Anime adaptation of Fuyumi Ono's novel "The twelve Kingdoms"
Overview
Unhappy teenager Yoko Nakajima is suddenly confronted by a strange man who says she is his queen and he is her sworn subject. He tries to convince her that she must take up her belong-by-birth-right sword and defeat the Yoma (demon) that is her and her classmates. Yoko and two of her closest friends are soon whisked away to a fantasy world full of danger. The 12 Kingdoms.
Artwork of the first English volume cover
the normal black is what happens when you try to bleach Japanese hair and is often used in fiction to suggest a girl is something of a wild-child. This has led, ironically, to Japanese girls who genuinely do not have standard issue black hair being forced to dye their hair black in the manner to which Yoko's parents are alluding. Yoko, it is alleged, is one of the latter, a straight-A student who has been voted class president, but who is being led away from her previous childish things by the allegorical temptations of the twelve kingdoms.
By the sixth episode, however, the story has taken a radical departure, dumping Yoko into the company of a number of beast-like creatures in a more surreal setting. Yoko's adventures start to take on elements of The Wizard of Oz, or, more properly, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, as Yoko discovers that she really is fated to be queen of one of the lands and that only her successful ascension to the thrown can restore the sundered and ruined kingdoms. In another parallel with the Narnia books, or perhaps even John Norman's Gor series, the focus of the story leaves its original protagonist for long periods of time, concentrating on some of her associates. In the next story arc, based on the Ono novel Sea's Wind: Maze's Shore, there are also elements of the lost children of Haibane Renmei, in a series of fairytales that unite the stories of mundane, urban tragedy in our own world with the incarnation of fantastic creatures in the twelve kingdoms.
The Twelve Kigdoms
Later chapters, based on the novel Ten Thousand-League Wind: Dawn's Sky, see Yoko becoming ruler of one of the kingdoms and forced to deal with the aftermath of her less than illustrious predecessor, alongside politicking by some of her rival queens and long tangents that discuss some of their own backstories. A few final stories prepare the ground for a last battle, as Yoko rides off to save her newfound home.
The original novels presented a sprawling saga, distantly inspired, in the fashion of Like a Cloud, Like a Breeze, by Chinese history and mythology. However, it is worth noting that the stories have been shuffled and rearranged for this anime version. Two of them, "Correspondence" and "Ally of the Moon," were originally short stories, and are dealt with in just two episodes, while others stretch over many chapters. The final story arc, five episodes that draw on the novel Eastern Sea God, Western Ocean, almost exhausts the original source material featuring Yoko, although other books about other cast members still remain unadapted. As with Ironfist Chinmi, the exhaustion of the original material left the producers with the difficult choice of pressing on regardless and diverging from the original even further, or calling a hiatus with the vague hope of restarting if the material became available. Hence, although originally planned as a 68-episode series, Twelve Kingdoms currently grinds to a halt at episode 45 with some plot elements left unresolved; an unfortunate fate for an anime that has gained a large and appreciative following for its literally novelistic density and complex relationships. Two PlayStation 2 spin-offs also followed.
Music Themes
Opening Theme:
"Juuni Genmukyoku " by Kunihiko Ryo
Ending Theme:
"Getsumei Fuuei" by Mika Arisaka
Episodes
Series Credits
| Person Name | Episode Count | |
|---|---|---|
| Hiroto Tanaka | 1 |
|
| Tetsuji Nakamura | 1 |
|
| AkihiroYamada | 2 |
|
| Sho Aikawa | 3 |
|
| Takuya Sato | 1 |
|
| Kunihiko Ryo | 3 |
|
| Yuko Kusumoto | 3 |
|
| Yuichi Endo | 1 |
|
| Tsuneo Kobayashi | 4 |
|
| Fuyumi Ono | 4 |
To edit the cast, go to an episode page.
Original US Poster Art
General Information
Edit
 Name |
Twelve Kingdoms |
 Name: |
十二国記 |
| Romaji: |
Juuni Kokuki |
| Publisher | Pierrot |
| Start Year | 2002 |
| Genres | |
| Themes | |
| Aliases | Chronicle of Twelve Kingdoms Record of Twelve Countries 12 kingdoms |
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Recurring Appearances
