Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Nippon Sangoku The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun
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Conty
Posts: 9 |
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That's exactly how we get despots, because the populace demands a savior that will take decisive action to fix whatever is "wrong" with the land and thus anyone with the opportunity, the means, and the high-functioning sociopathy will slot themselves into the role. No matter how benevolent the Tiger Of Seii may seem, no matter how benevolent she may believe she is, no matter how precious she looks in an apron as she serves porridge to the starving masses, at the end of the day she's a dictator who can only do things from her point of view, and I hope the story acknowledges that. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 475 |
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Aoteru is the main character acting as an auditor handing out military justice, Wajima is the new dictator. While I'm open to surprises, I don't actually expect the show to have things end well for Wajima and illustrating her personal virtues and good intentions is part of the set up for that. Things are unclear but despite the title it seems to me like Wajimas coup probably wasn't against a democracy, mind.
Aoteru is, in universe, perhaps a good thing as a single case vs the untrammelled violence of whats effectively a military occupation he's acting against. The problem in real life (and until now in the show!) is that such positions are rarely reached by anyone actually incorrigible, and if they are the general outcome is usually that they meet a tragic accident on an inspection tour. [That and the many problems with a one man rapid investigation team and the death penalty.] |
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Dumas1
Posts: 116 |
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I wonder if there's something special about the number 3. The English Civil War was part of a series of conflicts known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (Ireland, Scotland, England), Korea had a Three Kingdoms period before being unified, France had the War of Three Henrys. In fiction, at least, I suppose that it does get difficult to keep track of more than three factions, especially if each one gets a reasonably large subcast (see: The Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire).
Am I the only person who's curious about the international situation? This being year 50 of the Yamato era means Japan has been divided long enough that the situation is probably closer to the Balkans or Central Asia now, about 30 years after Yugoslavia and the USSR broke up, than the Union and Confederacy. It's not uncommon for these types of smaller countries to seek foreign support, and imports may be very important with the seeming collapse of Japanese industry. Though this nuclear winter-ish setting has probably affected the rest of the world. And everyone seems to smoke. Tobacco has to come from somewhere, and I'm not sure I've ever heard of it growing in Japan. And a generally cooler climate may have shrunk the growing range a bit. Last edited by Dumas1 on Mon May 04, 2026 6:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Eilavel
Posts: 475 |
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Have to say, totally agree with the episode review. A lot of other anime (please, slime, please) could take some great tips from here about how to make meetings rooms and strategic planning just plain fun to watch. Taira in particular is an all time top quality hate sink. As pure entertainment, I think this is one of the top anime this season so far and more people should give it a try!
I remain fairly uncertain as to how far all its politics talk will end up providing real depth of thought or analysis, but so long as its this fun I don't care- that would just be a bonus. |
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IronWish
 Posts: 231 Location: Ukraine |
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That's basically Three body problem: the political edition. When you have conflict with two sides it will be either of 1) stalemate; 2) decisive victory; 3) pyrrhic victory. Only shake up might be snowball transition from 1 to 2 or 3, of 3 degrading back into 1. On the other hand, purely geographically it's hard to have a conflict with 4 or more sides where every side is conflicting with each other in a significant way, so multi-sided conflict usually works more like several separate three-sided conflicts. While three sided conflict itself provides unstable dynamic equilibrium, where things are constantly in motion, but no final resolution happens. So it is kind of sweet spot for prolonged dramatic conflicts. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5342 |
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It's interesting how there was a trap, but it wasn't where it's naturally expected. No ambush after the river, no capturing or poisoning at the banquet. The trap is that it's all a distraction, and it also helps provide a way for Auteru to be involved.
Maybe I'm giving Taira too much credit, but I wonder if he might have expected this. He was certain that Seii would surrender, only for there to be a coup. He had his son there to refute Ryumon and push for this march to annex part of Seii. The reason that the castellan wanted to give up his head was that the one in the best position to make it there to help was Taira, and that would diminish Ryumon's power. I'm not so sure that Taira is ignoring how he was obviously wrong, and more that this is all to get a leg up since Ryumon's military accomplishments are enough to keep him from just being able to chop off his head. If he ended up being right, then Ryumon looks overly cautious. If he is wrong, well, I think Taira is the type to not care if he loses a son while taking more glory when he swoops in to save the day. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 5342 |
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Well, it seems that the kid realized what I suspected: Taira sent him there expecting he would die.
And yeah, it's kind of crazy how this story made the little twerp that was so easy to hate have a turnaround that felt believable. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 475 |
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When you really heavily make a character seem one dimensional, a clever reveal of just a second dimension can be a really quick and effective way to make them seem like a fully rounded person.
I say this not as an insult; it requires reasonably deft storytelling to pull off, and Nippon does it with panache. Especially, there are few shows - or works of fiction, really- with such incredible facility for presenting someone as unrelentingly one-dimensional. In general, the show doesn't just have fun storytelling, action and relentless pacing but its just really excellent at rapidly sketching out characters through their thoughts and actions. |
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