Asano's role and development: thoughts and discussion.

[mindstalk]

Of course, being an anime-only character who existed solely to make Youko's first half-arc more interesting doesn't help.

[Shokou]

I still think his role added a lot to the anime. As radiance said, it showed that people are very likely to suffer in the Juuni Kokki world, and he added a stronger male presence that's weaker in the novel(due to Ono being female), which was cool to me because even if I couldn't associate with him, it killed any sort of impression that this could be aimed at females mostly.

[Mab]

I sometimes wonder if the animation stopped because they realized the convenient changes they'd made early on get in the way of making the Youko/Taiki novel make sense. I get the impression Yuka/Asano weren't meant to be big changes, just people to flesh out the part of the first novel where Youko's basically running around by herself. But they ended up working her into Taiki's plot, and having Keiki bring her over/send her back, which will require some massaging of the last novel.

Never posted in here, but this bit right here echoes my thoughts exactly.

I always felt like Asano and Sugimoto were brought over in the anime just because in animation it's extremely hard to express things with just one character. Yoko's inner struggle needed to be expressed through interactions with Asano and Sugimoto. However, after that first part, I always felt that both of those characters were just kind of dead weight, and more trouble to the story.

Part of why I'm not a very big fan of the anime is because of Sugimoto and Asano. I just felt like they were stereotypical anime characters in ways, like their characters just seemed out of place. And I even saw the anime first! I was actually really glad when I read the first novel and it was just Yoko.

[Jinx999]

I think being out of place was an important part of the theme of the characters. As Mab said, their main purpose in the anime was to externalise Youko's inner debates. Asano was the guy who tried to remain a nice normal high school student. It didn't work out for him. Sugimoto was the one who threw herself into the role of typical anime heroine (get summoned to another world, save it) - and that didn't work out for her either.

IMHO being steotypical anime characters and out of place were important parts of their role in the story.

[Shokou]

I thought only Sugimoto was stereotypical: we got to know more of Asano later and he was part of the better moments of the anime, so maybe I'm biased, but I felt he fit in perfectly with the story...

[jannypana]

I didn't watch it in English, but I watched it without knowing he was a "fake" character: Why did you think his insanity didn't make sense?

[Imogen]

Asano is primarily there to act as a sheet of three girls: Yoko, Suzu and Shokei. Is the character that shows that success in the world of Twelve Kingdoms is not guaranteed - some go through, some fail and go under. (So ​​if you already have, if you go, do not forget the case.)

How interesting was lost is represented, if something seems missing from Suzu first meetings with players from that trip. It is an illusion at this point, and we see what happened. However, his pick on the wrong deleriously Shoko is a beautiful touch that might remind some viewers of the White Witch and Edmund The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. His fate is clairvoyant. Not everyone has the opportunity to Yoko.

Spam removed - zitch

[Jinx999]

A more sophisticated than ususal spambot, but still a spambot. [sigh]

[Nightheart]

It sounds harsh, but I always sort of felt a little bit that his presence in the anime was sort of unneccessary. He was this sort of laid back spineless sort of guy who didn't really seem to do much, and in the end when he went crazy it just made his development seem even more weird. He didn't fill out his role as a love interest for Youko he didn't even try to save the day he just sort of went along with whatever was going on around him. There was one scene later on in the anime where he and Youko were talking that really highlighted how far she had come as a person in development (this was after she'd grown a spine) but that was about it. He was a nice boy, but that was about all he had going for him. I also didn't like the fact that he fooled around with Yuka while he was still clearly pursuing Youko (which caused thier three-person party to split up early on).

[Shokou]

He didn't fill out his role as a love interest for Youko he didn't even try to save the day he just sort of went along with whatever was going on around him.

I disagree with this "role of love interest". Juuni Kokki is not a typicail run-of-the-mill school anime where there's always at least one "pairing" with at least strong implications of romance between the characters. Asano and Youko never showed any interest other than friendship for each other. Asano and Sugimoto had a little thing between them but it was seldom explored because it's simply not important enough to the story.

