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Beyond the Heavens

Beyond the Heavens

Introduction

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)

Audience ratings

MyAnimeList / Tenrai : 7.18/10 · 4706

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Audience reviews

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

Mindrican

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.

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algoPotaku

A war anime with death and destruction so that alone I recommend it. It tells more or less how China was formed, it is a historical anime about China but I misunderstood. The only bad thing is that I get complicated with Chinese names, I couldn't learn the names, the only CRACK is CAO CAO. The best character in very good anime a beast like leluch and light. I did not like the design of the beards and mustaches, there are some very very ugly as if they did not grow their beards taking that anime very entertaining with blood and destruction. En español: Un anime bélico con muerte y destrucción así que solo con eso lo recomiendo. Cuenta mas o menos como se formo china, es un anime historico sobre china sino entendí mal. Lo único malo es que se me complica con los nombres chinos tipo no me sa…

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qazplmwsxedc

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.

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