Juuni Kokuki

Youko Nakajima has only ever wanted to be normal. She does what she is asked, gets good grades, is the class president, and even helps her classmates whenever she can—but because of her red hair, she has never fit in. With her pushover attitude, Youko lets classmates take advantage of her, so she has nobody she can really call a friend.

But on an otherwise ordinary day, a man who claims to be from another world barges into Youko's classroom and bows before her. This elegant blond-haired man, Keiki, claims that Youko is his master and belongs on the throne of his kingdom. However, their first meeting is cut short as Keiki has been followed by otherworldly beasts called youma. He is able to escape with Youko into his own realm, but two other classmates—Ikuya Asano and Yuka Sugimoto—are caught up in the madness as well. Unfortunately, their troubles have only just begun, as the youma attack leaves them separated from Keiki. Alone in this strange new land, these ordinary students must learn to fend for themselves or die.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nakajima, Youko Main

Hisakawa, Aya Japanese

Keiki Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Rakushun Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Enki Supporting

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Shouryuu Supporting

Aizawa, Masaki Japanese

Shoukei Supporting

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Taiki Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Shushou Supporting

Yamazaki, Wakana Japanese

Haku, Sanshi Supporting

Katsuki, Masako Japanese

Aozaru Supporting

Okano, Kousuke Japanese

Matsui, Shouji Producer

Kobayashi, Tsuneo Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Kon, Chiaki Episode Director

Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki Episode Director

Reviews

Apr 27, 2007

Stormy_77

Recommended

This series is so good that when it ends at episode 45 you'll find yourself wishing for more, I know most who have seen it feel like this.

It starts off innocently with Yoko being accosted at school by a handsome man with long blonde hair who wants to swear allegiance to her. Before she knows it, monsters?!? are attacking her, she's being defended by Keiki, she won't leave her friends and suddenly Yoko and the 2 friends she won't leave have been sucked into another world. Thus begins our journey into the magical land of the 12 kingdoms.

I admit, after the dramatic beginning, I was ... expecting this to be like the Escaflowne/El-Hazard type of series. That impression was swept away in under 10 minutes. Escaflowne is a good anime, but 12 Kingdoms is a Great anime.

What sets 12 Kingdoms apart is the detailed explanation of the political, social, economic and philosophical aspects of the kingdom. As the episodes progress, you learn how the kingdoms are organized, why they are structured the way they are, and the good and bad things about each type of government. I've never heard it explained better in any other anime.

The story and characters really suck you in. The more they reveal, the more you want to know and you're eagerly looking forward to each episode to see how the character's will react, secretly hoping for some of them to "grow up", others to "snap out of it", and actually even hoping for a few to "just die". At the beginning, I really wanted to slap Yoko a few times while shouting "deal with it". But by the end of the series Yoko has become the heroine that people identify with and they root for her. There are pivotal scenes that make you stand up and cheer in joy.

There aren't any extraneous "filler" secondary characters. While the motivations of some aren't revealed till much later, for the most part you can understand and sympathize with the "good" secondary characters and grow to hate the "bad guys".

The fantasy world created by the writer is capable of much more exploration via this anime. The plot has many other directions it can go in. Even though the series ended at 45 episodes, I know a lot of us 12 Kingdoms fans would be really happy if they made another 45 episodes as there is still a ton of unused potential - including all the other "unexplored" kingdoms, not to mention the rest of the black kirin story.

Watch this great anime but be prepared to feel sad at the end because there isn't any more to watch! The only flaw it has is that it ended too early.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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May 8, 2008

PeachPieWaffle

Mixed Feelings

I started watching this series because so many people said it was like "Saiunkoku Monogatari" (which I love). But, it isn't. In fact, it's nothing like it. Sure they are both Fantasy, with Historical setting. But that's about it as far as comparisons.

At the start I was pretty turned off by the series. I found the lead character, Youko Nakajima, to be utterly annoying. It didn't help any that she cried and cried for like the first 12 episodes straight (okay, maybe 7). But when that was done with, and the new world that we are presented with is explored and explained, things started to ... look up.

