Mo Dao Zu Shi: Wanjie Pian

This final season along with the previous two seasons are truly masterpiece!

Mo Dao Zu Shi series is the first donghua I've ever watched, but I knew it's the best donghua ever made. Thanks to Mo Dao Zu Shi, the past several years I have been fangirling over WangXian (Lan Wangji x Wei Wuxian). All started with the first season, then I read the original novel.. And then manhua version (I skip the Untame, because it's the least accurate adaptation of the original novel--and live action version isn't my cup of tea).

Compared to the first two seasons, this final season shows more of WangXian's relationships. Not ... explicit or anything, because it's donghua.. But it gives huge satisfaction to me who are watching Mo Dao Zu Shi because its BL elements. But worry not for non-BL fan, you won't be made sick because of it.

This donghua adaptation is practically stripped the BL element from the original novel, but it doesn't "kill" the flow of relationships between the characters. I suggest you read the original novel, because you will find tons of Easter eggs there. But keep in mind that the novel is rather explicit and heavy theme on BL elements *wink*

As this is the final season, all hell break loose here! The climax and the unanswered questions from fans who aren't reading the original novel will be answered here. As for me who read the novel (and remember the story perfectly), I can say this donghua doing a very great job. Like I said in the beginning, this is masterpiece. If you ask me how it is a masterpiece, well.. You better find out yourself!

P.S. Prepare some tissue or anything to wipe off the tears and snots before watching this.. You will need it.
P.P.S. I will absolutely rewatch this again as I did with the two previous seasons.

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is possibly one of THE best stories I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. From start to finish the show will keep you on your toes and leave you PLEADING for the next episode. I watched the first and second seasons roughly 2 years ago, instantly fell in love with the series, and proceeded to find all the material of it I could. I read the manhua, watched the live action, and cried over every single WangXian song there was. But after a while, I grew out of the phase, and decided to check out some other works of ... MXTX where I then proceeded to cry over TGCF. But. This new season has reminded me from episode 1 what made me fall so in love with this show, and now I need to talk about it.

Story: 9/10 - the story is absolutely exhilarating, with tension-filled arcs all leading towards the climax. I never read the source material, but with my experience with the live action where I felt like sometimes the arcs got dragged on a bit too much, I walked into this expecting Yi City arc to be the whole entire season but I was pleasantly surprised. I think the story is well-paced based on my enjoyment, but I do think that some may have wished for Xue Yang's story to be a bit longer as it was hard to connect with him in the short amount of time with the donghua.

Art: 100000/10. Absolutely STUNNING. I believe that MDZS's animation is better than over 90% of the animated studios in Japan, maybe even on par with Ufotable. Everything is just so gorgeous: the rivers, the plants, the buildings - and the animation is not any worse. When Wei Wuxian slices his hand on the sword and summons all the zombies and there's green and red everywhere- I GOT CHILLS. And the animation when Wuxian and Wangji are on the rooftops and it flashbacks to their time at Gusu and back - iTS SO PRETTY TwT

Sound: 9/10. It didn't stand out to me as much as the last two seasons did, and nothing can beat the opening and ending songs of last season (the song that ended the last episode of second season? makes me cry every time), but it's still very good and fits all the scenes well. Of course, Wuxian's flute and Wangji's zither are as good as ever. We also get to hear Xichen's instrument (I don't really know what it is) and it sounds great as well.

Character: Ok so I could go on and talk about Wei Wuxian for hours because of how much I ADORE him, but I'll keep it brief: Wei Wuxian is one of the best characters ever to have graced my eyes. His three-dimensional ness makes him SO alive- there are moments here and there when you can see the look in his eyes and it just makes my heart hurt so much- HE DIDN'T DESERVE EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TO HIM. I could also talk about WangXian for hours but the dynamic between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian is literally the best thing ever to exist. Every time someone tries to sneak an attack on Wuxian and Wangji is the one that deflects the blow, I swoon. They learn to support and lean on each other, and it's an absolute joy to see their dynamic every episode. 10/10 (all the other characters are great too but the main cast just outshines everyone else)

Enjoyment: Could you tell? 10/10 this show is such a masterpiece. If there is anything to take away from this review, it's that this show is a masterpiece and a MUST WATCH. What are you doing reading this review? Go watch MDZS. Then go read the manhua. Then go watch the live action. This show is one that will hook you in from the very first episode and won't let go.

