Aug 7, 2019
Writing – I found the story to be rather complex and confusing at first. I think this is mostly due to the over-abundance of terminology, locations, and names that is used throughout the series. For instance, one of the characters has three different names: Hanguang-jun, Lan Zhan, and Lan Wangji. And he’s not even the only character to have three different names. There’s also a lot of world-building terminology like a “night hunt” and “fierce ghost” or whatever. So it can get very confusing right off the bat. Honestly, this is where I recommend the book to anyone interested, as the book does a lot
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better job at explaining a lot about the world more in-depth. However, getting passed the confusing terminology, there is a great story underneath. I don’t want to spoil too much about it but this show is definitely not afraid to deal with tragedy. And it does so in a tasteful way. The show starts out fairly light-hearted and fun, but gets darker and more serious in tone as it goes along, to the point that towards end of the first season, there are no jokes or light moments whatsoever.
Characters – A big draw for me initially was the myriad of interesting characters. Nearly every character is fleshed out and every character has their own unique personalities. Again, it can get confusing with the huge amount of names you’ll have to remember. I love the character designs. I’ve seen this show referred online as “hair porn”, which is pretty funny and painfully accurate. The characters, design-wise, are fairly simply differentiated by different colors and hair-styles. But a lot of the designs are just so darn cute, like the endearing and adorable main character Wei Wuxian.
Art/Animation – The characters and story are great, but I would have to say that the biggest draw for me to continually watch this show all the way through was the art style and the animation. There are some backgrounds that are absolutely breath-taking, such as pretty much anything in the Cloud Recesses. There is a non-stop plethora of desktop wallpaper-worthy moments in this show, with just the backgrounds alone. The animation is top-notch and fluid and does a great, almost seamless blending of CGI and traditional animation. I was always excited when there was a fight scene or any kind of action scene. This show is worth watching to marvel at the animation alone.
Music – A show gets major points with me if there is memorable music. A show tends to hit me a lot harder and stay with me a lot longer if there’s a song I can latch onto. And this show delivers perfectly in this category. The OP gives me tingles, and it’s so good they made like 20 different versions of it sprinkled throughout the OST. Sometimes it’s so subtle that it’s not even noticeable unless you’re paying attention. The most obvious example of this is the battle music that plays at the beginning of a lot fight scenes, as it most closely resembles the OP. I would really like to find the OST for this show, as it’s almost impossible to find the instrumental tracks anywhere. So if anyone can help me with that I’d greatly appreciate it.
Overall, this show gets high points from me in all categories. I recommend to anyone that wants a good story, cute guys, or great animation. If you like all of the above, then you absolutely must watch this show. Watch it for the animation alone. And I’m definitely looking forward to the second season, but this season, on its own, is easily a 9/10, closer to a 10 than an 8.
Tl;Dr: This show is worth watching for the animation alone. But it also has great characters, music, and story. However, don't expect a lot of shounen-ai aspects due to chinese law. Read the book for more of that content.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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