Donghua: MC fights the world to get back his lover
Anime
It seems not to be an uncommon Romeo and Juliet type plot device in donghua to have the main protagonist meet the love of his life, only to have her stripped away from him, whether because she originates from a different clan, has highly sought after bloodline powers, or the antagonists just want to rub salt on the wound after killing him. In each of the following anime, the protagonist is either reincarnated (as in isekai) or a lot of time has passed, and he's looking for revenge. This device sets up the ultimate underdog revenge fantasy story by involving a most human aspect in their motivation for facing against practically the entire universe: love.
Although I haven't read any cultivation novels, from what I can tell, the web novels seem to be written as a series of background descriptions and character actions, meaning unlike comic books, focus is not given to dialogue. When studios buy licensing rights, they often churn out mediocre work with a generic script where characters more or less repeat the same lines in different similar situations. This is partially because donghua monetization rely on ad revenue and subscriptions as opposed to expensive merch as in anime.
3 out of the 4 following donghua fall into the category of what I described above. My point is the scripts are really bad, but if you are able to pay attention to the overall plot instead of the mindnumbingly cliched and repetitive lines and trope, you might be able to enjoy them.
In terms of narrative and script quality, Mirror: Twin Cities is the best on this list.
Although I haven't read any cultivation novels, from what I can tell, the web novels seem to be written as a series of background descriptions and character actions, meaning unlike comic books, focus is not given to dialogue. When studios buy licensing rights, they often churn out mediocre work with a generic script where characters more or less repeat the same lines in different similar situations. This is partially because donghua monetization rely on ad revenue and subscriptions as opposed to expensive merch as in anime.
3 out of the 4 following donghua fall into the category of what I described above. My point is the scripts are really bad, but if you are able to pay attention to the overall plot instead of the mindnumbingly cliched and repetitive lines and trope, you might be able to enjoy them.
In terms of narrative and script quality, Mirror: Twin Cities is the best on this list.
ONA, 2020,
64 eps
Me:-
Author:5
Tens of thousands of years ago, god-level cultivator Muyun stores his consciousness inside of a scroll after being defeated by his enemies. He is reincarnated into the body of someone known to have low cultivation talent, and has been forced to become a teacher to delinquents in a small town. He is betrothed to a beautiful girl who would die soon due to a rare blood line power that is consuming her from the inside, as a political marriage to unite two powerful families. Of course, now he has his memories back from his previous life, including all his previous medicinal and cultivation talents.
ONA, 2021,
380 eps
Me:-
Author:3
Tan Yun was a god that ruled over an entire universe who was backstabbed by some other gods. Since they did not have enough power to completely seal away Tan Yun's power, they forced him into an eternal cycle of reincarnation that would slowly deplete his power with each cycle, so that they could kill him the same way each time. Then they killed his entire family or forced some underlings into exile. In his very last reincarnation, Tan Yun suddenly regains his previous memories, and recognizes the reincarnation of his original lover coincidentally in front of him as a servant girl. He resolves to marry her. On the night of their marriage, she is kidnapped by a powerful clan to which she originally belonged, but for whatever reason was orphaned. The kidnapper then uses a technique to wipe out all of his memories of her again.
ONA, 2019,
30 eps
Me:-
Author:5
Chu Xing Yun is a powerful cultivator who would lose his sweetheart and get defeated by an unknown enemy. He is reincarnated as himself in his teenage years under mysterious circumstances. Knowing how he would eventually end, he takes steps to try to prevent the original outcome. But one of the first things he does is to march into the halls of the Shui clan and back out of his original marriage, which was going south anyways due to a loss of prestige in his own clan, and demand to marry his fiance's sister. The Shui clan gladly agree to this arrangement, since Shui Liu Xiang was thought of as a useless cultivator. In the previous life, she took care of the protagonist when he was injured and they fell in love. It turns out that she isn't useless, but just has the rare blood line that's literally freezing her to death because she doesn't know how to practice it. Then one day a woman from the Nine Frost Palace clan promises to teach her how to control her powers, but she has her sights on her blood line and kidnaps her instead.
ONA, 2021,
18 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Su Mo is a leader of the merman tribe whose tears crystallize, so the people of his race are often enslaved or have their eyes stolen by their captors. To prevent others from stealing his eyes, he gouges them himself and destroys them. Then, being blind, he is brought to a sky palace to befriend a princess whose fate is to be locked up in a tower until marriage. He falls in love with her, but being a slave, they could never be together. Some time after her marriage with the preordained prince is announced, he throws himself off the tower, but was saved from death by a forest spirit below. For a hundred years, he wanders the earth, bitter and losing faith in humanity. At the start of the show, he meets a little girl who's an ethnic minority whose town was wiped out in a genocide, and having nowhere to go, she wants to see the legend of the tower. Su Mo tags along with her, but he has other plans: revenge.
Note that this show calls itself "season 2", but the first season is more like a more cinematic, higher budget introduction. Green lit by the hype of those 4 episodes, season 2 recaps the first season with its first episode. Therefore, it stands alone by itself. Since the events are not entirely shown in order, if you watch the first season before this, you might actually get confused.
Note that this show calls itself "season 2", but the first season is more like a more cinematic, higher budget introduction. Green lit by the hype of those 4 episodes, season 2 recaps the first season with its first episode. Therefore, it stands alone by itself. Since the events are not entirely shown in order, if you watch the first season before this, you might actually get confused.
