Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Part 1): Do Not Pursue Lü Bu!

Born some time in 161 AD/CE in Zhuo County (now Zhuozhou, Baoding, Hebei), China, Liu Bei (courtesy name Xuande) allegedly was a descendant of Liu Sheng, ninth son of Emperor Jing and the first King of Zhongshan during the Han dynasty. However, other historians have traced Liu Bei's heritage to that of the "Marquis of Linyi", which could either be Liu Fu or Liu Rang, who were two of Liu Sheng's brothers. Regardless, this meant that Liu Bei was of royal heritage, but while his grandfather Liu Xiong eventually became prefect of Fan in Dong commandery his father Liu Hong sadly passed away young, resulting in Liu Bei growing up poor due to Han decree regarding inheritance (& Liu Bei's own distant heritage) leaving he & his mother with barely any money; for all intents & purposes, Liu Bei was a commoner. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion started up in 184, & the Han asked the commonfolk for assistance, Liu Bei rallied his own troop to help out, which included Zhang Fei & Guan Yu, two men he (according to apocrypha) made a blood oath with in a peach garden after meeting & befriending them. After the Rebellion was fought back against & China entered an era of splintered turmoil Liu Bei would slowly become known for his benevolence & humanity, especially when compared to the more practical & sometimes cutthroat Cao Cao, eventually managing to establish the kingdom of Shu Han in 221, though Liu Bei himself would pass away on June 10, 223.

When it comes to Romance of the Three Kingdoms Liu Bei (&, in turn, Shu) is often treated as the de facto "hero" of the story, due to him rising up from poverty & suffering many defeats early on, only to continue fighting & eventually become the ruler of one of the titular Three Kingdoms; there's also an element of the "divine right of kings" due to his royal heritage. Therefore, it only makes sense that the very first TV anime adaptation of Romance, though technically detailing all three sides to some extent, would focus primarily on Liu Bei's side of the story.

Come the end of 1970 mangaka Mitsuteru Yokoyama was arguably already a legend of the industry, having previously made iconic & trendsetting manga like Tetsujin 28 (1956-1966), Sally the Witch (1966-1967), Iga no Kagemaru (1961-1966), Kamen no Ninja Akakage (1966-1967), & Giant Robo (1967-1972). Yokoyama would continue that trend in 1971 with the debut of Babel II, while also bringing to an end an eight-volume manga adaptation of Suikoden/Water Margin, one of the Classic Chinese Novels, as Yokoyama was also a fan of making manga based on history. Suikoden was serialized in the magazine Kibou no Tomo (previously Kibou Life), which throughout its history has been known to publish manga based on history & folklore, including Osamu Tezuka's iconic Buddha & part of Yukinobu Hoshino's Professor Munakata Series. Kibou no Tomo's publisher Ushio Shuppan is also affiliated with the infamous Soka Gakkai, but its various manga have no direct connection to that organization; Soka Gakkai has another publisher specifically for stuff relating to its own executives. Anyway, after finishing up his adaptation of Suikoden, Yokoyama would begin a new historical manga for Kibou no Tomo, though this next one would be much more grand in scale: A manga adaptation of Sangokushi/Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

It is worth noting that, by this point, most of the Japanese populace had become familiar with Sangokushi by way of a re-telling done by novelist Eiji Yoshikawa that was originally serialized in newspapers from 1939 to 1943, i.e. during World War II. Comprised of only 10 volumes in total, Yoshikawa's Sangokushi was a bit of an altered adaptation in some ways, namely when it came to further romanticizing the "main" characters, and notably stopped at Zhuge Liang's death during the Battle of Wuzhang Plains in 234, 46 years before the actual end of the era in 280, when Jin conquered Wu & unified China. I bring this up because, though technically based on Yoshikawa's version of the story, Yokoyama's manga didn't stop at Wuzhang Plains, but instead actually went all the way to the very end of Luo Guangzhong's 14th century novel. Because of this, Yokoyama's Sangokushi would run from 1974 to 1987, during which Kibou no Tomo would get renamed to both Shonen World (in 1978) & later Comic Tom (in 1980), and eventually totaled 60 volumes, making it Yokoyama's longest single work in his entire catalog, with some considering it his magnum opus; as of May 2020 it has sold over 80 million copies, roughly tying titles like Tokyo Revengers & Fullmetal Alchemist. Much like how Yoshikawa's version helped popularize the story of the Three Kingdoms in Japan for many generations, Yokoyama's manga is seemingly considered just as influential when it comes to how the country interprets that era of Chinese history.

