Souten Kouro

Ah, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is truly one of the classics of Chinese literature. It is an amazing story of war, bloodshed and honor. However, Souten Kouro seems to take this classic and make it much more uninteresting than it truly is. It stars Cao Cao, often portrayed as a cruel and merciless tyrant, as the hero of the story. After watching the first 11 episodes of the series, I truly know what the Chinese idiom "speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao comes," truly means.

MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS

Story: The story begins with Cao Cao's early life. The story itself generally follows the ... time-line of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but takes on a different tactic of telling the story. An example I would like to use would be the Alliance against Dong Zhou. The anime follows history precisely but throws on a handful of encounters that aren't 100% historical. It is true that Cao Cao refuses to become Dong Zhou's right hand man, but in no way does history point out that he does it in such an articulate way. The story makes Cao Cao reign supreme, while throwing Lui Bei in the background as the "villain" of the Three Kingdoms period.

Art: The artwork was very unimpressive. It was more like the manga was reproduced EXACTLY how it looks. They did not any special animation to the anime. When armies were slain, you'd only see blood splurting out of them, and no indication of how they were even cut. Surely production value could not have been so low for a manga that won the 22nd (22nd award every given to a manga, not 22nd place) Kodansha Manga Award in the general category?

Sound: Beautiful is the only word I can think of to describe the sound of the anime. The music was incredible and fit each situation to the fullest. Mind you, the OP and ED are not amazing, but the soundtrack during the fights, and during every scene were astounding. The music is memorable and that to me, is what really saved this anime.

Character: The characters were not very developed in the anime but what can you expect? It is based more on the history of the Three Kingdoms period than it is on Romance of Three Kingdoms. I will however give an honorable mention to Cao Cao's character portrayal. Throughout the anime, you can feel his character slipping slowly into the tyrannical warmonger we all know and love.

Enjoyment: I did enjoy this anime to a certain extent and I would have given it a 7 over the 5 because of it but the story itself progressed in a way that was a little boring. Mind you, if you love Chinese politics and the era of the Three Kingdoms in general, you'll want to watch this anime despite any review you see. However, it was not my cup of tea, and I lost interest very quickly.