New Anime Season Autumn 2009: Shin Koihime Musou

November 19th, 2009

Quick, name an all-female anime/manga version of the Chinese Epic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. No, wait – quick, name three.

Last year we were ‘treated’ to Koihime Musou, one of several gender switch versions of the historical epic Romance. This year we have the debatable pleasure of a sequel, Shin Koihime Musou, currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

The sequel begins with the appearance of the real Ryuubi since, as you may remember from last season the guy we thought was Ryuubi was not. The real Ryuubi is a bit of a ditz, but is, of the entire cast, probably the most sane.

Having thus met the third of their triad, Kanu and Chouhi renew their vow of sisterhood, just in case we forget the whole vow under the peach tree thing.

The three, and a few of the others, head off to something something which in this case is get Ryuubi’s sword back, have adventures and eat – a lot. An inordinate amount of time is spent watching the travelers eat. In the meantime, the story veers off to follow three sisters who turn themselves into pop idols through magic.

There’s also a mad dash to squeeze in a bunch of new characters, to round out the cast.

Sei’s Yuri quotient has dropped significantly along with her screen time – one of the side effects of too many characters, so older ones are used less effectively.

For Yuri we’ve got Kakuka who is obsessed with Sousou and frequently has explicit fantasies about her. (Please note: “Perverted” does not apply. Sexual fantasies are not “perverted.” They are completely normal. I’m freaking sick and tired of seeing the word “pervert” misused to describe a person having a fantasy. Not having sexual fantasies is far weirder than having them.) I’m really rooting for Kakuka in this. I think she and Sousou would make a fun couple, much better than Sousou and Kanu.

This season is no better or worse than the first season. It’s all much of the same – silly things that have nothing to do with the Romance take center stage, while important political things are pushed to the background. Breasts still bounce, clothes are still silly, the writers are clearly hungry and stuff happens.

For what it is, it’s fine. I turn my brain off and watch the pretty colors move around the screen. :-)

Ratings:

Art – Meh, but what can you do
Story – It’s in there somewhere I’m sure
Characters – There’s a lot of them
Yuri – Go! Go! Ka-ku-ka!
Service – Are Us

Overall – 7

I *really* don’t remember Guan Yu falling for Liu Bei in the original. But it’s such a prevalent theme in these anime/manga/game bastardizations that I’m now beginning to wonder if I was just blind to the obvious. I’m going to have to re-read that and see if I can read between the lines more. :-)

10 Responses

  1. Val says:

    Don’t worry, I didn’t pick up on the “Guan Yu falling for Liu Bei” thing either when I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Shall we discuss subtext once we’ve gone through the books again? *grins*

  2. A says:

    Maybe the translation is lacking? ^^

  3. Anonymous says:

    Hmm. The only adaptation of The Romance of Three Kingdoms that I have found works for me is _The Ravages of Time_. If you haven’t read it, I think you’d be in for a treat. However, it’s one of those you need to concentrate heavily on to be able to follow the incredible complexity.

    Do I dare ask who Lu Bu & Sima Yi are in this version?

  4. @Anonymous – Here’s a link to a list: http://hashihime.atspace.com/etc/koihime/koihimechars.html

    Looks like we haven’t met this version’s Ryoufu yet.

  5. A says:

    Ryoufu appeared last season in the Toutaku episode. The silent girl who loves dogs. Also the latest episode had her too.

  6. @A Thanks for the clarification.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Great. You know, I was just thinking I needed something to get me over this habit of enjoying life I’ve had.

  8. Mara says:

    “I’m freaking sick and tired of seeing the word “pervert” misused to describe a person having a fantasy. Not having sexual fantasies is far weirder than having them.”

    I agree with the first sentence, it is one of the downers with the way Mikoto reacts to Kuroko in ‘railgun’.

    However the second sentence is worrying. No reason to be mean to a third party to make a point, sorry to sound pretentious and overly PC.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Hi.
    i have a question. it´s not about this topic, but answer me Erica Friedman, about junsui adolescence, i want to know, is finish already?, what number of chapters have?, or tell me everything you know about it. Please and thank you, very much.

  10. @Anonymous – Here’s a link to my review of Junsui Adolescence

    You won’t find out how many chapters there are, because I don’t know. One volume. Buy it and you’ll see how many chapters there are! :-)

Leave a Reply to Anonymous