The Ravages of Time

Jul 11, 2009

Aorii

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/? chp)

As a manga based on the Three-Kingdoms era, I thought this was another one of those unoriginal Chinese attempts on making money off the hugely popular historical epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms...

Boy was I ever more wrong... because not only are the details of this manga original, it is an absolute masterpiece. For once I have to bow down to the author and declare that I'm not even worthy of being a critic of his work.

Basically, we're talking about a manga that perfectly combines the genres of martial action, epic battlefield combat, political/factional scheming, military strategy, detailed character development, and a very complex but ... highly intriguing plot; compiling all the finest elements of Three-Kingdoms literature under one cover:
-----Generals that dominate the battlefield, unmatched in sheer awesomeness that exemplifies the Chinese saying [i]"Taking the head of the enemy commander from amongst the million, is as easy as taking items from a bag"[/i].
-----Tacticians with multi-layered chain strategies so complex it would make Lelouch (or any other military tactician from anime) look like a preschooler.
-----Politicians and warlords embedded in a free-for-all fight for dominance as the Han dynasty, an era so powerful it contributed to the Fall of the Roman Empire from across the globe, comes to a collapse.
-----Heroes stuck between all of it trying to decide just what defines morality when everything is lost in shades of gray and flames of anarchy.

The story is spread into numerous perspectives in order to cover all the major sides of the conflict, to the point it's hard to grasp whom the main character is/will-be. Although it does seem like Sima Yi, a prodigious merchant who'd eventually become the Chief Military Strategist of Wei; and Lianyuan Huo, a fictional name who'd eventually 'earn' his true name as one of the most famous generals of the Three-Kingdoms era.

While the author sticks to most of the major plot points defined by the original novel, he changed MOST of the underlying details - the character histories, the events that led up to each checkpoint, the character personalities, all of that. What's even more awesome is that he gave perfect reasons on WHY the character is known differently thru folklore, so even those who hold the original novel to heart like I do can enjoy this different version.

I only have a few things somewhat negative to say about the manga:
-----It's written in a tradition Chinese grammar, meaning the language is so beautiful it's like poetry in every line. However, not only is this completely lost in the translation process, it also makes it far harder TO translate. All the proverbs, idioms, famous strategems that any [i]real[/i] Chinese would understand can be especially confusing to English readers, despite the notes the translations put out.
-----The plot of Three Kingdoms is epic and renowned throughout Asia, but is also extremely complex and CAN be somewhat confusing, especially for those who know nothing of the era (yes Dynasty Warriors can help a lot, as much as I dislike that game). There's also a HUGE cast, thankfully, a lot of the generals/warlords/tacticians die off fast =9
-----The drawing style is more western than anime-esque. I don't care about this, but some of you might...

P.S. For those Dynasty Warrior fans of Lu Bu, he is ten times more awesome in this series...

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Jan 2, 2020

MitakaFami

Recommended

Preliminary (528/? chp)

TL;DR version - This is a very well-rounded story, exploring the themes of pretense (with both lying to others and lying to oneself), politics (through deception and schemes), war (through nihilism and manipulation), literature (through the importance of sharing and the fabrication of history) and so on. Story does not center around anyone, instead it is fleshing out every side, who represent different types of opposing ideologies. Characters are exploding with charisma, by showing off their immense strength and knowledge of Art of War (thus being the most complex work in fiction at scheming). It is both very tragic and poetic, with various obscure references ...

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Jul 8, 2011

Kamui-ojiisan

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/? chp)

As a Romance of the three kingdoms fanatic, I was at first reluctant to read something so different and novel.
At first it seemed a little too un-historical and bizzare, judging from the multiple fictional characters and all, but when it picks up its pace, it turns out to be a true masterpiece.

The purpose of this manhua is to go against the stereotypes of character personalities and codes of honour, and observe everything from a different perspective, which makes things actually look much more realistic than in the old novel.There are no good and evil characters, no -good- loyalists and -bad- traitors, no heroes and tyrants.Every ...

