Contemporary depictions of characters in modern media can often be traced back to designs popularized by this series and earlier Chinese illustrations from the 1950s [14]. Evolution and the Modern Era
At its heart, the series is a dramatic reimagining of the period of Chinese history, primarily drawing from the 14th-century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms [1, 29]. This provides a rich foundation of legendary figures like Guan Yu, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei [7, 18].
After decades of adhering to a similar formula, the series recently underwent a significant shift with (2025) [2, 13].