Mo Ri Shu Guang

That’s too bad this anime hasn’t got any review yet, so I will try to do my best to review it ;) [SPOILER FREE]

Dawn Of The World (末日曙光) is a Chinese anime taking place in a post-apocalyptic world, where people have been infected and turned into zombies. The few people left are to struggle and trust each other to survive winter. The plot is focused on the two main characters, Meng Feng (蒙烽) and Liu Yan (刘研). To make it short, one is the fighter, the other the engineer/mechanic/strategist. The story is what we can ... expect from a zombie-anime, is not particularly original, but people who liked AoT, Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress and Highschool of The Dead are quite likely to like this one as well.

Many zombie animes/films picture hopeless situations, ie the zombies are undead, difficult to kill, run really fast, are sometimes able to think, people turn into zombies in seconds after being bitten… There is nothing that can be done until one hero suddenly finds a solution and – this is magic – every one is able to escape (at least temporarily) and this hero acts as a beacon of hope towards new horizons…. I strongly prefer Dawn Of The World’s zombies : they are slow, easy to kill, stupid, so it is actually possible to fight them and therefore it is more a matter of strategy : even if you can easily kill your enemy, if you let it surround you, you will die when run out of munitions!

Some people may fear the BL tag, please don’t. No BL for me in this anime, perhaps there are several versions of it and I saw the one destined to the Chinese audience (without BL of course) – anyway the version I saw definitely does not “deserves” the BL tag! (although a BL version of this is quite easy to imagine).

I strongly support Chinese animation that has something that can’t be found in Japanese animation, and I really recommend studios like Tencent Pinguin Pictures (the one that did this anime), which has enough technology and skills to compete in quality with the more classical Japanese studios, as they have proved with The King's Avatar (Quanzhi GaoShou) and Mo Dao Zu Shi.

I am not going to make this review longer, so in short:

+: Good OST, good opening, story with good rhythm, realistic zombies, good voices (Chinese is very nice to hear), nice art + animation for Chinese studio.

-: Too many characters, not always easy to remember all of them, personalities could have been a bit more developed, some parts of the story remain a bit unclear, inconvenient with Chinese anime is that subtitles are rare and not always accurate (understanding Chinese, I could tell that some parts weren’t subtitled – even if it was a minor issue for global understanding).

Overall 8/10, I liked this anime, of course there are many things I could think of to criticize, but I would definitely recommend it if you like the genre. I would say it's underrated (deserves an average 7.5 at least). This anime is quite short, and if you want to experience a Chinese anime you can give this one a try (I would rather recommend Quanzhi Gaoshou and Mo Dao Zu Shi for the first Chinese anime though).

Mo Ri Shu Guang, or Dawn of the World, was a crippling disappointment. A disappointment of entirely my own doing - because I expected too much. I was excited to see a dystopian zombie donghua, adapting a story praised for its realism and detailed narrative. Unfortunately, Mo Ri Shu Guang fell short. What I had hoped for was a gritty apocalypse drama, what I got was a confusing amalgamation of seemingly random plot points. This adaptation could have been great - it really could have: the source was great, the producer is known to have been great, and the show itself has moments which truly ... are great - but instead it left me baffled, and ultimately unimpressed.

Granted, the only available English subs I could find weren’t of the highest quality, and I could feel a lot of meaning and nuance had been stifled in the translation process. My gratitude lies with those who did translate the series, but I can’t help but feel the plot was obscured by confusing and hard to follow subtitles.

Story - 3/10
An arguably realistic take on the ‘zombie apocalypse’ trope, the plot was obviously meant to be a gritty dystopia laced with high-stakes strategy, complex emotions and some exploration of science. In this regard, Dawn of the World fell short. It wasn’t the dark survival horror it appeared to set out to be, but that doesn’t mean it is entirely without merit.

There were moments along the storyline that intrigued me greatly, and character dynamics did layer nicely to create some effective conflict and tension - unfortunately, the series failed to capitalise off these, leaving an ultimately unsatisfying plot. What we experienced of the zombies was interesting, with their slow-moving, destructible nature meaning there was justifiable hope for the characters (too many stories of this type rely on the audience believing a group of perfectly normal human beings can overpower an indestructible hoard of zombies - something this show fortunately did not patronise the viewers with), but their raw strength in numbers allowed for convincing displays of strategy and satisfying action sequences.

