Souten Kouro
 

This is going to be spring 2009's manliest anime and you're just gonna have to deal with it.

Souten Kouro (alternate spelling Sōten Kōro; it means something like "Azure Sky Route") is a Madhouse production based on a 36-volume seinen manga (by King Gonta and Yi Hagin) that ran from 1994 to 2005. The manga is, in turn, based on ye olde Romance of the Three Kingdoms and is mainly about Cao Cao.

The anime is to be directed by Ashida Toyoo and Tsominaga Tsuneo; both gentlemen of the old school with experience from things like Fist of the North Star, Vampire Hunter D and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The art director has some interesting experiences from Claymore and the Hellsing OAV as well.

Cao Cao himself will be voiced by Miyano Mamoru of Gundam 00 (Setsuna) and Death Note (Light) fame.

This is one of the series I'm tentatively looking forward to the most, since I absolutely love the manga.

On the other hand, that sound you just heard was my scream of anguish after hearing Miyano was to be voicing Cao Cao. (Don't get me wrong, I think Miyano is quite talented, but he is the absolute last person I'd have expected to be voicing him)

not getting a lot of love here.

I am wondering when they will do the Ravage of Time Anime

Edit: Are they going to put his in Ep1?

insert some snide insult/joke about (people not watching (good|manly) shows anymore|anime fans not being very manly|something else) here

Well, Souten Kouro is "manly", but that's really not all there is to it. The characterization and story are really compelling, since it's a lot of fun to take the Three Kingdoms and restructure the plot as being sympathetic to Cao Cao and his goals.

I really think that even if you don't like "manly" anime and manga, there's so much to enjoy about it. Hell, I'd define myself as a shoujo manga freak more than anything, and I'd still put this series on my top ten.

Which is why I'm so nervous about the anime butchering it with a low budget and voices that don't suit the characters.

I came across a table showing character design of Three Kingdoms heroes from various Japanese manga, anime and games. I found the comparisons interesting, so I translated the names and titles. Click on the thumbnail to see the full-size image (which isn't really that large, but large enough):

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6982/sotenkoroe.th.jpg

I rather like the Souten Kouro manga images, even though there is a bit of sameness to them, but it looks from the preview as if they have been homogenized a bit for the anime.

Anyway, since I've long thought it would have been better for China in real life if Cao Cao had won outright, I am looking forward to the Souten Kouro take on things.

I'm not really familiar with all the image sources. "Koei" refers to the Koei Sangokushi game series. "Sangoku Musou" is another Koei series. Then there is the Yokoyama Sangokushi manga. Then there's the Souten Kouro manga, the Ikkitousen anime, and the Koihime Musou anime. And finally the Sangoku Taisen card game. I think.

something to look forward t.. so excited to see it!

Thanks for the link. Before that, it had never occurred to me to do a search for Souten Kouro on NicoNico. Now I'm just sorry I didn't do it sooner!

The last one about Xun Yu's death is excellent.

Well, episode one certainly kept my attention. The story moved well, and I loved some of the background animation. And the music.I think this is the good Madhouse.

Why so little comment when the movie(Red Cliff) is doing so well?

After all it is based on the same novel.

Judging from OP this show will be completed at Battle of Guandu.

Cao Cao
(Battle of Guandu)
(left to right)Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, Cao Cao, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong, Xu Huang, Yue Jin, Dian Wei, Zhang Liao
Suisho (an original char, should be called Shuijing here ?)
Cao Cao
Guo Jia
Xun Yu
Cao Cao
Xiahou Dun
Liu Bei
Guan Yu
Zhang Fei
Guan Yu
Zhang Fei
Zhang Liao, Guan Yu
Zhuge Liang　(boyhood)
Zhao Yun
Sun Quan (boyhood)
Zhou Yu, Sun Ce
Sun Jian
Jia Xu
Dong Zhou
Lu Bu
(Battle of Hulao Pass)
Yuan Shao
Cao Cao
Xu Chu
Cao Cao

Major Tanaka Atsuko take Cao Cao's wife Lady Bian role in episode 6 "The blue sky has perished".

Holy crap!

I don't believe it. That's very interesting. :naughty:

This anime is on my watchlist now.
eh what do you expect; MADHOUSE made Highlander movie, Kurozuka, etc. All of them with considerable amount of bloody mayhem.
:D

Browsing for subs at fansubwiki lists only Kesenai for this show. Perhaps one of the seventeen thousand groups doing Eden of the East might consider relocating some resources in this direction? (This isn't a criticism of Kesenai in any way; I haven't watched the other shows they've subbed.) Given the high level of excitement among the commentators here, not to mention the subject matter, I'd have thought this show would attract more interest among subbers.

[rant]I will say I find it a bit ridiculous, and annoying, that other Noitamina shows like Genji are starved for subbers, yet we now have ten versions of Eden episode one.[/rant]

It is being worked on by someone who isn't kesenai, but it's stupidly hard to translate (apparently, I'm not a translator). Doesn't air with closed captions either.

It's very hard to translate. Easily the most difficult show in a while; the source material is just as dense. Still totally worth it, but not easy by any means.

This feels pretty low budget, unfortunately. The "animation" mostly consists of the camera panning over/some dynamic effects added to still images. :/