Twelve Months

**Twelve Months** (also known as **Sekai Meisaku Dowa - Mori wa Ikiteiru** or "**World Masterpiece Fairy Tales: The Forest That Lives**" in Japanese and **Dvenadtsat mesyatsev** in Russian) is a 1980 Japanese-Soviet, adventure, fantasy, family, children, anime film. It is a remake of the 1956 Russian animated film of the same title, which itself is based on the fairytale by Samuil Marshak. This adaptation was co-written by Kimio Yubuki, Ikuko Oyabu, and Tomoe Takashi. Co-production is between Toei Animation and Soyuzmultfilm, which produced the 1956 version alone.

## Plot

Anja gives away food to some forest animals when her stepmother and stepsister, Lena, approach her. Anja's stepmother tells her that she and Lena are heading into town to shop, and instructs Anja to go to the forest to fetch some firewood. A snowball thrown by Lena scares off the animals. A concerned Anja notices this before her stepmother gets her attention by firmly calling her name. Anja relents and does what she says. In the forest, Anja comes across and meets a soldier named Captain Rustaff. He asks Anja just why she's outside in such chilly, wintry weather. Anja explains that she's collecting firewood and when Capt. Rustaff asks whether her mother or father forced her to do the task, she tells him she's parentless. He apologizes for her loss and making the presumption, she asks the captain what brings him to the forest. He says he's looking for a Christmas tree to bring back to the palace for the queen, despite Christmas having already come and gone a week earlier, as it's almost New Year's Day. Capt. Rustaff says that because of the queen being born into royalty, she knows nothing else like the difference between good and evil, and that she thinks she's always right simply for being the queen. Anja knows of the perfect fir tree he could use. He's content, accepts the offer, and returns the favor by gathering firewood himself for her.

At the palace, the queen is tending to her royal duties. The wiseman tries to help her with her education and the prime minister needs her assistance to make a decision. As the palace staff prepare the festivities for New Year's Day, the wiseman tells her it's time for her math lessons. Regardless of putting in the wrong answers for a few multiplication problems, she insists to the wiseman that they're right. She also insists on making up other silly laws and declarations like according to her, it's still Christmastime despite it having passed. When the queen looks through a book of flowers, there's a bunch of them on one page that catches her eyes. She asks the wiseman just what they are, he tells her they're called galanthus or snowdrops. Then she asks why they don't grow in the garden and is told by the wiseman that they're wildflowers that grow in the spring only. She demands that the season be changed into spring so she can get them, but the wiseman tells her that's impossible to do due to the laws of nature not working that way. She rings a bell to summon her servants. Later, the royal reader announces to a crowd that the queen offers the reward of gold coins to whomever manages to get her the snowdrop flowers. The stepmother and Lena are in the crowd, and hearing of this, they take great interest, seize the opportunity, and get the idea of having Anja do that for them.

Back at home, Anja hears of this from her stepmother and stepsister, who want her to go outside in search of the galanthus. Anja is reluctant and objects, due to the freezing weather, climate, and a snowstorm. Following some arguing, they still force her outside into the chilly blizzard anyway. The stepmother has a moment of guilt and Lena tells her that she probably shouldn't had put on such a melodramatic act, but it was the only way to get Anja to do what they wanted. Before that, Lena tells Anja to use a newer, bigger basket that was just bought so more of the spring wildflowers can fit, but the stepmother prefers that Anja use a smaller, older basket. They're quite confident that their scheme will work. Anja struggles to trudge through the snow, but she doesn't have the strength to go further and collapses. For a moment, she sees some figures in cerulean blue cloaks moving between some trees, but then thinks she must've been just seeing things as she doubts anyone else would be outside in this weather. She continues her trek through the forest, but thinking she's going to freeze to death, she gets exhausted and collapses again. She sees a glow in the distance. The glow comes from a fire, which is surrounded by a dozen, male spirits in cloaks that Anja saw earlier. They represent the twelve months of the year. The spirit called December asks her what brings her outside in such weather as this, he and the others hear of her situation. She asks if she may go near the fire to warm herself and they welcome her the permission to do so. The male spirit called April introduces himself and the other spirits to her, telling her they know a lot of things about her, like her acts of kindness. They have the power of changing the seasons, as well as controlling the climate and weather. After hearing about her story, the spirits of December, January, February, March, and April do Anja a favor: Within moments, they change the season from winter to spring. Because of this, the snowdrop flowers are now able to grow in a meadow and Anja has access to them. She is told she has an hour of taking the opportunity to collect some to bring back to her stepmother and stepsister before the season goes back to winter, as January informs her. She thanks them for their assistance and as a gift for her benevolence, April gives her a unique, cerulean, octagonal ring she can use to summon the spirits anytime they're needed by also saying an incantation to have them show up and make the seasonal changes. January tells her she must promise never to tell anyone about what she witnessed happen and she agrees to keep her word. Then he tells her she must exit the forest right away before winter returns and she does just that. Very happy, gracious, and satisfied, Anja's problem has now been solved, and she heads back home. Back at the house, the stepmother and Lena are surprised to discover one of the baskets is filled with galanthus, wondering just how Anja managed to obtain them so successfully. But that doesn't matter all that much to them, since now they can give the queen the flowers and be rewarded. Anja is upstairs in her room, praying to her late mother and father, and wishing them a Happy New Year. Once Anja falls asleep, Lena goes to where Anja is to have her do more work. Noticing the ring on Anja's finger, she slips it off and steals it away from her. When Anja wakes up, she finds the ring missing. She thinks she must've just dreamt the events of the night before at first. However, when she recites the incantation, she's certain that she knows she recalls meeting the monthly spirits and receiving the ring wasn't a dream after all. Upset at the loss of her ring, she cries over it.

