Twelve Kingdoms: Interview with the Translator, the Hero Cycle

Kate: Many Twelve Kingdoms novels definitely meet Campbell’s criteria for the hero cycle. The hero/heroine collects helpers throughout the journey. Yet in Poseidon, the Taiho and his emperor stand out as almost bewilderingly prepared to forge on alone—sans helpers (and in disguise). Are they deliberately unique, the exception that proves the rule?

Eugene: In Poseidon of the East, Ono leverages the universality of the heroic journey by taking the hero and his helper halfway around the cycle. Shouryuu essentially ends up at the bottom, having lost everything in Japan and being offered a ruined kingdom as the reward. However, knowing where they end up, we can take the second half of the cycle as a given.

Do you want a kingdom of your own?

I see this narrative structure as a variation on the monomyth that could be defined as its own genre. The Scooby Gang still gets together, but the dramatic arc emphasizes the protagonist leaving his past behind and embracing an uncertain future. I'd place Casablanca in this category. Rick loses the girl but gains a partner and a renewed sense of purpose.

At its heart, it's an origins story, with the option of leaving the second half of the heroic journey until later. In Shadow of the Moon, Youko completes the journey, but the first half of the story is about letting go of the past. The Wings of Dreams takes a more conventional approach. Like Luke Skywalker, once the journey begins, Shushou doesn't look back.

Taiki walks the toughest road in the Twelve Kingdoms. Both The Demon Child and The Shore in Twilight leave him at the bottom of the cycle. The story structure could be compared in several ways to Poseidon of the East, only spanning four separate novels.

In The Demon Child, with his shirei wreaking havoc in his home town, Taiki realizes he can no longer stay in Japan. The story ends with him waiting on the shore for Shouryuu to take him to Kei. The Shore in Twilight encompasses the events before and after The Demon Child and concludes with Taiki returning to Tai with Risai to face a precarious future.

This time, the reader has no idea how the journey will end. That resolution doesn't arrive until Hills of Silver Ruins.

Thoughts on Kirin/the Taiho to follow!