Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Turtlet1me
Juuni Kokuki is one of the most unique anime I’ve seen, and that is saying a lot for an avid anime fan who has seen many different shows over the years. This show introduces many impressive concepts, and the character development is some of the best I have seen in anime.
The characters in Juuni Kokuki can appear irrational and unpredictable at times, and simple and predictable at others. However, despite this apparent contradiction, you will find yourself loving the show and the way that everything ends up. I only wish that there were more episodes.
Isekai is a fun genre with a lot of potential. But instead of making the same old types of isekai over and over again, I’d love to see some newer isekai take Juuni Kokuki as an example and follow its lead. Juuni Kokuki had its own unique styl…
Read at the sourceboredweeb_012
why I hated this series:
-3 recap episodes -- with the final episode itself being a recap episode...
- unresolved side story
-inconclusive end
-moronic annoyingly stupid characters
- very cliche plot -- I'm sick of watching dumbos gaining common decency to be rulers
- the entire story could've been told in 4 episodes or so. the pacing was off
- Keiki was annoying to watch and they seemed really useless
- Rakushun and Enki were interesting but they didn't get enough screen time to save the show - the show doesn't tell anything original
-MC is by far one of the worst losers of all time. Annoyingly dumb, does nothing but complain and be a pathetic loser. It takes her 45 episodes to put together one sentence, and by that time it doesn't even feel like progress anymore
overall: 3/10 Honestly…
Read at the sourceRecynon
(Twelve Kingdoms as a story is best consumed by reading the first novel (found freely in English on Eugene Woodbury's blog) instead of watching the first arc of the anime and then watching the third arc of the anime. I will be talking about this story, not the pure anime story.)
To explain why this series is a masterpiece would take a 20 page paper as well as the right viewer. For most people, this series falls between a 6 and an 8. For those asking the right questions and willing to do intense personal reflection, it's life changing. That's because if you look at it as a plain isekai story, you're not going to be very impressed. But rest assured, it has things to say. It just doesn't look deep because it doesn't have confusing symbolism, flashy directing, or allusions to dense philosophi…
Read at the sourceJohan_Liebert_
Do you know how to spell disappointment? T-w-e-l-v-e K-i-n-g-d-o-m-s; this is how to do it. The anime started off pretty good actually introducing the characters and the world to us, but, alas that lasted for 3-4 episodes. It goes downhill really quickly.
Plot - 4/10
Our protagonist, Youka, along with her two friends, Sugimoto and Asano, is taken to another world by a man named Keiki. At first the anime pretends that it has some grand story planned out for our characters, but it was just a "Oh I brought you to this world because you're destined to be king" kind of story. The pacing is all over the place and characters do a 180 degree personality change in seconds.
Most of the time someone's "secret" identity is uncovered not by actively trying to do it but because they just happened to…
Read at the sourceGrayRealm
This anime has been sitting on my "I need to finish watching it" list for at least several years, and I finially watched the last episode today.
This is... a high quality anime with loads of troubles, and huge number of flaws. It has amazing music and visuals, good world building, BUT it also has character and has plenty of flashbacks. The problem with character is... while this anime features very little on-screen gore, it also has incredibly high number of characters killed off, significant amount of abuse, and large number of completely deranged "over the top" villainous character. I think the only other animes where I saw this kind of crazy villains were narutaru and maybe Elfen Lied. And that says something.
The whole thing is split into several arcs (4 of them), which has varying q…
Read at the sourcePrezzix
This is my first review btw!
This anime... Where to begin even.
So the first episode, I wished for the main character to die. She was so fucking whiny and like OH NO, I CAN'T DO THAT, EVEN IF I DIE WHEN I DON'T DO IT, I STILL CAN'T DO THAT.
I was going to give up on this anime, but I read in reviews that she was going to get better, so I trusted them and continued watching. And as the anime goes on, it gets better.
I am so amazed someone could think of something this wonderful, to be honest. Everything gets explained to you.
I guess the only downside is, that sometimes, the story was a bit hard to follow, since I am forgetful, and forget a few terms. Like when they were talking about Koukai, I was like... Koukai? What is a Koukai? Riboku? What is a Riboku again... Stuff like that ya kno…
Read at the sourceNervin
Teenagers being send to a fantastical, foreign world is a concept that has been vastly explored in both the manga and anime, often playing out in a very similar manner in which protagonists dominate the scene through sheer overpowering of the characters themselves. In numerous cases this results in a boring and typical narrative, which isn't bad on its own. Although Juuni Kokuki, or its english title "The Twelve Kingdoms", is not innovative setting-wise, it has in fact more to offer in terms of characterization as well as story, which are enriched with the lore and the presented world. However, there are some issues with the anime, being the somewhat undesirable transitions from one story to another, alongside some exaggerated facets of the cast its main issues.
~Story~
The story of Juun…
Read at the sourceLouiseValierre
I started watching this anime because I was very curious in Historical anime since there are a lot of amazing historical manga. When I started this anime the story was okay, the main character, Yoko's story was interesting but then after her story came to an end, more like after she achieved her goal, another character's story came out of nowhere. The other character's story was interesting but it just didn't connect. After that came more stories of another characters which Yoko wasn't really involved with except for Asano. And that I didn't like. They focused more to the other characters and the details of the whole world (which is okay but it was too much that the MC ended up not developing) than the MC. Story (3/10)
The characters' personality.. well they were okay I guess. The only o…
Read at the sourceFear_the_Reefer
Yoko Nakajima is a timid, proper high school student with a lot of expectations on her plate. In her home life, her parents are strict, with nothing but the highest standards for her. Her school life is even worse, as she’s the class president, with teachers breathing down her neck and an entire class room looking up to her with equal parts pride and scrutiny. One day, a tall, mysterious stranger appears right in the middle of class, and kneels before her, proclaiming her to be his queen! Before she can explain this to her bewildered homeroom, a demon attacks, and chases the two of them to the school roof, where Yoko... Along with two of her supposed friends... are ripped from the world they know, and transported to a parallel world known as The Twelve Kingdoms!