Before ushering my criticism, I would like to register that despite the flaws, this is a well above average show and is worth watching. I particularly like the artwork and overall aesthetic of the show.

That being said, I'm somewhat disapointed with the final season. While i would rate the first 2 seasons of this show among the best in anime in the last decade, this final season dropped significantly in quality.

Firstly the story in this season is rushed. For the sake of comparison, in the live action version the story in this season accounts for half of the show runtime, ... while here it is compressed into less episodes than the first season. This leaves significant characters without proper development. Many moments are robbed of their due emotional payoff. Also some of the transitions will be confusing for those who only seem the anime, at parts the characters jump to a new place without it being clear how and why we got there and episodes often end at rather unatural moments.

Besides the rushedness, the voice acting is also weaker in this season. Wei Wuxian is annoyingly monotonic, he sounds the same in highly tense or emotional moments as when he's just hanging out and being his typical sarcastic self. I can forgive Lan Wanji being monotonic, as that is part of his character, but not Wei Wuxian.

Even the writing itself is weaker and many of the emotional payoff moments fall flat.

The soundtrack of the show is functional, there is nothing particularly remarkable, but all in all it is competently done.

***
In what follows I'll draw some comparisons between the anime and the live action version of the show.

For the first two seasons the anime compares favorably to the live action version, being superior in visual aesthetics, action and even pacing, while being relatevely equal on other aspects.

In the third season, the anime is still ahead in visual aesthetic and action scenes. But in the acting and storytelling, the live action version compares favorably.

Neither version of the show is well paced, the live action moves too slowly, while the anime moves too fast.

To give one specific example of the differences in writing, one particular difference in the order of events robs the anime of one of the most emotionally impactfull moments in the story:

**** SPOILERS AHEAD ****


In the live action version the Jiang Cheng golden core reveal happens before the final confrontation with Jin Guangyao, this makes it much more impactfull and emotional since at this point Wei Wuxian is not "fully cleared" in the death of Yanli and Zixuan and Jiang Cheng has legitimate reason to behave how he does.

In the anime version this is left for the last episode, which makes Jiang's actions appear out of place and the reveal fells more like rubbing it in his face than something with actual emotional impact.


To finish the review, overall I give this season a 7, while the show as a whole would be an 8.5 for me. I think this season could greatly benefit from a good english dub, improving on the extremely flat voice acting displayed in the original.

I have the feeling that a lot of people who give this series a 10 are either blinded by how the story is supposed to be according to the novel or are just ignorant to obvious flaws.


Story:
The storytelling has taken a big dip when compared to previous seasons.
Too much time is spent with unnecessary fan service between the male cast, more commonly seen in cheap shonen series (only here we have some pretty guys instead of girls). This really destroys any immersion and makes episodes feel too stretched out with not enough relevant things happening.

Animation:
I really don't understand why this series still lacks animation quality ... even though it is getting all the hype in China. Series like "Bai Yao Pu" or "Shiguan Dailiren" manage to have way better animation although being less popular.

This season feels like a missed opportunity as there is too much pandering to the female audience who just want to see some pretty boys be all over each other instead of actually giving characters more depth in both storytelling and animations.

People are doing this show an extreme injustice if they refuse to watch it because they see a summary that the novel has the slow burn romance between two male leads, but this is not the main point of the show at all and it never detracts from the main storyline.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is a story about a tragedy, justice, family, and to some extent, love. It is honestly one of the best shows I have watched in a long while. Nowadays, I've just been watching shows for the sake of finishing the show, but GDC has had me at the seat of my ... pants since Season 1. I binge watched the entire thing over the course of the past two weeks, because dang--

Story: 9/10. The story is a banger. S1 had me hooked all the way to S3 now. Wanjie Pian, or S3/Final Season is essentially the climax of the story. We're done revisiting the past from the past seasons, and now we inch closer to resolving the mystery behind the demonic hand. The first few episodes surrounding the Yi City arc are definitely rushed. Since I had watched the donghua first, I was very confused and had to dive into the novel material to figure out what was going on. I suppose this is because we are limited in the number of episodes this season and the finale is just beyond the horizon.

