Tian Guan Cifu

Thanks to Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX) and very devoted BL fans, the MDZS review I wrote is the most upvoted review I have ever written. How could I miss the opportunity for clout by dropping another bomb review? (You can interpret ‘bomb’ as amazing or terrible)

However you look at it, MXTX have done pretty exceptional, even with the ongoing court scandals. She hasn’t written many novels but all three of her existing novels have been massive hits. Gaining a huge Chinese and foreign following. As we know, MDZS’s popularity is already off the roof and now comes the TGCF anime. And no, I’m not ... going to write a review about Scumbag System, in fact, let’s pretend the anime didn’t exist, I want clout but not that desperate.

Okay, I’ve hit my intro quota, let’s get dive right into the pit! No need to pull me back up Ruoye.

I gave the anime a very warm 6 instead of a neutral score of 5 because I think it is actually an alright anime and go easy on it, not too critical for once, rare occasion. If you clicked in from seeing this ranked 22 (dropped to 67 as I revisited it now, 2 above Fate Zero s2) on the top anime category, you might be thinking what’s this? Why? I will reveal to you right now, read the first line of the review. China continuously brings us content that they censor, crazy, I know.

Story:

Not to be that person “THE MANGA WAS BETTER” but TGCF is a one-million-word slow burner type novel, 1,144,742 to be exact. (For reference, The Harry Potter series is 1,084,170). On top, one million Chinese characters is much more than one million of English words due to succinctness of the language.

The anime is alright in terms of adapting, due to censorship, some details and story is either cut or been made tame, however, it doesn’t have a major effect on the main body of the work. Okay, so it follows the novel closely, why does it still feel so damn slow?? As mentioned above, the story is a long slow burner, the 11 episode is 10% of the whole worldview, we are just hovering on top of the iceberg, haven’t even landed on it. There are so many foreshadows in the anime that is glanced over if you never read ahead which is why it’s dry if you don’t see how it’s a twist later on. Like whom the fuck is this San Lang guy why is he so op?? TGCF is another Chinese Xianxia novel, the genre has a lot of lore and terminology which can be difficult to digest for a new watcher. The story itself has lots of lore that isn't explained in the anime, so that’s a double whammy on concept and story.

Animation:

The section that pains me regarding Chinese anime. Let’s talk about the good part, the animation compared to other Chinese animated series, it’s pretty good. The art for the OP and ED, absolutely beautiful.

However, in the sea of good Japanese animations, it is hard to break through. TGCF is pushing it in terms of fight choreography, some frames are subpar. Not to mention that one fight scene in Ep9 that looks oddly similar to a scene in Attack on Titan. Yike Haoliners, that’s low, plagiarising a top airing anime of the season like nobody will notice…

Some scenes have 3D incorporated which is a bit off since the eyes can clearly recognise it’s not the same. Ep6 was just bonkers, the mouth flaps don’t match, random loop footage, wrong audio mixing, they fixed it now but my god if you saw the first upload you would be like what the heck.

As for character designs, it has the same problem as MDZS and a handful of Chinese animes. Everyone has the same face more or less. There are only two type of design that exist here, bishie main cast and then ugly commoners, this is actually a good way to see the foreshadow, if the character is drawn like a bishie, they are important, eg. the reveal in Ep11 of that Bishie which apparently nobody recognised because everyone look the same. Before anyone have a go at me how this is Danmei (Tanbi in Japanese), which is a pursuit of two beautiful handsome men in a romantic relationship but come on I want to differentiate the characters too. I’m not the only one with this problem because I’ve seen people in the comment go “omg is this xxx what a plot twist”, no sweaty, I know they have a cape on so you can’t tell what clothes they are wearing because that was the only indication.

Sound:

The OP and ED are amazing, all sang by very good Chinese singers. The 2nd ED contains acrostic lyrics, which is a neat detail.

Voice acting is overall not bad, little stiff for some characters but it’s not big problem.

As for music, I’m about to slap the editor. If you watched this on Funimation you won’t have this problem. I watched TGCF on official Bilibili, which has an ad that features a yoghurt at the beginning of the episode after you press play, the ad is animated with Xie Lian saying ad lines with music playing in the back. When there’s an emotional or climatic scene in the anime, they play the same soundtrack, I have been conditioned to associate that specific soundtrack to the yoghurt and it become a reflex reaction and I just go ah full of peach bits, full of love, this yoghurt is the real thing, this takes you out of the scene and you can’t go back. Come on, do you not have budget for this, you took a sponsor, get a new track on that ad please.

And the very end:

The anime has ups and downs, not a bad watch. Hard on new viewers, you've been warned newbies.

Until next time
天官赐福 (Tian Guan Ci Fu)
百无禁忌 (Bai Wu Jin Ji)




(What's with the rated 10 reviews written by accounts made two days ago with this as the only review they have written, who paid you to do this, where can I sign up?)

Chinese animation is on the rise.

