Da Wang Rao Ming

So, this is my first review so bear with me.

This is actually a really good anime. My only problem was the shitty subs but i guess cant help it. So the story is about a teenager that gets great power suddenly and tries to hide it.

From what i felt, it is mostly a comedy type anime with the main character doing his best to rile people up and being a greedy bastard xD.

So yeah this was very nice to watch, was looking forward to it every week. Also the Opening is sooo good, i didnt skip it once in all the 12 episodes, the ending ... is good too but the opening is top tier

Granted, the opening was phenomenal but does the show overall stand up to it? Well... I would say NO. This anime is probably the biggest scam happened to me in 2021.

"Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack." ~ Brandon Sanderson.

Expectations are a huge factor when it comes to entertainment which may or may not move in the direction one expects it to and sometimes severely affect the experience of a viewer. It is an attribute of humans and not something we can just switch on and off whenever we wish to. The difference in a ... person's judgement between a mediocre show with high acclamation and a well-written show with poor popularity can be quite large. That being said, Da Wang Rao Ming is the donghua (similar to anime but made in China) adaptation of the novel "Spare me, great lord" that got negatively hit due to the factor of expectations rooted from it's eye candy opening.

STORY

You may find difficulty in following the story if you are not a Mandarin speaker since the English subtitles provided were hard to follow. The story revolves around an orphan named Lu Shu who only retains a walnut shaped pendant from his parent. When he gets into a truck accident, his pendant manages to save him, while bestowing him the distress point system in the process. He has an adoptive sister, Lu Xiaoyu who ran away from the orphanage to live with Lu Shu, when he turned 16. Lu Shu has attempted to send her back multiple times, so she could have a better chance at life, yet she always escapes and returns to his home. The basic premise of the story is quite simple, a brother and sister trying their best to live their lives their best up until many people start to awaken abilities which became a turning point in their lives. An organisation called Heavenly Network starts to recruit students who awakened these abilities and trains them to enhance their super powers and one of them being Lu Shu. The power system was confusing and they did not provide a proper explanation on the star systems.

CHARACTERS

Majority of the characters in this donghua lack any sort of depth, no backstories, painful struggles or clear goals, in short they are bland/boring and easily forgettable. The protagonist Lu Shu gains points for his gacha system through negative emotions by annoying/angering people. While the way in which he annoys and collects points from people is pretty entertaining to watch, Lu Shu's growth feels so sudden, without any struggles that this can also be called lazy writing. Even after 12 episodes Lu Shu remains as the same person, the same annoying brat who don't give a fuck about anyone else other than his sister in the first episode, that is zero character development. The chemistry between Lu Shu and Lu Xiaoyu, two poor orphan siblings unrelated by blood supporting each other as they move on was a nice touch. All the side characters lack depth and are just present as tools for Lu Shu to accumulate his points and provide an explanation for his sudden growth. How come Lu Shu is able to master in martial arts so quickly? The answer is the old man Li Xianyi. A scapegoat for his ability awakening? The answer is Liu Li who also serves as the stereotypical bully of the class. Jiang Shuyi is the big brain of the class who provides answer to various questions that arises as the story moves forward but no explanation is given or hinted whatsoever on his source for this immense knowledge on highly secret affairs. Then we have the two teachers, the serious Xifei and the funny Li Yixiao, both just exist in the world with others as tools of interaction with Lu Shu but lacks depth and any sort of personal characteristics. This donghua would have been a lot better if they focused more into the side character's lives, show their daily struggles, their pasts, motivations and goals clearly rather than almost always showing it from Lu Shu's perspective.

COMEDY AND ANIMATION

Comedy is by far the greatest aspect of this donghua aside from it's opening. Comedy is just too dominant that sometimes it even undermines potential dramatic moments. Even though there were a lot of comedic moments, I couldn't enjoy it at it's finest the main culprit being the incompetent subtitles provided and I don't think Tencent would release an official english subs anytime soon. Due to failure of the subtitles to present the dialogues in a comprehendible manner, many potential jokes just went over my head. The opening and ending were both top-notch and successful from a marketing point of view but the difference in animation quality between the opening and the show itself is quite large. The motion is disjointed and unfluent as most of the typical donghua.

CONCLUSION

This anime was not enjoyable for me mainly due to my high expectations for it rooted from it's opening and the confusing subtitles. The comedy was great at times and the animation is tolerable if you are familiar with Chinese donghua animations.