In the mid-80s NTV & Shin-Ei Animation would produce a pair of Sangokushi anime TV specials that ostensibly claimed to be based on Yokoyama's manga, so much so that Hikari Production co-owns the copyright to them with Shin-Ei, but in reality aren't; I covered those (in comparison to Shinano Kikaku's theatrical film trilogy) back in February. However, an actual anime adaptation would debut on TV Tokyo on October 18, 1991, though the companies behind it were nothing that one would normally expect for anime. Namely, the animation studio behind it was AZ (pronounced A-Z[et]), which had previously only worked on the majority of the Raven Tengu Kabuto TV anime for NTV in 1990, and following this anime would never be seen again. Also, the main producer for this TV anime was... Dai Nippon Printing, a general printing company that had literally never done anything like this, both before & after, at least when it comes to being the company that fronts the main share of the money for an anime & thereby co-owns the copyright, with Hikari Production. Now, to be fair, DNP co-produced this anime with Yu Entertainment, a short-lived company founded by Kenji Yoshida, one of the "Yoshida Brothers" who co-founded Tatsunoko & had previously been that studio's second president, following Tatsuo Yoshida's passing. Still, DNP's direct involvement shows just how big of a deal this anime, simply titled Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi/Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, was at the time by being the first TV anime adaptation of Romance, and it would run for 47 episodes before ending on September 25, 1992, stopping with the conclusion of the Battle of Chibi, which was roughly the halfway point of the manga. Since it's so long I'll be splitting this review up into two parts, so let's see how the first 22 episodes of Yokoyama Sangokushi (as I'll be calling it from here on out, for simplicity's sake) fare.

The Land of Obscusion's Hot-Blooded Ranking of Masami Kurumada's Manga! #7 to #1 (Kurumada's Long-Runners)

When it comes to legendary mangaka, most tend to have just one iconic work that everyone instantly thinks of, even if that individual actually has multiple long-running manga in their catalog. Masami Kurumada is a perfect example of that, as pretty much all anyone ever thinks of is Saint Seiya, his 28-volume Shonen Jump series that ran from 1986 to 1990. However, the truth of the matter is that by the time Seiya's first chapter debuted in early 1986 (technically late 1985, but let's not get pedantic here) he had already been a notable & influential success in Japan for about a decade, and even after Seiya came to an end would go on to continue to be a notable success during the 90s. This, in turn, would essentially allow him to be given carte blanche from then on out, starting in 2000, where he could pretty much make whatever manga he wanted, & at whatever pace he wanted to make it at, without fear of it being cancelled due to a lack of popularity. In fact, in the 2010s he even revived a manga that had previously been cancelled literal decades prior in the 80s, due to a lack of popularity, & finally saw it to completion, which is something that is rarely seen in manga, even by some of its most iconic & popular creators.

Therefore, I do feel that it is a bit of a disservice to only think of Masami Kurumada as "The Saint Seiya Guy", as it would also be to consider Akira Toriyama "The Dragon Ball Guy", Rumiko Takahashi "The InuYasha Girl", Tetsuo Hara "The Fist of the North Star Guy", Go Nagai "The Devilman Guy", Gosho Aoyama "The Detective Conan Guy", or Shotaro Ishinomori "The Cyborg 009 Guy". Sure, there are shared themes, concepts, & (especially) character designs across Kurumada's various works, but there are plenty of differences between his titles, and especially in the long-runners. However, to really notice those elements that do make each title unique is to really read each of them & look for those differences... and since only two of Kurumada's long-runners have ever received official English releases (& also, to this day, remain the only ones with complete English translations, official or otherwise) it's something that most people don't really have the ability to take note of. That's been the major reason why I wanted to review all of Kurumada's works here on the blog, as aside from giving my own personal opinion on each of them (& satiate my own curiosity, as well) I also just wanted there to be some sort of detailed English write-up on each of them, so that there might be something out there to explain the differences between each work & showcase the career of Kurumada himself; that's also why I held off on reviewing Saint Seiya for so long.

