In the end, though, Cao Cao would not live to see the actual era of the Three Kingdoms, as he would pass away on March 15, 220 at the age of 66, having been promoted by Emperor Xian as "King of Wei" four years prior, though still working as a vassal of the Han dynasty. It would be Cao Cao's second son, Cao Pi, who forced Xian to abdicate the throne a little less than a year after his father's death, resulting in the creation of Cao Wei, which in turn would lead to Liu Bei & Sun Quan announcing the official formation of Shu Han & Eastern Wu, respectively. Wei's ultimate fate would come in 266, when Cao Huan (the fifth & final Emperor of Wei, & Cao Cao's grandson) abdicated the throne to Sima Yan, resulting in the formation of the Jin dynasty that eventually reunited China.
When it comes to Romance, Cao Cao is always portrayed as the primary antagonist of the story, as while he's not a "villain" his actions & worldview make for a direct clash with Liu Bei's more idealistic & benevolent nature, or Sun Quan's focus on honor & family. However, it is important to remember that Romance is a fictionalized take on the actual historical source text for what happened back in the day, Records of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou... so how would the story of the Three Kingdoms work out if one was to rely more on Records than Romance? In 1994 that would come about when the editor-in-chief for a manga artist calling himself "Gonta" asked "Why don't you try to depict Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a Broadway musical?", and while Gonta was a fan of stories detailing Chinese heroic legends, & knew of ancient China, he knew nothing about Romance. Gonta decided to give Romance a read but was put off early on by all of the embellishments, deciding instead to read Records, upon which he essentially decided "If you're going to embellish, then at least make it interesting". Therefore, with help from Korean writer (& former film director) Hagin Yi, the now King Gonta debuted Souten Kouro/Beyond the Heavens in the pages of Kodansha's Morning magazine in late 1994, a manga adaptation of the life of Cao Cao that took primarily from Records of the Three Kingdoms, but also some elements from Romance as well as the occasional original embellishment by Gonta & Yi; Gonta has admitted that making Cao Cao the main character was Yi's idea. Sadly, Hagin Yi would pass away from liver cancer on September 22, 1998, leaving King Gonta to continue making Souten Kouro on his own, and in late 2005 the manga came to an end after 409 chapters across 36 volumes, winning the Kodansha Manga Award for General Manga (alongside Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji) in 1998, the same year Hagin Yi passed away.
On April 8, 2009 a TV anime adaptation of Souten Kouro done by Madhouse debuted on NTV, replacing baseball/gambling anime One Outs, and in fact was produced by the same companies that had produced Madhouse's unofficial trilogy of gambling anime, i.e. VAP, NTV, & D.N. Dream Partners (Kaiji & One Outs only for that last one). The Souten Kouro anime would also be the final production ever directed by venerated animator Toyoo Ashida (Fist of the North Star, Vampire Hunter D OVA), & be Ashida's penultimate anime in general, before passing away in mid-2011 at the age of 67. So, after having reviewed various anime adaptations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms throughout this year, with the majority putting the focus on Liu Bei as the primary focal point (and one technically focusing on Wu), let's bring it all to an end with the sole anime Romance adaptation that dared to look at things from the perspective of probably the most divisive man of the era, Cao Cao of Wei. Yes, I know that there's one other direct anime adaptation of Romance, but there is no complete English translation for it yet... and I honestly feel like I've experienced more than enough anime Romance in a single year.
Growing up in the late Han dynasty, Cao Cao (the grandson of Cao Teng, who was once the most respected & revered eunuchs who worked with the Emperor) was someone who never backed down from a fight when challenged, feeling that no one can hide from what the Heavens itself has decreed for them. He killed a man when he was a child after he was robbed, and at age 16 managed to acquire a group calling themselves the "Blast Gang" after defeating their old leader via rhetoric & a sneak attack. As time would go on Cao Cao would find himself at odds with Zhang Rang, head of the Ten Attendants who effectively ruled over the land due to their influence over the current Emperor, all while slowly working his way up the ranks, from a simple commandant of the Luoyang north gate to a part of the group that would fight against the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Once the Han's already tenuous control of China breaks, though, Cao Cao finally has the chance to see if he can become the man who can rule over the land... should the Heavens above deem him worthy of doing so, as there are other men out there with similar ambitions, like the charismatic Liu Bei, the tyrannical Dong Zhuo, the brutal Lü Bu, & his childhood friend/rival Yuan Shao.
