Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage

Hey folks, this will be a review for Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage. I'm really surprised to see many people scoring this so highly. It wasn't terrible but it definitely wasn't anything impressive by any means.

The story revolves around our male mc Ouriku, and his journey to becoming a sage. The beginning of the story flows rather nicely, showing the characters and placing them in the trials that would determine whether or not they gain entry into this clan, which seems to be the best clan to be in. However after the first few episodes of being able to follow the story we are given massive ... time skips(years of time). Most of the middle and end of this anime is Ouriku hearing about a new word or power then saying "I want to learn that", then time skip, or simple quick 1 day montage until he gains the power and tells us some fuzzy description of what he felt and what he can do. It was honestly hard to follow.

The art felt a bit dated, which shouldn't be the case as this just finished airing. The art isn't terrible by any means but its just ok. Soundtrack didn't jump out at me either.

The characters had some interesting elements but nothing gets explored. We have some character development early which builds up into nothing. Our only developing character is Ouriku who again is flat as a board personality wise. Sometimes serious, sometimes comedic/arrogant, but all around bland. The character I was most interested in was Rei the inn owner, however she seems to be a convenient master of things to teach Ouriku occasionally and gets little time for progress.

I didn't hate this anime, but I didn't like it either. This really felt like a time waste as nothing really happens the entire time, I didn't care at all about the characters, and the comedy was mostly Ouriku's arrogance in one or two episodes. If there was more back lore, or if your someone who can follow all of those crazy names, symbols and martial arts then you may enjoy it more than me. I however felt it was a confusing waste of time.

TLDR: Nothing happens, no personality characters, small and lame comedic elements, and hard to follow dialogue and martial art skills. Wouldn't waste my time.

Let's be honest, this story will be confusing for a good amount of people who are not familiar with Chinese culture. Originally this is an anime that was a collaboration between japan and china, making the Japanese voice over harder to understand because of all the chinese idioms.

This review is more of a comparison than a review of how good it was. This is because it really does depend on whether or not you can understand or relate to chinese culture.

Story:

This anime will be very different for those who love anime. The plot pace will be different and more chinese paced where the whole ... back story is presented before the main problem of the story appears. To make it more simple the story is about the efforts and life of a character who is growing up as they face many different life choices (like a saga or biography), instead of the (mostly seen) japanese action battles packed episodes that make a character grow as they continue to peruse the problem of the story.

-The comedy will also be different and so will the behaviors of the characters.
- The plot will span over many years (so # year later will show up a lot)
-There is more scheming and mental process within this anime
-And characters will be overbearingly powerful (aka too perfect)

Also this anime, whether they deiced to make another season or not, will depict the main character training to become stronger. So their will be no awesome plot problem until the very end of the last episode.

Why you should watch:

If you'd like to try watching something different and away from all the usual product anime, you might as well give this anime a go. Japanese and Chinese culture are very different and may just interest you just by how different they are.

To be fair chinese manhua/ china in general never get this type of attention, getting their own anime with a full 22-24mins long ep (most are reduced to online airing of short 5-15 mins). My opinion of this anime maybe be slightly biased for being good. But i'll be truthful that it's not the best story i've come across, but its one of the better ones.

Story 9/10:

I was expecting the story not to have as much impact.

The storyline of this anime is very unique, compared to the modern day anime with copied and reused plots.
I found watching this rather refreshing, i recommend you try it if you want to get away from cliche animes with boring endings.
It also includes many amusing and funny scenes that brighten the mood up, in the anime.
((I think the story deserves most the props in this anime.))

Art 7/10
...
Although the art isn't spectacular, it can't be called mediocre.

The colouring for the characters were pleasing for the eyes and quite beautiful.
I also found the drawings of the characters different from common styles because of its chinese styled way of figure.

