YMMV / Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1994)

• Can't Un-Hear It: For the many who were around to see the show when it debuted, its portrayals of the book's characters are potentially what spring to mind when they think of or read it.
• First Installment Wins: First Adaptation Wins, rather. In contrast to the the 2010 remake which was, amongst other things, met with a mixed reaction from Chinese audiences for straying too far from the novel in terms of characterization (as well as other general problems with the writing), the 1994 series has been revered for sticking as close as possible to the source material. The show even has a 9.6 on Douban, the Chinese equivalent of IMDB, with 148,103 ratings.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • As popular as it is in China, the series is also rerun quite frequently in Vietnam as well. This also applies to the adaptations of Journey to the West and The Water Margin.
  • The show got its own Japanese dub, which was later reedited into a series of recap movies. It was even released on Japanese home video to boot!
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the book, both Guan Yu and Zhang Fei predeceased Liu Bei. In November 2022, both their actors in this show, Lu Shuming and Li Jingfei passed away, predeceasing Liu Bei's actor, Sun Yanjun. What makes this hit even harder is that Lu Shuming, who played Guan Yu, passed away first, mirroring how the latter was the first of the Peach Garden trio to die.
• Memetic Badass: As if Zhuge Liang wasn't one already, this version turns him into China's finest rap battler!