The Twelve Kingdoms

""I swear never to desert my post before your throne, I swear never to disobey your orders.""

The Twelve Kingdoms (十二国記, Jūni Kokuki, also known as "Record of 12 Countries" or "Jūni Kokki") is a 2002 anime series based on an ongoing light novel series, set in a massive other world with a detailed and enthralling plot. The series begins following Youko Nakajima, an ordinary Class Representative who is dragged into this world kicking and screaming by a golden-haired man who swears loyalty to her. After being given a Hinman (a creature that possesses her and gives her amazing combat skills) and a magic sword, she is left alone in this world to fend for herself. Fighting her way past hordes of youma—powerful monsters who seem to be following her—and a corrupted king who wants her dead before she can fulfill her destiny, Youko discovers why she was brought to this world and comes to accept her responsibilities.

At first it bears a resemblance to Fushigi Yuugi. It has similar premise tropes (notably Ordinary High School Student, The Chosen One, and Trapped in Another World) but with a different storyline and no romantic elements (aside from some healthy Shipping). The world may be outlandish and magical but the people have a striking realism to them; very little of it is forced. The series, and even more so the books, is arguably rather more about psychology and politics than action.

The story is broken into Story Arcs, based on novels and short stories by Fuyumi Ono. The first thirteen episodes deal with Youko's arrival in the kingdoms, with episode 11 featuring Enki's backstory from another novel. Episode 14 is largely recap, arguably useful in this case. Episodes 15-20 are a compression of 1.5 other novels—Taiki's coming to the kingdoms, and a mangled version of Demon Child, Taiki as an amnesiac in Japan. Then comes a short story episode and sixteen episodes for the second Youko novel, followed by another short story episode. Four more episodes squeeze in the rest of the En novel followed by yet another recap—of those four episodes. The anime has frozen there, though there's one more Youko & Taiki-centric novel and a Kyou novel.

Youko and her friend Rakushun are used as narrative frames, excuses to tell stories from books they had nothing to do with. The series mixes or even makes up characters in dramatic or foreshadowing ways, but sticks pretty closely to the novels where it matters.

Not to be confused with The Tenth Kingdom. And not The Three Kingdoms or its forgotten sequel Sixteen Kingdoms. And definitely not The Kingdom. And naturally not the Seven Kingdoms.

Has a character page, please put related tropes there.


