...Has there ever been a Dynasty Warriors anime? That seems like something Koei Tecmohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoeiTecmo would do. After briefly searching it turns out there has in fact been an anime based off of a Koei Tecmo game serieshttps://anilist.co/anime/20944/SengokuMusou but its Samurai Warriors rather than Dynasty Warriors. ...Okay fine. Samurai Warriors is okay I guess. It really seems odd that they didnt have a Dynasty Warriors one made since thats their flagship series thats been going on for twenty one years. But I guess Ill watch this. 440https://thetruelystria.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/samuraiwarriors05.png Five or so hours later. Well that was a horrible disappointment. There has to be something out there to scratch the itch Im looking for. Oh... theres this I guess? Souten Kouro? An adaptation of some random manga but it looks to actually be about Romance of the Three Kingdoms at the very least... 440https://i.ur.com/FbVuRt8.png ...Why does Lu Bu have dreadlocks? And why is he yodeliokay he just crushed somebodys head with one hand. OKAY. FULL SCHLOCK MODE ENGAGED. Introduction 220http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/15327dynastywarriors3playstation2frontcover.jpg 220https://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/278257warriorsorochi2playstation2frontcover.jpg A little background information first. Ive been playing these Koei games since Ive been a kid. In recent years Koeis been expanding as much as they possibly can. Lets make Gundam Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DynastyWarriors:Gundam lets make One Piece Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnePiece:PirateWarriors lets make Arslan Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheHeroicLegendofArslanVideogames lets make Attack on Titan Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AttackonTitanVideogames Hyrule Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyruleWarriors Fire Emblem Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireEmblemWarriors Dragon Quest Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonQuestHeroes:TheWorldTree27sWoeandtheBlightBelow... perhaps maybe most notably lets use that shitty new Berserk animehttps://anilist.co/anime/21560/Berserk as an excuse to fucking make Berserk Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BerserkandtheBandoftheHawk which will probably forever remain as one of the best Berserk adaptations because Koei Tecmo are apparently actual Berserk fans. But their bread and butter their flagship series what preceded it all is of course Dynasty Warriorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DynastyWarriors. And as the years have gone on theyve been getting bigger and more over the top in almost every way. Here are the openings of two different entries in the Dynasty Warriors series. https://www..com/watch?v=J95v1ilt24M https://www..com/watch?v=3WmKs4wlgnA You know I dont recall at any point in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms either Lu Bu turning the Battle of Xia Pi around by turning the flood used against him into a towering tidal wave or Zhao Yun dropkicking a horse in the face while carrying Liu Beis infant son through the battle of Chang Ban. There is a point in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms where a peasant does brutally murder his wife so he can make a meal from his dead wife for Liu Bei because he doesnt have any food and then that peasant is then rewarded for his staggering loyalty but that is completely different. So okay. How about... an anime equivalent of those openings but actually with blood? 440https://i.ur.com/2gyFYNS.gif Souten Kouro or Beyond the Heavens is a 2009 adaptation by Madhousehttps://anilist.co/studio/11/MADHOUSE of the manga of the same namehttps://anilist.co/manga/43668/SoutenKouro by Yi Haginhttps://anilist.co/staff/103277/YiHagin and Gonta Kinghttps://anilist.co/staff/103278/GontaKing Gonta King eventually took over doing the story as well as the art following Yi Hagins death. The manga actually won the Kodansha Manga Awardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodanshaMangaAward in 1998 for the general category. Lets not breeze past this though. This straight up is just an alternate version of the Romance of the Three Kingdomshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RomanceoftheThreeKingdoms but done completely and utterly over the top. It goes so far over the top that I honestly believe it works. 440https://i.ur.com/pSyjadx.gif I give a lot of things flak for going fully against the source material but thats usually if its supposed to be a serious or true adaptation of a thing. But if you want to take the source material and put a different spin on it with that being the main point/purpose of the adaptation itself thats a bit different. Because you know nine games in I have the story and the events of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms burned into the back of my skull plus I actually read the actual full thing a couple of years ago. However Ive never seen Lu Bu decapitate the Red Hare while in midair and then the decapitated but still living head of the Red Hare then proceed to brutally kill someone by biting his head. 440https://i.ur.com/0Es3KMm.png Cao Cao In the actual Romance of the Three Kingdoms the character/historical figure that comes closest to being the protagonist/main focus is Liu Bei who eventually goes on to form the Shu Kingdom. But Souten Koro goes in a purposely different direction and focuses instead on Cao Cao of the Wei Kingdom. Liu Bei is actually shown to be a bit more of... well all of them were probably actually worse in reality but Liu Bei especially. Hes especially shown to be a scumbag in this version. We get to basically see a hypercharged version of Cao Caos life with some probably fictitious elements thrown in from a kid to his days as a Wei general. In the very first episode some peasant thief starts savagely beating him after stealing from him. He beats him so badly that everybody who was witnessing it basically just assumes he died from the beating. 