Koutetsu Sangokushi

The Imperial Seal has been passed down through the generations since ancient times. It confers great power unto the warriors that it chooses. This is the story of those warriors.

It is a time of chaos and of civil war. It is a time when great armies clash in titanic battles and great heroes carve their names in history. It is also a time of death and destruction, when the people of the land live in constant fear of the sword. Onto this stage steps the reluctant Rikuson (Lu Xun), whose family had been the guardians of the Imperial Seal up until it was stolen by Sonsaku. At the behest of his mentor Rikuson offers his services to Sonsaku with the intention of confirming the will of the Imperial Seal. However, assassins strike down Sonsaku and the Imperial Seal is lost. So begins, Rikuson’s journey to recover the Imperial Seal and discover his destiny.

(Source: AniDB)

Shoukatsuryou, Koumei Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Rikuson, Hakugen Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Sonken, Chuubou Main

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Ryoutou, Kouseki Main

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Ryomou, Shimei Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Kannei, Kouha Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Shoukatsukin, Shiyu Supporting

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Chou'un, Shiryuu Supporting

Sugiyama, Noriaki Japanese

Shuuyu, Koukin Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Kouso, Genyou Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Endou, Tetsuya Director

Saga, Satoshi Director

Hiramitsu, Takuya Sound Director

Sasaki, Masaya Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jan 27, 2013

FairyTale-Mystic

Recommended

The only thing I didn't like about this Anime was less character development. I really liked Sonken and Ryoutou. But seriously, they were the only ones I liked. It's sad. I wanted to like the characters EXCEPT Rikuson and Ryuubi. Rikuson was TOO angsty and Ryuubi was WAY TOO GIRLY! UGH! I had to skip. I usually DO NOT skip. ME! But I did like the story. It would've been a great friendship story and Anime all the way through if the characters were done differently. It did make me stay with it. There had to be something that attracted me. Right?!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by FairyTale-Mystic (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Oct 13, 2009

ladyxzeus

Mixed Feelings

When I came across this my first thought was: "oh great! Some medieval adventure with Eastern traits full of hot guys and eventually tons of tasty slashing!" Yes, I think like this most of the time. And usually I'm never disappointed. The only exception is Koutetsu Sangokushi.

At first, I thought the story would be interesting. You know, reader, most of BL and slashable anime stories are not very interesting. So when I read the premise of this anime I was glad. It announced an adventure full of political drama and some magic here and there. However, it all seemed half-baked, incomplete, created by an incompetent ... with too many ideas without any solid base. The premise was interesting, but the story telling was dreadful. Dragging such a story for 25 episodes, adding some forced encounters, rushed sollutions for random cliffhangers and a unoriginal central elements to the party, was one of the most boring - not to say horrible - experiences of anime watching.

Then I thought the character designs looked good. They look good. That's the greatest part about this anime. The characters are gorgeous. When they are still. A Flash amateur could do better than this, in terms of animation. Random utilization of CG elements that took away any beauty left to the backgrounds and horrible sloppy animation. Repeating frames all the time, trying to make awesome action scenes with a low budget and low talent... It did not work well.

Finally, I thought that the characters themselves could save it. An anime filled with beautiful man, frolicking around the whole anime, nothing can be better than this! Except, of course, when we absolutely need to have all the stereotypes for "hot" inserted randomly and without reason here and there. The development was nule for most characters and, when it existed, it was unoriginal.

Music was only memorable for being misused.

In the end, it was a terrible experience and it let my expectations and hopes for the future down. It is the anime made for the average fangirl that is happy just by seeing hot guys running in something very similar - but not quite - to a plot. Unfortunately, I'm not the average fangirl anymore.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ladyxzeus (16)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 14, 2010

