Twelve Kingdoms, ep. 01-05

[oyceter]

Er. I really didn't like this.

Nakajima Yoko is a reserved high school student with naturally red hair; she's the class president and generally tries to do things right. One day, a strange man comes into the classroom and tells her to come with him to another world. Monsters attack, and Yoko cries (this will occur frequently). Eventually, Yoko ends up in another world, along with class outcast Sugimoto Yuka and friend Asano Ikuya.

So far, this is playing too much like other "transported to magical world" series for me, and I'm particularly annoyed at Yoko, who basically cries the entire time. I mean, I am actually very ok with heroines who are afraid and don't physically kick ass, but Yoko is passive in a way that makes her feel Too Stupid to Live. I.e. she won't fight, but she immediately trusts everyone. I also want to like Sugimoto and hope that the series is doing something about the chosen one trope; I love that Sugimoto thinks reluctant Yoko should go home and let her have this awesome magical world. Unfortunately, it looks like Sugimoto is being set up as the villain.

People who've seen this, is this going to be like the Miaka/Yui rivalry in Fushigi Yuugi? Because if it is, I am going to throw something. Also, I gathered from comments that people like Yoko, so does she get better?

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

You're supposed to hate Yoko now. She's pathetic. By the end of this storyline, she's almost another person altogether. When I first watched the first disc, I hate all three of what seemed to be the main characters, but liked the music and was interested in the world, so I stuck it out a bit longer, and it ended up one of my favorite animes, and Yoko one of my favorite anime characters.

I'm not quite sure what's setting off Miaka/Yui comparisons for you (I suspect the same thing that makes me twitch when the smart/driven/ambitious/pretty girl is indicated to be the future Evil Other while the dim but cute and bubbly and/or tomboyish girl is wonderful and perfect) so all I'll say is that Asano is almost irrelevant to any problems between the two, and this storyline is almost as much about Sugimoto growing and learning to look beyond herself as it is Yoko doing the same.

[oyceter]

Mostly it was the good but not necessarily bright girl vs. the power-hungry "friend" in a magical setting in which both are possibly touted as saviors of a certain faction. But I'm glad to hear it doesn't really go that way? (This is also based on hearsay, since I've never watched FY.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

(Err...FY has nostalgic value to me, but I suspect it'd annoy you.)

Hmm...it does have some elements of that, but handled in a completely different way. Like, Sugimoto is 100% justified in the "no, I'd be better at this than you!" at the beginning because Yoko is so pitiful. But she isn't power hungry so much as she wants to be someone important, and can't understand how someone as pathetic and unsuitable as Yoko could be special, while she, who is actually willing to step up to it, isn't "special."

I almost want to compare it to Priness Tutu, where it's just as important that Rue have a better life as it is the Ahiru have her story, though it's in very different ways.

[the-willow.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Yoko's passivity is addressed as a product of her always trying to be what others expect her to be. I've never watched Fushigi Yuugi because I liked 12 Kingdoms and I've been told that Fushigi Yuugi's triteness would upset me.

I don't know how else to explain Juuni Kokki except to say you're supposed to dislike the main character and see her faults and then watch her pick herself up and actually do and learn and mature. The world and music intrigued me enough to keep watching.

I thought most of us who recced it had warned you that the main character starts off in a place where you wouldn't like her but that the journey is psychological as well as physical?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

FY and 12k don't compare at all. I don't mean that as "one is better than the other" but more as "you might as well compare Ouran High School Host Club and Revolutionary Girl Utena, since both are set at elite schools and include genderbending." I encountered both (12k anime and FY manga) at about the same time, and it never occurred to me that they would be compared on any level until after I'd finished both. (Which was a couple years later.) The similarities begin and end with "modern schoolgirl finds herself in world based on Chinese mythology."

[the-willow.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

JK reminds me of why I fell in love with fantasy and why I wanted to be a fantasy writer when I grew up (still do). I love the smart twists on tropes. I love the mythology. I love the characters (their growth and pains and highs). I love the damn thing so much that I've scoured the internet for fan translations of the book and even found myself listening to a japanese podcast of a CD short story. Didn't understand a word of it, but recognized all the voices.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[oyceter]

People may very well have warned me and I might have forgotten! But yeah, I was like, I'm sure this must get better, because I remember a lot of commenters saying that they loved Yoko...

