Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan

This is a Chinese animation (donghua) so some people might be hesitant but it's really good. I would recommend it if you are into adventure stories with low-key smart MC's that aren't OP that don't constantly have crazy fight scenes. I got started with Tales of Demons and Gods, and watched a few others, but this is probably one of the best ones out there. This is a typical cultivation story with the MC starting out weak in ancient times and progressively getting stronger, but the story always has a degree of realism. One of my biggest qualms about donghua is usually the unrealistic MC ... who can do everything and overcome any obstacles by growing OP quickly, but as people, we cannot. This MC is always aware of the ever present danger of life and he has to constantly make tough but practical decisions. He's very relatable and the story pulls you into the world.

The MC is average and just in a world trying to survive and get stronger. He devotes himself to his cultivation and lives secretively, knowing that those who stick out get attacked. It's an adventure, exploring the cultivation world where there's danger everywhere and lots of mystery and wonder. In addition to cultivation, there's magic, special weapons, and formations, all of the typical cultivation world stuff. He's initially the son of a poor family whose parents have to sell one of their children to have enough to eat. From a young age, he overheard his parent's talking about it and volunteered himself to protect his sister. He gets sold into a sect where he gets a preview to the cultivation world with a test where it's survival of the fittest to get into it as a cultivator as opposed to just doing odd jobs.

The art is elegant. Sometimes I forget its an animation but other times the animation looks pretty fake, but better than most donghua and some anime. The music really fits the mood and intro and outro are enjoyable but nothing to go crazy over. Overall, it's a good show with realistic struggles to survive day to day, not really an OP MC. There is a lot of world building but also a lot of mystery. You're learning about the world along with the MC, but it doesn't feel fake like the author tries to add stuff along the way to help the plot. That said, the pacing can be considered moderate or slow, the main plot can get sidetracked sometimes. There's a bit of life philosophy and struggle. I enjoyed it as it wasn't a show I had to turn my brain off nor did I have to think too much. It is an adventure.

TL;DR: This is a wuxia cultivation series that doesn't have BL and has an actually good plot, great animation, detail and sound design as well as consistent character development.

Mortal's Journey is a Chinese wuxia donghua that follows Han Li, a child of a poor village family who sacrifices himself to enter the seven mysterious sect in order to improve his family's living situation. Unfortunately he fails the entrance exam but is accepted as a medic's disciple learning medicine and the path of cultivation. He encounters trauma when he finds his medic teacher Mo is not what he seems and his disciple friend who showed ... no affinity to cultivation suddenly changing his path of cultivation to martial arts. This story is goes very in depth with character establishment in the beginning which almost made me drop it but I'm glad that I stuck along.

Story: 9/10
I still consider this to be a somewhat overpowered main character, he has inept affinity to cultivation and has mastered medicine and potential for cultivation based on his Teacher Mo's literature. Han Li's journey is littered with small fry antagonists that get destroyed but the story stays true to development by sticking to a lower scale of characters.

Art & Sound: 9/10
The art is literally amazing. I haven't seen CGI this detailed and colorful ever. I think the characters are motion captured because the body movements and facial movement are so realistic even the minute details like wrinkles are shown in the characters faces. The color is well informed, in many scenes we see the animators have implemented 3 point lighting. For example, in Episode 4 (9:33) we see on Teacher Mo there are 2 aspects of 3 point lighting (rim light provided by ambient light from the windows facing away from the sun and fill light provided by active light probably supplied by the sun) this detail in lighting makes the art and animation more enjoyable.

Furthermore, the action scenes aren't just static fast motion follow focused shots. They are dynamic and unpredictable which also adds into the action. The focus changes in some shots where spears are thrown out of hand or when an opponent lunges forward toward MC or friendly characters. Furthermore, the specific shot types are well informed, I even spotted a dolly zoom in one of the shots where Han Li visits the Mo mansion on a bridge (I think that scene) which was a surprise.

The sound is also surprisingly excellent, the music reflects the mood and in cases of action scenes the music is often suspenseful which reminds me of well choreographed action/drama K-dramas. Although they are very suspenseful and reflect the mood well, it isn't a memorable experience because there aren't any theme songs.

Character: 8/10
Character development is the most apparent in the first half of Season 1, we are introduced to the main cast in the first episode which is a thrust into the story. I wished they didn't have a storytelling beginning that shows MC's past because it feels like a waste of having it in third person. It would have been better to not know Han Li would become an immortal yet because the beginning is confusing. The montage with a proper time scale contributed to Han Li's character training arc by condensing all the good parts instead of wasting 1 hour on forced development. This was a fairly good call to make considering the detail and quality this season had to set. At the moment, there aren't any love interest connections which is a letdown because I keep feeling this is a Shounen Ai type story. Although, the meeting of Teacher Mo's daughter and Han Li seemed a bit promising, I doubt anything will progress in that direction in terms of love interest.

Overall: 9/10
Subjectively and Objectively this is a good watch. There is a lot at stake on this series as they have maximized the detail and quality they could bring in terms of plot, art and sound as well as character development. Highly recommended, I enjoy overpowered main characters but I also enjoy rational, zero to hero cultivation stories where every episode isn't a new enemy but a progress to cultivation. Very philosophical.