440https://i.ur.com/tbqnPJh.png But then of course he gets up again grabs the guys sword which he broke and then brutally and savagely kills the man that had assaulted him. Like he embeds the sword into the guys neck leaps up and then lands on the sword decapitating the man. 440https://i.ur.com/0uojZrN.png 440https://i.ur.com/Pyqn6ki.png Like damn. Thats the first thing we get in this show. I dont even remember half of the things that happen in Samurai Warriors. Though while like most adaptations of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms we do get to see the other important figures of the time the show remains relatively centered around the progress of Cao Cao... Admittedly Cao Cao actually kind of works as a protagonist. It was entertaining to see him come all the way from such a lowly place in the world to actively talking shit to an enraged Lu Bu across a battlefield. Like Lu Bu is just fucking screaming and the show is showing a CG dragon rising from his body as he asks the entire battlefield wheres Cao Cao and then Cao Cao just straight up yells back at him. 440https://i.ur.com/E0GK32F.png Im right here If anything hes amused by the situation. Then Lu Bu just descends and slaughters an entire section of his army by himself like in an actual Dynasty Warriors game. Lu Bu 440https://i.ur.com/9Q40DQE.gif As much as I low key kind of actually love this series theres no getting around the elephant in this room. Id say even for non Dynasty Warriors/RotK fans Lu Bu is at least 60 of the reason why to ever watch this show. Rikiya Koyamahttps://anilist.co/staff/95113/RikiyaKoyama is in fact on my favorites list originally because of his Lu Bu voice. I later learned hes voiced a billion characters as far as Im concerned most notably Nobunaga in Hyouge Monohttps://anilist.co/anime/9996/HyougeMono but I dont think Id love Lu Bu as much as I do in this series if it was somebody else. In most other adaptations of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and especially Dynasty Warriors Lu Bu is already fairly over the top. So in this which is usually called the Neo Romance of the Three Kingdoms how exactly can you increase Lu Bus over the topness? Just have basically anybody he touches essentially explode into an explosion of blood and basically all of his dialogue be opera singingesque screaming. I dont usually include videos of actual full scenes of a show in these reviews but I feel its somewhat necessary in this case. If youve ever happened to come across anything from this show its probably this scene. Additionally Ill state that if you have no intention of ever actually watching the full show this is without a doubt the best scene of all 26 episodes. https://www..com/watch?v=uBBVPSsFCUc Conclusion You wanted to make this review solely because of that scene didnt you? I hate to say it but theres not a lot more for me to say about this series. While I only really discussed Lu Bu and Cao Cao there IS a lot more over the stop stuff sprinkled throughout the rest of the show. Generally I remember overall really enjoying this show... like to an extent its certainly a bit crummy/cheap... but its hard to go... Well those shots of soldiers in CG form kind of feel out of place. ...right after Lu Bu fucking decapitates the Red Hare. I fully admit if youre not in the mood to watch action schlock youre probably not gonna like this show. Because while its not a butchering of the original story/events of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms obviously... this probably shouldnt be your first choice if youre actually looking for a faithful adaptation. Additionally it also has that problem most adaptations of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms have aka... twenty six episodes just isnt enough to actually get to the Three Kingdoms. 440https://i.ur.com/nEa8cwi.png 440https://i.ur.com/9RmaKd6.png Ah shit were at the 26th episode and were not even at the Three Kingdoms yet. Quick we have to end with at least a brief summary of what happens next For the record the full original manga is 409 chapters long. It mostly just covers Cao Cao the Yellow Turbans incident and of course the rise and fall of Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu. Its an enjoyable enough ride and its probably the closest equivalent we have to Dynasty Warriors the anime. A 7.5 out of 10 or 75 out of 100 from me. 440https://i.ur.com/yeWwRZ6.png Though if you actually are looking for a serious and significantly more grounded adaptation of the actual Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel...https://anilist.co/anime/970/RomanceoftheThreeKingdoms