Juuni Kokki

[tarigwaemir]

Blair Hall Apts., on the Feast of St. Stephen the Great

Hm, I've been wondering if blind_go writers want a support comm or at least a list of themes for inspiration. Or would people rather stew in their own creative juices even if it means increased agony? In any case, it's kind of nice to see that people are excited about the challenge, even if it's also inflicting the pain of a deadline. ^_^

I finally finished watching Juuni Kokki yesterday (xiaraix sent me the last twenty episodes last fall, but I didn't get around to watching them until this summer). Next up: continue watching Legend of Galactic Heroes and catch up on Ravages of Time. The only problem with LoGH is that I don't think I finished downloading all of the available subs before I came back home, and my father's laptop, which is the only computer in the house that has Internet access at the moment, is probably due to break down any moment. Father already had to replace the hard drive shortly before I came home, and for some reason the internal CD-ROM drive is broken. Of course, as long as it can handle streaming video (for watching dramas) and Korean websites (for reading long self-published wuxia novels online) then both of my parents are satisfied.

Actually, it's good for me to separate the Internet from the rest of my computing activities because it means I don't get distracted while writing. (Okay, not entirely true since I now play Spider Solitaire for hours on end instead.)

I read fanfic for this series before I ever watched a single episode, so it's been a pretty enlightening experience all around. I also finished the first arc when sub_divided sent me CDs last summer but didn't actually get around to watching the rest of the series until this summer, so when I went back to reread Juuni Kokki fanfic, I was in that strange position of knowing most of the characters but not all and understanding about 90% of what was going on but feeling uneasily that there was something I was missing.

Now that I've finished the series, I still have that feeling of missing something. Argh. Everyone warned me that the anime was incomplete but I had no idea to what degree. I thought we'd get more of a glimpse of the other kingdoms and their kings and kirin before it ended. Are there novel translations online somewhere?

I really like the whole schematic of the world: children being born from trees, the hanjuu, the will of Heaven being made manifest directly and indirectly. The last one interested me because there seem to be so few religious institutions in the Twelve Kingdoms, although there are many rituals and ceremonies. It reminded me of something I read once, that faith involves a choice to believe or not believe, and when you confront the supernatural or divine in an incontrovertible way, then your choice is taken away, and you can no longer really have a religion. But Tentei isn't exactly unambiguous, just less ambiguous than one might expect. No one doubts the existence of a divine will, just whether it is really as just as people expect it to be. Rakushun is the only character I've seen that manages to pull off any sort of agnosticism.

It's also kind of neat that the rulers and government officials are granted immortality (until they fail to fulfill their duty). It makes me wonder if it makes them more or less likely to be good rulers. It's often a theme in literature and biography that the desire for immortality is what drove men to go to war and build empires. Still, you could say that it's the same desire that caused rulers to build great monuments and cultivate the arts. But then again, does that necessarily make a great ruler anyway? I suppose though that there is still the same incentive in the Twelve Kingdoms world, just inverted: if you stop being a good ruler, you lose the immortality that you've gained.

A question: do the kingdoms ever go to war against each other? Because it seems the way the world is set up, kingdoms can have civil conflicts that may affect neighboring countries but one king can't conquer another kingdom without causing shitsudo. Did anyone ever try? That's a fascinating thought though, a world where wars are always confined within a country's borders (well, politically speaking anyway).

I've skimmed up to volume 20 in Ravages of Time but I want to read everything properly with translations. Also I need to catch up to volume 23. Heh. Good thing my parents are out of the house today and not around to complain about my hogging the Internet. ^_^

Yours &c.

Comments

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

I've already found a support system. ^_^ It's interesting, this challenge, since it's rare that we see so many people committed to not just writing, but writing WELL.

As for Junni Kokki, there's a couple of sites that have novel summaries. The most dissatisfying thing is that Taiki's story is never resolved. The novel series, from what I read, has less focus on Youko, and more on the "world" of Junni Kokki.

[troisroyaumes]

Yay, that's good to hear. And yes, I'm really excited...I had no idea when I first started the challenge that people would take it so seriously. I'm really looking forward to the results because I figure the fics are going to be good if people are putting so much effort into them. ^_^ (Not meant as pressure of course! I suspect that the writers are all setting particularly high standards for themselves anyway. ^_^)

I was surprised that Taiki's story was never finished because I had assumed from reading so much GyouTai fic that it was a complete arc. -_-;; I really should Google for the novel summaries.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

As a whole, Hikago has one of the highest quality of fanfiction. It's no surprise we're working hard. ^_^

The Taiki thing drives me NUTS since I found that to be the most compelling line - although I loved Kouya's story as well.

[solidark.livejournal.com]

This post (http://community.livejournal.com/juuni_kokki/49774.html) on the Juuni Kokki LJ community lists most, maybe even all novel translations online. But if I remember correctly, the novels are licensed anyway (I can't remember by whom but it was probably Tokyopop).

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Tokyopop has the liscense.

No war with neighboring kingdoms. canis_m posted on this once: in one of the novels, there's a king who sent his army into another kingdom after a disaster to help with relief efforts...and his kirin immediately developed shitsudou and died. It happens the instant your soldiers cross the border, no matter what the reason.

