Tian Guan Cifu

The heavens shake, the thunder rumbles, and Xie Lian appears with an apologetic smile—again! Eight hundred years prior, he was a beloved martial god, known as the Crown Prince of Xianle. Now, he ascends to the heavenly realm for the third time, but simply as a pitiful scrap-collecting god with no followers behind him.

On his first mission, Xie Lian finds himself alone in the dark moonlit night. There, a gentle man dressed in red guides him through the forest. However, as abruptly as he appeared, the man suddenly dissipates into a swarm of silver butterflies.

Xie Lian later learns that this mysterious stranger was none other than Hua Cheng, the Crimson Rain Sought Flower, a Ghost King feared by both demons and gods alike. But before Xie Lian can figure out why Hua Cheng would help a Heavenly Official like himself, he meets San Lang. A young man possessing great knowledge on not only the Ghost King, but also the now forgotten Crown Prince, San Lang decides to accompany Xie Lian on his journey of unveiling the mysteries of the past.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hua, Cheng Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Xie, Lian Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Shi, Qingxuan Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Mu, Qing Supporting

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Ling, Wen Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Ming, Yi Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Fu, Yao Supporting

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Pei, Ming Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Nan, Feng Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Feng, Xin Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Li, Haoling Director

Bickham, Clint Script

Amamiya, Sora Theme Song Performance

SID Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Apr 20, 2025

50Fiftillididee

Recommended

Beauty Among Blessings In Disguise °8.8° °Outstanding° S1 episodes 1-13🔍

A newly reinstated son of Heaven's emperor has a mission on earth to clear out an evil spirit that is nabbing and killing brides. He sets out with two lesser-god/warriors. One thing leads to another and they end up in several skirmishes while meeting a variety of characters while encountering a mystery or two, to-boot.

HOB is a 2020 release that is rated 8.34 on MAL. It is 2 seasons consisting of 24 24-minute subtitled episodes, including the caboose episode: Tian Guan Cifu Special/Heaven Official's Blessing Special. This is the most popular offering of Haoliners Animation League. ... They are faithful to the style and feel of Japanese anime but the show also has the elegance that is strictly Chinese. The voice acting is exactly like a Chinese live-action fantasy piece, and China does some of the best fantasy in the world. I have a preference for dubbed anime because I usually like the English-speaking dubbing more than the original acting, which tends to be alittle monotone for my taste. HOB's voices are a pleasure. When spoken by professional actors, the Chinese language is lilting and melodious. It is very beautiful.

The opening credit visuals and music are arrestingly gorgeous. The shows that find me watching the opening and closing credits every time, no skipping, are mostly Chinese with a couple of Japanese animes in the mix. HOB 's artistry is wonderful. People are drawn with simplicity, but realistically, and backgrounds are artistically beautiful and detailed.

The best fantasy takes place on the road. Xie Lian is on the move for most of the show. He gets into one scrape after another along with his lesser-deity sidekicks. He picks up a stranger (Hua Cheng in disguise) around mid-show. He knows his new friend is mysterious, but he also trusts him implicitly. Together they unravel a viperish mystery and correct a longstanding wrong. The thrills just keep coming.

I'll just quote HOB Wiki on the characters and their backgrounds, as once I read this content, it became hard to leave it out: "Hua Cheng is the male lead of the novel. As one of the Four Great Calamities, Hua Cheng is known as the richest and most dangerous of the three Devastation class Demons. One learns to fear the silver butterflies and blood rains for they are the heralds of his presence. He is charismatic and intelligent, with a nonchalant attitude...

Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Xianle. He was loved by his citizens and was considered the darling of the world. He ascended to the heavens at a young age; however, due to unfortunate circumstances, was quickly banished back to the mortal realm. Years later, he ascends again-only to be banished again a few minutes after his ascension.

