Yes he can go four days in a row

After a rather long hiatus I watched episodes 6-10 of The Twelve Kingdoms (I watched episodes 1-5 back in August). Wow what an improvement. I see a couple of reasons I enjoyed these episodes so much more then the first five (which I didn’t dislike by any means). First I’m getting used to the new vocabulary the show forces you to learn. Second the main character, Nakajima Yōko, starts maturing and growing into a very interesting and likable character. Also Yōko finally meets some people who aren’t out to exploit her. Finally the story, which was already good, just keeps getting more interesting.

A number of interesting characters are either introduced or explained. Of those Rakushun may be my favorite. He’s a hanjyuu (a half-beast/half-human with both a human and animal form) with the form of a rat, and is also the first decent person Yōko meets in the Kingdom of Kou. He first cares for her wounds after her fight with Sugimoto, and then decides to take her to the Kingdom of En where she won’t be persecuted for being a kaikyaku. Shoryu, the King of En, also has some potential to be an interesting character. Like Yōko, Shoryu is a taika (he should have been born in the land of the Twelve Kingdoms, but ended up being born on Earth), while on earth he was a clan leader in feudal Japan (about 500 years in Yōko’s past). Rokuta, also known as Enki, who has been popping up since the beginning of the show finally gets an explanation. He’s the Kingdom of En’s kirin, which basically means he’s the king’s second in command. We also find out about the Shusei; they are basically gypsies – traveling nomads who don’t belong to any of the 12 kingdoms (they are also usually entertainers).

Well after four posts in a row I find I still have a few ideas for topics to blog about tomorrow (or this weekend, or baring that next). Yesterday is really the closest I’ve come to talking about comic books (which is a shame), unfortunately yesterday I was talking about role-playing and the mention of The Path was incidental to that goal. So I’m overdue to finally say something about comic books, and I’ve got that Marvel 1602 trade paperback that’s just sitting on a table next to my bed. That’s a post just waiting to happen. I’ve also been kicking around some ideas about what I could say about web comics for the last two weeks or so. Plus there is always anime to fall back on I’ve got disk three of The Twelve Kingdoms waiting at home for me to watch, I’ve got plenty more Hunter × Hunter to get through, and the fansub for Bleach episode 111 just came out. Then there are all the series I’ve been planning on starting but just haven’t yet including Mai-Hime, MAJOR, Mahoraba, and Ayakashi.