Forum - View topic12 Kingdoms.
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Malorise
Posts: 14 |
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So I just finished watching all 45 episodes of 12 Kingdoms and I have to say I loved it and hated it.
I loved it because it was a vast world that had tons of detail put into it. I hated it due to the recap episodes which I find retarded in any series. If its not a show that does one or two episode story lines you should watch the whole series or be left in the dark in my opinion. Also the way the story just ends in the middle of nowhere was stupid as well. There was so much room for more to be told as well some unanswered questions. For example spoiler[The second major story arc with the black kirin guy, we get many episodes devoted to him and him finding his master. Then hooray he finds him its all good, Tai shall be saved. Then somehow he ends up in japan injured with no memory and Tai is in ruins and we never find out why or anything. ] SO thats what I'm talking about there is zero closure to this story line, why the hell include it. Its a waste of good episodes(along with recap ones) that could have been spent on the Empress of Kei or the Emperor of En adding to their stories. Any thoughts on this? Oh also I don't read manga but if anyone has read any of 12 Kingdoms do you know if they continue the story? I'd actually give manga a go then maybe. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18424 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The anime isn't based on manga; in fact, to my knowledge a manga version doesn't exist. It is, instead, based on a series of novels, the first three of which have been released in the States. The last 2-3 novels do extend the storytelling beyond what's in the anime, including finishing Taiki's story and telling some other short stories about other places in the Twelve Kingdoms. (Fair warning, though: Youko has a broader role in the anime than she does in the novels. She's only actually present in two of the latter, to my knowledge.) |
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Mike On Top
 Posts: 298 |
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The closure of the storyline is far less significant than what is depicts, in my opinion. Actually, for me, exactly those parallel stories give substantiality of the general plot in preseneting a fantasitc, yet a world with real problems, and contribute a whole lot to the credibility of governmental and personal growth the main protagonist eventually aquires. The world Youko is taken to, is far from the utopic and idilic living, in spite its fancy and fantastic overlords  . The Kirins, in fact, spoiler[are burdened with a great responsibilty for choosing a governer, who'd bring his or her retainers a better life and proper government.] More or less, every kirin faces difficulties in the process of completing the task. Taiki, for example, spoiler[ really has it hard, because he is very young, he is a peculiar sort of kirin, making him even more insecure, especially with the pressure he puts on himself with succeeding in his choice. Well, the Taiki arc may look like a stand-alone, but it is not, keeping in mind how the other two kirins (Enki and Keiki) act through the series in regards to their respective governers and kingdoms. Youko is equally clueless and confused as Taiki is when she faces the problems of the kingdom she ought to rule].
Surely, I am damn curious "what happened", but I am positive that the production doesn't fall in quality, just because the arc remained untold to the end, if, you know, serves its purpose right (in apparently, limited production). (On a second thought, it always strikes me how good fantasy material traditionally loses further production to absolutely meaningless franchises like Zero no Tsukaima, but this is another, depressing, topic). Anyway, I'll get only the last book, hopefully by the end of the next month, 'cause I did the big and stupid, stupid mistake of not placing orders for the whole three earlier, and now the first two volumes are out of stock. So, I can't spoil you with info, but I doubt you'd be displeased with purchasing the franchise. |
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Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
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I've read three different reasons why the series stopped short: 1. There wasn't quite enough material left for another season 2. The part of the story in which Yoko was the main character had completed, and there were too many fears about how another season without her as the lead would be received 3. Some key staffers, including the lead character designer, had health problems that knocked the project off course If reason 1 was the case, maybe there's still hope for an OVA finishing up the Tai story someday. At any rate, I still consider it the best fantasy anime in my collection even with the large amount of recap episodes and incomplete status. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I've heard other explanations for the abrupt ending to Twelve Kingdoms, usually ones concerning Fuyumi Ono herself becoming ill and having to take a break from writing while the show was in production. I usually tell people to watch episodes 1-39, but not to expect too much from the last six.
On the subject of recaps, they only look silly if you're watching a series after it was completed. They make much more sense when a series in is original release with weekly episodes. Shows with lengthy, complex stories like this one nearly always have recap episodes so that viewers who start watching in the middle of the show can catch up. They're also more common in shows like Twelve Kingdoms where it's expected there will be a substantial number of younger viewers in the audience. |
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Malorise
Posts: 14 |
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I'm just not buying some of the reasons given for the end of the show. I'm not saying your facts you found are wrong just that I don't agree with them as a whole.
