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.
Liu Bei is a simple farmer who lives with his mother & helps teach the children of the village he lives in. One day, though, two warriors named Guan Yu & Zhang Fei approach Liu Bei, having heard of him from Gongsun Zan, an officer for the Han who Liu Bei befriended during their shared tutelage under Lu Zhi. With the Han dynasty currently dealing with the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Guan Yu & Zhang Fei have come to ask Liu Bei to help form a volunteer army to deal with the rebels. While Liu Bei certainly has considered joining the fight he feels he has little to offer, but after the Yellow Turbans attack his village Liu Bei is left no choice but to lead Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, & his fellow villagers who suffered from the attack as his own force. However, the Yellow Turban Rebellion is merely the start of constant conflict within China, brought about by the sheer corruption within the Han itself due to the Ten Eunuchs who are able to manipulate Emperor Ling, & while Liu Bei slowly finds growing support for him to eventually be a leader there are others with similar plans. There's Cao Cao, whose ambitions for ruling the land are greater than anyone thinks. There's also Sun Jian, patriarch of the Sun Family who comes across the Imperial Seal after it's hidden away for safekeeping, thinking that the discovery proves that the Sun are destined to rule over the land. Finally, there's Lü Bu, possibly the strongest warrior in all of China... and it'll take the combined effort of Liu Bei & Cao Cao to put a stop to him.
If you're wondering why I'm only covering the first 22 episodes of Yokoyama Sangokushi in this review, instead of splitting things more "evenly" (like 23/24 or 24/23), it's because this stretch of episodes climaxes with the end of Lü Bu's involvement in history, which has always been treated as sort of the "end of the first part" of the story of Romance. Anyway, since we have a lot more time with a TV series to cover the events of (some portion of) Romance it'd probably be best to mention what parts these episodes cover, from a general perspective. Episodes 1-3 introduce Liu Bei, Guan Yu, & Zhang Fei (plus a quick introduction for Cao Cao) & focus on their involvement in quashing the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Episodes 4-6 detail Liu Bei & his "brothers" as they abandon their post (out of disdain for the Han's corruption) & wander about the land, all while the capital of Luoyang finds itself in turmoil due to the Ten Eunuchs & the death of Emperor Ling, which eventually results in Dong Zhuo effectively taking control of China, using the Imperial family as a proxy. Episodes 7-15, in turn, see Dong Zhuo as the primary "villain", as all the other generals (including Liu Bei) do what they can to end Dong Zhuo's tyranny via a coalition army, made difficult by the fact that he managed to get Lü Bu on his side early on, as well as the simple fact that the coalition generals have their own individual ambitions that result in clashing egos. The climax of this stretch is the two-part story of Diaochan, who manipulates Dong Zhuo & Lü Bu against each other. Finally, Episodes 16-22 detail the various encounters between Liu Bei, Cao Cao, & Lü Bu that eventually culminate in the Battle of Xiapi, in which Liu Bei & Cao Cao agree to work together to deal with Lü Bu once & for all.
Naturally, compared to the two movie series I previously covered, Yokoyama Sangokushi being a full-on TV series that ran for nearly an entire year means that this anime is able to include moments that would normally just be glanced over, if not outright skipped, otherwise. For example, Episode 2 covers Liu Bei actually reuniting with Lu Zhi, wanting to pay him back for the education he provided a decade prior, only for the end result being Lu Zhi getting arrested on false charges because he refused to give a visiting Han officer a bribe; in most other adaptations of Romance Lu Zhi's very existence is pretty much ignored. Similarly, Episode 3 sees Liu Bei's forces take on the "magic" of Zhang Bao (Zhang Liao's brother, not the future son of Zhang Fei), which helps lead to the end of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. However, Liu Bei isn't given proper credit & rewarded with a small county to oversee until the eunuchs decide to do so simply to shoo him away from the capital; other adaptations do mention Liu Bei getting some land, but tend to ignore the details regarding why he got it. The show does this all throughout so there are lots of fine details to see, like extra emphasis being given towards Lü Bu's legendary horse Red Hare & how fast it can run, Yuan Shao self-sabotaging his own anti-Dong Zhuo coalition by refusing to send supplies out to Sun Jian during a stalemate solely because he fears Sun Jian's own ambitions, dedicating an entire episode to Sun Jian finding the Imperial Seal, Lü Bu forcing Liu Bei & Ji Ling to simply stop fighting by way of his sweet archery skills (& a lot of luck), & introducing Chen Gui & his song Chen Deng a few episodes before they become relevant in helping take down Lü Bu so that it doesn't come off as sudden. The end result is an anime that truly helps you better appreciate the story of Romance & all of the various players, schemes, battles, & scenarios found within it, both large & small. In fact, due to the sheer size of the overall cast, Yokoyama Sangokushi pulls a Legend of the Galactic Heroes & uses on-screen name slates whenever a character (or location) is shown for the first time in each episode, no matter how many episodes any character appears in overall, making it literally impossible to forget who's who.
