Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi (HD)

The third movie of the Sangokushi trilogy is Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi (Sangokushi: The Distant Land). With this release, Orphan completes its work on the HD version of the three Sangokushi movies.

The third movie covers the longest time span, from Liu Bei's expedition to Shu in 211 CE to the death of Kongming in 234 CE. It is also the most melancholy and despairing. All of the main characters die, and the ultimate winner of the battle to reunite China is None of the Above - not Liu Bei or his descendants, not Cao Cao or his descendents, not Sun Quan or his descendants. Eventually, sheer exhaustion of all opponents allows a descendant of the Cao Wei general Sima Yi to reunite the country and create a new dynasty... for a while. True unity would not be achieved for centuries.

In my view, The Distant Land seriously undermines Sangokushi's glorification of Liu Bei's nobility and Kongming's strategic genius. Liu Bei ultimately achieves no more than the other competing warlords. Kongming's "Land Divided in Three Stratagem" fails spectacularly, producing not a peaceful balance of power but a perpetual war for supremacy among the three states, like the three superstates in 1984. (To quote Frank Herbert's dictum from Dune, "In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures.") The results were disastrous: the population of China was cut more than in half between the outbreak of the Yellow Turban revolt in 184 CE and the establishment of the Jin dynasty in 280 CE. The movie tries to claim a retrospective victory for Liu Bei's ideals, but the state of modern China belies that. It's closing scene gives a truer perspective, showing Fengji, bereft of everyone she has loved, riding back across a deserted landscape to her village to become a teacher, as the melancholy ending song plays.

Because it has so much time to cover, The Distant Land moves at a breakneck pace from conflict to violent incident to battle and back again. With the exception of Guan Yu's foster daughter Fengji (played by the wonderful Tsuru Hiromi), characters are introduced, act out their part in history, and vanish in minutes. There is little time for character development or domestic concerns, just for plotting, ambition, betrayals, and executions. It all feels rather depressing - or perhaps I'm just tired of the Three Kingdoms era after so many hours working on the TV specials and the movies. The Distant Land had a ton of signs to set, and because of image jitter, almost all of them needed to be motion tracked.

Despite the massive size of the undertaking, Orphan's work on the Sangokushi movies and their HD counterparts was done by a small and remarkably dedicated crew. Iri translated all three movies, diligently researching names, translating signs, and labeling the numerous map locations. Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed the original versions, and TougeWolf RCed the HD versions. M74 encoded the original DVDs, and an anonymous contributor encoded the HD version from a 1080p webrip to correct the frame rate. They have my heartfelt thanks for sticking with the project until it was completed. You can get Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net,

Is this the end of Orphan's involvement with Sangokushi? Well, it's the end of mine. If real Blu-rays surface, some other team can put these subs onto new raws. (Good luck with the typesetting.) There are other fish to fry.

Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! (HD)

Here, after an unconscionable delay, is the HD version of the second movie in the Sangokushi trilogy, 1993's Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! (Sangokushi: The Yangtze Is Burning!). It covers roughly 13 years, from Cao Cao's victory over Lu Bu in 198 CE, through the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE, and the aftermath up until 211 BCE. As other players are swept from the board, the story focuses on Liu Bei and his increasingly desperate attempts to prevent Cao Cao from seizing all of China. The turning point is Liu Bei's recruitment of the best strategic mind of that generation, Zhuge Kongming, the Crouching Dragon. Kongming orchestrates an alliance of convenience between Liu Bei and Sun Quan, the ruler of the emerging southern kingdom of Wu, as they seek to stop Cao Cao's "million man army" from rolling over all of China. Their victory over Cao Cao at Red Cliffs and Liu Bei's seizure of the southwest as his realm create the Three Kingdoms that give the era its name. 

However, reaching that point is not easy. Liu Bei experiences setback after setback, even after recruiting Kongming. At more than one point in the story, with his fortunes at a low ebb, he describes himself as a failure. Still, he is able to retain the loyalty of his core set of warriors and even expand their number, when the mighty Zhao Yun enlists to serve the cause. Kongming first has to engineer multiple escapes from Cao Cao's hordes, but then he is able to seize the initiative and pull together the coalition that would finally check Cao Cao's ambitions... and create the opening for Liu Bei's ambitions to rule.