The opening is lit and the singer is a V-tuber. The story is simple with a cheat system and "levels" from A to F, just like most of martial arts / cultivation series.
As of Ep.4 this show feels more like a parody of wuxia / xianxia genre where the MC is first and foremost a troll rather than a "cultivator". Kind of like Konosuba for the Isekai genre, you have to have read or watched other wuxia/ xianxia / xuanhuan series to get all the overused tropes.

A random guy says Nice to meet you? - How happy can you be to see ... me~
An old man trying to find a disciple and teach his swordstyle? - No thanks~
Getting a skill worth 900kg strength? - Already got a flying sword at first try~
A cheat gatcha system? - pulls stinky tofu 24/7 etc. etc.

It may have a weird pacing and the humor can be dry, but still I find it enjoyable.

Anime opening is best of Chinese animation, but it doesn't even represent reality, that animation still is not good it is decent compared to some, but op caused me to give it much more expectation.

I personally like song at the beginning and ending, i like use of BGM (Background music) it is not overbearing but it bring certain atmosphere and it works even if you don't notice it, didn't see any short comings with sound design or feel but also it didn't pop out mostly, only in few flashbacks it popped out for me and made me notice it more, but still great sound design.

Story ... is quite simple for wuxia style story, it has it's own quirks but it also borrows common concepts from other wuxia "system" stories levels, magic weapons, soul sea etc.
for experienced person in wuxia it isn't nothing impressive, but the characters even if simple their dialogue or personality doesn't feel forced, and it is enjoyable as main character does have simple goals on his mind it really doesn't undermine his character, but i can't say for certain as the story seems to presented characters did a bit of development and ended,
i wouldn't say gaining more power is a development of character more of story and as of season 1, can't tell really what is really about it.

I would recommend it to watch, but better option is to wait for second season that is in development, as for now it is decent introduction to itself but doesn't really push the story much and at end can leave you with bit of saltines of ending too soon.

Lu Shu, an orphan abandoned by his Mother grew up in poverty with an adopted little sister Lu Xiaoyu struggling to gather money for their tuition. However, it all changes when Lu Shu is hit by a truck and dies in an accident. Activating powers passed on from his Mother, Lu Shu is revived and gets granted a Gacha System where he earns points from angering or intimidating people. The points he gathers are used to spin the wheel in hopes of getting a special cultivation fruit, single use healing, body upgrades and more. After awakening his powers and visiting his school Lu Shu notices ... a suspicious Organization has been recruiting students with awakened abilities for their special academy; He tries to avoid them but to no avail. Lu Shu gets recruited by the Organization who trains the awakened students and teaches them about the world of cultivation; Lu Shu is suspicious given his previous encounters with the Organization but will they reveal their ulterior objectives or will the trust in the people around him betray Lu Shu?

Story & Characters: 7/10
The story itself is much more vast than I expected which resulted in a lot of information being thrown at the viewer within the first 4 episodes, albeit very vaguely and it especially didn't help that there was no official subbing for english upon launch despite it hinting a global release outside of China. In the donghua community we barely get modern day stories that implement a cultivation and modern mannerisms together as well as Da Wang Rao Ming; The main character Lu Shu essentially carried the show because he wasn't your typical blood thirsty no-life cultivation devotee and made it a point to troll/finesse characters that tease(d) his poor upbringing. Furthermore, his companion was an adopted sibling which made the character relationships more interesting since he had a sibling relationship that developed more as he and Lu Xiaoyu discovered their innate talents.

A lot of the criticism of the series that aren't visual are details and story lore that is lost among all other lost/non-utilized details.
At times the smaller details were very hard to avoid such as counting anger points which was done much better in "I annoy millions of cultivators" because at the end of each episode Lu Shu would be in a surplus of unspent points and arbitrarily spend them when needed. In the beginning we see that most of his points go to failed gacha spins and stinky tofu with special attributes but apart from that we rarely see the gacha system utilized especially later in the series. As the series progresses it gets harder to follow because most of the information we are meant to understand is primitively translated/delivered so a lot of detail is missed out especially cultivation bases which is mentioned for 30 seconds in the first 3 episodes and never mentioned again.

Art & Sound: 5/10
Da Wang Rao Ming pre released an opening with rotoscoped animation, abstract color palettes and high energy transitions/effects which set the bar high for anime viewers and drew a lot of first time donghua viewers to the series but it also left a bitter taste of underdelivered expectations. Marketing hype is a gimmick and almost always leads to underdelivered end products such as the recent example of Cyberpunk 2077 with over the top visual teasers, high reputation collaboration and endless day one bugs. Unfortunately, Da Wang Rao Ming is the epitome of Cyberpunk 2077 in anime/donghua terms; For the most part the series was a good watch with consistent character proportions in varying shot sizes, dynamic action choreography and use of CGI. However, in comparison to its opening visuals and high reputation director/staff, this series was an underwhelming experience of a donghua. The art style was typical of any 2D digital donghua but the visual resolution seemed a lot higher than many 2D donghua which kept me watching despite its visual flaws.

