Alright, I don’t know where to begin this week, so let me just say: Holy shit Twelve Kingdoms. That was fantastic. What a way to end a 15 episode long arc. To save people from spoilers, I am going to start with the production. But if you want to get into the meat just skip this and head on down, I’ll see you there.
So, the production, it was weird. Twelve Kingdoms continues to be wildly inconsistent in its animation/art style. Some scenes everyone will be perfectly on model and it will look great. Meanwhile others a character will have a wildly disproportionate sided hand or their artstyle will change completely. Almost as if it was outsourced or something, I don’t know. But then we get something like the 2nd half of episode 38, or all of episode 39, that look great. I’m going to have to look into who directed which episode before the final review for this, because that really seems to be the determining factor. Because when the shot composition is just right, the sequence of them, Twelve Kingdoms comes out looking grand. Enough about production though, let’s talk narrative, cause god damn shit went down.
There are so many things to talk about, so lets start small and work our way up, beginning with Shoukou. I figured he would go down with a fight, as arrogant as he is. So to see him actually stick with his beliefs in regards to Heavenly punishment was a great surprise. He legitimately wasn’t doing this for money or any ulterior motive. Shoukou was actually religiously testing the Heavens and was happy to be caught. As later on we see him grinning madly in the cell, having gotten what he wanted. Proof that that Heavens wouldn’t sit by and let him do what he wants. On top of that we got a great scene of him recognizing Nakajima before all of this. The whole sequence was wild to me, I wasn’t expecting the cruel governor to call Nakajima a “great ruler”. A good end to a previously one-note villain.
Next up lets talk Asano, because this was one of the more surprising ones for how emotional it got me. Asano was rather dull up until now, mostly because he didn’t really do anything. But it seems that was precisely what Twelve Kingdoms wanted. There are only so many ways the series can use an anime-original character, but this was a good one. To build an entire arc around his inability to do anything, wondering why he was even here. It mirrors Sugimoto and Nakajima’s arcs well. But where Nakajima became Queen and Sugimoto returned home, good and neutral endings respectively, Asano gets the bad one. He wasn’t able to find a purpose or to reconcile his lack of one. Rather he created one for himself, envisioning the entire world as against him and seeking to fix it with Shoukou, only to die in the end.
This hit me surprisingly hard, because Asano had been a rather pitiful character until now. To see him finally stand up for himself, for something good, to try and redeem himself and to get struck down for it hurt. I actually expected, right up until we saw him in bed, to still be alive. For Twelve Kingdoms to pull a bait-and-switch on us and that he actually survived. Since filler/anime-only characters aren’t allowed to really change the story, this was a brilliant way to use that. I’m talking in circles at this point because I can’t properly articulate just how surprising it was that this worked for me. So all I can say is that Twelve Kingdoms once again managed to take a story/character I thought dull or pointless and turned them into something good. So good job on that one.
With that we come to Nakajima, and we can’t talk about Nakajima without first talking about Shoukei and Suzu. These two have grown up so much over this arc and Twelve Kingdoms used them really well. Every time these three have a conversation together, it feels like the series is connecting them in new ways. It could be Shoukei’s time in court giving her insight into how court politics work. Or her words about how people compete to be unhappy, and how that can give the same pleasure as being the happiest. Meanwhile for Suzu it can use her time with Suibikun, the Senin, as an analog for the people of Takuhou. How over time you get used to it and become a coward, unable to raise a hand even if you know you should. These are connections I hadn’t though of before, but feel so obvious now in hindsight.
As for their roles in the actual episodic narrative, Twelve Kingdoms did well with them to. Nakajima’s reveal that she was the Queen was handled well and I loved how it influenced their decision later. How Suzu used her pass from Sai to gain legitimacy and her role in inciting the populace. Or how Shoukei had the courage to admit to being Hou’s daughter, despite the reaction she got to that back in Hou and her witnessing the final moments of Asano. And the wild part is that Twelve Kingdoms did such a good job with their arcs that none of this feels out of place. Can you imagine the original Shoukei caring for a dying man in her arms? Or the original Suzu understanding the plight and fear of an entire town? I really hope they return as advisors for Nakajima as was hinted, because they deserve it.