As I indicated, Liu Bei & his two brothers are technically the "main characters" in Yokoyama Sangokushi, but the show has no qualms with putting them off to the side in order to focus on other characters & events when need be. In fact, Episodes 5 through 7 don't feature them whatsoever so as to focus on the chaos brought about by the Ten Eunuchs, the rise of Dong Zhuo as tyrant, & Cao Cao trying to figure out how he should move forward, while Episode 8 only sees Liu Bei & company as essentially cameo appearances. Still, we see their general character traits get established very quickly, with Liu Bei being someone who's unwilling to simply rush into a situation & instead follow the established rules, Zhang Fei being the complete opposite & letting his emotions guide his actions (though always with the intention of helping Liu Bei), & Guan Yu being in between the two as someone who will always chastise Zhang Fei for his rash impetuousness but will also readily take to battle before Liu Bei does, if need be. After them the next major figure in these episodes is easily Cao Cao, and the anime does manage to thread the needle with his personality just right. When it comes to Romance Cao Cao is generally treated as the closest thing to an overarching antagonist, the "Hero of Chaos" whose ambitions look to be the most dangerous of all. In turn, Cao Cao is the man who will scheme & take advantage of others in order to get a plan completed, and he lives by the mantra of "I will betray everyone before I allow anyone to betray me", but in these early episodes you can still see where he's coming from with his attitude & logic. Sure, he can certainly be more ruthless than Liu Bei, but at the same time he's more willing to actually get something done. These episodes also feature Cao Cao's cousin (though treated here as his brother) Cao Hong as a reliable advisor & right-hand man, which is neat considering that the series most people would associate with Romance today, Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors, has yet to still make him anything more than a semi-ancillary NPC officer.
Still, there's no doubt that Cao Cao is much more preferable to serve under than Dong Zhuo in this first half(-ish) of Yokoyama Sangokushi. Interestingly enough the portrayal of the tyrant here actually sees him as rather thin when compared to most other portrayals, where he's usually seen as rather fat & portly, likely to emphasize his laziness when it comes to having others do his dirty work for him. Still, Dong Zhuo here is absolutely unlikable, willing to just order for people to be killed without a second thought if there's even a 1% chance that they could screw him over in the future, even if it's part of the royal family, and when paired with an officer like Li Su to help bounce ideas & plans off of he plays a perfect villain in the episodes he's focused on. And then there's Lü Bu, who is shown here as a bit of the brash, battle-focused man that he's usually portrayed as in Romance adaptations, but there are little bits of subtlety shown in this anime for him. He knows his limitations when it comes to strategy, for example, so eventually he relies on Chen Gong (who himself does get his backstory with Cao Cao explained) later on for what to do next, and while Diaochan was simply plotting against both Lü Bu & Dong Zhuo, Lü Bu's love for her is shown to be true all throughout. Also, Lü Bu's final moments are notably different here than it's generally known to be, both in history & in Romance itself (& even the manga, apparently), likely so as to give the character more of a dramatic "last stand" when everything crumbles around him.
In terms of the production side of things we have Seiji Okuda (Dancouga, Offside TV) in charge as director, and from an overall visual perspective (so far, at least) it's a bit of a mixed bag. On a general visual aesthetic it's a very good adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's style, with character designers Michi Himeno & the late Shingo Araki staying true, complete with some of the smaller name & ancillary characters sometimes having slightly sillier, more "70s" designs to them (most notably stuff like pronounced buck teeth), while the primary cast tend to look a bit more "manly", in comparison. Oddly enough, Chen Gong's character design is notably different between his early appearance & later on, though for all I know that could have also happened in the original manga, with Araki & Himeno simply deciding to maintain the change. Most notably, though, there are some shots & moments in specific episodes (like the Diaochan two-parter & Episode 22) that take on a very Akio Sugino-esque look to them, especially when it comes to the characters, despite Sugino having no direct involvement with this anime whatsoever. However, as one would probably expect from such a no-name studio like AZ, the animation itself can sometimes fall a little flat, as while it's by no means a terrible looking show it also doesn't quite have that extra polish that the larger studios would normally have, even with the generally well-regarded staff behind it. There are all manner of limited animation tricks seen here, like panning across still images or post-productions blur effects to help accentuate dramatic moments, such as notable characters being hurt or killed. It's also a notably bloodless affair overall, likely due to the fact that this show originally aired on a prime time slot on Friday evenings, and it was a slot not known for running anime, too.
As for the writing we have the late Jinzo Toriumi (Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, the original Mach Go Go Go) heading up a rather large team of writers, though Toriumi himself was credited with helping co-script all but two episodes of the entire show. From what I can gather the anime does excise a number of scenes & battles, even in this first half(-ish), with a super notable one being Sun Jian's death, which is simply referenced by Dong Zhuo at the start of a later episode; very odd, considering that Sun Jian got an entire episode for himself & the Imperial Seal. Likewise, narration pulls a decent amount of work at times, though the end result isn't an anime that feels like it's jumping around at a manic pace. Instead, the focus is very much on detailing the early days of Liu Bei & Cao Cao (I imagine the Sun Family will get a larger focus in the second half), while also showcasing the rise & fall of both Dong Zhuo & Lü Bu, which makes sense. Also, while some scenes are excised from the manga the anime also apparently adds in bits & pieces of Romance that Yokoyama never did in his manga, so even in this first half(-ish) it feels like a properly engaging story. Episode 13 is especially interesting because the first 3/4 of it is simply a recap episode, but instead of coming off like the usual reason why a recap episode would be made (i.e. the show got way too behind schedule & needed a breather to get back on pace) this felt more like it was done specifically so that Diaochan's tale could be told entirely within Episodes 14 & 15, creating a bit of a self-contained story that helps make that two-parter all the more memorable.
