***TL;DR***
What I Like:
-Funny prankster and oddball main character who is overpowered but chill
-Fighting scenes
-Chinese-style Magic Circles (:O poggers)
-the sheer beauty of landscapes and trees
-Chinese instrumental music
What I am critical about:
-Shounen-ai
-Non-linear plot structure & time skips
-Unfamiliar chinese voice acting
I recommend you give this show at least a try! Most people may be turned off by the Chinese voice acting and the Shounen-ai aspect, making this show quite underrated. I find them more than tolerable and am quite enjoying the series.
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From the art style/animation and music to the plot structure and character interaction, this series has blessed my eyes and ears with delightful pleasure.
The art and animation of this series gives Ufotable Studio's Fate series a run for its money. However, it also derives its uniqueness by being very different in its art style. As a long time Japanese anime fan, I find this very refreshing because it does not feel like a Chinese knock-off copy. In fact, I am overjoyed that I'm watching something that feels both genuine and unique.
Seriously, I regret not being able to give the art and animation of this series a score higher than 10. It is incredibly gorgeous and one of main reasons why I easily tolerate some of the aspect of the show that I was more critical about when starting the series.
TBH, I'm tend to avoid Shounen-ai, since it is not my cup of tea. When I saw this tag in the genre labeling, I was a bit turn off. However, the bromance is within tolerable level since it is quite subtle and can pass off as a best friend type of relationship. However, I was warned by a friend that this aspect gets more pronounced as the story progress if the ONA is faithful in terms of plot to the Novel.
The chronological pacing of the show is a bit confusing. It may take a rewatch to fully understand what is going on. In the first episode, you will have to pay attention to the text to understand the context of the series. It was tedious to chronologically map out the plot in my head, but at the same time, i like how it made me think and try to truly understand everything, rather than the show just throwing everything at me and boring me to sleep. Make sure to pay attention to the plot texts!!
I also found the Chinese voice acting to be weird, since I usually listen to Japanese from your usual anime. The Chinese names will probably become a mess in your head, so you may want to a mental note of which name represent which character. As if to further torment your brain, each character may also have a nickname or a title. For example, the white-robed patriarch of the Lan family residing in Gusu goes by 3 names: Lan Wan Ji, Lan Zhan, HanGuang Jun.
I got used to both the Chinese and the name in a few episodes, so it is not too big of a problem.
Overall, the first 6 episodes were a pleasure to both watch and rewatch. Some things were confusing but it cleared up. I did not find rewatching to be tedious at all. In fact, I wanted to rewatch since the art was such a masterpiece, and you would have to anyways to compensate for its more confusing plot structure and story pacing. Finally, I want to leave with note of appreciation for the unique vibe of this series because it is refreshingly new due to the different cultural setting.
Thank you for reading my really long review LOL.
