graphic novel, The Twelve Kingdom novel (which I have more to say about in another post), and I'm awaiting for the next Kino no Tabi book scheduled to be released in June. But what I want to mention was some things I've observed in Crest of the Stars 2: A Modest War.

That's what I heard this morning from an unexpected phone call from the local Barnes & Noble bookstore. But when I heard what they were holding for me, it seemed that nothing else mattered at the time.

I know what you're thinking, "What the heck are you talking about, Nick?"

I'm talking about this book, which is sitting on the desk right next to me:

Only another month until the first volume of Fuyumi Ono's novel The Twelve Kingdoms is released in English in the U.S.. This series of young-adult novels seemed to be widely popular in Japan and spawned a rather popular anime series (I've heard it got several re-runs in Japan. Re-runs are not something that Japanese television does all that often from what I understand...).

The novel will be available on Amazon.com, Right Stuf, Barnes & Noble, and Booksamillion.com.

A review by Kimberly Pauley of "The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow" shows an extremely favorable response to the first novel:

After a long period of time, I've finally finished Kino no Tabi. What a nice read, and it ends well with "Coliseum", which in the anime was the only multi-episode story. Indeed, it is the longest in the book, and works well as a stopping point for this book. I can't wait for the next one!

Next up are two rather different stories.  The first one is a extremely short tale about Kino and Hermes meeting three men working on a rail line.  The second is perhaps one of the more disturbing episodes featured in the anime.  Both were far too quick reads.