Twelve Kingdoms
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is a series of
fantasy novel Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. magic (paranormal), Magic, the supernatural and Legendary creature, magical creatures are common i ...
s written by Japanese author
Fuyumi Ono is a Japanese novelist best known for writing , which was adapted into a popular anime series. She is married to Yukito Ayatsuji, the author of the horror novel '' Another''. Biography Ono is married to , a mystery novelist who writes under th ...
and illustrated by
Akihiro Yamada ; born February 10, 1957, in Kōchi) is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist. During his career, Yamada has branched out into making book covers, character design for video games, theatre costume and set design, concept design for live-action ...
. The first entry in the series called ''The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow'' was published by
Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...
in Japan in 1992; the last Kodansha volume was released in 2001. In 2012, the series was resumed under the Shinchō Bunko line from
Shinchosha is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in , Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award. Books * Haruki Murakami: '' Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' (1985), '' Ute ...
. Shinchosha has also begun reprinting the older volumes with new cover and interior art from Akihiro Yamada. The first new publication of the series in six years was released in 2019. An English-language translation was produced and distributed by
Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licens ...
. The first four volumes were released between March 2007 and November 2010, before the license reverted back to Kodansha. On November 20, 2024,
Seven Seas Entertainment Seven Seas Entertainment is an American publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original English-language manga, but now publishes licensed manga and light novels from Japan, as w ...
announced that they had acquired the license to publish a new translation of the series in English, with the first volume scheduled for release in July 2025. It was adapted into an
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
television series by
Pierrot Pierrot ( , ; ), a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, has his origins in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a hypocorism, diminutive of ''Pierr ...
in 2002, which aired on Japan's
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
from April 2002 to August 2003. The series was licensed and distributed by
Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment company that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American mar ...
in the United States at the time of its initial Japanese broadcast. As of 2019,
Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. History Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retr ...
held the license to the series.


Plot

Youko Nakajima, an unhappy high school student, is one day suddenly faced with a strange man who swears allegiance to her. After a battle with demon-like beasts, he then takes her to another world along with two of her classmates. There, her appearance has changed and she can understand the language, though her classmates cannot. Their status as "Kaikyaku" (people who come from Earth) makes them hunted fugitives, so they wander the land of the 12 countries, simply trying to survive and figure out the reason they were brought to this world.


Setting

''The Twelve Kingdoms'' tells several stories from the world of the Twelve Kingdoms. It is located on a group of several islands in another dimension accessible from our world through portals created from naturally-occurring magic (though the other way around is normally impossible). The portals occur in the ocean waters of Japan and China, and ever so often will end up dragging someone from our world from those waters to the kingdoms' islands, and/or on rare occasion, pulling an unborn child from the kingdoms into our world, causing them to be born there. On the islands, magic works and societies similar to those of classical
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
exist. While the inhabitants of the kingdoms are aware of the existence of our world as the lands of Hourai (Japan) and Kunlun (China), the reverse is not true for any inhabitants of our world. The inhabitants of the kingdoms speak a different language than the languages of our world, both of which can be learned by either side. Only through extraordinary circumstances can the two worlds affect each other to a certain extent. In this world, there are a total of thirteen lands. At the center of the world lies the Koukai (the Yellow Sea) and Five Mountains where the
Gods A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...
communicate their will to the Twelve Kingdoms of the world. Each of the Twelve Kingdoms possesses their own ruler and its own Kirin, a divine creature which embodies the will of heaven and is entrusted to choose a kingdom's ruler by Tentei: Emperor of Heaven. The Kirin serves as the ruler's aide. The ruler will have immortal life as long as they keep the kingdom healthy and their heads are not severed from their body. If the ruler's Kirin dies or is killed, the ruler will die within a year. The Koukai, known as the Yellow Sea, is surrounded by four inland seas: the Black Sea in the north, the Blue Sea to the east, the Red Sea in the south, and the White Sea to the west. Eight of the Twelve Kingdoms (Kei, En, Ryu, Kyou, Han, Sai, Sou, and Kou) border at least one of these four seas, extending from the center like the petals of a flower. The remaining four kingdoms (Tai, Hou, Ren, and Shun) are not part of the central mainland and are isolated by the (Void Sea) which surrounds the lands of the Twelve Kingdoms.