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Dec 9, 2008

Rampant

Recommended

Preliminary (107/? chp)

I tend to enjoy heavily historical anime and manga, despite often having no prior knowledge in that area. This manga thrusts one in media res into the conflicts of a period of Chinese War.

The story arches over several different campaigns of war. If you tend to like something like Hikaru no Go or Death Note (at least before it got ridiculous around seven volumes along) wherein strategy is extensively expounded, then you will probably like this because in each of them explanations of strategy reign supreme. At the same time, however, it has quite a bit more action than typical since it is rooted continually ... in battles.

Although I think it may treat it a little superficially, I like that it continually acknowledges the reality of how pointless and endlessly destructive the jostling for power by all the clans is, although of course it also addresses those who love war and flourish in it and in true destruction.

It does treat many parts of the plot a little too superficially, and this ties in with character development. Most of the characters are unique enough, but parts of their personalities could be fixated upon more or explained much more thoroughly without being cumbersome because this probably skimps too much. I often found myself trying to remember 'who is Zhang Liao?' and had to see him two or three more times before being able to figure out certainly who he was again. It does not help that the names are mixed up, probably because of issues of formality versus informality as well as nicknames. That being said, some characters are just stellar, such as Zhang Fei: "For example, Zhang Fei, traditionally pictured as a bearded chubby man, is displayed in the story as an artist who painted his face in a fashion similar to that of a Chinese opera mask." While excitement does come with parts such as that, they are often just slightly lacking. Maybe I am too used to mangas such as One Piece, and I certainly wish some like One Piece would tone it down sometimes, but this one probably goes to the opposite extreme and takes itself too seriously.

The art in this is not awful and not great. It is not anything nearly so bad as Bleach with its impossible amount of ACTION LINES!!!, for example, but its lines are drawn too thick and bold often, which is probably the biggest hindrance to my enjoyment of it.

I hope my tone in this was not too negative, but this is in fact a fairly serious manga laden with tons of history and characters who are not the most epic people ever, though they are sometimes striking. Overall it is a great take on a period of Chinese history and the nature of its war, and it has many quite poignant statements related to such, which I will not spoil since it is more fun to come across them (often used as the close of a chapter, for instance, and you get to guess whether the character just left off from is saying it or if it is a general statement!)

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Jul 9, 2016

Namtomdl

Recommended

Preliminary (52/? chp)

Before you read this manga you need to know the background of the Three Kingdoms Era. If you played Dynasty Warriors games or you have read a novel from that era you will be ready to read it. However, if you like me read it blind-fully you won't understand everything. You will take a lot of time to memories the characters names and their titles.

I read more than 50 chapters and still there are a lot of things that doesn't make sense and I don't know what is going on, because the mangaka thinks some info is a basic info no need to explain it.

In ...

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Aug 7, 2009

ravage101

Recommended

Preliminary (264/? chp)

All I can say is this is a masterpiece in my perspective, even though I have never read the actual "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" I am a fan of Dynasty Warriors, and when I found out about this graphic novel, it just put a big smile on my face.
Many of the distinctions of the storyline in correlations with the actual history is pretty accurate, but it is still made under the image/view of the author. One thing I don't like is how Zhao Yun is portrayed as an assassin =(

Since the author added many fictional aspects of the storyline as well as characters it ...

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Jun 7, 2023

ptsun-thu

Recommended

Preliminary (586/? chp)

I'm a fan of Kingdom (manga) and one day I saw many people on Facebook community recommended The Ravages of Time for those who love history and war, so then I checked it on google and you know what?.... Im just speechless, cuz this series, really goes beyond the word " to criticize".
It's the absolute masterpiece. The series is not simply about heroes fighting, about tactics or plans, but also goes much deeper and more complicated. The horror of intrigue, the dark and bright sides of war, the philosophical Confucian thoughts, human nature, and notions that are contrary to what we see in peacetime ...

