Xing Wushen Jue

Xing Wu Shen Jue (Star Godly Martial Arts Technique) started out with an interesting power system of multiple parallel cultivation methods of which the rarest one, the star method, has affinity with the protagonist. At first, Ye Xinghe appears to be a humble protagonist with an altruistic goal, having chosen to sacrifice his own dignity for the well being of his family in an opening scene. He realizes that a wealthier clan could easily cause trouble for his family business even if he beats up a fellow student in the short run. That kind of foresight is delightful in a protagonist. Unfortunately, that was bait ... and switch marketing material, since some time half-way into the show, he flips. The original protagonist being withdrawn and careful turns into an edgy asshole that openly invites conflict and humiliates the enemy, and insults his friends with his awkward communication skills. Nothing causes this change. It just happens. And it calls into question the very premise of the show.

Of course, that doesn't stop his harem from carrying on as if it's business as usual, with girls lining up, begging to be with him, and him brushing them off without even a conversation. But he has no trouble playing up ecchi tropes, where Ye Xinghe "accidentally" touches these female characters, or trips and falls on them, or is put into contrived situations where he must give them mouth to mouth CPR to "save" them, etc. And predictably, these damsels in distress gets mad, slaps him, and then want to marry him.

Each character, villain and protagonist alike, seem immature and lack the confidence to properly communicate. And what's more insulting is that some of these characters are supposedly adults, while others are supposedly multiple levels above a protagonist that doesn't even know how to fight 5 episodes ago, and now he's sweeping women off their feet. It seems in bad anime that no matter how strong a woman is, even if she could do back flips and dispatch enemies like nothing, she still has to trip and fall into the arms of a man. It's like fanservice to incel fantasy.

To be clear, nearly every cultivation power fantasy or isekai has a protagonist that gains levels at incredible speed. But usually, they remain relatively stable in character, whether they start out as arrogant assholes, or they remain committed to their values. In Xing Wu Shen Jue, Ye Xinghe isn't some master transported to an isekai; in fact, just episodes earlier he is confused as to why his cultivation improves on a much faster pace, and why he has more energy than others. There is no scene where he realizes his power in order to propel a change in character. He just suddenly gains confidence, like his character changes to fit the role the author expects to push the plot forward. The change feels so dissonant and inauthentic.

Moreover, plot developments are less than exciting, with each potential thread fraying before any result. It feels like Ye Xinghe and company are just strung along to where they need to be, and perhaps that's why the forced character change was necessary. At one point, there's a fellow student that is murdered on a camping trip, and it becomes an intriguing murder mystery. How is the thoughtful and timid Ye Xinghe going to solve it? By randomly overpowering everyone and defeating his teachers in battle of course. It's just so ridiculous that nothing after that had credibility.

If you are to start watching the show at around episode 25, the show would probably be average. It would have all the same cliches as all the other shows: an unlikely bet to save the family clan, and a tournament arc. Except the protagonist seems like an 8th grade syndrome asshole with eyeliner given the powers to meet his perversity. He still mistreats women all the time. Even if it gets alright in a second season, you should probably still figure when push comes to shove, the author wouldn't be able to hold his own weight.

Ye XingHe was born and raised into the Azure Feather family, which has its base in Blue Carp Town. He was originally chosen as the representative to go to the Heavenly Star Academy in order to further improve his cultivation instead of his supposed cousin. At the academy, Ye Xinghe demonstrates extraordinary potential and is taken in by Vice Principal Xu. During a training exercise in the forest, Ye Xinghe and his group are attacked. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, Ye Xinghe is expelled from the academy and he returns to his village.

He is berated by his clan, but Ye Xinghe changes their ... minds by healing and protecting them from the Dark Moon Family. He is eventually joined by Xia Yuning, and the couple embark on numerous adventures. During his adventures, Ye Xinghe meets a mysterious lady named Shang'Guan Xuan, and under her guidance, he is able to achieve a very high cultivation level.
(source: smgt fandom)

Story: 5/10
Star Martial God Technique adaptation is hard to follow and very vague. The series skips a lot of details that were in the novel and manhua such as subcategories of Star Martial power - Ye Xinghe's Star power is healing but there is also haste and many others but the series skips these particular details probably for story consistency. This makes the story bland and dissimilar to other cultivation series - it lacks motivation since we are just listening about the world from random side characters.

Art & Sound: 4/10 & 5/10
The CGI art and character design of this series is basically just replication of Ruo Hong Culture's other projects. We see that Ye Xinhe's cousin Ye Xingyun is surprisingly a replication of the MC in Wonderland of Ten Thousands with different hairs and clothing. Furthermore, the background/setting when Xia Yuning is sleeping on the rock when getting chased by assassins with Ye Xinghe - is the reused waterfall background from Wonderland of Ten Thousands where Ye Xingyun cultivates with the brother of Ye Xueyan. I've come to a realization that these are where studios cut costs to compromise for low budget adaptations.

The VA / BGM sound was fairly decent, nothing out of the ordinary.

Character: 4/10
Since the series rushes through the worldbuilding and character establishment by skimping on details we are left with characters that are empty - a very common prospect among low budget cultivation series made by Ruo Hong Culture. I personally enjoyed the manhua because you could visibly feel exhaustion in the characters facial expression (in the camping arc) The students and teachers weren't excessively arrogant like in the donghua where they intentionally judged the situation of Ye Xinghe being the killer after seeing bodies. I guess they just set this up so it makes sense to kick Ye Xinghe out of the Star Academy but it's cheap character progression.

Enjoyment / Overall: 5/10
If you want senseless zero to hero overpowered main character beating his opponents, this is a donghua to watch but if you want a meaningful zero to hero overpowered main character story Soul Land or Mortal's Journey is better. For what it's worth, Star Martial God Technique was entertaining for the latter half of the series.