[Anime's Carnot] The Twelve Kingdoms (十二国記 - Juuni Kokuki), Episode 2 review
At first, I figured Nakajima’s supposed change in appearance was to keep the viewer on the outside. Just like Sugimoto and Asano can see her real face yet can’t hear her speaking the natives’ language, we were also supposed to be in the periphery, a sort of free-for-all, three-way information block.
But I actually think she just got a shade darker. If that’s enough to hoodwink them, it’s enough for me.
Recapping episode 1, Keiki arrives to throw a spanner in the Nakajima’s mundane life, telling her that she has a throne that he’ll never desert her for. Attacked by monsters who wish to get to her first, classmates Sugimoto and Asano are drawn into the battle, and at the behest of Nakajima, Keiki provides them protection, dragging them into the fraught destiny that awaits our MC. Not so much dragging for Sugimoto, who now sits in village jail wondering whether Keiki had gotten it wrong, perhaps mistaking the only one who can wield Suiryu for her instead.
Keiki’s death in episode 2 served more to introduce this curious—I don’t want to call it a unicorn because it breaks the immersion—but this curious creature. There wasn’t much time to mourn him given the abruptness of his entry and exit. He was a Retainer who we nor Nakajima hardly knew, the first of the ones we were introduced to, yet in only the first battle one of at least five who we likely won’t see again. The creature Nakajima was riding was killed mid-flight, distracted by telling her to keep her eyes open, and Kaiko served as a diversion for the Gouyu, whose first appearance was actually in a dream in episode 1, who was allowed to catch up to them, implying her own fate. The Taihos protecting Sugimoto and Asano were downed by birds.
I mean, Keiki, seemingly strong enough died…from being drenched in blood. The scene in episode 1 where he made Nakajima fight off the attackers herself leans me in the direction of that theory. “I have no desire to shed blood,” he said, and certainly, there was nowhere that he fought any attackers personally. Kaiko, who was the decoy for Nakajima similarly said something about the other Taiho staying away because they dislike the smell of blood. The boy described as “beautiful” from Episode 1 expressly said that too.
But Nakajima is suggested to be a demon–royalty at that. Blood likely being a mainstay with them, how would they really have planned to protect her in the first place?
In terms of theories, the show is called The Twelve Kingdoms and there were 13 places on the map. What drew all of these guys together?
Nakajima entered the village relaxed despite being abducted into a new world, her passiveness in there showing some improvement, she seemingly allowed Jyouyuu to take over in response to their aggression. The main cast is probably destined to be trafficked from place to place until they land more formidable allies and prove themselves. There are going to be a lot of places and concepts to remember, with a lot of dreams and hallucinations dotted about them. We didn’t need the dream of Sugimoto cutting down Nakajima to infer Sugimoto’s self-concept that she should be the hero in this new world.
Applying focus to the smaller details, allowing for this journey through Hou, the Eastern Kingdom, and this Journey to the West we’re baked into becomes a chartered voyage instead of a flipping back and forth of pages.
Otherwise, the scenery and visual storytelling were stunning as usual. I can’t believe I’m only really now mentioning the art and colours.
The visage of Keiki as they were being carted to the prefectural office could possibly be him, or perhaps the leader of the wolf pack who saved Sugimoto or some new third party.
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