Mo Dao Zu Shi
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi

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This is the best Boy's Love manga I've read. Despite being a Chinese manga, and having to follow the strict censorship regulations of LGBT+ content that exist in China, the relationship of the two protagonists has been adapted clearly and beautifully, being as faithful as legally possible to the source novel.

But Mo Dao Zu Shi is so much more than a gay romance.

Story: 10/10

There are several arcs in this story. With its current 190 chapters, the manhua has adapted roughly 60% of the full story, as presented in the novel. The Mo Dao Zu Shi storytelling combines different timelines, slowly unveiling many mysteries and providing ... exceptional background for the main characters AND antagonists. Despite its length, it doesn't take long for the heavy-hitter arcs to appear and blow you away. Once the main story is explained, and the main relationship gets established, the manhua quickly moves on to one of the most brutal tales I've ever seen in any form of media, and the hype never runs out of steam after that.

The relationship of the protagonists is perfectly rooted into the main story. It is the driver of the plot but it never overshadows all the unexpected twists, creative world-building, and intelligently written mysteries. No element of this story is lesser than the others, and everything gets just the right amount of spotlight to allow such a long tale to feel fresh, arc after arc.

Characters: 9/10

Wei WuXian is one of the best protagonists I've seen in anime and manga. He's such a diverse, funny, strong, flawed, scary and commanding character; he's perfect as our guide for this very, very complex story. Lan Zhan, the second protagonist, has incredible depth and it's impossible not to admire how much time was spent creating such an endearing badass that actually deserves all the praise he gets inside the story.

As for their relationship, it is my favorite romance in fiction. The love I witnessed here is unique. Not only is it very obviously adorable, but every gesture and every dialogue matters. Everything they do and say to each other, from the start, has a double meaning that you'll only being to understand after knowing their history. It's a relationship that has been planned with a lot of effort and care, continuously becoming more and more interesting and delightful to watch. I have never seen a slow-burn romance that hits as deeply as this one once all the pieces begin to fall into place.

The 2 main antagonists (so far) are incredible. I'm a sucker for good antagonists and I whole-heartedly HATE these genius and ruthless manipulators. I feel personally hurt by their actions. Simply amazing.

I give characters a 9/10 because while I'm impressed by the ones mentioned above, the remaining cast ranges from good to average. So far, there's no one else that has proven to be exceptional despite such a large cast of characters.

Art: 10/10

It's a colored manhua presented in relatively short chapters to maximize the resources put into the art. The talent here is as good as it gets for manhua; they hired the perfect person for the job.

Enjoyment: 10/10

It became my favorite romance story overnight. The roller-coaster plot and outstanding art are the cherry on top.

Overall: 9/10

I can't give a 10/10 to an unfinished story. There's also one arc (Lotus Pier Flashback) that let me down, because the donghua (anime) did an spectacular job with it, and I was expecting the manhua to deliver on the same level, but it didn't. As I said before, I'm not impressed by all the characters yet, and I need to see how they'll adapt the rest of the romance, considering the Chinese censorship on LGBT content doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, and it could potentially sour the endgame of their relationship.

All that being said, there's enough material already in this manhua adaptation for me to enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who likes dark fantasy. Brace yourself for an unpredictable, shocking, and often cruel story coated by a big, fat layer of sweetness in the form of the titular gay love story.

Let us start with what this Manhua actually is as it is by far most important factor.
You see - the name of the manhua is BY FAR the most misleading title in the history of mankind.

If you were hoping for some serious evil demonic cultivation series - throw your thoughts away, RIGHT NOW, leave this page immediately and never return!
You are still here? Alright, let's continue then.
The demonic cultivation is mostly an afterthought. In fact 'cultivation' is outright not present at all, characters are Mary Sue from get go.
There are elements of Chinese Xianxia but they are so barebones they might as well not exist.

The ... correct title for this manhua would be 'Grandmaster of Anal Cultivation'.
Yeah, boys love aspect is pretty much domineering and the other tags might as well not exist.

All 260 chapters of stories are a romantic buildup with something that one would usually call 'filler episodes' taking up majority of the chapters.
Every single page is nothing but an opportunity to show just how much 2 MCs want each other's ass and how amazing they are. That's literally it.

Story? Forget about that, there is no such thing here. You follow random ministories which only serve to build up a a large but empty world which could have been good... if there was something it was ultimately leading to.
But no, the manhua mostly throws around names of sects, characters and such... but none of them matter, wasting memory on them is an exercise in futility as most of them will be forgotten by the author after a few chapters.

Characters? If you remember someone aside of 2 MC's for longer than 2 days after reading this manhua - I would have to nominate you for a Nobel Prize.
Every character beyond the 2 MC's is mostly an afterthought that has one goal - show off how cool the MCs are in comparison.

If the only tag this had was Boys Love I would probably rate it an.. 8(not too sure, since I would likely not even start it if tags were not so misleading) but as is - 6 is honestly being generous.

The most redeeming factor is the fully colored art, which while not exactly high quality is generally above average with some drops in quality from time to time.

In short, the entire mdzs universe is worth it for the donghua. At the beginning of the manhua the art is really bad. Then, it improves a little, but not enough, since the story is poorly adapted compared to the donghua. The manhua in general, and sex chapters specifically, are childish and this causes the loss of all the solemnity, mystery, and delicacy of the story.

So disappointing that this manhua is not up to par the story. And probably it's the same for the original novel. To sum up, the great work have been made by the creators of the donghua. Long live ... the good yaoi!!