In that regard I can sort of see why, whenever anime adaptations of Romance were made back in the 80s & 90s, the focus was put primarily on Liu Bei & Cao Cao, as those two made for the perfect "protagonist/antagonist" pairing, and Wu would only really get involved when it came to the iconic Battle of Chibi (& Sun Jian discovering the imperial seal, before that). Also, despite their importance in the overall story of the era itself, Wu was kind of doing its own thing for the most part, as once Sun Ce found a proper home for his people before his death they were essentially an uninvolved third party until Cao Cao started encroaching on their territory & Zhuge Liang decided to use Wu to help hold back Cao Cao's ambitions, in order for Liu Bei to properly establish his own kingdom of Shu. Still, there is an interesting story to be found within Wu, and in 2007 a TV anime would be produced that finally put the focus on the seemingly oft-ignored third kingdom. Co-produced by NAS and (of all companies) Konami Digital Entertainment, Koutetsu Sangokushi/Steel Three Kingdoms debuted in late-night on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2007 & was part of a larger multimedia "Koutetsu Sangokushi Project" which included a manga version by KYO that actually came first in late 2006, as well as a radio program that debuted the prior January & aired throughout the entire year, two light novels that acted as both a prequel & collection of side stories, a trio of drama CDs, and even a stage show in June of 2008. Oddly enough, considering that Konami's literal video game division was a co-producer, there was no Koutetsu Sangokushi video game... and this was back when Konami was still very much active in the video game business, as seen the last time Konami was related to an NAS-produced TV anime.
Anyway, I remember when Koutetsu Sangokushi first debuted back in the day & I was admittedly a bit curious about giving it a go, since I super into Dynasty Warriors 5 & felt that it was cool to see Wu be given the focus in an anime, for once. So I gave the show a try via the fansubs as it was coming out, but after a few episodes just never got back to it, partially due to how... different it was; I'll get to that in a bit. However, this show would wind up being the first (&, to this day, only) TV anime adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms to ever see an official English release when it was added to Viki's catalog for streaming in May of 2012, alongside Don Dracula, The Three-Eyed One, & Marvelous Melmo; yeah, one of these is not like the others, for sure. However, unlike the modern Rakuten Viki that exists, this was back when Viki almost exclusively relied on crowd-sourced translations for all of its offerings (the first 19 episodes of Koutetsu were subbed as of the ANN news article, but I can't vouch for the rest), and the site itself wasn't really known that much by anime fans in the first place; regardless, it's definitely not streaming anywhere officially in English anymore. Despite how I wound up trailing off of the show back in the day I still always have had some curiosity about Koutetsu Sangokushi, and since this year I decided to watch & review a bunch of anime adaptations of Romance I might as well include this series in the festivities, mainly because it's the de facto Wu-focused adaptation... even though it's easily the loosest "adaptation" of them all.
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| Huh, this must be a part of Records of the Three Kingdoms that Luo Guanzhong decided to not include in Romance... |
Lu Xun Boyan is a student of the brilliant Zhuge Liang Kongming during a time where the land itself is split between various sides in civil war, with Lu Xun getting the nickname of "The Crimson Warrior" by the commonfolk, due to his willingness to protect the innocent with his red sword (& red clothing). The two eventually witness a battle between Wu & Wei where Wu's leader Sun Ce Bofu uses the power of the "Fire Armor" he was able to access due to him laying claim to the "Brilliant Light" of the Imperial Seal, which he forcefully stole from Lu Xun's father years ago, as the Lu Family long protected the Seal. Curious about whether or not Sun Ce is truly worthy of the Seal, Zhuge Liang tells Lu Xun to join Wu to see for himself, but during his initial encounter with Sun Ce an ambush from masked assassins happens that results in Sun Ce's death & the Imperial Seal stolen... but not before Lu Xun got his hands on the Seal, which in turn gave him access to a Fire Armor of his own, with Sun Ce saying in his final moments that Lu Xun was chosen by the Seal. Lu Xun decides to stay with Wu after seeing Sun Quan Zhongmou, Sun Ce's brother & the new leader of Wu following his brother's death, pay respect to Lu Xun's family at their grave & quickly finds friends in Ling Tong Gongji (the son of Ling Cao Gongjue, one of Wu's "Six Noble Steeds"), Lü Meng Ziming (who simply wishes to be a civil servant, but shows talents beyond his humble demeanor), & Zhuge Jin Ziyu (Zhuge Liang's older brother). While he is also fighting for the sake of Wu, even if it eventually puts him against his own master, Lu Xun also wants to retrieve the Imperial Seal & uphold his family's legacy, especially since he now knows just how powerful the Seal truly can be in the wrong hands.