Sound 7/10

I found the soundtracks very upbeat and musical.
The music gives off an warm and excited feeling. that is all. ;')

Character 8/10

Okay, if you like animes where the main protagonist is extremely op and badass, please consider this anime.
The protagonist very intelligent and even though he's already amazingly strong in the beginning, his his strength keeps building up along with the story and episodes.
The other character in this anime are also given particular and unprecedented personalities which manage to be the key to this anime.

Enjoyment 9/10

oKAY, first of all, i can't understand why people won't watch this anime.

Well, honestly, i really cannot complain about that either because i refused to watch this anime at first sight.
I thought that this anime couldn't possibly entertain me so i never gave it a try.
[ i didnt really like the cover ]
However, my friend had gave it a try and insisted i watched it.
After i saw a few episodes, i seriously got hooked on it, even though i was never willing to try it in the beginning.
So right now, i probably know why people don't feel like watching it, but please, try it.

This anime is really interesting ,but no one bothers to try it so it's not really popular.
When an anime isn't as popular as others, it can hardly get subs, which leaves me devastated since
there are episodes released, but not subbed.

The anime was really great with lovable, mastermind, intelligent, cool, calm, normal looking Main Character. The plot was really great but some part of it is sort of abrupt I think.

Story:
The character development was great with a smooth flow, great plots. Can't really explain, but it is really satisfying, with funny moments to get pass the serious moments or the sad moments.

Art:
The art is really modern with beautiful drawn characters. It is not necessarily the best but it is really cool.

Sound:
The voice actors are really fitting to their characters, I can't really complain much about sound.
...
Character:
Great character development that are funny and not pathetic. All of them are strong and none of them are really weak or too different from people.

Overall:10

Do give it a try and don't be put off by that...perverted woman on the cover, she is just a goddess. This anime has great action scenes, well not based entirely on action, just sort of slice-of-life of an apprentice to a goddess(sort of) character.
Ga, so hard to explain. But do give it a try, you will like it !(i hope)

Let me start with: If you like comedy, read further on, if you don't like comedy, just search for another anime.

Story: 6. Storywise, this anime isn't that great. It has the typical storyline of a main 'hero' who is special in some way and quite OP and who shows everyone else that he's not just a loser. The story is quite clichéd but I do give the show some credits for keeping the difficult explanations of everything at a fast and understandable pace without getting too much into detail but in a way you can still kind of understand everything.

Art: 9. Here I have to ... start with the art of the OP and ED which I somehow really noticed and really liked. Afterwards let's talk about the art in the anime itself...I think it was great. Normal scenes had nice and clean drawings but what really made me love the art (and in fact the whole anime) was how it switched from a normal perspective to the funny chibi scenes and other comedic stuff. I guess like 60 percent of the anime are held in the comedic style or has comedy scenes which makes the whole anime a really funny one and gives the clichéd story a fresh note.

Sound: 8. The OP and ED were quite nice, although I think that the ED gave a whole different feel (maybe it was the art and less the song) to the anime or it was as if the ED was for a different anime...still I liked it very much.

Character: 10. This is probably the one reason why I watched it til the end. Some of the characters may be clichéd and nothing new but with all these characters mixed together it's just a comedy party and there will be moments when you cannot stop laughing. Also I think it is quite amazing that they managed to give me a feeling of "I know this character pretty well" even if you don't really know anything about some of the characters. I think that is an amazing thing to achieve.

Enjoyment: 8. Like I said very funny, although there were some scenes where I wished they would have done something differently or highlighted something more.

Overall: Great for some fun time and I'm very curious for the 2nd season.

Also, I have never ever seen an anime with THAT many time skips...(in a good way, not in a bad way)

This is a very mediocre anime.

Story:
This "story" doesn't really go anywhere. The main charter just shows up but he has no motivations for his actions. There is no real end goal or antagonist other then being his masters replacement which is never really explained until late into the story. There were a lot of possible story lines that were created but none of them were ever explored. The only thing that really happens is the character becoming stronger. Only once is there any real conflict and it ends in two episodes.

Art:
The art felt slightly dated and had little going for ... it.

