Twelve Kingdoms – 13/14/15 – Throwback Thursday

This is a big week for Twelve Kingdoms. We end an arc, get a recap and start a new arc all in 3 episodes. Sadly for all that I usually praise Twelve Kingdoms, this was a freakin mess. So lets just jump right into it!

Starting off, the production. Now you might think we have covered most aspects of Twelve Kingdoms production up until now. Animation, backgrounds, OST etc, what more is there to cover? Well the answer this week is art style, because Twelve Kingdoms couldn’t seem to figure out what the hell it wanted to look like in episode 13. I can’t tell if its because of the shifting lighting based on scenes, diffused lighting etc, or something else entirely. But it’s as if Twelve Kingdoms couldn’t figure out what it wanted to look like. There is the original style that I love, with sharper more angular faces and smaller eyes. But occasionally it would switch to this more… the best way to put it is “anime” style. Larger eyes, sharper faces, with less detail. This isn’t just me being insane, right? This happened? Either way the whole episode just felt… off.

Production done, because of how this weeks episodes are structured lets start off right away with episode 13. If 12 was a great way to end an arc, 13 was the opposite. The pacing here was insane, I can’t believe how much got rushed through. Twelve Kingdoms burned through what I thought would be an entire cour’s worth of content in just over 10 minutes. Rescuing Keiki, suppressing Jyoei and sending Sugimoto in barely half an episode feels… wrong? It’s not that I have any issues with how the story ended. Nakajima was always going to become Queen, Sugimoto was always going to go home, etc. But we skipped an entire journey to get here. Can someone who has read the original novels tell me if this happens there to? Is this how the original first book ends as well? Because I can’t believe that is the case.

Seriously, I wanted to see the war arc. I wanted to see the combat in the sky, Nakajima leading people to their death, people slowly coming to accept her as Queen. Show me her growing relationship with Keiki and Shoryuu, her figuring out how to run an army, etc. There was so much good content here that just doesn’t exist. For instance, is Jyoei even a character? She has what, 1 speaking line in the entire show? What was all that buildup with Kou, the revolution, the previous scenes of combat or Youma attacking refugees? Is all of that… meaningless? There’s one scene from episode 13 that I think sums this up nicely: Nakajima is in the throne room with Sugimoto, lamenting how many people died to get there, how she will never forget their names. But we don’t know their names! We never met them and we never will.

It’s a damn shame, because the first half of the episode was great. The culmination of Kou and Kourin’s story, her taking the blade and dying, dooming him to death within the year? It fits perfectly, dooming him by his own hand and actions. I really liked how Twelve Kingdoms depicted his growing desperation, showing just how petty and weak his motivations were. And the imagery! Oh man the imagery. The sequence of Kourin dying, the art and scenery surrounding it, was great. The pool of blood flowing around the ring before seeping into it from below. The Youma, taking her away to devour her as we were told happens with Kirin, the birds merging and plunging into the pool. It might be my favorite scene in Twelve Kingdoms yet, on par with the Suiguu mask scene’s from episodes 3 and 4.

Additionally the time afterword’s with Rakushun was nice! I don’t really care for romance generally, but I can appreciate it when its there and done well. Twelve Kingdoms did a decent job at that here as Rakushun motivates and encourages Nakajima to become Queen. That whole bit with “don’t turn around” was both cute and funny, and showed us just how bold that little rat can be. Now we know he walks like he does not because of his short legs but his balls of steel. Some might say its creepy, but for me it was a rather touching scene. Had Twelve Kingdoms escalated it beyond that I agree, it would have been way to fast. But him not wearing clothes and changing into a human were already established previously. Now if only we could have seen this relationship grow over a multi-episode reclamation of Kei arc…

Moving on, it was mentioned last week in the comments that Sugimoto and Asano were anime only characters. They exist in the novel, but never actually travel to the kingdoms like Nakajima does, and it shows here. Sugimoto really wasn’t relevant to this whole reclamation in any way. Part of that is due to the reclamation taking place in the span of 5 minutes, yes. But she also just sort of hangs around, joining in for the rescue of Keiki, without actually doing anything. I don’t blame Twelve Kingdoms to much for this, her story is largely over after all. Even in episode 15 she exists mostly as a vehicle for Taiki’s story, an easy entry into meeting him and getting to know him as a character. Sadly this has it’s own issues. All in all, as the end of an arc, it was a bit rough.

As for episode 14 there really isn’t much to say here. It’s a recap episode, plain and simple. Twelve Kingdoms at least tries to hide it, presenting it as Nakajima reflecting on her time here or with Rakushun teaching her about the world. But there isn’t really and dressing up you can do to make a recap episode not feel like a recap episode. Normally I wouldn’t hold this against Twelve Kingdoms, but seriously? We are only 13 episodes into the series, do we really need a full blown recap episode? 5 minutes at the start I could understand, reestablish where we are. But a full 25 minutes? It makes me curious what the airing schedule for these episodes was. How large was the gap between 13 and 14 to warrant this? If anyone knows, please let me know down below!

And now we come to episode 15, “The Sea of Wind, The Shore of the Maze”, a new arc! Aaaand we open with a side story about Taiki, the lost Kirin of Tai. Alright. Unexpected, I figured we would get to see Nakajima ruling a kingdom, being a Queen etc. Something that immediately follows the arc we just wrapped up. But hey, I can roll with this, I am willing to see where Twelve Kingdoms goes with it. The whole “Black Haired Kirin” portending momentous events is setting everything up and I can only assume he will be important later. Meanwhile Twelve Kingdoms is continuing to tie Sugimoto into the story, using her as a sort of exposition dump on Taiki’s backstory in Japan and how he is doing now, etc. Not the most exciting thing, don’t get why she would care, but I can give it a chance.

For what it’s worth, for all that I wanted to see Nakajima ruling a kingdom, Taiki’s introduction wasn’t terrible. There was a nice bit of light mystery on Sugimoto’s side as she tracks down what happened through his family. And there still is a greater mystery in how he ended up back in Japan after Nyokai found him the first time. Some nice visuals with the Nyokai beckoning him like a spirit into the corner of the yard, etc etc. There were plenty of small, visually interesting tidbits scattered throughout the episode that managed to keep my attention with Taiki himself didn’t. And I have to be frank, I don’t yet care much for him. All of my attention is on Nakajima whom we have spent the most time with. If Twelve Kingdoms can tie Taiki into her story, fantastic. If not? I won’t be very excited for him.

All in all, this weeks episodes of Twelve Kingdoms were a bit of a disappointment. It burned through what I expected to be at least a cour of content, the reclamation of Kei, in a single episode. On one hand that’s exciting, because I have absolutely no idea where Twelve Kingdoms can go from here. But on the other hand it was also something I was looking forward to a lot. There were no doubt a myriad of possible character arcs in there, from finding Asano to Nakajima leading an army to once again suppressing her joy of combat. Yet we got none of these and were skipped to the end so she can grieve over a war that, to us, lasted all of 5 minutes. I want to be faithful, I want to hope Twelve Kingdoms knows what it’s doing. But I am concerned.