5/5 Refreshing and Beautiful
  by MoonSabre (Buffalo, The Other Side of NY State, USA)
This animated adaptation of Fuyumi Ono's light novel series of the same name is enchanting, provacative, and thoughtful. Though the novels are in their essences, records of the 12 Kingdoms, the anime focuses on the adventures of Yoko, the Japanese school girl who gets transported to the 12 Kingdoms and becomes the queen of the Kingom of Kei.

The first twenty five episodes that belong in this set are broken into three chapters or books. The first and the third arcs belong almost exclusively to Yoko. The second arc however, revolves around the story of the Kirin of Tai, Taiki. This still ties into Yoko's story as her own Kirin (a magical being that chooses the king of his or her country) Keiki, tells her Taiki's story in response to a question of her's. Instead of making the storytelling feel choppy or erratic, the three arcs expand on the world of the 12 Kingdoms and still mangage to smoothly bring the story back to Yoko.

Animation is especially good in the series. It depicts an ancient quasi-Chinese landscape with vivid colors and character designs. While it does have the typically crazy anime hair/eye color combination (plantinum hair and violet eyes), they are believable, and on some characters, quite beautiful. Also, of note, both male and female character designs are wonderfully normal. Yoko isn't buxom, nor does she have huge eyes. She is a natural beauty. Her handmaidens even point out that while her red hair and green eyes are normal occurances, their shades are rare. There are no bishounen here either; however there are a few handsome men, for instance, the King of En.

The music compliments the wonderful artstyle extremely well. The opening sequence sets the tone for the entire series and there are many cases when the music gives added depth to a scene. The English and Japanese vocal cast give excellent performances.

As this is the Premium Box, one might expect that it would show with the actual box itself. It does.The set up is much like the Lord of the Rings extended DVD releases. A sturdy box with a pull-out makes this an easy thing to display proudly. It has 5 fold outs with the cover art from the original DVD's on the inside. Luckly, it also comes with a beautiful little booklet as well that gives a glossary of terms and a fairly detailed map of the Twelve Kindoms.

The combination of the epic fantasy, animation, music, and acting has made this anime my favorite. Watching the main characters develop is utterly amazing. Yoko, for instance, only begins to show her potential, but then she loses her confidence around her ministers and falls back into her old habits. There are so many moments in the story that are profound that its impossible to ingore it. The great part is that this only the first half. I highly recommend this to anyone.

5/5 An impressive series, too bad it was never completed
  by Sebastian Fernandez (Tampa, Florida United States)
This anime is based on the first four of six novels by Fuyumi Ono. The plan was to have sixty-eight episodes covering these novels and then as more novels came out, expand on that. Sadly, the producers decided to end the series on episode 45; and it looks like it is not likely that they will go further. The author of the novels has also moved to other interests, so it is unlikely we will get more of those either. I am happy to say, that even with these problems, the forty-five episodes that we did get compose one of the best anime I have ever seen. The fact that there are four story arcs across these episodes, that contain a fairly separate tale, even though they are interrelated, help with this. When the episodes are over we are not left with a lot of unanswered questions. Though there are a few.

This tale starts when Youko Nakajima and her two high school friends, Yuka Sugimoto and Ikuya Asano, are transported to a fantastic world. The emissary that takes them there is Keiki, a tall lean man with long white hair, and who treats Youko as if she is his queen. Upon entering the new land, Youko experiences many surprising situations; for example, she receives a creature in her mind that allows her to wield a sword with ease and speak the language. But things are not easy, since many people in the 12 kingdoms think that what they call Kaikyaku, people that come from the "human world", are a bad omen.

The creative aspects of the series are magnificent, with esoteric creatures that have great skills for fighting and extremely cool looks. Also, the graphics are astounding, with proficient use of bright colors and crisp drawings. This definitely helps with immersing us in this fantastic setting. If you like to see great graphics in anime, you really need to see the myriad of creatures that show up in this series. As if this was not enough, I loved how the series blended the fantastic elements with the dramatic aspects of Youko figuring out what is going on and how her relationship with her parents and friends fit into the events. There is also a pretty good level of suspense and mystery!

This is the perfect anime for those people that like the genre and are also into fantasy. If you like stories that have a component of politics, you will enjoy immensely the way in which government works in the 12 kingdoms. I could not recommend this series more highly!

