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Souten Koro; Alternate Romance of the 3 Kingdoms
Topic Started: Apr 8 2009, 08:52 AM (660 Views)
Lowe Gear
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HNH

Just watched the RAW of the first episode. It's based off of a manga that retells the Sangoku story from Cao Cao's point of view, and which is supposed to be based more off of the actual history than Romance of the 3 Kingdoms.

First episode involved a creepy prologue in which a dragon that looks like Jar-Jar Binks eats the sun, and then eats itself (I suppose it's an allegory for the Imperial family). We then get introduced to Cao Cao, who is portrayed as a bookish type of guy...that is until a bandit tries to rob him and he stares the punk down, not so much as blinking when the man shatters the sword on the wall behind him trying to intimidate him, and then beats him to a bloody pulp for refusing to hand some box over. The bandit takes the box and opens it with his buddies, only to discover there's nothing in it but scrolls. Meanwhile, a still-bloody Cao Cao takes the broken sword and walks through the bandit group towards his attacker, stabs him through the neck, and then jumps on the blade so hard that the bandit's head explodes off his body and flies off like a rocket.

Mental note: do not rob Cao Cao. He will fuck your shit up.

It then fast-forwards to Cao Cao slowly gathering together the people who will eventually be the great generals of Wei, as well as more gruesome bandit killings, including one by a guy whom I think might be Dian Wei, who catches a horse and rider and tosses them in the air like it's nothing. While this isn't nearly as over-the-top as Sengoku BASARA, it's definitely got a larger-than-life vibe to it.

Really hope someone subs this one.
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ZetaStriker
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Yeah, I marked that one my list of things to try when I saw it on the "spring anime" list. I'll have to check out the raw.
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Lowe Gear
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Well, looks like my internet came back just in time, since Lunar just put out episode 1.

As an addendum to my original post, the big guy was apparently Xu Zhu, and the others introduced are Xiahou Dun (before the eyepatch) Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, & Cao Hong.
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ZetaStriker
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It's Like You're Carrying the Weight of the World~
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Good, it got subbed. I was having trouble finding the RAW.
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Lowe Gear
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That's mostly because EVERYONE is spelling it differently, from the look of things.

"Souten Kouro" seems to be the most accepted one, though since Lunar is doing it I can just go to their site or something, I reckon.
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XR
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Whatever the case may be, more Sango is always good. Unless it tries to tell the story from Wu's POV. Then it sucks.
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Lowe Gear
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What's your problem with Wu?
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XR
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I don't like it.
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NewtypeS3
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Bah. Wu is awesome and made of pretty boys, pyros and pirates.

As for the anime, it looks like I'll need to check it out. It's got a ton of voice talent I recognize, and it sounds fun.
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NewtypeS3
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Well, is it just me, or did people just stop subbing this damned series? I've got episodes 1-9 and figured I could take a little while to let the series finish (26 episodes and all) and then I could marathon it for more Cao Cao awesomeness.
But noooooooooo, Lunar stopped at fucking episode 9, and no one else has subbed nearly as far!
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Lowe Gear
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Okashii picked up where Lunar left off, but they're only up to 12, apparently due to lack of staff.
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Akito10
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Norman freakin' Jayden

Would this be a decent intro to R3K stuff? Never played Dynasty Warriors.
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NewtypeS3
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It's not a bad introduction, so long as the fansubbers are using the appropriate names for the characters (mainly so you won't raise the ire of other fans when referring to Cao Cao as Tso Tso and so forth). The story is focused on Cao Cao himself, but has so far also involved quite a few of the Three Kingdoms' more popular characters - like Sun Jian of Wu and Lu Bu himself.
Of course, there's a bias towards Cao Cao... but really, it's far, far less biased than any other form of work involving Ro3K that I've seen.

The perfect example I can recall is Cao Cao observing Sun Jian and his men fighting against the Yellow Turbans in the 7th episode. At first, Cao Cao makes comments that could be considered insulting - calling Sun Jian's actions "flashy and crude..." but then goes right on to say that "...those actions are so rational they're elementary." Right after that, Cao Cao comments that "if there was anyone else who could shoulder the weight of the world, it would be that man."
And, just to note, there's often an anti-Wu slant in a lot of versions of Ro3K, perhaps because there's often a pro-Wei or pro-Shu slant, depending on the version you read.

Compared to Koei's games, this feels more like... an interpretation where pretty much everyone is given a chance to be awesome in their own way. Even bastards like Dong Zhuo (voiced by Yazan Gable, hell yeah) are rendered as handsome and manly, and a vast percentage of the characters carry themselves with what can only be described as honor.

Oh, and we can't forget the ultraviolence that shows up.

It's a different take on the historical record, for sure, but it's honestly probably my favorite for right now.
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Lowe Gear
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Shinigami Grahf
Oct 19 2009, 02:27 PM
Would this be a decent intro to R3K stuff? Never played Dynasty Warriors.

It's definitely somewhat non-traditional, but on the whole it's probably more historically accurate than most versions. Cao Cao is a noble, if sometimes ruthless leader who genuinely wishes to make the world a better place. Liu Bei, as I understand it, isn't a bad guy, but he's shown to be a more flawed individual than is usually the standard. On the whole, it's like S3 said: everyone who isn't just a total bastard gets a chance to be awesome, and everyone is shown to be at least respectable, if nothing else.

I've enjoyed it despite the incredibly slow sub output, myself.
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Seraphil
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NewtypeS3
Oct 19 2009, 11:09 AM
Right after that, Cao Cao comments that "if there was anyone else who could shoulder the weight of the world, it would be that man."

He'd have to learn to shoulder the weight of falling boulders first.
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NewtypeS3
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I think he could do that pretty well.



...just don't ask for any other magic tricks, like arrow catching. :huh:
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Lowe Gear
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Well, Animada has released 2 more episodes, for what it's worth. They're still behind 12, but at least they're making progress.
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