One review here calls "Juuni Kokuki" a "disordered mess". I am puzzled. The title is "Juuni Kokuki". Why is it that one ends up surprised that the author talks about the Twelve Kingdoms, and not just one of them? Tolkienn did the same with the "Middle Earth". He wrote "Bilbo the Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", "Tales of the 1st and 2nd Age", and a compendium of mythological stories made into "The Silmarillon" by his nephew (i think). This is what a litterary fantasy cycle is meant to look like. Juuni Kokuki works the same way as Tolkienn's works and many other fantasy cycles. Millenia of History, countless characters, and story threads in different eras and times. But each story thread could be adapted in a 30 to 100 episodes anime. So, it is not like stories are truncated or "messy". This is what you would expect of an actual world: it is not about only one character. How many stories are worth telling in regards to even our own world? What of Socrates and how he was executed? What of Darius, the persian king, and his son Xerxès? Of Alexander of Macedonia? Hatchepsout? What of Mulan, or the 1st chinese emperor, what of Joan of Arc, Guillaume the Conqueror, Gengis Khan or Harald? What of the Epic of Gilgamesh written 4000 years ago and the city of Uruk he is meant to have ruled? This is what creating a world from scratch is like. If Ono Fuyumi were to write more, she would probably write more different stories. Because in 2019, she published 4 more volumes that conclude the story of Taïki and Taï. There is no loose ends per say anymore.
I have been feeling conflicted for a very long time now. "Juuni Kokuki" is just so good that i could never have enough of Youko's story. The one i discovered through the anime, the main story of the litterary cycle. But is there really no conclusion? I believe there is a conclusion. She reached the place where she was meant to be. I crave more, but at the same time, my imagination have been working so hard these past 12 years, that i would probably be disappointed by whatever the author may have in mind for a possible sequel, unless she makes her destiny grand. Writing what follows would possibly hurt the story as a whole. The author told us a story, and the epilogue is actually up to us. This is frustrating because i crave for more and always will and can probably never be satiated, but it is probably for the best. I wish i could have the answer to this one question Rakushun asks Youko in En. This one question that is about the future. But again, answering it would probably defeat the purpose of even writing this story.
When thinking of "Juuni Kokuki", i always have an erhu play in my head. This is a millenia old chinese instrument for those who don't know (look it up yourself). I still see myself walking around this place with this erhu music floating in the air. There is a sense of peace to this. A sense of a harsh, simpler, but fulfilling life. I have travelled so much in my imagination thanks to these novels that any actual travel in this world feels less appealing. There is nothing that is "in ya face" in Juuni Kokuki. This is merely a believable world not unlike our own (China), with its imperfections and inherent charm. And destinies that cross one another's path in what is seeemingly en endless cycle. But some threads are meant to last more than others, and this is what makes them remarkable and remembered fondly by the inhabitants of the kingdoms. And what Juuni Kokuki offers is a glimpse at some of those destinies in various times and places.
But quite frankly, if you feel like it, you can simply read the books that are about Youko. There is probably 6 of them. Her story is intertwined with others, too, and maybe reading the Taiki story thread too would be satisfying. You don't need to read everything. I will possibly never read everything. But whether you read these stories or make new ones in your mind, the Twelve Kingdoms are vast and long lasting. You can never be certain what kind of stories may unfold in their legends. And neither the "youma" nor the gods under Tentei will ever show you their world, or tell you of their nature or their truth. And very few are the lucky ones invited to see this world above the Unkai, the "sea of clouds", where gods are rumoured to govern the world from. You will have to walk this path feeling like a mortal to whom some secrets will never be revealed. But we live with it, as they do. Or... you may dive in the retold stories of those in the know. And you will then need a fertile imagination to see and feel what they did. But if you do, there is no telling how much of yourself will remain stuck in the Kingdoms forever, as a kaikyaku trapped for life by a one way shôku.
It is about a world made up of Twelve Kingdoms. With its heroes, villains, myths, culture, values, and time flow. You won't see dragons, waifus, orcs, submissive elves masochists, crass humour, otaku fantaisies, japanese exports everywhere in fantasy land, or anything like that. In many ways, Juuni Kokuki never had this "anime vibe". It always had this "fantasy cycle" vibe instead. Because this is what it is.
