Twelve Kingdoms Vol. #05: Forgotten

By Chris Beveridge     March 30, 2004
Release Date: March 30, 2004



What They Say
A new ruler is to be named and the decision rests with Taiki. Many have come in hope that the Heavens will bestow upon one the grand title, Ruler of Tai. Of all the people Taiki encounters, none seem to invoke any sign from the Heavens.

When Taiki meets Tai's General Gyousou, never has Taiki felt such an immense presence before, and never has he felt such fear. There is no question that Gyousou and Taiki were destined to meet!

The Review!
Bringing the second arc to a close and then fleshing out the world even more, this installment of Twelve Kingdoms is a rush of greatness and frustration.

Audio:
For our primary viewing session, we listened to this show in its original language of Japanese. The series has a very good stereo mix that lets the varying amounts of directionality flow nicely across the forward soundstage. Dialogue is clear and distortion free and we had no issues with dropouts. We listened briefly to the English track and had no issues during the areas we checked there.

Video:
Originally starting its broadcast run in early 2002, Twelve Kingdoms has a very good-looking transfer here with very fresh materials. The main areas where things don?t look as good as one would hope is the opening sequence where there?s a bit of cross coloration pixilation going on. Once in the show proper, colors are excellent, with the vibrant areas such as the green eyes or the color of skin coming across in great layers. A lot of the backgrounds and look of the worlds is done in somewhat drab colors, going for the realism look (especially when you have everyone without colored hair). Aliasing is very minimal with only a few areas showing some during panning sequences.

Packaging:
Using the same style as previous volumes, the artwork for this continues to look amazing. This cover provides the backdrop of Mt. Hou again with Taiki and Gyousou in traditional clothing with nature all around them. The detail and style is fantastic and makes me really want a detailed manga version of the series. The series logo is nicely done along the bottom with the subtitle of the opening arc storyline. The top of the border gets the volume/chapter listing. The character art inside is just fantastic. The back cover provides two stripes of shots from the show blended together really well, giving a nice feel to the flow of things. The summary is pretty brief and gives the basic premise of things. The discs special features are clearly listed but can be confusing. Most of what?s listed on the back is actually in the insert. The insert takes the front cover from the fourth volume for some strange reason instead of this volume and essentially switches the wording from the top to bottom. The insert opens up to provide a translated map of the world ad a focus on the areas we visit on this volume. There?s a brief encyclopedia section that covers various terminology and their meanings. It?s all rounded out by the Youma entry on the Toutetsu from these episodes. The back of the insert provides the chapter listings for the episodes.

Menu:
The menu layout is nicely done here with the front cover background used here as the background but swaying like water, since the static image over it is the non-text version of the world map while some of the nice instrumental music plays along. Movement is decent across the menu as each of the sections provides a selection, all of them invisible until you move over it. Access times are nice and fast and submenus load quickly.

Extras:
The only extra included on this release is a roughly four minute video interview with the series director as he talks about the characters and designs for them and how they had to make it workable from the more detailed images from the novel as well as other interesting little tidbits.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Taiki's story concludes with the first two episodes on this volume as we recap briefly over what we've learned of him so far before moving onto the new revelations from the Nyosen to Youko and Keiki during their own visit to Mt. Hou.

Taiki's continuing to spend a lot of time with Gyousou during the time when everyone has come to Mt. Hou in chance of being the one that he'll have a revelation with and choose as the new ruler of Tai. While he hasn't had the revelation and he's not had anything otherwise strange, he's intrigued by this particular man and continues to do things with him. In one surprising move, the Nyosen allow Gyousou to take Taiki on something of a little trek and hunting expedition with Risai. This gives Taiki the chance to really get out and stretch a bit and be more of himself and to get to know this person that he just seems to be more relaxed with. With only the three of them, they descend into a cave where there's something strange emanating from that almost seems to compel them to investigate.

While Taiki has faced challenges before, some under the guidance of Keiki, his experience under the mountains where the trio encounters one of the rarest of Youma, a Toutetsu, which is seemingly like a giant spider of some sort, brings him to a new level of self confidence and mental mastery since it forces him to accept a situation and to actually deal with it himself since those he had thought could do anything are unable to do so. This works some changes in his own thinking as he goes along, though he's still very dependent on the attention and company of Gyousou. So much so that when he learns that Gyousou and everyone else is getting ready to head back to the Gate so that they can return home before the autumn season really arrives, he convinces himself to lie and pledge his loyalty to Gyousou so that he'll stay with him on Mt. Hou while undergoing the first stages of becoming the new king of Tai.

While we get to see much of the final phase of Taiki's life here and where those elements then lead to, we also jump back and forth to his time in Japan as well. While we've learned some about him, most from his younger brother via Sugimoto's inquiries, the one thing he's held back is that there's something not right that's been going on since his return. Over the course of the years since his return from wherever he was, those who try to do wrong to him in any way are often found having accidents or getting in trouble. As the wrong increases, such as bullying and more, the perpetrator often finds themselves being severely wounded or even killed. Some force continues to protect him in this world, but there seems to be much more to it as he doesn't seem to remember something terribly important to him that he feels he must uphold. The mystery of his return to Japan is left just as that, something that may be explored later.

This provides one of the most frustrating aspects of this release in that we're given so many details and intriguing places to go and then it simply ends with that. A recap episode after it brings the entire Sea of the Wind arc together, though it does a nice job of fleshing things out a bit and making the bigger picture clearer, it still makes you rail against it since you just had such a great set of episodes. Of course, these recaps aired between the arcs to help the viewers catch up on the show as it progressed and before the new arcs kicked off, so I don't begrudge them like some other series, but with this particular arc ending on a mystery it feels more frustrating than normal.

The final episode on the disc is a curious one in that it's something of an overall series recap in that it brings Youko to the fore again and goes over her arrival in the world and what changes she wrought in the kingdom of Kei. But in doing this recap, as told by the Enki, we travel around the Twelve Kingdoms and visit upon each of them and learn a little bit more about them. Though if we haven't met the Kirin and Queen/King of that Kingdom yet, their image is kept shadowed and much of their lands a mystery. It's an interesting episode in that it does show much more of what's to come and it's all very enticing.

In Summary:
But therein lies the rub at this point. Are the novels setting up for a larger story to take place and all of this is preamble to familiarize us with the world we're entering, or is it a series of interlocking connected short stories that build up a beautiful and interesting land. The anime seems to be moving towards the larger story, but with the novels unfinished and the anime series itself on hiatus or simply over with at this time in Japan, it's hard to say what this show really has in store for us. We're now halfway through what's been aired in Japan so there's plenty of great material left to go through, but I fear disappointment coming once we get to the end.

Features
Japanese Language,English Language,English Subtitles,Staff Interview

Review Equipment
Panasonic PT50LC13 50" LCD RP HDTV, Panasonic RP-82 Progressive Scan codefree DVD player, Sony STR-DE835 DD/DTS receiver, Monster component cable and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.