Sound:
It was OK there was nothing memorable but it wasn't bad.

Characters:
The characters were not good. There was no motivation given to any of characters actions and most of there actions had little affect to the story or any of the other characters. Many characters were also introduced but nothing ever happened with them.

Story, this is where I found the most issue with this anime. The story lacks direction, conflict and resolution. The real conflict is introduced toward the end of the anime and isn't given the attention or foreshadowing needed to make it feel natural or conclusive.

There are underdeveloped parts in the story, and random skills( or sealed beasts) included that don't pertain to the story but work off previous anime. Story lacks originality and depth.

Art: old school but expectable. Nice animation , just a bit dated ( but that may have been what they were going for )

Sound: Good, appropriate. Wouldn't win any awards, ... but set the mood nicely .

Character: Oriku can come of bratty, braggy, and arrogant at times. Your waiting for him to redeem himself with some touching scene later, but often times he's just being an arrogant kid. Hard to love initially (but super smart and witty).

Obu's attitude towards Oriku is seeded in something, that is never really truly explained. Characters need further development, one dimensional , flat.

Enjoyment: Honestly , I came in loving this anime, and left waiting for it to finally be over. As the show went on I liked it less and less. Wholes in character and plot that you are waiting to be explained, are never addressed . Conflict is quickly and sloppy resolved. I wish I could have loved this anime, but i didn't .

Overall: Mediocre, was not "bad" but I would not recommend it to a friend

I just need to say one thing really, this is clearly a chinese story, and follows a wuxia type plot.

For example, stories like "Against the Gods", "Battle Through the Heavens", "I shall Seal the Heavens", "Tales of Demons and Gods" and others are similar to this one. Though there are a bunch of those wuxia that have been fan made into a manga, or manhua, theres almost none that make it to anime (as far as I know, only this one). Im very glad to see this anime and hope to see more wuxia type stories come to animation.

I also love the OP character type ... stories, which this anime does follow for the most part.

Also the MC is stupid lucky, which is par the course with a wuxia story, and I like that as it fits with the whole OP character.

Man, I really wonder how this anime has such a high score. I mean, okay, it's pretty decent. That is, if we set the bar at a low level.

It was written as if a fan, upon watching a lot of shounen anime, suddenly had an idea about a story and then went off on a writing spree. Of course he'll include an overpowered MC - an intelligent one with great physical ability on the side. And then a sexy woman who acts as if she's a good-for-nothing but is actually really strong and would be the MC's master. Ah, and then another woman who is ... also very strong but in another sense, it would be good if there are two masters. "Not sure what that other sense would be, but I'll probably have an idea of her background later on." And then a whole bunch of other cliched characters that would serve to make the MC look stronger.

As for the story, he had this one concrete idea for the start, until a little of what's after. And then, he suddenly got lost later on because there's literally nothing going on aside from the training. He got no more idea on how to push the MC to become stronger, most likely because he hadn't established anything beforehand as to what kind of major conflict (e.g. villain) would there be just like in other shounen anime. "Ah, I messed up." So he started to consult fellow fans for ideas and also watched other anime for references. In one way or another, he managed to sew up all sorts of ideas until the anime ended. (And there's even a sequel ugh but that's for another rant--- I mean, review).

It really was a pretty decent watch at the start - it helped that I didn't have any expectations. I was willing to forgive the lack of a concrete story framework and dismiss it as a new writer's fiction. My curiosity got the best of me and I wondered how the MC would master the technique he's studying, how it would be when he meets up again with his long-distance friend who seems to also grow stronger and stronger, and how he would use his techniques on a real battle. But no, I didn't get anything. Somehow, other characters really were just written to make the MC look stronger and then they got forgotten for the next scenes. Potential rivalry and camaraderie were abandoned, and no characterization was established. Even the MC and his masters are inconsistent. Obu (the good-for-nothing but strong master) would be the most consistent of them all, but I lost interest when she got into a fight and then there's no battle choreography at all, even special techniques to show that okay, she's powerful. Somehow, she was also granted the "OP spell" at this point.

