The Twelve Kingdoms: Only the strong willed survive...

I have to say, I was one of those who had exactly the experience you describe. I rented the first disc, watched it, and dropped the whole thing like a giant stone. Five episodes of watching a girl who had specialness thrust upon her when all she wanted to be was normal and another girl who wanted to be special, was forced to be normal, and started to turn bitchy and evil over it was more than enough. The setting, honestly, seemed very interesting (although the "mystic link between the king and the welfare of the land" routine was overdone twenty years ago), but I couldn't get past my desire to slap the lead characters silly.

DezoPenguin wrote:I have to say, I was one of those who had exactly the experience you describe. I rented the first disc, watched it, and dropped the whole thing like a giant stone. Five episodes of watching a girl who had specialness thrust upon her when all she wanted to be was normal and another girl who wanted to be special, was forced to be normal, and started to turn bitchy and evil over it was more than enough. The setting, honestly, seemed very interesting (although the "mystic link between the king and the welfare of the land" routine was overdone twenty years ago), but I couldn't get past my desire to slap the lead characters silly.

It's actually quite good after you get to the point where the main character actually grows up. If you can stand it, I would definitely recommend trying to pick it up again and try to make it through the first arc. The payoff really is worth it in my opinion.

DezoPenguin wrote:I have to say, I was one of those who had exactly the experience you describe. I rented the first disc, watched it, and dropped the whole thing like a giant stone. Five episodes of watching a girl who had specialness thrust upon her when all she wanted to be was normal and another girl who wanted to be special, was forced to be normal, and started to turn bitchy and evil over it was more than enough. The setting, honestly, seemed very interesting (although the "mystic link between the king and the welfare of the land" routine was overdone twenty years ago), but I couldn't get past my desire to slap the lead characters silly.

Yeah, I pretty much dropped it after seeing a bit in my anime club.

(We had a vote to continue watching. It was overwhelmingly no.)

Might see if I can track it down, if you say it improves that much....

shanejayell wrote:Yeah, I pretty much dropped it after seeing a bit in my anime club.

(We had a vote to continue watching. It was overwhelmingly no.)

Might see if I can track it down, if you say it improves that much....

Shame. I understand Youko is unbelievably annoying and whiney in the beginning(And then goes through a phase of being a total bitch) but seeing her grow from that to what she becomes is really amazing imo. I dunno, I guess I just tend to enjoy series that have slow starts, as it tends to equate to them really chugging along when they get moving.