7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Yoko Nakajima, an unhappy high school student, is one day suddenly faced with a strange man who swears allegiance to her. After a battle with demon-like beasts, he then takes her to another world along with two of her classmates. There, her appearance has changed and she can understand the language even though her classmates cannot. But their status as "Kaikyaku" (people who come from Earth) makes them hunted fugitives, so they wander the land of the 12 countries, simply trying to survive and to figure out the reason why they were brought to this world.
Starring: Aya Hisakawa, Houko Kuwashima, Kappei Yamaguchi, Tomoko Kawakami, Takehito KoyasuAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 97% |
Fantasy | 28% |
Adventure | 14% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The Twelve Kingdoms is perhaps the only anime release in recent memory that came supplied with its own Encyclopedia helping to explicate the seemingly endless array of terms, characters, and settings the series throws about with seeming abandon. This is not television viewing for the faint of heart or deficient of attention. Culled from a best selling series of light novels of Ono Fuyumi that are more than a bit reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novels (as I’ve mentioned in my reviews of the two previous releases of this series, The Twelve Kingdoms, Part 1: Shadow of the Moon, The Sea of Shadow and The Twelve Kingdoms, Part 2: Sea of the Wind, The Shore of the Maze. Kids whisked away from their everyday lives into magical lands where they realize they’re royalty, often accompanied by giant talking beasts, might make any Lewis Estate attorney be thinking about possible plagiarism, but The Twelve Kingdoms is its own creature, for better or worse, an often incredibly complex simultaneous unfolding of several stories that may in fact not totally exploit all twelve kingdoms of Ono Fuyumi’s original conception, but which certainly traverses enough territory, geographically and story wise, to keep most people in need of a flowchart to manage the incredible array of characters and plots. Despite this series actually having quite a few episodes to tell its story, because of the elaborate nature of Fuyumi’s source novels, even with the extended running length of The Twelve Kingdoms, some may feel like something was left on the cutting room floor. That’s especially true of this last set of episodes, which actually spends a lot of time covering old material or recasting it in new light, sort of quasi- Rashomon style. For the patient and perseverant, though, The Twelve Kingdoms has some very interesting elements, though truth be told, they can easily get buried (or at least forgotten) in the mad rush to figure out why some characters go by two (or more) names or what in heaven’s name a kirin is.
The Twelve Kingdoms, Part 3: A Great Distance in the Wind, The Sky at Dawn is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Media Blasters with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This third volume follows in the footsteps of both The Twelve Kingdoms, Part 1: Shadow of the Moon, The Sea of Shadow and The Twelve Kingdoms, Part 2: Sea of the Wind, The Shore of the Maze, and exhibits pretty much the same strengths and weaknesses of the first two volumes. What was evidently an SD native source prevents this image from ever fully popping in a true high definition manner, but overall, especially with regard to color, there's a lot to like here. While the results are soft more often than not, there's a pleasing texture here and line detail is also surprisingly strong most of the time. As with the first two volumes, the series continues its odd, schizoid combination of animation styles, where some sequences (in fact, perhaps even most sequences) are beautifully animated, while others seems to have been scrawled by some part-timer under the threat of a deadline. While results here are mixed, there's nothing horrible about the transfer given proper expectations.
The Twelve Kingdoms, Part 3: A Great Distance in the Wind, The Sky at Dawn features the same three lossless audio options that the first two volumes did, namely a Japanese language track presented in both DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes, and an English dub presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. As I've stated in the two previous reviews, while both 2.0 tracks have excellent fidelity and there's nothing to complain about with regard to either of them, few other than those opposed to reading subtitles will probably want to stick with either of them given the nice surround rendering the 5.1 track offers. As with the two previous volumes, the 5.1 track offers some really nicely nuanced immersion, with a glut of ambient environmental sounds and good oomph in some of the more busy action sequences. The best part of the 5.1 track, though, remains the absolutely sumptuous score by Ryo Kunihiko, a beautifully evocative achievement that uses some touching ethnic instruments (like the shakuhachi) and an elegant orchestral setting.
Staff Interviews (SD; 15:02) offers some interesting comments from Producer Ken Suekawa, who talks about having been introduced to the light novel series years previously and how that series came to be adapted as an anime.
The Twelve Kingdoms isn't a series you can just sit down and enjoy, at least in the early going. This is a show that because of its arcane vocabulary and tendency to give characters multiple names takes a great deal of concentration to fully understand what's going on. While things settle down by the second volume of this release, as least relatively speaking, there are so many characters to keep track of and so many simultaneously unfolding plotlines that some viewers may either give up or simply not be able to follow the extremely convoluted story arcs. All of that said, there's a lot to like in The Twelve Kingdoms, especially for "fantasy world" lovers, and perhaps most especially for lovers of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, which The Twelve Kingdoms bears more than a passing resemblance to. My best advice after having watched all three volumes of this series is to take your time, watching an episode or two, visiting the Encyclopedia included on the first two volumes, and then proceeding slowly until the major characters have been introduced and developed. The Twelve Kingdoms isn't a show for everyone, and in fact if you only like slam- bang, attention deficit disorder sorts of entertainments, it's most definitely not something you'll probably like. If, on the other hand, you don't mind taking your time immersing yourself in a foreign world with its own customs and language, The Twelve Kingdoms, while complex, is a journey worth taking. Recommended.
Episodes 1-14 / 十二国記「月の影 影の海」
2002
Episodes 15-33 / 十二国記「風の海 迷宮の岸」
2002-2003
十二国記
2002-2003
(Still not reliable for this title)
精霊の守り人
2007
海獣の子供 / Kaijū no Kodomo
2019
Classics
1996
ゲド戦記 / Gedo Senki
2006
Anime Classics
2008-2009
1985
メアリと魔女の花 / Meari to majo no hana
2017
Suchîmubôi
2004
S.A.V.E. Edition
2005
2011
夜明け告げるルーのうた / Yoake tsugeru Rū no uta
2017
2013
2000
崖の上のポニョ / Gake no ue no Ponyo
2008
劇場版ポケットモンスター キミにきめた! / Gekijō-ban Poketto Monsutā Kimi ni kimeta!
2017
Momo e no Tegami
2011
サマーウォーズ / Samâ wôzu
2009
となりのトトロ / Tonari no Totoro
1988
Hoshi o Ou Kodomo / 星を追う子ども
2011
2012