Yaoguai Mingdan 2nd Season

Like I said in the S1 review, this donghua is old, with this season being 7 years old compared to S1's 10. The production quality and cringe of the first season made it almost unwatchable for me despite my love for the manhua (source). However the changes made to season 2 changed my entire outlook of this adaptation. Having worked on the manhua of this as a translator, I am very happy to see how the second season did this work justice and brought this work to life.

Plot Summary: Due to breaking the seal on him twice, Feng Xi, the MC, has been outed as ... the legendary Yang Eye. In order to fulfill his responsibilities as the Yang Eye and to protect himself, he starts to study under the daoists to learn how to use his powers. As he dives deeper into his past and powers, he starts to learn of a greater number of past lives, his ties with allies, and the goal he has pursued across reincarnations.

Plot
The story in this season can be divided into 2 chapters (yes 2 chapters, not arcs). The first chapter, EP1-15, directly follows S1 (even teased at the end), where we follow the MC, Feng Xi, as he starts his training and learns about taoist techniques, about the taoists' mission in the current world, his own past, and takes part in a taoist operation to keep the peace between monsters and humans. The chapter has some of the typical cringe harem/romance comedy from season 1 (and it is from the manhua), but for the most part, it very thoroughly builds up how the world works and the relationship between the monsters and humans. Most of it is presented through the eyes of Feng Xi, a newcomer to this "world of monsters", and a newly born AI monster. This allows the show to provide a crash course for more exposition into the world without feeling forced. A job well done in executing this.

Note: Episode 16 is a sneak peak at Part 2 and an interview episode with contributors to the donghua.

The second chapter, EP17-21, is about Long SanYuan's past with a past life MC. This chapter, totaling 5 episodes, is disconnected from the other because it jumps directly to this flashback. The transition into it from the manhua has been removed, but since the previous chapter concluded and this flashback can be viewed in its own, it isn't too bad; just consider it like another season. This provides a very emotional story about the pains of long-lived species romance with a short-lived one. I think this portion is also done quite well.

Characters
Most of the characters important to the story had shown up by the last episode of the previous season, though some barely got a cameo. There isn't much more to say about the totality of the characters in season 2, though Feng Xi, our MC, does get some better development moving me away from a stock harem MC, making him more unique. All the other characters get screen time and we get a more in-depth look and backstory of all the other important characters as well.

Animation
The character designs are still have the same style as Season 1, though asthetic now matches the manhua more than before, ditching stylistic choices like the large eyes. The character design/models are more proportional and the animation is more fluid and natural (though it can still be a bit stiff at times). The quality of the rendering is better (it is less pixelly and more crisp). Overall, much better quality than Season 1.

Sound
The sound work in this season is done light-years better than the previous one. Almost all the problems from the last season have been addressed. The voice-acting is more human, natural, and conveys emotion through intonation. The volume of the BG now meshs well, unlike before. The OP and EDs are still good. The only complaint regarding their work on sound this season is their attempt at spatial sound; when the character is "furthur away" they make their voices softer, which sometimes makes it hard to hear because of the constantly changing volume. Other than this, they did a much better job is syncing all the sounds together.

Final Thoughts
My only reaction after watching this is: wow. Because of the disappointing production quality in the first season, I thought this season would also be a drag. However, they suprisingly fixed almost all the issues I had with the first season. The designs of the characters have been improved, the sound production quality has been vastly improved, the animation is much more fluid. The plot and characters have also gotten better, though that mostly has to do with the script. If you liked the first season (or like the story from the manhua), this season is a highly recommended watch. Otherwise, I would still recommend this if you enjoy stories within this genre.

Score: 6/10

Adaptation Review (may contain spoilers of the manhua):
First, this Season adapts chapters 75-152 (Part 1:EP1-15) and 188-200 & 279-281 (Part 2:EP17-21). EP16 is a sneak peak at Part2 and mainly an interview special.

Wow, just wow. I didn't think it was possible to be this faithful to the source material. This season's adaptation is basically animated panel for panel what was in the manhua; in fact, in the S2 EP1 recap, they even did a soft-retcon of one of the "biggest" changes to the first season (where Su Jiu'er took out the internal alchemy of the tree demon vs her destruction of it in S1 EP6). In addition to the soft-recton, there was just one little scene added in about Feng Xi being a "bad kid" growing up, but that's all. In the previous season, I suggested simply reading the manhua for a better experience. For this season though, I think I would recommend the donghua, though I still suggest reading the manhua.

