Forum - View topicThe Twelve Kingdoms (TV).
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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The only recap episode that really managed to annoy me was the very last one. Ugh, the very last episode was a recap episode; just when I was getting my hopes up for a nice finale (the 4th arc, Ep 40-45) I find that the series just ends abruptly with stuff I've already seen before. If Ep 44 was conclusive this wouldn't be an issue, but it wasn't at all, so ending the entire thing with a recap episode that doesn't provide any new insight was just irritating.
That's why many fans consider Episode 39 the "true ending" of the series. The last arc was just a sidestory (okay, flashback) that couldn't even wrap itself up properly. |
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ivorymoose
 Posts: 240 |
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Yes, if you are watching the 12 Kingdoms, I would recommend that you continue watching it until the last tv episode. Even though the story is unfinished, it is a masterpiece in its own right. I wished they had continued to animate the novel after episode 45 because that would at least have completed the Taiki Arc although it the novels are also incomplete. I would love to see more of the En-Ou in action. I feel that his role in the series has been kept to a minimal.
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sailornyanko
 Posts: 134 Location: Mexico City |
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I think everyone except Shoryu changed drastically when they switched to the 12 Kingdoms. Yoko's skin turned tan, her eyes turned bright green and her hair became more.. red. Enki/Rokuta's hair turned blonde (though he never grew that tall). I think his earthly appearance didn't "magically" become more like his 12K form when he came back in his many visits to try to find Taiki. More like when we see him as a child in the flashbacks, he's so thin and malnourished that his appearance changed 360° in 12K where they took proper care of him. Taiki/Kaname looks VERY different in his both forms if you look closely at his eyes. It's the same with Yoko, Yoko's eyes became a lot more pretty looking in 12 K. Plus Kaname's hair magically grew a lot when he came to 12 K. In the flashback where he returns to Earth naked and with anmesia, even though he has long hair in the scene, his eyes look the same as before he visited 12 K for the first time. As for Shoryu, I was going to ask that question myself. It seems like the only changes he had was that his hair became a bit longer and his eyes are just very slightly different. Might just of been a coincidence that the body his ranka grew in in Earth was almost physically identical to his 12 K form. I believe Shoryu is a Taika. spoiler[Even though we never see any scenes of the newly arrived Shoryu in 12 K talking to mortals, I think the series leaves things pretty clear that ordinary Kai-Kya-Ku's can never become a king or queen of a country because they never really belonged to 12 K. When Yoko talks with the Kai-Kya-Ku in En before meeting Shoryu, he seems to explain what a Taika is (a native of 12 K that was born in an Earthly body that isn't their true form). Ko-Oh also seems to briefly mention he's angry because "ANOTHER TAIKA" is going to rule a country and it will become more prosperous than Ko.] However, they leave things pretty open that along with unborn Rankas can come to Earth, already born 12 K citizens can come to Earth by accident. spoiler[Could Tai-Oh (if he's still alive since Kaname has never become ill because there is no king ruling Tai) be somewhere in Japan? As an immortal, he can communicate with humans but without a kirin, he's trapped in Earth and can't go back to rule Tai. ]Just a possibility. |
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sailornyanko
Posts: 134 Location: Mexico City |
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I say to anyone that they shouldn't dare drop the series until at least episode 10. I at first thought the show was overly.. cruel to poor Yoko (even though she acted like a wuss early in the series), would you have acted that differently if you were pulled into a place you've never even heard of where everyone seems to want to kill you or turn you into a sex-slave for no reason and you're hallucinating a monkey-boy who's just there to screw up your mind? It's not like Sugimoto and Asano were the best roomates either. Sugimoto hated Yoko quite openly and Asano never had any real interest in Yoko even though she thought he did. He only hanged around with her because she was the only one who could speak 12 K-ish.
