Qiang Shen Ji

Qian Shen Ji Recap
Age of Gunslingers follows Lin Xiaoshuai, a typical high school protagonist that gets swept up into the Deep Sea Special Academy after an altercation onboard a high speed train. Deep Sea is one of 2 major agent factions that have gone into hiding after a long war to protect humanity (I think it was this) against monsters and/or evil factions. In this academy, Lin Xiaoshuai along with 8 other students compete to get access to Deep Sea's exclusive Gene Lock system that allows users to inherit physical and psychological traits of past legendary agents. Lin Xiaoshuai's parents are missing and he suspects ... it has something to with their past lives as agents so he stays in Deep Sea to find answers on their whereabouts.

Story: 6/10
The story begins with a future scene where Lin Xiaoshuai and 2 comrades fight until a mysterious lady appears and crushes the trio. It then fades away to reveal that the event is 1 year from the actual beginning from the story. I honestly despise this kind of progression because it fuels inspiration to watch it yet spoils the entirety of the story devaluing the events leading up to it. Eventually, I came to terms with that spoiler beginning but it still was annoying to see; the Deep Sea academy is a training arc where Lin Xiaoshuai trains alongside comrades in a virtual training environment until he is ready to set off on missions as an agent. It's an ok season 1 story but the ending was very violating.

Art & Sound: 7/10 & 5/10
The art and animation was pretty decent for an older chinese donghua. However, it still suffers with population density and character texture. Sometimes I'm astonished at how good the art and animation is like the opening scene of Deep Sea Academy's underwater headquarters but most of the time it feels like I'm watching a mobile ad because of how poorly textured the characters are. The camera angles this series has also doesn't change it either.

Over the rainbow is a recurring audio in the series with the female MC singing it as well as Lin Xiaoshuai listening to it on his earphones. It also plays during the 'real' mission Xiaoshuai and his team are assigned on when he defeats the scarab robot. I don't think this style of music suits the tone of this series; it feels like the song was thrown in it to add emotional attachment but it just deferred it.

Character: 6/10
I like the characters and how they eventually go from rejecting each other to cooperating and accepting each other like in the virtual mission where Liana is shot on the plane. However, this series has some weird character design: The main character is a high school age yet his character is designed to look like a try-hard shounen character and the female MC Ling is a legit rip of sailor moon with the blonde hair blue eyes foreigner-wearing red tie white shirt Japanese navy uniform in a Chinese donghua. It honestly makes no sense and I don't want to understand the character design decisions but all the characters have a quirky personality and over the top design like Xiaoshuai and Ling.

Enjoyment & Overall: 6/10
I did enjoy most of the first season; some scenes were filler so of course the rating reflects my personal viewing experience of the series. I've also just finished season 2 of the series and I don't think I'll waste time to submit a review for it - basically it's just a circle jerk of enemy factions trying to capture Xiaoshuai and wanting to have access to the gene lock system Deep Sea has.

Apparently based on some Gunslinger game, but all I saw through the entire first 2 seasons, was a near spot on replica of the first disc of Final Fantasy VIII lol. Don't get me wrong it was actually interesting and enjoyable enough for me to keep watching. I could just see some major similarities in certain character designs, premise, fight scenarios between this show and many of the events in the opening parts of FFVIII. MC almost exact replica of Squall only opposite personality. Children/young adults taken in by some military organization and trained to be secret agents. Smoking hot, ... bombshell of an instructor. Live combat excercise that involves battling many enemy soldiers and running for lives from a giant mecha spider. All of which happens in FFVIII as well.


Spoiler
As enjoyable it was, the story was really lacking in the first season. It does the usual showing of a future scene in the opening of the season, flashes back 1 year and build up back to that scene by the end of the first season. Then, End of season. lol Any answers you had and wanted don't come until the next season. Of which events then unravel so quickly you get a little lost for a while before you start piecing things together. Either way, is definitely worth a watch. My story rating is only based on the first season, Likely would be higher for the second season.