Tian Guan Cifu (Heaven Official's Blessing)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: TGCF, Tian Guan Ci Fu

Japanese: 天官賜福

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Information

Type: ONA

Episodes: 11

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 31, 2020 to Jan 2, 2021

Producers: bilibili

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: Haoliners Animation League

Source: Web novel

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

Themes: Historical, Mythology

Duration: 26 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.34¹ (scored by 62,953 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #226²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1574

Members: 145,283

Favorites: 5,402

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8.34

Ranked #226Popularity #1574Members 145,283

ONAHaoliners Animation League

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Episodes: /11

PV 2 (Japanese Dub)

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Synopsis

The heavens shake, the thunder rumbles, and Xie Lian appears with an apologetic smile—again! Eight hundred years prior, he was a beloved martial god, known as the Crown Prince of Xianle. Now, he ascends to the heavenly realm for the third time, but simply as a pitiful scrap-collecting god with no followers behind him.

On his first mission, Xie Lian finds himself alone in the dark moonlit night. There, a gentle man dressed in red guides him through the forest. However, as abruptly as he appeared, the man suddenly dissipates into a swarm of silver butterflies.

Xie Lian later learns that this mysterious stranger was none other than Hua Cheng, the Crimson Rain Sought Flower, a Ghost King feared by both demons and gods alike. But before Xie Lian can figure out why Hua Cheng would help a Heavenly Official like himself, he meets San Lang. A young man possessing great knowledge on not only the Ghost King, but also the now forgotten Crown Prince, San Lang decides to accompany Xie Lian on his journey of unveiling the mysteries of the past.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Adaptation based on a Chinese web novel of the same name, written by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (墨香铜臭). The show falls into the xianxia genre (a fantasy genre influence by Taoism, Buddhism, and Chinese mythology).

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Tian Guan Cifu
Sequel:	Tian Guan Cifu Special

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Characters & Voice Actors

Hua, Cheng

Main

Fukuyama, Jun
Japanese

Xie, Lian

Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi
Japanese

Shi, Qingxuan

Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako
Japanese

Mu, Qing

Supporting

Kobayashi, Chiaki
Japanese

Ling, Wen

Supporting

Hikasa, Youko
Japanese

Fu, Yao

Supporting

Kobayashi, Chiaki
Japanese

Ming, Yi

Supporting

Mori, Nanako
Japanese

Pei, Ming

Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi
Japanese

Nan, Feng

Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto
Japanese

Pei, Xiu

Supporting

Masuda, Toshiki
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Li, Haoling

Director

Bickham, Clint

Script

Amamiya, Sora

Theme Song Performance

SID

Theme Song Performance

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Opening Theme

	"Wu Bie (无别)" by Jeff Chang (张信哲)
	J1: "Jiu no Kuchizuka (慈雨のくちづけ)" by SID

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Ending Theme

	J1: "Freezia (フリイジア)" by Sora Amamiya
	1: "Yi Hua Yi Jian (一花一剑)" by Li Xinyi (李鑫一) (eps 1)
	2: ""Bu San (不散)" by Isabelle Huang (黄龄) (eps 2-8)
	3: "Hong Jue (红绝)" by Hu Xia (胡夏) (eps 9-11)

Reviews

Apr 24, 2024

Shinshoku

Recommended

Starting this with the disclaimer that I have not read the novels, I have however read the comics (up to the most recently available English translation). I'd like to preface this (as I've seen a lot of people unfairly complaining about this) - the comic art can never be translated as beautifully into an animation version. However, the art is still absolutely stunning in these series (so highly recommend you invest in watching this with HQ streaming). It's so beautiful, and while it took me a few episodes to get used to the character's looks in this donghua (as I was used to the comics), ...

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Sep 18, 2023

KillyChides

Mixed Feelings

The production and animation quality is stellar, if not for some underwhelming character designs (*cough* Hua Cheng *cough*). The pace and writing, on the other hand, is a glaring issue with this adaptation.

