23rd April 2011, 6:19 PM
The Twelve Kingdoms 20-22 - This (19-22) was the worst disc of this series by far, so far... ugh.
20 - Finally, the end of Taiki's story! No real ending here though, just an "and his troubles continued, and somehow bad stuff happened, and he's still in Earth and doesn't know it". Do they ever actually resolve this, if it doesn't return full time to his story? They had plenty of time, but decide to make his arc glacially slow instead of actually keeping up any kind of pace, so instead of actually getting through it they only get partway and then quit... great.
21 - What, it's not over? Oh, a RECAP episode? Of Taiki's arc? Who thought THAT was a good idea? Beginning-of-episode recaps are one thing, but an entire episode that is a recap, mixed with a few bits of new info so I couldn't just skip the whole thing... THIS is a recap that I agree with you about really disliking. Awful, just awful.
22 - So we finally return to Youko's story! Great! But wait, nothing happens in this episode. Instead it's about Youko and her troubles with being a queen now in a world she doesn't understand, and the mouse guy's troubles at scholar school. Very slow episode and nothing happens. Amazingly enough I think episode 19 was actually the best one on this disc, and that's saying something... There were some good things about this episode, it sets some backstory and provides more information about the world, but this series is just so uninteresting sometimes when nothing happens for so long... there are good shows where nothing happens and it works well, but this isn't one of them.
As for the actual plot though, not surprised to see Youko and her ministers having issues. On that note, this episode did a good job of making me dislike monarchies (though of course I did already). In my opinion they need a revolution, democracy > monarchy! :)
20 - Finally, the end of Taiki's story! No real ending here though, just an "and his troubles continued, and somehow bad stuff happened, and he's still in Earth and doesn't know it". Do they ever actually resolve this, if it doesn't return full time to his story? They had plenty of time, but decide to make his arc glacially slow instead of actually keeping up any kind of pace, so instead of actually getting through it they only get partway and then quit... great.
21 - What, it's not over? Oh, a RECAP episode? Of Taiki's arc? Who thought THAT was a good idea? Beginning-of-episode recaps are one thing, but an entire episode that is a recap, mixed with a few bits of new info so I couldn't just skip the whole thing... THIS is a recap that I agree with you about really disliking. Awful, just awful.
22 - So we finally return to Youko's story! Great! But wait, nothing happens in this episode. Instead it's about Youko and her troubles with being a queen now in a world she doesn't understand, and the mouse guy's troubles at scholar school. Very slow episode and nothing happens. Amazingly enough I think episode 19 was actually the best one on this disc, and that's saying something... There were some good things about this episode, it sets some backstory and provides more information about the world, but this series is just so uninteresting sometimes when nothing happens for so long... there are good shows where nothing happens and it works well, but this isn't one of them.
As for the actual plot though, not surprised to see Youko and her ministers having issues. On that note, this episode did a good job of making me dislike monarchies (though of course I did already). In my opinion they need a revolution, democracy > monarchy! :)