Review of Nippon Sangoku: The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun

For supposedly being the dark horse of the season, Nippon Sangoku didn’t strike as that dark to me but it did have its fair share of horseshit in it. For all the praise I’ve seen of it from both casuals that checked it out of curiosity, and critics/elitists as the hidden gem/best show of its season, I expected a lot more and thus consider it my disappointment of the year so far.

Most of the criticism I have with it has been said somewhere else already. The beginning is pretty meh, the setting has some inconsistencies, the main character didn’t act according to his characterization at first, the characters are kinda plain, and the finale is super rushed. For most of those, we will take a look extensively at the first episode.

This is a retrofuturistic post-apocalyptic Three Kingdoms in Japan of sorts, so yeah the premise is amazing, but the setup is a bit questionable? Or at the very least limited. We know that the superpowers unleashed a nuclear war and that’s how Japan split in three, meaning there’s a whole post-apocalyptic world out there that we’re not seeing but ok, the author chose to focus on a specific place from the setting, within the scenario he created, so it’s ok.

As has been stated, the technological reverting of Japan to such an era isn’t totally explored, why that one specifically and what happened with all the present day technology? It isn’t explored nor explained much nor very well at first. Eventually we do see some modern buildings and even cars that are used for field tactics, but until that happens, the setting feels like quirkiest of the year, and that’s considering that there was a bad CGI Hokuto no Ken remake airing at the same time (the CGI is bad, not the show itself). At the very least there are jobs and activities that drive the economy and funds and resources are addressed and become a plot point used in story for the military tactics, reminiscent of actually existing ones that were used in real life, character roles and dynamics, and buildup for some of its themes. So although more quirky, it does make a little more sense than the alternative. If the explanations and the scenario make sense in a post nuclear apocalypse setting though, that’s a thing for anyone to think about themselves. But still, for the most part it feels like the setting exists the way it does mostly so every few episodes there can a reference to something modern, or some modern day technology or building, a manga or something otaku being mentioned, or quirky villains making silly poses, plus an opening that combines traditional and contemporary music, yet because of the in-story post contemporary regression to traditional, those things don’t feel anachronistic.

For how rational the protagonist is supposed to be, he did a big oversight that could have potentially not prevented the tragedy perhaps, but it would have been better to see him at least attempt to. He knows the officials in his land are corrupt and tyrannical, he knows they are executing people for every pitiful excuse, and knows well his wife offended one of them, yet did nothing about it, didn’t even try to in fact. Well he was very young and tried to avoid conflict as much as he could, a book smarts guy more than a street smarts guy, so maybe the disbelief can be suspended regarding that.

But then there’s the villain, who let him go by the end of the episode, something very common for arrogant villains that underestimates protagonists and that comes back to bite them in the ass later, but the one in here isn’t presented like that. He is arrogant for sure but his impression of the main character wasn’t of someone that posed no threat, but rather of an interesting individual. You could probably say well maybe the antagonist planned to use him? No he didn’t. Well he eventually did something about him but that doesn’t come until the very end of the season and out of screen.

As for the issues in the following episodes, for a show with a premise such as this, the tone isn’t very serious. Like I’ve been saying, it’s very quirky and a good chunk of the characters are as well. Basically the main villain, every minor antagonist or secondary character, and even the supposed deuteragonist, acts or talks silly most of the time, and that clashes a lot with what’s supposed to be the serious dark horse show of the season. About the Movements of the Earth, this is not. It’s not comically homoerotic and over the top like an actual historical title like Golden Kamuy, nor action heavy and manly that’s supposed to come off as cool like Hokuto no Ken either. It’s a weird middle point that makes it for a niche audience.

