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 This is the new Saiunkoku novel that deals with the aftermath of Volume 18.
DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED
This is really a true ending to Saiunkoku that is both dark and what I honestly expected when I was reading the original novels. (I am glad that the author chose to do it the way she did because at the end of the day Saiunkoku Monogatari was a love romance for girls.
The stories are
"Bones of Snow" (Yuushun)
"Body of Frost" (Ouki)
"Mask of Northern Wind" (Anju)
"Heart of Ice" (Ryuuki)
"Wind Flower" (Black Sen and Shi Shou)
"The Night of Destiny" (Reishin, Kijin, Hishou)
Bones of Snow
Dealt with Yuushin's beginning and ending.
Yuushin was lying about his illness once again and he was actually very ill at the end of novel 18. 2 Years after Ouki leaves the court, Kaiyu (super handsome old man) and Shi Shou (Purple sen) have left the story. (Wind Flower deals with Shi Shou's departure)
Sai Shou becomes a government official.
Youshuu becomes of head of the Brown Providence.
The story deals with why Yuushin's leg ceased to work and about who he was originally and how he met the people who made him who he became (Senka, Ouki, Ensei)
Yuushin's death makes him the first and only person in Ryuuki's reign to hold his position.
Body of Frost
This dealt with Ouki's ending. He was the main character near the end and he lived a long time but it was sad to see Ryou Ou die before him. 10 years after he left the court and Yuushin died Anju takes care of Ouki as he passes on.
Senka and Ouki's relationship was the highlight in my opinion. It showed just how powerful the relationship of Anju Senka and Ouki.
It also revealed that Senka's death was not from the curse (illness) from Seiran's mother
Mask of Northern Wind (Anju)
This deals with Anju and his time before he disappeared after Ouki's death.
It goes about some things like how he was part of Senka and Shi Shou's plot to eliminate the nobles
Anju was also the person who raised Kochou and the reason why she was in love with him (this was revealed in one of the later novels about where the information was leaking from)
Heart of Ice (Ryuuki)
Deals with the happier times of Ryuuki, Shuurei and Riou and Shuurei's final days as a pregnant mother.
Too lazy to write about the last 2 right now.
Wind Flower (Black Sen and Shi Shou)
The Night of Destiny (Reishin, Kijin, Hishou)
Still hoping that she'll do one final full gaiden with the drama CD and cover the other people and their happy ending because this one was so dark. I don't mind the darkness of this gaiden but honestly I want to see the growth of the people that got left behind as the series went on. At the very least it showed Ryuuki and Shuurei but it felt meh to me.
I want to see the growth and aftermath of Eigetsu, Kourin, Kokujun, Shunki, Seiga, Kouyuu, Seiran, Sera, and the children. (Reishin's child, Yuushin's child, Shuurei's child) Labels: Manga / Novels
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wrote at
1:36 PM
on
Jun 16, 2012
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Saiunkoku Monogatari Curtain Call was a special 80 page set for people who collected 80 points from Beans. (I'm not sure what this is but I'm assuming it's for people who purchased 80 points worth of other novels)
The first story is "Hana no Ato" which is a story about giving flowers and spending time with a special someone. It's a story with the former Kokurou, aka Ouki's big sister (aka Tsuyuri) , Ouki, Riou, and Ryouou. It also explains the origins of Ryuuki's otedama (bean juggling bag).
On the way home from a special event, Ouki, Riou, and Ryouou find a tree that has buds for the first time in 50 years. There is a saying about that tree and the story is about going back in time and learning about the former Kokurou and her relationship with Ouki with whom she was enemies for most of her life. the main characters are Ouki and Tsuyuri but the story also features Riou, Ryouou, Shouka, Jyuusan Hime, Ryuuki, Jin, Shuuei, Kouyou, Sera, Shuurei, and Ensei.
It explains why Ouki didn't know Shouka was Kokurou and shows a potential romance for Kouyuu and Sera Hime (Kurou's low teen daughter) Sera Hime has liked Kouyuu for a long time. (I believe she's 13-14 while Kouyuu is 25-26)
The 2nd story is "Ikeru Yuuhi, Noroi no Kanoke wo Hashirasu"
This one was a complete comedy with almost the entire cast. It's a story about everyone being drawn into the huge event of Reishin promising on meeting Shuurei.
