Ranked #1203

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Romance of Three Kingdoms, for those not versed in Asian cultures, is the Illiad of the East, A giant epic set around the fall of the Han dynasty in 189 A.D...

This particular version of Three Kingdoms is not a straight adaptation of the novel, but a version based upon Sangokushi, a manga by the famed mangaka Yokoyama Mitsuteru (Gigantor, Little Witch Sally, Giant Robo) in a whopping 60 volumes of tankoban between 1981 and 1987. Despite this, the story remains the same, much to the series' benefit. Yokoyama's designs are generally good, if somewhat 'old-fashioned' in comparison to character designs of the period. The characters are more archtypes then fully fleshed out people, but this also occurs in the novel. The only bonefide standouts are Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang, who chew screen time with great aplomb. The series becomes a bit of a slog towards the end just before the 'last battle', which hurts on a certain level. Unfortunatly the story is 'unfinished', with this particular anime series ending around chapter 50 of the novel. Yokoyama never finished his manga version of Three Kingdoms anyway, ending it about three-quarters of the way through the novel. A good series that could have been truely great with better execution, the strength of the source material still stands out nonetheless.

An interesting curio for any anime collection, and should be of particular interest to anime fans of Chinese descent. Also provides a distinct cultural flavor as well. read more

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe-q6C0u_R4

The thing that stands out here is the origin of the story. This series is based on the most famous Chinese epic story/novel of all times, the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms . I have read a big summary of it and I must say, the series is faithful to the original script.

STORY SECTION: 8/10

The novel is 700 years old, very long in duration, it is based on real historical events, involves hundreds of characters and describes a 100-year-old war around the unification of the vast and chaotic land of China. Since it was written millennia ago, the story differs a lot from typical anime scenarios and the way of life, as we know them today. Here are a few examples:

-The heroes don’t always win. This is not a typical scenario of good triumphing over evil.
-Women exist only as wives or traitorous seducers. You won’t see any female warriors or irritating girls hitting dorky boys at all.
-Allies constantly change sides under the pressure of politics and honor. Compassion and justice are just used as political maneuvers and don’t help someone choose sides.
-Lies, secrets, betrayals, hypocrisy, murder, slander and ass kissing are absolutely normal to use and no one accuses someone just for using them. Everything is allowed in war.
-Strategies, terrain advantages and not numbers decide the outcome of battles. Good tactical advisors were more important than a million soldiers.
-The generals of the opposing armies were not afraid to fight in the front lines. Plus, killing the leader of an army was enough for a war to end, since the soldiers didn’t have a saying in the conflict or shared their leaders’ ambitions.

It is a very realistic scenario, if you compare it with the superficial American movies we get today. It makes The Lord Of The Rings appear simple and childish. It takes the combined efforts of the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Argonaut Campaign for a story/myth that is equal in length and quality. So, the story should normally be a 10 without a doubt.

Sadly, it is not as several scenes have an erratic pace. The series does not cover all the events of the original script and many characters either disappear from the story for no given reason or change personalities too easily. Still, leaving direction aside, it is a very cool story.

ART & SOUND SECTIONS: 5/10

An epic story of such proportions deserved graphics and sound, reminiscent of The Twelve Kingdoms anime (similar name and civilization) or the movie Hero , starring Jet Li. Having played a little of the Dynasty Warriors games, I expected very detailed cloths and long battles. Being a big fan of the Suikoden games, which have, ahem, “borrowed” many story elements, I expected supernatural powers and attention in personal dramas. Unfortunately, the series is pretty low on all these departments.

-Almost all the characters have simple cloths, making peasants and nobles to look the same.
-Facial variety is narrow, making most characters to look alike (that sounded like a racist comment).
-Wars are conducted in quite simple and boring ways. There is a lot of repeating footage on every battle.
-Stale images, absence of bloodshed, poor visual effects and uninteresting music themes take away all hopes of considering this department interesting.

CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10

There are hundreds of characters in the story. That would be a good thing if they had been given different mannerism, personalities and purposes. Unfortunately again, they are not.

-Most of them are stunts that appear in a few episodes and then get killed or disappear without a trace from the story.
-Many characters have a sudden change in intelligence. Some suddenly become charismatic leaders and super tactical advisors and others who are veteran warriors suddenly become country bumpkins who are tricked by the simplest trap.
-All characters have the same goal: Get sneaky, earn authority, raise army, kill all who oppose, conquer lands, become emperor of China. It gets boring after seeing it for the 50th time.

VALUE & ENJOYMENT SECTIONS: 5/10
If you have read the original novel, the series seems as a poor attempt at representing the events in it. It could become a lot better if there was something else, besides a good story, in order to be kept interested. Without it, the series is one big average show.

VERDICT: 5.5 / 10
The accused is found … GUILTY! … of selling watered down booze.

SUGGESTION LIST
Dynasty Warriors. Action/strategy videogames, based on the same story.
The Twelve Kingdoms. Similar name and atmosphere but with a lot more dramatic story and characters.
Suikoden. rpg/strategy videogames, based loosely on Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Heroes of the Marsh.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes. A war drama/space opera with an equally perplex story and a cast of thousands. It eats almost all sci-fi series for breakfast. read more