The original TGCF book is one of my favourite pieces of fiction ever, by far the best romance story I've ever read, and I was a bit underwhelmed with this. The pacing was very strange, making the story's opening even more scattered than it was in the book (which is by far the weakest arc already). I haven't read the first arc in a long time, and even watching the donghua, I ...

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Jul 18, 2022

Inter_anime

Not Recommended

Something I have been interested in is non-Japanese anime (or anime-influenced) works, and Donghua (Chinese animation) is one of the fast growing in this sphere. As of the time of this review Tian Guan Ci Fu or Heaven's Official Blessing has a score of around 8.4 on both MAL and IMDB, so I thought it would be worth checking out. Unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointing experience. I should also clarify that I have not read the source materials of the show.

Starting off with the positives I will give Tian Guan Ci Fu this: the animation is gorgeous and the production is top-notch, ... easily compatible with the best anime has to offer in that regard. The fluidity of how the animation flowed in particular was well done, including the actions scenes and op. I can't say I am much of a fan of the traditional opera-style Chinese music, but it did fit the show. While I am certainly not an expert (I took two classes in historic Chinese literature as electives in university) I thought the placement in medieval China was well done.

My first gripe with the show was the dialogue; terms along with place and people's names are constantly being thrown about in the conversations the characters seem to be constantly having, with little explanation on the importance of who of what these things are. Again, I did not read the source material, but I think that animation should stand on its own, and I was constantly going to Wikipedia or the MAL page for this show just to understand what was going on. It is also worth mentioning the humor of the show fell completely flat, maybe it was the translation or just different cultural norms, but the jokes the main makes where akin to the ones a friend at the party does but no one laughs, but they don't get the cues and just keep carrying on. Not even the in-universe characters ever seemed even slightly amused, which I guess is supposed to be joke that Xie Lian thinks he is funny but no one else does, only that it is not funny for the audience either.

Another problem was the characters, in the first arc of the show had a demon kidnapping bride as they travel to their marriage, so a bunch of rowdy villagers decide to disguise themselves as a bridal party to catch the demon. Some overly pure village girl begs them to stop because she doesn't want them to die. Yet a few minuets later when the protagonist show up, and propose to do what is practically the same exact thing, the same girl decides to help them wholeheartedly no questions asked. That's the worse example, but it felt as a lot of the characters' motivations and actions were inconsistent and haphazard.

The plot was also not great, the first four episodes are concerned with an arc that proves to be mostly irrelevant towards the end, it could have easily been condensed to 2 episodes. The magic system is never really explained, and what the characters are capable of seems to be what the plot needs at the time, Xie Lian especially is described as an incapable and weak deity, but it seems every time there is a situation his magical neck bandages get the job done.

Lastly a lot of praise I've seen this show receive mention the fact that it is a LGBT romance. I find that a bit misleading for two reasons 1.) maybe I'm just stupid but the male and female gods have such similar character design that it took me a full episode to realize that Hua Cheng was supposed to be a male 2.) there was barely any "romance" in the story, characters engaging in long boring conversations about ghosts and occasionally making eye contact does not qualify as "romance" in my book.

Overall while the animation and production were superb, I ended up disliking this show due to the issues mentioned above. It seems a lot of people like Tian Guan Ci Fu, and whatever suits you, but personally for me it wasn't fun or heartwarming in the slightest.

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Poll: Tian Guan Ci Fu Episode 11 Discussion Xealias - Jan 1, 2021	31 replies	by BladeRunnerAri »» Feb 6, 8:18 AM
Poll: Tian Guan Ci Fu Episode 9 Discussion livexevil - Dec 19, 2020	34 replies	by ProudtobeMAD »» Jan 26, 11:43 AM
Anyone watch the Japanese version? Mishiia - Jan 23	4 replies	by Mishiia »» Jan 24, 10:06 PM

Tian Guan Cifu

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Hua, Cheng

Xie, Lian

Shi, Qingxuan

Mu, Qing

Ling, Wen

Fu, Yao

Ming, Yi

Pei, Ming

Nan, Feng

Pei, Xiu

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