During the inaugural years of his divinity, his kingdom experiences upheaval and war, due in part to drought and a terrifying new disease. Going against the edicts of both the heavenly realm and of fate, Xie Lian involves himself in the affairs of the mortals who have always loved and supported him, hoping to achieve peace and relieve suffering in his kingdom. Unfortunately, his appearance in the mortal world only amplifies the conflicts between his people, and their desperation leads to the dramatic and abrupt downfall of Xianle, as well as the downfall of Xie Lian. The people destroy his temples, statues, and shrines, abandoning him as their most respected religious figure and earning him the reputation of a God of Misfortune... Now known as a peculiar, peripatetic scrap-collector with perennially bad luck, Xie Lian is ridiculed or ignored by most other heavenly officials. Nevertheless, he retains his good-hearted nature and only wishes to fulfill his duties as a god.

Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the heavens for the third time as the laughing stock among all three realms. On his first task as a god thrice ascended, he meets a mysterious ghost who rules the ghosts and terrifies the heavens, yet, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this ghost king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time... By the time of his third ascension, Xie Lian is a kind and gentle person... He never holds his status above others and treats people equally, disregarding status as a sign of one's worth. He is a compassionate man who's willing to offer his help, being indifferent towards opinions of others. Although he does not care for reputation, he still finds himself often caught in situations that make him unsure whether to laugh or cry, usually when faced with moments that cause him embarrassment or feeling awkward..."

Along with kindness, especially to the powerless, and the courage to do right, "Shatter all taboos." is the Theme. There is an understated romance building between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. They actually do a mock wedding walk in the early episodes, while on a mission, though it feels real when the show looks back at the ritual later. Love does not come to fruition in S1, but there is a sadness and longing that appears to run deeply in Hua Cheng, as if he's been taken with these feelings for centuries, while Xie Lian seems to have no memory of Hua Cheng. It's rare for China to feature a same-sex romance. They usually wipe it from the story, like they did in The Untamed, so they are loosening up. China had a 1 child per household rule for an extended period of time towards the latter 20th. It resulted in millions of forced abortions and a shortage of women as girls were routinely aborted or adopted out to the West. One has to wonder if a shortage of women is playing a hand in the changes we see in such a traditionally conservative censorship-prone government. "If you can't find a reason to live, then take me as your reason to live. If you can't find the meaning of living, then take me as the meaning of your life." Xie Lian chuckles as he recalls what he told somebody long ago. It's obvious to the viewer that he must have said it to Hua Cheng, who looks soulfully sad that Xie Lian has forgotten so much. Right now, S2 is not available without a Crunchyroll subscription. I will be opting for that before too long and plan to see what they get into in S2. HOB is truly otherworldly.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣9 📝8 🎭8.5 💓6 🦋6 🌞5 🎨9.4 ⚡6 🎵/🔊8 😅3.5 😭6 😱5 😯4 😖4.5 🤔5 💤0 🔚?

Age 13+ Language: PG-13, scares, violence, blood and gore

Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned

Re-📺? Yes

Originally 〰️🖊 3/2024

Recommendation: Legend of Exorcism-8.8

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 18, 2023

KillyChides

Mixed Feelings

The production and animation quality is stellar, if not for some underwhelming character designs (*cough* Hua Cheng *cough*). The pace and writing, on the other hand, is a glaring issue with this adaptation.

The original TGCF book is one of my favourite pieces of fiction ever, by far the best romance story I've ever read, and I was a bit underwhelmed with this. The pacing was very strange, making the story's opening even more scattered than it was in the book (which is by far the weakest arc already). I haven't read the first arc in a long time, and even watching the donghua, I ... had a very hard time understanding what was happening. I think it should have been rewritten to be clearer and more engaging for the viewers, because we don't have the book narration to guide us through some plot beats. Xie Lian was handled extremely well in this adaptation, but all the other character introductions were lacklustre. They had a golden opportunity to expand on this world and go all out with these unforgettable characters, but the opportunity was wasted and instead, they wasted too much time on the Peis in my opinion.

