Soul Buster

Soul Buster is a 2016 television anime series produced by Studio Pierrot in collaboration with Chinese production entities, including Haoliners Animation League. The series is based on the Chinese manhua of the same name by Bai Mao, which draws heavy inspiration from the classic 14th-century Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The project was conceived during a period of increasing cross-cultural collaboration in the animation industry, aiming to blend traditional historical epic narratives with modern fantasy and action tropes.

The character designs and animation direction sought to modernize the legendary figures of the Three Kingdoms era, casting them into a contemporary setting where the protagonist must navigate the conflicts of the past manifesting in the present. While the series attempted to bridge the aesthetic preferences of Chinese manhua readers and Japanese anime audiences, it received a modest critical reception, often noted for its unconventional narrative pacing and its ambitious, albeit complex, effort to reinterpret historical Chinese literature through the lens of a supernatural action anime.