The characters for the most part are pretty interesting. I especially liked Keiki (Youko's Kerin - think man that can turn into what looks like a unicorn), Shouryuu ( King En), Rokuta ( Shouryu's Kerin), Rakushun (a guy that's really a rat) and many more. The characters all have some sort of substance, a majority of them have experienced some kind of hardship. You get to see most of them achieve such sincere growth that I for one couldn't help but to smile at how they turned out after their individual journeys.

The plot of the story is pretty good as well, and the ideas that went into developing the backdrop are to be commended - the author was very imaginative - it works.

However, this series was far too long than was necessary. A few episodes were nothing but recaps of previous episodes, and when i say a few I mean more than 1,2,3,4.... That was annoying and really a waste.
There were quite a few side stories in the entire series (which is good) except one of the most major stories was never resolved. It was simply left...open..I kept wondering if somehow it flew past me and I didn't realize, but after looking back thoroughly, I can say nothing came of it. I am talking about Taiki, the Kirin who disappeared along with his King. This was the start of a great side story, and it was disappointing to see that it wasn't followed through.
Instead of wasting so much film to recap past episodes, surely it could have been used to do better justice to the novel and resolve Taiki's story.

And to conclude, the very last episode was by far the worst episode of them all. All it did was pretty much recap the previous 2 episodes...word for word, picture for picture. If you watch episode 43 and 44, you've watched episode 45. Keiki, who is a very instrumental character, was pretty much left out of a majority of the episodes, and wasn't even granted the respect of being shown at the end.
So, while this was a good story, with awesome characters, it's not a show that I would be inclined to watch again, nor can i say it was enjoyable.

On a good note, I've decided to go out and get the novel. So I guess the anime has done it's job to get me interested in the original source.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 16, 2009

outlaw98

Not Recommended

Juuni Kokuki had great potential but was directed and written badly. Continue reading and I shall clarify what I mean.

First off I will explain a few of its many faults.
1. Often very predictable

2. HAD 3 SUMMARY EPISODES.

3. YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS, BUT THE FINAL EPISODE IS A SUMMARY EPISODE. WHAT THE HELL?!

4. This anime was not planned out properly. When an anime explains something that has already happened like a characters past, it usually only takes 1 or 2 episodes, but in this show it takes like 8. And one of the stories (About a black haired Kirin) could have been completely removed from ... the anime and it would still have made sense. Not only that, but it ended too early so the writers clearly made up an extra story at the end to reach their episode quota.

5. Many of the characters are not smart or even of average intelligence. They do not make logical decisions and act irrationally. They let their emotions guild them when logic obviously dictates a different course of action.

6. The main character is extremely weak and timid and not in the cute likable Hinata (naruto reference) way. More like the annoying piss you off kind of way. SHE IS INDECISIVE AND A LOSER!

7. There are a lot of complicated made up terms that make comprehension much more difficult.

The only reason I finished this anime was because it made me wonder what I would do if I was handed my own kingdom, and Death note hadn't finished downloading yet.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Juuni Kokuki Episode 45 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Predseln - Mar 19, 2009	69 replies	by Niveen_Sleem »» Nov 27, 1:54 PM
	Poll: Juuni Kokuki Episode 15 Discussion Beatnik - Mar 8, 2008	25 replies	by niemin »» Nov 27, 1:13 AM
	Poll: Juuni Kokuki Episode 19 Discussion Beatnik - Mar 8, 2008	32 replies	by Niveen_Sleem »» Nov 24, 9:42 AM
	Poll: Juuni Kokuki Episode 16 Discussion KitaTsuki - Dec 24, 2010	18 replies	by Niveen_Sleem »» Nov 24, 1:57 AM
	Poll: Juuni Kokuki Episode 10 Discussion kie_ - Aug 8, 2009	30 replies	by Niveen_Sleem »» Nov 23, 1:48 AM

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