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| "Bash Brothers" confirmed. |
Then there's the music... which I'll actually hold off on fully judging until I get through the entire anime, but there's no doubt that Masatoshi Nishimura, lead vocalist of the rock band Fence of Defense, certainly went a bit experimental at points with the score, so far. However, since Nishimura composed the score it's no surprise that FOD itself was also involved with the Yokoyama Sangokushi anime, in this case providing both OPs & one ED. In this run of episodes we only get the first OP from FOD, "Toki no Kawa", which is simply an outstanding song, both in setting up the epic nature of Romance, in general, as well as simply being a song that you instantly want to sing & dance to. In all honesty, out of the various songs Fence of Defense have provided to anime, "Toki no Kawa" could very well be the most underrated of them all. In comparison, first ED theme "Sora" by Mimori Yusa feels kind of underwhelming, though it's certainly no fault of Yusa or the song itself. It's a fine little slow-paced ballad that does its job as an ending theme piece, but considering how much Nishimura & FOD are all over the entire rest of the show "Sora" winds up feeling more than a little out a place.
As for the voice work, a series like this naturally has a ton of characters, and there looks to be very little double-casting here, so I'll just focus on our "main" trio & the characters who only appear in these episodes for now. Liu Bei is voiced by Daiki Nakamura (Dayakka in Gurren Lagann, Ryuichi Masaki in Mix), and overall his voice is fine here, giving the future first Emperor of Shu a generally calm & understanding nature, with only small moments where his emotions might overtake him, at least so far. Guan Yu is voiced by Shinpachi Tsuji (Makarov in Fairy Tail, Garrus in Reincarnated as a Sword), and while his performance in these episodes are good I sometimes feel as though Tsuji's voice doesn't always carry the weight of a grand & noble warrior like Guan Yu; the deep voice is there, but I think he just needs more scenes to evolve. In the complete opposite, though, is the late Keiji Fujiwara (Holland in Eureka Seven, Tatsuya Kimura in Hajime no Ippo) as Zhang Fei, who absolutely nails the rowdy, often rambunctious & single-minded third "brother" to perfection; it's honestly one of my favorite portrayals of Zhang Fei that I've ever heard, so far. Dong Zhuo is played by Ryuzaburo Otomo (Crocodile & [the 2nd] Whitebeard in One Piece), who does an excellent job in making the mad tyrant completely & utterly unlikable in every fashion, someone who you desperately want to see punished for his actions. Then there's the legendary Kazuki Yao as Lü Bu, who actually plays the character rather straight & without much embellishment or bravado, but still delivers a very damn good portrayal of the legendary warrior in this adaptation. Finally, in terms of notable characters for this first half(-ish), there's the late Hirotaka Suzuoki as Chen Gong, who sounds fittingly wise & clever as the eventual strategist for Lü Bu. The rest of the cast only really seen in these episodes include the likes of Ai Orikasa (Diaochan), Bin Shimada (Sun Jian), & Nobuaki Fukuda (Gongsun Zan), while Shinji Ogawa more than does his fair share of work as the narrator, something he's done in a few other anime, both before & after this show.
So far, the first 22 episodes of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms are an extremely solid way to experience the early days of the eventual fall of the Han dynasty, as while this is no doubt Liu Bei's story from an overall perspective it still has no problem moving away from him when necessary in order to tell another side of the story that's essential. Sure, the animation itself is generally nothing special to speak of, even for its time (though I imagine watching it back in the day on CRT TVs likely minimized some of that), but the talent behind this anime still shines through, and it's easy to see why Yokoyama's manga adaptation of Romance was able to go on for so long & become such a massive success. When I was first really getting into anime back in the early-to-mid 00s this anime was actually one of the earlier titles I checked out, as I had previously played Dynasty Warriors 3 & found the cast interesting & wanted to know more about the era. Back then I had only watched the first 15 episodes, i.e. up to the stuff with Diaochan, so it was cool to finally revisit this series (after I've since experienced other Romance adaptations) & go beyond what I had seen before. There's no doubt that Romance of the Three Kingdoms is A LOT to get through, and when I watched Shinano Kikaku's film trilogy previously it did sometimes feel like A LOT to watch with each film. In comparison, adapting Yokoyama's manga adaptation into a TV anime, where each episode can be focused on a specific thing, definitely results in a much more palatable way to experience this story, and I am curious about seeing how this anime continues on from here, post-Lü Bu.
I'll be back next month with "Part 2" of this review, where I'll go over Episodes 23 to 47 of Yokoyama Sangokushi & see how things fare in the second half.
Anime © Hikari Production/Dai Nippon Printing
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