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Three Kingdoms era of China, whether historically or via Romance, can see something about Koutetsu Sangokushi just by reading that synopsis: This anime doesn't care much about strictly following history. First, while the two were strategists on opposing sides during the war & in essence fought against each other numerous times, Lu Xun was never a student of Zhuge Liang's, and though Lu Xun was indeed orphaned at a young age he wasn't raised by Zhuge Liang, either. Second, Lu Xun seemingly never met Sun Ce, as he didn't join Wu until after Sun Quan had already taken command. Third, while Lu Xun, Ling Tong, & Zhuge Jin all become officers of Wu around the same point in time, i.e. the early 200s, Lü Meng had already been an officer by the time they all joined, having first joined Wu while Sun Ce was still in command. Fourth, Sun Ce no longer had the imperial seal when he died, having previously given it to Yuan Shu (who promptly declared himself emperor in 197, before dying in 199) in exchange for troops so that he could avenge Sun Jian's death; in fact, by the time Sun Ce died the imperial seal was with Cao Cao, and it never left the capital again. Finally, and I think this goes without saying... the imperial seal did not give certain people access to what amounts to magical weaponry that can give their wielders superhuman strength & powers. Needless to say, one should not go into Koutetsu Sangokushi looking for strict adherence to what happened in real life, even from a romanticized perspective.
The end result is that Koutetsu Sangokushi isn't so much a direct "adaptation" of Romance as it is a full-on reimagining that simply follows the overall structure & flow when it comes to the broad strokes. For example, we still have Ling Tong initially wanting to kill former pirate Gan Ning Xingba after Gan Ning killed Ling Cao during an attack led by Huang Zu Yuanyang, despite Gan Ning later becoming an ally of Wu's. The iconic Battle of Chibi also plays a major part by acting as the halfway point of the series, though its set up is altered heavily by Zhuge Liang actually bringing Liu Bei Xuande, Guan Yu Yunchang, Zhang Fei Yide, & Zhao Yun Zilong to Wu to showcase his (supposed) plan for both sides to unite against Wei. Also, "Chibi" itself isn't a location here but instead a giant dreadnought/palatial sky garden that Cao Cao Mengde plans to use to conquer Wu with, so I guess it's more appropriate to use its translated name, Red Cliffs, here. The second half of the anime, in turn, does generally tell its own story but maintains elements taken from Romance. Interestingly, though, after the stuff with "Chibi" the anime actually switches over more towards focusing on the conflict between Wu & Shu, especially in regards to the eventual fates of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, & Liu Bei (which, while radically different from how history or Romance handle them, still follows some of the general concepts), before ending with a (very loose) take on the Battle of Wuzhang Plains that most Japanese takes on Romance tend to finish with, due to it being where Zhuge Liang historically dies. Lu Xun wasn't at Wuzhang Plains in history, he was engaging in the Battle of Hefei (the fifth of six different battles in that region) at that time, but by this point it's the final episode so I'll let it slide. I should also note that, historically speaking, all of Lu Xun's main allies shouldn't be alive as long as most of them do in this anime, especially by the last episode, outside of Zhuge Jin... but I'll again let it slide.
In that case, I should probably go over the primary cast as their own characters, even if some of their personality traits are still influenced by their historical counterparts. Lu Xun is an interesting main character in that he certainly has drive to be better than before & fight for the betterment of the people in Wu, but at the same time he sometimes has self-esteem issues regarding his capabilities, especially when it comes to unleashing his Fire Armor, & he's utterly weak & subservient to his "Master" Zhuge Liang. When the mere thought of Zhuge Liang being the one who stole the Imperial Seal & killed Sun Ce comes into his mind Lu Xun completely falls apart, and when Zhuge Liang comes to Wu to offer assistance against Wei Lu Xun instantly recommends that everyone follow his master's lead, no questions or considerations asked. At the same time, though, it's not as though Zhuge Liang is portrayed exactly as a noble man here, and that would make sense for a story that focuses on Wu's side of things. After all, a major part of the build to the Battle of Chibi was all about Zhuge Liang finding ways to circumvent Zhou Yu's repeated attempts at sabotage, so as to kill his strategist rival, and in some instances that meant doing things like manipulation & stretching the truth. Therefore, the Zhuge Liang seen in Koutetsu Sangokushi is very quickly shown as a bit of a mater manipulator, subtly taking advantage of others by appealing to their wants & desires... and this includes his student (& surrogate son) Lu Xun & his absolute trust & belief in his master by way of comforting Lu Xun with soft hugs, brushing his hair, etc. Zhuge Liang also utilizes numerous fake Imperial Seals of his own design that can bestow Fire Armor upon warriors, but at the slow, degrading cost of their sanity. This becomes more blatant in the second half, as Zhuge Liang's outlook on humanity becomes more nihilistic & bleak, all while his master plan regarding the peach garden oathed brothers slowly comes into full form.
