The Emperor's Strategy

帝王攻略 is a Chinese anime obviously not perfect in everything, but with good strengths letting me recommending it, especially for people being used to watching Chinese anime, but it can also be a satisfying first Chinese anime for non-initiates. This review is spoiler – free. ####### (+) ####### %% Nice and complex plot in Chinese imperial era. I find it quite realistic in how the Chinese imperial court isrepresented, the role of the Mandarins, influence struggles, corruption and games of power for the domination of what was already one of the most important countries in the world. More precisely, two separate cases (from ep 1 to ep 9 and from ep 10 to 18) and the two last episodes would be teasers for next season. The first case is good but sometimes confused (cf later), the second one is much better with truly interesting development. %%Nice music with relaxing Chinese themes. %%Art is very good, nice colors and drawings, yet the animation is not perfect and sometimes feels a bit odd but that’s no big deal. %%Chinese atmosphere, you have this very particular “Chinese humor” you can find in many Chinese anime, basically embodied here by Xinan king’s brother, Yao Er. %%Sometimes people do not like Chinese voices, I actually enjoy it, being myself more familiar with Chinese language. The voices fit particularly well the characters. ####### (-) ####### %%Some issues with the rhythm, especially in the beginning; a bit slow in the first 10 episodes, and the end appears in comparison a bit rushed. Mentioning the end, it is quite abrupt and somehow frustrating – there is no doubt there will be a second season, but when? %%You don’t learn that much about the characters in the beginning, and sometimes you will regret the lack of interaction between the main characters (which is mainly due to the realism of the supposed interactions between the Chinese emperor and his vassals). %%Too many names, it is sometimes hard to identify key characters in the beginning, but this is usual common flaw in many Chinese anime (cf Mo Dao Zu Shi). %%I don’t really see the point of introducing some “fantasy”, I would had preferred if they had designed it in a full realistic scheme; because it is not really significant in the plot; well they could have done better without going this way. ####### Overall, a bit confused in the rhythm, some will potentially stop after 2-3 episodes, I recommend not to do so, because this is a nice Chinese anime that will enable you to glance over Chinese imperial court and administration, which is truly fascinating. P.S. : I have seen it twice, with several months in between, and I didn’t change my rating of this anime nor my overall impression. Just give it a try!

This animation is very beautiful as I could not stop watching the episodes continuously. However, the pacing was bad. For example, in the beginning, the story progressed slowly, however at the end, it progressed quickly which leaves me unsatisfied with the ending. Therefore you have to use your imagination at the cliffhangers that this story offers you. I think it is easy to get confused with the plot if you are not familiar with the concept of how royal works. I found myself having to replay some parts to understand the complex hierarchy, position and so on. It was worth the watch, and if I haveto watch it again, I would.

It’s a shame this anime was handled so poorly because there’s clearly some good potential here.
But the production just made a shameful work here. The animation is clearly on a budget, but the art style is not completely trash. Backgrounds and landscapes are pretty well drawn, but characters are often sloppy, sometimes producing a weird contrast. There are some sequences where you can clearly see they capped on frames, making the whole animation feel so non fluid and cheap. A real shame. 
The story complexity is pretty balanced, but the pacing is awful, making it harder to understand. Somehow it makes it seem as if the screentime was like.. not enough to fit the entire plot. The original novel is over 100 chapters long and they had to squeeze a good amount of the story in only 20 episodes. The show skips on many many points, fast forwarding oddly. Episodes always end with weird pacing, almost abruptly, not in a cliffhanger way, but more like a clean cut interrupting the narrative. 

The musics are just meh, not bad but not great either. The audio mixing and sound effects awkward. This is based off a danmei (BL) novel, but obviously the anime needs to dodge the theme due to China’s censorship regulations. 
But even so, the relationship between MC and ML is still confusing. While is clear that Duan Bai Yue is clarly infatuated and cares a lot for Chu Yuan, the MC behaviour is a bit odd.
 Their relationship was very good during their childhood. Initially it looks like he has feelings for Bai Yue, impatiently waiting to reunite with his childhood friend for which he has a crush, uprooting and replanting the tree he was gifted during their childhood. But after they get reunited he’s kind of cold and prickly toward bai Yue. Overall it's a barely decent anime to kill time if you're into danmei anime. It saddens me to see how mistreated the whole thing was, but hey, maybe not even the production had any faith in this project, which indeed is pretty much ignored and unknown. If you're really interested in the story, I suggest you read the original novel thouh.