Blood and Heart: The Legendary Life of a Japanese Youth in China

Introduction

This work tells the legendary life of Megumi Sunahara, a Chinese People's Liberation Army soldier of Japanese descent, introducing the true history of this little-known special group of PLA members of Japanese descent. He was born in Kyushu, Japan in 1933, and came to Northeast China with his parents when he was young. After Japan's defeat and surrender, he was unable to return to Japan and lived in a landlord's house in Liaoning herding cattle. In 1948, Megumi Sunahara joined the PLA under the name "Zhang Rongqing", and he experienced the Liaoshen and Pingjin campaigns and devoted himself to the proletarian revolutionary cause while contributing to other battles in the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War. (Source: Bilibili, translated)

Audience ratings

MyAnimeList / Tenrai : 6.66/10 · 263

1/10	11
2/10	4
3/10	2
4/10	12
5/10	35
6/10	56
7/10	59
8/10	42
9/10	16
10/10	26

Audience reviews

2 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.

ST63LTH

Xue Yu Xin follows a Japanese boy named Megumi Sunahara who travels to northeastern China during the Imperial Japanese Army’s occupation. Caught up in the conflict, Megumi soon discovers that Japan has lost the war, and the Imperial Japanese Army retreats, leaving behind many Japanese occupants. Given the opportunity to fight for what he believes is right, Megumi adopts the alias Zhang Rongqing and enlists in the People’s Liberation Army to fight against injustice. How does Megumi, now Zhang, fare? Story & Character: 7/10 The story is a docudrama-style retelling of a real-life account during World War II and the Korean War. Each episode covers different segments of Zhang’s life in a condensed form full of adventure and conflict. While it covers life events in detail, it lacks depth and cl…

Read at the source

ApocalypSnow

What if you and your family were stranded in enemy territory? This anime is a dramatic retelling of the life of Megumi Sunahara, also known as Zhang Rongqing, a Japanese youth unable to return to Japan from China after World War II. And because of the setting, it’s also about the founding of New China. Since the protagonist identifies as Chinese and joins the People’s Liberation Army, and there are many mentions of the Chinese villagers’ goodness, it sometimes feels like watching a propaganda film. And I’m sure there’s an agenda behind Xue Yu Xin (Blood and Heart), but I’ll review the premise, execution, characters, art and animation, and soundtrack. PREMISE: Has the potential to be boring if you don’t care about history. Raises warning flags if you’re familiar with the history between Ch…