Moreover, the last episodes really just looked like a tangle of external ideas that didn't go well with each other. The characters are at their most incoherent at this point and there are sudden developments between characters at the last episode which I really wouldn't call as such since there are no build-up or hints beforehand. It looked as if the editor just noticed that the anime's going nowhere, so they suddenly put together something, whatever it is. Heck, I watched some episodes of the sequel and it differed a lot from this first series, and that is a major proof of the anime's inconsistence.


So there. Nothing went on, and if you're ever gonna watch it, best expect it to be just a time-killer. It's a good past time if you don't bother yourself with the details. But well, I don't really recommend it. The only merit I probably got in this anime is the great opening song by Soraru and Mafumafu. The animation was also pretty at the start, until it suddenly got lousy at the middle.

I tend to review shows i'm more opinionated on, that is to say shows that I feel are really bad or really good and wouldn't ordinarily review a show of such middle ground that wouldn't warrant the effort. But I feel this needs to be said as something of a disclaimer for anyone reading up on the show before watching it.

The show doesn't present itself in the usual way an anime would and this probably has a lot to do with the fact that it's of Chinese origin rather than Japanese. As such the cultural references and pacing wont feel all that familiar and you'll ... notice this more as the story progresses. This isn't to suggest the show is bad, although there are things i find particularly lacking about it, just be aware that it doesn't have the usual format and will take a little getting used to as a result.

I've marked the story as fair because i feel although the show itself was fine it did waste a lot of potential with its constant time skips. The show has a habit of introducing a problem, skipping the build up which can last months or even years and getting straight to the solution; so we don't really get the human element of struggle which allows us to relate to the people inhabiting this universe. The show seems to focus on the less interesting and somewhat arbitrary socio-politics occurring between such moments of interest. Characters squabbling over arbitrary rules to determine how something might be achieved, if it can at all. Here, it would seem, is a continued cultural reference unique to China's sociology that is lost on anyone unfamiliar with it.

The thing that is most peculiar about the show is that it always feels like you're viewing it at arms length. You never really feel attached to anyone because nobody stands out (partly because you never find out anyone's agenda and/or motivation) and you never feel any connection between the characters themselves either, characters who come across like soulless pawns moving across a chess board. Even the main character doesn't really want for anything but strength for the sake of strength after becoming aware of his latent talents. There's no real obstacle or challenge presented, certainly no distinctive antagonist. So it all feels really wet. But the show isn't really all that bad, so it feels like we're waiting on something to happen to trigger the missing dramatic elements we enjoy in this medium.

After watching both this and the second series i was left wondering what it was i had actually watched because there are so many aspects of the story that go unexplained or merely implied or suggested. We really only get presented with the results of the main characters growth which we don't really care about because we don't know what he aims to do with it.

For this review i am going to do from to different sides, 1 will be purely based on the anime itself and 2nd side will be from the side of a reader of a similar novel which this was adapted from (i have not read this specific novel!!)