Publication

There are seven novels in the ''Twelve Kingdoms'' series, plus two short story collections. The novels are illustrated by
Akihiro Yamada ; born February 10, 1957, in Kōchi) is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist. During his career, Yamada has branched out into making book covers, character design for video games, theatre costume and set design, concept design for live-action ...
. Some of the novels have been published in two or more volume editions such that the total number of volumes is sixteen (as originally released in Japan). Before she started work on ''Twelve Kingdoms'', Fuyumi Ono wrote (Kodansha: September 1991, ; Shinchosha reprint: July 2012, ), a horror novel about a boy from another world. She later worked certain events from this novel into the ''Twelve Kingdoms'' series. Short stories set in the various kingdoms include , , , and ; these stories have been collected into one volume, ''Kasho no Yume''. One short story, , published in 1997, accompanied the drama CD for ''Higashi no Wadatsumi, Nishi no Sōkai'' and remains uncollected elsewhere. In February 2008, the new ''Twelve Kingdoms'' short story, was published in
Shinchosha is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in , Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award. Books * Haruki Murakami: '' Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' (1985), '' Ute ...
's ''Yomyom'' magazine, followed by in September 2009. ''Hisho no Tori'' and ''Rakushou no Goku'' were later collected into a volume of short stories titled ''Hisho no Tori'', along with two new previously unpublished stories in 2013.


U.S. release


Tokyopop

In 2006, U.S. publisher
Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licens ...
acquired the rights to publish the novels under its "Pop Fiction" imprint. The first book was released in March 2007. Only the first four books were released before the license expired.


Seven Seas Entertainment

In 2024,
Seven Seas Entertainment Seven Seas Entertainment is an American publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original English-language manga, but now publishes licensed manga and light novels from Japan, as w ...
announced that they had acquired the license to publish the novels with a new translation under their “Airship” imprint. The first volume is scheduled for release in July 2025.


Media


Anime

The anime adaptation by studio
Pierrot Pierrot ( , ; ), a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, has his origins in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a hypocorism, diminutive of ''Pierr ...
aired from April 9, 2002, to August 30, 2003, in Japan on
NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...
for forty-five episodes. The opening theme is "Juunigenmukyoku" by
Kunihiko Ryo Yang Bang-ean (; born January 1, 1960) is a Zainichi Korean composer, arranger, record producer, and pianist. His Japanese name is Kunihiko Ryo. Early life and beginnings Yang Bang-ean was born in Tokyo, Japan as a youngest son of five chil ...
while the ending theme is "Getsumei-Fuuei" by
Mika Arisaka (born June 28, 1974, in Kamakura, Japan) is a Japanese-American singer. Due to her upbringing, she is bilingual and has performed in both English and (more commonly) Japanese. She attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, US. S ...
. The anime series has been released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
and
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
in the United States by
Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment company that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American mar ...
, which are now out of print. The license was transferred to
Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. History Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retr ...
, who released the complete series on Blu-ray in 2019.


Animanga

Kodansha printed a fifteen-volume "animanga" series in 2002–2004 by combining images from the anime series with printed dialogue and sound effects. It has been released only in Japanese.


Video games

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...
has released in Japan two games based on ''Twelve Kingdoms'', both produced by Takashi Shimomichi. They are ''Juuni Kokuki: Guren no Shirube Koujin no Michi'' and ''Juuni Kokuki: Kakukakutaru Oudou Kouryoku no Uka''. Both games contain footage from the anime and many stills of the characters are used during conversation and during battle. The games are sprite-based, with small sprites used on-screen and larger, highly animated sprites used during battle. ''Juuni Kokuki: Guren no Shirube Koujin no Michi'' was released for
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
on August 28, 2003. It follows Yoko's journey to becoming Empress of Kei. While classified as an
RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...
, it is often described as an adventure game. The game was re-released in Konami's The Best lineup on June 9, 2004. Yoko is capable of summoning Keiki's Shirei into battle as well as having additional party members. ''Juuni Kokuki: Kakukakutaru Oudou Kouryoku no Uka'' was released for PlayStation 2 on April 4, 2004, and is a sequel to the first game, continuing with Yoko's problems after she becomes the monarch of Kei. Game data from the first game can be loaded into the second. This game contains more RPG elements than the first with party-/menu-based battles becoming standard. Many of the event scenes are pulled from the novels but there are also scenes made just for the game.


Reception

By March 2020, the novel series had over 12 million copies in circulation.


References


External links


Official U.S. site

Official NHK site

Shinchosha official novel site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Twelve Kingdoms, The 1992 Japanese novels 2002 anime television series debuts Anime and manga based on novels Chinese mythology in anime and manga High fantasy anime and manga Films with screenplays by Shō Aikawa Fuyumi Ono Isekai anime and manga Isekai novels and light novels Japanese fantasy novels Kodansha books NHK original programming Odex Pierrot (company) Seven Seas Entertainment titles Shinchosha books Tokyopop titles