Twelve Kingdoms

Talk about the shows we screen at weekly showing/marathon
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Kathy Moon
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by Kathy Moon »

Maybe an informal, then? Or several, rather. Like, sometime after finishing arc 1, you could informal arc 2.

I've only watched the first disc, myself. That's all I could find at the library. Must get more!
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by Jed »

Kathy Moon wrote:Maybe an informal, then? Or several, rather. Like, sometime after finishing arc 1, you could informal arc 2.
Hmm...that's certainly a possibility. We don't finish the first arc until the end of fall semester, though, so if we do this, it'll have to wait until the spring.
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hanyou-no-miko
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by hanyou-no-miko »

Mike wrote:Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. You could say that arcs 2 and 4 have no bearing on the rest of the series, but you could also say arcs 1 and 3 have no bearing on the rest of the series. Yoko, who is recognized as the main character of the anime (only because the anime is unfinished), is only one of a handful of main characters in the books, so it really depends how you look at it. Either way, arcs 2 and 4 definitely show a lot more about the world of Twelve Kingdoms, and help piece together scenes and characters from arcs 1 and 3 that you wouldn't necessarily understand otherwise. It's definitely not a waste, and I'd recommend that everyone watch the episodes that weren't voted in, because those arcs are interesting, quite relevant to the other arcs, and contain some of the best scenes in the series.

And yeah, I wish that novel were closer to being published here. Unfortunately, it's the 6th in the series, so it'll be quite a while. :(
So I take it there aren't any sites doing any online translations? I bought both the currently-available volumes and intend to buy the rest no matter what, but I'd prefer to read volume 3 before watching that part of the anime (since I prefer the books and don't want to get spoiled).
Keh.
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by Jed »

Well, you have a while longer yet to get your hands on it. We don't start the third arc until the beginning of spring semester.
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by Mike »

hanyou-no-miko wrote:So I take it there aren't any sites doing any online translations? I bought both the currently-available volumes and intend to buy the rest no matter what, but I'd prefer to read volume 3 before watching that part of the anime (since I prefer the books and don't want to get spoiled).
As a matter of fact...

Well, first, let me lay it out simply so it's less confusing (titles here may be rough translations):
Book 1 - Arc 1 - Shadow of the Moon, The Sea of Shadow
Book 2 - Arc 2 - Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth
Book 3 - Arc 4 - Sea God in the East, Vast Sea in the West
Book 4 - Arc 3 - A Thousand Miles of Wind, The Sky at Dawn
Book 5 - not animated - The Aspired Wings
Book 6 - not animated - The Shore at Twilight, The Sky at Daybreak
Book 7 - not animated - The Dream of Prosperity

Anyway, to answer your question, there are in fact some fan translations around. I haven't read any yet because I'd rather not read books on my monitor, but there's at least one translator who does an even better job than Tokyopop. His name is Eugene Woodbury, and he just recently finished translating book 6 (sequel to book 2) and book 7, which makes me very excited. He also has a translation up of book 4 (sequel to book 1), which I think is the one you're looking for. He hasn't translated book 3, but that one is stand-alone.
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hanyou-no-miko
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by hanyou-no-miko »

Mike wrote:
hanyou-no-miko wrote:So I take it there aren't any sites doing any online translations? I bought both the currently-available volumes and intend to buy the rest no matter what, but I'd prefer to read volume 3 before watching that part of the anime (since I prefer the books and don't want to get spoiled).
As a matter of fact...

Well, first, let me lay it out simply so it's less confusing (titles here may be rough translations):
Book 1 - Arc 1 - Shadow of the Moon, The Sea of Shadow
Book 2 - Arc 2 - Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth
Book 3 - Arc 4 - Sea God in the East, Vast Sea in the West
Book 4 - Arc 3 - A Thousand Miles of Wind, The Sky at Dawn
Book 5 - not animated - The Aspired Wings
Book 6 - not animated - The Shore at Twilight, The Sky at Daybreak
Book 7 - not animated - The Dream of Prosperity

Anyway, to answer your question, there are in fact some fan translations around. I haven't read any yet because I'd rather not read books on my monitor, but there's at least one translator who does an even better job than Tokyopop. His name is Eugene Woodbury, and he just recently finished translating book 6 (sequel to book 2) and book 7, which makes me very excited. He also has a translation up of book 4 (sequel to book 1), which I think is the one you're looking for. He hasn't translated book 3, but that one is stand-alone.
Awesome! I'm reading volume 4 now; guess I'll be tired at work tomorrow but who cares about that!
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by hanyou-no-miko »

Jed wrote:Well, you have a while longer yet to get your hands on it. We don't start the third arc until the beginning of spring semester.
....but I already finished what was available online! D: I guess I'll just have to wait impatiently like everybody else for Tokyopop to release volume 3. :D
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by Mike »

Just so you know, aside from the addition of two supporting characters (for a pretty good reason, discussed in the DVD extras), the anime matches the books very closely. These two characters are only in the Yoko arcs, meaning books 1 and 4. Therefore, I would assume that arc 4 matches book 3 very closely as well, though I can't confirm since obviously I haven't read it yet either. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure there's much reason to be worried about watching it before reading it.
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by hanyou-no-miko »

Mike wrote:Just so you know, aside from the addition of two supporting characters (for a pretty good reason, discussed in the DVD extras), the anime matches the books very closely. These two characters are only in the Yoko arcs, meaning books 1 and 4. Therefore, I would assume that arc 4 matches book 3 very closely as well, though I can't confirm since obviously I haven't read it yet either. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not sure there's much reason to be worried about watching it before reading it.
I would disagree, since I watched a few episodes right after reading book one and a lot of things the book doesn't reveal until the end were revealed in the second episode of the anime. Similarly, since we're not showing it I'm watching Arc 2 now (the one centering around Taiki) and a lot of things from book 6 were in the very first episode of arc 2. Sugimoto has also showed up fairly extensively in the first episode of arc 2 and it looks like she'll be recurring in this arc as well. It seems like all the INFORMATION is faithful to the books, but the order you GET the information in is shuffled up like crazy. So I'm glad I read the books first and I'd advise others to do the same, personally.
Keh.
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Re: Twelve Kingdoms

Post by Mike »

I'd be interested in knowing what information in particular you're referring to. I mean, I saw the series a few times long before the books started getting released, so I didn't compare them directly, but I still didn't think the difference was that big.
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