By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Juni Kokuki: Kaze no Umi, Meikyū no Kishi” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

So I’m sure that after the events of the first two books, everyone is ready to dig in and find out how Youko settles in to her new ruling status. Well, hate to break it to you, but not only is Youko not in this book at all, but the entire volume takes place prior to the first two, and deals with a completely different kingdom. As I noted in the last review, the books are not called Twelve Kingdoms for nothing. That said, despite the fact that we get a new protagonist, a lot of this may feel very familiar. We see someone who grew up in Japan suddenly yanked to this world, where they’re forced to try to figure things out that everyone else assumes are either common sense or just come naturally. Youko dealt with this mostly through fury and increased paranoia. Taiki deals with it through depression and increased anxiety.

Up on Mount Hou, everyone is awaiting the birth of the new kirin, who will be the one to choose the next ruler of the country of Tai. Unfortunately, a storm blows the fruit containing the unborn Taiki off to god knows where. Ten years later, Kaname is an unhappy boy who lives with his family but can’t seem to please them, especially his strict grandmother. Then one day while standing outside in the snow as punishment, he sees a pair of arms reaching out from nowhere, and when he goes to investigate he finds himself on Hou Mountain. He *is* the missing kirin, and Tai needs a leader post haste, so he’s got to become a full-fledged kirin and choose the new leader. Unfortunately, kirin is a very instinctual position learned from birth, and since Taiki lived in Japan for ten years, he has none of that instinct. Good thing there aren’t also crushing expectations! Oh, wait, there are.

Despite the previous paragraph, this is a book with a great deal of heart. Taiki gets a lifelong familiar, Sanshi who sort of acts as a combination pet/mother/bodyguard. The sages of Mount Hou are all very nice to him… possibly they spoil him, but let’s face it, after passive abuse for ten years, Taiki needs a bit of spoiling. I really liked Youka, who we first meet ten years prior as a neophyte who still can’t find her way around the labyrinthian mountain, but who is also the best older sister for Taiki once he arrives. Taiki definitely feels like a ten-year-old with crippling anxiety throughout the book, so it’s good to see when he finally gets what a kirin needs to do, or when he’s actually enjoying and smiling over something. And for those who are sad about the fact that the first two books are in the future, Keiki is a supporting character here – indeed, he and Taiki bonding, and Keiki thus becoming less stoic and nicer, might be what leads to the troubles from the first two books.

So do we get a whole new cast next time? Not quite. The King of En has been supporting in both the first arc and the second, and the next book will look at his relationship with his own kirin. Till then, this is a wonderful fantasy series, highly recommended to everyone.

By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

Last time I assumed that things would get better for Youko over the course of this second book, and to be fair they do SORT OF, but it does not remove the trauma of what has happened to her, especially once she discovers that this journey, much as she would like it to be otherwise, is pretty one-sided. By the end of the first book she was betrayed twice over, and is mentally and physically on her last legs, and so at the start of this book she regards any act of kindness at all as an attempt to soften her up before they betray her again. It doesn’t help that she’s still getting attacked by youma, which she’s getting quite good at killing – her sword skills are improving by leaps and bounds! – but it does also mean that she’s starting to regard herself as a bad person… and perhaps not even a person at all. Which, um, turns out to be correct. Except for the bad part.

After the events of the last volume, Youko is in bad shape, and unable to trust anyone. She ends up, fortunately, getting picked up by the best possible rat that she can. And no, I don’t mean a rat as in a terrible person, I mean an actual walking, talking rat. Rakushun is a Hanjyuu, a half-beast, who is smart and kind but unfortunately in the wrong kingdom to be able to get ahead. He spends a large portion of the start of the book trying to convince Youko that he’s not going to sic the guards on her the first chance he can get. He also gives her a lot more information about this world, which will come in handy when they are inevitably separated on their journey and she has to go on alone. Eventually she ends up in the kingdom of En, which is a LOT better than where she was. Unfortunately, the youma keep attacking her no matter where she is.

I was prepared for this to feel a lot different from the anime, as Sugimoto doesn’t exist in the novels beyond the very start. But wow, this book is concerned with Youko and her situation, and everything else about it is secondary. Not to spoil too much, but there’s a huge battle between an army of soldiers trying to protect a false queen and Youko and a number of crack troops, and it starts on page 209 and is done by page 210. The false queen herself takes up half of the cover art. We never meet her. This book is laser-focused on Youko and her thought process, and it’s absolutely riveting. We see her start at the lowest possible ebb, and as she gradually learns to trust again and gains more and more information, she realizes how intertwined she is with this world and how it’s practically impossible for her to run away without causing a catastrophe. The climax of the book is not the battle – it can’t be. It’s Youko’s choice. The rest is just an afterthought.

Now, the next book does not in fact focus on Youko, but moves to a different kingdom, as if to remind us that the title of the book is indeed The Twelve Kingdoms. I still can’t wait to read it.

By Fuyumi Ono and Akihiro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi” by X Bunko White Heart. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Kim Morrissy. Adapted by Monica Sullivan.

There’s isekai, and then there’s ISEKAI. This is one of the OG isekai, back before it was a genre, and around the same time as the other majorly influential OG isekai, Fushigi Yuugi. Almost twenty years ago, Tokyopop published the first half of the series, but it then got cancelled due to poor sales, as happened a lot back then. Now it’s back, with a new translation and a spiffy looking cover. And after reading this first volume, I cannot help but feel a sneering contempt for those modern wannabe isekai. Oh, the poor guy who gets truck-kun’d into another world, and all he has its a cool sword, a bunch of catgirls, and a guild that lets him explore all the dungeons he wants for money. Or he’s summoned to be the savior of the world… well, actually, that is SORT OF how Twelve Kingdoms starts. But things go very bad very quickly. This book is dark as hell.

Youko Nakajima has been having bad dreams. Dreams of being trapped in darkness, unable to move, while hungry killer beasts are running towards her. They are making life difficult for her at her private all-girls’ school,. where she tries to keep up good grades, be a nice girl that’s easy to get along with, and ignore the bullying of other girls lower on the totem pole. Then one day, while in the teacher’s office where they’re getting annoyed about her red hair – again – suddenly a man shows up, says she needs to come with him, and tries to drag her off. Then she’s attacked by the same animals that were in her dream, who burst through the window and injure the faculty. Then she’s being told to kill then with a sword that is handed to her. Then she is possessed by a creature that can manipulate her body so she can swing the sword. Then… she’s flown to another world.

For those who saw the anime when it came out in 2002 and wonder where the other two Japanese kids are, they’re not here. (OK, Sugimoto is here to get bullied, but she doesn’t get isekai’d). Youko is all alone – indeed, very much all alone, as she quickly loses the handsome guy insisting that she come with him to fulfill her destiny and ends up in a hostile country. The book is very well written, with evocative descriptions, and Youko’s descent from terror into confusion into anger into just giving up is incredibly well done. That said… in Japan, the next volume came out one month later, and I’m going to assume that things get better for her in that. That does leave this volume, which is just unrelenting. She’s torn from Japan and told she can never return. She’s imprisoned, and told she’ll likely be executed. She meets one or two nice people… who immediately turn out to be not-so-nice. By the end of the book she can’t accept that anyone being nice to her isn’t secretly evil, and is on the verge of starvation, exhaustion, and death because she’s also having to battle countless youma every single night. This is a MISERABLE isekai for her.

That said, this is a 30+-year-old series, so I know things get better for her. Eventually. Till then, this is gorgeous trauma.