The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind, Fuyumi Ono
well, also finally got around to reading this. i've had it lying around for near to a year, and because the first book was so different from the anime i think i was actually quite scared to touch this. to be honest the first book sort of bored me, but i believe it's much different reading a book in its native language than reading it in a translated form, as certain linguistic distinctions will certainly be noticed. or maybe there is a simpler reason, and i simply was too attached to the anime. either way, it set me up for wayy lower expectations for this installment, for which i'm glad, because it actually was decent.
i'm not sure i can honestly say that i think a lot of world-building went into this, but the strange thing is that i know it did. in the show i was constantly amazed by the world-building, maybe because it came hand in hand with the gripping pace; in the books, i feel like there are your sections devoted to character, your sections devoted to world-building, and specific SMALL sections devoted to plot. nothing much happens in this book, really, and so there was barely any pace to speak of. i did find myself getting bored frequently, but there were so many cameo appearances to excite myself over, and of course i was constantly comparing how the book did it, and how the anime did it. some things the anime nailed spot on, like his not being able to transform or subdue demons. there are regards in which the anime excels over the book, like the moment when he captures his first demon. the character of the king-to-be i feel was portrayed much better in this book, because in the anime too much of it is devoted to how much taiki fears him, and not enough to him as a character. perhaps it might just be that the dude's voice actor sounds like a villain altogether, and he fucking LOOKS evil.
but enough about that, i guess. the story in the book and the story in the anime is virtually identical, unlike the youko book, so i'm much more pleased with this than the last one, which i didn't know quite how to take. with that said, i have a general idea of which story arc the next book will tackle on, and am somewhat looking forward to seeing how that compares to the anime too.
