I actually finished a book!

I'm kind of sad that it's over, because now I have a decision to make: do I finish one of my "currently reading" books or do I start something new that might work as well for me in my current mood as Sea of Shadow did? I'm leaning towards the latter option, but I don't actually know what I'll choose. I don't think I'm in the mood for another book in this series just yet, so maybe one of the ones I just got in the mail? Or maybe I really do just need to wallow in some rereads for a while...

Anyway, last time I read this (Eugene Woodbury's fan translation, at least), I gave it 4 stars. Prior to that, I gave it 3.5. For this particular reading, I'd say 4 stars again, although the wording in the 3.5-star review I wrote back in 2014 still works for me.

I totally forgot that there was a bit in this book where Joyu actually speaks to Yoko. Yay! I wish Keiki's sirei had a larger part in the series. Taiki's book is pretty much the only one where the sirei have a larger speaking role.

I like Rakushun so much. Such a nice little rattie boy.

"Yes, I am a cat, and this is my claw. And it is very, very sharp." (159)

 

"Girls should be clean and cute, subservient and kind. If anything, they should be too shy. They don't have to be smart, or clever, or strong. Yoko now realized that at least part of her had thought [her father] was right.

 

I don't believe it anymore." (172)

One of the things I really like about this series is that the characters grow. Most of the series' main characters start off kind of annoying or even just plain horrible, but they gradually blossom into stronger, more capable people who use their new strength to try to help other people. Yoko's finally starting to wriggle out from under her father's thumb. Her mother is too, for that matter. I wouldn't be surprised if Yoko's mother and father ended up divorced at some point.

 I haven't finished the other two books I'm reading, and adding a third one to the list might increase my chances of never finishing them, but I'm not sure I care at the moment. I'm in the mood for this right now, so I'm reading it.

This might be my first time ever reading the paperback edition of this. And yes, whether it's hardcover or paperback matters for the English language editions of these - the paperbacks have fewer typos and horrible errors like missing pages and incorrect pronouns. Tokyopop did a laughably bad job with the hardcover releases.

Current Japanese portal fantasy (isekai) leans heavily towards the characters ending up in worlds that are just great for them in one way or another. Usually it's guys who discover that they possess the exact skills necessary to save the kingdom, and end up surrounded by adoring fantasy women in the process. The Twelve Kingdoms series came out well before the big isekai glut, and it definitely has a different feel. Fuyumi Ono likes to grind her characters into pieces before finally maybe allowing them to save the fantasy kingdom, and there are no adoring harems.