Anju makes a bet about it with Yuushun and Kouki and the entire government is drawn into this intense battle. Anju bets that Reishin will meet Shuurei and bets on a one day kingship (Yuushun promises to lock Ryuuki away himself) Yuushun bets that Reishin will not meet Shuurei and Anju will listen whatever Yuuhi wants. So the people who want to help Reishin can't help him because they do not want Anju to be a 1 day king.
Reishin sets a date with Shuurei at a Dango shop (the same one where Yuri and Kou Kijin met) but the dango stores are closed using the might of various families.
Reishin is basically thwarted everyway he goes at which point his former subbordinates come and help. He's then stuffed into a casket by someone else. Seiga is freaked out when he comes to do something. and finally when he's about to meet Shuurei, Yuushun comes and asks him out to dinner which Reishin can't say no to.
Pretty much everyone shows up except for the people in Brown Providence.
PS Reishin doesn't meet Shuurei. Anju wins though because Shuurei meets Kurou
PPS One day Kingship sucks for Anju who is forced to work hard while Ryuuki takes a break in the closet.
Translated from this this this and this
I really really want to read these :(
PS apparently there will be no more Gaidens. I hope this isn't true and she writes another 2-3 stories and releases Curtain Call as a Bunko. Preferably with a short and sweet romantic story with Shuurei and Ryuuki when Shuurei finally gives in to him. The ending of 18 had a short and sweet romantic part but knowing now that Shuurei's life ends so short, I kinda want something where Ryuuki finally truely wins Shuurei. Could also just take the short novels from the DVDs once the DVDs stop selling well enough and just add it to a bunko.
PS: I keep mistaking the names of Yuushun and Ouki, I think I caught them all but Any Yuuhi is Yuushun and any Ouri is OukiLabels: Manga / Novels
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wrote at
11:44 AM
on
Dec 3, 2011
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The Good
Go read Kindle propaganda here. It's mostly accurate.
Even though it's not an MP3 player it plays music which is nice because it's one less device to carry. I don't need some massively multifunctional machine. I'd get an ipad or a laptop or something for that. I can see why people are happy about color but I don't really need color from Nook.
The Bad
PDF reading. They need some sort of PDF reformating program or an easier way to navigate PDFs that you had to enhance the size on to read. (I know it's not a PDF reader but it's terrible unless you reformat the file)
The 5 button navigation system is awkward
Browser is pretty slow but it's not a multiuse device so I guess it's okay.
Collections Management is awkward.
What I want for Kindle
I want some sort of SharePod like program that allows me to do all the collection making on my computer. I really really hate making collections on the Kindle. That 5 button scroll thing is awkward at best. The reason why I prefer a SharePod over iTunes is because SharePod is something that you could put on your iPod and use anywhere on any computer without involving someone else's Library. I want it for my personal documents not my Kindle books which I know I can synch from the web.
Edited for Kindle Collections Manager. This is still in beta and requires an install but overall it's made my experience with collection making a million times easier. Wish it'd identify Mangle created folders as well.
Japanese Ebooks at Amazon JP or Amazon.com. Right now I basically have to go to 3-4 different E-book stores for manga and novels. and try to find one that is reformatable. XMDF is not reformatable. Kindle doesn't do terribly good with EPUB. If Amazon could consolidate the E-book format in Japan it'd make me so happy.
DEAR AMAZON, SELL JAPANESE E-BOOKS.
More formats and better conversion tools.
While I do buy most of my stuff from Amazon, the Japan situation has made it really difficult for me to format everything. I want the Kindle to read EPUB .BOOK XMDF
What I'm enjoying using the Kindle for
English Novels. Durr. Amazon.com
Japanese Novels on Kindle. I love reading in Japanese. I know that Amazon will have a hellish time accessing the Japanese market (given how restrictive the publishers seem to be) so for now I am sticking to Aozora Bunko and some of the less legal sources. A 400yen book goes for about 10-12 dollars in the US if you have to actually order it, (from Japan; in a US bookstore it is much much less.)
Manga
I use Mangle. Sometimes it degrades the images a bit too much but overall it makes the formatting process a lot easier and maintains enough quality. The Kindle however will not carry that many manga. There are plenty of sources for manga on the web. I use Kyoto Music City and Winny Club. Guide to Mangle.
