chriscjanderson

Chinese cultivation stories are often weird or incomprehensible to Western viewers, too much rambling about meridians and purple plum blossom strikes etc. This one is quite a bit more to Western audiences' tastes though, the scifi setting and the character's common sense behaviour, speech and personalities works much better than the traditional fantasy wuxia setting.

Sure the main character is on an anime-esque power journey but he tends to succeed through smarts, tactics and grit more than just being over-powered at all times. The writer/producers also aren't afraid to kill off characters appropriately so while the main character has obvious plot armour there's a fair bit of tension not knowing who else might survive. The villains are threatening in the right way and the supporting cast are mostly pretty engaging, especially the core team as time goes on.

The 3D graphics jumps all over the place quality-wise but the visual design more than makes up for it, the world and the power system are interesting and very filled out. There's a few funny bits where you'll see visual styles lifted from other notable shows, be it Godzilla or the MCU but it's more "rule of cool" than outright copying. Music is pretty good too.

Episodes are short but its currently over 120 so that's a lot of viewing and quite a bit more story than you would expect, perfect for bingeing. If you've been put off or bored by other donghua in the past I positively recommend this series for Westerners looking to get into an excellent Chinese series.