Oct 19, 2022
This season is definitely better than the third season in terms of storytelling, animation, the soundtrack (maybe), and more. Whereas the third season felt somewhat rushed in the earlier half, especially when it came to impactful moments in the manga like Chou Tou (Zhang Tang) revealing to Kanki (Huan Yi) that he’d been poisoned, Man Goku (Wan Ji) digging up the body of his dead father at Chouhei (Changping), or Chou Tou cleaving Seikai (Cheng Hui) in half, Studio Signpost seems to have gotten its pacing down pat with Season 4. The art style has also improved significantly, as Season 3’s Tou (Teng) used to
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look like a blond beach ball with lips — now he looks a lot more like he does in the source material.
Moving on to the plot, some of the other reviewers here have noted that there’s a lot more politics and quite a bit less war in this season compared to the last one. This is definitely true, but it is by no means a bad thing in my opinion. Rather, this kind of progression makes perfect sense, as the shock of the Coalition’s defeat has shaken up the courts of the other six states and eliminated the need for a Ryo (Lü) Sei (Zheng) ‘United Front’ — of course they’ll go back to dealing with each other now. I do think that there’s one arc in this season (the Fire Dragons arc) that’s somewhat weak compared to the others, but it’s only weak because the eponymous antagonists seem to fall too easily for generals who on par with the 6GG’s of old. Aside from that, I think it did a fine job showcasing some of Ou Hon’s talents and a decent job depicting the campaign overall. Plus, even as a weak arc, the two arcs sandwiching it (Seikyou’s Rebellion and the State of Ai arc) are incredible and more than compensate for the lacklustre fire dragons with their character development.
Back on the theme of politics again, I actually think the politics and the State of Ai arc are the strongest selling point of the entire season. Pierrot kind of fumbled our introduction to Ryo Fui by cutting out the Assassination arc, so I can understand it if some haven’t been as invested in or paid as much attention to the struggle between the King and the Chancellor as they might have been with, say, the Coalition War, but I think this battle of ideals is fundamentally more important to the premise of the anime — the unification of the Middle Kingdom — than the Coalition War will ever be. It’d be all warm and nice and fantastical if Sei just set out to unify China and everyone hopped on board and conquered the six states and had a happy shōnen ending, but the reality is that Qin’s Great War to end all wars must come at an immense human cost for both Qin and the other six states. As such, many people, whether from the six states on Qin’s path of conquest or from Qin itself, will object (that’s an understatement) to Sei’s vision. It is therefore crucial that Sei’s resolve be continually tested and steeled along this path, whether by enemy armies or diplomats or even his own ministers, and Ryo Fui just happens to be one of the first to challenge him. Think of this conflict as no different from Shin’s multiple bouts with Hou Ken (Pang Nuan).
Are there propagandistic themes in this season, and is the dialogue poorly written? I wouldn’t say yes to either. Ryo Fui’s arguments, in fact, give the impression that that man is several centuries ahead of his own time. The almost proto-capitalistic thought of harnessing greed to benefit the state and its people is certainly not an thought that any of the philosophers of that era, both East and West, would likely have cooked up, having been too focused on morality and the nature of things. So the anime presents a perfectly viable alternative (imo) to Sei’s straightforward ‘subjugate them all’, and though Ryo Fui seems to concede, his hand has also been forced by the failure of the rebels at Kanyou (Xianyang). None of this makes Ryo Fui’s critiques less correct, as in the end it all amounts to how one judges man’s capacity for altruism and bottom line for greed, and (at least in the manga) more critics and events challenging the soundness of Sei’s vision will be making appearances later down the line, so I think Season 4 does a good job setting us up for this new conflict.
I’m giving this a 10 because the only thing I thought felt a little weird were the fire dragons. Everything else was great.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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