Doupo Cangqiong: Nian Fan

The BTTH Nian Fan review will be broken down into arcs (since MAL is lumping all of the Nian Fan Episodes together).
Current Arcs:
Arc 1: JiaNan Academy EP1-52

Arc 1: EP1-52 JiaNan Academy

Plot Summary: After having been forced to escape the JiaMa Empire due to the YunLan Sect's pursuit, Xiao Yan makes his way to the Black Corner region where the JiaNan Academy is located. He has some encounters along the way that slowly allow him to aclimate to the world outside of the JiaMa Empire and the chaotic region that is the Black Corner Region. He soon reunites with Xun Er and joins in the competition ... to advance to the inner academy. There he gains many new friends and quickly grows his strength in preparation for his return to the JiaMa Empire to settle his previous enmity with the YunLan Sect.

The plot for this Arc of Nian Fan mainly focuses on Xiao Yan's journey and growth while in the Black Corner Region, a lawless and chaotic region in this world, and the JiaNan Academy. Like the name JiaNan Academy suggests, this arc contains the classic school arc, where our MC, through competition and use of the academy's resources, quickly powers up. This lasts for about 33 Episodes. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your tastes), this arc contains many of the classic school arc tropes, featuring school competition (w/ underdog/dark horse MC), seal-clapping handsome men/goddess worship, cliche romantic drama surrounding Xun Er, and "arrogant young master" type characters challenging the MC. This part of the Academy arc is probably one of the weakest in presentation because of how much feels like filler. This arc's adaptation very close to the novel (more on that in the adaptation review section), but it can sometimes feel like a drag with all the randoms cheering or and cliche school arc moments. This part of the arc is mostly weighed down by the "relationship politics" that would have plagued the first season of BTTH, and its flaws more apparent due to this production company not having had any arcs/seasons like this. After EP33, we get into the "meat" of the arc with the contention against the Fallen Heart Flame, Xiao Yan's reason to attend the academy. We get the fight against the flame, introduction to Yao Chen's (Xiao Yan's teacher) other disciple who betrayed him in Origins. And eventually Xiao Yan survives being trapped with the Fallen Heart Flame, refines the flame, and emerges to return to JiaMa Empire for revenge.

Other than Xiao Yan and Yao Lao, his teacher, this arc features a host of new characters in the new academy environment. This includes friends/teammates, neurtal but friendly characters, and antagonistic ones as well. Most of the faces we have been familiar with have been left behind, Hai BoDong, Ya Fei, Yun Yun, etc only get short appearances, typically updates on their situation. The new characters aren't all that impressive, most of them are throwaway enemies, though there are some friends he makes that will be mainstays for futures seasons. The friendly characters are likeable, and the antagonistic ones are, well, as one would expect of them. Some characters that were were in the first season (but didn't make an appearance in Origins, the "remake") also reappear with new models.

The animation quality and character models are still good for the entire arc. In the beginning 30 or so episodes, there have been basically no changes in character models (Xun Er gets a "new" reveal, using the same model as in Origins, but different from S4), but the animation fluidity has clearly gone down compared to the special; it would have been unreasonable to expect the same quality as the first major climax in the novel. The fights feel less impactful and are less effects heavy; they are also less exciting than the 3YA fights (they are lower ranking fights after all). While the overall animation quality has gone down, it is still a good watch. Most of the one-on-one fights are still good, though like most donghua, the quality of the group fights are lacking. After the EP33 or so, the quality of the animation in the fights goes up, as we are approaching the climax for this season. We have a huge and exciting battle surrounding the Fallen Heart Flame. The character designs (for important named characters) and environments are still great, very beautiful to behold and pleasing to the eyes. Do note that Xiao Yan's model does change around EP40, I didn't really like the new design because it felt more like a generic donghua MC, but that's just personal opinion.

Like what I had mentioned in the animation section, the overall animation quality has gone down. This can be attributed to the fact that it is now on a 1-year contract, weekly release schedule. Rumors say that this 52 episode "season" had the same budget as 3YA; though I don't know how true this rumor is, it is clear that the budget is clearly streched in places. The climax fights surrounding the fallen heart flame were very exciting, but many of the fights during the rematches after felt quite cheap, slow, and bland.

This Arc 1 of Nian Fan, is still enjoyable though the focus is less on Xiao Yan's individual adventure like previous seasons and more on relationship politics and school arc type drama. My score for this season is between 6 and 7, since a large part of the focus on school drama was much less exciting than the solo adventures we have grown used to. Unless you like school, relationship politics and romance drama, this season will not be as fun for you, though there are still many great fights and action.

Extra: My personal score for this Arc is 5/10 mostly because of a censored 11th hour change that was teased in both the pre-release PV and next episode PVs (EP41). This was a highly anticipated highlight for the romantic development between Medusa and Xiao Yan. The teased preview scenes were deleted from the actual release, infuriating me and many other fans.

Adaptation Review

The JiaNan Academy arc gets a high adaptation score from me. The plot for this JiaNan Academy arc matches very closely with the novel, with its main changes being removing/condensing some of the annoying jealousy/competition fights. They did a supurb job doing the time lapses for training/challenge fights, making some parts that may have been a drag into a quick montage that covered these parts. There were relatively few changes that I noticed to the actual plot, though some of the more annoying challenges and fights (mostly involving romantic jeolousy because of Xiao Yan and Xun Er's relationship). Others' roles are also expanded, explanation of different factions, and a greater showing of other characters' interactions that don't directly involve Xiao Yan (the novel is very much a Xiao Yan solo cultivation adventure novel after all).

The character designs and animation (of characters and fights) bring to life very well, what is described in the novel, giving even greater excitement that what you might read about, since they fill in the gaps between big moves with weighted movement and exchanges that really get the blood and adreniline pumping. The fights continue to be great, even if it doesn't top 3YA. The BTTH adaptation continues to deliver.

The characterization of characters in this arc is pretty good, especially for the new ones. The ones who should be imposing feel and act as such, especially the ones with a powerful reputation within the academy; all of the characters seem to invoke what I believe the original novel wanted us to feel about each of the characters. The only really awkward character is Medusa, because as early as the S2 Special Song of the Desert, they have been subtly changing/plot patching her character to make for her transition into an ally of Xiao Yan rather than an enemy. Her "tsundere" attitude/actions are especially grating and unnatural feeling in the later part of this arc, but hopefully this dissonance won't last long.

In the adaptation, I would say the most disappointing part was EP41's 11th hour censorship. If you watched the original pre-release PV and the next episode PV for EP 41 you can see two different scenes involving both Xiao Yan and Medusa. This scene in the novel was a r*pe scene, but this would have never made it past the Chinese censors. However, even the very tame implication for that scene foreshadowed in the PVs got erased and replaced with some awkward fadeaway that may confuse those who haven't read the novel, especially since the skip goes right to Medusa trying to kill Xiao Yan without any reference/details on what happened.

Adaptation Score (how faithful to source): 8/10