Anime: The Twelve Kingdoms
View Status: Complete
Number of Episodes: 45
Main Character: Youko Nakajima, Yuka Sugimoto, Shouryuu (Emperor of En), Rokuta (Enki), Taiki (Kaname Takasato/Kouri), Suzu, Shoukei
The Story: There are several storylines in this anime also known as ‘books’. For the most part it is the story of Youko Nakajima and her journey in the strange world of the twelve kingdoms. The starts out with two of her friends but they get separated early on, but are seen again later in the anime. Some of the books consist of a Sage or an Emperor telling a story of the past, sometimes not so distant other times very distant, to the new Empress of Kei. One story focused of the troubles in the kingdom of Kei as well as the journey of Suzu, Shoukei and Youko and their goals and development along the way, in which Ikuya Asano and Rakushun have important roles to play. Ikuya Asano is the missing one of the two friends of Youko. Rakushun is a half-beast that Youko met early in her travels.
The Review: I always thought that if you’re going to make a show, you have to make the characters likable. I disliked all of the characters in the first episodes, correction, I hated them, I hated the main characters so much I wanted them all to die. Now while this may seem harsh and maybe even disturbing please refrain from judging me until you have seen the first four episodes. The funny thing is that, for the most part, just when you start liking a character they do something that makes you dislike them again. I am not exactly sure on the intentions of the writers and I do not want to speculate over the possible reasons for this. The three characters that saved the entire show for me where Enki, Shouryuu (Emperor of En) and Rakushun. They are the only main characters that I liked throughout the entire anime. As for the storyline and the world, I found the whole thing to be a well thought out. The one point I would criticize the creators of the anime for is that the Taiki storyline was never truly completed and thus it made no sense to me to include it. Besides maybe making one understand where kirin come from and how they are raised. Making a two season anime good is quite hard as you either quickly run out of material or you start boring the audience. I liked this anime mainly because of the different stories it told in the format of ‘books’. I consider this a watch although it looked like a ‘run for the hills’
The Style: Style, well I truly have no idea what to write in this section for this anime. I guess it does have this dark drawing style, considering that some episodes are quite bloody and involve much suffering and death comes with no surprise. Most of the hair colors and clothing are pain with some exceptions including the main character Youko and the Emperors and Empresses and the kirin as well as the high officials and sages. There are some areas in this anime that seem to have brighter and happier seeming colors.
Side Note: I found the opening theme and ending song to be terrible. I did however seem to get used to the opening theme, or rather the first and last ten seconds as I skipped it every single time. I would guaranty that you will like the characters at the end of their journey but considering the world we currently live in I will not do so as I do not want to be sued.
Lex Out