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| This is Liu Bei & Sun Quan. Yeah, Koutetsu Sangokushi goes pretty damn wild with some of its interpretations of characters. |
Moving on we have Ling Tong, and it's here where I should bring up the character designs by the trio of animation directors Chiyomi Tsukamoto, Koichi Hashimoto, & Yukio Okano (something which only Hashimoto had previously done, with Yukikaze), as it's definitely where Koutetsu Sangokushi is easily at its most radically different from any other Romance adaptation. No doubt wanting to attract a strong female audience (& probably some of that LGBTQ+ audience, on the side), all of the iconic characters from Romance seen here have been wildly redesigned to look much more "bishonen", i.e. pretty boy, with some definitely pushing into somewhat more feminine... and then there are a handful of characters who are just straight up designed to look like women, despite being acknowledged as men. Ling Tong is a perfect example, as an immediate look at Lu Xun's scrappy & impetuous buddy (who instantly starts calling Lu Xun "Aniki/Bro", which would track since the actual Ling Tong was about six years Lu Xun's junior) would, at best, be interpreted by pretty much anyone as a tomboy girl, what with the feminine looking face, long & flowing hair, armor that makes it look like Ling Tong has small breasts, and even faulds that seemingly emphasize wide hips. There is absolutely no way anyone can see this Ling Tong & at first glance guess that they're a man.
However, Ling Tong is 100% a man in Koutetsu Sangokushi, & when he's out of a his usual garb it's a little easier to tell, making his design here look to be nothing more than to provide easy excuses for fans to draw BL doujinshi of Lu Xun & Ling Tong, with the show even joking a handful of times about Ling Tong being Lu Xun's "wife"; I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, but it's so blatant that it's amusing. This also applies to the leaders of the titular three kingdoms themselves, as Sun Quan is designed to look like a regal & benevolent long-haired woman, Cao Cao is now a bit of a lanky looking femme... and Liu Bei is a pink-haired & vain airhead of a man-child who's obsessed with flowers & looks, sounds, & even talks immensely feminine. While Sun Quan & Cao Cao definitely still maintain more than enough of the spirit of the characters they're based on when it comes to their actions in this anime, Liu Bei is by far the most wild interpretation I have ever seen of the character, acting almost nothing like either his heroic Romance take or even his more opportunistic historical self. That being said, though, near the end of his involvement in the story there is some subtle indication that he knows that he & his brothers are in fact being used by his brilliant strategist for a greater plan, but by that point seemingly accepts that it's too late to change anything.
Returning back to our main cast, the show has a habit of essentially pairing up characters, no doubt also to attract specific audiences, based mainly on them being tonal opposites. Lu Xun technically has three such pairings with Zhuge Liang (master & student), Ling Tong (the reserved & the easily excited), & Zhuge Jin (mainly due to Zhuge Jin's often mysterious & quiet nature), with all three offering different perspectives for our lead, namely his immensely close (& sometimes even co-dependent) relationship to his master, the brotherly relationship with the young Ling Tong, & Zhuge Jin's hard-to-read nature often confusing Lu Xun's expectations of him. Then there's Lü Meng & Taishi Ci Ziyi, with Lü Meng being the humble & seemingly cowardly officer who's sometimes portrayed more as a homemaker type, while Taishi Ci is super hot-blooded & always raring to fight, often calling Lü Meng a "greenhorn" to purposefully rile up his buddy, because he sees the potential in Lü Meng. Ling Tong is also paired up with Gan Ning, who's the exact opposite of Ling Tong by being a man of few words who accepts Ling Tong's initial anger & rudeness towards him without objection, obviously feeling remorseful for having killed Ling Cao. Believe me, the show makes no attempt to mask its obvious baiting for specific audiences by having characters occasionally blush in embarrassment by things certain characters say to them, though the show never outright makes things absolutely blatant in that regard, withe closest ones being Lu Xun's feelings toward Zhuge Liang, Gan Ning's towards Wu's OG tactician Zhou Yu Gongjin, & fellow Wu tactician Lu Su Zijing having an immensely one-sided infatuation with Zhuge Liang. Interestingly enough, the brotherhood between Liu Bei, Guan Yu, & Zhang Fei sees none of this baiting between any of them; I guess that bond is just too iconic to mess with.