Oh and Keiki, weird hot blonde guy who can make magical beasts pop out of nowhere. The bastard swears he wants to protect you but he's uncapable of stabbing a dumb bird that wants to kill everyone for no reason. Plus the bastard just left everyone to their luck in this hell-hole... Or really? One thing I loved about 12 K (I've seen almost all the 45 episodes in spanish) was that things that you never really paid any attention to in the first watch make absolute perfect sense once you finished the whole series and you're watching it again. spoiler[Keiki wasn't a bastard that really wanted to make Yoko stab the bird because torturing dumb teenagers is fun. As a magical creature of compassion, he's completely uncapable of killing. I even wonder if Kaname can eat meat in Earth (not knowing he's not human). You also see why that double-crossing bastard Keiki left everyone to their luck early in the series, he got a car load of blood dumped on top of him and it made him unconscious long enough for Kourin to imprison him (I always wondered what the hell Kourin was doing to Keiki in that episode, I thought she was healing him or something.. not). ] After one watch, I do have one big wonder. spoiler[12 Kingdomers can't get pregnant per se (and probably not Taikas either when they break their shell and appear in their true 12-K form since their true form in equal to any other person from 12 K), but isn't it suspicious that there's so many sex-slaves in the series? I highly doubt the sex-slaves are all Kai-Kya-Kus (though considering how confused Kai-Kya-Kus usually are in this world, it seems logical people can manipulate them fairly easily). So if 12-K ers can't get pregnant (taking away the evolutionary point of sex), why in the hell are there prostitutes? It's not like there's a lot of immortal Kai-Kya-Kus that cater to these services (The only immortal Kai-Kya-Ku that isn't a Taika in the series is Suzu) and it's a known fact that Shoryu used to enjoy going to these places. Does this mean that even though 12-K's can't get pregnant, they can still have sex for the sheer physical pleasure? Sexual anatomy of 12 K's must be pretty interesting. Both Earthlings and them would be shocked (and/or disgusted) at the sexual anatomy of the people of the other side...] |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18458 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Nothing's ever said about that in either the first novel or the anime, so I think it's safe to assume that spoiler[the 12 Kingdoms residents still have the same anatomy and desires, procreation just doesn't figure into the equation. Kinda like a couple where one or both have been sterilized. That's why prostitutes still matter.] |
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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Yes, the first episodes are rather weak in comparison to later episodes (although admittedly I was hooked on this series after episode 1). You should definitely stick with it though, as it really is one of the greatest fantasy anime after produced (and one of the greatest anime period). I find it amazing how all the side stories that don't feature Yoko are so intriguing that they don't get boring at all. I do wish that the series hadn't ended where it did though. The Twelve Kingdoms needs a sequel bad.
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blind_assassin
 Posts: 755 |
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It's probably been said in pretty much every post so far but I'm going to say it as well; watch more than 3 episodes. After about 15 the show becomes amazing. I would say that it belongs in at the very least, a top ten list of the best anime ever. The show is so good it can easily compete with shows like NGE, Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, anything anyone says is classic and a must see, it can compete with. It's simply that good. And if you still don't like it I'll drive to Scarborough and egg your house (I live pretty close to Scarborough).
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Kiron22
Posts: 3 |
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The show is in my opinion the Anime worlds version of Middle Earth, it's an amazing world with well thought out lore and history, and the anime fits well into it.
As I believe it has been said in this thread, The Twelve Kingdoms is in development hell at the moment, there are 68 episodes, we only have 45 of that 68 because they didn't wish the series to fall into the nasty realm of fillers, so they wanted to wait till Ono released more novels before completing the story, which he hasn't done sadly. I would compare most Anime to something like Final Fantasy 7, stock characters, fan-service and a story that really focuses on the main group of heroes instead of the overarching world , when Twelve Kingdoms is more of your Oblivion or Warcraft, where the characters just play their part in the world that they are on, which is why Twelve Kingdoms is so much more appeling to me, i'm personally sick of JRPGs and most Animes and Twelve Kingdoms was a fresh breath, probably because it' takes a more "Western fantasy" approch on story telling than other fantasy Animes. What I really wish for is a project to arise among many studios called "12 kingdoms project" or something, where many studios make their own story within the twelve kingdoms world, but don't screw it up and possibly work together to some degree so stories from different studios overlap and the world evolves all together, that would be such epic win, but I doubt Ono will allow them to do it  .
Anyway, the story really picks up 15+, 39 is really the "Real ending" at the moment so if you want, don't bother continuing from that, but watch the series, it's amazing. spoiler[ Was I the only person that when they saw the monkey demon thought "What the hell is /b/ doing in my anime?". When Youko was like "Waaa I hate my life, please help me", monkey demon was like "LOL kill yourself", such a /b/tard 
] |
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Seaofclouds21
Posts: 6 Location: Smyrna, Delaware |
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You should definately keep watching. It gets better.
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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Anime Marathon Discussion (Nov. 6th, 2015 - Nov. 15th, 2015)
Spoilers Reminder for Marathon Discussion: Tag all spoilers within your post(s) and record the episode number(s) you're discussing at the top of your post. |
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