Fuyumi Ono is best known to me as the original writer for The Twelve Kingdoms, the series that really got me seriously watching anime and laid the foundation for me to discover Haibane Renmei and Berserk1

I had discovered the anime adaptation of Ono's Ghost Hunt and enjoyed the heck out of it. It doesn't have the epic scope that The Twelve Kingdoms had2, but Ghost Hunt did feature some great characters and some really memorable scare moments3. In the end, I liked the hell out of it, even if it didn't get "top ten" rating.

Well, just got news today that another manga that Fuyumi Ono written the original novel for has been green lit to be adapted into an anime:

1. 1. Yes, two very divergent anime; one day, I'll have to write how they link together with The Twelve Kingdoms thematically.
2. 2. And not many anime did and handled that level of scope nearly as well
3. 3. Especially the one that featured the doll. I still get the creeps watching that scene!

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.

Looks like there's been some recent resurge of interest in The Twelve Kingdoms recently. Maybe it's the new volume of the novel series coming out or the 90 page story released in a Japanese magazine that sparking it, but the attention still being put on this series isn't too bad for a now 6-years-old TV series.

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.

Time for an update of what I've been watching.

Finished Watching

Catblue: Dynamite

I had finished a review of this 40-minute movie this morning. In truth, I've probably rewatched this around 5 times in the past week or so, most of that showing the movie off to different people. I don't have much to add here on top of my review of it.

Call it laziness or burn-out, but I just haven't had the energy or will to sit down and write about the recent anime I've been watching. Indeed, I've been meaning to write an analysis of the Twelve Kingdoms novel and Fuyumi Ono's interview and a review of Asatte no Houkou (Quite a nice little series that doesn't overextend itself) and Mushishi. As it is, I do have a list of some of the new anime I'm watching:

It seems that Anime News Network is using a theme inspired by Fuyumi Ono's The Twelve Kingdoms - Sea of Shadows novel as part of a sweepstakes from TOKYOPOP.

(via jougetsu)

It's nice to see that this excellent story is getting some pretty major attention!