This brings me to Nakajima who… Dear god, doesn’t she just look so god damn regal in that screenshot? I’m going to skip episode 37 and 38 here because those are pretty straight forward. She catches Shoukou, she defends the city, all is well and good. But episode 39 was her episode and it rocked. Her confrontation with the Royal General was beautiful, I love how she just puts them in their place. No more Nice Nakajima, she is Queen and she is ready to own it. She knew she couldn’t get the army mobilized through court, so what better way than to just confront it in person when it arrives to suppress her. Most of this was off-the-cuff, she didn’t plan all of this. But it the final decision worked beautifully and, I have to say, strong confident women like this are hot.
Getting past the army stuff and her orders to arrest basically the entire corrupt court, I want to talk about her first proclamation. This basically opened the entire arc, with the first proclamation defining your rule. Defining what kind of Queen she will be. I had no idea what it would be but Twelve Kingdoms came up with something brilliant: No more prostration. No more kneeling and hiding your face, no more forced bows, no more “betters”. Everyone is equal regardless of station, people aren’t born slaves, respect doesn’t require prostration. As Nakajima said, “Every citizen is their own King”. What a fantastic way to cap off an arc about oppression and mass societal abuse by the higher class. What a way to define your rule than to remove a core cultural facet of this entire bloody world. It really was the perfect proclamation to end the arc on.
Beyond that there are some small details I want to point out, if only to say I loved them. Things like Kantai being an absolute chad, even though I don’t think bears are that strong. Or the rebels bowing to Nakajima and her bowing in apology. Enho being the one who forged the original scabbard for the sword, Asano smiling in death or my favorite: A gun resting on a peaceful grave. There were so many little details throughout these 3 episodes that I loved. I realize I’m not doing a lot of “analysis” on this, and thats because I am still sitting in the afterglow of these episodes while writing this. I promise, the final review I’ll be a lot more insightful. For now though I just want to sit and bask in the finale of a good arc done well. Its sad how few of these we get.
Now, ordinarily this is where I would go over the episodes individually, but this post is getting pretty long. If there are any specific bits you want to hear about then please, just ask below. I need an excuse to talk about this show more until my final review and you all will be giving that to me. Hopefully the afterglow will be gone by then. Otherwise, all in all and I yes I will say it again, Twelve Kingdoms did great this week. The production isn’t always the strongest, but I don’t need that when the story is this tightly written. Maybe it could have been condensed a bit, maybe they could have made Shoukou a tad more interesting or Asano a tad more compelling. But the way those arcs ended is enough to get my seal of approval and I can’t wait for the 6 we have left.
See you then!
As I mentioned in a previous comment, this is a long time favorite of mine… But since my first time through I have always ended a watch-through with episode 39. With the different style end-credits you can tell that this is the cap-off point. (It really is a shame that they never got around to adapting some of the later novels, though.)
Yeah, I am very nervous about the remaining 6 episodes. I want to stop here, because I dont see what they could possibly do to top this. But I also have a duty to see it through to the end before I can review the whole thing.
Whatever happens though, this arc is always going to be cemented as fantastic for me. I still can’t get over how regal she looks in that pose. Its like, “This is Queen Nakajima”. The payoff was just so good, and like you said they changed the credits and removed the OP and everything. This was clearly a strong stopping point.
It was great reliving this series through you, this was pretty much how I felt the first time I finished twelve kingdoms. It really is one of my favourite series of all time due to this last arc. The character progression with Nakajima, Suzu and Shoukei is just fantastic and I think it really gives you an appreciation for how hard it would be to actually be a good ruler. Just good intentions isn’t enough and I think Nakajima really believably “earned” becoming a great leader.
For sure. This was everything I wanted back when they skipped her taking control of the Kingdom at the end of the first arc. I wanted to see her grow into a leader, to make these harsh decisions, to come to terms with how she can’t just be nice or satisfy everyone as ruler. I was really annoyed that they timeskipped that, but what we got here more than made up for it. I can’t believe how they managed to work Suzu and Shoukei so perfectly into her story.