As for how Koutetsu Sangokushi works as a series all its own, despite certain elements it's actually not all that much of an action series. With the Imperial Seal now being a MacGuffin that can bestow immense power, i.e. Fire Armor, onto people you'd think that this would be more akin to something like Sengoku Basara & would feature generals plowing through regular soldiers with abandon, while fights between generals would be epic 1-on-1 conflicts. Instead, outside of Sun Ce doing just that in Episode 1 to showcase the power of Fire Armor, the series actually doesn't really like to show combat all that often, which is surprising considering that it's basing itself off of a literal era of civil war. There are battles, sure, but the anime has a habit of just setting up a fight, only to cut away to somewhere else & then later show said fight either finishing up or outright over, and if a fight is actually showcased it's rather straightforward & simple. Granted, it's not until the end of Episode 11 that Ling Tong, Lü Meng, Taishi Ci, Zhuge Jin, & Gan Ning even get their own Fire Armor, acting as a sort of "Mid-Season Upgrade", but even Lu Xun doesn't really utilize his own Fire Armor much in the first half, treating it more as a sort of last resort that activates only when there's no other option.
Therefore, it's easy to see that Koutetsu Sangokushi is much more focused on being a character drama, rather than an adaptation of Romance or even a fantastical action series. And when it comes to said character drama the anime is admittedly a solid one, as while Lu Xun's obsession with wanting to trust Zhuge Liang more than anybody else does admittedly go a fair bit long in the tooth (it's not until Episode 20 or so that he finally decides that he has to stop his master's ambitions) the general idea behind their relationship is good storytelling. Likewise, while Wei is still treated as the most clearly antagonistic of the three sides (even if it's barely involved with the second half), Shu is an interesting portrayal that really showcases the benefits of a story based around Wu. Namely, from Wu's side of things Shu was some no name force (outside of its admittedly powerful generals) without a land of their own for so long, but once Liu Bei managed to get Zhuge Liang as his tactician they became a true force to look out for, one that (from their perspective) is willing to do anything to win, including manipulate & take things for themselves without respect (which, admittedly, is how Shu actually took their namesake land)... all according to Zhuge Liang's plan. While Liu Bei's introduction in this series doesn't exactly portray him in the nicest light, as the story continues the viewer is shown the honor & nobility found within Shu's leader & his two sworn brothers (though Zhao Yun is admittedly very much an unrepentant jerk [& sort of a ninja] here), helping emphasize Zhuge Liang's manipulation of them as tragic.
However, I would argue that the character drama seen here comes at the expense of the other two major elements of Koutetsu Sangokushi: The fantastical elements related to the Imperial Seal & the constant BL baiting between the cast. I fully understand why the Fire Armor is a thing in this series, as it's meant to showcase the sheer power of the Imperial Seal, allow Zhuge Liang's usage of his fake Imperial Seals to have added meaning (i.e. establish the idea that some people are willing to risk their morals if it means extra power for their own noble goals), and also just add a bit of extra spice to the fights, since now the focus is mainly on 1-on-1 battles between generals. However, action is most definitely this anime's weakest point, with none of the fights really being all that interesting to watch, and our heroes very rarely actually don their Fire Armor. Lu Xun does it rarely enough, but even after the other five get theirs in Episode 11 they don't use them again until Episode 17, though admittedly they all do start using them a bit more readily in the last quarter or so of the show. Meanwhile, the further into the show I got the more I just kept thinking "Why didn't they just make this into a straight up BL series?", not to mention just have Sun Quan, Liu Bei, & Cao Cao be outright women. The latter would have made next to no real difference in storytelling, outside of maybe giving Sun Quan some extra character bits as a female ruler of Wu (especially since there is no equivalent to Sun Quan's sister, Lady Sun, here), but the constant teasing, blushing, & word play that's used between certain pairings really just started to get more tiring than amusing; absolutely a case of "Just kiss already!", at points. I can only guess that the idea would be that certain fans (i.e. fujoshi) found it more appealing if it wasn't blatant back in 2007, but in 2025 it just feels excessive; if this anime was made today it'd absolutely be a full-on BL series, that's for sure.