Right so i will begin from the 1st side;
Story; 5/10
There is no proper explanation what is the point behind the story. The first episode just showed some random things and expected the watcher to understand what was being showed to. Although i find flying on swords pretty cool, it does not tell me why i should invest ... my time int this anime!!
As the anime progresses, i think what we are meant to focus on is just the comedy because other than that, everything is confusing, and just briefly explained through a narration after something has happened.
Cultivation ranks are confusing and all we know is that the character is meant to train the body and absorb ki and eventually he would have a chance to become a deity... the time skips dont help as they happen out of nowhere and then briefly explained what has happened during those time skips...
2nd side; I have read similar kinds of novels, although not this specific one that got adapted to this anime, usually those novels, are more dark, the competition to enter the sect is not that light hearted but ruthless murdering of other disciple and even within the sect the competition cannot be taken lightly. So when i started watching this, it took me by a suprise how light hearted it is and how much of comedy and it has so i asked around forums and learned that although the characters are the same, the novel doesnt have any comedy and is much different and cultivation is explained somewhat more in detail. So the fact that i who have read Xianxia novels am somewhat disappointed with the first and probably last adaption of this genre. Unless it was done as a 50 or 100 episode series with a darker tone and better explanations and the like other than that this anime will not have a huge popularity from both only anime watchers and xianxia fans like myself.
Art; 7/10
Art is good looking and nothing, can be complained, the reason i am deducting 3 point from the perfect score is because the story forced different kinds of actions on the characters, for amusement and comedy which sort of destroyed a bit of the good art. (this for both sides of the review)
Sound; 3/10 - both sides-ish
When the voices are fine, but since there is no proper music unless i missed it then it would not get a high score based on sound.]
Characters; 4/10
1st side; well as an only anime watcher the characters are basic thing you can find anywhere but the problem is they are not properly explained and the reasons for their actions and a watcher is only meant to speculate and nothing more which is somewhat disappointing. the reason for the score being 4 is because it got 1 point from the 2nd side of my view other than that as only from the anime point of view it only deserves about a 3.
2nd side; characters in such novels and setting are usually dark and dont like to help each other as well as there is a lot of bullying involved, the fact that they are set so light hearted and simple (although in xianxia it not much better and sometimes even worse) i like the fact that at least the teachers character is the same in both the novel and the anime so from this point of view it gets 1 point to overall 4/10 for the entire character setting.
enjoyment; 5/10
from anime only point of view it is somewhat fine, if you dont pay attention to all the plot holes and the fact that is it not doing very well at setting everything - 2/10. from a point of novel such as this reader i will give this 3/10 because it is my first such anime and i did somewhat enjoy it!!
Overall i give it 6/10 - its okay mostly if you know the subject (xianxia) but if you are just an anime watcher and have not heard of xianxia its score is only 5/10 meaning mediocre...

I will keep the spoiler to the minimum.

Overall - 8/10

Story - 7/10
The story is good since is heavily focus on tactics and planning to win against enemies. But i think is a bit lacking of the explanation about the martial arts and their abilities, i found it a bit confusing about it. But otherwise, the story is good.

Art - 7/10
The characters are well drawn and the quality is quite good as well. Why i dont rate it 8 or above is because i think the animation of the action scenes are just average, it does not really stand out compared to the other ... anime.

Sound - 10/10
The sound is beautiful and the voice suited the characters as well which is perfect.

Character - 8/10
i will just talk about the MC. I liked the character of the MC since he is very confident about his own tactics and strategy. What I found lacking that MC is not OP in term of his strength and fighting skills since there are quite a lot of people stronger than him, But his high intelligence helped him to win against strong opponents.

Enjoyment - 7/10
I enjoyed the tactics and planning used in the anime against enemy but i think the anime lacked of action/fighting scenes, I found it way too short.

There are lots of other reviews that may dive into the explicit details, but if you are a fan of manga/manhwa like "Battle Through The Heavens", you will understand this anime.

I was able to breeze through it quickly because the story flowed well and didn't have too many branches off the main plotline to slow things down. The comedic banter between Oriku and Obu was funny, as well as some of the other charcters. This first season set the basis of the plot and some light character development. I am looking forward to some additional plot/character development in the second season, which according to the ... end card of the final episode was approved.

Chinese xianxia. The point is for MC to reach enlightenment and become very strong.

What's great about this anime is the really down to earth but still uplifting comedy and perspective towards life. For example the MC is the one that bullies at some point some secondary characters, multiple times, for the fun of it and the out of convenience and it's all in a very lighthearted manner. The anime won't tell you what to think about this event, it's neither bad nor good, just funny and convenient, but usually one can also find a moral.