 * Aborted Arc: The story of Taiki just cuts out in both the anime and the light novels, albeit at different points.
 * Adaptation Expansion: Asano and Yuka were anime-only characters, added to the story to help externalize Youko's struggles. (Yuka did exist in the novels, but was just a minor character; she was Youko's classmate, and never managed to get in the Twelve Kingdoms with her.)
 * Adaptation-Induced Plothole: Why on earth would Youko leave Yuka (who doesn't speak the local language) completely alone on arriving in En?
 * Alien Sky: In the Twelve Kingdoms, the sea is in the sky. Quoth Enki, "well, where else would rain come from?" Which might be a sensible conclusion given the setting, but Enki is from Earth and visits it casually, even in modern times. Maybe he didn't pick up on science along with the blue jeans and democracy, or else was yanking her chain.
 * America Saves the Day: Inverted America actually causes problems for characters in this series. One old man found himself in Kuo just a few weeks short of the US ending the war against Japan by nuking his hometown. Upon hearing this news, he loses it and sells out the heroes to the local authorities.
 * Ancient Tradition
 * Anyone Can Die
 * Audible Sharpness
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: Kirin are creatures of mercy and are all, without exception, beautiful. With ordinary humans, on the other hand, all bets are off.
 * One of the Nyosen (who have watched over Kirin and their selection of rulers for centuries) once mentions that she's yet to see an ugly ruler - and Kirin always select good people as rulers. (How long they STAY good is another matter...) So, for human rulers, it seems that Goodness Equals Beauty, at least.
 * Because Destiny Says So: The ruler of each kingdom is chosen by the kirin, who receives a revelation from the Heavens regarding who to choose.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Shouryuu's people show up with bows and arrows to save his life in his final battle in feudal Japan.
 * Big Fancy House: The royal palaces of the kingdoms are impressive. They're built over their own mountains and have thousands of staff members. But to be fair, they are thousands of years old and were built with the approval and possible indirect aid of the gods themselves.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology, and specifically Bizarre Alien Reproduction: The citizens of the Twelve Kingdoms look and act just like normal humans. But babies grow in eggs on special trees. And yet there are brothels, so they do have sex but apparently it's just for fun.
 * It doesn't end there: Sometimes still-growing egg-fruit accidentally fall from their branches and into shoku (storm-induced portals to the real world), where they are "somehow" transported into the wombs of pregnant women.
 * In the novels, Rakushun comments on Hourai's Bizarre Alien Biology. He finds being born from a womb bizarre, and children resembling their parents to be creepy.
 * Blade Reflection: Youko's magic sword shows her prophetic (and sometimes misleading) visions when she looks into the blade.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Nearly every character gets to have a crack at this trope after their Character Development, most notably Youko, Taiki, Suzu, and Shoukei.
 * Call a Rabbit a Smeerp
 * Changeling Fantasy
 * Character Development: Brilliantly done for most of the main characters; Youko, Suzu, and Shoukei in particular.
 * The Chooser of the One: The kirin.
 * Crapsack World / World Half Full: Kingdoms with virtuous rulers are peaceful and naturally prosperous. Kingdoms without virtuous rulers (or a ruler at all) are overrun by man-eating monsters and beset by unnatural storms, plagues, and other various calamities. This essentially makes democracy physically impossible according to the laws of the universe. On top of that, the laws of Heaven mandate that the state ultimately owns all property, and due to a lack of fossil fuels the Industrial Revolution can never happen, such that goods like cotton and jars are rare and valuable commodities. In short, the world of the Twelve Kingdoms is one big Glorious Mother Russia China. Nonetheless, while there's still prejudice, still people willing to sell others into slavery, and still bandits and criminals, it is implied that continuing human virtue can make the world of the Kingdoms quite a nice place to live.
 * This can also be applied to the life in Hourai itself, which is portrayed as a dark place full of gossipers and hypocrites, and no matter if you are a nice person, everyone always will think the worst of you, even your friends and parents.
 * Demonic Invaders: The youma. When a kingdom starts going downhill, youma begin to spawn to terrorize the countryside.
 * Diagonal Cut
 * Dramatic Wind
 * Fantastic Racism: The king of Kou hates Kaikyaku (people displaced from our world) and spreads rumours in his kingdom that they cause the destructive Shoku, so that his people will feel the same way.
 * Fisher King: The ruler of each kingdom is directly responsible for the state of the land. If they rule well and mercifully, the land flourishes. If they oppress the people or rule generally poorly, crops fail and the land is overrun with youma.
 * Foil: Kirin and the rulers they select tend to be opposite in certain aspects, usually either sex or apparent age. As a result, some of their more extreme characteristics tend to balance out in their rulership.
 * Genre Deconstruction: The first arc basically destroys Trapped in Another World story conventions by showing what a shy, insecure teenager dropped into a medieval fantasy war zone would really act like.
 * Guardian Entity: Shirei, youma bound under contract to a kirin. They act as bodyguards and spies, and in return for their service, they are allowed to eat the kirin upon his or her death.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: The hanjyuu, sort of. Given how creatures are actually born in the Kingdoms, this equates more into a case of Animorphism, than anything else -- 's nonhuman form, for instance, is simply a capable of walking on two legs.
 * Human Outside, Alien Inside: The natives are apparently indistinguishable from Earth humans, but instead of reproducing "normally" they are born out of large fruit that grow on special trees. They can have sex, but it looks like it's for fun and not for reproduction.
 * Hair of Gold: All kirin, with few exceptions, are born with golden (not blond, golden) hair to further amp up their Incorruptible Pure Pureness. They are the only beings in the Kingdoms to have this coloring. Their hair tends to be called their "mane", and will not hold dye, so a unique physiology is implied.
 * Horse of a Different Color: Kijyuu, wild beasts that often have the ability to fly, and when trained, become completely loyal. They have a variety of Mix and Match Critter traits, especially those of big cats, horses, and deer.
 * Hybrid Monster: Nyokai. Both nanny and bodyguard to their kirin, and, the more beast parts they are born with, the luckier they are considered. The results can be...interesting. An example is Sanshi, who has the tail of a lizard, the lower body of a leopard, the torso and face of a human woman, and the neck and eyes of a fish.
 * Immortal Immaturity: Most sen-nin - that is, people who are on the Register of the Immortals - tend act the age they look like. Very obvious in the case of Shoukei, who is 46 years old, but acts like a spoiled preteen at first. Both she and Suzu (who is over 100) talk about meeting Youko, a girl of "their age". All have the apparent physical age of about 16.