New Year's Day arrives, but the queen isn't ready for the celebrations to start. She says it's not New Year's Day at the palace until she receives the snowdrop flowers and declares that there are 34 days in December. Then, one of the guards enters the room to announce that there are two people who brought the snowdrops. The queen goes downstairs to meet them, which are the stepmother and Lena. Now that the queen has the spring wildflowers, she gives the greeting of a Happy New Year. With the stepmother and daughter still anticipating their reward, the queen mentions she nearly forgot and she'll grant them that, but first, she wants to know just how they found them. Not expecting to be asked about that, the stepmother and Lena are forced to try making up a story of how they achieved this. Despite never having been there themselves, the description of the place they claim to have found them is fairly accurate. Seeing that it's not adding up, the queen gets suspicious. They then confess and admit that they're imposters and weren't finders of the flowers. The queen threatens to sentence them to a lifetime of crushing rocks on the royal roadway. But they beg for mercy and tell her they know the real person who found the flowers, Anja. The queen is interested in hearing more about this.

Returning home once again from the palace, the stepmom and Lena find Anja, and are in need of a favor from her. Anja's stepmom tells her that she considers her as a second daughter or the daughter she never had. Anja doubts this, having been treated so poorly. The stepmom and Lena desperately need Anja to tell them where and how she managed to get the spring wildflowers so they can explain that to the queen. Anja tells them she can't due to the promise she made. The stepmom then requests for directions to them, Anja says she can't tell her that either. Another plan is made for Anja to go outside in search of more snowdrop flowers. Once Anja leaves, Lena has another idea: She'll just follow Anja in secret in order to learn about the whereabouts of the flowers. She tells her mom she'll just bring along some rags and tie each one to a branch of each tree to use each of the rags as a marker to make getting back home easier. The stepmom heads back to the palace and the queen demands to be taken to the place where the spring wildflowers were found to see for herself just how this is possible. Back in the forest, Anja eventually discovers she's being followed, after some snow falls from a high tree branch and lands on Lena's head, causing her to slip, and fall. Anja says she should've know she'd be followed, but Lena insists she was just checking up on her to make sure she was safe. Anja tells her to return home and if she doesn't, Anja will. Lena tells her it's too late and futile, as she says she's tied several rags to tree branches to act as markers toward where Anja found the flowers. Upset at the deception, Anja cries again while Lena laughs at her. In the middle of the search for Anja, the queen says that she's chilly and demands her coat. One of the soldiers hands it to her and when he wipes his forehead, she asks him why he does so. He apologizes and she also asks how is it that he's so warm when she's so cold. He explains that it has to do with his line of work. She asks what's so special about that and as he stammers to answer, Capt. Rustaff tells her it's because of all that shoveling he'd been doing, which raises his body temperature. She decides she wants to try shoveling snow herself and demands to take the shovel. She goes to work with it, maybe a little too hard, as Capt. Rustaff mentions. But she enjoys it and considers it fun rather than work.

