Mo Dao Zu Shi

(I've already posted my review in myanimelist.net, and now I figure I might as well post a review here to share my love for this anime.)

This is undoubtedly the most beautiful anime I've ever seen in my life! It's much better than any other anime in the year of 2018, I would dare to claim. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves anime as I do.

I have mostly great things to say about this anime with a couple of complaints.

First of all, the arts, style, music and character design in this series absolutely amazed me to my "Golden Core" ! (You would know what golden core is if you watch this anime.)

The artistic portrayal of ancient China is breathtakingly beautiful. Every frame seems like a picturesque poem. In fact I would call the animation style in this series as "Visual Poetry".

The music and all the ancient instruments appeared in the series are out of this world. The opening theme instantly brought me into this fantasy world where cultivators can fly so effortlessly on their swords and perform stunning arts of cultivation as one does.

The voice acting is great and gave each character a distinguishable persona and made the characters more relatable. Their struggles and the dynamics of their relationships makes me feel like I'm part of it. On the other hand, I did notice that some of the background characters' faces look more generic, bland and indistinguishable.

The plot of all the 15 episodes in season 1 did not quench my thirst for more content in this fantastic world. I want more stories in this beautifully animated world. I can't wait for season 2. I hope season 2 would be more epic and more ambitious than the first one.

Additionally, some people have classify this anime into the Shounen Ai category, which I beg to differ. For my viewing experience, I didn't even realized this anime is adapted from a Shounen Ai novel until I looked it up on the internet. Since this anime is produced in China, I seriously doubt there would be an overarching theme about Shounen Ai. The Shounen Ai element would be very subtle, if there's any to begin with. I seriously pity those who decided to not enjoy this anime simply because it's labeled as "Shounen Ai".

My only complaints lie with the sub translation. There's a heavy load of info dumped on me when I started the first few episodes. All the names are in Chinese which felt like a heavy task to me, although I did catch on with what is going on shortly after I dived in to the series. When it comes to the mythologies and concepts in this anime, I very much prefer interpretation over direct translation. I would understand many concepts much better and quicker if it were not badly translated into weird English, which also slightly takes me out of this anime's artistic world. With all that said, I still appreciate all the hard work by the fan sub community, without whom I wouldn't have the privileged to enjoy this anime.

Overall I would give this anime a 10 out 10.

This is my first non Japanese anime. And I really hope it can get a second season produced smoothly. I'm very worried about the fate of this anime production since this anime did not go viral around the world as it should be. I honestly don't know what to do if season 2 production doesn't go as planned. I called for more support to this anime. And to all the fans in China, please tell Tencent to give whatever cash is needed for this anime production.

This show portrays traditional Chinese drama perfectly - in animation form! The director made the plot simpler by putting all the flashbacks into one season, instead of the way the novel did it. All the characters are elaborated perfectly. Would've had a 10/10 if they kept the relationship between Lan Zhan and Wei Ying... But we all know that's not possible since it's China :/

I didn't know this animation in the first place until someone mentioned in a MV that this animation is so popular. So, I started to watch it.

At first, I must admit that I didn't like it because maybe, the first episode doesn't have the story line. But the more I watch, the more I fell in love with the story. I have already watched all episodes of season 1 a thousand times and still want to watch again and again. Because of the season 1 and 2 is one year apart, so, I started to read the original novel.

For normal condition, I don't read the original novel that much because my Chinese is not that good although I know a little about Chinese language to watch Chinese films. But reading novels, it takes me a long time to finish. I read it anyway.

It's the love story of two homosexuals. So, it kind of made me disgusting at first. No offence. But the more I read the story, the more it makes me to love the story. It gets interesting and interesting. By the way, I also listen radio drama version too because I totally love the story.

Back to the animation, the animation is basically good. But I wish they could do 3D animation, it'd be better.

All in all, everything is great. If I could recommend animation to watch, I'd definitely recommend this one. It's totally worth spending time. As for me, I'll be waiting for the upcoming episodes very impatiently.

Where do I even begin, there's so much I love about this show! All of the characters are extremely well designed and dynamic. Even characters that had considerably small amounts of screen time breathed into life with layers of personality built on a simple sentence or their expressions and even gestures. You can't help but empathize with the characters because they come across as very authentically human and relatable. The voice acting is superb as they are able to convey these characters in very realistic and human ways. There are also so many deep analogies through imagery such as contrasts in the background or deeper meanings reflected in nature which really goes to show the superb directing abilities of the producers. Many of the messages delivered in this show are extremely subtle that compiles into a bigger picture which is what makes this show so re-watchable because you can always catch something new that you haven't realized before. This story is a deeply enticing one that explores the themes of honour, sacrifice, love, family, and the cyclical nature of human life. The art itself is of extremely high quality, the movements are very fluid, and the music beautifully transitions and sets the tone for important moments. This is a powerful story that will leave you to continuously think about as it continue to explore the subtlety in love. For those who may have heard of the BL elements in this show and want to avoid it, it's so subtle you almost have to look for it. The storyline itself is very intricate and weaves many complex emotions for all of the characters. It's a beautifully crafted story where the protagonists happen to develop romantic feelings rather than having an absentminded romantic plot that is just dropped on the audience. Afterall, love is love is love, who cares what form it's in? Strongly urge everyone to give this show a try!

Animation is very great and art are also very beautiful and the best thing the storyline.It impressive!