So after all that, it is safe to say that this show wouldn’t have passed the 3 episode rule as far as I’m concerned. It’s from episode 4 and 5 that the show starts displaying some level of quality, and most stuff afterwards until the second to last episode, the eleventh, it’s pretty good and elevates the whole anime. It’s when another nation and faction and antagonist are shown and made part of the plot and divide the narrative between two perspectives, that the series becomes pretty good. We see internal conflicts between different factions on both sides, inside infiltration and invasion plots from Seii to Yamato, side characters sacrificing themselves and dying, actual field tactics that are direct references to Three Kingdoms are employed, better characters are introduced, like Ryumon, Kaku and Wajima, the latter which is a better character, though not a better antagonist, than Taira, and even some secondary ones like the son of the latter and the emperor either change perspectives or grow a little bit of balls. It’s also when the narrative follows more characters than the protagonist, and he and the deuteragonist are built up to eventually replace Ryumon and Kaku. The aforementioned issues didn’t exactly go away, but are now mixed up with some actual pretty good stuff.

With that said, the deuteragonist is kinda forgotten by the narrative for the most part, and his inner monologues don’t exactly help him either, what the anime did with Kaku wasn’t bad, but did feel unnecessarily sudden due to lack of proper build up. I also have to wonder why don’t the characters that can kill the villain, at least try to do it? Maybe he’s secretly super strong and will show it later. I mean he has a lot of people under his command, true, but kill him off and all that falls apart, at least from what was shown in the season.

And also, when they finally fought on the battlefield, the Yamato side completely stomped on Seii, thus it feels like the only reason why they weren’t winning early was because of the inside enemy, and that there was a big difference in levels all along, and that the narrative is picking a side. Even the strategies and the arguments of the protagonist have been questioned somewhat. Logh, Ravages of Time or Ad Astra, this is not.

And as good as they are as plot devices, and as well as they fit a certain role, such as a Deku-like romanticist analyst for the protagonist, mentors for Ryumon and Kaku, antagonist and the other side of the coin for Wajima, who also wants revenge and follows her idea of justice and unification of the nation in a dictatorial way, contrary to Misumi, at least as far as the narrative is concerned, the cast is still very plain. Again, Logh or Ravages of Time, this is not.

What’s indisputably mishandled is the finale, sorry but that was plain bad. Up until the middle point it was an ok conclusion, but the second half of the final episode had a whole season worth of plot points happening and new characters being presented at an insane speed and weren’t even properly shown but more like told by the narrator, leading to a semi cliffhanger, that was not a good ending at all.

Due to the in-story post contemporary regression to traditional times of the setting, the combination of traditional and modern music for the opening fits the series, and the visual sequence isn’t exactly bad, but the song itself kinda sucks for me. The ending was a lot more static and typical, but the song itself and the voice singing it aren’t bad, the detail of the letters going under the shoe and feet is neat, and the whole sequence reflects the motivation of the protagonist quite well. The background music is better and also features quite some chorus. The sound effects are also good and the voice acting, well, it fits but it’s not that big of a deal.

The real star of the presentation is the visuals, I don’t know what the style is called but the aesthetics seemed manga-like to me and the anime pulled it off like no other title, plus polished artwork, backgrounds, motions whenever it doesn’t use minimum motions for effect, and even good special effects. Even the very obvious CGI was used well for impact here. The directing and storyboard excel, did I praise Akane-banashi and Atelier for that in my reviews of them? Nippon Sangoku surpasses them, something which I did not expect to see in this year, at least regarding the latter, so at the very least, the director is one to keep track of. The transitions, perspective shots and lighting he displayed in this season were unmatched. The only complaint I have is the character designs for its androgynous looks for the main characters and the facial repetition, that would make me mix them with the women if they didn’t talk. Even the older characters have similar facial hair, thus even the characters that look different than the main ones, are similar to each other.

Bottom line, I did not enjoy this anime and don’t really think I’ll be following the next seasons, unless someone told me that all of my issues with the first were fixed or something. Besides my own enjoyment, the beginning was meh, the middle pretty good, and the finale bad, so I think the series is not as great as its reception made me think it would be. Despite all of its flaws, its strong points and the moments it was good, barely managed to save it and make me consider it somewhat worth watching once, but anime of its season, of its year, or a great one, for me, it is not.


6/10