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Title (English) Twelve Kingdoms, the
Title (Japanese) 12 Kokuki
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Fantasy Novel

Notes From novel series by:Fuyumi Ono. More than 38 episodes...
Classification -
Synopsis A grand fantasy adventure about a teenaged girl misfit and her destiny in an alternate world that is not quite ancient China.
The best way I can describe it is, imagine an intelligent version of "Fushigi Yuugi", crossed with characters from "Onisama e", backgrounds from "Mononoke Hime" and action and monsters from "Inu Yasha". (DB)
Review WOW!!! This one's a real "keeper". I just watched the first episode of the new NHK and Studio Pierrot fantasy anime "12 Kokuki" and I'm still stunned by the intensity of this show which is based upon a series of Kodansha fantasy novels for girls. The best way I can describe it is, imagine an intelligent version of "Fushigi Yuugi", crossed with characters from "Onisama e", backgrounds from "Mononoke Hime" and action and monsters from "Inu Yasha".
Yoko is a high school girl who is having really, really bad nightmares about monsters, death and blood. Her parents are trying to get her to color her hair black although it is naturally red, because they are ashamed of it, and she is becoming very alienated from her classmates and friends. Her nightmares get worse and she appears to be starting to hallucinate - one evening she sees what appears to be a beautiful blond girl by the water's edge. As she watched the girl turns into a brunet who appears to be a teen boy now with a threatening appearance who says to Yoko, "You smell like blood", then disappears. Then after she has to stay in class after school because of falling asleep in class, ( her teacher accuses her of "playing around" at night ) her dreams start to take a life of their own.
Yoko feels a chilling breeze pop up behind her and turns to see a tall, strange looking man with long blond hair who is wearing an ancient style gown. The man comes up to her and tells her that she must leave with him right away. Yoko is terrified and struggles against the man while her classmates run for help. Yoko tries to run away but the strange man traps her, then knees in front of her, as if she were his master. At that point her teacher runs in and starts to yell at both the stranger and at Yoko, as if everything were her fault.
Then the room starts to rumble and a blast hits - everyone in the room but Yoko and the strange man are injured by debris and flying glass. Yoko runs out and is eventually convinced to go to the roof top of the school where she sees that a giant, roc-like bird is flying at the school, causing terrible damage at each pass. Then the stranger starts to call out various giant animals and strange beings to fight the roc and to give Yoko a sword.
Two of Yoko's classmates are also trapped on the roof and one of them, a girl who spends her time reading ancient fantasy novels, is excited about the entire situation and even asks the name of the stranger, who calls himself Keiki. Keiki wants Yoko to use the sword to fight the roc, but Yoko refuses, so Keiki calls up more strange beings who take the three kids through the air to a pier on the ocean far away. Yoko continues to refuse to co-operate, even when the roc appears again in the distance, coming towards them. So Keiki summons up a water spirit who immobilizes Yoko, enters her and takes over her in time to have her behead the bird with the sword as the roc attacks again.
Keiki then has two more spirits, a giant wolf-like creature and the female looking spirit who gave the sword to Yoko, take Yoko off to travel through a warp in a storm to the 12 Countries.
Like I said at the beginning - wow, what a ride! This is really top-of-the-line fantasy. No effort was spared in the first episode and Yoko is definitely not your usual girl's adventure protagonist - she is more like a character from "Lain" or "Boogiepop Phantom". Add to this the really top notch animation and a score that would be suitable for a movie and this looks to be one of the highlights of this year, along with "Abenobashi". Tell the fansubbers to clear some disk space - this is going to be a big one! (Dave Baranyi)

"12 Kokuni" - I've seen four episodes now and this adventure show is definitely fulfilling its promise. Yoko is finally starting to realize that the only thing that separates her from death or torment is how quickly she can pull that sword and use it. And the complicated background details of the situation are only barely starting to open up. NHK has a real winner here and should for quite a while. (Dave Baranyi)

I've seen the whole series to episode #38 and share Dave's enthusiasm for this series. It's not for everyone - there's no humour, no "fan service" and essentially no "love interest". Instead of these we get an anime clearly aimed at a relatively intelligent audience - for instance, the issue of what language the characters have to speak becomes a recurrent element of the plot, instead of being ignored (as happens in most alternate-world anime fantasy). It contains so many invented words and character names that watching it can feel like trying to learn a new Asian language.
It also contains some stunning surprises of plot and some remarkable coup-d-oeil, as in the scene where a parrot is torn in two to produce two living birds! Those viewers who are put off by the heroine's wimpy behaviour in the first few episodes are making a BIG mistake! This anime is derived from novels so we have Character Development.
As eventually becomes clear, the story sub-divides into three or more story arcs (with different secondary titles) in which Youko features to a varying degree. The third in particular is devoted to the notion that people can change and grow in maturity.
In fact, the characters are not developed to the depth one might expect. Instead a very strange world is depicted in immense detail. This isn't your standard medaeval world with a few licks of paint and fantasy elements - it's really weird in some respects and has its customs and governance discussed in great detail.
Highly recommended (GC)

Credits Series director: Tsuneo Kobayashi
Episodes 45
Release
TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date 2002 April 9 -
Production Nippon Hoso Kyokai, Nep 21, Sogo Vision
Broadcaster Nippon Hoso Kyokai satellite
Animation Studio Pierrot
References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

 

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