After having left and returned to Anja, Lena tells her she found a lake with the galanthus surrounding it. The queen, Capt. Rustaff, the wiseman, the prime minister, and the other soldiers arrive to the area. The queen meets Anja, the real one responsible for finding the flowers, at last. The queen offers Anja the reward of gold coins, which can be used to buy new necklaces and dresses. But Anja turns down the offer. The queen asks what she does want and Anja says the only thing she wants is her stolen ring back. After the queen demands to know where the ring is and threatening to sentence the stepmother and Lena for their punishment again, Lena happens to find it in her skirt pocket. Anja tells her to return it to her, but the queen says she wants to have a look at it. As it doesn't look familiar to her, the queen says she doesn't have any ring like it. The queen agrees to return the ring to Anja if she'll tell her exactly where she found the snowdrops. Anja refuses to say a word about this, she's hesitant and tightlipped, other than telling her she can't say. The queen threatens to sentence her to rock-crushing if she doesn't say, but Anja remains firm in not betraying the twelve months. The queen then threatens to toss away the ring, but only pretends to do so, giving her a second chance. When Anja still won't tell and tells her instead to throw it, the queen does just that, but as she does, Anja attempts to catch it, while the queen attempts to stop her, Anja falls forward, and says the incantation once more. As this is done, the seasons switch again, from winter to spring to summer to fall to winter again. The queen, the stepmother, Lena, Capt. Rustaff, the wiseman, the prime minister, and the other soldiers are all in stunned disbelief at what they're witnessing. When winter arrives again, the queen demands for her coat again, but one of the soldiers tells her that and the other coats were blown away by the autumnal wind. Lena and her mother find that one coat has remained on a high tree branch. Desperate, they both go to retrieve it and fight over it. The others are appalled at their behavior. As the two do this, they're punished by suddenly turning into dogs. The others are surprised at the sight of this.

Anja is now in a horse-drawn sleigh, sporting a faux fur hat and coat. Capt. Rustaff asks the twelve month spirits if they may warm themselves by the fire. The queen says never mind to that and demands that she gets a sleigh ride. The two dogs run towards Anja, who doesn't know they're her stepmom and stepsister who are now canines at first. The queen asks how she can be so nice to such wretched animals, Capt. Rustaff tells her that it's because of her kindness that she received rewards in return. He also tells the queen that she should try asking favors from others and treat them like humans instead of demanding them. When Anja invites her to ride the sleigh, the queen is taken aback by this, but also feels guilty and bad about how she behaved earlier, and apologizes. Anja offers her coat to her and the queen is astonished at how nice she's being to her, even after the way she acted. The queen then receives her own coat when it magically appears on her, due to showing her humility and kindness she learned from Anja as her reward. After asking January if her stepmom and stepsister will be dogs forever, he tells her they'll be human again in three years, if and when they learn some humility within that time, and says to come back to the same spot where the snowdrop flowers were found in the next three New Year's Eves. Anja and the queen find that they have some things in common with each other, like being orphans, more than they think. They become good, newfound friends and take a sleigh ride together.

## Why It Rocks

1. This adaptation is just as fine as the 1956 version. It stays faithful enough to the original story and has several similarities to the original animated film with a few differences to separate it from that.
2. In its own right, this is a well-written rendition.
3. The art is just as nice as the 1956 adaptation and there's nothing to complain about the animation.
4. Many of the characters in this version are just as great as those of the 1956 version. Most notably Anja and the queen, regardless of their differences in social classes and statuses. Anja is a kind-hearted, loyal commoner, and sympathetic due to her situation of living with and working for her stepmother and Lena. The queen comes from the upper class who is spoiled and silly with the laws she makes without being too mean. Although she may seem mean on the surface, it's only because of the upbringing she had, this is what she knows, she doesn't know the proper way to behave and treat others. But she isn't so bad deep down and has a nice side after all.
5. The character designs look just as nice as the previous interpretation.
6. The music is nicely composed and performed, especially each of the two songs at the beginning and towards the end.
7. The voice work in the English dub is among the better ones featured in anime.
8. The dialogue is well-written and sensible.
9. The stepmother and Lena get their requited after how they mistreated Anja, and later bicker with each other.
10. It has a teachable moment in showing humility and kindness. As the saying goes for the latter, "An act of kindness can go a long way". Another lesson is even though one may be in a bad situation, there is a will and a way that things will work themselves out in the end.

## Trivia

* Of all the characters in this, only three of them are mentioned by name: Anja, Lena, and Capt. Rustaff.