I have had great difficulty finishing the Sangokushi HD releases. The first was released in May, after languishing at my final checks for months. This one has also been on the slow train. Whenever I start to watch one of these movies, my interest flags almost immediately, and I turn to something else - writing blog posts, working on other shows, playing Solitaire - almost anything else, in fact. I think I finally understand why.

These movies are grand historical romances, painted on an epic canvas, but the characters are as two-dimensional as the animation. Liu Bei is noble; Kongming is clever; Lihua is a traditional wife. They're utterly unengaging. Or to put it another way, Liu Bei is a prig, Kongming is a showoff, and Lihua is a subservient cipher. The only characters with any complexity are Cao Cao - who can mingle inordinate ambition with inexplicable chivalry in the same gesture - and Guan Yu - who conveys the difficulty of trying to follow principles when the political landscape is constantly shifting under his feet. When they're not on screen, everything is cut-and-dried histrionics. However, the battle sequences are excellent, particularly the climactic naval engagement at Red Cliffs.

Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! retains the same actors for Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu as the first movie. The major new seiyuu are:

• Yamaguchi Takashi (Kongming) was primarily an actor and a presenter. The Sangokushi movies are his only anime roles. 
• Shibata Hidekatsu (Sun Quan) played Baron Ashura in Mazinger Z, Kenzou Kabuto in Great Mazinger, King Bradley in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, and the Third Hokage in Naruto. He played the hero's father in Dragon Fist and the voice of God in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, both Orphan releases.
• Hori Hideyuki (Zhao Yun) played Zach Isedo in Al Caral no Isan, Sid in Ai no Kusabi, Falk Green in Hi-Speed Jecy, and Baraba in Eien no Filena, all Orphan projects. He played the title role in Baoh, Phoenix in the Saint Seiya franchise, and Tezuka Osamu himself in the Black Jack TV series.
• Sugiyama Kazuko (Xiulan, Kongming's housekeeper and eventual wife) played Heidi  in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Ganmo in Gu-Gu Ganmo, Ten-chan in Urusei Yatsura, Akane Kimidori in Dr. Slump and Arale-chan, and Korosuke in Kiteretsu Daihyakka.
• Yara Yuusaku (Zhou Yu, Wu's commander-in-chief) played the destroyer captain in Zipang. He had many featured roles, appearing in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Narudesho, Next Senki Ehrgeiz, Eien no Filena, Hidamari no Ki, Nozomi Witches, both Sangokushi OVAs, Prime Rose, and both What's Michael? OVAs, all Orphan releases.

As with the first movie, the supporting cast is vast, but most are onscreen only for a short time. The musical score for all three movies is by Yokoyama Seiji, a prolific composer of anime scores, including the Saint Seiya franchise and Magical Taruruuto-kun.

Iri translated all three movies, which are the equivalent of a two-cour TV series. Yogicat timed the originals and tweaked the timing for the new raws. I edited and typeset (twice). BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed the original release; TougeWolf did a thorough check of this one. The encoder asked to remain anonymous.

So as I wrote the first time, gird your loins, pad your bottom, and go watch Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! in glorious HD. You can get the movie from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake (HD)

This has been in the works for a while. High-definition versions of the Sangokushi movies appeared on Japanese streaming sites in the spring of 2019. It has taken more than two years to move Orphan's standard-definition scripts to these raws. Our fans (all seven of them) might rightly ask, "What took so long?" Well, a couple of things:

1. The web streams were at the wrong frame rate - 29.97 fps instead of 23.976 fps. This normally wouldn't matter much, but it wrecked the extensive frame-by-frame typesetting in the originals. It took 16 months to persuade an encoder to transcode the original streams down to the right frame rate.
2. The typesetting had to be redone more or less completely. The original encode was anamorphic; the high-definition raws are not. The caused any sign set at an angle to be askew when scaled. (I don't know why.) In addition, the original encode had less visible jitter than the high-definitions streams; that required more frame-by-frame typesetting.
   
3. Fatigue. I had watched these movies multiple times in the original project and more times while scaling to the high-definitions raws. I just couldn't bear to watch them again for the final release check.
   

So, not reasons exactly, but at least some excuses.

Here's an example of what went wrong when the typesetting was simply scaled. With no rework, the sign at 1:02:59 looked like this:

It should have looked like this:

The scaled sign is at the wrong angle; it's not parallel to the stonework.