Since this is more of an actual adaptation of Records & Romance we can first start by going over how the Souten Kouro anime is split up, in regards to the major events of the original (historical) story. Episodes 1 to 5 showcase Cao Cao's initial rise in status, from his child & teenage years to his time as both Commandant of the North Gate & Prefect of Dunqiu, while also eventually introducing Liu Bei, Guan Yu, & Zhang Fei to the story with their iconic Peach Garden Oath. Episodes 6 to 8 detail the rise of the Way of Peace led by Zhang Jiao & the Yellow Turban Rebellion they would have against the Han, which would see Cao Cao show his abilities as a wartime leader. Episodes 9 to 11 show the rise of Dong Zhuo as de facto Emperor, & his acquisition of Lü Bu, plus the attempt at a coalition to depose him, culminating in the Battle of Sishui Pass. Episodes 12 to 15 detail a number of simultaneous events, namely Sun Jian discovering the Imperial Seal (& his subsequent death), Diaochan's plan to kill Dong Zhuo via Lü Bu, & Cao Cao amassing a proper force of his own via the Qingzhou Army. Episodes 16 to 22, in turn, show the various twists & turns that happen in a post-Dong Zhuo China, including Cao Cao getting Emperor Liu Xian on his side, Liu Bei losing to Xu Province to Lü Bu, Cao Cao ending Yuan Shu's feeble attempt at crowning himself Emperor, & climaxing with Lü Bu's last stand at the Battle of Xiapi. Finally, Episodes 23 to 26 detail the last bits of what's really the remains of the pre-Three Kingdoms era of China, including Guan Yu finding himself having to work under Cao Cao, before culminating in the midst of the Battle of Guandu between Cao Cao & Yuan Shao. While I have no idea how far into the manga this anime adapts up to, from a historical perspective this essentially covers the first half of Cao Cao's career, from his humble(?) beginnings to him on the verge of becoming the ruler of Northern China.
 |
| This image perfectly encapsulates the relationship between Liu Bei & Cao Cao in the anime. |
As mentioned during the introduction, King Gonta was not impressed with the kinds of embellishments he saw in (what little he read of) Romance, so for Souten Kouro he primary worked off of Records for the overall plot & decided to toss in his own embellishments... and that's very easy to see early on in the anime. For example, there's no indication (from what I can tell) that Cao Cao was the leader of a gang growing up, with said group even being the backbone of his forces during his first post as Commandant. There's also no indication that Cao Cao had any personal vendetta against any of the Ten Attendants, though he certainly was no supporter of their corruption. Therefore, King Gonta decided to have some fun early on by turning Cao Cao into someone who wound up having a personal feud with Zhang Rang due to the latter stealing away a woman he had fallen in love with, but wound up dying during an attempt to take her back, which itself turns into a fun bit of back & forth between him & the Attendants in trying to outsmart the other, all while Cao Cao tries to find out the truth behind the Partisan Prohibitions (a prior, failed, attempt at deposing the Attendants). In history Cao Cao did indeed try to convince Emperor Ling about the Prohibitions & the Attendants' corruption, but with completely different context. This also results both 100% fictional characters, like Shui-Jing (the foreign woman who was Cao Cao's first, & true, love), as well as natural embellishments with actual people, like Cao Cao's strategist Xun Yu being introduced as (at best) a young teen when he joins Cao Cao, instead of being in his late 20s, though by the halfway point he ages up to a (rather disheveled, but brilliant) young man. There's also Zhang Huan, who here is the man who the Attendants fooled into ending the lives of those who tried to do the Prohibitions, & went into seclusion in response before being recruited as one of Cao Cao's early generals, though he's only around for the first third of the show, or so. This reliance on Records also changes Chen Gong's relationship with Cao Cao, as the whole story of Cao Cao's failed attempt at assassinating Dong Zhuo was a 100% a Romance addition, so now Chen Gong isn't introduced as a soldier who helped Cao Cao escape capture, but rather is first seen as a tactician who simply doesn't like the way Cao Cao handles business.
