Wow, it's over? Thank you...

"Black Arts as his Sword". Magic? Implied by how he ferreted out conspiracy, or turned people, but not clear earlier.

I wondered about this as well. I googled the passage from the book and found a forum discussing whether the author meant that Asen had a "magical" degree of military talent, or was using actual magic. The antecedent for the latter is chapter 21, where Risai describes Asen's success as a "plague" and Youko theorizes that he is using some sort of "brainwashing" technique. So I threw in both interpretations.

Thanks so much for the translation. Just out of curiosity, are you planning to translate anymore 12 Kingdoms novels?

I haven't got anything new planned right now. An upcoming translation project (the kind that pays the bills) will command my attention in the meantime. In any case, never say never.

My new novel, Angel Falling Softly, is coming out this fall. I'll also publish it online in serial format, one chapter a week. I haven't got a start date yet, but look for it in the next month or so.

Thank u Very much!!, I loved this novel; but it makes me wonder what happened to Tai-oh, and if Taiki is ever going to have his horn and powerful shirei back.

I greatly appreciate your kind comments. Fuyumi Ono has published a collection of short stories about the Twelve Kingdoms, but the Tai-related story is about when Taiki goes to Ren. According to a fairly recent interview, she does plan on writing more installments for the series, so she may yet address the fate of Tai.

It is finished??!!

I heard that this piece of 12 kingdoms finished the story of Tai and Taiki.
But we do not still know what happened to Tai, to Tai-king and The end of all this...
The continuation is not published yet???
At least thank you for your translations.

It is too much, if you translated the piece which speaks about the story of Ryuu kingdom ???

Thank you very much

Europe

thank you so much for translating this novel!
and i hope that when the rest of the stories come out you will translate them, until then thank you for wath you did till now and for the stories you will tranlate from now on
thank you
Daniela

it has been like 2 years when i discovered your translations and you have, as always, been doing great. i started reading this book from other sites but they have never moved forward and when i read you are going to do this i was happy. but it took me awhile to read because i can't stand reading it one chapter a week... my bad.

anyway, it's nice to see how the story of taiki progressed coming back from japan. i always wondered what happened to him after he said goodbye from his teacher. fuyumi ono likes to do that in her series, i guess, giving an element of wonder just when the book finishes... like now, what will happen to risai and taiki? it just makes you want more! :)

kudos to you! and i hope you would be doing more 12 kingdoms translations.

thanks!

sidapa

Wow. I started reading this yesterday and have just now finished. I simply could not stop reading, save for a few instances where various bodily functions took temporary priority.

I've read that the anime was originally planned for 68 episodes, but that they stopped at 45 when some of the people working on it took ill. I think the character designer was mentioned. Obviously they never resumed their work. With a planned 68 episodes, I imagine they could have covered all of the existing novels. What a shame.

Reading the titles and short descriptions of the unanimated novels and realizing just how much story was missing from the anime was very frustrating. So thank you very much for translating this story as it was the one I most wanted to read.

Hey, thanks for this. I could tell that this was difficult Japanese to translate. I think she would use all the old kanji characters and pronunciations.


I'm glad I got to see more of Taiki's story. The anime left off at a bad point. However the book didn't do much better.

I really hope she write the 8th book. With everything that Risai and Taiki have left to do, it could possibly be the most interesting book of them all.

I just finished reading the shore in twilight, I'm so happy you translated it and it's well done too. You mentioned before there may be another book continuing Taiki and Resai's story, If so I hope that you will consider translating it also.

Well again thank you for all your hard work, it's greatly appriciated.

Thanks a lot for this translations, they are really well done,i hope to see more twelve kingdoms novels translated because your work is great, thanks again for this.

As all others before me I also want to say thank you for these translations. I have read your translations of Shadow of the moon, A thousand leagues of wind and now The shore in twilight. I really hope you find the time to continue translating from the 12 kingdoms.
Valeria from Argentina

Aww, I was preparing myself mentally to follow them to Tai, lol. Anyway, many thanks for the translations and your personal attention as well. You know? Reading the hiragana pronunciations of all the Kanji actually helped me to learn a few of them. Wow, I sincerely enjoyed these two books. It's a shame Tai's tale hasn't been written yet.

Either way a lot of thanks for translating it!

Most excellent. I have waited years to know what happened after the anime series. It was a pleasure to read this story, and I very much appreciate your taking the time to translate it--your talent for detail made this a memorable experience. This book series remains my favorite of all time, and I cannot wait to buy each of the remaining installments as TP releases them. Thank you once again, and I wish you luck in your future endeavors!

Thank you again for this translation! I've just finished reading it, and I cannot believe this is what comes of Taiki. I mean, come on! He was this rare kirin powerfull enough to subdue a totetsu, and then he just looses his horn before making anything at all for his emperor and kingdom? Weren't he and Gyousou suppose to do something extraordinary together? It gives me such an immense sense of lost.

On the other hand, I love the way Ono lead the caracters to doubt the divine will and the order of that world. And her depiction of the Queen Mother of the West is simply perfect. If gods exist, specially in a world like that, it stands to reason that they're kind of assholes.

thank you so very much. Taikis story has always needed ending... to bad we're still waiting :D unless theres been something new released?