Art: 10/10 - My goodness, there is a massive improvement in the animation quality for this final season. There are a number of epic or important scenes where you can tell that it flows SO SMOOTHLY, that your heart stops. The backgrounds, the fighting scenes, even the emotional ones have you feeling tingly. I would say it's almost on par with some of the best anime studios out there. You can even find a clip of the behind-the-scenes of that one footage where Wei WuXian does the badass motion with Jin Ling's sword in the Yi City arc. Or even scenes with the fluttering of the Lan sect headband. I would recommend watching the season 3 trailer uploaded by Tencent and you will know what I mean but a massive increase in quality, lighting, colors, fluidity of animation, etc.

Sound: 9/10 - The opening and ending themes are great. The ending theme especially makes me want to lie down and weep because the singer is not only delivering a beautiful song, but the lyrics and song title are profound once you understand the meaning of it. Soundtrack for battle themes and other songs are not bad this season, though season 1 was quite lit (Lookin at you, "Drunk in a Dream (erhu version), Dream Comes Along, and Cloud Recesses")

The voice acting has also been top notch this season-- Lan Zhan, especially. His Chinese voice actor has been doing a spectacular job of conveying his feelings. He's nailed down the "moe" factor in his drunken state (eg: "Back to Gusu"). Also, is there a way to say "Wei Ying" expressively? Lan Zhan's VA has the role down pat. The sorrow, the hurt, the pain is oh-so-intricately laced into the delivery of his lines. My heart aches from the depth of emotion. Wei Ying's VA has also been great too, but I think my heart has been captured by Lan Zhan's outstanding performance this season.

Character: 9/10 - Only for the Yi City arc because it felt rushed and I didn't really care about Xue Yang / Xiao Xing Chen / Song Lan that much. It was hard to bond with those characters only from watching the donghua itself, and yes, I understand it is because we are on a tight schedule with only a couple of episodes left until the finale.

On the other hand, wow, Lan Wangji/Lan Zhan. Without any spoilers, you can see how he has changed over the years between S1 in the past until now. Our guy has gone from stoic and reserved, not really taking any action to someone who will fight for what he believes in. I love it. Those 13 years have done our man good. He is also a hilarious drunkard.

Finally, Wei WuXian, our precious A-Xian. Our good boy who did not deserve the boundless tragedies that fell upon him. He's absolutely hilarious. He keeps on going. Sometimes you see the flicker of hurt in his eyes and all you want to do is swaddle him in a pile of blankets and protect him from the world because he is too good for them. Although there is some deviation from the original novel, that's to be expected, but the animators are still able to convey the bond and heartwarming interactions between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

Enjoyment: My partner and I have both been enjoying this series since S1. You'll like it. We've been anticipating the next part of the plot to unfold. We enjoy the suspense, the mystery, and the whole Chinese cultivation aspect of it :)

Overall: 9/10.

Hello! Just a random watcher/reviewer. This is my first time of doing a review, so forgive me if this review is not helpful or rather not full of context or such.

First off, this Anime might be my first Chinese Anime adaptation that I've watched, and heck it was kinda worth it. It was recommended by a friend of mine who have already finished the novel long since the last chapter ended. So while watching, I have someone who could give me some additional info's that wasn't included in the anime. Although I loved the series, there were just some things I've noticed, especially this last ... season.

I'm kinda shocked how many people rated the anime 10/10, well nonetheless here's my review.

Story telling: 5/10
Although I'm not a novel reader or first of the MDZS franchise, the episodes for this season gave me this utter feeling as everything seemed to be rushed. Each episode gave me ups and downs, sometimes left me confused, sometimes made me awed. I guess for the story telling of this last season, I'll rate it a 5/10, as each episode felt like it was rushed, well idk but it just really felt quite rushed for me at some point. It did really confused me, took me awhile to grasp to what happened in a scene etc.

