Two generals may be allies today and bitter enemies in only a couple of episodes. Since RoTK is largely political, there is a lot of intrigue involved. Due to the limitations of a typical 90’s TV anime budget, the show doesn’t cover huge battles very well (see Red Cliff instead for this, definitely), but one could get an idea how the land means everything to our heroes, who fight for it with their lives. Provinces are separated by vast tracts of land, and it takes a lot of time for people to move around.

It’s staggering to learn that armies in this era can grow up to 1 million in size, though the novel could just be exaggerating figures. That said, my favorite character is Zhang Fei, who is as flawed as he is strong.Ĭhina is huge. The only person I could think of who doesn’t have any weaknesses is Zhuge Liang, who is a kind of Chinese Jesus anyway, but his struggles are still interesting to watch. Liu Bei is inflexible because of his strong moral compass. Cao Cao gets blindsided by pride, while Lu Bu is a coward at heart. However, that doesn’t mean that all they have are good traits, because the show also portrays their foibles. Cao Cao is a man of overflowing ambition and talent, while Lu Bu is a peerless warrior. RoTK has a huge cast, and within that cast there are a lot of heroes. Some tricks are a bit ridiculous, but nothing in the level of Code Geass, thankfully.

There are a myriad of unusual tactics used every battle, so it never gets old to watch. In fact, the Battle of Chi Bi at the end of the show was 90% scheming, and the actual fighting proved quick and decisive. The show captures the essence of Sun Tzu’s Art of War by building layers upon layers of deceptions in military strategy. The military battles are by far the most interesting aspect of RoTK for me. At least it doesn’t turn everyone into girls! Since it’s faithful, it does a great job of highlighting what’s good (and what’s bad) with the RoTK saga. It’s old and rather long, but turned out to be a fairly epic ride. I recently finished the Romance of the Three Kingdoms anime (adapted from Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s manga, not the recent Chinese-Japanese collaboration).

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