Colonelfancy

Not Recommended

I know I've been saying this a lot lately, not just in person to person conversation, but on forums with other anime fans in various sights, the quality of anime and story-telling in anime is sinking at an absurd, and a show like Koutetsu Sangokushi is stark evidence that not only are a lot of these shows really bad, but they're getting worse.
Now, I after finishing this, I really tried to sit back and decipher what really makes this such an intolerable show, and how I managed to sit through this. One reason was just to see what the author was going to ... pull out of his ass for an ending so I can grade this as a whole, and in retrospect, I didn't think I needed to. That being said, I can take the four worst elements (there are many more than that) from Sangokushi and apply them to what's wrong with a lot of other recently produced anime.
1. The Plot
My biggest pet peeve with this show is it's inablity to connect character's motives to the story. From the beginning, you can pretty much tell where the direction is going with Rikuson and Koumei, but the road to get there is marred with poor outlining and reason to care. I'm not sure how a formula so basic gets done so badly. Nothing happens for episodes at a time, and when it seems like something's happening, you're not really moved by what transpires. There's supposed to be a war going on, but you could never tell, as there's surprisingly little focus on the fact that three kingdoms are fighting for some oracle that could turn the tide in their favor, but most of the focus is on one kingdom, and more time is devoted to flowery language (pardon the pun) about feelings. It's paint-by-numbers in the most uninteresting way, and you get lulled into a state of complete blandness. Take a note, potential authors; stories about war should not be about the war itself, but rather a pissy, whiny brat whose sad that his master won't comb his hair. It's hard to believe this is categorized as action.
2. The Characters
These are the most generic group of pretty boys you may ever see. Even the three characters out of the six protagonists that I like are paper thin in terms of personality and chemistry (Kannei, Ryoutou, and Kin). Rikuson, the lead "hero" is a total failure as far as personalities to care about. He's one-demonsional, uninteresting, and overall pretty unlikable. The villains aren't any better, as they are all stock, undeveloped stereotypes with cliched grasps for power that failed to make the cut for Sengoku Basara 3. Relationships amongst the cast goes nowhere as the six leads are supposed to bond under the tides of war with even less subtle shonen-ai tendencies that don't even qualify as comedy or entertaining titillation. As a guy whose seen better shonen-ai based comedy, this one leaves me feeling empty, even though Ryoutou is adorable.
3. The Animation
When Clutch Cargo and Go Bots is kicking your ass in the animation department, you need to get out of the business. Was this made on a budget of $45.98? The "action scenes" in this show are just baaaaaaaad! There isn't a single fluid fight in all of Koutetsu Sangokushi that isn't accompanied by the distractingly awful CGI power-up effects that make it hard to see what a character is doing. It looks like someone just learned how to make animated, colored smoke and ran with it for 25 episodes. Attach this to the same routine, sword clashing tests of strength, and you have the most mundane, insipid battles in the history of animation to take place on your screen. Card duels in Yu-Gi-Oh have more motion and visual techniques!
4. BOOOOOOOOORRRRRIIIIINNNGGG!!!!
My, God, is this show is soooo boring. I could probably forgive the bad animation, the run-of-the-mill plot, and the bland characters if it was just a little bit entertaining. But there are just streches where people talk, and talk, and talk, and the subject matter is 50% consisted of feelings, and 50% plants. I am not kidding. For an anime based on a war between three kingdoms, there is a hell of a lot of talk about posies, peonies, and lilies. None of this dialouge goes anywhere and it never stops. So many scenes take place on a balcony, or a bridge over moonlight as two people just talk about nothing.
OVERALL: I would rather fly head first through a windshield at 75 mph and have my face sanded off by the pavement than to watch this show ever again. I'd rather be hung by driving meat hooks into my index finger nails and have grade schoolers whack me in the groin with bats than to recommend this show to anyone. It's the epitome of what a lot of these half-assed anime TV series are full of, and it drives me crazy. Long-winded, slow-moving, boring shows that never shut up and tell a decent three arc story, thinking that drawn out, pseudo-philisophical discussions between two piles of balsa wood peppered with language written by someone who failed drama school for overused metaphors qualifies as entertainment don't impress me.

STORY: 1
ART: 4
SOUND: 6
CHARACTERS: 2
ENJOYMENT: 3
OVERALL SCORE: 4 out of 10

PROS: The music and opening theme is the only highlight
CONS: Everything else

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Colonelfancy (58)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Japanese anime set in Ancient China and Imperial China excluding hentai animes based on a story written by Japanese people

by KingSunWukong

16 Entries · 15 Restacks

Every primary protagonist of Chinese descent in Japanese anime series excluding hentai anime based on a story written by Japanese people

by KingSunWukong

38 Entries · 11 Restacks

Anime inspired by ancient china

by DarkInu8

13 Entries · 4 Restacks

	how is the ending? shounen ai? gknight - Apr 23, 2013	2 replies	by greatyu »» Mar 21, 2015 3:23 AM
	Poll: Favorite Character ashura - Dec 21, 2007	12 replies	by greatyu »» Mar 21, 2015 3:21 AM
	Poll: Koutetsu Sangokushi Episode 25 Discussion ashura - Dec 21, 2007	9 replies	by kataru »» Aug 18, 2014 8:42 PM
	Poll: Koutetsu Sangokushi Episode 2 Discussion Faust721 - Apr 20, 2007	4 replies	by Animefanx3 »» Feb 27, 2011 1:50 PM
	Poll: Koutetsu Sangokushi Episode 3 Discussion windy - Apr 25, 2007	2 replies	by canis »» Apr 16, 2009 2:54 PM