Production-wise Koutetsu Sangokushi is... decent enough, I guess. The animation was headed up by Picture Magic, a studio generally known for assistance work but has had some history with being the lead studio... for titles like Soul Link, Lamune (the H game adaptation, not Ashi Pro's isekai mecha franchise), & Moeyo Ken; yeah, nothing really noteworthy. That being said, however, while the animation in this show isn't anything special it's at least consistently drawn, with characters generally being drawn nicely (they better be, considering who this was likely aimed at) & shots featuring solid composition, so some props to chief director Tetsuya Endo (Saiyuki Reload & Gunlock) & general director Satoshi Saga (Hunter x Hunter OVA, Hungry Heart - Wild Striker) for leading their staff well, all things considered. As for the writing led by Natsuko Takahashi (Moyashimon, Anne Shirley) I feel I've stated my overall feelings about that earlier, but in short it's overall well done from a character drama perspective but at the same time it feels as though it's held back by not really delivering much on the action (which, considering this is about a three-way war featuring warriors with powerful weapons granted to them by a magical seal, is disappointing) & by seemingly holding back on going full BL with its cast (though, to be fair, that could very well just have been the style at the time). You may have also noticed that anytime I referred to a character for the first time during the main review portion I included their courtesy name, and that's because Koutetsu Sangokushi notably treats everyone's courtesy name as part of their full name, rather than something that's otherwise just meant to compliment their name, though only a small amount of characters are actually referred to by their courtesy names in the series itself, mainly just Zhuge Liang. I guess the idea was to emphasize that these are unique characters simply named after Romance characters, so they wanted to give them "traditional" Japanese-style full names; that said, I wouldn't Westernize these, as "Boyan Lu Xun" just sounds weird.
Then there's the music by Yuji Toriyama, of the jazz fusion band Pyramid, whose only prior work in anime (outside of arranging some theme songs) was composing the score to the Street Fighter II Movie with Tetsuya Komuro, i.e. this was a bit of guest hiring. In that regard I can say that Koutetsu Sangokushi's score is definitely solid here, with a mix of (possibly synthetic?) orchestral & rock that do fit scenes very well, and there is some memorability while watching the anime... but every time I finished watching a stretch of episodes I never really remembered any of it in isolation. The same is NOT true of the anime's OP theme, "Nostalgia" by camino (not to be confused with alt group The Band CAMINO, which also has a song titled "Nostalgia"), which is an instantly memorable & excellent piano/rock ballad that really does befit the series' general emotional motif very well, especially the repeating line of "If you trust me" during the chorus. Meanwhile, the anime's ED theme, "Kuon" by Mamoru Miyano, is similar to Toriyama's score by being a fine enough pop-style ballad on its own, but otherwise nothing super memorable, though it does stick in my head just a bit after the fact; this was technically Miyano's first ever single, but officially isn't counted as his "major" debut. Both camino & Miyano were represented by Konami Digital Entertainment for a short bit in 2007, after the old Konami Label brand for music was absorbed into KDE, so this is likely the main reason why Konami was a co-producer for Koutetsu Sangokushi.
Finally there's the voice work & cast, which is honestly one of the best parts of the show because everybody actually does a really good job here. Leading things here is Mamoru Miyano (Setsuna in Gundam 00, Light Yagami in Death Note) as Lu Xun, a role that he'd actually win the "Best Lead Actor Award" with (alongside his performance as Setsuna) at the 2nd Seiyu Awards. To be fair, while Lu Xun's whole obsession with Zhuge Liang does get a bit tiring over time Miyano honestly did a really good job, putting in the right emotion & helping add to the drama. Meanwhile, Zhuge Liang himself is played by the legendary Takehito Koyasu, who does not ham it up one bit in this series & instead stays calm, cool & collected all throughout, though that in & of itself it what helps make this take on Shu's legendary tactician feel truly manipulative. Meanwhile, Mitsuki Saiga (who also won at the 2nd Seiyu Awards, though not for her role here) voices Ling Tong & delivers a good teenage male voice that does perfectly match the character, but at the same time I can see why this performance wasn't part of why she won "Best Actress in a Supporting Role". In comparison, though, are her fellow major female seiyu, Hitomi Nabatame (Margery Daw in Sakugan no Shana) & Rina Sato (Mikoto Misaka in A Certain Magical Index), who respectively voice Sun Quan & Liu Bei and seemingly don't really bother with masking their voices in any way. Nabatame does give Sun Quan a bit of a deeper, more regal tone to her voice, but otherwise still sounds female, while Sato just fully embraces making Liu Bei sound like a vain & simpleminded young lady, throwing away all pretense of the character technically being a man. Rouding out the leaders of the three kingdoms is Yuji Mitsuya (Virgo Shaka in Saint Seiya) as Cao Cao, who's the only man to voice one of the rulers but still makes sure to make Wei's ruler sound as much of a mischievous & conniving woman as possible, despite still being a male character; it's admittedly impressive.
