Tian Bao Fuyao Lu (Legend of Exorcism)

Having lived his entire life on Mount Taiheng, half-yao Kong Hongjun is at last presented with the chance to explore the human world. He is assigned three tasks: uncover his father's murderer, eliminate the Black Jiao and its yao tribes that have infiltrated Chang'an, and return the Heart Lamp to a descendent of the Chen family. However, on his first night in the city, the Heart Lamp is mistakenly absorbed by military general Li Jinglong.

After receiving a mysterious invitation to join Chang'an's Court of Exorcism, Kong Hongjun is reunited with a disgraced Li Jinglong as his captain. Alongside a fellow yao, a noble from a foreign land, and a cowardly scholar, Kong Hongjun and Li Jinglong must work together to purge Chang'an of the yao lurking in its streets. In the meantime, Kong Hongjun also needs to hide his true identity from Li Jinglong who loathes yao—all while attempting to retrieve the Heart Lamp from his body.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Adaptation of Fei Tian Ye Xiang's (非天夜翔) web novel of the same name.

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Related Anime

Sequel:

Tian Bao Fuyao Lu 2nd Season

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Characters & Voice Actors

Kong, Hongjun

Main

Li, Jinglong

Main

Qiu, Yongsi

Main

Zhao, Zilong

Main

Mo, Rigen

Main

Ah Tai

Main

Chong, Ming

Supporting

Qing, Xiong

Supporting

Staff

Zhou, Shen

Theme Song Performance

Fei Tian Ye Xiang

Original Creator

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Opening Theme

"Tiandi Wei Nian (天地为念)" by Zhou Shen (周深)

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Ending Theme

"Tian Bao Fuyao Lu (天宝伏妖录)" by Bian Jiang (边江), Qi Ran (奇然)

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Reviews

May 16, 2021

katsucats

Mixed Feelings

Hong Jun is a half-demon child sent by his uncle, a demon overlord who isn't much interested in causing chaos as opposed to maintaining his own order, to complete three tasks in the human world, and in the process determine the truth behind his father's death. Right out of the gate, he loses one of his set of flying daggers, his glowing artifact he's supposed to give to a contact, and gives away half his money. A bit later, he finds that the person he's supposed to meet up with has passed, leaving only a baby, which extinguishes all the leads to his mission. Being ... a naive idiot doesn't help, but he somehow gets sucked into reestablishing an exorcism wing of the Chang'An (a historic Chinese capital) government that no one takes seriously, with a bunch of other misfit weirdo exorcists, and a disgraced soldier that was tasked to manage this agency as a joke. As you might expect, their first task was to find a lost pet; and as you might expect, that happened to be a particularly important event.

So by every indication, this headed down a third-rate comedy category with a plot structure preceded by the likes of Gintama, et. al., where the main characters do odd tasks before uncovering a conspiracy. And given how dumb the protagonist appears, I was ready to drop it and move on with my life. This is, as the one other reviewer points out, based on a BL novel, so all the characters look like pretty boys and talk with a feminine energy. Although there are some... questionable moments..., they never head down that road. Instead, some of the pretty boy exorcists head over to the whore house every now and then.

So yeah, the setup is pretty much bullshit, but luckily for us something awesome happened, and instead of dwelling in too much weirdness, the show sidestepped in a major way and starting introducing demons of the week almost immediately. The plot isn't immediately interesting, but the demons aren't entirely idiotic like the ones parodied by the generic villains of One Punch Man from most shows of this kind. Instead, Legend of Exorcism lays out a multi-layered plot by demons who have infiltrated the city for a year and are ready to overtake it. An entire demon world lies in its underbelly. Not super amazing, but it gives enough to entertain while it prepares the main dish --

The action sequences. The exorcists in Legend of Exorcism don't command different colored energy or martial spirits, nor do they pull off generic martial arts type moves like many cultivation donghua. Each of them have their unique ability: Hong Jun fights with flying daggers, Ri Gen with arrows, Ah Tai commands mental energy with a musical instrument, Yong Si draws things that come to life with a brush. So the sequences are not fist-to-fist martial arts fights, but full-fledged action scenes. As far as animation goes, they're directed really well, the shot framing and beats give a dynamic flow that's easy to follow, but also exciting to follow. None of the criticisms of the Berserk OVA's apply. And they occur with enough regularity that we could anticipate them without fail.

