The Twelve Kingdoms Forum

I am currently reading Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi - Shadow of the Moon, The Sea of Shadow - and found out that neither Asano nor Sugimoto were actually traveling with Youko in the original version of the story. I'm about 2/3 done so I think it's safe to say their part in this story is now long gone.

I wanted to ask you if they are ever mentioned in the following books or what exactly is their involvement in the written series as opposed to the anime, where they are sort of important. I'm more interested in Kaze no Umi, Meikyū no Kishi (Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth) where the anime Sugimoto had a fairly large part provided a kind of connection between the two worlds.

Thanks.

They don't play any part in the books. Sugimoto is mentioned once in Shadow of the Moon. The sea of the wind anime arc includes both the sea of the wind book and part of the demon child book. Sugimoto's role is taken by a teacher in the demon child book.

They were added to the anime, IIRC, in order to externalise Youko's dilemma's and internal conflict. Otherwise they'd have had to animate a lot of Youko talking to herself. Whether this was a good thing has been . . . heavily debated.

Sorry. My bad.

I see. Well, I'm no fan of either of the two, so no loss here for not encountering them in the books.

Thanks for clearing that up.