For example, so what if the Empress of Kei's storyline dried up in the novels just write some more. I'm sure there are plenty of decent writers out there who could have added a good story to her reign. The problem I have with including the Kingdom of Tai storyline is not that I don't like it. Just I would have liked to have seen it finished. If your not going to finish it then spend the resources you spent making it instead on fleshing out the Emperor of En and Empress of Kei journeys. Well with all that being said a OAV would be really nice for this franchise or better yet a continuation of the series. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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You clearly have no idea what it means to write a novel. The Twelve Kingdoms is the work of one author and I doubt that the overall story would change just so the anime could go on. That clearly is not the priority. |
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Malorise
Posts: 14 |
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Yea I know what it means to write a novel. I'm just saying you could continue the story with other writers keeping true to the original authors intent. I'm sure with royalties or kick backs or however it works that original author wouldn't mind if it was successful. Just from a business stand point it makes sense to add to the anime as more people get hooked on the universe the book sales go up, imagine that. Many different works of fiction that are popular and successful are started by one original person then expanded on by others and in other media. If the story line for the Empress of Kei dried up you could add more to it with out ruining the world, I mean unless she died in the novels. Obviously your right its not a priority as the anime is currently dead as far as I can tell. |
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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Yeah, no not really. See, stories have "structure". They're built, designed so as the bits will fit together and the whole thing won't fall apart. You can just add extra bits in the middle, and some stories are designed to work this way and there's nothing wrong with writing stories that work like this... but Twelve Kingdoms isn't one of them. The structure of the story isn't designed to have random extra stuff thrown in the middle, or at one or another end, and if you tried your story would break. Wouldn't work, would "fall apart". You'd be better off telling an entire new story as an entire new structure rather than trying to hook it up to Twelve Kingdoms. As it happens, though, no, there's another arc featuring Youko. Haven't read it, though there is a complete fantranslation. |
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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Malorise, while your complaints about the Twelve Kingdoms anime are shared by many of its fans (myself included), I think you're thinking about it the wrong way.
There's a term for that and it's called fanfiction. If you want to read more Twelve Kingdoms stories, there is plenty of fanfiction out there. |
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Malorise
Posts: 14 |
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You guys are missing my point. I'm just sorry the series ended and it didn't get more episodes and story lines.
Take Star Wars for example, so many different things added after the movies. Yea some is sub par but the novels of Timothy Zahn and the excellent bioware games make it worth it for sure. Obviously they didn't read George Lucas's mind but they don't ruin his orginal intent and do a good job adding to the universe of Star Wars. You could easily add a prequel type story arc focusing on the Emperor of En's 500 year reign or something. Or talk about the Empress of Kei's fresh reign. None of this would destroy structure or whatever. If over rated anime like Death Note can get a billion episodes adding to the 12 Kingdoms is certainly possible. Yeah adding to the story breaks it. Give me a break. You could argue in that case that episodes 39-45(i think) break the story. Fan fiction in my opinion is if I went and drew up my own story or episode plots for 12 kingdoms and posted it on some site. I don't think that would apply in the case of a company and professionals doing it with the orginal authors blessing etc. |
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Veers
Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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I don't think I'm missing your point at all. I, too, am sorry the series didn't resolve more than it did. I'd love to see more stories told. No offense at all intended but it sounds like you're coming from the perspective of someone who's never attempted any serious world building or writing (I could well be wrong).
In fact, I had started typing up more in my previous post, using Star Wars EU as an example, but decided to remove it; maybe I shouldn't have, so here goes. The thing about Star Wars is that it's a huge universe without any strict timeline or space limitation. That's the chief reason that its EU works so well. There's room for it. There is room to add all manner of technology and alien races and important characters. Twelve Kingdoms takes place in a small, very detailed world with a much smaller scope of time. There is not the same amount of space to wedge in more stories. There is not a lot of room to insert important characters because many of them are spoken for already, either in detail or in passing. I'm not saying it can't work (heck, I've done a bit of TK fanfic for fun myeslf), just that using Star Wars is a bad example because of major fundamental differences in the setting and authorial style. The difference is like, if the Star Wars universe were the requirements document for an operating system--anyone could get familiar with it and then write a piece of it. Twelve Kingdoms on the other hand is like a partially completed operating system developed by one person--some one else could come along and try to work on it, but no matter how many notes the designer left, it will never be quite what the designer had in mind if someone else gets their hands in it. The main draw of Twelve Kingdoms for me (and I think many others) is the rich world-building and character development. While there is plenty of room to tack on extra stories of characters doing stuff, I would be highly skeptical of anyone attempting to undertake the task of further world-building or developing existing characters, were it not Ono herself as long as she is alive and presumably still rolling ideas for TK around in her head or off her pen.
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