Nippon Sangoku The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun

Episodes 9-11

Man, I was really hoping that getting to watch three episodes of this show in a row to play catch-up after my vacation would fix how goddamn quickly it seems to go by every week. Somehow, though, over an hour of pure, uncut Nippon Sangoku still flies by as if in mere minutes. I know that there are much worse problems to have as a critic than “The show I am covering refuses to take even a single week off from kicking obscene amounts of ass,” but I still need to register my complaints. If nothing else, it might at least balance out the next several hundred words of praise I am going to heap on the show.

The first in our trio of new chapters is “Tears for Yayakichi,” which does exactly what it says on the tin and squeezes some fresh tears out of all of us in the audience for a character we've only just barely gotten to know. Once again, Nippon Sangoku makes this difficult artistic feat look effortless by leveraging its effective framework as a kind of post-apocalyptic historical epic being told years in advance. In any textbook or historical survey, the ins and outs of Yayakichi's failed coup against Ohga would have made for great drama, and the show benefits from the extra flair of melodrama on account of how obvious it is that Yayakichi is intentionally botching the coup and offering himself up on the altar of Ohga's reputation as a leader as a sacrificial lamb. Between her genuine heartbreak over executing her trusted advisor and the fear she displayed when fleeing from Ryumon last week, the show is doing an excellent job of portraying the Gentle Dictator as a legitimately complicated and compelling despot.

Credit for so much of the success of this episode and the ones that follow it has to be given to Kevin Penkin, whose moody and diverse soundtrack has been working overtime lately to really sell the emotional stakes of this increasingly bloody conflict. I love the jazzy, melancholy notes that pervade Yayakichi's death march, with the vocal track that plays over his crucifixion being an especially inspired choice. It gives the air of classic Japanese OSTs from the 70s and 80s, even though the song is in English.

If “Reunion of Mortal Enemies” feels like the tiniest of steps down from the previous episode, it is only because it has so many more plates to juggle by swinging our focus back to the crises within the Yamato camp. Ryumon was nearly killed pulling that Empty Fort stunt, Kaku has also been sidelined on account of his mysterious illness, and Seii is on the rebound now that Ohga has her groove back. There's not as much of an emotional center to follow in the middle of all this breathless plotting, but we have already established that Nippon Sangoku excels in making its narrative maneuvering as thrilling as any military stratagems being executed on the battlefield. The result is still entertaining as all get out.

It is no coincidence that this escalation of tension and dramatic momentum follows Aoteru's long-awaited return to the spotlight. While we have had no shortage of excellent characters on both sides of the war to follow while he and Tsune have been stuck backstage, it is still so refreshing to see our hero back doing what he does best. That is to say, Aoteru wields his wisdom and his words with the deadly precision of a warrior armed with the sharpest blades.

Throughout “Reunion of Mortal Enemies” and “Lie on Firewood and Council the Heavens,” we are reminded of why Aoteru is an incredibly capable leader who can inspire even the likes of Tsune to drop his plans with a gaggle of call-girls to ride out in the dead of night as backup. From the moment he arrives at the Emperor's court to finally take Taira to task and correct the course of this war, Aoteru commands the screen, and it isn't long before he is commanding the court, too. Once again, instead of making plays based on personal games and self-preservation, the real heroes of Nippon Sangoku are willing to fall back on the tactics of the past and use the pride of the enemy against them. Ryumon proved the efficacy of this approach once already, and now Aoteru's plan to draw Seii into the ultimate ambush is capitalizing on the gains made by Ryumon's sacrifice.

I suppose I do have one additional criticism to register, beyond the gaslighting brevity of every single one of Nippon Sangoku's episodes. Next week, the season will come to a close, and I don't know what I am going to do without my weekly dose of gorgeously realized military melodrama. The best-case scenario is that the season finale will be satisfying enough to make the unbearable wait for season two just tolerable enough to survive.

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Nippon Sangoku The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.