[estara.livejournal.com]

Yoko gets much better!! I find Twelve Kingdoms realistic in that Yoko is the chosen one, but she really has to adapt and grow up and conquer her inner self to be able to handle it, and when she does she really finds that this is the place for her and not our world.

Sugimoto... well, she is the version of the girl who always thought she was special and she will do anything to grasp that. (In the novels her two classmates do not even enter the Twelve Kingdoms) They document what happens when you can't adapt but stick with your blinders.

Please give it some more episodes.

[oyceter]

*nods* Thanks for the info!

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

How to put this? 12K is an anime that is more like a book than a manga: the main character goes through a brutal character arc to grow and mature. In fact, you'll find that with many of the characters -- they're unlikeable early on but mature into awesomeness.

[sarasusa.livejournal.com]

In fact, the anime *is* based on a novel series, the first two volumes of which are available in the United States. The books are hefty, but an amazingly quick read (for me at least). I have yet to watch the anime, but the "schoolmate" characters that get transported with her are, I believe, anime-only (unless they show up in later volumes, which I find unlikely).

[oyceter]

Okay, good! I just wanted some reassurance.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I was annoyed by lead char, but stuck it out for a couple-three discs. We were really entertained by the fact that the series seemed to be out to overturn all the Fushigi Yuugi conventions, and it really kicks the whole "trust everyone" theme in the teeth not too much further along. We haven't gone back to it because it's pretty unrelieved drama, and we're just not in a space to cope with that -- we got distracted by FMA, which we started watching almost simultaneously, and which has heavy drama well seasoned with humor.

[oyceter]

Got it, thanks. I think I'm going to try to keep watching, but it may be hard because I'm not sure how much brain power I can dedicate to plot!

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

It takes a while but, yes, Yoko does improve a lot. It took two tries for me to get into this story (I really hated Yoko).
The Miaka/Yui rivalry aspect doesn't really last very long and soon becomes a non issue.

If you can wade past the first disk or two the story starts to take off (though it is not a fast paced story at all) and hook you.

For the record, I didn't really care for Fushigi Yugi but I did end up liking Twelve Kingdoms.

[oyceter]

Gotcha, thanks for the info!

[octopedingenue]

Yoko is 100% untarnished awesome from the beginning in the two translated novels (Tokyopop better publish 3+ or people are going to die). I've only seen the first few episodes of the anime, but I think it makes a huge difference that they aren't in Yoko's close POV like the books, so all we get of her is how she initially acts, which is like the Good Girl Who Needs Everyone To Approve Of Her. If the anime is at all like the books, she does get mightily better, and a lot more cynical as being a Good Girl gets smashed back in her face. Which gives you the fun story of the universe trying to mold a Super Speshul Selfless Sue Heroine out of someone going NO, REALLY, FUCK EVERYONE ELSE EVER, BYE.

[oyceter]

*nods* Ok, that sounds good!

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

I didn't find Yoko annoying at all, though people warned me that I might -- I thought she reacted in a way that made sense considering she's a high school student and not equipped in any way for magical unicorns and monsters and things. Anyway, she does get better at existing in a world with magical unicorns etc. etc., so do stick with it if you can. 12K isn't one of my favourite anime evar, but it's good fun, very old-fashioned fantasy YA series in feel.

[oyceter]

Yeah, it does feel very old-fashioned fantasy!

I mean, I can definitely see why Yoko's reaction is normal; I think I'm particularly annoyed by how hers and Sugimoto's are being contrasted, especially with the hints at female rivalry.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, I also only made it through about 10 episodes of this show, and hated it. Still, my FL continues to rave about it, so I might try it again. At least I'm not the only one who was turned off by its beginning!

[oyceter]

Definitely not! rilina said she couldn't make it past the first disc either.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

I've only seen the first 13 episodes of 12 Kingdoms, the first arc. I didn't like it at first, but I kept giving it chances because it's such a major anime (and because of my fondness for Ghost Hunt by the same author). It does improve; Yoko stops sucking so much.

Something to remember about the seeming clichéness of this is that this is pretty old. The story is something like 20 years old; cliché now is partly because of this story. That said, I also am a little tired of the "girl gets transported to magical world where she's speshul." Blarg.

[oyceter]

Ahhh, ok, I hadn't realized the book was so old. But yeah, I am not so into modern characters being transported into magical worlds in general.