Hey!
I recently had a pleasure to watch an anime that was truly fascinating.
Juuni Kokuki (The Twelve Kingdoms) is a Japanese fantasy anime based on the novel series by Fuyumi Ono.
The main story wraps around Yōko Nakajima, a female high school student, who along with her two schoolmates, is suddenly transported from her ordinary life to a parallel world somewhere between China and Japan, called Juuni Kokuki, or the Twelve Kingdoms.
She then discovers to have a crucial role to play in the unfolding events of this magical realm.
The series explores themes of destiny, confusion, leadership, and personal growth as Yōko and her friends navigate through political power struggles, mythical creatures, and the complexities of ruling a kingdom.
I found the story immensely intriguing, and while it was quite good, it had a couple of things I found lacking. While the core plot around Yōko is pretty solid, there is a side-story about a black Kirin (a magical creature who is destined to choose a ruler, a king or a queen for their respective kingdom), who was accidentally sent to live his first years in the Japan of our dimension, that while very interesting, doesn't reach its full conclusion.
I soon found out, that the anime is based on a series of 7 novels and 2 short story collections written by Fuyumi Ono (小野 不由美), and I think I need to find them and read them. It appears that only four of them were translated to English, so I don't think I am ever able to read them all, even if I wanted to, unless I learn Japanese.
According to Wikipedia:
Anyhow, I really liked the story, and would've wanted to immerse myself into that world a little bit longer.
I give the story a 4.5 out of 5 stars, just because I can't read it all. I would've wanted to give it a full 5 stars, but for some reason or another this anime was never continued after its last episode, that aired in August 30, 2003.