Zhen Dao Ge

Zhen Dao Ge ( Song of Broadsword) set in medieval china is a martial arts donghua about revenge.

It follows the main character travelling from one place to another to find the main reason why his family was murdered.

This is similar to a fighting game with some cutscenes to fill up the story but the main part of this is the fights which include various weapons.
It has a very smooth animation while fighting but in other scenes, it lacks in some aspects.

Fights- 8.5
Animation- 7

... This is a good one and will rate 7.5 but it is not an 8

I am looking forward to the 2nd season atleast for the fighting scenes.

I accidentally found this gem donghua and binged it in one sitting. The style of animation is 2.5D (3D cel shaded). The art style take some getting used to due to the coarse drawing style, but if you've seen the likes of The Kingdom S1, Kengan Asura and can adapt to it, you should give this a try. The action scene in this show blew me away.

The story and plot is 'seemingly' simple and straightforward, every episode the MC fights through each opponent as he trace to the mastermind for his final revenge. At the beginning of each episode is a little bit of the ... past reveal.

The soundtrack, bgm, OP and ED are all very well done and matches the 'Jianghu' theme well.

The reason I call this a gem is because the action is one of the best I've seen in donghua (and anime) in this decade. If you enjoy watching martial arts fight, the choreography, sound effects, and directing will astound you. You can almost feel the blast and impact in every punch and kick, in every clash of weapons. The fight is very fast pace yet every move can be seen clearly. You would think the fight gets boring but each opponent the MC face is different, you have sword fights, spear fights, fist fights, bamboo fights. each one is breathtaking.

Produced by a small animation studio, you can feel the passion and dedication they pour into this project.

I highly recommend this. A kind soul translated it properly in English, so you don't have to worry about nonsensical MTL subtitles. Just google for it.

Zhen Dao Ge explores the Chinese idiom "When you seek revenge dig two graves". H

He Fangzhi, the son of a government official tries to seek revenge for the massacre of his entire family 13 years ago. His journey begins at his former servant's bar in the Gobi desert where he kills everyone involved.

Story: 6/10
The story has a lot of promise, it sets the story by showing glimpse of He Fangzhi's past and memories from his past instead of dishing it out in the beginning. We see the beginning of his journey at the bar in the Gobi desert. The story is fairly interesting but the ... fight scenes are a bit boring because He Fangzhi struggles for 5min and then at the end of the fight he kills his enemies and moves on to the next.

Art & Sound: 7/10
The art style and animation during fights is very close to Kengan Ashura. It's not the prettiest or detailed but it does hold well in fast paced action as does the art style in kengan Ashura. However, it does make viewers shy away from this series.

The only memorable sound related aspect in this series was the ending song which was played throughout the sad moments of the series. It is soft yet resilient with the tone of this story.

Character: 7/10
Character design wasn't too bad. The characters fighting against He Fangzhi were mysterious to deepen the significance of his revenge all to build up and come crashing down as he comes to reality with his past. The characters that He Fangzhi leaves behind on his path of revenge also give a sense of growth as we also question the possibility of history repeating itself and a never ending spiral of revenge to ensue in season 2.

Overall: 7/10
It's a pretty decent watch. The characters left a bit to be desired in terms of background and depth of personality instead of killing them and they reveal hints.