Douluo Dalu II: Jueshi Tangmen

Just as awesome as the manhua. The quality of animation is stunning, as well as the plot (constrution, emotion). There are also no wokeness, instead we can see refreshing sane spirit and self-improving plot mindset.

There are some minor liberties in the plot and in the character design, in comparison to the manhua, but I think it is a great pleasure to be able to watch those slight new differences when you already read the manhua. It also keeps surprise for what is yet to come in the whole season.

And also every episodes are totally free, viewable on youtube with subtiles, just ... like a lot of others chineses animes.

This is literarily the future of the animation market. Just like manhuas came to the world those last few years, those animations will.

Firstly, this review will be an unbiased review of Soul Land II and not a comparison between its predecessor.

Taking place 10,000 years after its prequel Douluo Dalu II follows Huo Yuhao, born the son of the White Tiger Duke Dai Hao and servant Huo Yun'er. Huo Yuhao experienced prejudice for being born as an illegitimate son of one of the Shrek Devils direct descendants; Naturally so did his Mother so when she left Huo Yuhou after succumbing to a sickness he made it his mission to seek revenge once he gains enough power. Huo Chances upon a group of Shrek Academy students who introduce ... him to the bustling life of Shrek City and its prestigious school. Huo Yuhao has to prove himself worthy of attending the school or he will be cast aside to fend for himself again; Does Huo Yuhao have what it takes to change his fate?

Story & Characters: 4/10 & 6/10
Soul Land II started with an interesting premise of a bastard son trying to make a name for himself without relying on his family's status. Since the beginning we were bombarded with so many entrance exams, school tournaments and student scrimmages; I can confidently say that of the total series run-time 80% of it was purely the aforementioned. Along with the very fast pacing, the tournament arcs added little to no useful contribution to the story and when meaningful developments occurred we had time-skips or montages that totally devoid their impact on the storyline. Douluo Dalu II had a lot of potential within its world-building and having students explore the landmarks would naturally lead to not only more entertaining experiences but an authentic character development between the Shrek Academy group. It's too bad that they decided to focus on the wrong arcs to build the foundation of the narrative.

In terms of character development, Douluo Dalu II does well to manage over 20 characters within a semi-long season. However, once we start looking at individual characters apart from their martial soul, cultivation and skills they lack depth and backgrounds. It makes sense for characters who have mysterious backgrounds to remain until a big reveal but there's no way that half of the characters in this series have been hiding plot twist worthy backgrounds. The dynamic between Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao feels forced at times and their techniques carry too much plot armor defying soul level barriers in battles constantly. In the beginning Huo Yuhao works hard to succeed but at a certain point elders and professors begin to assist him in gaining anything he wants which makes the struggle pointless.

Art & Sound: 7/10
The art and animation are as you expect from a modern donghua; The scenes are population dense with great ambient lighting, high fidelity details and even particle effects. Douluo Dalu II doesn't skip on the character designs either, the steampunk like costume and tool designs appear very detailed and colorful. Characters have drastically different builds, facial features and hair colors which makes them distinctive. However, sometimes it can get overwhelming especially in fight scenes where too much is going on and the scenes look like a visual mess of bright flashing colors or particle effects splashing around. While it is a semi-big budget production Douluo Dalu II still uses keyframe rigged characters and facial features which makes character movement and close up shots look very mechanistic. The hair and clothing physics make up for the machine-like movements.

Sound design is very interesting. I like how they re-use thematic songs in important plot-twist events; It adds substance to the scenes. The background music choice are very informed, they suit many of the various scenes that have been matched with it. Along with the music, the sound effects are timed and overlap between scenes to make the viewing experience seamless. It's one of the only series I've seen that do this, but Douluo Dalu II does it on a religious level. Voice acting was decent, there weren't many times where the characters added heavy emotion/expression into their dialogues and most of them spoke with the same monotonous voices. The only ones I noticed that had dialogues that added emotion/expression were Xiao Xiao, Caitou and old Ms Zhou.

Overall & Enjoyment: 5/10
I'll be honest, I felt like dropping this series several times just within the first half alone. The tournament and student assessment arcs were so repetitive that it felt like I was watching on a loop. Characters didn't feel convincing especially the main seven characters of this series; The deuteragonist lacked so much in character that they are only tied with an ultimate technique. I am excited now that I've reached the action because the series has truly begun after 12 hours of tournament arcs. (Episode 1-51 Review)