With anime enjoying an explosive surge of popularity in China over the past decade, it’s a bit of a surprise as to why higher budget, domestically produced works tailored to an older audience have taken so long to appear. Nevertheless, donghua has finally begun to make its mark on the wider anime community, most notably with The King’s Avatar in 2017 and Mo Dao Zu Shi in 2018.

Tian Guan Ci Fu is the first donghua that I’ve watched in its entirety - like many others, I was intrigued by its placement in the top airing list, alongside the eager ... recommendations of novel readers. Unfortunately, thanks to a horrifically executed second arc, almost non-existent character development, and some of the worst editing I’ve ever seen, Tian Guan Ci Fu is a resounding disappointment.

Two major arcs occur throughout the course of this series. The first, taking place over the course of a brisk three episodes, is the better of the two. In order to pay off a massive debt caused by his third ascension to Heaven, our main character Xie Lien travels to the mortal world as a Heavenly Official to solve the mystery of the ghost groom at Mount Yujun, accompanied by the hot-headed Nan Feng and Fu Yao. On most accounts, Tian Guan Ci Fu actually does really well with this first arc. The mystery is well crafted – the suspense is built just right, and with some nice action sequences sprinkled into the mix, it does a good job with drawing in the viewer.

Much of this introductory arc’s success hinges on a couple of key points. Hardly any of the world’s mechanics are explained: the ascension/banishment process, magic formations, and what actually goes on in Heaven are some of the many details that are barely elaborated on. Character development takes place - mostly on Xie Lien - but is minimal, although this is pretty forgivable since most of the focus is on the mystery. And the resolution of the mystery itself is lacklustre – the rationale behind the apparition’s actions had more or less been deduced by Xie Lien, but for some reason the writers decided it was necessary to have a convoluted flashback backstory written out, something that added little to the overall experience for the amount of screen time it took (kind of difficult to make a character morally ambiguous after they’ve murdered seventeen innocent brides). Addressing these issues was key if any initial momentum was to be kept.

Tian Guan Ci Fu doesn’t just ignore the issues, but flat out magnifies them to the point where later episodes are legitimately painful to go through. Recurring characters get ZERO development, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this. Apart from basic character traits established by superficial interactions, we really don’t learn anything about the personalities of any of the characters. The biggest offenders of this would be Nan Feng and Fu Yao. Their sole defining traits are that they have temper problems and that they dislike each other. As a result, they’re also the main source of comic relief, but their antics get old very quickly, and the constant yelling does not help. The world building is awful, with constantly shifting, unconnected settings that largely remain unexplored – a real shame, because the world itself is really intriguing. There’s a critical lack of cohesion here, and everything feels more like an arbitrary chain of incidents stringed together than a natural progression of events.

A major reason for all of these problems stems from Tian Guan Ci Fu’s boring and flat-out wasteful dialogue. The second arc is extremely heavy on dialogue, but it’s dialogue of the worst kind: sloppy exposition dumping. So much of the show is spent on a character explaining really minor plot points in intricate detail, usually accompanied by a flashback of some sort. Any time there’s a “twist” or a character feels the need to explain their actions? Flashback. Not only does this feel clunky and unsubtle at times, but it also eats up runtime that would have benefited way more on character or setting development, and it’s also just a mind-numbingly tedious thing to go through. So it’s a double blow of sorts: lazy, boring exposition that has no right to take as much time as it does. The second arc in general is a bizarre change in direction and I’m struggling to understand why this decision was made.

Because there’s so much exposition, not much actually takes place over the course of the second arc, and everything moves at a snail’s pace. The majority of the exposition is delivered by San Lang, a mysterious young man who seemingly knows about everything. Well-written dialogue can convey both information and the personality of whoever’s delivering it in a concise manner, but the laziness of the script means that San Lang joins the list of flavourless characters. Apparently there’s supposed to be some romance going on between San Lang and Xie Lien, but when characters with the personalities of wet flannels flirt with each other for no clearly established reason, it’s hard to get invested.

Good editing can often save scenes that would otherwise be a slog to get through. But Tian Guan Ci Fu’s editing is just horrible. The editor has this really weird obsession with fade to black transitions when switching between scenes. Due to taking significantly longer than something like a cut, fade transitions have a major slowing effect on pacing. This isn’t the greatest choice, because if an episode spends half of its runtime on information dumping, the last thing you need is something that makes things even more slow paced than they already are. Some conversations and interactions awkward too, with characters regularly reacting in unnatural time intervals.

Then there’s the completely inexplicable errors: in episode 6, there’s a shot involving a botched looped animation of Xie Lien walking that has a frame with his mouth open, which cycles for about ten whole seconds. In the same shot, Xie Lien’s mouth movements stop prematurely, and then San Lang’s mouth starts moving while the audio of Xie Lien talking still plays! Speaking of which, the show has a consistent issue in lip flap and audio sync problems, but this segment is the worst offender by far. I also need to mention how this shot happens to involve one of San Lang’s many exposition dumps, so the fact that the shot lasts over ten seconds in the first place is another big no-no. In episode 10, there’s a shot involving a girl dancing to the beat of Xie Lien’s clapping and a person playing the tambourine… except that Xie Lien's clapping very clearly does not match up with the tambourine player. And in certain episodes, the VAs for Nan Feng and Fu Yao stand way too close to the mic, because whenever they yell (which happens a lot), you can hear this annoying distortion effect on their voices. These are really basic errors and the fact that all of them went unnoticed by the editor is mind-boggling. At times the result can be funny, but more crucially it's distracting to a fault. I honestly don’t remember the last time I got this distracted by bad editing. I raise these examples at the risk of coming off as nitpicky, but these are just the ones I can think of from the top of my head. I don’t mind the occasional mistake, but when it happens consistently like this, it just completely takes you out of it.