Formatting Japanese for Kindle
The Kindle 3 can read Japanese natively but most Aozora Bunko and text format novels have (rubi) markings which make reading like that hard. Converting them to PDF is really easy with Aopii.
For Novels with Aozora Bunko markings
For straight up Aozora Bunko, there is a free service here that will make your Bunko into a readable format for Kindle.
For some less legal novels.
Use Microsoft AppLocale if you are too lazy to set your region to Japanese for the text file. Set the encoding to UTF-8. If you have set your region to Japan, you probably don't have to change encoding.
Use Aopii PNG to encode the text file with the rubi correctly inputted or use Aopii PDF.
Both Aopii use Java RE. Aopii is a .JAR file
For the PDF version you will need to download and use a different font, the default option doesn't work. for my American Windows XP. I used IPA Font Mincho.
For XMDF Format Novels
XMDF is Sharp's format for E-books and is also the most popular format for E-books in Japan. Unfortunately or as expected, Amazon does not support this format. Neither does Calibre. There are users in Japan however who made some guides to how to convert XMDF to an image format (I then use Mangle to condense it a little more.) Hopefully, someone will make a program that would streamline this process a bit more.
- Download ブンコビューア for viewing XMDF files on Windows PC
- Download AutoHotkey or UWSC and create a script to take screenshots and save them to a folder. (See here or here for UWSC scripts. personally, the 2nd script was easier to use and customize.)
- Trimming. I use Ralpha for trimming. You can use your own programs or use the Linux script from the above link (I don't really know much about Linux so I don't know if that method is faster or more effective.)
- Further formatting using Mangle to reduce size and greyscale it better. You can also convert the folder to PDF if you want but I'm perfectly fine with Mangle folders.
The entire process takes around 15-20 minutes for a thin Bunko book according to one of the guides.
Other thoughts.
I was reading Ｊコミ and was thinking, why don't/can't Japanese artists whose works aren't published anymore take advantage of Kindle Direct Publishing. It's not limited to just Kindle because the software reads on iPad, IPod, PC, so forth which makes it superior to the .book format I keep encountering or the T-time formats.
While Amazon takes 30% royalties, having something on Amazon would be great publicity for older works that publishers aren't publishing anymore to receive more revenue. It just makes more sense to me than the advertisement revenue via JComi. If they made a good Japanese platform they could easily tap into the thousands of doujinshi manga artists for whom paper format is more expensive than digital format.
Links
Kindle Store
Blog Kindle is also pretty informative for other hacks.
青Ｐ Aopii for formatting Aozora Bunko formatted texts into images with correct rubi
Mangle for formatting images
Instapaper for reformatting webpages for reading on Kindle
星空文庫 Hoshizora Bunko
青空文庫 Aozora Bunko
Project Gutenberg English version of Aozora BunkoLabels: Guide, Manga / Novels
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wrote at
8:31 AM
on
Sep 23, 2011
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I finally finished reading Saiunkoku 17 and 18 and I must say that while it was expected that everything would end happily ever after I didn't expect it to end that way based on how dark the story had gotten. It really seemed like there was no way out to get to the ending that was promised in Volume 1. It was obvious that Shuurei would somehow survive and that Ryuuki would win somehow but I really did not see how it would happen so when it did happen it was nice.
One thing I disliked is that almost everyone survives. It is a shoujo light novel so it was obvious that at least Shuurei would survive but people like Anju I couldn't see surviving but somehow did. I did want something from Sakujun more even though he was dead. (He helps Shuurei escape from Anju in volume 18 as a corpse and that's pretty much it) What I did like is that it ended the same way that it began. The storyline got darker and darker and darker throughout 13-17 but 18 brought it back to humor and romance.
Plot line Spoilers:
Volume 17 was all about Ruka, fixing the locust problem and getting everything set up for Ryuuki vs Ouki
- Shuurei figures out the 2nd boss, where the money, the steel, was going. it's Anju. The money went to bribing the Kou Family. The steel went to Ouki's property where he got some steel workers from the Red Clan building weapons.
- Ruka, Uu, Shuuei, Ouki fix the locust problem using a virus against the locusts and Uu uses the last of his life force to make sure that the locusts die.