Secondly, the music was very nice but equally as distracting, cutting the tension of moments and just breaking the flow of the scenes. The fight scenes were quite good, but their weird placement caused a very bad flow as well. Every piece of action was slowed down suddenly for exposition, misplaced flashbacks, and scene transitions that weren't executed well.

Finally, I was extremely underwhelmed by this version of Hua Cheng. They were able to do wonderfully with characters like Xie Lian and Banyu, but not the main love interest. For a character with such a huge presence, charisma, and notoriety, they weren't able to emphasise any of it. He's a ghost whose name causes Gods to shit their pants, and instead every time he was mentioned in this version, it felt like passing gossip. His design was more on the basic side, which is a capital crime considering how he's depicted in original art and in the manhua. I don't understand why they made him shorter, or why he looks like a black-haired version of Mu Qing's "subordinate", and why the stupid braid was THAT stupid, but I'm just nit-picking now.

Overall, definitely a decent adaptation, but I hope they rework the script for season 2 to make it more digestible. Also, Hua Cheng doesn't look bad in the trailers, so I'm excited about that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 18, 2022

Inter_anime

Not Recommended

Something I have been interested in is non-Japanese anime (or anime-influenced) works, and Donghua (Chinese animation) is one of the fast growing in this sphere. As of the time of this review Tian Guan Ci Fu or Heaven's Official Blessing has a score of around 8.4 on both MAL and IMDB, so I thought it would be worth checking out. Unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointing experience. I should also clarify that I have not read the source materials of the show.

Starting off with the positives I will give Tian Guan Ci Fu this: the animation is gorgeous and the production is top-notch, ... easily compatible with the best anime has to offer in that regard. The fluidity of how the animation flowed in particular was well done, including the actions scenes and op. I can't say I am much of a fan of the traditional opera-style Chinese music, but it did fit the show. While I am certainly not an expert (I took two classes in historic Chinese literature as electives in university) I thought the placement in medieval China was well done.

My first gripe with the show was the dialogue; terms along with place and people's names are constantly being thrown about in the conversations the characters seem to be constantly having, with little explanation on the importance of who of what these things are. Again, I did not read the source material, but I think that animation should stand on its own, and I was constantly going to Wikipedia or the MAL page for this show just to understand what was going on. It is also worth mentioning the humor of the show fell completely flat, maybe it was the translation or just different cultural norms, but the jokes the main makes where akin to the ones a friend at the party does but no one laughs, but they don't get the cues and just keep carrying on. Not even the in-universe characters ever seemed even slightly amused, which I guess is supposed to be joke that Xie Lian thinks he is funny but no one else does, only that it is not funny for the audience either.

Another problem was the characters, in the first arc of the show had a demon kidnapping bride as they travel to their marriage, so a bunch of rowdy villagers decide to disguise themselves as a bridal party to catch the demon. Some overly pure village girl begs them to stop because she doesn't want them to die. Yet a few minuets later when the protagonist show up, and propose to do what is practically the same exact thing, the same girl decides to help them wholeheartedly no questions asked. That's the worse example, but it felt as a lot of the characters' motivations and actions were inconsistent and haphazard.

The plot was also not great, the first four episodes are concerned with an arc that proves to be mostly irrelevant towards the end, it could have easily been condensed to 2 episodes. The magic system is never really explained, and what the characters are capable of seems to be what the plot needs at the time, Xie Lian especially is described as an incapable and weak deity, but it seems every time there is a situation his magical neck bandages get the job done.

Lastly a lot of praise I've seen this show receive mention the fact that it is a LGBT romance. I find that a bit misleading for two reasons 1.) maybe I'm just stupid but the male and female gods have such similar character design that it took me a full episode to realize that Hua Cheng was supposed to be a male 2.) there was barely any "romance" in the story, characters engaging in long boring conversations about ghosts and occasionally making eye contact does not qualify as "romance" in my book.

Overall while the animation and production were superb, I ended up disliking this show due to the issues mentioned above. It seems a lot of people like Tian Guan Ci Fu, and whatever suits you, but personally for me it wasn't fun or heartwarming in the slightest.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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