The voice acting wasn't the best, there aren't many consistent background music or sound effects and at one point I've heard they re-use audio assets from gaming companies. The opening and ending music is definitely of higher quality and have catchy beats/vocals which kept me attached to each episode beginning to end. Overall, it was average in the audio department but for the next season I would like to see (more) implementation of their ED and OP music in hero-scenes with Lu Shu.

Overall & Enjoyment: 6/10
It's above average in my opinion, not worth the current hype but it is a lot better the more I watch it. Next season, I hope they don't do those marketing gimmicks to hook japanese anime viewers in because it could drop their expectations of donghua and prevent many first time viewers from watching other Chinese productions.

Woah. What a great debut episode! With just only one episode this anime delivered a stunning masterpiece. I was a in awe through out this episode, I didn’t want it to end. The genres listed her are action,adventure, comedy, and fantasy. And let me tell you get a perfect blend of all those in just that first episode. From the characters to the world building/magic system I can tell it won’t disappoint. From what has been revealed as of now, its not doubt that this series will be on my top list. You don’t always come across a hit with just the first episode, but ... Da Wang Rao Ming delivered just that.

An orphan Lu Shu, and his sister Lu Xiaoyu living together in a once common world will soon witness a whole new era of magic. Recently there are rumors going about about some awaking magical abilities, “superpowers”. We get to see Lu Shu a metahuman unlock that superpower nestled in him and the whole take on the magic aspect is damn unique..also he get stronger by collecting others negative feelings. You can very well welcome the “Super Demon” Lu Shu.

As you have noticed I would highly recommend checking this series out, as the anime only recently begun airing there is a lot to uncover but If this is not a masterpiece of an ONA debut episode I don’t know what is.

Thank you for taking the time to read, its much appreciated!
-This review will be edited as the anime progresses-

This plot isn't explained very well, there's so much information left out, the story build up in the beginning was really good then about half way through I don't know what the hell happened. I would say out of all characters the most interesting ones were the chipmunk (no joke) and Xianyi Li, everyone else just lacked any sort of personality. The art & design were good, the character voices were good, the animation wasn't the greatest, the characters were bland, lastly there is literally no story here, I can't even tell you what it's trying to be other than a bad comedy.

I've never written a review before but after watching this donghua, I realize that it needs the recognition that it deserves. Now my opinion might be a bit biased, but I really enjoy it, that I give it between a 9-10 (so I ended up putting it 9 due to certain flaws but definitely a great anime)

The story might sound like your typical "MC is weak and then becomes OP" but there is actually a lot of things that made it outstanding overall. This anime is peak comedy. Like literally. It's very refreshing to see how the MC uses his gatcha power to tease ... people and earn "Social Credit" income. If I had a dollar for every time I laughed, I might be able to fund its season 2. He uses this income to become a dang businessman. But he is in no way rich, in fact, he is very poor. Born as an orphan, he has to work twice as hard to support himself and protect his precious little sister. The relationship that develops between him and his sister is what you call 'family goals'. It is so heartwarming and deep it brings tears to my eyes. The story starts decent for the first 1-3 episodes then picks up real quick. Action pack + full dive under the sea comedy + adventure/fantasy. The art overall is amazing for its donghua, it isn't top-notch, but it's up there. The fighting scene is really good though, CGI DONE RIGHT. I have no regret watching this and since I am caught up with its airing, I have to read its manhua.

Don't let me get started with the OP and ED. If you thought JJK Opening was W, wait until you get to this OP. Man is completely dripped out head to toe. Starting from the gold chains and grill to the Drake meme, the OP says a lot about the quality of the show. I daresay it is a crime to skip the opening. That also goes for the ED too. It always amazes me how one of the best art scenes in the show would be the ending, and this show delivers just that. It brings out the bond between the MC and his sister with an amazing song. If Yoasobi saw it, she would be proud.

In conclusion, if you manage to read up until this, I am very impressed with your patience. Perhaps there might have been other things that I did not talk about, but the general idea is nearly there (actually, if you want a better summary, probably check out another review or trailer since I didn't talk that much on that). When I watch this, it reminds me of another show called The Daily Life of the Immortal King. Both peak donghua, definitely recommend watching if you haven't seen either one. it is really rare to see such amazing donghua produce since most people watch anime but you know, if you never try, you never know. Thank you for making this masterpiece, I really enjoyed it.