- Seiran and so forth help Ouki to help Ryuuki. (Killing Ouki would kill Ryuuki politically even more so than letting him take the crown.)
- Shuurei sacrifices the little time she has left to help Ruka fix the holy objects. When Ruka is killed by kyonshi Sakujun and the balance of the world goes array. Ruka Uu, the girl who caused Ruka's death, Eiki all willingly turn their spirits into human pillars. Uu and Ruka were 2 halves of a single artifact because of how long Ruka had lived and protected the world.
- The Hyou family is completely opened to the world, helping the weak and supporting everyone.
- The mirror is fixed by Karin. (Karin's husband is the human vessel for Hekisen). (Creating the mirror did not kill the creator, that was bullshit that someone thought up and all the creators suicided because they would never admit that they weren't good enough to die for their art)
- Shuurei goes to rest in a casket. She'll have 1 day more to live and only when she and the person she gives the key to want her to will she awake. If she stays asleep she can live 10 more years in sleep.
Volume 18 was about Ryuuki. Shuurei spent 90% of the novel sleeping while Ryuuki began giving up things to protect them.
- Ryuuki learns from Shou Taishi that his responsibility was to last 3 years as King. He was manipulated to make it easier for Ouki to become King
- Ryuuki still believes of Yuushin's betrayal but decides to escape the castle before more people on Ouki's side try to kill Yuushin.
- Ryuuki gives up one of his swords to a stranger while escaping for helping him because he doesn't need the sword. This is direct contrast to Ouki who gave everything up except for his sword and armor because he still needed them.
- Ouki takes control of the government and fixes up a lot of the problems. He uses many of the plans that Ryuuki and Yuushun made but couldn't announce because of the backlash that was going on against Ryuuki.
- Ryuuki spends the next few months with sleeping Shuurei, Shuuei, Shouka so forth. Shuurei is protected by Hien, Riou's mother and Ouki's daughter who was the last body for Ruka. Hien was dying in childbirth when Ruka put her into stasis in hopes that someday she would be able to be fixed. With Ruka dying Hien uses the last of her time to work towards helping Shuurei.
- At this point Ryuuki's basically fucked. The 6 ministers are not on his side and are helping Ouki fix the government. The Ran providence locks up the governor as sick and the rest of the government is taken over by Ouki's supporters. The White and Black Providences are angry at the Red Providence who was hiding food when the locust problem occurred. They are also pissed off at Ryuuki who failed to help them. The Yellow family has been accepting bribes from Ouki and in general always sides with the winning side. The Heki Governor is missing from the earthquakes and Heki people in general are not terribly interested in war.
- Shuurei is stolen using Sakujun (who was turned into a Kyonshi by Anju who is his older brother) and used against Ryuuki. Ryuuki decides to not try and save her.
- Ryuuki and Ouki meet at a battlefield and have a duel. Ryuuki arrived with just Shuuei, Ouki with 50,000 troops.
- Shuurei wakes up and rushes to Ryuuki's side with the help of her old friends at the government. Rou Ensei is who she trusted with the 2nd key.
- Ryuuki and Ouki duel.
- Suddenly a village in Ouki's territory rises in flames (due to Anju's plotting)
- Ryuuki offers Ouki his head to save Ouki's troops from death. He can't stop them as a King but his head can.
- Yuushin arrives with the support of White/Black/Yellow families. He was gonna betray Ryuuki if he hadn't run away to protect Yuushun's life. Because that would be what a normal guy would do and if Ryuuki was just average then Ouki is better for everyone. However, because Ryuuki follows through with his beliefs and sacrifices everything to protect it, Yuushun sides with Ryuuki and Ouki loses the battle.
- When Ryuuki escaped the castle Yuushin asked Haku Raien to give Ryuuki his sword. This sword giving was intended as Haku Raien's personal loyalty to the king but was in reality, the White providence pledging to the king. The Black providence was given laxatives in the guise of medicine that would make them stronger. They pledged loyalty for the cure and are now honor bound. Kouyou somehow convinces the yellow clan but gets lost in the north. The Brown/Red/Blue families also come and Ouki loses
- Ryuuki makes sure Ouki doesn't commit suicide and gives Ouki, Bakuya which he accepts and pledges loyalty to Ryuuki. On a side note, his general was a legendary fighter from the Black clan.