The main character is overpowered in the sense that he never ... loses, but in every episode he needs to find a path to become better or work towards his goal. Most of the times he needs to interact with his fellow clan members, teachers or other clan members in a more complex fashion than just quid pro quo or being opponents. I'd say this anime is a great picture of humanity while also tackling the inherent inequalities of life as well as various ways to live your life.

One significant issue is that some parts are really rushed or left unexplained, or the writer had some glorious idea that he couldn't quite accomplish in writing.

The animation is not on par with what is being done now, or 10 years ago. It's not ugly but definitely not nice, it's passable. Art style is fine, but the manga looks way better.

It's probably one of the most honest anime out there.

While I was reading the novel, I saw a comment mentioning this anime was like "Sh*t, this actually as an anime!? Did I miss something big?" and went to search around, and here we are.

Now, quite honestly this anime is something of an abomination. The thing is, this is a japanese anime made from a chinese novel in some form of a cooperation. This is the part where it becomes something of an abomination. You can easily see how they mutilated the novel to fit in with the usual fast-food japanese crap(the low-level crappy animes that they send on a conveyor belt for the addicts). ... Hell, they even changed the small parts of the novel that you do see, they changed A LOT of the dialogue, jokes and story, now it's pretty much like any other japanese anime... The good stuff is gone and we have yet another generic junk-food anime that pretty much only differs in its setting. Honestly, it's pretty much a completely separate story from the anime with how much they changed everything. Well, it's somewhat interesting and a few of the jokes hit home, so it's not a trainwreck, just average.

Not only does about 90-95% or more of the content get left out with only the absolute bare minimum to keep the story going, almost all the jokes are either destroyed or not included, which also makes the included jokes feel out of place. Seriously, I felt quite bored watching it, if anything it was a bit interesting to see the "xianxia" world animated.

Of course they use japanese, and I'm fine with that even if names are changed and everything looks more like a western magic animation than a xianxia chinese one, but a lot of the funny parts are lost due to translation or perhaps the japanese didn't feel the rougher parts that are more in-line with chinese culture were funny.

So, you get a husk with almost no comedy(at least I hardly laughed at all while watching both the seasons) and all and tons of scenes to make you cringe because it's f**king horrible in almost every way possible. No, sorry, it's not horrible, it's average. Really, it's one of those animes that shouldn't be compared with the novel at all. If the novel is a 10/10, the anime is a 2 or at most 3/10.

It's pretty sad, but what was I hoping for? It's similar to all the manhua's(or manga's) which also completely screws up a novels good points. Just that this might be even worse because they japanized it, trying to force the novel into a japanese format that has a very similar style and animations to the japanese stuff(like the reactions, especially in the joke scenes but pretty much everything is the same). Seriously, it's not even the same novel anymore when not only does most of the events get left out but almost every single scene and event is changed up along with adding new jokes that just aren't that good(the standard cliché jokes you'd find in japanese stuff).

So... Really, it's barely worth watching unless you're bored and have nothing better to watch or read. Or maybe you loved the novel so much that you want to watch this anime that is pretty much like a japanese parallel story set in the same universe with different stories. Read the novel instead, it's f**king awesome. "Once Upon A Time, There Was A Spirit Sword Mountain", you can find it on qidian (webnovel.com) for free. The novel is hilarious, this anime can pretty much be considered an insult to it, but that is often the case with adaptations into anime or manga from novels since it forces things into a smaller format with almost no content. Only that this was even worse than the usual adaptations because of the differing cultures and that chinese novels really doesn't fit in anime's since you can't compress an xianxia to such an extent and still have something good left. All the good stuff is in the long text, compressing it makes you lose almost all of it.

To be very honest, I liked reading the light novel, but I was quite disappointed by the anime.
First off hearing Japanese instead of Chinese for this one, slightly threw me off, but that was quite easy to overcome.
However the way they adapted it really is a bit annoying, as they really don't handle the exposition well enough imho. Sure there was a lot of exposition in the book too, but usually when bringing it to an anime adaptation a lot of that gets condensed and put it a bit more subtly. The same with the jokes. The way they've been put in there, ... stops the flow of the story every time, which sadly made me drop the anime during episode 11.

