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" by Luo Guanzhong. Another significant difference from others is that the storyline primarily uses the original historical account of the era, "Records of Three Kingdoms" by Chen 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. Yet, several aspects of the story are in fact based on the novel version, including the employment of its original characters such as Diao Chan, as well as anachronistic weapons such as Guan Yu’s Green Dragon Crescent Blade and Zhang Fei’s Viper Spear.