The original blog post covers Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake (Sangokushi: Dawn of the Heroes) in great detail; I see no need to repeat it. This first movie in the series is probably the best. It has some great set pieces, such as Liu Bei's initial encounter with and escape from the Yellow Turbans. The cast is relatively small at this stage, so the action is easy to follow. It has compelling villains in Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu. And it keeps the moralizing to a minimum.

Iri translated all three movies, which are the equivalent of a two-cour TV series. Sunachan, who has since left the team, checked all the names. Yogicat timed the originals and tweaked the timing for the new raws. I edited and typeset (twice). BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed the original release; TougeWolf did a thorough check of this one. The encoder asked to remain anonymous. He's holding out for real Blu-rays.

So if you're ready for another stroll through the Three Kingdoms era, this time in high-definition, you can get Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

 

Sangokushi movie 3

The third movie of the Sangokushi trilogy is Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi (Sangokushi: The Distant Land). With this release, Orphan completes its work on Sangokushi, at least for a while: two TV specials and three movies, totaling more than eleven hours of anime. It had taken a year and a half to do - a marathon, not a sprint.

The third movie covers the longest time span, from Liu Bei's expedition to Shu in 211 CE to the death of Kongming in 234 CE. Instead of The Distant Land, it could just as well be titled The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. All of the main characters die, and the ultimate winner of the battle to reunite China is None of the Above - not Liu Bei or his descendants, not Cao Cao or his descendents, not Sun Quan or his descendants. Eventually, sheer exhaustion of all opponents allows a descendant of the Cao Wei general Sima Yi to reunite the country and create a new dynasty... for a while.

The Distant Land goes a long way, perhaps inadvertently, toward undermining Sangokushi's glorification of Liu Bei's nobility and Kongming's strategic genius. In particular, Kongming's "Land Divided in Three Stratagem" fails spectacularly, producing not a peaceful balance of power but a perpetual war for supremacy among the three states, like the three conflicting superpowers in 1984. The results were disastrous: the population of China was cut more than in half between the outbreak of the Yellow Turban revolt in 184 CE and the establishment of the Jin dynasty in 280 CE. The movie tries to claim a retrospective victory for Liu Bei's ideals, but the state of modern China belies that.

Because it has so much time to cover, The Distant Land moves at a breakneck pace from conflict to violent incident to battle and back again. With the exception of Guan Yu's foster daughter Fengji, characters are introduced, act out their part in history, and vanish in minutes. There is little time for character development or domestic concerns, just for plotting, ambition, betrayals, and executions. It all feels rather depressing - or perhaps I'm just tired of working on the Three Kingdoms era after so many hours working on the TV specials and the movies. The Distant Land had a ton of signs to set, and because of image jitter, almost all of them needed to be motion tracked.

The principal voice cast (Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Kongming, Sun Quan, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei) is unchanged from the previous two movies. The new main characters include:

• Hiromi Tsuru (Fengji) debuted as Perrine in Perrine Monogatari and went on to play Kashima Miyuki in Miyuki, Madoka in Kimagure Orange Road, Barge in Blue Sonnet, and Mikami Reiko in Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She also played Iyo in Izumi, Nozomi in Nozomi Witches, Jill in A Penguin's Memories, UFO-chan in Dokushin Apartment Dokudami-sou, and Takagi Youko in Nine, all Orphan releases.
• Tanaka Hideyuki (Ma Su, Fengji's lover) had a long career, including featured roles as Terryman in the Kinnikuman franchise and Rayearth in Magic Knight Rayearth, as well as Harmer in Al Caral no Isan, Sammy in Bavi Stock, Sawamura in Nozomi Witches, Ronron in Greed, Aoto in Oedo ga Nemurenai!, and Katze in Ai no Kusabi, all Orphan releases. 
• Ootsuka Chikao (Sima Yi) also had a lengthy career, starting back in 1963 in Astro Boy. He played Nezumi in the original GeGeGe no Kitarou and Hakaba Kitarou series, Goemon in the first Lupin III TV series, Tora in the original Ushio & Tora OVAs, and Kaibara Yuuzan in the Oishinbo properties, among numerous other roles. He appeared in several Tezuka Osamu specials, all released by Orphan. 

The anime staff remained the same in all three movies.