In total, there are seven long-running manga from Masami Kurumada, with the "shortest" of them all being 10 volumes long. Having now given proper reviews to all of them at some point between 2013 & 2025, there's only one question remaining: How would I personally rank them? Let's find out!

The Land of Obscusion's Hot-Blooded Ranking of Masami Kurumada's Manga! #14 to #8 (Kurumada's Short-Run Works)

I normally don't really bother to do rankings here on The Land of Obscusion, and that's mainly because there's always that feeling of definitiveness to them, that the order one gives to rankings should feel more or less final. However, I will make an exception this time around for a simple reason: I have now covered all of Masami Kurumada's "major" works in his catalog of manga. Ever since debuting in 1974 Kurumada has made a wide variety of manga, and here on this blog I most recently reviewed Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, which was the last remaining long-running manga left for me to write about. Of course, this doesn't mean that I have covered literally every single manga Kurumada himself has ever made, but at this point all that remains are seven, made up of a trio of one-shots (Mikeneko Rock, Sei'ya ni Kane wa Naru, & a teaser for the Saint Seiya Tenkai-hen movie), a trio of short-run Saint Seiya midquels (Episode Zero, Origin, & Destiny), & the Fuma no Kojirou midquel (Asuka Mumyou-cho) that he's still currently in the middle of making (but I doubt will go for more than a volume), plus whatever future manga he'll eventually make.

Therefore... how would I rank all of the "major" Kurumada manga?

It's like some bizarre, (mostly) bishonen,
likely violent Brady Bunch!

So, to begin with, a few of ground rules to establish. First, one-shots are not included in this ranking, which therefore DQs Mabudachi Jingi, Shiro Obi Taisho, & the Jitsuroku! Shinwakai quartet from contention; everything being ranked is a multi-chapter run. Second, only manga drawn by Masami Kurumada himself count, so no spin-offs (especially since I've only fully read two of them). Finally, the reason why I feel fine doing a ranking now, despite still missing seven Kurumada manga, is because the remainder are either one-shots (so they'd be DQ-ed regardless) or they are supplemental works (namely to Saint Seiya & Fuma no Kojirou) that arguably wouldn't be able to stand on their own. Sure, this ranking includes two sequel manga, but both of those are long-runners, so they have more than enough content to them that they can both stand on their own as individual works. With that in mind this results in 14 different Kurumada manga eligible for ranking (in chronological order): Sukeban Arashi, Ring ni Kakero, Fuma no Kojirou, Raimei no Zaji, Otoko Zaka, Saint Seiya, Aoi Tori no Shinwa - Blue Myth Overture, Silent Knight Sho, Akane-Iro no Kaze -Shinsengumi Keppu-ki-, B't X, Evil Crusher Maya, Ring ni Kakero 2, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, & Ai no Jidai -Ichigo Ichie-. While this allows me to split this ranking up evenly across two parts (#14 to #8 & #7 to #1), it also coincidentally enough results in the lower half being all of Kurumada's short-run works, while the upper half is all of Kurumada's long-running works, so it also effectively acts as separate rankings of both his short-run & long-running manga.

So, without further ado, here is how I personally would rank Kurumada's "major" manga, starting with his short-run work:

Obscusion B-Side: Heart Breaker: Dangan Yori Ai wo Komete: It's Not Hammer, It's Not Michael... It's Diamond✡Yukai!

