Long Zu

It's not awful, just ok...
The animation is nice, the music is nice, the opening slaps. There are some funny jokes in the beginning, but their timing becomes worse and worse every episode, the narrative, the characters become more boring. The battle scenes are ruined by monotonous oh so panicked explanations of details. The last four-five episodes are awfully dragged out and full of flashbacks to previous episodes. The MC could be very interesting, but he gets his op powers just because, with no real growth, while still whining and being dumb. His personality is inconsistent, one moment he cool like a cucumber, the other he ... panic and cry like an idiot without any actual reason, he wants to be better, but he doesn't, just goes with the flow even though he seemed to be realistic, scrutinizing at first and even awakened some interesting power inside his body (the shooting moment), but it just didn't play any role later on. But he just became annoying and boring.
The only interesting thing left is the mystery of this little brother and the chairman.
Started with a bang and ended with a fizzle. Real pity

This is truly an under-rated anime. It's just sad that people assume that Chinese animes lack ideas and animations. Literally, This anime has the best animation and by far the best score which includes it's opening theme composed by none other than Hiroyuki Sawano.



I truly loved this anime. This anime was overall perfect, but one thing it lacked was a bit of "what's going on here" scenes. One moment, You are in the scene you are enjoying and than at next, you are being showed something else, of course we would understand it later on in the show but this wouldn't be that much ... easy if you were to be new here. It also has a sweet mix of romance which is perfect

This is one of the best donghua I have seen and it deserves to be more popular than it currently is.

Story: The protagonist, Lu Mingfei is a nerd loser who spends most of his time playing Starcraft. He's content to spend the rest of his life in mediocrity, until one day an event happens that causes him to accept enrollment at Cassell College, a school where they train soldiers with superpowers to fight in a war between dragons and humans.

Characters: The characters are well written and interesting. There's Lu Mingze, the strange boy appearing in the MC's dreams that calls him elder brother. Zero, the ... mysterious blonde haired girl with no name who invites the MC to dance. Chu Zihang and Cesar, the two top students at the academy who are absolute badasses with crazy-strong superpowers. The characters keep the story engaging, as I find myself watching more of the show so that I can learn more about them.

Animation: They went all out with the budget with this one and it shows in the high quality of 2D animation. The characters are drawn in high detail and even small movements of their hair and hands are thoroughly animated. The action scenes are smooth and fluid while maintaining the same level of detail.

Overall, I recommend this anime if you like action shows with superpowers in a fantasy setting. Also, the OP by Hiroyuki Sawano is an absolute banger. Make sure to watch episode 0 before you watch this.

The premise and the early episodes seemed like they might portend an interesting story. Unfortunately, it quickly devolves into a rather trite affair. Your given the impression that the protagonist is a nescient genius who plays the part of a slacker as a result of his parents abandonment of him to gold digging relatives. But that all ends after Episode 0. After that, Lu Mingfei is just your typical underachieving, below average intellect, hero character, who for whatever reason is "special". He shows up on screen and you're just supposed to root for him, well because he's obviously the MC. ... Even when he's given the opportunity to do a whole 'training montage', he's still the underachieving, incompetent, cowardly, stooge he's always been. He just happens to be "gifted" special abilities during the (eventually) anticlimactic boss battle that (still) makes him the hero, and hence, indispensable. Lu Mingfei is a totally forgettable character with no depth or growth.

The few interesting characters barely live long enough to make an impression. And the ones that remain are just your run of the mill, cliché, 2D, anime characters you'll find in a schlocky "high/magic school" anime series. Everyone else were mere stage dressing, not characters. To tell a dull and pointless story.

It also, doesn't help that the story seemed to jump from one beat to another in a disjointed and awkward way. I never really got a sense of the why or how of this story. It was exclusively focused on the who of Lu Mingfei. Another thing that really bothered me, were the attempts to shoe horn in comedy and slice of life elements. They felt like poorly implemented fan-service for readers of the original novel. Which kind of crystalizes how I feel a bout the whole story. It all felt out of place. Like it was written by a slightly hallucinating AI LLM that got confused trying to composite popular anime genres.

What's most sad, is that this ONA has excellent animation and very good sound design. But it is squander on a lousy story, uninteresting characters, and a confused & confusing narrative. I'm baffled at the fact that Long Zu manages a score of 7.19. I was tempted to give score below three, but I've seen worse and at least Long Zu was something to look at.

It's very clear that the story is heavily influenced by China's history, culture, mythology, and religion, which have a strong belief in dragons.