I really enjoyed Reikenzan. I first saw it a few years ago, then couldn't remember or find it, so it was really nice being able to see it again recently. It might not be an isekai anime, but it shares a lot of the same vibes as an isekai anime. A lot of comedy, some action, a main focus on the MC getting stronger (hes already super op when he starts). I found it was really similar to My Hero Academia, in the sense that the MC is always training. A major theme in the show is that the MC is always training, so if ... you like anime like that then you will enjoy this. Im not sure why, but Reikenzan had a similar vibe to Demon Slayer as well. There isn't nearly as much action in Reikenzan as there is in Demon Slayer, but they both shared a similar vibe, as well as the focus on training/learning under a master to get stronger

This is one of those anime where either you love it, or you hate it.
You will love it if you are familiar with the Chinese Taoist cultivation themes.
You will be weirded out if you do not, the anime also does not give much explanation until further into the story.

The good: the story is about overcoming trials and ascending deity-hood. It portrayed that side of cultivating life well. If you watched the first half of the season you are sure to see all the tests for choosing a disciple. Those are tests you never see in other anime, and makes the entrance test into so many ... magic/swordsman/adventurer/etc. academy looks like a cake walk.

The bad: Generic characters, you will feel a constant sense of deja vu watching this. The author did not put his mind into making original characters and developing them unfortunately. In fact if you see the original work you can see that character changes take several hundred chapters, which can span up to several seasons of the anime. This makes chinese novels a bad adapdation target for the "fast food" ecology of anime.

The bad: The music is not unpleasant at best. Non intrusive to the show but not memorable. It cannot compare to those brainwashing songs from "overlord" or "kekkai sensen". The Op is horribly make, i cannot bear to watch it.


Overall, it is something worth a try. If you like xianxia you will appreciate it. Watch it in Chinese dubs if you can.

This anime is confusing, not doubts about it, and there are no good english subs, so that doesn't really help. It is nonetheless entertaining, if only because it's so bad it's good. It might be good if someone took the time to sub it better, but it looks like someone transliterated the chinese into spanish and then translated the spanish into english. Also there isn't enough exposition to fully understand the mythos.

The plot despite being sometimes incoherent is still somehow predictable and formulaic. None of the character's are well rounded and the antagonist doesn't seem to undergo any real development.

Reikenzan is a story of Oriku, very clever (with stress on mischievious aspect of word "clever") boy striving to become a deity through various tai-chi-esque eastern sage mumbo jumbo, with a light-hearted comedy mixed in.

Now, this is IMPORTANT, for people who might start watching this series: take care to choose the 'correct' subtitles, as there are ones that translate everything explicitly to english, and ones that don't bother to translate proper nouns, which, taking into account the amount of nomina propria in this show makes those subs nigh worthless.

There's not much for me to say, I love this anime, so I certainly won't be objective ... about it. All I can say is that you watch one episode. If you liked it, you'll like it all, if you didn't, then move on.
Just one thing to clear up. There's a persistent opinion in various reviews that this show has got "no plot" (lol). Indeed, there's no new villain every episode, no "hot springs" OVA or any other cliched bullshit, however I don't understand how should it varrant a point deduction in grading this show. This isn't a shonen mecha superpowers anime, and if you want to watch one, there's a fuckton of them gathering metaphorical dust on the internet.
Here, the plot is about self-growth and deification. The End, Fin, Thank You For Watching. And, personally, I think it's a wonderful thing for anime to do, especially when it can only air a measly amount of 12 episodes, because it can concentrate on interactions and personal growth of the characters.
Personally what hurts me most is that this anime is quite unique, with its plot progressing at slice of life pace and overloaded with fantasy.
P.S. If there ARE anime like this one, do PM me a title, rewatching this series because there are no similiar anime gets old after 4th time...