- Shuurei is shot by an arrow. (this is cliffhanger)
- The 7 Sen meet and mourn the death of one of their members and most of them pledge not to meddle with things for at least another 100 years. Everything went to plan and the Black Sen's love still didn't show up, Purple just lost. Yellow doesn't want to have more work saving lives, Heki has a son and wants his son to live a nice life, Sa doesn't really care much, Byakuya completely fell for a human.
Epilogue
- Shuurei survives using the life force that was being tapped from her via Kyonshi Sakujun. (her life was being used to reanimate Sakujun) Hien, Ruka, and Shusui were basically sucking back her life force back into Shuurei. She's given just a little more time.
- Ryuuki proposes to Shuurei but is rejected publically for the 100th time. (In the background Yuushun says that Shuurei is better as an official for the country and Shuurei's old friends all petition against the king.)
- Reishin, Yuushin become parents. (As a side note, Yuushin wasn't dying but pretending to die because it's safer. His wish was to become a good person. He likes siding with idiots because he doesn't have to think much) Yuushin decides to never side with the King when it becomes matters of women and love after being beaten up by his wife who hid her pregnancy from him.
- Jin and Shuuei are given the chance to return Jin to Shiba family if they defeat White General who is the current owner of one of the Shiba family's old family heirloom sword that they lost 100 years ago. Juusan hime says she'll consider Jin when he defeats the White General. Juusan Hime privately gives up on Ryuuki whom she was quietly in love with. Jin is made the vice minister of Military division.
- The entire Ouki taking over thing is summed up as Ouki getting pissed off at the king and going to pick him up from the Red Providence. Ryuuki makes Riou his son. Ouki laments of Riou's lack of luck in fathers.
- Shuurei is given a job like Seiga that allows her to visit the world of Saiunkoku over 3-4 years. Ryuuki allows it and says she'll always come back, everyone will come back. They have a very sweet moment. Shouka overhears things and is reminded of Shuurei's mother and his own romance. It'll take a while to get married.
True Epilogue
- Ryuuki's reign truly begins in Jyouchi 5. His reign is noted for having no wars and for cleaning up after the 100 years war. Much like his father was compared to Sougen, he is compared to Soushuu. He's also famed for having only 1 wife.
- At age 32, he marries Kou Shuurei. At that point she was a famous official but she gives up her official status and accepts Ryuuki's proposal.
- This is also the year when a new girl passes the examinations. This new girl is Shuuran from the Brown Providence and also becomes the first Female Prime Minister of Saiunkoku.
- Ryuuki's reign is famed for a period when women were exceptionally famous. Hyou Shusui advanced schooling, Kou Yuri conducted a lot of charity and raised the quality of life throughout saiunkoku. Shuuran governed well. Ran Jyuusanhime was famed in the military while Heki Karin was famed in the arts. Sai Rin became the minister of crafts while being the wife of the Prime Minister.
- Kou Shuurei is one of the most famous because her life was not too long.. The year after her marriage, Kou Shuurei died in childbirth at age 30. She died saying "my just a little more time ended" Few records of her life remain leading to her legendary status.
- Shi Ryuuki immediately made Riou his successor but Riou gave up his succession right to Shuurei's daughter who lives 70 years as a rare Queen. Riou becomes prime minister after Tei Yuushun Kei Yuuri and Ri Kouyu and restarts the tradition of Hyou family in the government.
- Shuurei's daughter is one of the rare Queens of Saiunkoku's history (asides from the ancient queens) and was said to closely resemble her mother.
It's nice to figure out was what except I still have no clue who was the human vessel for the Black Sen
- Purple - Shi Shou (Who ends up being the big bad in a way)
- Red - Bara Hime (Shuurei's mom, she officially dies)
- Blue - Ran Ryuuren (Shuuei's Younger brother with the flute)
- Yellow - Kou you (Shuurei's doctor)
- Brown - Sa Nan (Ensei's training master)
- Heki - Ourou Jun (Heki Karin's Husband)
- White - Byakuya (To Eigetsu's other personality)
- Black - Anju? (Perhaps he didn't even have a human vessel)
Labels: Manga / Novels
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wrote at
6:06 PM
on
Aug 28, 2011
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