That being said, it’s not like Tian Guan Ci Fu does everything wrong. It has a decent, well-produced soundtrack. The voice actors do a serviceable performance. And, as mentioned earlier, the first arc was great. In fact, earlier episodes in general were fairly enjoyable, benefiting greatly from gorgeous backdrops, fluid animation and well-choreographed fight scenes – qualities that degraded as the episodes progressed but nonetheless remained at a reasonable level. It’s clear that some serious time, money and effort was put into producing this, which makes it all the more confusing why they couldn’t hire a better editor, or director for that matter.

Tian Guan Ci Fu’s novel is widely lauded by readers for its masterful storytelling. This quality does not seem to have translated to its donghua adaptation. It really is quite frustrating because it had all of the tools needed for something special: a possible fate hinted by an encouraging introductory arc. Unfortunately, the show fails to maintain its initial high and spirals lower and lower into the abyss as the episodes go on, before crashing in a heap by the end. Because of how uninteresting I found the second arc to be, I have to say that Tian Guan Ci Fu has overall been an unenjoyable experience. Unless watching beautiful men flirt with each other is your thing, stay clear from this one.

Outstanding, beginning to end. A pity that the end came so soon!, i seriously hope we get more seasons on this.

When i started watching this, i did not realise that it was from MXTX, the same author as another of my favourite donhuas MDZS - shame on me!.

I had not read the novel prior, but i have now, and cannot wait for more of this beautiful animation to come back. And really looking forward to the extra episode in February.

I have not watched near as much Chinese animation as Japanese, but recently, they have nothing to envy the other. This is an ... example of one such wonders.

The story grabs your interest from episode 1, i’m a sucker for historical and supernatural, and this one also focuses on the lore of the gods and the three realms, with a twist, where not all gods and ghosts are what they seem like.

It starts introducing the characters that certainly have quite the story behind, cannot help but to be captivated by every single one of them, from the main to the supporting, you just want to continue to get to know more about them.

The animation, the voice acting, the expression on their faces, is just great.
The action scenes, with an exception on one that uses too much cgi, are excellent.

Pleasing to the eyes and ..the ears!! the soundtrack is something else. I love animes that bring sound into the equation, and this one did it beautifully, i have quickly downloaded the ost for further enjoyment.

Sure, it is meant to be a BL story, and there are some tiny hints of it on these first episodes, so if you dislike it, be warned. The story is absolutely awesome, being BL or ‘brotherhood’ or whatever you wish.
And having read the novel now, because i could not wait to know what happens next!, this is, without a doubt the best love story i ever read, nothing comes near. The story just keeps getting more interesting, action pack, mystery, is just awesome, definitely recommended.

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching TGCF, every scene, every detail has been crafted so beautifully and brought to life with such care. Is it deserving the rave? absolutely! There is no doubt in my mind as to this is going to be the first to be dubbed in english next year

It may not have been the best year, but thank you 2020 for bringing this jewel to us!
xxxx

Story: 10
(I'm going to have to base my story portion off of the book a bit since there are only three episodes so far)
The Story in this is really amazing, honestly, the storyline is really good- it's dark, complicated, but not too hard to follow and it explores a lot of dark themes as well. It does have romance elements as well which are handled very well (It's relatively subtle, so if you're not into romance, especially a romance between two boys, don't discount this since the storyline is really good even if you take out that element.
I can't talk too much about the ... story very much without spoiling, but it starts out feeling a little bit like an adventure comedy with daily life interludes but very quickly starts becoming much more complicated (In the three episodes we have so far we've already started to see that) . the world building is A+ too, I can't think of another world as unique as this one (also subtitles translate Qi to mana and that bothers me, it should be Qi or spiritual energy... mana was the wrong word to use.........)

Art: 9
The art is stunning, I gave it a 9 for the bit of awkward CGI. It's not the worst or anything (although the zombies in ep3 were pretty bad... but it was such a small part and after that in the book at least there aren't any fight scenes for a while so it shoudln't get too bad- although there are some scenes where I'm concerned they'll try to do CGI and it'll look bad- I'm worried about later in this season when they have to animate the snakes they'll do CGI and it'll look bad..... but it hasn't happened yet so we'll have to wait and see)

Otherwise, the animation for everything has been so good so far, especially the facial expressions (lots of micro-expressions and a lot of great reaction images too)
The really beautiful sakuga (higher frame rate) animation scenes totally make up for the awkward CGI. Don't not watch this just because you don't like CGI, it's only a few moments since it's a 2D show.

