Quanzhi Fashi

The aloof high schooler Mo Fan has found himself in a universe similar yet distinctly different from his own mundane one; it is a place where magic has replaced the essence of science. Here, the most capable students are taught to master the wonders of spellworking to fend off large devastating beasts that lurk in the forests surrounding the city.

Like his previous life, Mo Fan remains the son of a poor laborer and the older step-brother to a crippled sister. Despite these disadvantages, he dreams of attending a magic school to become a magician—a highly respected and lucrative trade—in order to repay his father for his hard work.

Mo Fan is accepted into a renowned magic institution. However, rumors spread about his poverty and lack of magical ability, labeling him as the laughing stock of the school. Nonetheless, Mo Fan manages to harness not only the powerful fire element, but also the rare lightning element! Now armed with dual abilities, what dangerous encounters will the versatile mage face?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mo, Fan Main

Mu, Ningxue Main

Ye, Xinxia Main

Zhang, Xiaohou Main

Tang, Yue Supporting

Mo, Jiaxing Supporting

Zhou, Min Supporting

Xiaoke Supporting

Xue, Musheng Supporting

Mu, Bai Supporting

Guan, Zhenyu Director

Luan Original Creator

Yuedong Wenghua Original Character Design

Reviews

Jan 5, 2026

Lberondroth

Recommended

QUAN ZHI FASHI (SEASON 1)—UGLY PACKAGING, GOD TIER FILLING
So, reviewing a 2016 Chinese anime in 2026 feels a bit like archaeology. But let’s be honest: if you’re expecting a fast-paced, high-gloss 12-episode isekai that looks like Demon Slayer, turn back now. You’re in the wrong neighborhood.

Rough Summary:
Mo Fan, a high school student, falls asleep wearing a mysterious pendant and wakes up in a parallel version of his world where science has been replaced by magic. Despite being a total noob in this new reality and facing ridicule for his poor background, he discovers he’s got a secret cheat: Dual Elements (Fire and Lightning). Now he ... has to juggle school exams, monster attacks, and protecting his crippled sister, all while hiding the fact that he is secretly more talented than everyone else combined.

Production Value – Or lack thereof:
Let’s rip the Band-Aid off first. The production quality screams, “We have no budget, and we are new to this.” The animation style fits perfectly with today’s trash Isekai standards—by which I mean it looks dated even for 2016.
And the audio? Oh boy. The voice acting is so flat that it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between characters because they all sound like depressed robots. If you’re an audiophile, your ears might bleed.

Pacing & Story—The Slow Burn:
Season 1 is essentially the tutorial level. It is slow. The story doesn't rush, which might be boring for some, but honestly? It’s refreshing. Unlike modern anime that speedrun the plot and get cancelled after one season, this show takes its time to build the foundation. Why? Because there’s actually a massive amount of material behind it. We aren't just getting 12 episodes and a “read the manga” ending; we are starting a marathon here.

Why it’s still an 8/10:
So, why do I rate this pixelated mess so highly? Because the core is solid gold.
The Protagonist: Mo Fan is the definition of a satisfying OP character. He starts from nothing and climbs by roasting arrogant bullies (both verbally and with fire).
Worldbuilding: Once you get past the janky visuals, the magic system and the societal hierarchy draw you in.
Longevity: Knowing that this is just the start of a massive journey makes the slow pacing of Season 1 feel like a necessary investment rather than a waste of time.

Conclusion:
Quan Zhi Fashi Season 1 is like finding a diamond wrapped in a dirty newspaper. The animation is weak, the sound is meh, and the pacing is leisurely. But if you have the patience to look past the low-budget presentation, you get a genuinely fun world, great humor (if you like seeing rich kids get slapped by reality), and a story that actually goes somewhere.
Rating: 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 17, 2025

Tharr

Mixed Feelings

I guess I could start the review without any big opening words. Everything about the production of this anime feels like the '90s. The aesthetics, the design, the story, the way their eyes are drawn when they are michivously laughing, the Hanna-Barbera sound-effects of falling, the short runtime (about 18 min per total, minus the 3 min for the OP/ED, minus the 30-90sec in the beginning, thats actually the ending scene of the previous episode)...
Very shortly: the graphics are meh. The usual (of that time) designs, artstyle, colour palette. Very simplistic monssters and spells drawing. Even the pantyshots are from then. (I could also ... nitpick and talk about scenes like the one when the teacher reaches to pick something from his palm and it looks like his hand got 10 times bigger, her elbow is in his palm... Yes, tiny mistakes, but you'll notice them.) To mention, the cinematography is good, same as then. Lots and lots of interesting shots and that old-school use of lens flare :)) The soundtrack is from then too. Sound effects for everything, different tracks for different scenes etc. The OP is the same as then. Mediocre song, the visuals are the same as it was back then, full with the panning shots. The ED has a bit better song and visuals (but still mediocre). The VAs did meh, very "one emotion only", but maybe they did everything they could with what they had... I'd say mediocre (for 2016) production value.
And now the "fun" stuff. The synopsis is a bit wrong I think but thats the least of its problems. The story is based on a manhua (it would seem) so you get everything that was the usual for that time. Something like an isekai (I still don't understand what really happened, that explanation was way too short), guy wants wealth and power, in the beginning everyone makes fun of him, but he gets said power and people start to see his real value. In other words, every simplistic trope is here. It might look like there could be some romance, but there isn't. Simple story full of plot devices and plot contrivances. The bad guys have the specific design, you'll know who's "evil" from the start. The world-building is there, enough to get you started at least. The exposition is sometimes terrible, and the rest of the dialogue is very specific for that country. So if you're someone that watches 1 or less CN anime per year, it will feel weird to hear stuff repeating itself and such because the JP way of talking you get in your every day anime is different (obviously). Anyway, back on track. So, the story is poorly written in every aspect. The "hero" has a mcguffin thats the answer to any plot hole that might appear. If gives him powers, it helps him upgrade his powers faster etc. You could say that without it he would've still been a loser. Oh, right, character development. Its done in the same way as then. Or at least it tries to. Like I said, its all very simplistic, they mostly are 2-dimensional characters. You might like some characters more, but you'll never get enough to make you truly care what happens about them. Sometimes they try to give some more powerful reasoning, but the story still feels lacking. Oh, also very weird pacing. Time jumps to show only the action stuff. We either see "2 months later", or the character talks with himself as exposition "I have to train for 1 month to blah blah", and the next scene is about him doing something that happens after that said 1 month. Was he training? How hard? Yes, we don't really needed all the other fluff between, but they could've at least show us the main parts, could've made it in a way that was more natural, to not make you feel like you missed an episode or something.. Like I said, weird.
I don't know if there are more things to talk about. Specific ones. I mean, the story is meh, with lots of problems, you might enjoy the silliness of the '90s, but if you won't get a "wow, that was amazing". I'm talking about its quality, not the enjoyment factor. You can also enjoy/like bad media, but at least you should know the difference.
A rating of barely 5. Most of the plot and execution is actually a 3, lacking in every aspect, but parts from the production are meh enough to upgrade it a bit. Mixed feelings, because there is stuff that you might enjoy.
Have a lovely day.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 25, 2025

