Bai Yao Pu

This donghua was quite the surprise. It's not a show you can light-heartily watch, because each episode does its best to wring on the audience's heart strings. And this is exactly what this season is about: unraveling all the colors of the human heart:
"Who will break the deadlock,
Hard to heal the mind, at least there is the heart" - (from the opening)
A powerful yet mysterious bell.
A name that makes spirit hope for salvation or run away in fear.

We follow the wandering about of a young girl called Táo Yāo (桃=peach; 夭= die young). She is a doctor, ... but she only treats spirits and not humans. However, through each episode we learn more about human emotions and behaviors.
The English title of the show is: "Manual of Hundred Demons". It tells us a lot about the story. Although we don't know a lot about this mysterious book, there is one certainty: Bai Yao Pu doesn't focus on the main character, but on the Demons. Every couple of episodes tells a self-contained story. They are the beautiful stories of the demon-patients, their memories of the mortal realm.

Every episode touches the strings of the tragic and the comic of life. The latter is expressed through the relationship between Tao Yao and her companions, while the first one is represented by the stories of the demons.
Their memories are told through flashbacks and direct narration and have a "tragic" dimension in the sense of classical tragedy: emotion and struggle against fate, which can be life or the limits of one's existence. Laughs, first times, tears, joy, pain all come together as the story of each character develops. The power of the narrations in each episode makes Tao Yao almost disappear; she is, in fact, the "glue" that works as a bridge between each episode and, on another level, as the bridge between the outside and the conscience of the patient.

She is the bridge between us and the "xin" (to use the Chinese word for heart that also indicates the mind, so the "heart-mind"). She is a psychoanalytic device that can bring to the outside the problems that involve the "inside". That's what she does: through the power of the bell, she finds the string of the heart that contains the illness, which means she cures the root of the emotional and physical crisis (which is understandable also because ancient Chinese thinkers believed in a powerful relation between the heart-mind and the body).

But, even though demons are the ones to be cured, at the end of each episode they seem to have unraveled a new aspect of human mind-heart and morals. They say there's no better way to understand one's reality than understanding the reality of others, this show proves this idiom is right. Demons try to understand humans and us humans can have a cathartic realization of what makes us humans:

"The true meaning of great love is dedication" (-from the opening)

All the stories are not banal and therefore are plenty of details that make them "particular" (special and peculiar, unique); but at the end of the day they underline all the ways in which human relations are given and show all the types of love and dedication. All these things have the right to be heard. Emotions overcome the ideas of "right and wrong":

"Unwilling to listen to others/the wind blows. We walk through the snow
together/Good will bloom/Forget the pain/Blame the bell/Couldn't wake up
the indistinguishable soul/ Wait till dawn /Clear black and white / Gods are
dumb during the showdown between justice and evil/ Forget sorrow and joy/
Pawns in the game correlates with right and wrong/ Who will break the
deadlock." (- from the opening)

Tao Yao seems also to have a story to tell and a deadlock to break in the future of the series...

In conclusion, this is a story about demons. But at the end this ends up to be the most natural expression of humanity and the of meaning of being human, of the meaning of being alive and have a dedication. For a show that is set in a world of gods and spirits, everything screams "MORTAL" and death.

"There are hundreds of fairies
All can distinguish good from evil
Humans only have one heart
But it's unpredictable" (-from the ending)

What happens when a "mind" that can only see black and white meets a heart that is blinded by the shades of grey? They complete and become each other, understanding more of themselves, while the spectator has the privilege to see the whole picture: "heart-mind", xin, indeed.

OVERALL: 8/8 (very suggestive, although lacking the features of a masterpiece)
ENJOYMENT: 8/8 (I would define it as an emotional experience, that can make
you bore or cry and smile; it's not an epic journey, nor a life-
changing masterpiece, but it manages to make you think
about reality, relationships and emotions)
STORY: 7/10 (hope it'll get better in season 2)
ART: 9 (wonderful palette of colors and very good animation)
SOUND: (the original soundtracks are really evocative)

For sound and art, check out the opening theme:
https://youtu.be/FaAcojegweY

Do not get mistaken by the suprisingly low rating. This is a 5 stars anime. For the simple reason that Bai Yao Pu did simples things right: Clean art, a setting which makes sense, good pacing, attention given to every single episode and authentic characters.

Bai Yao Pu isn't action packed nor does it have a general arc. However it doesn't need to since it tells stories so well it will leave you craving for the next episode. It may give you an athmosphere similar to "Violet Evergarden" . With a very different female MC but equally likable.

Usually I am not a fan of the episodical ... arcs format. But the last scene may gives us something for season 2. If it doesn't I do not care too much. If the quality matches this season I will be very glad.

I prefer taking a break between 2 seasons and watch a different genre. But not this time. I gave it a 10 because I do not find the overall rating reflects the quality of this anime. So far it is the show I've enjoyed the most in 2022.

Yaoguai in this world have supernatural abilities, but their emotions are all too human, and they can suffer from ailments from emotional trauma, which can exhibit in supernatural ways. Tao Yao is a traveling spirit doctor who can heal these spirits if she understands the underlying trauma; really this is a story device for doing a deep dive into background story of the yaoguai. Although this show is about yaoguai, by using these poignant experiences we are looking at the human soul, with all the flaws. The side characters are the heroes of this story and the main focus of this show. They are laid ... bare for us, and we feel their pain or their relief. Over and over, my eyes tear up from how beautiful everything is.

The story has a general formula that it follows throughout the series. It is structured as a series of self-contained arcs which are, for the most part, 2 episodes long. The first part has our main gang traveling and encountering some new characters in strange circumstances, with a bit of mystery or trouble. The second part explores the central arc character's past and are generally the more emotionally moving parts. The way I describe it might sound repetitive, but each arc has been strong, with quality writing. I would call it "biepisodic", as you can rearrange the arcs without affecting too much of the story.

The arc characters get plenty of development for the arc they are in, but the main characters actually hardly get any development. So the side characters really are the stars of the show.

I'm currently watching season 3, and it's still going strong.