Sound: 10
The music so far is so pretty I can't even put it into words. They defiantly got the right atmosphere. They had this really dreadful creepy music for the creepy scenes which really set the mood well. the theme song makes me feel really emotional as well, I'm excited to see how they use that theme song in future episodes. 10/10 for the music in the first three episodes, and I have high expectations for the rest of the series considering how much they spent on the sound track.
Also the voice acting! it was so good! they really did a great job picking VAs for this, although we have yet to really hear Hua Cheng's voice say more than just a few words, so we'll have to see on that. Xie Lian's voice was well picked, I was worried they would pick too feminine of a voice but they picked a good VA who does perfect at getting how I think Xie Lian would sound.

Characters: 10!
They did so well adapting the characters, the subtle expressions and movements, the voice acting, dialogue were all really well done.
As for personality, as long as they stay true to the book (which they have so far), the characters are all really well written. Each character is complicated and real feeling.
The two main characters, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng and both really well written, fully realized characters who fit together well
Xie Lian is an 800-year-old wandering immortal with grandpa vibes. He's ascended to god-hood after 800 years of wandering so he's a little out of touch with worldly affairs, he's lived many days and he's seen a lot of things so he is very chill and isn't bothered by much, he just wants to do his job the best he can and just get by.
Hua Cheng is a ~mysterious~ ghost king. I can't say much about him without spoilers, but his character is just as deep and well written as Xie Lian. He's the type who becomes more interesting the more you learn about him.

As for side characters, there are a lot of them but I think they are all very unique. Every major side character has a story behind them and reasoning for the things that they do which Is really cool.
I'll just mention the ones that'll be important to season 1 (first two arcs)

Ling Wen- She roasts Xie Lian pretty much the moment he ascends, she's an icon, she's very serious/cold but also sarcastic as well. The Donghua has done a good job with her so far, her characterization is on point.

Mu Qing & Feng Xin- they dislike Xie Lian for some reason, I really like both of them in the book but we've only gotten to see them for a moment

Fu Yao- Works for Mu Qing, secretly helping out Xie Lian, he's a bit of a tsundere (He's the angry one)
Nan Feng- works for Feng Xin (the d*ck temple one), he's the pretty one.
- two idiots that fight a lot, they serve as comedic relief, but they are really complicated characters as well, I like them both a lot and the show has done a good job with them so far -

Enjoyment: 10
I'm pretty biased on this one though since it has been an absolute delight seeing my favorite book come to life and they've been doing a fantastic job at it.

For people watching this blind I can't say as well- since the beginning moves a bit fast but it shouldn't be to bad.

Overall: 10!
Please give this show a shot it's really good so far, the first three episodes are great.

Coming here to review the donghua after completing all 11 episodes.

Preface: I am stating beforehand that I have not read the novel of Tian Guan Ci Fu, thus, all my opinions are based on whatever the show depicted. Despite being familiar with the main characters for a very long time (since knowing about MDZS about 2 years back), I didn't have much ideas about the plot of TGCF. All I had been hearing about it is that it has angst and a very emotional setting.

STORY
As the genres suggest, TGCF features cultivation, martial arts (xianxia) and romance (danmei).The show kicks off with our protagonist, Xie ... Lan, ascending to the heavenly realm for the third time! Considered a failure for being banished from heaven twice, the reasons behind it are mysteriously unknown. While working to build up his own shrine and reputation in the living realm, he meets a young man named "San Lang", who well, has secrets of his own. Together with San Lang and two subordinates, Xie Lan solves mysteries surrounding spirits and the heavenly realm itself.
8/10

ART
The art is beautiful. The backgrounds and the color palettes used are visually pleasing. The art in the opening is perhaps one of the best I have ever seen in all of animated media. The character designs are commendable, but my only problem is that they aren't uniquely distinguishable. Basically, if you swap Xie Lan's hair and outfit with San Lang's, you won't be able to tell the difference at first glance. Unique facial features, in my opinion, are lacking.
9/10

SOUND
The voice acting is well done. The voices suit the characters perfectly. I love traditional Chinese music so the opening and the two endings were like a treat to my ears. Apart from that, the background score also blends in gracefully with the visuals.
9/10

CHARACTER
There are a heck ton of characters, but the story focusses mainly on the dynamic between the two main characters, Xie Lan and San Lang, who are both very interesting and likable. Supporting characters like Fu Yao and Nan Feng are also uniquely characterized.
9/10

ENJOYMENT
I thoroughly enjoyed TGCF. I was always looking forward to Saturdays in anticipation of the next episode. I don't know how the novel readers feel but I felt that the pacing was decent and every episode was satisfactorily executed, keeping the viewers engaged.
8/10

OVERALL
8/10

I loved watching the show and I am very much excited for the second season, which I hear has already been announced. The plot is very promising and I am very excited to see the development in interactions and dynamics between all the characters. The first season raised many questions and there are many past mysteries yet to be resolved. With the next season (seasons?), I hope we'll get clarity and I'd be able to appreciate the series more.

