Douluo Dalu 2nd Season

I've been watching Anime/Cartoons for 20+ years, and Douluo Dalu is one of my favorites and I genuinely believe it's a masterpiece. It's my favorite shonen and my favorite Isekai. My PERSONAL enjoyment of the show was a 10/10. Pro: -The best power system out of any show I've ever seen. It's genius -Great worldbuilding -Having seen almost no Donghua before, this show felt EXTREMELY unique and inventive -Lovable main cast (Shrek seven devils) -tons of fighting -there's romance, there's drama, I laughed and I cried; it's dope -Although the Protagonist is OP, the other group members are still very strong and useful. There's a lot of fighting in this show, and they actually use TEAMWORK everytime instead of it being basically multiple simultaneous 1v1's like in many other shows. -Sidecharacters matter and are basically never throw-aways, the show somehow manages to bring back many side character back in a way that makes sense and is satisfying. -The end of the show ties up everything pretty neatly imo Con: -3D isn't for everyone -The animation at the start of the show is not that great (it does getter better though!) -It's Chinese so the english sub isn't that great. My guess is that chinese doesn't translate well to english in general? I've noticed this with other donghua as well. -Due to covid, the last ~fifth of the show is somewhat rushed, with episodes being only 10 minutes instead of 15

This donghua is an adaptation of the first Soul Land or Douluo Dalu novel. This is way too long to actually accurately score as an adaptation, so instead, I will be giving my impression of this as an adaptation and noting some obvious changes from the source. This review may contain some spoilers and will be VERY LONG, given the high episode count. In addition, watch the 2-hour Director's Cut finale as opposed to the original. TLDR: Douluo Dalu, or Soul Land, is now a completed donghua (and probably the first for this level of adaptation). It is a great watch for beginners to the Xianxia genre. It starts of good and stays exciting throughout, though there are some slower, dragged out parts (especially those episodes released during the worst of the pandemic). The ending was very rushed, but still a decent recommendation for donghua viewers. Plot Summary: Tang San having just killed the human-faced man-eating spider, now absorbs his third spirit ring. Afterwards, Tang San continues his cultivation journey to become a more powerful spirit master and re-establish the Tang Sect in this new world. Plot A very basic summary of the entire story is Tang San's cultivation journey to become a powerful figure. Intermixed in this is his friendship with others, a revenge plot surrounding his family (and their enemies), romance between characters, etc. The story follows a rather normal progression; Tang San is reincarnated into a different world where his old world's techniques do not exist but can be cultivated, and so we follow him on his journey to become a powerful spirit master and recreate the Tang Sect in this new world. He has talent and works hard, slowly becomes stronger while gaining friends and allies. We, as viewers, follow Tang San in his journey of discovery; like in most novels, the scope of the world we see is limited to "beginners" and gradually expands as the MC gets more powerful. Overall, the world building is done well; it has explanations/monologues that inform viewers about how the world works and there isn't anything noticibly illogical. Characters The important characters all have their own backstories and are developed well enough throughout the course of the entire donghua. Each of the main characters has their own distinct personality, likes, strengths, weaknesses and goals. Even the main antagonists get development, fleshing them out to be unique individuals, rather than roadblocks/speed bumps for the MC to defeat. Of course, while the main cast (and antagonists) do eventually get decent development, they are still second string to the MC, Tang San, and thus the overall development can be somewhat inconsistant, as certain elements get pushed back to consolidate information because of plot shuffling (explained more in the adaptation section) or scattered as small pieces throughout (especially for the antagonists). There are, of course, throwaway villains that are 1D, but since they are not too important it doesn't matter. Another point of interest about the characters is the romantic pairings. While most donghua have harems, this donghua has couple pairings. The couples of this donghua are paired up early and they don't change (even though some end up liking the MC, Tang San). The romantic parts of this donghua are emotional, but they can be a bit overdone and cringy at times. What makes this donghua unique is that almost all the important characters are in some sort of exclusive relationship, which is different from the majority of donghua availible currently. The donghua also makes great reuse its "one-time use" characters as extras, not super important but its nice to see recognizable faces from earlier episodes. Animation The animation for this "season" starts off close to that of Season 1, since it only started a few months after that season's end. But throughout the remaining 230+ episodes released over a 5 year period, we see small incremental increases that result in significant change in overall animation quality in later episodes. The animation quality is consistantly high quality for when the episodes were released. They may feel a bit dated when you watch the earlier episodes, but the newer episodes are definitely state-of-the-art. When it comes to character and environmental designs, they mostly stay consistant with the style that was set in the first season. Despite the high quality animation (for when it was released), the episodes themselves suffer from overuse of repeated scenes and "derp" faces. This donghua seems to love "transformation" and "ultimate move" scenes, often repeating the same animation whenever there is a spirit release/reveal or use of a spirit ability (ring). There are some times when they play the same animation for the one character 2 or 3 times in a single episode. This overuse takes up unnecessary time, bloating/padding the run time. It is especially bad when they do it for each of the seven from the main cast individually. The fights are mostly done well, but the "ultimate move" spirit ring animations and commentary/explanation mid-fight tend to break the flow of the action and sometimes makes it feel like a drag. In addition to the repeated "transformation" scenes, they also seem to love the derpy faces that result when slapping someone or beating them up, that "slow-ish motion face across the screen with their tongue sticking out" animation; it was funny the first few times, but it gets old after a while. Breaking Immersion There are two main immersion breaking elements (other than the some of the overused tropes mentioned above): the Spirit Battle Arena/competition fights and advertisement/logo placement. The spirit arena and competition battles break immersion because the design choice for the arena and team presentations. The Spirit Battle Arena design, like I said in my S1 review, looks much like the modern virtual idol concert stages, which is VERY different from the medieval-ish world design that the rest of the world adheres to. They also have weird out-of-place introductions, like with the Water Spirit Academy team doing a weird MMD style dance when they are first introduced. While the animations and designs look nice, these stylistic design choices (psudeo-modern/futuristic style) are very out of place for this type of world. Advertisements Other the above mentioned stylistic choices of the competition stages and team introductions, advertisments are the other category of immersion breaking elements. Most of the advertisements in this donghua are labeled and placed either at the beginning (before the episode) or during the mid episode "commercial" break. While some are not labeled, this donghua does do a good job adding the advertisements label, so it doesn't become too intrusive. However, there are some product placements and the more ergregious logo placements that do show up. While the product placements are not too bad, since they are integrated well, the brand/logo advertisements are quite jarring, especially during the competition, when it is placed all over their uniforms. I understand that (from an adaptation perspective) it is a play on Flender's love for money, but they could have chosen something more native to the world. ---War Arc (some spoilers as I talk about narrative inconsistencies)--- Everything in the review up to this point applies to the pre-war arc, which started around EP???. Before this, most of the fights and journey were either solo or small group based; however, once the war started, the scope of fights exceeded small groups the "rules" that the previous portions built up started to go out the window, making things less believable. The visual specticale (how cool it looks) is the main focus now, as individual abilities are no longer as important. While the return of familar faces as extras is great, the battles in the "war" are very effects heavy and the progression of the plot is no longer smooth. For example, there are tons of flying spirit mas…