Despite the massive size of the undertaking, Orphan's work on the Sangokushi movies was done by a small and remarkably dedicated crew. Iri translated all three movies, diligently researching names, translating signs, and labeling the numerous map locations. Yogicat timed, I did edited and typeset, BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed, and M74 encoded from R2J DVD ISOs - a total staff of six. They have my heartfelt thanks for sticking with the project until it was completed. You can get Sangokushi Dai San Bu Harukanaru Taichi from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net,

Is this the end of Orphan's involvement with Sangokushi? Well... while we were working on the movies, some beautiful high-definitions raws surfaced on Japanese streaming sites. We could put out HD versions of the movies, but there's a problem: the raws are 29.97 fps and need to be re-encoded down to 23.976 fps in order not to wreck all the typesetting. (No, I'm not redoing all that.) So if you want HD versions of the Sangokushi movies, tell your favorite and most capable encoder-san to get in touch with us on IRC. Or do my wrists a favor, and don't.

Sangokushi movie 2

The second movie of the Sangokushi trilogy is 1993's Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! (Sangokushi: The Yangtze Is Burning!). It covers roughly 13 years, from Cao Cao's victory over Lu Bu in 198 CE, through the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 CE, and the aftermath up until 211 BCE. As other players are swept from the board, the story focuses on Liu Bei and his increasingly desperate attempts to prevent Cao Cao from seizing all of China. The turning point is Liu Bei's recruitment of the best strategic mind of that generation, Zhuge Kongming, the Crouching Dragon. Kongming orchestrates an alliance of convenience between Liu Bei and Sun Quan, the ruler of the emerging southern kingdom of Wu, as they seek to stop Cao Cao's "million man army" from rolling over all of China. Their victory over Cao Cao at Red Cliffs and Liu Bei's seizure of the southwest as his realm create the Three Kingdoms that give the era its name.

However, reaching that point is not easy. Liu Bei experiences setback after setback, even after recruiting Kongming. At more than one point in the story, with his fortunes at a low ebb, he describes himself as a failure. Still, he is able to retain the loyalty of his core set of warriors and even expand their number, when the mighty Zhao Yun enlists to serve the cause. Kongming first has to engineer multiple escapes from Cao Cao's hordes, but then he is able to seize the initiative and pull together the coalition that would finally check Cao Cao's ambitions... and create the opening for Liu Bei's ambitions to rule.

Like the Sangokushi television specials, the movies are based on the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms rather than the actual historical records themselves. This makes Liu Bei and his retainers more prominent than perhaps they were in history. It also allows the creators to pick and choose the story they want to show for Liu Bei's wife, named Lihua here. The TV specials modeled Lihua after Liu Bei's third wife, Lady Sun, sister to Sun Quan of Wu. However, the real Lady Sun did not meet the tragic fate depicted in Sangokushi 2; she simply went back to her brother in Wu. The movies' Lihua is based on Liu Bei's second wife, Lady Mi. Again, her tragic fate is not historical; she simply disappeared from the historical record after Cao Cao captured her in 200 CE. But Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a novel, not history, and its authors took considerable liberties with actual events, just as modern historical romances do.

Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! retains the same actors for Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu as the first movie. The major new seiyuu are:

• Yamaguchi Takashi (Kongming) was primarily an actor and a presenter. The Sangokushi movies are his only anime roles. 
• Shibata Hidekatsu (Sun Quan) played Baron Ashura in Mazinger Z, Kenzou Kabuto in Great Mazinger, King Bradley in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, and the Third Hokage in Naruto. He played the hero's father in Dragon Fist and the voice of God in Tezuka Osamu's Tales of the Old Testament, both Orphan releases.
• Hori Hideyuki (Zhao Yun) played Zach Isedo in Al Caral no Isan, Sid in Ai no Kusabi, Falk Green in Hi-Speed Jecy, and Baraba in Eien no Filena, all Orphan projects. He played the title role in Baoh, Phoenix in the Saint Seiya franchise, and Tezuka Osamu himself in the Black Jack TV series.
• Sugiyama Kazuko (Xiulan, Kongming's housekeeper and eventual wife) played Heidi  in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Ganmo in Gu-Gu Ganmo, Ten-chan in Urusei Yatsura, Akane Kimidori in Dr. Slump and Arale-chan, and Korosuke in Kiteretsu Daihyakka.
• Yara Yuusaku (Zhou Yu, Wu's commander-in-chief) played the destroyer captain in Zipang. He had many featured roles, appearing in Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Narudesho, Next Senki Ehrgeiz, Eien no Filena, Hidamari no Ki, Nozomi Witches, both Sangokushi OVAs, Prime Rose, and both What's Michael? OVAs, all Orphan releases.