I'll be honest: this is my first experience with Chinese 3D animation. I decided at some point in some day of some month of some year to diversify my repertoire and see what people from the country of Winnie the Pooh can create. Especially as I have not had much exposure to Chinese pop culture in my life, at least not to the same extent as Japanese pop culture. Here, of course, we are not counting creations i.e. the poor remake of Muland from Disney or the concentration camps for Uighurs. So how did Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan fare after that huge number of reviews ... on MAL, four in number while writing this in 2024, of A Record of a Mortal Journey to Immortality? It was just meh. Like a big MEH.

STORY 5/10

Let's start with the story: a poor kid joins the minor sect (that doesn't sound at all like an introduction to a psychological horror film with a theme of reliving trauma) and so soon begins his story towards immortality, surviving along the way... moderately interesting adventures. Let's start with the most important thing: the story is boring and seems to be going nowhere for most of this season. In the sense, we know that the main character wants to achieve immortality, so along the way he walks into a parade of various bad guys, defeats them, occasionally acquires some piece of equipment from them or another superpower, which makes him stronger, and that's about it. Only towards the literal end do we get some interesting plot expansion and foreshadowing of some interesting conflict. Before that, the first half of the show with the Wolf Gang resembles a half-baked side quest from Fallout: New Vegas that you want to complete mainly for the extra EXP. And this sentence is a great insult to NV, because at least there was something worth remembering from Goodsprings. The conflict itself is just resolved crudely, without any life. Overall, the whole world in this donghua seems lifeless and it's not about the graphics, we'll get to that part later.

Some people in the reviews praised this work for some philosophical message, and it made me spit on my monitor laughing as I was drinking tea. There is as much depth here as in a dried up puddle. To be clear: not every story has to have a profound message. Sometimes an idiotic action movie is just what our monkey brain needs after a hard day's work. But saying that Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan's first season has some deep message is like saying that 365 Days is the pinnacle of Polish romantic cinema without having seen any Polish film before.

I complain about the plot all the time, but I'd be lying if I said it was something entirely bad. It does have some interesting moments, I particularly liked showing that life and the system aren’t always fair, even when you work very hard. It wasn't anything special, but it was nice to see. And as I said: the ending shows some seeds of an interesting conflict, but I was simply bored on the whole.

GRAPHICS 7/10

The universe likes balance, so it's time for me to praise this ONA for something. The 3D graphics look just fine. It's not some work of art, but the particle effects and the whole thing looks good, it certainly could have been worse. The only time it really looks bad is when the camera zooms in on a character's eyes, it then looks like someone is putting their hand up my arse to use them as a puppet. It is also lazy to use real-world photos or video, but this is rare enough that complaining about it starts to border on being petty.

What I must commend, however, are the fights. These look genuinely good, even if they sometimes resemble PS3 cutscenes. And it was a nice change seeing completely fluid combat, from the usual turn-based combat of most anime. The fights themselves have nice choreography, the characters fly coolly, continuing the glorious Chinese tradition of being suspended from ropes, varied with various magical abilities and weapons, in that respect it's the full package.

CHARACTERS 3/10

Know what? The plot really doesn't have to be anything particularly good or deep. Sometimes it's enough for the characters to be easy to like and memorable. Well, you guessed it from the rating that A Record of a Mortal Journey to Immortality contains some really 'fascinating' characters to get to know.

I'm really trying to recall any characterisations of the main character. Han Li is such a white piece of paper that if the number of character elements were converted to the amount of fat in the body he would be bloody anorexic. If the same process was applied to the rest of the cast we would be left with a skeleton crew.

Authentically I am able to say more about Bell from Danmachi, Kirito from SAO, heck, even the main character of OniAi than I can about Li Han. I've seen pieces of titanium that were less stiff than the protagonist of this series. As for the rest of the characters: by some miracle it is even worse. Apart from the characters from the first half, no one is worth remembering, and the interesting ones just disappear after the first half. After that, it's only the NPCs who are defined by one trait, and you can consider a character with two traits as a luxury.

The antagonists, on the other hand, are so one-dimensionally evil that it is an insult to one dimension. Some of them aren't even fun to watch lose. Literally the one enemy Li Han fought against was somehow interesting. And yes, you guessed it, he was only in the first half.

MUSIC 7/10

About the music I have the least to say, but it is good. So much, no one track is memorable, but it adds the right attitude and is generally nice to listen to.

AVERAGE SCORE: 5,5

So what can I say more about Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan? It was just so plain. You can watch it, but you'll be asking yourself every now and then during the viewing, like me, why you're not watching the Spy x Family cinema film or catching up on the latest episodes of Attack on Titan instead of watching this slugfest. It isn’t the worst, but it’s so mediocre I’m gonna remember this only as my first attempt at Chinese animation. Of course, I’m gonna see what’s happening in the next seasons, hoping it’ll get better. But for now I’m feeling like it was a waste of time. Because with a really bad product I could at least remember how bad it was. And that will fall out of my head as soon as I watch something really good.