The Founder of Diabolism

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'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.

Great story with beautiful art and music ! Although the animation did not follow the novel precisely (especially the romance between the two main characters has been "hidden", the anime still has plenty to offer.

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

By far one of of the best anime (donghua for chinese animation) i've seen all year. I've watched it twice. Absolutely loved this series with my whole heart.

First, this is certainly NOT a shounen anime that is geared towards teens. It's rated mature at R 17+ on MyAnimeList, as it should be.

The scenery truly stands out as unique, and breath taking. Chinese animation has developed their own style with very detailed; exquisite landscapes that looks like poetry. The character design was refreshing. I really enjoyed the more mature looking characters.

The voice acting in this deserves an award. The emotional parts were so believable. The emotions really came through in a way that it didn't feel like acting.

The writing in this series is top notch in my opinion. I found it to be well written, with plenty of plot twist and mystery in terms of story line.

Although, the majority were fine to me, my only criticism is that SOME of the fight scenes could have looked smoother. Also, Chinese is spoken very fast, and the subtitles fly by. I cant read that fast. Not sure how this could be remedied for us English speakers, but I had to rewind many times to catch up to what was going on.

Everything in this series can be described as beautiful, and I highly recommend this series. 10/10