Jun 10, 2024
Wan Jie Chu Qui Recap (spoilers)
The Ancient Clan is an ancestral bloodline that inherits elemental powers referred to as totems; However due to constant fear of the power they possess, the Ancient Clan became a target and their numbers dwindled as they were captured or killed. The Ancient Clan members parted ways and lived the lives of normal people until Yi Xun is assigned to the rowdy Shangshi province known for its conflict with the Ancient Clan. After a strange string of events, Yi Xun obtains the ability to use totems temporarily which turns makes the Ye Xuan Tian division, Shangshi's provincial garrison suspicious of
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his ties with the Ancient Clan. As Yi Xun finds himself colluding with Ancient Clan he discovers, they aren't the faction that has been causing commotion in Shangshi City and the conflict spurred from a corrupt Xuan Tian division guard Ge Tan. [Massive Spoiler] Ge Tan's motive in hunting down Ancient Clan members is to obtain their powers and he makes it a point that he wants to obtain the Ancient Clan's indestructible Black Gold relic to inherit celestial power.
Story & Character: 3/10
Spring and Autumn is a different take on the wuxia narrative with a royal prince main character that inherits an unknown power and a marginalized minority the prince grows fond with once he discovers the true story behind their conflict with his subordinates. There are a lot of varying characters and personalities that it's a shame the donghua was so short, it could've been a masterpiece in the right hands. However, it didn't live up to its ambitious appeal mainly because the main character was written so incompetently leaving many plot holes or broken logic through the story on several occasions. On many occasions throughout the donghua, there are chances where Yi Xun could have prevented the build up of Ge Tan and Sang Rou's climax battle but because of plot convenience he decides inaction is the best approach. Firstly, the segment where Yi Xun first meets with Ge Tan, Ge Tan has a stand-offish welcome which could have been de-escalated if Yi Xun mobilized his forces against Ge Tan for insubordination to a royal (he also has the emperor's token so he authority to mobilize troops which doesn't end up happening until the end of the show for some very odd reason) Secondly, when he went to save Chu Ci's friend on the mountain from Ge Tan, Yi Xun and his team have a showdown against Ge Tan and his lackeys which ends up in Yi Xun's victory but he doesn't pursue the weakened and vulnerable Ge Tan at all but instead lets his lackey Sang Rou join his team. And thirdly, since San Rou joins the team without a proper interrogation she is able to send information back and forth to Ge Tan which eventually leads to the secret realm being destroyed and the Ancient Clan losing the Black Gold Relic; However, despite having a large interval of time between the team leaving the realm and Yi Xun finishing his training none of the characters thought it was suspicious that Sang Rou was missing. Even the person who was suspicious of Sang Rou most, Yi Xun shrugged it off which added to the accumulative stress that lead to such an absurdly unnecessary boss battle in the end.
Chu Ci is a poorly written character; Her existence in the show is just to slow down Yi Xun and cause problems that require him to fix delaying the story. Her mischievous demeanor causes her to escape death many times though, it's not fun watching her in any scene.
Art & Sound: 5/10
At this point, it's natural that a donghua CGI art and animation quality haven't improved since 2017 - especially for a adapted by Ruo Hong Culture. Instead, the 3D assets are slightly changed and reused for the next production saving time and budget in the process. However, it does lead to an unfinished, low quality product which we can see in this series - the characters are pretty low poly and their movement feels stiff. The backgrounds are empty and lack diversity of elements (this isn't so bad in the first episode with the forest scenery, province guard mansion etc. but it gets more low detail as the series progresses)
Sound is average, nothing out of the ordinary
Overall & Enjoyment: 3/10
I tried to cover the story and characters in as much detail as I could but it is hard to make this series easily understood because many of the events and characters just feel dispensable and 1 dimensional, lacking purpose. The illogical reasoning which led to the end boss battle could have been revised by the team at Ruo Hong Culture instead of having a single adventure by an incompetent third prince main character. If you don't watch much donghua this is a hard pass and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're looking for a specific aspect like ancient legends etc.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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