Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105828 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-09-27
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: Japanese, English
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 550 minutes

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, Captivating Series and Set!
I've seen a good deal of anime (read: way much more than I responsibly should have). It ranges from train-wreck-bad to truly inspiring. This anime falls so close to the latter category that it belongs in my top 3 series. Very few animes can captivate a viewer to the degree where they don't even stop to look at the time, where they don't really expect the story/episode to stop. Every time I finished an episode, it always surprised me- I was so caught up in the story. The series is based on a number of well-crafted books which create a well thought out Tolkien-esque world. While developing this world, the series also finds time to develop its very interesting cast of characters. The music is also quite fantastic. The animation wins no superlatives, but it accomplishes its task quite well. The fight scenes, especially, are well animated. The one thing I worry about is the incompletion of the series. At 45 episodes, the story of the 12 Kingdoms is incomplete. I have been told that the 45 episodes effectively finishes the story of the main character- so some closure is reached. But 23 more episodes were apparently planned to reach an ultimate fate of the 12 Kingdoms- sadly, these will probably never be made. Still, this series is absolutely fantastic and not to be missed!

As far as the set goes...Animeworks never fails to impress, but they've truly surprised me this time. The case is very sturdy and features beautiful art from the series. The inside is just as impressive...more artwork from the series and a little glossary (yeah, the series is pretty detailed). It is clear from looking at the set that Animeworks cared about the job they were doing in bringing the series to the states. This is a very rare quality....so many U.S. anime companies spit out dvds with no respect for the original material, but Animeworks is clearly different.

Finally, the set is selling for a very reasonable price. If you pay between 70 and 100 for each of the sets, you're getting 45 episodes for somewhere around 170 bucks.....for a series of this caliber, that's a bargain.

I cannot recommend this series enough....its many beauties remain with you long after viewing the series. And now...you can purchase the series knowing that the original material has been treated with all of the respect it deserves.

An epic anime series
The twelve Kingdoms is based on a novel with the same title written by Ono Fuyumi and released by Kodansha. High school student Yoko Nakajima is one day suddenly greeted with a strange man named Keiki who calls her "lord". He takes her to another world along with her classmates but then they lost sight of Keiki. They wander the land of the 12 kingdoms as hunted fugitives, trying to survive the hash treatment and attacks from the local people and to find out why they were brought to this world.

The first premium box set (of 2) released by Media Blaster is simply beautiful. It is a digipak similar to the 4-disc Extended Edition of Lord of the Rings and has a textured feel to the box's paper. The front and back of the box carries the coverart of volumes 1 and 5 of the separate DVD releases respectively. The disc holders are transparent and showing the coverart of the corresponding volume when a disc is removed.

This is an excellent anime series that you don't want to miss. Plus the fact that the premium box sets are meticiously put together makes this show a must buy!

Fushigi Yuugi minus the romance plus the politics...
Judging from what was happening in the first few episodes, I was somewhat expecting The Twelve Kingdoms to be an anime along the lines of the classic girl-taken-to-another-world series "Fushigi Yuugi". Turns out I was half-right. The Twelve Kingdoms is somewhat like "Fushigi Yuugi" -- minus the romance, plus a whole lot of politics.

Youko Nakajima is the quintessential unwilling heroine with zero self-confidence. After being whisked away to the world of the twelve kingdoms, Youko is forced to pick up a sword and defend herself from those who want her dead. But why would anyone want a regular schoolgirl dead? As it turns out, Youko is not as ordinary as she always believed herself to be. She is a taika, originally born in the world of the twelve kingdoms, but was somehow swept away to Japan. What's more, Youko is the chosen one, the next queen of Kei, one of the twelve kingdoms. The man she met is actually a kirin, sort of like the guardian of Kei. Each kingdom has its own kirin and ruler. The kirin chooses the ruler and pledges his/her total loyalty and submission to the ruler. Keiki is Kei's kirin, and he has chosen Youko as the queen of Kei.

If you think terminologies like taika and kirin are confusing, prepare yourself for more of these when watching The Twelve Kingdoms. A very detailed government system exists within the kingdoms, and as Youko comes to accept her destiny as ruler, she is further plunged into the world of political intrigue, betrayal, and deception. Everything is clearly explained however, you just have to make sure you're in the right state of mind when watching -- meaning this is not an anime wherein you can let your mind float off elsewhere and still get it.

One of the things I liked best about The Twelve Kingdoms was the diverse cast of extremely well-developed characters. I was amazed at how the series managed to effectively tackle and expound multiple character-oriented subplots, tying them up neatly in the end. What kept me from giving The Twelve Kingdoms a perfect rating was the non-resolution of the Taiki arc. It was as if the subplot and characters just vanished into thin air after being painstakingly shown, and until now I can't help but feel that there's a vital chunk missing in the series.

The art and animation are pretty impressive. The picturesque settings are like a cross between ancient China and Japan. Character designs are beautiful and distinct, and every scene is packed in such a way that there is virtually nothing irrelevant -- the sheer amount and detail of the events that unfold make it seem as if an episode is longer than it actually is, but you don't get the feeling that it's dragging... except maybe for the first part when Youko is still in denial with regards to her destiny. In terms of the audio aspects, the English dubbing is done nicely and the musical scoring fits perfectly.

The Twelve Kingdoms is overall an excellent and engaging series, one that will keep you popping in disc after disc just to see what's going to happen next. Now if only they would give us some closure regarding the Taiki arc...