Wu Shang Shen Di

Reincarnation story ✓
Less than 10 min. ✓
Kick ass MC ✓
CGI ✓

I confess, the poster for this anime did not appeal to me.
I confess, the lack of information on the page did not encourage me to watch it.
I confess, I do not like short anime.

I will be honest, go watch Wu Shang Shen Di right now, don’t even read the rest of what I have to say. I can promise you my review will not be “enlightening”, “analytical” or “sophisticated”. I watch anime for enjoyment, not to take it apart and say “could have been better”, “there’s no character development”, “the art style was boring”, ... “not enough detail in the art”, “seen one, seen them all”. Alas I have strayed…

If you like Isekai you can like this show, if you don’t you can still like it.

The first couple of episodes involve alchemy babble, which shows Mu Yun’s knowledge that becomes his strength to gaining power, influence and wealth. It will be boring and confusing, but you don’t need to learn or remember what they’re saying. The gist of it really, is that the era Mu Yun is from had more understanding of the world and the ‘modern era’ is more backwards than advanced. See it as Mu Yun’s display of superiority. The only thing you really need to pay attention to is the break down on levels and rank. It’s tricky, but it gives you an idea on why some of the things he does might be ‘impossible’ for his level and rank.

Mu Yun is like a kid who’s been bullied to the point of fighting back. He does not tolerate disrespect, his slap-boxes are funny cause he catches people off guard. I like that he is somewhat mature, and sassy.

The girls are not tsundere annoying types*. Then again, there are not many girls in this show, there’s 3 of them so far and none are damsels waiting for OP MC to save them, which I like. Best girl is Qin Meng Yao if for some reason you disagree, go get your head examined.

*Your first 3 experiences, tsundere’s are cute, after that they’re just damned annoying.

The CGI isn’t really bad, you know like the stiff robot* walking, fighting or moving. It’s got some flow, wind and stiffness that will catch your eye but not too annoyingly. The Chinese have good looking CGI. Unless you’re nitpicking. I like that background characters are alive and moving outside of interacting with MC, it makes the world feel alive.

* Beserk (2016).

I’ll be honest, the music and sound effects really don’t stand out to me, but, there is 1 track that plays when the MC succeeds (Ha, sounds like a lvl up tune). You first hear it in episode 2 when he’s talking to Mo Wen about refining pills. Hearing it often in the show, it grew on me, but still I’m not all hyped about it.

The fights are okay… there is not a lot shown in fights, but it’s a 7 min show with about 5 min really per episode. So don’t be too alarmed if some fights feel rushed, short, or completely missing. If he’s beaten them before no need to show him kicking their asses again…right? I mean, his bad guys pop up like he’s catching Pokemon, and they show up in 2’s. So he always has a fight or asses to kick.

Finally, don’t watch the show with expectations, just appreciate it as it is. I won’t lie, it’s not going to stick with you like your favourite anime, you’re probably not even going to remember core characters names. But it’s a good show to watch if you’re tired of regular shows or just looking for something to pass the time.

If for some reason you’ve gotten this far in my review and you have not watched Wu Shang Shen Di. I don’t blame you, but I challenge you to go watch the first 5 episodes (literally worth 1 episode of a regular show). Don’t give me the “it’s too short” excuse, there’s always a ‘kind soul’ who makes a compilation on the tube. Now go.

Supreme God Emperor is a typical cultivation isekai of a spiritual master that gets mysteriously transferred to a new body of a bullied kid. The opening tells of a scroll that has captured the soul of utmost experts in a last ditch effort against evil in order to preserve the secrets and pass them on to a new generation. Typical stuff. How this manifests is the protagonist gets selective access to this scroll in his "mental ocean" (i.e. subconscious) that holds a collection of all kinds of martial arts skills, and give him random boosts of energy, allowing him to raise his level every few ... episodes. Of course, he's an alchemist master, blacksmith, cultivation expert, and everything else under the roof in his previous life, so he knows exactly what he needs to do to level up.

As you can see, the story is utterly mediocre. That exact same synopsis could have described other cultivation shows to a tee, like Martial Master (Wu Shen Zhu Zai) or Spirit Sword Sovereign (Ling Jian Zun). Perhaps the only saving grace here that makes it somewhat interesting is that the protagonist is a teacher, and he steadily builds his allies by figuring out the weaknesses of his students and helping them improve.

But besides that, we get all the same cliches and repetitions. The protagonist teaches, gets insulted and assassination attempts from petty villains, gains another level and seeks revenge, gets recruited to a bigger city -- rinse and repeat. And if one likes this genre, it's perhaps watchable. But the biggest flaw is in the execution. First, the fight choreography consists of people punching each other in the fist with very few variations, the oldest of shounen cliches. Characters consistently over power others by a flurry of attacks like Luffy's gomu gomu no gatling gun, or Jojo's muda muda. In a word, lazy.

The animation is rather plain and settings look generic. The character designs look almost as if they are pulled from other shows, with female characters wearing a familiar green uniform, and male characters with blue and white, and villains wearing black. The same looking guy would show up in different towns. Different noblemen would reenact the same conflicts in different arcs. The protagonist is instantly respected by local alchemy masters by sharing just a few recipes. And every classroom has a token female classmate or two that wants to join protagonist's harem. Every city has a prearranged marriage. The music is kind of campy.

It's just... nothing special. Spirit Sword Sovereign has a similar story, slightly better choreograph (but still bad), but the execution is far more interesting. Martial Master and God of Ten Thousand Realms (Wan Jie Fa Shen) have the same revenge fantasy underdog structure, but pulls it off more believably.

If you're a fan of cultivation stories, where idiotic villains of the week keep underestimating the protagonist despite being proven wrong over and over, or you've exhausted all other possible options, then give Supreme God Emperor a watch. It might not be as bad as I'm describing it, but still utterly mediocre.