The story was ultimately, however, extremely difficult to follow and strangely paced. Early in the series, there were unannounced flashbacks that left me feeling lost and confused, and throughout the anime we jumped between plot points rapid-fire, with little time for set up or explanation. The zombie phenomenon itself was entirely unexplained, and so there was a palpable absence of a goal (besides survival) or worldbuilding. I never thought I’d complain about there not being enough exposition in anime, but here we are. I found myself constantly losing interest in the plot, and it was hard to focus on the narrative - there were only sparks of the story that kept me going.

Granting Dawn of the World the benefit of the doubt, I am inclined to put the majority of this down to adaptational issues - and what was there of the plot was at least interesting enough to prompt me to check out the original novel (‘2013’) - a 73 chapter danmei (BL) with a much more positive response than this adaptation got. I am genuinely looking forward to reading that - which does say something about the potential this anime had. Unfortunately, it wasn’t followed through particularly well.

Art - 4/10
Definitely nothing special. A little disappointing since I have seen outstanding donghua with excellent art and animation that can easily rival the biggest Japanese studios - but Mo Ri Shu Guang is definitely not one of these. Art is mediocre, and animation appears clunky and of low quality at times.

Art as a whole is inoffensive, however, and around 80% of the time animation is pretty standard.

Sound - 5/10
Voice acting was definitely not the best I’ve heard from a donghua, but it was decent enough. Mostly solid, with some occasional inconsistency - it’s probably a glaring difference for those used only to JP voicing, but anyone with CN experience will find it pretty standard.

OST was unremarkable. Not bad enough to be glaringly obvious, but also not good enough for me to take any particular note.

I have to comment on the opening though. Honestly one of the best things about the series. The song was unique and a banger, and the opening sequence was well directed with an interesting art style. I will be listening to it regularly in future.

Character - 3/10
I feel there was definitely room for much greater character personality and development, which is likely present in the novel, but none of this made it to the adaptation. As a result, characters were primarily one-dimensional and forgettable - with even the main cast often appearing bland.

On top of this there was a massively underdeveloped ensemble of supporting characters, meaning confusion for the viewer as we attempt to juggle a multitude of people all introduced to us in a short space of time, with few discerning characteristics, and lacking any ability to capture audience attention or empathy. And yet each of these characters seem to provide some unique insight into the plot that remains inaccessible due to their benign presence, and lackluster development. In the end, the only characters I felt any real attachment to were Jue Ming - whose role as the ‘innocent child’ played heavily in emphasising the realism they were going for, and who was also the focal point of many ‘mystery’ elements the show presented - and Liu Yan - for his role as the protagonist.

And to address the one thing I’m sure a lot of people are curious about - the Boys Love tag. The show lacks any romance at all, let alone a queer one. Though to be perfectly honest, it's probably for the best - I doubt with the way the characters were handled in this adaptation it would have been a compelling one. While the source material is BL, and does include explicit MLM relationships, everything meaningful about it has been stripped from this adaptation - leaving an empty shell of a superficial relationship between the two male leads. Knowing the show’s danmei roots, it becomes painfully apparent that there was meant to be something more there - and its removal has left us without the depth the romantic relationship most likely brought. While I’m disappointed in this censorship in and of itself, the worst thing is that they couldn’t even cover the loss up with a meaningful friendship. Instead, it’s flat and artificial.

Enjoyment - 4/10
Like I said before, this show failed to capture my attention for the majority of the plot, the characters felt bland and under-developed, and the animation lacked ‘wow-factor’. Nonetheless, I found it a somewhat intriguing watch. While I cannot bring myself to recommend it, it’s not the worst thing I’ve seen by any means. I believe it set out to be a great series in its own right, but given the underwhelming nature of the majority of the anime’s aspects, it seems to have failed in this regard. However, as an advertisement for its source material (which, unlike a lot of series of this quality, I doubt it was intended to be), it has done a great job. Despite my disappointment whilst watching the adaptation, the root of that disappointment - the potential I saw in Dawn of the World - has encouraged me to check out its source.

As such, I am inclined to say that this series has its merits. It has just enough enjoyable aspects that I am disappointed in its execution, and I can say I am anxiously awaiting for the right time to sit down and give 2013 a read.

Overall - 4/10