As with the first movie, the supporting cast is vast, but most are onscreen only for a short time. The musical score for all three movies is by Yokoyama Seiji, a prolific composer of anime scores, including the Saint Seiya franchise and Magical Taruruuto-kun.

The Orphan staff is the same as for the first movie. Iriliane translated, Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, and BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed. M74 encoded from an R2J DVD. Because of the length and complexity of the movie, it was a mammoth effort by all concerned. Unfortunately, the third movie is even more complicated. And as with the first movie, you may need to fiddle with your player to get the signs to display correctly.

So gird your loins, pad your bottom, and go watch Sangokushi Dai Ni Bu Choukou Moyu! in its full 148-minute glory. You can get the movie from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Sangokushi movie 1

As I've noted before, the Japanese are fascinated with chaotic historical eras, like their own Warring States and Bakumatsu periods, and China's Three Kingdoms era. The latter was the subject of a 60-volume manga epic, Sangokushi, by Yokuyama Mitsutera, which has been animated at least four times:

• A 1982 TV special, Sangokushi, for which no raw is available.
• Two movie-length TV specials, Sangokushi (1985) and Sangokushi 2 (1986), already subbed by Orphan.
• A 47-episode TV series, Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi, already subbed by Crossfade.
• Three theatrical movies, released in 1992, 1993, and 1994, currently not subbed.

Orphan will be releasing the first English-subtitled version of all three theatrical movies.

The first movie is Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake (Sangokushi: Dawn of the Heroes), released in 1992. It starts further back in time than the Sangokushi OVAs, with the Yellow Turban rebellion that initiated the downfall of the ruling Han dynasty. At the start of the story, both Liu Bei, its eventual protagonist, and Cao Cao, its eventual antagonist, are minor players. Liu Bei is striving to find a way to bring order to a chaotic world. As he puzzles he way toward the correct course of action, he befriends two powerful warriors, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu. Together, they take the Oath of the Peach Garden, to live and die together as warriors for justice. Meanwhile, Cao Cao is pondering how to fulfill his destiny as "a hero in a chaotic world or a villain in a peaceful one."

Initially, power seems to belong to usurping warlord Dong Zhuo and his right-hand man, the hero Lu Bu. But the two soon fall out over a woman, Diaochan, and the resulting power vacuum gives Cao Cao his chance. Even though Lu Bu is the stronger warrior, Cao Cao has the devil's own luck on the battlefield. Liu Bei tries to stick to the right course, but he is just a minor piece on the giant chessboard of China's warring states. War rages up and down the country, with inconclusive result, thus setting the stage for the next two movies in the series.

The voice cast includes:

• Aoi Teruhiko (Liu Bei) played relatively few roles, but they were all star turns, including the title roles in all the Ashita no Joe properties and the first Hashire Melos special.
• Han Keiko (Lihua, Liu Bei's future wife) starred in numerous World Masterpiece Theater adaptations, playing Becky in Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Annette in Alps Story: My Annette, Meg in Little Women, and Nancy in Pollyanna. She played Queen Promethium in Queen Millennia and its numerous spinoffs and sequels, as well as Luna in the Sailor Moon franchise.
• The late Aono Takeshi (Guan Yu)  played Masaki Katsuhiko in the Techni Muyo franchise and Bookman in the original D.grayman. He appeared in Techno Police 21C, Grim Douwa - Kin no Tori, Fire Emblem, and Stop!! Hibari-kun!, all Orphan releases.
• The late Ishida Tarou (Zhang Fei) played Duke Red in Metropolis and appeared in numerous other movies and TV shows.
• Tsukayame Masane (Lu Bu) had many featured credits and is still active.
• The late Takiguchi Junpei (Dong Zhuo) brought his distinctive voice to the roles of Scratch in Techno Police 21C, the villainous king of Kanemacchi Castle in Grim Douwa: Kin no Tori, and the Mouse Thief in Stop!! Hibari-kun!, all Orphan releases.
• Watase Tetsuya (Cao Cao) is primarily a film and TV actor. Sangokushi is his only listed anime role.
• Yoshida Rihoko (Diaochan) played Megu-chan in Majokko Megu-chan, Monsley in Future Boy Conan, Maria Grace Fleed in UFO Robo Grendizer, Michiru in Getter Robo, Clara Sesemann in Alps no Shoujo Heidi, Rosalie Lamorliere in The Rose of Versailles, Kurama in Urusei Yatsura, and Machiko in Maicchingu Machiko-sensei. She appeared in numerous other World Masterpiece Theater series, including  Anne of Green Gables, Honoo no Alpen Rose, Katry the Cow Girl, Shoukoushi Cedie, Lucy May of the Southern Rainbow, Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, Perrine, and Pollyanna.
• Kayumi Iemasa (Chen Gong, who saves Cao Cao from Dong Zhuo) played the Puppet Master in Ghost in the Shell as well as Emperor Vince in Condition Green and Dokudami in Bander Book, both Orphan releases.
  