This also certainly applies to the main cast as well, and especially when it comes to Cao Cao. Make no mistake, while Cao Cao is the main character for this series & is portrayed in more of a humanizing light than in some other adaptations, he's still very much the manipulative & cunning man he's always shown to be, so much so that he's sometimes seen to be possibly planning things out multiple steps in advance. For example, when he institutes a "No one can use the North Gate at night" rule with physical punishment as the consequence, regardless of the rules breaker's standing, he winds up killing the uncle of one of the Ten Attendants in the process, so as to show how serious he is with the rule. In turn, the nephew Attendant decides to use the uncle of the Emperor to teach Cao Cao a lesson, and the uncle is indeed physically punished for breaking the rule... but when the Attendant tries a surprise appearance to show that Cao Cao has killed a member of the Imperial family Cao Cao eventually reveals that he did not kill the Emperor's uncle, and instead staged things to simply make it look like he did so to prove that the Attendant used the uncle as a potential sacrifice against Cao Cao. In other words, Cao Cao almost instantly knew that the uncle breaking the rule was a ploy against him, and instead worked with the uncle to get back at the Attendant, all while also potentially giving Cao Cao an ally within the Imperial family. At the same time, though, Cao Cao is also a very practical & pragmatic man, showing no hesitation in using the most straightforward solution to a problem, like deciding to burn all of the Yellow Turban's supplies after defeating the forces guarding them, because reinforcements were coming & smoldering remains would hit their morale hard... but in doing so Cao Cao also killed an entire squadron of his fellow Imperial forces, as well as his superior officer who was leading them to gather said supplies. Again, Cao Cao in this series values loyalty & talent on his side, but he's more than willing to "betray the world" & look like the villain if doing so brings about the best result; plus, there are still other people out there even worse than him.
As mentioned, the basic concept behind Souten Kouro was to tell the story of Records/Romance as though it was a Broadway musical, and while characters don't actually sing in this series (except for maybe one... sort of) it absolutely plays up the overly dramatic & (for lack of a better term) "extra" vibe of a Broadway musical. Simply put, almost nothing done in this series is handled with too much subtlety, and Cao Cao in particular is now shown to be the man behind major events. The Way of Peace turning into the Yellow Turban Rebellion is now because of Cao Cao, who anonymously sends a message to Zhang Jiao that inspires the leader of the Way to rebel against the Han. Same with the coalition against Dong Zhuo, which is brought together by a more direct letter from Cao Cao; Cao Cao even singlehandedly rallies the soldiers up simply by screaming from the top of a cliff, as seen above. Liu Bei is seen here as an extremely easy going & even lackadaisical man who doesn't always seem to think things through completely, to the point where he can sometimes come off as a bit of buffoon, but is so utterly charismatic when he talks that he can inspire people to his cause. Liu Bei is definitely interesting in Souten Kouro, because in many ways he has the self-confidence, charisma, & outwardly likable nature of a con man who's only out for benefitting himself & making others do the work for him, but in reality he's 100% earnest & honest about his dream of unifying the land so that everyone can smile. He has moments of con man-like selfishness & self-preservation, but can't say no to people truly in need, and more often than not he's portrayed as simply being a man who finds himself way in over his head. This anime is also the first Romance adaptation to have no qualms with showing bloodshed & people being cut up & decapitated (though it never goes into outright gore), emphasizing how violent the conflicts could be, which brings us to Lü Bu.
While Souten Kouro can sometimes feel like its on the verge of being "Romance of the Three Kingdoms By Way of Fist of the North Star", especially with how "manly" the characters tend to be designed, the actual characters themselves are still relatively realistic in how physically powerful they are... except for Lü Bu. Simply put, Lü Bu in Souten Kouro is effectively the equivalent to Fist's Raoh, as while Dong Zhuo's adopted son isn't shooting out ki waves or the like he is nothing short of a walking eviscerator, capable of turning normal soldiers into bloody heaps with a single swing of his weapons, creating giant blood geysers if hordes try to stop him together, and almost any time he appears literal electricity arcs across his body; it makes someone like Guan Yu look all the more impressive when he can stand toe to toe with Lü Bu. Not just that, but when Lü Bu belts out guttural roars he's the closest thing to Souten Kouro actually being a musical, because rather than have Lü Bu's roars sound like your standard screams they instead sound as though he's singing; imagine if an opera singer roared as part of a song he was singing & you'll have Souten Kouro's Lü Bu. I've seen many interpretations of Lü Bu, some of which I absolutely love (like in Yokoyama Sangokushi & Dynasty Warriors), but I think Souten Kouro might just be my personal favorite version because he is truly more a force of nature than an actual man, and once he debuts in Episode 9 you can tell why he goes on to be the main overarching antagonist of the anime, at least for most of it. In fact, it can feel a little odd that there are four more episodes after Lü Bu's involvement in the story is over, simply because of the sheer presence that's now gone.
