This review will be spoiler free, so feel free to read before you watch.
The first season of Doupo Cangqiong is garbage, there are no other ways to put it. The story is stale and have been done many times before. Normally I don't have a problem with overused stories as long as the execution is good, but as you guessed it, the execution is also trash.
Story:
This story starts with our protagonist Xiao, Yan. When he was just a young boy, he had great power that surpassed everyone his age. He was a genius, and because of his amazing abilities, he was engaged to Yan Ran, Na Lan, a girl from a powerful family. Just as everything was going well for Xiao, Yan, something terrible happened. After he turned 11, his power stopped growing and even became weaker as time went on. After three years, he was one of the weakest in his family, and deemed useless by his peers.
Because of this, Yan Ran, Na Lan wanted to break their engagement as she doesn't not want to be married to a useless husband. This was devastating to Xiao, Yan's family as her family was very powerful and sacred off people who tried to take over.
In the Heat of the Moment, Xiao, Yan promised a 1v1 with Yan Ran, Na Lan in 3 years time. If he was to win, he can do whatever he wants with her, but if she wins, she'll get to break off their engagement. From there the story begins.
Conclusion:
The reason I said the first season was garbage isn't necessarily because of the plot, but more of the poor execution when it comes to story telling. It was incredibly boring to watch the predictable plot points happen one after another. The music used isn't that great, even the OP is questionable. Overall the whole season could have been cut down to 3-4 episodes.
However, I'm writing this review not to drive you away from watching this anime as the second and third seasons are so much better after a new animation studios took over. I recommend skipping through the first season or reading the webnovel so you know the main plot points and moving on to the next seasons.
This season is a 5 out of 10 at most while the next two seasons are easily 7-8 out of ten. So please, do not turn away from a great anime due to this first shitty season.