Animation: 9/10
I've got nothing wrong with the animation, it's pretty good.

Art: 9/10
Loved the art style, it somewhat compliments the show and each characters beauty.

V.A: 9/10
I can't speak Chinese, but watching the series made me want to learn Chinese. This series made me open to watch more Chinese Anime adaptation series.

Characters: 9/10
I'm not Chinese, but everything seemed right or in place. Every character have their own uniqueness and I guess I love how some can be seen or compared to real life.

Sound/Ost: 9/10
I enjoyed it, I can't really give more context but for me it's alright.

Enjoyment: 7/10
Would still recommend to watch, I mean it is but the last season, this is the part where everything is going to be covered..

Overall rating: 6/10
I cannot completely give my reasoning why a 6, but maybe it's partly due to how I felt like there's really much more to the plot of the series compared to how the story telling went in the novel series. In short, I guess for this last season of the Anime, some parts or scenes felt like it was poorly done compared to the novel. I don't want to spoil, but the ending left me disappointed compared to how it was done in the novel.

A 6 rating would prob be my lowest, but watching the previous 2 seasons, I'd say this season would be the poorest. Although the poorest, would still recommend people to watch it. Poorest not because of the plot, but how it was paced in this anime adaptation.

TL;DR: 6/10, I believe this last season could have been done better. The pacing of it felt rushed, well that's just my opinion.

MDZS was a very enjoyable series overall.

Strong points of the series:
Good world building and setting, nuanced characters with interesting backstories, beautiful art style, good integration of the musical instrument bits, nice political tension between clans, coherent events through time, great voice acting in the original language and Japanese dub.

Weak points of the series:
Could have been slightly gayer, and the animation could have been better (there are also some 3D animation bits here and there which always breaks the immersion for me personally, on a positive note they weren't that bad compared to 3D scenes I've encountered in other animated series...)

*side note, ... The immersive animated ads with product placement and the MDZS characters really cracked me up!

Final verdict: good series, fun to bingewatch, makes me want to read the novel and the manhua. If you like fantasy, historical, and drama genres (and you are not a homophobe) you will enjoy this series!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SERIES!!! There is no other way to describe how amazing it is. Soo catchy, amazing characters and story. It is just brilliant, PERIOD!
BUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTT...... In this last season I AM MISSING THE KISSING AND CONFESSION SCENE. Like for real, EXCUSE YOU, THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!! [could y'all like add it in or something?! It would be super appreciated] My hopes were up because of the amazing scene presented in the manhwa and novel, it literally makes the story soooo much better. SO WHY DID YOU HAVE TO LET ME DOWN LIKE THIS??? I FEEL CHEATED ON :((( Honestly I was going to ... make it a 8 for overall score, buttttttttt it's just so amazing I just had to make it a 9!

(I RECOMMEND for everyone to give this series a try; best would be to try out the first season and see if you like it. At the start it was kind of confusing to me as I did not have any idea of what I was getting into, but it is literally the best anime/donghua I have ever seen!)

MDZS is the first Chinese anime I've watched. It was quite difficult to catch up with the subtitles at first, but the art, music, and characters' handsomeness kept me going, and I'M SOOO GLAD I DID! My heart goes out to WWX. Even though a lot of people view him negatively, he still pushes through with his jubilant attitude. LWJ's change in this season was what I enjoyed the best! He seems more relaxed and even shows his unconstrained smile to WWX at times. Now, I'm reading the novel to further understand the plot and to know the scenes that were excluded from the anime. ... I didn't really expect to get so hooked up with this series, but every next episode and mystery unveiled pulled me in deeply to the point that I just HAD TO write it all down. This anime is a gem! The high reviews said it all. It would be a waste to pass it up.

there are a lot of things that make this anime or donghua one of the greatest. i have watched the whole show the untamed too adapted from this novel the grandmaster of demonic cultivation and the chibi version of this and now the anime too.
the write is a preety famous novelist of china. the same one who wrote heaven official's blessings(anime) novel too. the story is that 16 years ago wei ying who had started demonic cultivation suicided at nevernight because everyone who believed in him had died and he couldnt do anything. after 16 years, mo ... xuanyu summoned him back and sacrificed himself. little did he know that he wasnt summoning a demon but a preety chill guy.
wei ying's old friend lan zhan had been waiting for years for him to return whereas his brother was ready to kill him again and again. they have a big journey ahead of them fighting the evils from the coffin town etc.