Both Japan and China showcase their respective cultures.

The story is quite brutal due to its unknown scope to the rest of the world, where handsome and beautiful characters are killed by the author, leaving only their skeletons.

On the other hand, up until episode 13, the main character "Lu Mingfei" is still unclear about who he really is. What is clear is that if he's not in a threatening situation, he appears stupid and a true coward. Especially in scenes where he screams, intended ... to be comedic but instead feels cringe, similar to "Kazama Kenji" from the comedy anime D-FRAG.

Even though "Lu Mingzu" says that he consciously makes himself look stupid, it's still somewhat annoying to watch.

Moreover, I also don't know who "Lu Mingzu" really is. He mentioned a demon contract but his eyes are yellow like a dragon. The headmaster is also suspicious, clearly knowing Lu Mingzu, which seems to be the main reason he invited Lu Mingfei to the academy.

The climax in the last two episodes has amazing animation, as good as Japanese anime.

I really like the character Zero/Rin. She's emotionless, cute, blonde, with bright blue pupils, not too tall or short, and has a medium build. Basically, she's totally my type.

I hope there will be a season 2 and some fanservice episodes; I want to see Rin in a bikini or bloomer.

Dragon Raja is a standout donghua that deserves more recognition from anime fans. While many quality donghua titles have been overlooked, Dragon Raja stands out as a must-watch for any anime enthusiast. The show follows the journey of Lu Mingfei, a loose cannon who joins Cassell College, the supreme alliance for humans against powerful and immortal dragons who threaten their existence.

One of the strengths of Dragon Raja is the way it evolves the perspective through which the world is viewed. Initially, it presents a generic fantasy scenario with overpowered characters battling each other at a high pace. However, as the story develops, it becomes more ... bizarre and thought-provoking, exploring interesting themes of loneliness and desperation.

The variety of characters in Dragon Raja is another aspect that sets it apart. The existence of factions dividing them creates an interesting dynamic, and more characters are introduced over time, adding further depth to the story. The action and art in Dragon Raja are top-notch, with stunning animation and sound effects that immerse viewers in the world of the show.

The music in Dragon Raja is a standout feature, with Hiroyuki Sawano delivering an incredible score. While the dialogue can feel far-fetched and artificial at times, the wholesome interactions between the main characters and their voice acting make up for it.

One character that stands out is Motong Chen, a hot red-headed character who is designed to perfection. With her sexy voice acting and older sister personality, she carries the show in many ways.

High budget but....nothing else.

Story, worldbuilding, characters, lore dropping, comedy scenes all thrown together into an incredibly incohesive mix.

Characters actions and reactions to events make no sense.

Music, Animation, Sound Effects, Voice Acting and Art Style are all top tier but what is this story?
Nothing makes sense, the things that are explained are incredibly boring and dont actually explain much because it immediately cuts to another scene where something seemingly unrelated happens. It's rarely tied together.

Also what the hell is MC doing? There's insane action going on and MC is just off to narnia romancing it up with the token hot headed beauty. The fact that hes ... your usual black haired scaredy boy who whines all the time but is somehow special aside, whenever hes on screen he doesnt feel like the actual main character. He just gets his stereotypical moments where all eyes are on him for some bs reasons.

Really makes me wonder if this is just an issue with the animated work or if the source material is equally as all over the place.

I wanted to like it because the visuals and audio are so appealing but the more episodes I watched the less invested I was in the story and the more I found myself skipping scenes.

It's no wonder this show flew under the radar. Besides High production value it has nothing else to offer.

My self said this is plot twist but the plot most unwanted of regular anime good ending enjoyer so i not recommend this anime bullshit this dump piece not recommend MC more like side char basically MC here not even require for story, mc here slave of fiance of side char, i hyped cause episode 0 but bro this too much, why do you introduce some female lead if not match with main lead lol this author brain loose some screw
NOTE: if u insist watch just episode 0 and episode 15 the rest episode not worth
NOTE: Just make new account for review for bad ... this plot story that want make you vomit

The animation is very good no doubt about it but MC is the worst. Lacking in confidence, stupid, careless, zero sense of responsibility. Rather than the 3 fight scenes in the entire series, it's not worth it. Don't waste your time.

The story is unique , art style especially the fight scenes are good.

Everyone except MC is good.

The inbetween comedy troupes are not well suited.

I didn't like it at all just had to finish because I started. A 2 out of 5.

I love donghua for their unique animation and stories don't get me wrong but this is shit.