After ╠ 6 years // 2,229 days // 3,911 minutes of runtime // 263 eps ╣ the OP Tang San's story is finally over and what a great journey. I have been watching this series when the MAL entry divided this into 13 eps per season which was somewhat difficult to keep track but at long last it was united into a single one. I will convert it into 2 parts first 234/260 eps in one and last 3 in another. Part I -- till 234/260 ep -- ================= Animation: It has one of the greatest 3D animation ever. It is definitely top-tier. Some may feel uneasy about the 3D but after a few episodes in you will get used to it. Story: The journey of Tang-San along with the Shreks consists of a lot of great fights, romance, comedy and some good drama. There are some average episodes but the overall experience is just awesome. Return of Tang-San's father and Tang-San becoming GOD are one of the greatest scenes. Characters: There is a lot of character progression in the series. The romance between the characters are progressed continuously and they show their affectionate in some form rather than just being in love. Enjoyment: Just a ton of fighting in every way possible. Part II -- last 3 eps -- ============= Animation: There is a sudden change in animation quality as well as the 3D models of the characters; this can be seen from the first scene. This is due to change in studio change?? Story: It seemed to be somewhat rushed and some information have been removed but the story can be understood. Overall ===== At end it is just a phenomenal series and definitely my Top 5 Donghuas. The animation is top quality with deep character development and this is best enjoyed at 1080p. There are some places where subs of Power moves differ compared to last episode but you can understand what they are saying. Chinese/Mandarin can be somewhat hard to hear but you will get used to it along with the 3D animation. Episodes are of small runtime max 15min (except the last 3; those are 30min each). The last few eps has teases of SL2 even one preview is done with UE5 which looks just mind blowing. The last 3 eps are somewhat rushed but still it is definitely a must watch; Cannot wait for SL2. ◄8/10►

Runtime expected - 240 * 20 = around 4800 mins The runtime reduced from 16 mins to almost 12 minutes by the end. Actual runtime after songs, recap, adverts and mid scenes - 240 * 13 = 3120 mins This is an average isekai cultivation donghua. Reborn in a cultivation world with all memories of martial skills from past life martial world. Pace of story - Slow (pace is randomly high at end) Screenplay - Decent Direction and Editing - Bad Animation - Decent - There are good fight scenes. Rest of it is fine. Character development - Bad. The MC has slow character growth despite being an adult to begin with. The father of the MC is an aura farmer. Some characters are given more screentime despite no depth. Some characters who needed backstory have barely any. Power fantasy angle - MC is powerful because of isekai, luck and family souls inheritance. But the pace destroys any chance of enjoyment. PS - Watch director's cut movie instead of last 3 episodes.