4/5 Great Show
  by Watanabe Poemi (New York United States)
This story really sucked me in - it's got action and drama and the sci-fi aspect is amazing. If you like sci-fi or asian folktales, I recommend it. The main story is about a high school girl who is quiet and unconfident and is forced to become emotionally and physically strong. There is a lack of romance in the story that I personally find refreshing. Some reviewers compare this to the story of Fushigi Yuugi (Mysterious Play), without the romance. I suppose that's a reasonable comparison due to the similar sci-fi background. This story is much more enoyable, though, with the absence of the desperate, shrill calls of a naive high school girl to her all-too-obliging, older love-interest. The only things I didn't like were the handful of irrational, crazy people that are over-the-top and annoying, and the fact that this story has no ending. I thought I'd find some peace of mind by reading the novels (by the way, the hardcover of novel 1 has been available in English since March 2007 and the author is Fuyumi Ono Twelve Kingdoms, The - Hardcover Edition Volume 1: Sea of Shadow), but I found that there is no ending to the novels either! Extremely frustrating, but that's how addicting this story is. There are 44 or 45 episodes in this series and they were not nearly enough! If you can stand the that kind of heartache, go for it, because it might just be worth it.

4/5 Interesting but ultimately leaves me feeling cold
  by Tallin (U.S.)
I'm not sure what I expected out of this anime. I give it four stars for the sheer quality of the work as a whole. Having just watched the
first season, I can say it will definitely keep you watching and some scenes are quite touching. The animation is phenomenal and the character design detailed.
The thing is, there is an almost complete absence of any kind of human relationships. Seriously. Forget the lack of any romance, there is in general a lack of family, friends or even enemies. People that are enemies to begin with, suddenly become friends with almost no understandable reason why. Other enemies just die after realizing they were 'wrong' with very little follow through as to what their motivations were.

Without going into spoilers, the main character becomes friends with a former enemy who at one point tries to kill her and leaves her for dead. Yet, because of a lame vision from a sword, they are close buddies. It felt contrived. The only other friendship explored is that between the main character and the rat/man. Even that is forced, and comes off feeling unnatural. There are no solid sibling relationships, no parent/ child bonds and most notably, no romantic attachments.

This is what makes the series frustrating for me. It is so cold. As good as some of the characters are, if they don't care about anyone else, they just don't have any impact. Why the animators/ storytellers chose to do this, I don't now. It didn't have to be Fushiigi Yuugi, with everyone in love with the main character, but even one romance would have livened things up considerably and the events would have had more emotional impact. Perhaps there is no romance because there is no sex. Literally. Children in this world are born from fruit trees and this idea is so ridiculous that I almost knocked my review to 3 stars because of it. Even Cardcaptor Sakura had some kind of reference to sex. And that was a show for kids!

I have read some parts of the novels and the reviews of them here and there. The anime is very faithful, but certain stories are left hanging in the anime. Like the whole arc about the black Kirin. Why did that get left unfinished? All the episodes devoted to that, and the books have the ending to it. But not the anime. The other thing to bear in mind if you're thinking of picking up the series is that it is not finished. 45 episodes and 6 or so are recap fillers. This takes the enjoyment down a peg. And the books are not finished either, so they will not continue the anime until that happens. The author has not written a new book in this series for 5 years. 'X1999' anyone? Don't get too into it, because in the end you will be a little frustrated at the lack of closure.

So, all in all, this is a good anime, but frustrating because it had the makings of a true masterpiece. Anime is supposed to be about the director translating the story his or her own way. Taking chances and maybe adding a few things here and there. It would have been nice if the political textbook could have been balanced out with a little humanity. And maybe some sort of ending. They have done that in many other animes and it works because it's only one person's interpretation of the events.
Before you sink serious money into this, try renting or buy just one disk first. After 5 or more episodes, you get the idea of what the whole story will be like. It's not for everyone.

5/5 An Excellent Anime Adventure
  by Charles
This is another great anime that I really enjoyed. I don't mind a anime being this long if it is very good. It had a lot of adventure in it and a little action, but it was stil a great show!

The only thing I did not like about this show was the ending. I don't think it ended right. It should have ended with the Queen of Kay finally being at rest in her new kingdom. I am wondering if there are more episodes after this, but you never know.

This show also dealt with some deep issues of pain, sadness, judgment, incrimadation, and much more. I learned a lot from this show and I could relate too. So Twelve Kingdoms is one of the best anime I seen!