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…And it looks like shit. Well not bad exactly, but definitely as average as many other 3D donghua out there. Compared to other 2D action donghua that has gained some fame in recent years like Wu Shan Wu Xing, these visuals will surely be underwhelming. It’s even worse when compared with the action anime that were airing at the same time that this series came out, like Jigokuraku, Kimetsu no Yaiba or Jujutsu Kaisen, to name a few. Heck, Aiyou de Mishi is a non-action 2D donghua that aired at the same time as this and it looked way better. When paired with all those competitors out there, and even with its own source material, which doesn’t look exactly great either but it’s visually still pretty good, this show ranks at the very bottom when it comes to visuals, as it looks like the cinematics from a PS3 videogame.
Everything from its artwork, backgrounds, special effects and not very expressive and quite stiff and similarly looking character models, looks rather fake. Better than anime with bad CGI but certainly way worse than anime with good CGI. The motions during fights are not bad actually, and the choreography of those battles are quite good, but the shaky angles don’t let you see what’s happening in the clearest way either.
Not to say that there aren’t any visually good and interestingly directed moments in it, especially in the last episode, but those are very few in a pile of mediocrity. Normally I wouldn’t pay much attention to that, but The Ravages of Time is a heavy action work, especially in its beginning, and action needs good production and presentation, something that isn’t present here and makes for an important flaw.
As for the sound, the sound effects also range from weak to quite good, resulting in another just mediocre result. The voice acting also comes off as average, although I blame it a little on what the script is like at the beginning of the manhua, not allowing to show much more of the characters other than everyone coming off as a badasss. With that said, still, almost every character sounds very similar to the others within an age the same or close to theirs, with the only exception being the feminine looking characters, that still sound alike as well, thus this aspect is also mediocre. The music in the other hand is quite good and fitting for its series, even the opening and ending, an epic song and a ballad respectively, both with traditional Chinese music vibes. That is also important when dealing with an historical show, and a detail that anime pay less and less attention as time passes it seems (Golden Kamuy, Vinland Saga, Rurouni Kenshin remake, for examples), but this is not the place to talk about that.
Even if you strip it of its dressing, the meat is not the best thing in this series either. What you probably heard or read about The Ravages of Time during all these years is that it is a super detailed and smart look at The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, focusing on highlights and equal time dedicated for every major character, strong characterization for everyone, military strategies and tactics, mind games and very well written sociopolitical and ideological discussions, while still being an overall faithful adaptation, even if it still has its new twists and dimensions for the characters on its own. And the thing is, all of that is present within the manhua, yes, but not so much in the beginning, and even less in the donghua, where the subtitles of the adaptation are simplified and not as detailed as what you can find when you read the source material.
Not to say that the series so far is poorly written, and it has some of that good elements, while also building up and anticipating plot points and character dynamics that will be important later on, but it also suffers strongly from two major issues that remain present during the entirety of the original work, although not as much as what has been shown here. The first one is that, although necessary for the coherent and cohesive whole and for future events, some of its chapters and now also episodes are simply not as interesting nor as packed as others. Not a major problem, but one worth mentioning.
The other bigger issue is how in the beginning, The Ravages of Time is full of something that never goes completely away and that works against it in its intention of portraying a serious and detailed look at these historical events, which is the dick measuring, especially in the beginning. This aspect is present on two forms, with the first one being the excessive amount of rule of cool. Although every character is presented as cool and badass, and has good enough highlights, spotlight and their time to shine, thus seemingly being presented fairly and equally, this also results on way too much spectacle, to the point where the series stops being believable. This is particularly true for the heavily plot armored Huo Liaoyuan, one of the two main characters and protagonists, who is so un-killable he might as well be a supernatural being in a setting where everyone else is an overpowered human, but still feels like a human.
The other form of dick measuring is the many HAHA GOTCHA moments present in the beginning of the story, affecting even the credibility of the many plans within plans and strategies within strategies of the characters, because of both how sometimes they are explained as they happen, instead of before their execution, and for how much the characters are able to see far ahead, somehow even manipulating circumstances they don’t have any control of.
Anyways, here are the important aspects of this particular season:
-The story begins somewhere between the end of the Yellow Turban rebellion and the rise of Dong Zhuo, his coup d’état and tyrannical government.
-This first season doesn’t have an ending, the conclusion of the former point should be shown on a possible continuation.
-Although important, none of the main characters of the novel and other adaptations are the protagonists here. The series is shown primarily from the perspective of Sima Yi, who plans events and manipulate others for the sake of what he thinks is right and to make profits out of the conflict, and Huo Liaoyuan, an assassin and both a friend and underling of the former.
-Some characters are presented differently than in many other adaptations of the same events and novel: Dong Zhuo is not a goofy senile old man or an impulsive and easy to fool madman, Liu Bei is not a saint, as he is willing to do questionable things for what he thinks is the greater good, Zhang Fei and Lu Bu are not just brutes, they are quite smart, the latter is even put on the same level as the main tacticians of the conflict, and Zhao Zilong and Diaochan are just two alternative names of two major characters in this show.
-Although this season only shown them just in name, a big part of the whole story is dedicated to a group of students of Sima Hui and future military advisors that work for the major generals, referred as The Eight Geniuses. The only one highlighted so far was the first, Yuan Fang, an original character working for and related to Yuan Shao.
-An important original character that stands out enough to be worth mentioning on his own is Xiao Meng, an eunuch, assassin, and the best archer out of the whole cast. If the adaptation keeps going on, he will become one of the best cross-dressing and androgynous characters in the whole medium.
-Cao Cao was teased but he did not appear yet, he might in a possible next season.
In conclusion, this first season of the adaptation of one of the most praised manhuas is great in ideas but just decent in execution. The production, presentation, aesthetics and atmosphere range just from mediocre to decent at best, the characters are more imposing and cool than deep or very well written, the core story is good but there is too much silliness for the sake of spectacle in it, and it feels like a setup for future events with no form of conclusion in any way. Even the possible continuation will have many of this issues as well. Worth checking out for being the starting point and a promise for something far bigger and better to possibly come out who knows when, if even, which makes it look like the usual overhype of the fanboys of a fighting shounen that say that it is average or slightly above average in the beginning, yet it becomes much better later on. If you are not willing to go through that for this season and even the hypothetical next one, I suggest checking out the source material if you haven’t, it is very long, very detailed, quite the challenging read, and very anti mainstream in its approach, but very rewarding for those who are patient with it, but only after a while, as it is the seinen and true version of “IT GETS VERY GOOD AFTER 40 CHAPTERS AND ALL OF ITS ALMOST 600 (so far, and still far from over) CHAPTERS ARE IMPORTANT GUYS, I SWEAR”.
6/10