However, and maybe this is a consequence of how the manga was adapted (I don't know how far in it goes, but it's definitely more than six of seven volumes, that's for sure), all of this does comes at the expense of much of the supporting cast being given little to nothing, both in terms of relevance & development. Yes, this series is primarily about Cao Cao first & foremost, but outside of him the only allies of his that get any sort of truly notable screen time are Xun Yu, Xu Chu, Zhang Huan (though, again, he's only around for the first third or so), & Xiahou Dun... and even Xiahou Dun only gets so much in terms of "development", mainly amounting to the legend of his eye getting shot with an arrow, upon which he plucked it out & promptly ate it. For example, Dian Wei appears in literally just one episode prior to the one detailing his ultimate fate, which in turn makes it hard to really care about what happens to him unless you already knew something about him, while other members of Cao Cao's "Four Heavenly Kings" (Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Xiahou Yuan) make numerous appearances throughout the anime but barely get anything of note that happens to them. Hell, Zhang Liao doesn't appear as one of Lü Bu's generals until Episode 20, despite him appearing in the OP sequence since the beginning. The inclusion of Sun Ce & (especially) Sun Quan also feels downright pointless, as while Sun Jian's story is covered well enough his sons barely appear in the show at all, more or less amounting to nothing more than glorified cameos due to their involvement in history, namely in how Yuan Shu got the Imperial Seal. None of this necessarily ruins the Souten Kouro anime, mind you, as the stuff with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Dong Zhuo, & Lü Bu are all engaging & great, but it does feel a little disappointing that a lot of Cao Cao's major "supporting" cast feel undercooked. Hell, both Zhao Yun & Zhuge Liang appear in only a single episode each, despite both also being a part of the OP sequence for every single episode, & while Zhao Yun actually is the focus of the climax of the episode he's in Zhuge Liang's single appearance is seriously nothing more than a cameo that lasts for maybe half a minute, plays no role whatsoever, & feels more like it was done simply because he's such an iconic character of the overall Three Kingdoms story.
In terms of the staff we have, as mentioned at the start, the late Toyoo Ashida as "Chief Director", in his last time as director, though the main nuts & bolts directing was handled by Tsuneo Tominaga (They Were 11!, Initial D: Fourth Stage), with Souten Kouro also being the last anime that Tominaga would ever direct, as he's only done storyboarding & episode direction ever since. In terms of the visuals the anime definitely carries forward the style Madhouse had at the time, which means that while it's not always exquisitely fluid animation it's still very well drawn & consistent, taking advantage of limited animation tricks in smart & good ways that make you not really care, and I actually like the occasional usage of displaying certain words & phrases on screen as they're spoken for emphasis; there's also a reliance on CG when it comes to showing tons of soldiers, and it looks fine enough. The character designs were done by a group of people calling themselves "Team Indori Komuro", made up of chief animation directors Akira Kano, Cindy H. Yamauchi (who, for a time, was also the official representative for Super Techno Arts earlier that decade), & Daisuke Yoshida, alongside Akiko Matsushita, Takahiro Umehara, & Yuichiro Hayashi. Together the team does a great job adapting King Gonta's style to animation, and with Ashida overseeing the entire production it does give a feeling of legitimacy to it's "manly" veneer. The anime does apparently tone down the violence & sexuality a bit, for TV standards (even at late-night), but as mentioned there's still plenty of violence & (to a lesser extent) sexy-sexy to be had here. Despite my qualms with the lack of development for the supporting cast, I do think that Hideo Takayashiki (Akagi, Kaiji, One Outs) & his team of writers overall did about as good of a job with the storytelling as can be done. There are a handful of moments where an episode ends with what feels like a pretty major cliffhanger, only for said cliffhanger to be resolved rather quickly at the start of the next episode, & the rest of said next episode moves on to a (mostly) different subject, but I'd chalk that up more to the fact that this is still adapting a series of historical events than a flaw of the anime itself. The anime also kind of just stops suddenly during the Battle of Guandu, which is a bit odd, but I won't deny that it has a very dramatic way of coming to a sudden end.