There is a disconnect between the two chapters since they skipped straight to the Long SanYuan flashback without the portion in between, as indicated by the chapters that I listed that they had adapted. They essentially skipped over chapters 153-187 which originally provided a transition to the recall. For this adaptation, what they decided to do was to tell the story of a specific life, combining two different recalls (one for Long SanYuan and one for Su Jiu'er) into a single flashback story. Because of this combination, they changed now the flashback was narrated, added/changed some details, and tried to make it a stand-alone story. In the manhua, because of the events that led up to the recall, it was understood that this was Long SanYuan's flashback on her life with the MC. The adaptation, however, made it a combination of two flashbacks, therefore they had to make specific parts specifically narrated by Long SanYuan, while including Su Jiu'er's parts, thus weakening the impact that this flashback should have had. Su Jiu'er also seems very childish; the progression of time, a significant part of the sadness, is also not as noticable because of the combination as well. The timeline for the two was originally counted by how long each knew the MC in this life, and because the difference in time lengths, they eliminated this part of the narration. The final change was they added a tiny segment of him being accepted as a disciple by a daoist and his senior disciple scenes. Overall, while this part of the adaptation envokes the proper emotions, they don't hit as hard because of the lack of full context for the flashback. In the end, it is simply a standalone chapter flashing back to one of the MC's previous lives with the girls.

Last but not least, I really hate how the Part 2 OP teases scenes from the skipped chapters 153-187.

Adaptation score for EP1-15: 9.8/10
Adaptation score for EP17-21: 8/10

I am writing review in 2021 because only now i found that this series have the 2nd season of animated release. I began reading the manhwa when it was just about the arc of fengxi began training after he discover himself as the yang eye.

looking at the thumnails of the episodes of this season, i got happy, a little excited and also kinda sad. cause i already know what will happen.

it is so good, the graphics is so pretty!!
for a chinese products, many will compare it to japanese anime. and many will say that japanese's anime is superior than chineese's, well i think ... they were wrong. This donghua prove it, the adaption is so good. of course me too noticing about the fps rate of the animation is not that many, but it doesnt mean that the graphics (art) animation became inferior. For me, this kind of story telling have decent presentation in it's own way. The lacks of frame key arts compensated with dynamics vfx lights. The sea, the skies, the ponds, the fires, the tears, the snows, the mountains, the fireflies, the sparkle of cyberspaces, weapon effects, attack effects, etc.. Even for the comedic scenes they splendidly draw the characters with all the limbs (i am alittle bit disapointed because it is not the stickman, but also glad they made it better). All great.

I dont have chineese descendances in my blood, so i naturally cant speak chineese. and i found it hard to learn about it. They speak too fast and so many latter in the sentence and it is hard to know what words is what. i t's a little hard to follow watching while reading the english subtitles. but the musics is good, i enjoy the music even though i dont quite get what the lyrics are. the bg musics in this donghua is fresh, i never heard any of this before watching the anime (either it is because the bg musics really exclusively composed for this donghua, or it is just beacause i never heard them before because i am far away from chineese culture).

the character potray is so good, giving better improvement than what already presented from the manhwa. in the donghua we can get the emotional feelings of the characters. gao shuang, ling ling, sujiu, even shine the mosts long san yuan's. we got to see all of their emotions and feeling conveyed by their words and facial mimics and body language.

I really really really enjoy this donghua. I hope they will made another continuation, at least a movie specials or some main arcs donghua adaptations.

wish i could lived till i witness this series got it's Ending.

I bet only because its in chinese its didn't got much attention.

this series has 20 ep this season.
and another 18 from first season.

yes the first season is meh.
it has bad animation.
less interesting plot.

but season2 is a masterpiece.
... the only problem i got with this sereis.
was the fact that each episode without the ed and opening.
are about 10 minutes its just not enough.
for the same reason.

those 10 minutes are top polished.
they are flawless.

the story is superb and unqiue.
the art is also really good in season 2.

the sound?
well surprise! the chinese isnt really that bad!
it's quite nice language can be fast at times.
but the female voices are wow! srsly.

the ED was amazing.
the OP was also amazing... (i one of those that skip yep was unable here).

characters :
the characters adapt.
and change quite a lot, we also learn about their past and that adds a lot
to the story. and thier development.

enjoyment.
this season was amazing so yeah
10/10

i truly recommend.
for those who are looking for a cool romance.
season 1 even if isn't great.
isn't bad neither, and is very enjoyable.
the biggest issue with s1 is the art.
its like 3/10 at most.