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REVIEW: The Twelve Kingdoms Blu-ray


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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5294
PostPosted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 3:32 am Reply with quote
FireChick wrote:
Modern isekai anime: THIS is how you do isekai, not wish fulfillment fantasies with harems and overpowered blank slates who have no personality.
Seeing as this is aimed at a female audience, the lack of a powerful male protagonist with a bunch of infatuated girls makes a lot of sense.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9808
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:47 am Reply with quote
escahime65 wrote:
Great review! I'm so glad Twelve Kingdoms didn't get forgotten by distributors and more people now have a chance to see it. This series is in my top 5 favorite anime series for all the reasons people have mentioned. Now if only the novels could be re-released with a better translation. One of the novels Tokyopop released was missing an entire chapter!


Only the hard back version was missing a chapter. It was corrected in the trade paperback version. A new complete version would be nice.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 12:31 pm Reply with quote
I still need to finish it since it's on Crunchyroll and AsianCrush now, but I've always enjoyed the complexities of Twelve Kingdom's world building and seeing the growth of Yoko's character and all the twists and turns of the story. I also agree the dub was very good. The dub had Joshua Seth as Asano who was also Tai in Digimon which is also an isekai that's very different from modern light novel isekai.
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Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 881
PostPosted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 5:05 pm Reply with quote
So is there any reason to grab this BD release if I already have the old ones?

Re: novels, J-Novel Club ended up picking up Full Metal Panic last year, which I'd given up on as a lost cause years ago, so maybe we'll get lucky and Twelve Kingdoms will see similar treatment? Problem is that the novel series itself just kind of... stopped, the whole, "indefinite hiatus," thing, so no matter what we're looking at a story that will forever remain unfinished.

And for the life of me I can't figure out why. Ono Fuyumi's other work is good, yeah, but much more conventional (EG less imaginative, complex, compelling) than Twelve Kingdoms by a fair bit. Makes me wonder if maybe 12K was surprisingly unpopular in Japan? Not to annoy any fans, but I've been watching HxH on Netflix this month, and am struck with the same thought about Togashi Yoshihiro.

John Thacker wrote:
FireChick wrote:
Modern isekai anime: THIS is how you do isekai, not wish fulfillment fantasies with harems and overpowered blank slates who have no personality.


Sugimoto provides an interesting counterpoint as the person who loves fantasy novels and wants to be in an isekai situation, only to completely get screwed over by the world because she's not supposed to be there. I tend to feel sorry for her, even if she's the kind of character who in a different show would be getting her wish fulfilled.


Honestly I kind of resent using the term "isekai" within a hundred meters of Twelve Kingdoms, the genre being what it is (unapologetic garbage for the most part) but you make a good point, and the added Sugimoto arc is likely more powerful in today's context than it was originally. But even so, I think the addition of Sugimoto and what's-his-name was pretty brilliant, and enriched the anime adaptation immensely--especially in the second arc. The weird thing is... this is the only case I can readily think of where an animation team made significant alterations to the source material to create a superior story, while still remaining faithful. It's very impressive.

Twelve Kingdoms really sets a high bar in every respect: even the filler is brilliant.

Such a shame it seems to be overlooked when people discuss the best, classic anime. As far as I'm concerned, Twelve Kingdoms has no equal.
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kakoishii



Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 741
PostPosted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 6:44 pm Reply with quote
12 Kingdoms was the only impulse buy at an anime convention I never regretted. I literally knew nothing about the series and just went off of what the person at the booth told me about it, and I absolutely devoured both volumes. I do not mind at all double dipping for these blurays. I also wouldn't mind at all seeing this continued and rereleased. We're living in golden times right now practically unheard of when I first got into anime of seeing anime continued or restarted years and years after their manga run has ended. Back then, I would have thought it foolish to hope for something like this getting another chance, but now I think hope is warranted.
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2201
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 1:56 am Reply with quote
Yeah, I rewatched this last year and it is amazing how much of a difference there is between this and modern isekai stories. Ono actually constructed a world with complex cultures, unique history, and even outright bizarre rules that seem to run on mythic logic (like the trees that bear children). With Ono finally releasing new books hopefully we can get a continuation in a few years
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