Da Wang Rao Ming is mixture of cultivation and modern donghua
story: the story revolves around two character one is mc and other is his sister but not blood related okk keep this in mind well its preety comman to see cultivation in donghuas but this comes up with mixture of cultivation and modern that is the only reason why i like this donghua

sound:well sometimes sound is delay for minisecond but still ok ok from me well i dont think anyone have notice about sound delay because after some episode you will feel no delay

character :mc is damn cool i think ... he is one of the roaster i saw in my whole anime carrer and also very funny and powerful also

enjoyment:well i dont get bored not even in one epiosde his little sister always makes story alives and energiatic and mc also always wandering everywhere for money and fight

overall:well story is good and comes with good comedy ,action,and cool opening only but romance is only thing that is missing in this i think we will get to see romance in nxt season think so because there is one girl who looks as powerful as mc

Great example of using their whole budget on the intro and outro. The intro is actually really cool, very artistic as well. The outro is good too but the rest of the Anime doesn't live up to that at all. The Animation and art takes a massive nose dive past the intro.

The general story is alright. Not really that original though. I remember reading a manhwa with practically the same premise a couple of years ago. It is kind of funny how much of an ass the protag is though.

I mean, I finished the Anime so it's not bad. It's just kind of average and ... I really wish it looked a bit better.

Overall the anime is a 6.5/10 Some of the plots were interesting, had some funny scenes. But the storyline was mediocre and the main protagonist can get at annoying at times but I guess that’s his powers. Also some of the scenes were so corny that you had to laugh. The whole system upon which the magic is based is never really explained properly, or perhaps it is just bad translations that are preventing a good understanding of what is happening. Lu Shu also always ends up with too many skill points and just wastes them. later on he turns into this arrogant directionless "AssWhole" ... that I personally could not stand for. The story became bland and characters lost their charm. Probably will never watch this show again.

Alright so this is a preliminary review, so bear with me. I've seen about half of this anime. I just want to make a few quick spoiler-free comments.
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First of all, this show definitely has a strong comedic quality that you basically NEED to understand Mandarin to appreciate more than like 5-10% of (said comedy) -- because all the available subs just REALLY (like I really can't stress how bad they are) miss the mark (at least currently, March 2022). The subs will give you the bare minimum to follow the plot... at most. (Actually, if I'm being completely honest, the current state of subs aren't ... even enough for that.)

[Hell, even with Chinese comedy-type anime like Scissor Seven -- subbed/dubbed by a big company (i.e. Netflix) -- the subs miss A LOT, and the dub compensates in some ways but also takes away a lot of the original "flavor".]

For subs to be any good there would need to be a whole bunch of translator notes and annotations for it to catch up with the original audio due to accents, puns, stereotypes, slang, references, etc... And doing so would be like explaining the joke, which ruins it a bit or whatever, yada yada.

Bottom line, and I hate to say this, but don't prioritize/watch this anime (for comedy) unless you are pretty fluent in Mandarin. I doubt this show will ever get an official subbing or dubbing. Comedy is hard. Any decent subbing would have to be on par with Gintama's, to give you an idea.

If you can't get the comedy, this show will probably be no better than a "fine" for you. The show relies on comedy pretty heavily IMO.

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You'll probably like the opening song or the ending song (or both). In my case, I preferred the ending song a bit more. The opening animation is really great regardless (but it's a bit disproportionate compared to the rest of the show, unfortunately).

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From the pacing, I can tell that 1 cour (12 episodes) is not nearly enough for this anime. Definitely needs further seasons for the story to progress.

Da wang rao ming
Well what can I say.
It’s a Great anime and I would recommend it.
The fighting Szene‘s are descent.
I like how he does this only for his sister and it’s very cute.
Episode 8 was like the last 9 rated Episode from then on it was like an 8.
I highly recommend it to people who want something random.
Can’t wait for the second season lol.

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I finished the anime confused I still don’t get the power level system it felt random. The main characters power system confused me the most why did he get this new ability I don’t know. His little sister abilities weren’t really explained

The side characters feel 1 dimensional and didn’t make a impact on me. Give me a reason to actually care about them, I can hardly remember there names.

The pacing is slow the story doesn’t really go anywhere which is disappointing and when it does move it felt rushed like why are they here.