As for the rest of our cast most of them do tend to follow roles that seem rather fitting for them, so Akira Ishida's Lü Meng is a bit submissive in tone but when pushed becomes immensely strong willed, Toru Okawa's Guan Yu is elegant yet forceful when in need, Masaya Onosaka's Zhang Fei is easily agitated & very cocky, Shinichiro Miki's Zhou Yu is calm yet dangerous, & Kentaro Ito's Taishi Ci is super hot-blooded. There are some notably unexpected performances, though, like Noriaki Sugiyama being able to play more of a sarcastic & sometimes boisterous Zhao Yun, Junichi Suwabe being a bit more quiet & reserved as Gan Ning, & Koji Yusa performing in what's apparently considered "onee kotoba" (i.e. the Japanese version of stereotypical gay male speech) for Zhuge Jin. The rest of the cast is rounded out by the likes of Kappei Yamaguchi (Zhang Liao Wenyuan), Kazuhiko Inoue (Ling Cao), Kenji Nojima (Lu Su), Ryotaro Okiayu (Huang Zu), Masami Iwasaki (Cao Ren Zixiao), & Yasunori Matsumoto (Sun Ce), among others. To be perfectly honest, Koutetsu Sangokushi has a bit of a "who's who" cast, and it really does feel as though NAS & Konami really wanted this anime to have the best possible collection of seiyu it could possibly have, and that does reflect in the performances, overall.
Koutetsu Sangokushi is probably best described as a "different" take on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but it's clear to see that it didn't really have much interest in being what one would consider to be a straight adaptation. Rather, this simply took the overall concept of Romance, i.e. its setting, characters, & major events, in order to tell its own story, though if you are familiar with the broad strokes of many of the events of Romance, especially those that involve Wu & Shu, you can tell that Koutetsu Sangokushi still doesn't try to veer wholly off course from its source inspiration; it's definitely its own story overall, but the adherence is interestingly handled. While it's not exactly an "adaptation" in any strict sense I do feel that this series managed to still stay true to just enough that it also wouldn't be incorrect to consider it an adaptation of Romance. It went with a fine line approach that I think managed to straddle rather well, and in that regard I'd say that Koutetsu Sangokushi is a worthy watch for those who are fans of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, if only to see how radically different yet adherent it truly is, and those who love character drama will find plenty to enjoy here, too, especially if you're the kind who loves heavy BL teasing.
Unfortunately, though, all of that does comes at the expense of the action, which is never anything more than just basic despite technically being all fancied up with super-powered weapons, & I personally feel that it stopped just shy of going whole hog with its characters. I think outright making Sun Quan, Liu Bei, & Cao Cao women would have been really interesting & allowed for some extra potential storytelling & character development, while I feel that simply having the men actually be in direct & admitted love for each other would have been just fine. It honestly wouldn't have changed all too much from the way many of them act around each other, and in certain instances I think actually would have possibly strengthened the drama. BL certainly isn't my thing but I would have at least respected the honesty & preferred it over the constant teasing in order to make fujoshi squee... wait, do fujoshi still "squee"? In the end, Koutetsu Sangokushi is simply "fine" for me, a perfect example of what I would maybe consider a solid 6 or 6.5/10 (as long as 5/10 is considered "average", which is what I do), but I can certainly understand if it rates slightly higher for some others. It's by no means a bad anime to watch, but I feel that it could have been just that bit better if it had either more embraced the fantastical action it only hinted at being or been more direct & honest with its interpersonal relationships.
However, it is interesting to have watched Koutetsu Sangokushi after having watched the "direct" anime adaptations of Romance that came before it, because by focusing on Wu it meant that Shu was now showcased in a notably different light, being (at best) well intentioned but highly misguided (& even manipulated). Therefore, how will things fare when the perspective changes over to the most divisive character of the story... Cao Cao of Wei? We'll see next month when I finish off this look at anime adaptations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms by covering the TV anime of Hagin Yi & King Gonta's manga Souten Kouro!
Anime © Koutetsu Sangokushi Project (NAS, Konami Digital Entertainment)
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