Doupo Cangqiong

I'm writing this review after watching all 3 seasons of the anime as well as all the specials that are available at this moment.

This review will be spoiler free, so feel free to read before you watch.

The first season of Doupo Cangqiong is garbage, there are no other ways to put it. The story is stale and have been done many times before. Normally I don't have a problem with overused stories as long as the execution is good, but as you guessed it, the execution is also trash.

Story:
This story starts with our protagonist Xiao, Yan. When he was just a young boy, he had great power that surpassed everyone his age. He was a genius, and because of his amazing abilities, he was engaged to Yan Ran, Na Lan, a girl from a powerful family. Just as everything was going well for Xiao, Yan, something terrible happened. After he turned 11, his power stopped growing and even became weaker as time went on. After three years, he was one of the weakest in his family, and deemed useless by his peers.

Because of this, Yan Ran, Na Lan wanted to break their engagement as she doesn't not want to be married to a useless husband. This was devastating to Xiao, Yan's family as her family was very powerful and sacred off people who tried to take over.

In the Heat of the Moment, Xiao, Yan promised a 1v1 with Yan Ran, Na Lan in 3 years time. If he was to win, he can do whatever he wants with her, but if she wins, she'll get to break off their engagement. From there the story begins.

Conclusion:
The reason I said the first season was garbage isn't necessarily because of the plot, but more of the poor execution when it comes to story telling. It was incredibly boring to watch the predictable plot points happen one after another. The music used isn't that great, even the OP is questionable. Overall the whole season could have been cut down to 3-4 episodes.

However, I'm writing this review not to drive you away from watching this anime as the second and third seasons are so much better after a new animation studios took over. I recommend skipping through the first season or reading the webnovel so you know the main plot points and moving on to the next seasons.

This season is a 5 out of 10 at most while the next two seasons are easily 7-8 out of ten. So please, do not turn away from a great anime due to this first shitty season.

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As someone who is familiar with the Douluo Dalu series, this story doesn't feel quite refreshing or original. Despite that, it's highly enjoyable, hence I finished it in a couple of hours.

Story [6]:
The story is like something I have seen before, which is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it is done right. So far, the story is good, but not outstanding. There are things I personally would like to see go in a different direction, but for now these are OK.

Art [7]:
This series art isn't your typical 2D anime, instead it's more 3Dish. I personally appreciate the 3D animation and art style. The way this series looks, reminds me of a PS3 game or perhaps a Final Fantasy game. It isn't thát pretty, but very well done.

Sound [7]:
Unlike many other shows that I have watched, where I barely noticed the music, there were some sound effects in this show that I actually noticed. The music and other sound effects are more present, which adds to the show.

Character [7]:
The characters are not very outstanding in comparison to other similar shows. Yet I feel like they're still written pretty well. The protagonist is this cocky, weak lad who develops very well. I can't go in further detail about character development due to spoilers. The rest of the characters are not per se developing, yet you come to learn more about them, which is also fun and intriguing.

Enjoyment [7]:
Pretty much sums up the above combined.

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I'm going to preface this review by saying that I've read the web novel and the manhua for Battle Through the Heavens, and both are quite excellent and are among my favorite xianxia series. This anime adaptation however, is quite horrific: not only is the editing incredibly messy, with a lot of abrupt cuts that interrupt the flow, but the characters act nothing like their source material counterparts and entire scenes progress in a way that is hackneyed and incomprehensible.

Do yourself a favor and pick up the webnovel for the plot points that the 1st season covers, and start watching from the ONA special. Because of the terrible feedback from Chinese audiences, Tencent switched animation studios for the ONA special and season 2, which are vastly improved and are actually quite good.

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It's normal for the protagonist of a cultivation story to conveniently have some mechanic that allows him to level up faster and gain high level skills and items, but there needs to be a balance against perceived innate talent and hard work. If too little sets him apart from the others, then the protagonist seems undeserving of being called a protagonist. But if too much help is granted, then he doesn't seem like a protagonist by his own merit. In other cultivation stories, there's always a reason why the protagonist is seemingly overpowered, whether because he transmigrated (i.e. isekai), reincarnated, is actually a sect leader in disguise, was left overpowered artifacts from his master, or found a cave of high level internal energy skills while practicing.

In Doupo Cang Qiong (Battle Through the Heavens), the protagonist gets a ring without much explanation, and in it contains the spirit of a master that absorbs his 3 years of hard work prior to the start of the story, and in return the spirit becomes his master. Not just his master, the spirit guides his cultivation, directly imparts energy upon him causing him to gain levels, gives him political advice, teaches him martial arts that are higher level than nearly any character in the first two seasons, helps him create pills, and even takes over his body to fight for him. Despite being a genius, the circumstances make it seem as if he's handed everything on a silver platter, and despite a year having passed, the pacing makes it seem as if he's gaining levels every other day. He seems like an entitled, whiny little brat. Yet somehow he's able to beat other cultivators on the same level or higher -- easily. It seems almost plot breaking, more so than any other cultivation story I've seen.

Watch this only if you've run out of things to watch, and want a cultivation shounen fight or revenge fantasy. Otherwise, watch Douluo Dalu (Soul Land), Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan Zhi (A Mortal's Journey), Wan Jie Xian Zong (Wonderland of Ten Thousands), Yuan Long (A Carp Reborn), Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices), among others. Come back to this after finishing all of the above.

Despite what the other reviews say, I didn't find any significant difference, besides that the protagonist seems to have hit puberty and aged 10 years, between the first season and the others. To the contrary, I found the OVA specials to be extremely tedious, and I would only suggest the first special if you like some cheap ecchi/romance, and the second if you like an hour of fight scenes with no significant tie to the overall story (in my opinion, boring).

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