Is this the best that Chinese animation has to offer? Perhaps. Only time will tell.

Heaven Official's Blessing, or TGCF for short, is the latest series that has come out of the land of The Red Dragon, and it has also out of nowhere taken the top spot for currently airing series. So is this something worth checking out? Does this have the potential to become "the next Mo Dao Zu Shi"? In all honesty, I'm heavily leaning towards 'yes'. (Speaking of Mo Dao Zu Shi, the series is an adaptation of the novel series penned by the same author.)

To make one thing clear, compared to ... everyone giving this a 9 or a 10, I have not read the novels as of yet, so like many of you wondering what this series is actually about, I don't know much either, except for some small tidbits of information that I catch on after each episode. I hope that as someone who hasn't read the novel, the story builds upon itself and becomes easier to understand, as word from mouth from fans of the novels is that the story is supposed to be some of the best writing that has come out from the Chinese web novel landscape. If this series impresses me enough to warrant a read-through of the novels, I will give them a shot and rewatch this at some point in the future.

Looking at the technical and audio aspects of the series, it beats out most anime that's come out this year. The visuals are gorgeous and the music is just as tranquil and mesmerising. If you compare the quality of the artwork that's coming out this season, this show takes the cake of being on top. The one issue I have is with the awkward CG as seen in episode 3. Although we don't know the full extent of Chinese CG has to offer in comparison to the US and Japan, I hope that they learn and improve upon their slight errors.

The characters haven't been fleshed out yet as it's only been 3 episodes so far (as of writing this), so I can't criticise on what little I've seen so far. The MC has good potential of becoming a very likeable character, but I think the characters that have made a good impression so far are Cheng's helpers/guards. Chinese animation and comedy is a whole different brand of chocolate milk altogether and will take some time getting used to.

Although this is somewhat out of my comfort zone (as it's Chinese), I highly recommend you place this on your radar of what's probably the next big thing to come out of China. My rating is lower mostly due to me being ill-informed on what the series is actually about, but this isn't something you should pass up on. This has the potential to become a great series, so give this a chance and you might actually come to like it.

I really love the story, and every element in it is top-notch. I gotta say, like many others, I'm obsessed with this donghua too. I too think that the production team had done an excellent job with this adaptation. The characters, scenery, the songs, I love every single thing about this anime!:)
Especially the song at the very end of the first episode, it moved me into tears as their surprise caught me off guard, and that was brilliant I must say!
As for the rest of the episodes, I love them all the same. And episode 3 got me so hooked up on ... the story that I seriously can't wait for episode 4 to air this weekend!
And finally, all I have to say is...KEEP IT UP TIAN GUAN CI FU!!! GOOD JOB!!!

After reading the novel back in 2019 it was like a dream come true finding out the donghua trailer to it.The whole story is a masterpiece, 10/10 - recommend!

What i liked the most in this novel is how every single situation in which the main character finds himself can be described by the single sentence - He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

And it's historical too, by reading this i learnt so much about chinese food,landscapes,history,etc. (mdzs and now tgcf) (guqin).Honestly the author managed to convert me into historical things she writes that godly!

The comedy is gold, i love how Xie Lian can't cook ... and fights with food to bring his enemies down;D like yeah 800 years aint enought for someone to learn how to cook okay!But then you realise the reason why (he's poor and a scrap collector) and the grief come in shattering you.Every chapter was an adventure with comedy mixed with horror and grief.

10/10

So far, I'm still at episode 5 but in a summary it's basically about how a prodigious prince, Xie Lian cultivated to the point where he ascended into the heavens, and his fall from grace back to the mortal realm. One of the things I love about the show is how Xie Lian ascended to the heavens, only to realise that the heaven officials are just as, if not more petty, shallow and hypocritical then the mortals who are worshipping them. Xie Lian soon discovers that what the heavens find pleasing might not always be moral, in fact they often rooted in appealing to the ... gods' self of ego and narcissism. In contrast, Xie Lian discovers that the ghosts living in the ghost realm, especially the Ghost Lord, Hua Cheng often exhibit modes of authenticity, honesty and loyalty that is lacking in the heavenly courts. Xie Lian faces castigation and eventually, ostracisation for his continued association with the ghost realm but as Xie Lian soon discovers, the Ghost Lord, Hua Cheng is not who he seems, and that for the last 800 years, regardless of whether Xie Lian was living as a rich crown prince, a powerful martial god, or a beggar living of collecting scraps for several hundred years - Hua Cheng has always remained devoted by his side - even if he had to denounce the heavens and sacrifice his humanity to do so.

Why this deserves a 10/10:
1) The animation is gorgeous, paralleling that of professional anime movies with big budgets. In a certain sense, a lot of it has to do with the toxic Japanese animation industry. For decades, animators in Japan have been financially underpaid despite the grueling long hours that they are forced to work. The up and coming Chinese animation industry are able to poach animation talents all around the world, with higher pay, better working conditions which results in a brain drain from the Japanese animation industry. Chinese animation companies like bilibili and tencent are able to produce much better animation than many Japanese animation companies in the last two years and I think it's a good thing that Japan is forced to relook into its animation industry labor laws so as to prevent its budding talents from being poached by rivalling countries.

