Souten Kouro

Souten Kouro's story is based loosely on the events taking place in Three Kingdoms period of China during the life of the last Chancellor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao (155 – March 15, 220), who also serves as the main character.

The Three Kingdoms period has been a popular theme in Japanese manga for decades, but Souten Kouro differs greatly from most of the others on several points. One significant difference is its highly positive portrayal of its main character, Cao Cao, who is traditionally the antagonist in not only Japanese manga, but also most novel versions of the Three Kingdoms period, including the original 14th century version, Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. Another significant difference from others is that the storyline primarily uses the original historical account of the era, Records of Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou, as a reference rather than the aforementioned Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel. By this, the traditional hero of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei, takes on relatively less importance within the story and is portrayed in a less positive light. Yet, several aspects of the story are in fact based on the novel version, including the employment of its original characters such as Diao Chan, as well as anachronistic weapons such as Guan Yu's Green Dragon Crescent Blade and Zhang Fei's Viper Blade.

A consistent theme throughout the story is Cao Cao's perpetual desire to break China and its people away from its old systems and ways of thinking and initiate a focus on pragmatism over empty ideals. This often puts him at odds with the prevalent customs and notions of Confucianism and those that support them.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Cao, Cao Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Sun, Quan Main

Horanai, Ai Japanese

Liu, Bei Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Bu, Lü Supporting

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Xu, Chu Supporting

Sakurai, Toshiharu Japanese

Guan, Yu Supporting

Morozumi, Kenichi Japanese

Zhang, Fei Supporting

Seki, Takaaki Japanese

Xiahou, Dun Supporting

Kusao, Takeshi Japanese

Ling, Emperor Supporting

Sasaki, Nozomu Japanese

Xun, Yu Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Morosawa, Masao Producer

Shindou, Tomohiro Assistant Producer

Reviews

May 10, 2014

qazplmwsxedc

Recommended

Most adaptations of the Romance of Three Kingdoms portray Cao Cao as a power-hungry villain. Souten Kouro is a little different -- he is the hero in this version, and it makes for an interesting take on this ancient tale. The animation is really, really cheap at times but if you're willing to look past that, it's a great show.

The other thing that makes this show interesting is that it talks about a few things that most ROTK adaptations skip over or condense -- namely, Cao Cao's childhood, the fall of the Ten Attendants and the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

I wouldn't recommend this show as an ... entry point into ROTK because it is very different from a typical adaptation of the novel -- see John Woo's live-action film Red Cliff and if you like that, give this show a shot.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 4, 2021

Mindrican

Recommended

Good Points:
-A pretty strong medieval type anime
-One of the few animes about ancient China
-Full of battles and wars
-Interesting historical characters
-I love every time when Lu Bu appears, he is so dynamic and full of rage
-Decent animation

Bad points:
-The ending feels rushed
... - We dont see the conclusion of the war between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao
- Some scenes are CGI and its bad CGI
-It has a lot of gore and mature content so If you dont like this kind of stuff be aware

All in all this is a pretty good anime to watch If you are into historical animes or if you want an anime similar to Kingdom.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 14, 2009

FurixKuri

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (11/26 eps)

Ah, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is truly one of the classics of Chinese literature. It is an amazing story of war, bloodshed and honor. However, Souten Kouro seems to take this classic and make it much more uninteresting than it truly is. It stars Cao Cao, often portrayed as a cruel and merciless tyrant, as the hero of the story. After watching the first 11 episodes of the series, I truly know what the Chinese idiom "speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao comes," truly means.

MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS

Story: The story begins with Cao Cao's early life. The story itself generally follows the ... time-line of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but takes on a different tactic of telling the story. An example I would like to use would be the Alliance against Dong Zhou. The anime follows history precisely but throws on a handful of encounters that aren't 100% historical. It is true that Cao Cao refuses to become Dong Zhou's right hand man, but in no way does history point out that he does it in such an articulate way. The story makes Cao Cao reign supreme, while throwing Lui Bei in the background as the "villain" of the Three Kingdoms period.

Art: The artwork was very unimpressive. It was more like the manga was reproduced EXACTLY how it looks. They did not any special animation to the anime. When armies were slain, you'd only see blood splurting out of them, and no indication of how they were even cut. Surely production value could not have been so low for a manga that won the 22nd (22nd award every given to a manga, not 22nd place) Kodansha Manga Award in the general category?

Sound: Beautiful is the only word I can think of to describe the sound of the anime. The music was incredible and fit each situation to the fullest. Mind you, the OP and ED are not amazing, but the soundtrack during the fights, and during every scene were astounding. The music is memorable and that to me, is what really saved this anime.

Character: The characters were not very developed in the anime but what can you expect? It is based more on the history of the Three Kingdoms period than it is on Romance of Three Kingdoms. I will however give an honorable mention to Cao Cao's character portrayal. Throughout the anime, you can feel his character slipping slowly into the tyrannical warmonger we all know and love.

Enjoyment: I did enjoy this anime to a certain extent and I would have given it a 7 over the 5 because of it but the story itself progressed in a way that was a little boring. Mind you, if you love Chinese politics and the era of the Three Kingdoms in general, you'll want to watch this anime despite any review you see. However, it was not my cup of tea, and I lost interest very quickly.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Souten Kouro Episode 1 Discussion id - Apr 7, 2009	46 replies	by BaronLukis »» Aug 1, 2024 7:37 AM
	Poll: Souten Kouro Episode 2 Discussion japanme32 - Apr 16, 2009	22 replies	by CaptainKenshiro »» Aug 31, 2022 3:30 PM
	Poll: Souten Kouro Episode 26 Discussion Dunky - Dec 28, 2011	11 replies	by Kap92 »» Aug 7, 2022 8:31 AM
	Poll: Souten Kouro Episode 25 Discussion Nayah - Dec 17, 2011	3 replies	by Kap92 »» Aug 7, 2022 8:31 AM
	Poll: Souten Kouro Episode 24 Discussion tofei - Dec 14, 2011	1 replies	by Kap92 »» Aug 7, 2022 8:30 AM