It was really funny at times but it’s a ... bit repetitive

I’m hoping season two will fix the first seasons flaws

This anime is shit.... the voice actors are so bad and all the sound design/mixing are trash, the sub well.... It's google translate tier,

the "humor" is forced and really not funny at all, the story have so many hole it goes from A to C without passing by B like wtf a 6 years old
could have done a better job,

the characters are badly written.The only thing that's good is the opening and the animation is OK but the quality drop after the OP....

I don't know what more can i say about this anime, if you're bored and have nothing esle to do and ... you have nothing better to watch well go for it, it will not be a plesent journey but at least you gave it a try.

I instantly started to read the manhua after the last episode.
It has a great character developement (continues in the manhua).
Has epic scenes, a bit overpowered main character, however it is not too much.
The magic system is logical and not overcomplicated.
The main character's negative energy power makes it funny and serious at the same time.
I specially like how some people complain about the opening being so good while the anime is just a 7-8. But if you think about it, good openings seduce people to start animes. I feel like it was Lu shu who decided to make such a cool opening so ... he can get more money :D
I recommend reading the manhua after this, because it gets even better. It's not only colored, but has nice pictures, which makes it easy to understand.

A very well written and nicely paced anime. Made in China.

There is alot of talking and it might turn some people off, which is understandable. But i found the conversations fascinating that i wasnt bored.
It takes its time without wasting your time.

Its a story about metahumans who recently had their powers awakened. Think of them like mutants from X-Men.
There is a secret organization that monitors, and trains these metahumans. They also capture rogue metahumans who cause trouble.

The main character Lu Shu starts off on a low level. But by secretly feeding off of people's negative emotions he gets stronger and surpasses everyone.

He ... irritates as much people as possible (but in a way thats funny to the viewer) while hiding his full power.
He may come off as a stingy jerk at times but since he and his adoptive sister are orphans and poor he must do all he can to make money to make sure she is happy. They escaped the orphanage together.

The visuals are nice. The fight scenes have actual choreography to them.

Its a good mix of comedy, action, and supernatural.

The characters and the interactions between characters are great.

First time i wished a 12 episode anime was longer. 9/10

Well im off to watch season 2

It had a banger of an OP that I listened to at least 100 times, I just wished the rest of the anime had the same production value. xD

The story sounds like it could get a lot more interesting but the world it's built is quite shallow despite its eluding to a larger world that influences aspects of the OP's life, it happens once when he gets his powers and no other time.

It likes to give pretenses of an outside world by inserting characters onto the scene that just so happen to need to be there cause the city just so happens to be ... important for A or B reason despite those reasons not really being justified properly

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Such a reason would be the formation eye that appears and creates an ancient tomb, sure it can appear anywhere and there are a finite number of them, but it just happens one appeared like an hour away form his city.

Or that the city is supposedly the heart of the 'resistance' that doesn't appear in the first season? That's foreshadowing of grave importance that just isn't even become relevant in terms of events or effects.

*END OF SPOILERS*

In any case, it's an overall 8, music was amazing with the OP, and the added dialogue with it just made it amazing to hear cause it was just the right amount of smug to make it 100 times cooler.

Recommend a watch just to hear the OP at least.

Opening song was an absolute banger. So was the first episode.

But that's all that was good with this show.

If anime could be scams, this would be the biggest one. I really tried to like this, especially because of the premise. But I couldn't despite my best efforts. You go in expecting something amazing but realize you are met with one of the biggest snoozedfests out there second episode in.

The animation is horrible. Overly fluid in some places, jarringly static in others. You can tell they used more AI smoothing instead of real animators.

The story is horribly built, rushed and all over the ... place. Nothing really gets explained all the while jumping from one unreleated event to another. Too many plot holes. You cant tell what's going on.

the characters... lack character. No depth, no personality except for one or two character. And there's no character development to top it off. Same bland character from beginning to end.

The humour is unfunny. And there is a lot of it. I'm surprised they didn't include that badum-tss sound followed by a forced laugh track.

Quick review:
Opening and ending song: bangers
Opening animation: way above what the actual animation of the show was, so you were kinda falsely lured in expecting amazing animation, often times I notice that they're using still backgrounds where nothing is moving and only the main character in the foreground is moving which makes everything feels a bit off.
Concept/Plot: it's okay, I like the parody of 'gacha' and 'trolling' that the MC does that makes it a bit diff from other shows with OP MCs. Some points in the show where the MC and "sister" interact are pretty heart-warming.
Overall, it's a good show, not terrific, ... but I enjoyed it, maybe a s2 might make it better.