2) The music is simply stunning and the fact that they got A listers to perform the opening credits is just another way of showing how much chinese companies are willing to pay big bucks for good animation. The opening song No Farewells is performed by Jeff Chang, whom I've listened to since I was a tiny kid in the 1990s. He's known as like the Taiwan version of Celine Dion and he's known as a singing legend even to this date.

3) China is well-known for its censorship especially with anything explicitly LGBTQ-related. The fact that Tian Guan Zi Fu is able to have the main couple in wedding robes holding hands, and showing modes of intimacy that is symbolically seen exclusively within romantic relationships is pretty darn amazing. And to think that they are willing to do that despite fierce modes of backlash (bilibili had thousands of homophobic comments and downvotes by homophobic viewers who had not watched the episode) is something that is pretty commendable. It's not common that I find a company from China who's able to withstand public backlash due to its support for homosexual representation and in return, I think it deserves our support as well.

Eh, to be honest, it isn't that great. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but not gonna lie here, it's not that great, at least not as great as everyone is raving about. I was never a huge fan of the original novel, but some of the problems of the original are exemplified even more here.

Let's start with the good stuff: the animation is really pretty. Sometimes there are mistakes, but most of the time, it's amazing. I love the art style, and the animation is super smooth and the subtle clues included in the animation is enough to make these kinda bland characters ... feel a lot more 3 dimensional. Sometimes the CG is pretty shaky and worryingly bad, but at other times it's included almost as well as MDZS is. The music and soundtrack is also impeccable. The songs are all beautiful in their own right, and the vocals and instrumentals haunt my dreams. There's not a huge variety, as most of the songs are romance songs, but they're all so good that I can ignore it. Some characters and plot points I love a ton.

The lady in green and black that show up in episode 7 and 8 are mysterious and may lead to some great character development. Nan Feng and Fu Yao are amazing support characters, as well as being funny, cute, and integral to the plot as well. The monsters are really well animated, and some of the themes of this novel also run through the donghua too quite well, arguably better than the original because the original really didn't flesh out the themes that much.

Sometimes, I really do like Xie Lian and San Lang. They're cute at times, charming even, and sometimes the things they say and their actions have genuine emotional impact. I really don't care for their characters most of the time, but at some points, the jokes they make or the sequences they do really hit me

Now onto the stuff I don't like. First of all, the story is very "monster of the week." In MDZS, the story has a natural flow and progresses in a natural way, but that can't be said for Heaven Official's Blessing. In between arcs, we get these really fan service and pointless scenes of XL and SL at Puqi Shrine essentially doing nothing. It's like they go on a mission, solve a random mystery, fight some monsters, and then they return to XL's home/shrine and everything returns to the status quo. It doesn't have that same tension and flow as MDZS, because we kind of already know that XL is going to get out of the situation and return back to his shrine for more domestic fan service and trash collecting.

Now, because I’ve read the novel, I know everything that is going on, but for those that have not read the novel, the storytelling would be atrocious. None of the xianxia/fantasy elements are explored or explained. The settings are hardly developed on after the arc is over, and the character development is pretty much nonexistent. Although I loved Nan Feng and Fu Yao from the novel, and still enjoy them here, their constant use as comic relief and only that gets really grating pretty quickly. XL and San Lang have some character development, but not enough to convince me worthy of an entire 1st season.

And info dumps everywhere. I usually don’t have as much of a problem with info dumps, but this anime/donghua does it ALL THE TIME. Explanation needed? Flashback/exposition dialogue info dump. Backstory needed? Flashback/exposition dialogue info dump. Literally the only way this show knows how to explain is by flashback info dumping, which is what the novel does too, and it gets kinda annoying.

There's a lot of fan service in this anime/donghua. It's not as rampant as the novel, but it really is there. There are fans out there that don't mind it, but it really serves to show how much this donghua puts romance over plot and characters, at points neglecting the plot for more fan service, which feels really jarring to me. MDZS had some hugging and implicit fan service, but at the same time, those are sort of afterthoughts from the main plot. In Heaven Official's Blessing, the romance is the main plot, and considering how much I don't care for the main pair, is an issue for me. Others may not have that issue though

And also I have a ton of issues with the main pair. San Lang is probably the worst out of the two, as he is not only shallow and one dimensional, but also a Mary Sue. His entire life revolves around XL, and besides loving XL and being a total asshole, he has no other character traits. No other character traits besides being a Mary Sue. He is all knowing, all powerful, and good at literally everything but handwriting. This really deflates the tension as you know he'll have the answers to everything, and he's also capable of scaring ghosts away with just a single glance, and you really just begin to wonder "why are we going on these missions anyways if San Lang can just beat everyone up and that's it?" Also, he falls in love with XL enough to live 800 years for him, despite only being caught by him once and barely ever interacting. The logic feels kinda shaky to me...