 * Imperial China: The setting of the series. Well, close enough.
 * Kneel Before Frodo:
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Though only a handful are plot-vital at any given point, there are always a lot of side-characters around, and matters are made confusing by the fact that almost everyone has two or three names plus a title or nickname.
 * Left Hanging: The series was supposed to be much longer, but abruptly cuts off about twenty episodes before the projected endpoint. A popular fan-rumor is that they were waiting for more books to be published, but nothing is confirmed.
 * Magic Pants: Averted! Whenever the Kirin take on non-human forms, they're in the buff until they can find something to cover themselves upon changing back. Ditto for hanjyuu like Rakushun. Strangely, they don't leave the clothes behind, either, so anything they're wearing seems to just disappear.
 * The Man Behind the Man: Gahou behind Shoukou, and.
 * Meaningful Name: Nearly all names in the series have some meaning. Kirin that are especially beloved by their ruler are often given a special name.
 * Medieval Stasis: All of the kingdoms seem to be locked at the tech level of Imperial China, or at least pre-industrial China; printing (and Buddhism) is mentioned as an import from our world, and the books have a reference to a lack of fossil fuels. (Though the Tokyopop book translations (which has problems) reference kerosene.)
 * No Time to Explain: Said by Keiki in his first appearance. Considering what happened to the classroom right after, he may have been right... though if he'd managed to blurt out one more sentence, the plot could have been very different.
 * Only Six Faces: An early plot point is that Youko looks "so different" in the Kingdoms...except she doesn't look widly different.
 * Ordinary High School Student: Youko, Yuka, Asano, Taiki... the list goes on.
 * Off with His Head: The only way to kill a sennin. Brutally (but off-screen, mostly) proved by, when he kills
 * Pietà Plagiarism: Youko is seen cradling 's lifeless body in her arms.
 * Pose of Supplication: Kirin are only able to bow to their rulers. Their physical inability to bow to anyone else was a plot point in Taiki's first arc, where he was extremely insecure and constantly worried about either bowing in front of the wrong person or not being able to bow in front of someone who deserved it.
 * A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Youko, and many other Emperors and Empresses in the world. All Emperors are chosen by the kirin, and in years when there is no ruler or a bad ruler the kingdom is ravaged by demons and natural disasters, so nearly any Emperor brushes this trope at least once.
 * Psycho Sidekick: Kirin are creatures that abhor violence, and become physically ill when exposed to blood or bad karma. Their shirei, or demon servants, are a lot less pacifist, and protect their masters from those who would do them harm.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: A large portion of the cast are never-aging immortals.
 * Recap Episode: Every arc, though it is at least usually accompanied by a framing story.
 * Scenery Porn: With some actual scenery, but mostly of the big-fancy-castle variety. Lots of tapestries and murals.
 * She Is the King: In Japanese, the word translated as 'king' is gender-neutral, like 'monarch'; thus in some translations, the ruler of a nation is referred to as the king regardless of gender.
 * Silence, You Fool: Youko,
 * Single-Stroke Battle
 * Sitting on the Roof: Youko and Keiki meet when they're in Youko's classroom, but then they have to go to the roof when they're under attack. Yuka and her boyfriend Asano were on the rooftop already, and then...
 * Sketchy Successor: Defied as the next king is not necessarilly the son/daughter of the previous king, but rather has to be chosen by the Kirin each time the previous one dies, as the fact that they are given nigh-immortality when they become kings/queens means that the king will live forever as long as they don't screw things up, so usually they don't have to worry about who'll be the successor for a few centuries. However this part isn't always true. Youko's predecessor only ruled for about six years, in comparison En-Ou has ruled for more than 500 years.
 * Story Arc
 * Stock Sound Effects
 * Stupid Good: All kirin are explicitly Stupid Good by nature, as supernatural beings of mercy and compassion. One of the primary challenges faced by every ruler in the Twelve Kingdoms is learning when to listen to their kirin and when to ignore them.
 * Supernatural Elite: The elites are immortal, can speak any language, and the kings and queens are so strong that killing demons is child's play to them.
 * Talking Animal: Hanjyuu, who are Shapeshifters as well. They are subject to Fantastic Racism in most of the kingdoms.
 * The Chains of Commanding / Royals Who Actually Do Something: Being directly responsible for the welfare of an entire nation would make you stressed too.
 * To Win Without Fighting:.
 * Translation Convention: Most of the series takes place in the Twelve Kingdoms, which speaks a completely different language from Japan. As a sen-nin, Youko has a magical auto-translate for herself, but normal kaikyaku who get accidentally swept over are out of luck.
 * Being in a world based on Chinese mythology, they write hanzi. Youko is not completely illiterate because kanji is one of her best subjects (including the pre-spelling-reform versions that are very similar to hanzi), but has quite a hard time reading the complicated treatises on ruling philosophy that she is given to study and usually has to ask Keiki to read them to her.
 * Translator Microbes: Becoming a minor god/immortal sen-nin allows one to understand any language; even that of animals. Hinman also serve this purpose in the anime.
 * There seem to be different levels of microbes, as well—Suzu, a kaikyaku, cannot speak the language until she's taken in by one of the sen-nin. As a low level immortal, can only understand the gist of what animals say, but she can understand the mumbling of a child with brain damage, which regular mortals cannot do.
 * Unicorn: The magical Kirin.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: The kirin have incredible powers, but they are deadly poisoned by blood, to the point where even the scent can incapacitate them, and continued contact can kill them. Their status as creatures of pure goodness, kindness, and mercy is also specifically played up as a major weakness; it means they are inherently Stupid Good, even when they know better. At one point,
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?: It is stated in the books that most rulers fall around the time when they (and all the friends and family members they left behind when they took the throne) would have died of old age, as most are incapable of coping with the strain and loneliness.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: A major theme. Especially the former rulers of Hou, Kou, and Kei.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: The plot involving Taiki and Gyousou's disappearance from Tai was never explained or resolved in the anime. Granted, it also still hasn't been resolved in the novels, but
 * You Can't Go Home Again: Throughout the first arc, Youko is looking for a way to return to Japan.
 * It's not actually difficult to travel between the worlds, . However, in practice this is impossible because as  explains,
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Played depressingly straight.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Played depressingly straight.