released 16 feb 04 / last mod 01 jun 07 / greg goebel / public domain
* In the beginning of the first volume of the THE TWELVE KINGDOMS, an anime DVD series, we meet Youko Nakajima, a Japanese schoolgirl with the ethnically unlikely feature of scarlet hair. She is plagued with strange and unpleasant dreams whose nature she does not understand.
Then, one day, when she is at school, she is confronted by a mysterious stranger with long blonde hair and strange clothing. He identifies himself as "Keiki" and pays homage to her as if she were royalty. However, Keiki's arrival is quickly followed by that of murderous beasts, and Youko and Keiki are forced to flee through the funnel of a waterspout to the unknown land of the Twelve Kingdoms. They are accompanied by two of Youko's classmates -- Yuka, a sullen, arrogant, and obstinate girl who insisted on coming along; and Asuna, a good-natured but clueless guy who was dragged in along with Yuka.
The travelers are attacked when they arrive in the Twelve Kingdoms, and the three schoolkids are abandoned to try to survive on their own, in a land where the people are dangerously xenophobic and the trio are hunted by strange beasts.
* THE TWELVE KINGDOMS seems like a reasonably interesting series at the outset. Although it becomes quickly obvious that the production values are unexceptional, they do have their moments, and the style -- sort of an interesting combination of Western and Chinese mythology -- seems to have potential.
The intrigues of the plot seem to have potential as well, but on progressing through the five episodes on this disk it becomes increasingly obvious that the plot is less developed than it is, as is often the case in anime series, simply strung out from episode to episode, going from one incident to the ext without building up the story in any hurry or in a very interesting way.
Most significantly, not much is done to develop the characters: although the viewer is rooting for Youko, she remains through all five episodes a bundle of adolescent insecurities, though that's not inappropriate behavior considering her circumstances, while Yuka develops only by becoming increasingly malevolent, and the clueless Asuna stays simply clueless. The characters are two-dimensional and unappealing.
As a result, by the end of the fifth episode I had lost all interest in going further with the story. I think THE TWELVE KINGDOMS may very well appeal to its clear target audience: high-school fantasy addicts who like to read fantasy book series. However, THE TWELVE KINGDOMS does not hold much interest for those outside the target group. It's sort of a pity, since it seems that something might have been made of THE TWELVE KINGDOMS, but it is clear that the production crew lacked the skill to really fly with the concept.