I'm a librarian who loves anime, manga, and reading a wide variety of genres.
The Twelve Kingdoms series is kind of an odd one for me - I consider it a beloved series even though most of my ratings for the individual books are 3 to 3.5 stars. I think it's the world and general setup that I like the most.
That said, I genuinely love Sea of Wind. I was a little worried that the events of The Shore in Twilight, the Sky at Daybreak had ruined this book for me as a comfort read, but it still works, for the most part. There's just an extra helping of bittersweetness to it now.