Xie Lian is slightly better. He has some character depth, but none of the forms of media have made me convinced that he loathes himself and he's really that deep. I enjoy his inner conflict about putting himself in danger, but he again feels like a Mary Sue. He has no weaknesses besides being "too nice" and "not valuing himself enough." He has this solve all problems pet ribbon, Ruoye, and is also very smart, strong, and kind. He is literally a flawless human being and besides being "kinda insecure", he has no moral wrongs. I wish we got more internal dialogue/monologue of him thinking about how he deserved to be alone for 800 years and the self loathing the novel really wants you to believe, but it really isn't there most of the time.

Let's end on a positive note though, the side characters are super endearing. The emotional arcs that truly hit the hardest are still yet to come (no I'm not talking about book 4, I'm talking about Qingxuan's arc), and more and more amazing characters will continue to be introduced. While I didn't like the original novel, I think the donghua has potential, and I hope it realizes that potential by toning down the fan service from the novel and using better characterization.

Beautiful anime with terribly translations and confusing storyline. Storyline goes between dragging and tons of characters and plot being introduced within 1-2 minutes.


Story: 5/10 - Mediocre and confusing. Goes between dragging and break-neck speed plot development wise.

Art: 8/10 - Very good. There are parts with 3D animation that looked low quality/like they're from the early 00s

Sound: 9/10 - No complaints.

Characters: 5/10 - The series really isn't long enough to delve deep enough into their backgrounds for real character development, but from what was able to be developed, was okay. Nothing amazing.
...
Enjoyment: 5/10 - Mediocre. Honestly I feel like I wasted my time.

Overall: 4/10 - Decent but only because it was well animated. I wouldn't actually recommend this to anybody looking for a BL anime because it feels like the idea of one but it just never comes to fruition despite having the ability to.

SPOILERS:

If you're looking for a BL anime where there's any kind of confession of love/a kiss/any real romance in it, this isn't it. Not even slightly. The closest they get is sleeping next to each other. Nothing physical ever happens between them, nor any verbal exchange of their feelings. Not even an inner monologue of their feelings about the other. Would not recommend for anybody looking for a BL anime.

Disclaimer: I have not read the original source material and am fairly new to this genre.

So I just finished the last episode of this donghua and... I really had no idea what was going on most of the time. I continued watching because I'm a big fan of Mo Dao Zu Shi (or The Untamed for the drama series), and as this is a story by the same author I had high hopes. Unfortunately it just got more confusing instead. The art was pretty though, and I enjoyed the characters and how they interacted with eachother (the bl moments were cute too), but I felt ... like the story... wasn't really going anywhere? The latter half especially felt kind of pointless. I wanted to learn more about San Lang/Hua Cheng, and what his history with Xie Lian was, how he became the demon king or whatever etc. Same with Xie Lian, like how did he manage to get cast out of heaven twice? None of this gets explained! I feel like I still don't have a grasp on who these people are and what their deal is, even after 11 episodes. I think this donghua is mostly interesting for the people who've already read the source material, I don't think it would've been so high on the rankings if it wasn't. If there's gonna be a second season I'll probably watch it because there are a lot of elements that I'm curious about, but all in all this first season was (for me) kinda disappointing and a mostly confusing mess in a pretty package.

Tian Guan Ci Fu is by far the most beautiful story I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

The donghua is a wonderful visual adaptation of the original text. The soundtrack is spectacular and truly touches the heart of viewers. The animation is fluid and the character designs are very fresh and appealing.

To think that the donghua team was able to bring such fantastic and beautiful work amidst a pandemic is truly impressive! As someone that has read the novel more than twice, I'm very pleased with the adaptation so far. I couldn't stop my tears while watching the first episode, and I still cry ... every time. It's truly a dream come true!

All the love to the entire team for bringing Xie Lian's story to life.

天官赐福 百无禁忌!

I've read the manhua and was super ecstatic when I heard that they were developing the donhua!!! It's been such a ride watching the last three episodes, from the art development which is honestly one of the best I've seen thus far-- to the beautiful music that really sets the tone for each scene and flows well with the dialogue. I love how they've kept true to the story-- though it does seem to take a slow pace it goes well with setting the tone for the official meeting between the two main leads.

I do reccommend reading the translated version of the manhua, it ... gives much more details on the plot and will be worth it once you start watching the other couple episodes!!!

Overall a 10 !!

This donghua (anime is a term exclusively for Japanese animation, please call it donghua) is an adaption of the popular Chinese danmei (boy's love) webnovel 天官赐福 of the same name by author 墨香铜臭. So far, it has been very loyal to the original source material. Though there are some slightly altered and removed scenes, it's understandable because of the 11 episodes planned for two arcs. As for censorship, I didn't mind at all because the atmosphere between the two leads was totally there! Props to the donghua team for that. And if you've been wanting to read the novel, go for it! It's very much ... worth the read!