As with most other Chinese anime, the art is in 3D, but soft filters and blurs are well applied, the realistic hair textures, the high definition and smooth movements help blunt that edge for those who don't like 3D. I still prefer hand-drawn 2D art myself; by 3D standards, the art might have been 9/10, or as good as we should expect aside from a high budget movie.

At the end of episode 13, which MAL marks as the first season, the plot is still developing so we'll see where it goes. Hong Jun really pissed me off in the first two episodes, but since then the show hasn't let me down.

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Feb 27, 2022

Stormy_77

Recommended

A half demon child is sent to the human world to perform 3 tasks, but one of them is botched when the head of the Exorcism section breaks the heart lamp he is supposed to give to someone else. He ends up joining the Exorcism division, making friends along the way while solving cases.

Story - 8/10
There's a good story here that blends family drama, a fish out of water protagonist, his joining the Exorcism Division and making friends, the beginnings of coming of age, solving mysteries with some difficulty and getting embroiled in Imperial Politics plus all the pain in the ass crap that ... entails. There are comedy bits that work really well once I got used to the stylistic artistic choices made by the team.

Character - 7/10
The characters are not the usual archetypes and we don't know everything about them (yet) so there's plenty yet to be discovered in subsequent seasons. The author does a good job of developing a rich world with some hints to the magic system and each character has something that sets them apart, plus all of them are super attractive so this probably falls in the bishounen category of show that I enjoy watching. As of the end of Season 1, I find the paint brush wielder to be the most fascinating one.

Art - 8/10.
The CGI is actually detailed and good, with the high resolution version it actually stalls on streaming because of the amount of processing power needed to render things beautifully. The battle scenes insanely beautiful. There is one part in the last episode that did something different that I've never seen before, it is one of the 2 special things that elevated this show to a 8/10 rating overall, and that is the paintbrush guy's contribution to the bathing pool fight. My mouth dropped open in a "wow, they did that ... and it looks great!" when it was playing. Moments like this are what make me love anime.

Sound 10/10
I would be hard pressed to find this level of sound quality in many anime. The OP and EDs are wonderful. The battle and ambient sound effects are accurate. What sets this anime apart is a Shamisen Duel in Episode 10 that is just phenomenal to watch and listen to. I may have replayed it several times because of how impressive it was as a spectacle. While the lady had a good singing voice, the male singer's voice is so next level that if he is a real singer, I would purchase tickets to hear him sing live. It made me an instant fan. That's impressive. This sequence was the second standout sequence in what would have otherwise been a 6 or 7/10 series.

Enjoyment - 9/10
I had a great time watching this and will be starting Season 2 shortly!

Overall - 8/10
The unexpectedly funny comedy and a good story make this a series worth watching if you're a fan of bishounen (handsome, handsome men everywhere doing awesome stuff). The 2 things that set this apart from other anime in a "new and different" way are the standout Shamisen Duel and the Paint Brush guy's final fight. Both make this memorable, and it ended up being much, much better than what I initially expected.

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Nov 22, 2021

orpheusbreeze

Recommended

Story is interesting! Not gonna lie, it was sometimes confusing but it makes sense as you watch it. On the other hand, it was enjoyable enough for me that it made want more and to go to the next episode. It is BL, but as usual in the donghuas due to censorship, you pretty much can't tell at all.

The art and animation is ABSOLUTELY outstanding! I know people are often put off with this kind of animation, especially if it's not done right, but the quality is so amazing that I'm blown away. I've seen a fair share of donghuas done in this style and ...

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Poll: Tian Bao Fuyao Lu Episode 2 Discussion chhgn - Jul 5, 2020	3 replies	by HagePotPotato »» Aug 30, 2022 2:06 PM
Poll: Tian Bao Fuyao Lu Episode 1 Discussion chhgn - Jul 5, 2020	12 replies	by HagePotPotato »» Aug 30, 2022 1:47 PM
Poll: Tian Bao Fuyao Lu Episode 13 Discussion Xealias - Sep 20, 2020	8 replies	by Konani »» Dec 18, 2021 8:05 PM
Poll: Tian Bao Fuyao Lu Episode 9 Discussion Xealias - Aug 23, 2020	2 replies	by Konani »» Dec 18, 2021 5:10 PM
Poll: Tian Bao Fuyao Lu Episode 7 Discussion Xealias - Aug 9, 2020	4 replies	by Konani »» Dec 17, 2021 8:54 PM

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Tian Bao Fuyao Lu

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Information

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Synopsis

Background

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Staff

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Reviews

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