He was also not forced to "save the day"--he's not a typical RPG personalityless "hero"--at first he was just trying to get back/help his friends. Then when he got insane, I liked it that he tried to "save Kei-ou", but it was just shown as his insanity. He thought he was a RPG "hero" but he was not. The anime did really well with his role in this aspect.

[Nightheart]

I agree that this is an excellent point you make, and your spot on about it, but I guess I didn't explain myself clearly. Twelve Kingdoms is not an average anime, and it is not written as an average anime. The fact that the anime had put characters in that would have fit in an ordinary anime was a little amusing to me. The fact that Asano and Yuka, and even Youka at times did nothing that one would expect of them was one of the things that made the show so interesting. Asano didn't save the day, in most other anime's he would have, but in Twelve Kingdoms he didn't. He was sort of set up in the beginning to be this nice guy who helps people out, but his weakness od character prevented him from stepping into any savior role. Yuka wasn't a heroine despite the fact that she clearly wanted to be. She had all the strength of will and intelligence to take the lead but her flaw was her lack of moral uprightness. It was crybaby Youko who wound up as the savior because she already had the moral uprightness required of a ruler, all she needed was to develop her own inner strength. I liked the fact that Twelve Kingdoms took these sort of anime cliches and turned them on their sides.

[Shokou]

Indeed, very good. I also like to emphasize on the fact Sugimoto and later Asano thought they could do anything, because they were on a fantasy/video game setting, and it was not. It gives a strong sense of reality to the world of Juuni Kokki, and establishes it as a world of its own, with its rules, fauna, flora, mythology and culture. And I also like how Youko was a savior but not because she's strong, but because she established herself as a fair ruler and needed help and advice from various wise and good people around her.

[Nightheart]

I love character development! It's what I enjoy writing, what really sold me as a fan on 12K was the fact that they do character development, but its never cliche. You don't have the main hero growing a new superpower every time he/she needs it (I'm looking at you Bleach). Of the three "main" ones that crossed over, only one of them developed into a truly good heroine. The others had potential, but because of thier own character flaws failed to acheive it, and that was what to me made 12k so interesting. People failed. You don't honestly get that a whole lot in otherworld anime's. And even though it was Youko's story there were other stories to tell too so it's not just one person holding up the entire storyline on thier own. That also gives you a sense of this world being its own entity rather than just a new and interesting backdrop for someone to whatever they want in it.

[Shokou]

I never felt it like Youko's story, there were so many good stories tying in together and even stories completely without her presence, such as Shoryu, Taiki and Kyo-ou. I also like how there was character development for characters of different ages, times and worlds, so it wasn't trying to just please schoolboys/schoolgirls who would want to see themselves in anime.

[Jinx999]

I wouldn't say that Asano had potential as a hero or was a significant love interest for Youko. At the start, she had a mild crush on him, but she didn't really connect with him or anyone (which is what she had to grow out of as part of her character development).

Asano's role is basically that of generic ordinary guy. In a lot of Anime (especially Shounen) or other series, the generic ordinary guy is a stand in for the audience and not really ordinary after all and develops special qualities. Asano doesn't. He's an ordinary schoolboy and remains one.

[Shokou]

Asano's role is basically that of generic ordinary guy. In a lot of Anime (especially Shounen) or other series, the generic ordinary guy is a stand in for the audience and not really ordinary after all and develops special qualities. Asano doesn't.He's an ordinary schoolboy and remains one.

I disagree with this point--his insanity was a special quality, it made him different and added to the plot. Him thinking he was in a video game, his dialogue about "roles" with Youko, him not bowing down to Shoushiba: all added to the mind in a way or another.