 |
| I have seriously never seen an image that better showcases just how horrible a man Dong Zhuo was than this one here. |
Meanwhile, the music by Shusei Murai (Silver Spoon, Alice & Lilia) is simply excellent, a mostly symphonic score focusing primarily on drums & horns to match the wartime aesthetic, but with the occasional softer song led by strings for quieter & more reflective moments, as well as a couple of hard rock songs meant for battle... or simply because Lü Bu's on screen. Seriously, I fully recommend for people to listen to Souten Kouro's score, as it's amazing. As for the OP & ED themes, they're actually somewhat unexpected. OP theme "909" by Tribal Chair is a weird one, in all honesty, as while its intense hard rock sound & guttural screaming of its lyrics sound like they'd fit Souten Kouro's "manly" aesthetic... they really don't as you actually watch the show, and it's all the more bizarre when you consider that the OP version of "909" ends right as the actual song begins. Yeah, from a simple promotional perspective this OP actually fails really hard, because listening to it as part of Souten Kouro gives the wrong impression of what the actual song sounds like, and I personally really like the full version of "909". That said, I guess the "actual song" part of "909" wouldn't really fit Souten Kouro well, so I can see why only the intro was used. Meanwhile, ED theme "Pinhole" by Ogre You Asshole (who were literally named by a drunk Eric Judy, co-founder of & ex-bassist for Modest Mouse) is seriously one of my all-time favorite ED themes ever, an upbeat & airy tune that you simply want to immerse yourself in to instantly feel good (the ED sequence being nothing more than a blue sky with fast moving clouds certainly helps), and it works as an excellent counterbalance to "909".
As for the voice cast, Souten Kouro has a metric ton of people due to a relative lack of double casting, i.e. almost everyone has a unique voice actor, even if they're a small role. Leading everyone is Mamoru Miyano as Cao Cao, which is amusing to think about since just two years prior Miyano had voiced main character Lu Xun in Koutetsu Sangokushi, a role that was very much the tonal opposite of Cao Cao. However, there's no doubt that Miyano absolutely nailed Cao Cao excellently here, delivering the perfect mix of self-assured cockiness, one-upmanship, & braggadocio needed for the character, but also hitting the rare moment of reflection needed for the character once in a blue moon. Another notable performance comes from Hochu Otsuka as Dong Zhuo, who doesn't exactly have the same vocal delivery as prior voice actors when it comes to the character, but Otsuka's style winds up matching the character very well, especially once he starts getting angry & arrogant. Then there's Rikiya Koyama as Lü Bu, who is given an echo modulation to his voice whenever speaks (except for private thoughts in his head) to emphasize the sheer power & force of the character, and I feel Koyama's experience as a theater actor is what helped make him truly sell Lü Bu's singing-like roars & general speaking voice. Then there's Liu Bei, who here is voiced by Tomokazu Seki & does a similarly excellent job by making the future founder of Shu mostly upbeat & excited, but also quickly agitated, scared, & way in over his head on a dime. Finally, when it comes to "major" performances I should also shout out Ryusei Nakao as the Narrator. Yes, similar to how Akagi had Tohru Furuya & Kaiji had Fumihiko Tachiki, Madhouse cast an iconic seiyu with a distinct voice as the narrator for Souten Kouro, and while Nakao's narration is rather straightforward his unique voice makes it sound memorable; I mean, you can't really beat having Frieza narrate the events of Romance.