The director, Katsumata Tomoharu, is a veteran with many credits to his name, including Danguard Ace, Captain Future, the first few Yamato movies, Rokudenashi Blues, Odin, and the Saint Seiya Hades OVAs.

This project is Iri's brainchild, and he translated all three movies. They are inordinately long; the dialog in each movie is equivalent to six or seven anime TV episodes. It is also quite formal and deliberately a bit stilted, to convey the formulaic nature of many of the interchanges. Sunachan, who speaks Chinese as well as Japanese, checked the names and the signs. Yogicat went into overdrive to do the timing. I edited and typeset. The typesetting was a PITA, because of the large number of maps that are overlaid across action scenes and scale against the background. BeeBee and Topper3000 did QC. M74 encoded from a Japanese DVD.

So if you're ready for another plunge into the complex world of the Three Kingdoms, this time with a much more detailed and complex story line, you can get Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake on the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.

Sangokushi 2 (1986)

Here's the second Sangokushi OVA, from 1986: Orphan's 125th release. It starts after the Battle of Red Cliffs and charts the ups and downs of Liu Bei Xuande's attempt to create a viable state in Shu Han to balance Cao Cao's Wei and Sun Quan's Eastern Wu. It is considerably darker than the first OVA. The alliance between Lui Bei and Sun Quan falls apart. Several more main characters, including audience favorites, bite the dust. The ending is inconclusive, at best, and tragic, at worst.

Like the first OVA, and like The Romance of the Three Kingdoms from which it draws inspiration, Sangokushi 2 plays fast and loose with history. It portrays Liu Bei as supremely virtuous and Cao Cao as a megalomaniac villain. Neither view is supported by historical records. Although Liu Bei adhered more closely to Confucianism than his rivals, he was still an unscrupulous warlord, starting as an ally of Cao Cao and then betraying him. Cao Cao was a capable ruler in many ways but consumed by his ambition, universal to warlords of that period, to become supreme warlord and then emperor of a united China. Cao Cao's origin story - that his blonde hair is not an anime convention but the result of his mother being raped by invaders - is fiction. The romance between Liu Bei and Princess Lihua (Lady Sun) is likewise an invention. (He was married four times. Lady Sun returned to Wu after the break between Liu Bei and Sun Quan.) Still, the power of great fiction to overshadow fact cannot be denied; in China, the equivalent of the English idiom "speak of the devil" is "Speak of Cao Cao, and he appears." Attempts to rehabilitate Cao Cao's reputation in the Communist era have been only moderately successful.

The cast and staff of the second OVA are basically the same as the first, so I won't repeat my comments from the earlier blog post. Iri translated, Yogicat timed, I edited and typeset, bananadoyouwanna and VigorousJammer QCed, and Skr provided the raw. bananadoyouwanna styled the insert/ending song, "Miss Dreamer," which is very good.

You can get Sangokushi 2 from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net

Sangokushi (1985)

The Japanese are obsessed with chaotic parts of their history, like the Sengoku and the Bakumatsu, both of which have been the subject of numerous anime, movies, TV shows, manga, books, and games. However, they appear equally fascinated with a chaotic era in Chinese history, the fall of the Han dynasty, aka the Three Kingdoms period (184 AD to 280 AD). There have been numerous Japanese adaptations of the history of that period, Records of the Three Kingdoms, or of the famous novel based on it, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but none is as famous as the 60-volume manga Sangokushi by Yokoyama Mitsuteru. The manga in turned spawned two TV specials (OVAs) in the 1980s, and a 47-episode TV series and three movies in the 1990s. Orphan is proud to present the first of the two TV specials, Sangokushi (1985). We plan on releasing the second TV special,  Sangokushi 2 (1986), and the three movies. The TV series will have to wait for a group with more patience and stamina.

