Themes of Juuni Kokki

NoSanninWa · Post by **NoSanninWa** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 1:19 am

I just discovered this show 8 days ago. In that time I have downloaded and watched all 29 episodes to date. (Poor me, I want more!)

One (of the many things) that impressed me about this show was how it develops themes which run through the story arc. I believe the theme of the first arc was "know who you are" and the theme of the third arc is "bear your own burden." I'm undecided about the them of the second arc.

In A Thousand Miles of Wind, The Sky of Dawn the theme is reflected in all three characters. Primarily of course it is Yoko's theme as she is learning to bear the burden of rulership. At first she wasn't shouldering her responsibilities, trying to please everyone by letting them run the country the way she wanted to, but now she is trying to learn what matters for herself, so that she will eventually fulfill her responsiblities and hopefully become a meikun.

The two secondary characters reflect the theme through their own difficulties. Sonshu refuses to acknowlege that she had any responsiblities. She was just a princess locked withing the palace walls and unaware of what happened. The problem is that she refuses to acknowlege that she had the responsiblity to have known what her father was doing. She was over 40 after all, she should have known something or else she bears the responsiblity for her own ignorance. Until she faces up to her own faults she is never going to be able to fit into this world.

Suzu similarly won't acknowlege her faults. She is so focused on how terrible things have happened to her that she cannot recognize the feelings of others. She could have tried to learn to speak with others, at least she could have become somewhat a part of society. When she became that b*ch's servant it took her 100 years before she was willing to face life on her own merits. 100 years!! Finally she was willing to run away and face potential hardships. Things worked out extremely well for her, but she still refused to acknowlege that she was responsible for her own life. Finally she is beginning to see the sufferings of others and hopefully through that knowlege she will realize that she is no more at the mercy of fate than others.

Will Sonshu and Suzu take responsiblity for their own lives as Yoko is doing? I wonder. I've gone on and on a bit, but Juuni Kokki is the sort of show that inspires me to think about it. These past 8 days have been rather intense.

Does anyone else have thoughts about the theme of this part or the previous two? Does anyone see a theme uniting all three parts and perhaps the whole show? (I'm not the only one who thinks about things like this, am I?)

_tsunami · Post by **_tsunami** » Sat Apr 19, 2003 1:43 am

NoSanninWa you are soo right
This show has so much depth to it, some poeple said to me JK was like Fushigi yuugi which i so angrly disagree, sure a girl gets pulled into another world similarity is there but after that fushigi yuugi is just a bunch of bishounen going head over heels over a stupid useless girl.
JK on the other hand has morals and lessons to learn from and characters with egos that exist in real life.

Shinkun · Post by **Shinkun** » Sat Apr 19, 2003 3:48 am

Yep the theme in arc 3 is definetely "overcoming adversity"

NoSanninWa · Post by **NoSanninWa** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 1:09 am

Tsunami: I liked Fushigi Yuugi! That said, I have to agree that it was rather superficial. When I saw the first episode I was thinking "Okay, it's like FY, except that the girl is given some ability to fight so that she doesn't have to be useless like Miaka." Fortunately by the time I saw Sugimoto turn against her (like Yui did for less reason) it was already clearly more complicated. As I said to a friend, "Juuni Koki has more character development in the first 7 episodes than FY has in all 52!" As for plot... no comparison. And best of all: I don't have to watch the whole crew of them sitting there like morons in the snow while a wolf runs away with the necklace!!

Shinkun: Thank you, "overcoming adversity" is a better phrase than what I used.

ANYONE: Please make a suggestion as to what the theme was in Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth, I can't come up with a correct answer. Please help me!

shouki · Post by **shouki** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 11:30 am

I think trying to summarise 10-15 episodes with just one phrase is a little overkill in some ways, but it does help you focus on the story from a higher level I guess.

The best I can think of for the 2nd arc is "your place in the world".

It seems to me that Taiki's main problem is he doesn't fully accept himself being a Kirin... or a human. This causes him a lot of uncertainty. I think those sage girls could have done a better job of raising him though.

shouki · Post by **shouki** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 11:34 am

With regards to Fushigi Yuugi, one interesting point is that the original (manga) started in 1995, while the JK novels started in 1992!

I got tired of FY after about 20 episodes. Too much shojo melodrama for my tastes. With JK, I eagerly await every single episode and was overjoyed to hear that there'll some coming out in Japan in July.

JK has so much more depth and detail!

NoSanninWa · Post by **NoSanninWa** » Thu Apr 24, 2003 1:22 am

"Knowing your place in the world."

I think that has possibilities. Note that he cannot take his true form until he decides to choose Gyousou as his emperor, thus accepting what he is supposed to do. Even so he continues to suffer until he realizes that his choice is true...

I think it is a start, but not quite on target to the true theme...

"Know yourself"
"Accept your destiny"

I think my new favoite is: "Know yourself and your destiny will follow." Perhaps that is an overarching theme for all of JK. It seems to sum up the whole show. If that's true then I guess I can't use it as the subtheme for the second arc.

Shinkun · Post by **Shinkun** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 8:01 am

Yeah
how about

Overcoming the fear of facing your destiny. :-p