Nayelianne

Not Recommended

TL;DR: You'll have to be very forgiving in an awful lot of aspects to enjoy this show. It doesn't have much going for it other than an interesting premise, unfortunately ruined with a really bad execution. It's also probably more bearable if you watch it at 1.25x speed.
—
I generally enjoy the "OP MC" trope, and happily watched my share of isekai slop (if you can even call this one an isekai — considering how poorly the setting was introduced/addressed). So naturally I had no grand expectations coming into this, and was fine with the idea of a cliché power fantasy to pass the time. Sadly, ... this was so appalling that I needed to get it off my chest. I might redo this review if the next season changes my mind, but my initial stance is: Save yourself. Don't waste your time like I did mine.

The pacing is catastrophically bad, managing to be both too fast and too slow (somehow at the same time), while the story is poorly developed. But hey, maybe it's just one of those animes with more of a focus on flashy battles, right? Turns out not... I legitimately started dozing off during what were supposed to be climactic scenes. I've never seen action be so awfully...static.

There are pointless flashbacks of scenes that JUST had happened in the same episode, and frequent scenes of unmoving characters simply staring blankly. There's nonsensical Mahou Shoujo-ish transformation scenes, and repetitive scenes of characters just going "wooow" and "x character is so awesome", or describing the obvious of what is taking place in the middle of battles (instead of actually giving us a proper battle to watch). It all makes it feel like barely anything of substance is happening since you're often staring at characters not moving for over 10 seconds while the camera just pans around to pass the time.

I'd normally be fine with that, but when they're sacrificing the actual meat of the story for it, it hurts. There are big gaps in the narrative, plot threads just dropped while interesting developments are skipped through month long time skips. Many story points are barely addressed, so all the pointless scenes end up way more jarring, because it's like they had their priorities backwards when it came to deciding what deserved screen time.

Speaking of development, characters aren't blessed with any of it either. Everyone is as vapid as they can be, despite how frequently more of them keep popping up. I've seen one-off NPCs in gacha game events having more backstory and personality.
And don't go into this expecting to really see much of a personality in the MC either, since they barely touch on his background, or the struggles in developing his powers, or his progress arc. You basically only get glimpses while most of it happens off-screen.

I can't comment on the source material, but here it kinda feels like the musings of a child. Or almost as if someone was just writing placeholders to come back and build the actual story later. Like when you have a cool idea you don't want to forget, so you just write the bits and pieces of how you want it to go, leaving it to fill in the gaps later... Only no one ever came back to fill them.

I really like Chinese dramas, there are narrative style differences when compared to shows from other countries, but in this case it's not simply a cultural difference, it's just irredeemable bad writing for the most part. Nonsensical arbitrary logic abound (Like no one recognizing the MC when all he did was basically change the order of his name and surname when introducing himself; or some of the rules for the school and duels...), which I could forgive. But there’s no proper narrative arc to speak of, at least for this season; it's more of a straight lifeless line without tension, build-up, or payoff.

The animation? More like an Animatic, it's very choppy. The camera and characters often seemingly animated in different framerates/timings, causing a frequent "stutter" effect in what's already awfully stactic scenes. Characters are also drawn inconsistently, not just in line but in color, some times with dramatically different skin tones than originally portrayed (the MC randomly goes back and forth between ethnicities in the span of a couple of scenes within the same episode, for example).

And if you think the sound direction may save it in any way, guess again. Music and sound choices aren't the best, and the animation and voice acting are jarringly mismatched. You'll hear a very dramatic acting of someone yelling and sobbing, while staring at a mindlessly neutral (or even happy) face on the character itself. A fact only made worse by the dialogue itself already being unnatural.

As others pointed out, it gives 90s vibes but not in a nice, nostalgic way... I was skeptical of the bad reviews. With so many good shows never even getting a second season, I figured an anime with six had got to be at least passable. Unfortunately my faith was severely misplaced.

Even for a low-budget show, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Quanzhi Fashi Episode 12 Discussion Tyrel - Jun 18, 2017	27 replies	by 1List2RuleThemAl »» Aug 4, 2025 4:46 PM
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