Anyone else tried watching Twelve Kingdoms?

[Nightbow]

I found the Twelve Kingdoms animé thanks to one of my biggest interests; unicorns. I watched it and was super excited, finally getting to see an animé with unicorns and finding out how they are portrayed, maybe getting new outlooks on the myth.

I quickly found the heroine unlikeable, but I looked past that. Her friends where not any more interesting than her and a few episodes later, their existence seemed wholly unimportant to the plot. I had to learn names of different that I could not tell apart because their names where all made up of one syllable. And then the emergence of an antagonist whose motivations made no sense whatsoever. But I looked past all of those things.

Then came the big issue: The pacing. I watched the series only from time to time because it dragged badly. About eighty percent of the time I was bored out of my mind. Then things started to happen. A new character was introduced, a monster appeared, or I learned something about the fantasy universe -- only to have it go by so fast I could not grasp it. I have forgotten how many episodes in I got, and I have also forgotten what was going on. Well, that is, if anything was going on. I for one seem to have missed it.

I've contemplated giving it a fourth chance since I really want to see some unicorns, but I realized that I can not be immersed in a story set in a world that I can't understand no matter how hard I try and want to. Therefore I went onto some boards to see what others had previously said about it, and they seem to agree that it is boring in the beginning. but becomes amazing later, after twenty(!) or so episodes. This seems to be because the series was based on books and "anything that is worth watching takes time to build up".They also mention the weak beginning and the non-ending as the shows biggest flaws, but: "It could've gone on for hundreds, hundreds of episodes and barely scratched the surface of the depth of the world".

So seriously; it has bad characters (that apparently develop over time if you are just intelligent enough to appreciate that an animé is paced like a fantasy novel), I don't get the world despite wanting to, the beginning is boring and the ending, although "amazing", is not an ending. What is supposed to keep me then? In my opinion this is why you need to adapt a story to fit its medium. I'm thinking about just reading a synopsis of the episodes and look for the parts that have unicorns in them. But I guess I'm also scared that once the series is spoiled for me, I will regret it. But the funny thing is I probably still won't understand what is going on.

Have you watched or tried to watch Twelve Kingdoms, or did you have trouble getting into another series?

[pyrodarknessanny]

i remember catching a few odd episodes here and there
could never really get into it tho.
i found it  confusing and  difficult to work out what was going on

[Taffeta]

I watched the first arc of Juunikokki some years ago. It's still sitting on my shelf waiting for such a time as I feel inspired to watch it. A lot of people recommend it, but like you, I found it hard to connect with. In comparison to other anime I know that are based on books (Saiunkoku Monogatari springs to the forefront of my mind as one of the best and most intelligently constructed anime from novels I know of), it moves slowly and it's really hard to connect to the heroine or any of the characters. That's a key thing for me with anything I read or watch - so I tend to agree with you.

It's not because it comes from novels, though. If the novels are any good, probably it just means the adaptation is badly paced. Also, if the anime could have gone on ages without scratching the surface of the world depth, it was a bad choice for an anime adaptation, as rendering all of that information into animated form was going to slow down the pacing anyway - and if you need that information to understand the plot, you're going to get bored waiting for it to kick on.

Saiunkoku also has major omissions from the novels, but the basic flow of the plot and such isn't compromised because the adaptation was done properly with good attention to what needed to be there and what was interesting but would slow down the flow. While some of my favourite Saiunkoku scenes and character expositions only happen in the novels, I can see how putting them in the anme would've created problems. In terms of adaptations from novels, its not an excuse to say it came from novels so will move slowly. On the contrary, a lot of very decent anime come from novels.

I discovered a long time back that just because a theme you like may appear in an anime, it doesn't mean the anime is any good to watch :-/.

[kaoskat]

Never seen it or even really heard of it. I'm sorry you couldn't get into it even with unicorns.

[Nightbow]

I discovered a long time back that just because a theme you like may appear in an anime, it doesn't mean the anime is any good to watch :-/.

Yeah, such a bummer.

I realize I got log-winded there. I guess I was offended by the implication that I wouldn't be intelligent enough to appreciate the series. On the other hand I read that there was an edition that came with pamphlets so you could keep track of all the info. Laughable, really.

I found a site with synopsis of every episode. I think I'm going to read them when I feel like it.

[Lore-Lei]

The 'but it gets better later' is a weak excuse that doesn't even work most of the time. A story got to be strong and hooking in the beginning to hold one's attention.
My fanfic got the same issue actually, many people said that they haven't read further than the third chapter (one ninth of the whole thing) because I could not give them a good reason to care.

Never heard of the anime by the way.

[Nightbow]

My fanfic got the same issue actually, many people said that they haven't read further than the third chapter (one ninth of the whole thing) because I could not give them a good reason to care.

That sucks, but at least you've got some feedback on what parts you need to improve. Maybe moveíng an important plot point forward could help? I recommend reading up on how to start a novel (Writer's Digest has some nice articles). Also, the NaNoWriMo forums are great for plot doctoring.

Forgive me, totally off topic now.

[Galactica]

Hmm, I may check it out.  I had heard that it was like Fushigi Yuugi which also started slow but which I really grew to love ferociously.  I do think that everyone has different tastes though- my wife and I have absolutely and completely divergent tastes in terms of books and crap TV, so I think it's perfectly reasonable to hate something other people like.

[Tigerlilyx]

I watched it many years ago (i think a decade) and I love it!  It's really underrated. And yes it's really draggy lol!

[melodys_angel]

Nope, and from your description of it, I wont be touching it.

I usually give an anime 1-2 episodes. Ill drop it like a hot rock if I don't like it, im bored, something is thre that annoys or angers me, or it just doesnt click.

If you want to watch unicorns and have that be the center of everything, there are better shows then that im sure.