Twelve Kingdoms - DVD Vol 4 of 10

The fourth installment of The Twelve Kingdoms changes tracks a little. Now that Yoko has been chosen Queen of Kei, she must travel with Keiki to Mount Hou to make it official. Once there she is treated to a story about Taiki, a kirin born in Japan. Sugimoto, now in Japan, follows a boy named Kaname Takasato and qustions him about his apparent familiarity with the Twelve Kingdoms.

This DVD spends most of its time focused on the past when Taiki was born in Japan and then brought to Mount Hou at the age of ten. The story is told to Yoko by Youka, the lady that helped teach Taiki, and Keiki who also helped.

Yoko is in this very little and most of this DVD emphasizes the differences of cultures in the two worlds. We know that Taiki left Japan at age ten and returned a year later and we also see some of the things that have happened to him in that time. The problem is that Sugimoto knows him as an older boy that doesn't seem to remember anything about being "Spirited Away". As we learn about his past and his searching for a king of Tai, we are also in the present day Japan learning about him from Sugimoto. Mostly these episodes are historical at this point but I'm sure more time will be spent with Sugimoto later.