Plot: 10/10
Animation: 10/10
Pacing: 2/10

MDZS is a complex story with many layers and characters. It is tragic, funny and shocking. The animation is superb and underrated - I wish the anime was more widely available in the West. However, the plot is extremely rushed in this season and it barely makes sense if you haven't read the book beforehand. There is very little time to process or make sense of such a intricate plot. Even in the last episode, they're rushing to cram in 5 different scenes with many different emotions. If the pacing was better, this could have been a 9/10 or 10/10.

I love this series so much, and I'm saddened that this is the last season. I am planning on reading the novel, though!

As usual, the art is beautiful, and I envy the artists that can create these fantastic characters and scenery. The sound design is perfect too, and the songs played suit what is being shown. The opening and ending songs are very calm, and the art shown along with the music makes me very happy to watch the show.

But I was sometimes confused concerning the characters' multiple names (birth/given name, courtesy name and title) and the timeline of the events, but hopefully, ... reading the novel will help clear things up.

I will be rewatching this series many times, and I would recommend this series to anyone interested in adventure/mystery/action types shows.

I can't express how much I love this story. The plot was amazing and the characters were all so unique and well written. (Beware there is going to be A LOT of spoilers.

In the final season we got to see Xiao Xing Chen and xue yang's backstory. I loved they way they animated the characters and the way they did the backstory. And the part where Xue Yang stares at the piece of candy Xiao Xing Chen gave him while he bleeds out was so heart touching.

Discovering Jin Guan Yao was the one behind the death of Nie Mingjue was AMAZING. Who would of thought ... that the guy that killed Wen Ruohan was actually a evil piece of shit. And to add even more of a twist at the end we find out that this whole thing starting from Wei Ying being ressuracted to finding the body of the zombie arm and the death of Jin Guan yao were all planned by non other then Nie Huaisang.

The only thing in this whole final season that I wasn't the biggest fan of was the background animation, They made it to realistic looking that when the characters were there it just looked really weird. It look liked someone took a picture of a place and photoshopped them right on top.This only happens in the last couple of episodes and not the beginning episodes. Other then the background animation everything else was perfect

When compared to season 1 and 2, this season has both areas where it does better and other areas where it's not as good.

The main areas it falls a bit short are:

- The story is definitely a bit rushed. I think this could have been 2 seasons but was crammed into one, making the Yi city arc VERY fast, and resulting in some sped up pacing that was noticeably too fast. They also rearranged some of the storyline - it didn't bother me too much, but I got a bit confused having already been familiar with the original chronology.

- I actually ... found the art to still be really high quality, but there was a much heavier use of CG in this season, and occasionally that could be a bit obvious. I did find that the team did a really good job of integrating the CG elements with the hand-drawn elements so that nothing was jarring, but there were a few moments where, for example, flowers were clearly duplicates of each other made via CG.


However, it does as well or better in:

- The music is consistent as ever, and I loved it.

- The opening sequence is beautifully animated and the song is excellent, and they pair well together.

- Character-wise, we get to the meat of the character development in this season. Jin Guangyao's story in particular (and Lan Xichen, by extension) was handled really well in my opinion, and it almost felt like they purposely gave this side non-canon pairing a little extra love.

- This season is so gay?? There are like 3 references to weddings, they get the novel ending, and basically the entire season is just Lan Zhan staring happily at Wei Wuxian.

--

If you're not already into MDZS, I would say the anime is a worthwhile option (although the live action drama is pretty good too - but I really like the franchise as a whole so I've found most versions pretty enjoyable so far). Lovely art, lovely music, and most of the original story, with a ton of shippable action, just with a bit of a rushed pace in season 3.