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SPOILER FREE!
Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire, one of the latest Chinese anime licensed in the West by Funimation, is a mixed bag of a show. A very mixed bag.

Firstly the story. I'm not gonna summarise it here, you can read the synopsis yourself. What I would say, is that the first two or so episodes are superb as far as story goes. It's thrilling, engaging and very interesting and novel. Characterisation is good and the scene is set very well. Then, it goes meh. Very meh. It turns into a standard generational revenge story and the characterisation stops there. Not much can be said otherwise. ... It follows a rather boring habit of donghua of relying entirely on very long flashbacks, which I was not necessarily a fan of.

Art! This show really excels here. As far as CGI donghua go, this one decided to follow a style mimicking standard 2D animation. However, it didn't make the mistake of trying too hard to look like normal anime, as is the case often with Japanese CGI anime. Because of this, it allowed itself to be more fluid, use more CG elements, and really create an intense atmosphere through use of lighting and colour palate, and therefore stand out as a distinct yet well executed work.

Sound! Y'know what? This wasn't actually that bad. Not much to comment on aside from the fact that the OP and ED are way too loud compared to the average volume of the actual show. Just a little thing that can be fixed any time they want.

Characters. Ooh boy. This one's gonna be a hot take. First the two main characters. They follow the bog standard dynamic found often in donghua of silly, joking, and hot-headed guy bromancing with the cool, dynamic, and intelligent guy. Nothing at all stands out there. And now the side characters. What side characters? They exist, but they're not necessarily stand-out in the slightest. Many are simply introduced and ignored directly after for the rest of the show's runtime. There is however one character who I won't name nor specify due to risk of spoilers, who becomes a main character by the end. This guy (You'll know him once you see him) is entirely built on the flashbacks so it's very hard to feel that he is distinct in any way. He admittedly has properly developed motivation, sure, but he *is* his motivation. That's all he surmounts to.

Conclusion! My overall score is a five. Despite my complaints, it's not that bad. But it's not that good either. I'd argue the first two episodes are definitely worth watching, and maybe you're find more enjoyment than I did, for the remaining ten.

Thanks for reading!

Oh, Lindenfilms. Please, please, never adapt a manga ever again.

Saiyuuki's new anime is... a mixed bag. To say the least. Not what I wanted to say considering the great quality of the manga source. Yet still, it was somehow a peak of an otherwise completely uninteresting season for anyone not interested in *insert current trending drivel here*.

Let's start with the elephant in the room. The art. A step up from Tokyo Revengers, Lindenfilms here manage to retain the detailed character designs. As with the aforementioned show though, the animation quality is rather low. It's very static, almost like a PowerPoint at times. The action ... is reminiscent of clicking through the dialogue of a visual novel. Let's leave it at a five out of ten. High because of the quality of the designs they somehow preserved.

Now the quality of the adaptation from the source. The pacing was very odd. They even adapted a 13 or so page gag side-chapter as an entire episode. 24 minutes of my time wasted on a minute long manga read, which was clearly there to save budget considering the stunted visual quality. I thought "island episodes" were a thing of the past, but here we are with one in a cour-long show. Other decisions to stretch out some subplots and in effect skip over others took out the majority of the "mystery" aspect present in the manga, where the two parties were locked in a war of attrition to figure out the intentions and abilities of the other.

That being said, thanks to the source it came from, the story was very good. Best part of the Saiyuuki manga, in my opinion, and a decent anime as well. A bit of yokai-infused 4D chess crossed with Stardust Crusaders-style travelling westward. You can read the synopsis yourself, weeb.

The sound was some generic anime sound effects crossed with some standard background music you can find anywhere else. Although, the OP and ED were pretty great. Love some GRANRODEO.

Characters are a big part of Saiyuuki and they were preserved very well here, with the perfect cast of voice actors to accompany. As the pull of Saiyuuki, it's no wonder they're good.

Luckily despite the anime being heavily restricted in what it could have done, I definitely enjoyed it as a big Saiyuuki fan. I'll end by saying this definitely isn't beginner-friendly and it's absolutely required that you read the manga set before this arc, but it definitely is worth watching, once you catch up with the manga, that is.

7/10.