With this blog being focused primarily around anime & manga, there's no surprise that I've covered a variety of anime that were released straight to the home video/rental market, i.e. the Original Video Animation, or OVA... but what about the live-action side of things? Interestingly enough, while the OVA got its start back in 1983 with Dallos, & the concept of "direct-to-video" seemingly started in North America with 1984's E. Nick: A Legend in His Own Mind by CineTel Films (so, yes, technically anime was the first to do it!), it wouldn't be until 1989 that Japan started to give (live-action) direct-to-video a go. In the late 80s the Japanese film industry was hitting a bit of a slump, only releasing around 250 films per year on average, while rental stores were becoming really popular... which included ones that were operating illegally & renting out pirated copies of films. Wanting to "make a legitimate business" out of this market, Toei Video decided to launch what it called "V-Cinema", a line meant solely for direct-to-video movies aimed specifically at the rental market, which by then was starting to see a decline in popularity but Toei felt could still support a niche market reliably. The first Toei V-Cinema film would be Crime Hunter: Ikari no Jyudan/Bullets of Rage on March 10, 1989 & was a notable success, prompting Toei Video to produce more & more titles. This resulted in V-Cinema becoming an iconic & influential part of Japan's film industry throughout the 90s, giving many actors, directors, & the like their first big breaks in the industry, including Riki Takeuchi, Show Aikawa, Takashi Miike, & Kiyoshi Kurosawa (whose infamous Sweet Home I reviewed back in 2018); it's even the origin of some iconic franchises, like Ju-On. Though it's slowed down heavily since the mid-00s, V-Cinema is still produced by Toei to this very day, while the term itself has since become associated with the direct-to-video market in general over in Japan, despite still being trademarked by Toei, similar to terms like digicam, scotch tape, aspirin, jello, etc.

Taken from the PV, as it's much more interesting
than either of the actual title slates in the movie.

Come 1992, V-Cinema's success had created a direct-to-video boom that led to other studios producing their own similar movies, with Toei Video producer Kazuo Kato later stating that the market had become so inundated with content that it got hard to tell what was what & (outside of V-Cinema still being a Toei-trademarked label) where it came from. This wasn't helped in any way by the fact that, by & large, most of these direct-to-video films were either action-heavy, yakuza flicks, or relied on lots of nudity & erotica. Therefore, some efforts were made to offer something different for the V-Cinema label, and one of those was a film titled Heart Breaker: Dangan Yori Ai wo Komete/From Love with a Bullet; there seem to be conflicting reports on whether it came out in 1992 or 1993. Instead of what had already become a "standard" V-Cinema this one went in a completely different direction by being a bit of a mystery film featuring, and I quote, "an all-musician cast & MTV-influenced hard action"; yes, this was a "dance action movie". Not just that, but the entire musical score for the film was composed by a young artist named Akio Togashi, who would shortly re-debut under a new moniker, m.c.A·T ("Microphone Controller Akio Togashi"). In fact, the first song Togashi would release under this new moniker would be a little song he first made for Heart Breaker, "Bomb A Head!". Now, if you're of a certain generation of anime fan (like me) you might be familiar with "Bomb A Head!" via m.c.A·T's 2004 self-cover, "Bomb A Head! V", which wound up being the OP theme to the TV anime adaptation of Tenjho Tenge & is, quite frankly, one of the coolest anime OP themes ever.

Yes, this is a rather silly reason to want to watch & write about a film... but Heart Breaker is actually considered a cult classic in Japan. In 1995 Kinema Junpo (Japan's oldest film magazine) ranked it #5 in the All Time Best Ten Japanese Movies' "Original Video" category, & in 2014 Toei Video itself considered it one of the 25 best titles in all of V-Cinema for the label's 25th Anniversary (alongside the likes of Ju-On 1 & 2, Crime Hunter, & Lady Battle Cop [i.e. "Female RoboCop"]), with Toei Video seemingly keeping it in print on DVD to this very day because of that. I was able to buy a brand new copy off of Amazon Japan just last year for around $15, and the YouTube channel FulciZombie's Film Grave uploaded it with English subs (via the captions) just last year; amazing that Toei Video didn't already copyright claim that yet. Therefore, what started off as an amusing little bit of amusement has turned into legit curiosity, so time to see if Heart Breaker truly is as good & memorable as it apparently is.