The animation is done very well, combined with the stills in the opening and ending complete everything. The fight scenes especially were amazing. Combined with the soundtrack? Perfection. The OST for the ending and opening really fit well with the series. The BGM too fits every mood for different scenes from a horror, comedic, or romantic atmosphere!

Characters are all unique in their own ways, the story line is entertaining and will especially keep you hooked and itching for more! Not everything is what it may seems.

Another concern: Does the romance over take the plot? No, it doesn't. Danmei novels as a majority do have really well written plots that accompany the romance. It is "It so happens in this world of gods and ghosts, two people fall in love." Heaven Official's Blessing donghua perfectly captures this. No need to shoo away from this gem because of the canon LGBT+ couple.

Overall, I enjoy this series so far. Everyone should give it a try!

The novel this is based on is one of my top 3 favorite stories of all time, and so far the donghua has been following it almost to a T, so (for now) I will rate this adaptation based on the source material.

To fans who haven't read the books: The beginning will feel a bit slow and confusing, but it's like that to establish a backbone for the story and start foreshadowing major events to come. Everything in TGCF happens for a reason. If you stick with it this season, then when the later arcs are adapted you will be in for a treat.

Also, the ... way Haoliners put most of their budget into the character's expressions is a brilliant move. This highlights the extremely layered and complex personalities of the majority of the cast, but especially Xie Lian. You can really tell this was animated by loving fans, with the level of care and detail they put into every movement characters make.

All in all, I absolutely adore this adaptation and I hope that the popularity of this sets a precedent for more novel-to-anime adaptations in the future.

I am not an expert in aspects like judging the CGI quality and others, but this is my personal review.

First of all, I had a very low expectation towards this one, because i've seen Ling Qi, a donghua by Haoliners too, and it is not that good. That's why, at first i was so sad and wondering why this donghua didn't picked up by BC May and Tencent. I mean, look at MDZS. The art is soooo good.

But episode 1, prove that my opinion is wrong. I didn't think that Haoliners can produce such as good animation.

I can see that they put ... their all in episode 1. The opening song is sooo beautiful. every scene is wallpaperable (if that's a word). The story is 90% stick to the original novel. The bgm is sooo beautiful. It's as if i was watching a movie. So many memorable scene.They keep all the important part from the novel.
I've been in episode 5 and there have not been disappointment from me.
Overall, i'm so satisfied about this adaptation. my waiting for a year is very worth it.

and i hope that they can consistent with the quality in the upcoming seasons.

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.

I understand that this animation was based on a novel series, I'm also not overly familiar with Chinese animation. Just a preface.

Story:

Having delved into MDZS a little (the live action, the animation didn't impress me), I had a general expectation for TGCF. Mythic romance, very serious world-building, character driven action and a hit/miss ensemble cast. I was pleasantly surprised by how TGCF drew me in right off the drop, where MDZS had left me a little underwhelmed. The introduction to the world and characters was straight forward and rational. The story, what little we get of it throughout 11 episodes, is reasonably good. As ... such the story is kind of hard to judge. TGCF is very much about its characters. Fortunately these characters are quite able to run the show themselves. Their interpersonal conflicts make for a lot of fun banter whenever any of them are together.

Art:

The art is quite good. Falls off a little towards the end of the series, and they do use some 3D that looks hugely out of place next to such good 2D animation/art. I have no real complaints about it outside of that.

Sound:

Didn't notice a thing about the sound design, though the voice acting... good grief. I admit I am not a connoisseur of donghuas, but I'm sure not all the characters have to have the same tone when speaking. Our lead voice actor is especially breathy and non-emotive. Xie Lian is obviously very stoic but there are scenes where he is clearly meant to react (shock, anger, fear), and he just... doesn't. Whether this is a problem with the cast or the script, I'm not sure. This significantly bothered me throughout my viewing. EDIT: I have since switched to the dubbed version, which is yet another case of the dub being surprisingly well-done. Much better direction tbh. Gives the characters the flavor I expected them to have.

Characters:

Enjoyable. Got a kick out of the main 4 and their banter, even the side characters were interesting enough to hold attention without being annoying or obvious red shirts. As mentioned earlier, the characters are written in such a way that their conflicts and motivations aren't necessarily spelled out for the viewer. Makes for a fun little mystery, trying to decode why some don't get along, some do, and how they all relate to one another.

Overall:

6/fair. Held my attention, nice art, passable animation though some parts were lackluster. Some minor nitpicks: intro and outro are way too long, actual episodes too short, I also feel they did not utilize their 11 episodes to their maximum capacity. Glad they didn't rush the story, but there IS such a thing as dragging your feet.

Firstly read this novel in 2019 when I was studying abroad. Since this is my first time to leave home and went to an unfamiliar place, this brought me a lot of anxiety and worries. However, this story which is about belief, dream and love truly gave me the power to be faced with the difficulties and frustrations. Now, the novel has been animated and produced by bilibili.com. Though there could be some defects in the arts and frame number, I am appreciated that the efforts made by the producers, directors and voice actors etc. And special thanks to MouXiangTongXiu because of writing this story ... named TGCF.