- Sōten Kōro
Infobox animanga/Header
name = Sōten Kōro
caption =
ja_name = 蒼天航路
ja_name_trans =
genre = Action, Adventure, HistoricalInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Hagin Yi
illustrator = King Gonta
publisher = flagicon|JapanKodansha
publisher_other =
demographic =Seinen
magazine = Morning
first = 1995
last = 2006
volumes = 36
OEM =nihongo|Sōten Kōro|蒼天航路| is a
Japan esemanga by manga artist nihongo|King Gonta |王欣太|, adapted from an original story by nihongo|Hagin Yi|李學仁|. It was serialized byKodansha in the manga anthology magazine "Weekly Morning " from 1994 to 2005. After Hagin Yi died of cancer in September 1998, King Gonta picked up the story himself. A total of 409 chapters were published and compiled into 36 separate books. In 1998, it won the 22ndKodansha Manga Award in the general category.cite web | url=http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/kodansha.shtml | author=Joel Hahn | title=Kodansha Manga Awards | work=Comic Book Awards Almanac | accessdate=2007-08-21]There are no published English translations of it, but a color compilation book released in 2007 has the English subtitle "Beyond the Heavens" on the cover, suggesting that it is the accepted English translation of the title. In addition, the last chapter of the series is also titled in English "Beyond the Heavens".
Story
Sōten Kōro’s story is based loosely on the events taking place in
Three Kingdoms period of China during the life of the last Chancellor of theEastern Han Dynasty ,Cao Cao (155 – March 15, 220), who also serves as the main character.The Three Kingdoms period has been a popular theme in Japanese manga for decades, but "Sōten Kōro" differs greatly from most of the others on several points. One significant difference is its highly positive portrayal of its main character, Cao Cao, who is traditionally the antagonist in not only Japanese manga, but also most novel versions of the Three Kingdoms period, including the original 14th century version, "
Romance of the Three Kingdoms " byLuó Guànzhōng . Another significant difference from others is that the storyline primarily uses the original historical account of the era, "Records of Three Kingdoms " byChen Shou , as a reference rather than the aforementioned "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" novel. By this, the traditional hero of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms",Liu Bei , takes on relatively less importance within the story and is portrayed in a less positive light. In Japan, "Sōten Kōro" was advertised by its publisher as nihongo|"Neo-Sangokushi"|ネオ三国志, or "Alternative Romance of the Three Kingdoms".References
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