As for the rest of the cast, it's way too massive to really cover every notable seiyu that's here, but here are some notable or interesting castings I noticed. Takeshi Kusao's Xiahou Dun was actually rather good, giving his gruff & battle-hardened style some shine, and I really wish the character appeared more often so that I could enjoy Kusao's performance more. Fumihiko Tachiki's Jia Xu was another highlight, a later appearing character who's seen here mainly acting as a tactician foe for Cao Cao, before eventually joining him (only to then never appear again in the show). Likewise, Hiroki Yasumoto's Zhang Liao was very well done, but the character appears in only the last few episodes to really be given much to work with. Kenichi Morozumi's Guan Yu is probably the one I have the most mixed feelings towards, as while Morozumi's performance itself was really good I just could never shake the feeling that his voice didn't quite "fit" Guan Yu, sounding more aged than the traditionally regal voice that most others go for; that being said, Liu Bei always called him "Mr. Guan" here, so maybe that was the point. Romi Park voiced Diaochan & I honestly couldn't even tell until looking it up because there was little to no sign of her "usual" voice to be heard; a rare time she gets to perform more of a femme fatale than the usual males she tends to voice. Toshiharu Sakurai's Xu Chu was also a lot of fun, delivering an admittedly "big guy" performance but also taking advantage of the character's ability to belt out a booming voice for many to hear. Finally, Souten Kouro is also notable for being the only anime to ever cast legendary Hong Kong cinema director John Woo for a role, as he had a vocal cameo as "Shi Changshi X" in Episode 4 as a way to help promote the second part of his Red Cliff movie duology debuting in Japan at the time. However, Woo's cameo is only in the TV version of the episode, and I honestly couldn't tell you which character he actually voiced, as "Shi Changshi X" is never named as such outside of the credits. My best guess is that Woo voiced the soldier who informs Cao Cao that he'll be the new Prefect of Dunqiu, a literal single line of dialog at the end of the episode.
Cao Cao tends to play the antagonistic role in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and while Souten Kouro does play against type somewhat by making him the focal point & main character it doesn't really "soften" the general image of the man all that much. Yes, the anime does portray him in a bit of a more relatable light in some ways, but at the same time the Cao Cao in this series openly has no qualms about looking like the villain, and in the last episode outright says that only one with true "darkness" in his soul can be the one to take finally him down. Overall, the Souten Kouro anime is a really damn good series, and easily my second favorite anime adaptation of Romance, though it's also definitely an odd duck when you think about it. Upon first glance, what with the "manly" visual style & intense hard rock OP theme, you'd think that this would be more "Romance of the Three Kingdoms By Way of Fist of the North Star", but it really isn't... except for Lü Bu that is. Instead, it really does stay true to the whole "Broadway" aspect by simply being a rather straightforward adaptation of Records/Romance, though through the lens of Cao Cao, except that it has moments where it heavily dramatizes certain events for effect & flair, embellishes scenes in different ways than Romance did, and very much embraces the violence & bloodshed of the era more than any of the other anime adaptations before it did. For those who are fans of Romance (or at least Dynasty Warriors) I'd absolutely call this a bit of an essential watch, because it's definitely a notably different take in a lot of ways, while still feeling familiar in others; plus it has what may be my all-time favorite interpretation of Lü Bu... ever.
However, Souten Kouro is absolutely not a series I'd recommend for people who are more new or unfamiliar with the story of Romance, as the focus on Cao Cao (& Liu Bei, to some extent as well) does come at the expense of the vast majority of the other characters, especially in this (what amounts to the 1/3) point of the overall story. As mentioned in the review, while Cao Cao's "Four Heavenly Kings" appear throughout the anime they all get next to nothing to really work with, outside of Xiahou Dun... and even then it's not much. Meanwhile, other major characters in Romance, like Sun Quan, Zhao Yun, & Zhuge Liang, make singular appearances that play absolutely no factor in the story that the anime adapts up to, making their very appearances meaningless overall. This is 100% a series about Cao Cao & how he was pretty much the "magnificent bastard" of his era, confounding his tacticians with strategies that seemingly make no logical sense until he executes them, enraging his foes with his seemingly aloof behavior (that actually hid his utter contempt for certain people), and making those who for all intents & purposes were his pawns (like Emperor Xian) know, without a shadow of a doubt, their roles in his grand scheme, one that was seemingly guided purely off of what the Heavens above wanted of him at each moment. I feel as though Souten Kouro works best if one already knows how Cao Cao is traditionally portrayed, rather than act as an introduction to the man.
-----
And with that we've come to the end of my look at various "direct" anime adaptations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I hope you've had as much of a fun time reading these pieces as I had writing them, and overall I think this entire endeavor shows just how good of a story Romance truly is. Despite experiencing the same general story multiple times over it never truly felt boring or repetitive, as each adaptation offered something different & unique from the others that made going through the same moments & events multiple times worth it. If I had to pick just one that "best" represented Romance in anime form, & is a perfect entry point for newcomers, it would be Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but all of them offer something interesting, in some way.
Anime © King Gonta·Hagin Yi/Kodansha·VAP·NTV·D.N. Dream Partners
No comments:
Post a Comment