The way I see Tentei is: his laws generally coincide with moral judgement or good leadership, but every now and then they don't line up exactly, and that's where ambiguity slips in.

[troisroyaumes]

Oh wow, so war is literally impossible. That's really interesting, that no kingdom can ever increase its territory.

That's a good summary of it. And since leadership itself is a rather ambiguous concept, no matter how strictly Tentei enforces his laws, it's inevitable that some iffy situations will pop up. I like the whole setup because it's like the Mandate of Heaven idea made into reality. Except of course in the Twelve Kingdoms, a king's reign composes an entire dynasty.

[troisroyaumes]

Thanks so much for the link! Yes, I heard the novels were licensed, and I hope they come out soon. ^_^

[issen4.livejournal.com]

I'll repeat what I said to ramble_corner: Have you seen the sign-up sheet? Those are seriously talented people there.

(Me, I'm just crashing the party.)

Furthermore, Hikago is this nice, high quality fandom that doesn't really have things like shipping wars to divide or unite people--a lot of people just do their own thing. blind_go is one of the rare 'events'--and it has a deadline!--so it excites and causes panic as well. And it's a guess-the-author challenge, so your fics gotta speak for themselves.

Junni Kokki: I kept wanting to argue with the TV while watching it. Why aren't there any technological advances, even after hundreds of years? And this business of praying for a child is just a way to keep the population down! And so on. Still enjoyed it, though.

There's a line in Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds: "Immortality is only for the gods, I only wonder how they bear it" (or roughly that; don't have book readily at hand), which I think rings true, because the search for immortality by mortals has always had dire consequences in stories. 12K rulers are still not gods. There's another Chinese precedent, which might be relevant, since 12K has Chinese elements, that suggests immortality isn't such a great idea: Emperors Yao and Shun, who are venerated for their greatness--and for the fact that they gave up their positions.

Though 12K, if I remember right, has provisions for a ruler who wished to give up his or her position. And if we go by that, we can't call it immortality, since immortality implies you won't ever die. And if you could, it wouldn't be...

Okay, it's clearly late. Sleep now.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

The provision for a ruler who wants to abdicate is essentially ritual suicide.

[issen4.livejournal.com]

Opps. I stand corrected. Hm. So it's really a do-or-die job, then.

[troisroyaumes]

I was so thrilled when I saw the sign-up list. Actually I should confess that about five days before the deadline, Silvermuse and I compiled a list of all the Hikago authors who had LJ IDs (to our knowledge) but hadn't signed up yet, and I emailed them, inviting them to participate. I didn't expect many of the people I emailed to sign up because after all, many of them hadn't written for the fandom in years and most of the still-active writers like you, Aishuu, Muri, etc. had already signed up. But several of them did, much to my surprise. ^_^

Re: Juuni Kokki, huh, you're right, there haven't been many technological advances. And I think the anime said that what advances there were came from Hourai. Also, I think it would make sense to have population control in a place where everyone is guaranteed to have their own plot of land to farm (very socialist, I thought). But yeah, there seem to be some inconsistencies in the worldbuilding.

Well, it's not immortality per se since it's true that the rulers will eventually die when their reign goes bad. I think the fact that they can live beyond a normal human's lifespan and remain the same age is similar to the traditional concept of immortality. But you're right, they aren't gods and the fact that they still can die makes the situation different. It's pretty interesting to think about! I'll have to ponder about it some more.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you've been watching 12K. ^^ I did a shabby summary (http://canis-m.livejournal.com/130049.html) of the most recent novel, which covers some Tai-related developments after the end of the anime, if you're interested in spoilers.

There are some kingdoms (Kyou, Sou, Ren) that get more time & focus in the novels than in the anime, although there are still others that remain shrouded in mystery. XD

RE: war, if you the monarch send your army into a neighboring kingdom, even without belligerent intent, you and your kirin die instantly of exploded heads or the equivalent, IIRC. En was able to help Youko militarily in Kei only because she was present and was in effect borrowing the army of En, or some similar loophole. Appealing as the world is, its internal logic tends to be sort of shaky.

[troisroyaumes]

Oh, thanks for the summary. Augh, so we still don't know where Gyousou is? ;_; I'm glad that Taiki does get to come back though. (I've read a lot of your GyouTai fic before I really knew the background to the pairing, so I feel rather attached to the two of them. ^_^;;)

Ah, so a foreign army can only enter a country if the king of that country leads it? What a strange loophole. Anyway, thanks very much for the info! It's a pretty ingenious world, inconsistencies or no.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

About the, ahaha, the GyouTai--conversely I suspect there would be less fic if the Tai story arc were complete. In absence of happi endo or indeed any sort of endo one sort of degenerates into wish-fulfillment and rising hysteria of the "is Ono going to finish this thing or not?" kind.

[xiaraix.livejournal.com]

Finally you finished watching it huh? Good :) For 12K fics, any good one to recommend?

About the Wars/Battles/Advancement... i think in the world of 12K, the Tentei's will are more for the wellbeing of the people... if basic human needs are meet and the overall people's belief that all thing are accordance to Tentei's will then to be at least there is no need for it.

foreign army can only enter a country if the king of that country leads it or the rightful king asked for aid... i guess :)