Now, with a darker complex…
Read at the sourceTia22
i enjoyed the first story and first arc of Twelve Kingdoms. Everything else after that went down hill.
The art is good as well as the sound in my opinion. However, the story is always the most important aspect of any anime i watch, and the story or should we say stories in Twelve Kingdoms, annoyed me a lot, and to no end. There were too many pointless diversions, and characters introduced that the viewer can just not care about no matter how much they are forced on us.
What annoyed me most was that the writer obviously overstretched the amount of trouble that Youko has to withstand as queen, to a point where it is no longer reasonable, and you just wish she will sit on the stupid throne with confidence, and simply know what to do with common sense, instead of wasting our lives finding o…
Read at the sourcekubagami
I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully express how unique and inspiring this anime is.
12 Kingdoms starts out in a very cliche way. School girl ends up in another dimension, special powers, nothing I haven't seen before. What truly make this anime stand out is how much the characters grow and develop. All the characters you meet in the first episode completely transform into someone else by the time the anime is over. Some change for the better, some for worse. This makes the show very relateable. It's really all about growing up. Facing overwhelming obstacles in your life and dealing with them. At the same time you're introduced to very imaginative creatures and interest characters and culture. They managed to build a world that feels like it lives on whether you are watching it or n…
Read at the source_Rika
The Twelve Kingdoms is a series of light novels by Fuyumi Ono (Ghost Hunt, Shiki). It began publishing in 1992 with the final volume releasing in 2001, totalling to 11 volumes. Later in 2002, it received an anime adaptation that spanned 45 episodes.
The anime begins with a timid high school girl named Yoko Nakajima who along with her friends is dragged into an alternate world that is poles apart from the one she is familiar with. Although the idea of a naïve, clueless protagonist being transported into another world is nothing innovative and rather typical, The Twelve Kingdoms takes this very idea and turns it into a captivating story that quickly drew me in. Slightly reminiscent of prehistoric China, the world of the Twelve Kingdoms is a fascinating one. Here monarchy prevails; each kin…
Read at the sourcekekekeKaj
Ambitious and epic, this is one anime that doesn't shy away from grandeur. Set in a richly designed land that resembles ancient China (but with significant differences), it brings together elements of fantasy and politics on a mind blowing scale. I hear that this kind of settings is quite an over used one, but it's the first of this kind that I've come across. And even if the premises is over used, an anime of such caliber as "12 Kingdoms" is surely one of the standard bearers of the genre.
First of all, let me just say that the design of the world that the story take place in is simply amazing. The society, the emperors and their kirin etc give birth to many imaginative concepts. Not all of it is good though, for example I'm not too keen on the emperor selection process. I thought the wh…
Read at the sourceMagEarwhig
Story:
The first time I read the plot synopsis it seemed pretty underwhelming but once I gave it a try I was surprised how amazing the story was, the world of the Twelve Kingdoms was just so interesting and detailed that you can’t help yourself and just be engrossed with it. One small thing I liked how people didn’t speak the same language in the other world as the main characters seeing as most shows don’t care about such small details and even integrating it to the main story, I liked the fact that they put some thought into stuff like that.
The story had immense potential to be something quite epic but the anime was cut-short (which I’m still quite upset about to this day), and therefore it's hard for me to give the story a perfect score since the story does not have some sort of concl…
Read at the sourceoutlaw98
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 char…
Read at the sourceYourMessageHere
Juuni Kokuki
If an anime is cancelled before it finishes, can you still hold its lack of completeness against it? This is a question that I am groping for an answer for. The thing is, I can see a huge spread of problems with Juuni Kokuki but I can also see some real plus points too. For a series in which a character says “half of life is hardship, the other half happiness”, it certainly lives by its word.
An oft-repeated phrase when you look at any halfway decent review of this series is ‘character development’, and to a certain extent this is true. The extent to which the characters change across the series, and the difference between them when they enter and when they leave the story, is in truth fairly striking compared to most other anime. However it seems a l…
Read at the sourceTheDeadServ
SADLY UNDERRATED
One of the finest anime's I've ever seen. DON'T BE FOOLED by the apparently average/low quality animations and art. In time you'll realize that what draws you to this anime is not that, but rather the story that it tells, like every other anime should be!
The story has an UNPREDICTABLE AND AMAZING DEVELOPMENT. There's no guessing what'll happen next, and it always surprises you leaving you yearning for more.
The characters are amazing. The main character alone develops in ways I've never seen a single character in anime do before. Starting off as a shy character, it develops in ways that, at times makes you sad, other times makes you happy, other times makes you proud. Very good. The rest of the characters too develop their personalities with time and there's nothing bet…
Read at the sourcePeachPieWaffle
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 K…
Read at the sourceWashi
I decided to start watching the anime The Twelve Kingdoms more out of convenience than genuine enthusiasm - the character designs and the general look of the show lulled me into dismissing it as a generic fantasy anime - an uncharming mix of demon-slaying and silliness (like the terminally unwatchable Orphen). But I was proved wrong, as the show quickly enthralled me, with a beginning that may not have promised a sophisticated story, but which was loaded with hooks to capture its audience: immediately interesting characterisation, a sense of urgency and bewildered excitement, and some original fantasy ideas and elements. Firmly hooked, I embarked on a story that proved to be rapidly expansive, emotionally gripping, and unrelentingly interesting. Not only was I affected by the gritty profun…
Read at the sourceStormy_77
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…
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