Mo Dao Zu Shi does very well with (some of) their visuals. From Gusu sect's Cloud Recesses to Yunmeng Jiang sects's Lotus Pier and just the forest in general, they're all gorgeously drawn backgrounds that uses a muted color palette that is reminiscent of ancient Chinese paintings. You can really tell that they spent a lot of effort on the scenery. It's definitely one of the highlights of the series.
On the other hand, the characters are less impressive. One of my biggest pet peeves is same facing. Same facing is when an artist consistently draws the same kind of face and the only way to distinguish them apart is from their hair or clothing. MDZS is very guilty of this. I couldn't tell anyone apart because all the people from the same sect wore the same clothes and everyone has the same face.
Another thing that I didn't like visually was the animation. Specifically, all the walking and running animations. They seemed unnatural and clunky and the lack of "movement" in the characters makes it seem too much like images put on top of another image. Speaking of images layered over images, some of the fighting animation painfully reminded me the difference in quality between the characters and the background. With no interactions with the background (i.e. twig snaps, leaves rustling, etc) it again feels like images over images.
Now that I've done a majority of the negative things, onto the music. The fact that I can finally hear the songs Lan Wangji plays is already a huge plus. That combined with the wonderfully melancholic OP and amazing soundtrack that puts specific emphasis on the Guzhin (Chinese zither) and the dizi (Chinese flute) which also happens to be the instruments the two main characters play.
Onto the story. A huge chunk of the donghua is set in Wei Wuxian's past and therefore, not much of the main story is really talked about in this other than the first couple episodes and a little piece of information in the last episode. (I even forgot there was a mystery!)
Because a large chunk of the donghua takes place during a flashback, most of the supporting cast isn't given enough screen time, if at all. Other than that, the donghua does a great job adapting the events of the book pretty much scene by scene (albeit a little less gay).
TLDR; read the book then come back and watch the donghua.