Sangokushi is set in the waning days of the Han dynasty. Central rule has disintegrated, and the land is controlled by multiple warlords. Wei is nominally ruled by the Han emperor, but power really belongs to his ambitious chancellor, Cao Cao Mengde. Wu, a state south of the Yangtze River, is ruled by Sun Quan Zhongmou. Liu Bei Xuande is a warrior from a small state. While Cao Cao is governed by ambition and Sun Quan by pride, Liu Bei aspires to build a just state and to serve the people. Clearly, he's the hero of the story.

This movie-length TV special opens with Liu Bei under attack by Cao Cao's forces and in danger of capture. His only hope is to find a strategist whose knowledge and wiles can offset Cao Cao's far superior military power. He eventually finds the sage he's looking for, Zhuge Liang Kongming. With the strategist's help, Liu Bei escapes Cao Cao's net and flees to Wu. There he proposes an alliance to Sun Quan. Kongming convinces Sun Quan that he and Liu Bei can defeat Cao Cao, despite their numerical disadvantage in troop strength. Aided by Sun Quan's sister Lihua, with whom Liu Bei has fallen in love, the allies prepare to confront Cao Cao at the Battle of Red Cliffs. And then... but that would be telling.

Like the live-action movie Red Cliffs, which covers many of the same events, Sangokushi is full of larger-than-life warriors who easily defeat tens, hundreds, or even thousands of enemies. These warriors - even the female ones - strike heroic, manly poses and declaim in heroic, manly dialog. There is no time for introspection, second thoughts, or character development. Liu Bei starts as saintly, Cao Cao as ambitious, and Sun Quan as irascible, and they remain exactly as they started. Well, it avoids confusion.

The anime has many exciting action scenes, both mass battles and individual duels, and they're beautifully done, with fluid animation and clear direction. The voice cast includes many familiar names:

• Inoue Kazuhiko (Liu Bei Xuande) played Yamaoka Shirou in Oishinbo and Yuki Eiri in Gravitation, but I know and love him best as the irascible, sake-swilling Nyanko-sensei in the Natsume Yuujichou properties. He also played Ryousuke in Daishizen no Majuu Bagi and Kitten Smith in Starship Troopers, both Orphan releases.
• The late Tomiyama Kei (Zhuge Liang Kongming) is another familiar name. His versatility landed him leading roles in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Bremen 4, Grimm Douwa: Kin no Tori, and Yousei Ou, all Orphan releases.
• Hirano Fumi (Princess Lihua) starred as Lum in the Urusei Yatsura franchise. She also played Tsugumi in Stop!! Hibari-kun, an Orphan release.
• Ikeda Masaru (Sun Quan Zhongmou) starred in Yatterman and had numerous featured roles.
• Yamada Eiko (Yu Jin, Cao Cao's stalwart woman warrior) played the title roles in Anne of Green Gables and Legend of Lemnear, as well as Jo in Little Women. She appeared in What's Michael? and Chameleon, both Orphan releases.

The actor who played Cao Cao seems to have no other credits. The director, Imazawa Tetsuo, helmed Coo of the Far Seas and Utso Miko. (He also directed the first Happy Science film, Hermes: the Winds of Love, but we'll overlook that one.) The music is by the late Watanabe Takeo, who also scored many 70s and 80s TV series, including Perrine, Heidi, Nobody's Boy Remi, Dog of Flanders, Lady Georgie, and the original Mobile Suit Gundam.

Sangokushi is Iri's brainchild; he's translating the TV specials and the movies. Sunachan checked the Chinese names and places. M74 timed the show. Lann094, a new member of the team, edited; I typeset. bananadoyouwanna, VigorousJammer, and I all did QC. (banana also styled the ending song.) Skr provided the raw, which is a direct 1080p webrip and looks quite nice, although it is probably upscaled. (This is Orphan's first 1080p release, I believe.) There is a brief bit of nudity - it's a 1980s OVA, after all - but by and large, it's SFW.

So buckle up for an exciting ride through ancient China, with the assurance that even more historical adventures are on the way. You can get Sangokushi (1985) from the usual torrent sites or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.