Blood and Heart: The Legendary Life of a Japanese Youth in China

What if you and your family were stranded in enemy territory? This anime is a dramatic retelling of the life of Megumi Sunahara, also known as Zhang Rongqing, a Japanese youth unable to return to Japan from China after World War II. And because of the setting, it’s also about the founding of New China. Since the protagonist identifies as Chinese and joins the People’s Liberation Army, and there are many mentions of the Chinese villagers’ goodness, it sometimes feels like watching a propaganda film. And I’m sure there’s an agenda behind Xue Yu Xin (Blood and Heart), but I’ll review the premise, execution, characters,art and animation, and soundtrack. PREMISE: Has the potential to be boring if you don’t care about history. Raises warning flags if you’re familiar with the history between China and Japan. During WW2, Japan oppressed China. Some Japanese civilians lived in China like Fire Nation colonies. When Japan lost the war, colonials needed to leave en masse, which resulted in terrible traveling conditions and some people getting left behind—including Megumi and his mother and younger sisters. He is the only one in his family who can speak any Mandarin. EXECUTION: Brilliant and heart-wrenching. Each scene feels like it matters—to frame the story, set the tone, show the world, etc. There’s no exposition dump at the beginning, though there is narration to explain time skips and other significant changes. At the end of each episode, there’s a segment like from a documentary. As in, real-life or dramatized clips instead of animation, and narration instead of dialogue. If you’re interested in history, it’s a great extra! But if you just want action or story, these extras are literal exposition dumps removed from the anime itself. Take it or leave it. :) CHARACTERS: There is essentially only one character—the main character. And maybe the colonel. Everyone else exists as a one-dimensional paper doll or as a role to advance Megumi’s character. Maybe it’s the runtime, but there were missed opportunities to better flesh out Megumi’s relationships with other characters, especially the rest of his family. His mother is literally nameless. And I was surprised that he as the oldest sibling could speak Mandarin while his younger sisters couldn’t. There’s a good scene where his sisters are chased by another kid for being Japanese, and Megumi scolds his sisters for going outside when they need to hide their identities. Aaand then it’s never mentioned again. ART & ANIMATION: Solid artwork, decent animation. I like Megumi’s character design—simple, but not too plain compared to the other characters. And I really like the clips in the documentary segments. SOUNDTRACK: Amazing. You’ll either like or hate the OP, which switches singer and style for the last part. The ED, like almost all donghua EDs, is beautiful and fits the anime well. I recommend Xue Yu Xin if you’re curious about the history of China or a story about a Japanese boy living his best life as a Chinese-identifying soldier who helped create modern China! ^^