[Jinx999]

We're using different definitions of the phrase "special quality". You're using it in terms of having a personality. I'm using it in terms of having a special quality that makes you a significant character in fiction. Youko, for example, has a special quality. She is the annointed King of Kei. This is a fairly extreme special quality, In other works, it can be a mundane talent, skill in a particular sport or game, unusually hard working or a talent for policework.

In most Anime, the apparantly normal schoolboy who appears in the first episode will soon discover that he has some special talent or ability. And working on this will help him grow as a person.

Asano doesn't have any special talents. And he doesn't grow as a person. Instead of showing agency, he becomes a tool for others. Instead of spreading his leaves, he retreats into a shell. His insanity is a retreat from the realisation that he is essentially inconsequential. He does start to come out of his shell towards the end, but even that is more driven by others than himself.

[Shokou]

I'm using it in terms of having a special quality that makes you a significant character in fiction.

He indeed doesn't have that. And that's not derogatory because if every single character is the "chosen one" or whatever, the special quality loses its effect. Characters that aren't "the king" or whatever should be the majority.

Asano doesn't have any special talents. And he doesn't grow as a person. Instead of showing agency, he becomes a tool for others. Instead of spreading his leaves, he retreats into a shell. His insanity is a retreat from the realisation that he is essentially inconsequential. He does start to come out of his shell towards the end, but even that is more driven by others than himself.

The charm of his story was that he digresses, not grows. As I said before, his role was fit really well to show "how a normal kaikyaku would react to Juuni Kokki".

[Nightheart]

I was always just a little curious to know exactly where he got that gun from, lol. In the show it said that it was old, leaving the veiwer to surmise that someone had left it behind when they had come over, but still... I guess it just goes to show; give a mentally unstable fifteen year old a weapon and nothing good will come of it. ^_^"

[Shokou]

I assumed he had an easy time getting it because he said something among the lines of it being an object carried over from the shores of Hourai. They probably had no idea what it was, and maybe it had no bullets and he just used pellets or something similar.

[Jinx999]

He was able to buy it, because the seller thought it was a random piece of useless junk.

The problem is, revolvers are not that hard to figure out. They have an obvious handle and there's a lever to pull where the fore finger goes. (Unless it's single action - which is, I'd think, unlikely)

It's vanishingly unlikely that he would have been able to make ammo for it. Even if he knew the formula for black powder, he'd still need to a)find and recognise saltpetre (which would be called something else there, anyway), b) make a brass cartridge, c) make a stable primer and d) know how much powder he can put in the gun without blowing it up.

[Shokou]

He didn't know the formula for black powder. He told Shokou he only knows how to polish it and shoot it. So maybe it had the powder on, but nothing to shoot it with, and whoever found at first didn't even bother trying it.

[Nightheart]

I had much the same thought about the gun, however... Ancient China was well known for having invented gunpowder originally (and 12K is based heavilly on ancient china) I figured he might have adapted some of the black powder from fireworks or something. The bullet was the part I had troublle with though. I doubt very much that a troupe of traveling performers carries the kind of eqquipment needed for melting metal and pouring bullet moulds. Even if the gun had already come equipped, after all that time it would have gotten water in it and rusted into uselessness by now one would think.

[Shokou]

Maybe he found the bullets from another merchant...yeah, I wish that was better explained. Still, he had some sort of skill into that because he mentioned he can at least make an unusable gun into an usable one.

[Jinx999]

We don't know how old the gun is. There are probably people out there who can take one look and tell us the make and model, but I'm not one. There's no particular reason to believe it is that old.

Do we ever see any rockets or fireworks in the twelve kingdoms? I'm trying to recall, but can't think of any.

Powder isn't that difficult, if you know the formula and how to find the ingredients. Moulding a bullet isn't tricky.

However, the real problem with making bullets would be the case and the primer. And without those, it wouldn't work.

I do recall keeping track of the number of shots Asano fired. It was less than six. If he bought it loaded, he wouldn't have had to make bullets or reload it for what we saw in the Anime.