SD Gundam: Legend of the Three Kingdoms Brave Battle Warriors – First Episode Review

Episode Summary: The impoverished and beleaguered populace of the land has come under the control of a rebel group called the Yellow Turbans, who harass them and take away their already scarce resources.  Liu Bei is a justice-loving individual who helps to keep the Yellow Turbans at bay along with his brother, Zan.  Their master, the aged Lu Zhi, is under orders to attack the leader of the Yellow Turbans, but before he leaves to do so he entrusts the Dragon Emperor's Sword to Liu Bei, who is confused by its rusted appearance.  Lu Zhi suggests that Liu Bei attempt to see the world through the dragon's eye.

Taking the wise words of his master to heart, Liu Bei climbs atop his village's tallest tower and considers the plight of the villagers, gaining a new perspective on the conflict.  He also notices that Lu Zhi has already encountered the Yellow Turbans, and he rushes to help.  Lu Zhi is gravely wounded, but Liu Bei is able to wield the Dragon Emperor's Sword and release its full potential to win the battle.  Lu Zhi dies on the battlefield, but not before imploring Liu Bei to explore the land and learn more of its people.  Liu Bei then embarks on a journey.

Thoughts: There are many different things that jump into my mind when watching previews for new anime and watching their first episodes.  Sometime I get excited over a cool concept or some impressive animation, other times I'm frustrated by a poorly-realized adaptation.  But the one overwhelming thing that I had on my mind while watching this episode was the word "why."  There are plenty of why's relating to this production and it would take me longer than this review to expound on all of them, but let me emphasize that one of my main questions regarding this work is why we needed another Romance of the Three kingdoms adaptation in a season that already has three others (one of which is purportedly a straight adaptation, and also the only version that hasn't seen an English fansub).  This is clearly a classic story with many iconic characters, and the ease of parodying it and reimagining it is probably very appealing, but the sheer number of contemporary interpretations makes each new version feel like a chore to watch.

I'm sort of baffled as to the intended tone of this adaptation.  Every place I look seems to list it as a parody, and the inclusion of the frankly ridiculous-looking SD Gundam characters seems ripe for visual humor, but the whole thing seems to be played completely straight. There's nothing within the dialog or the actions of the characters that tells me that the creation of this version was intended as a joke or gag; even though the last breaths of Lu Zhi is played up as an emotionally-overblown death scene, there are still no cues that Liu Bei's tears are meant to be in contrast to his many nature or in any other way comedic, so the proper assumption to me at least was that it wasn't meant as a joke.  The problem is that anything with super-deformed Gundams in it is, by its very nature, ridiculous, so the choice not to expand on and embrace this doesn't make much sense to me.

The characters in the show are 3D CG models placed amongst mostly-static backgrounds.  This was probably the best way to go about animating the characters because the character designs are exceedingly complicated and embellished, but the character animation seems to have been put through some kind of process of frame rate reduction which causes it to feel more like traditional animation, but the effect doesn't really work well for me. It does, however, cause the characters to look more like toys, which may have been the intended purpose.

This is just another of those series that seems mostly useless; a way to sell some toy variants and capitalize on the name of a famous franchise. It's a kids' show without any heart and soul and which doesn't have the comedy chops to call itself a true parody.

Pros:

• The episodes are 12 minutes long, rather than the usual 24.

Cons:

• This show is listed as a parody but plays everything much too straight.
• The CG animation has a weird choppy quality.
• This is just one among many adaptations of this material, and there's nothing special about it.

Recommended? No, it's a royal waste of time.