As you may know I like to watch anime. I've seen hundreds of shows over the years. In Toronto there are a number of animation clubs so I get a chance to see things ahead of time thanks to fansubs. There are also rental places like Suspect Video, Queen Video and Cybercity Comics for commercial releases. I'm going to use my grab bag page to give my comments on shows I've seen. I'll try to have a new review every month.
Summary: timid high school girl taken to another world
Twelve Kingdoms is a TV series based on a book by Fuyumi Ono and it tells the story of Yoko Nakajima a red-haired high school girl. Red-hair is pretty much impossible for Orientals and Yoko's teacher is asking her parents if it is a dye-job. They don't want any trouble so they plan to make her dye her hair black. Yoko feels like a pretender because she never voices her own opinion. Even though she is class rep she is very timid and doesn't want the responsibility. Classmate Yuka Sugimoto is a gloomy girl who is disliked by the other girls. Asano is an old chum she may or may not like. One day a strange man called Keiki comes to school and warns her of coming danger. Then monsters attack! They run to the roof where Yuka and Asano are talking. Keiki gives Yoko a sword and says he has come to take her away. Yoko refuses unless Yuka and Asano are taken with her. Unlike most sane people Yuka is happy to go off on a dangerous adventure!
If you liked Fushigi Yuugi but wanted a straight adventure without comedy then this is the show for you. The world of the Twelve Kingdoms is like ancient China but the people speak a completely different language. That point is established right away - only Yoko can understand the local language and Asano and Yuka are helpless because all they know is Japanese. It seems to me that this problem was not addressed in Fushigi Yuugi and they only mentioned it in passing in the Vision of Escaflowne. The other mystery is why Yoko's face changed after going through the dimension whirlpool but not for the two others. Yoko usually wears her hair in braids but lets her hair down in the new world. I didn't really notice the face change until they said it explicitly. I should mention that the characters are drawn with more realistic noses and eyes than the usual anime style.
The art is very detailed and there are a lot of beautiful backgrounds. The ending song is very catchy and the opening theme is dramatic like El-Hazard or Record of Lodoss War. I had a problem keeping the kingdoms and names straight because there were so many of them and because the subtitle gave a Chinese name that was different than the Japanese name I heard. I enjoyed this series and it is too bad the first story arc came to an end so fast. Maybe that is why there was a 14th episode - to recap everything that happened. I understand that there will be 39 episodes when the show is done. Media Blasters has the North American rights but see the Japanese version if you can.
Send your comments to:
George Hong (gjhong@accessv.com)