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Jan 17, 2020

nkm107

Recommended

Preliminary (402/? chp)

As a manhua based on the Three-Kingdoms era, it's really amazing and overwhelmingly impressive.

In the beginning, I didn't understand much about the characters, story, and events. After I finished the first 40/50 chapters I understood the story and events. The depth of the characters and dialogues is really overwhelmingly impressive, every character is special in its own way. the art well gets better by every chapter. Every chapter is packed with something either it is dialogues, monologues, fights, schemes, etc...

Strong points :

Theme exploration and notion is great, thus having top tier dialogues and monologues. also, the monologues and dialogues are variable; it doesn't focus ...

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Jan 22, 2021

Knnotek

Recommended

Preliminary (546/? chp)

Okay I will readily admit that this story has it's flaws, but its peak it is the best manga I have ever read. Chen Mou has to find his story, the beginning is god awful I won't lie to you, but that changes, there is a whole damn genre change. I was suggested this 2 years ago, i didn't get past the 5th chapter, i was suggested it again and i dropped around the same place, but the third time I got to the razing of Loyang and holy shit it's incredible.

It's a hard read, you have to remember so many characters and there relations. ...

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Dec 27, 2022

Allslsl

Recommended

Preliminary (578/? chp)

As a story, The Ravages of Time has greatly succeeded at three things:

1. Make a strategist-type character without making the rest of the casts seem like a complete buffoon.
2. Create a world where characters are allowed to lie and deceit each other, naturally causing a complex world
3. Keeping the moment-to-moment story stay interesting without a drastic downtime between every climaxes.

To explain:

1. Make a strategist-type character without making the rest of the casts seem like a complete buffoon.
This is something that plenty of war stories, even a widely beloved classic like Legend ... of the Galactic Heroes, seem like they can't help but fall into, where the story has a clear-cut line separating the casts between competent people that actually know what they're doing, therefore labelled as strategist vs the other commanders, whose only tactic is to charge over and over again and fall for what's clearly a trap. I get that someone needs to lose so that the strategist can show off their brilliance, but if you're hoping this other commander to actually become an intimidating presence your protagonist needs to watch out for, then you have a big problem, because at some point you need to sit down and think about how many men did he lost for nothing and why he's still given a command of an entire army despite of that.

2. Create a world where characters are allowed to lie and deceit each other, naturally causing a complex world
Now, why is it so great that characters can lie at one another? Well, lies don't come from nothing. There is an intention behind it, a motivation to do or get something, and no matter what that thing is it can cause a conflict, and conflict by nature can create an interesting story. As an adaptation of the Three Kingdoms, TRoT is a political story where every major casts are trying to not just survive but thrive on the chaos that ravage the land, each with their own goals and ambition, including but not limited to: killing all your brothers to become the sole inheritor of your father's land; saving the child emperor and rescue the crumbling Han dynasty from its seemingly inevitable collapse; and massacring villages and cities and end the ongoing chaos with a swift and brutal conquest.

3. Keeping the moment-to-moment story stay interesting without a drastic downtime between every climaxes.
Something that many stories almost can't help but fail at at least once or twice is keeping the moment-to-moment events to stay engaging without a huge down time between each climax, which I often feel keep happening in war stories because there's a need to build up too much exposition so that the next battles are set up properly, especially when the enemy is a completely new cast of characters. The Ravages of Time solve this by relying on two things behind-the-scenes politic and multiple main casts. By using behind-the-scenes politic, TRoT has basically created a 24/7 conflict that allow players from all levels of status and profession to fight one another through words, coercion, and small-scale violence, resulting an endless conflict that progress naturally to the decisive battle that serve as one of the climaxes amongst many others we'll see until the story ends. Meanwhile, multiple main casts allow the story to flow naturally between each event, very beneficial especially around after chapter 30 where the line between friends and starts to blur.

Overall, easy 9/10 at least. I believe that this series will be one of the big classic people will remember in the future, an excellent example of a huge and complex story.

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