Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Donghua Keeps Getting Better
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dmanatunga
Posts: 54 |
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The Daily Life of the Immortal King and A Herbivorous Dragon of 5000 Years Gets Unfairly Villainized are two other Donghuas I really enjoyed. The lean more to comedy aspect, with Daily Life being kind of action comedy like Scissor Seven. I wouldn't call them masterpieces, but they are good for a laugh. Daily Life especially has some inspired episodes in the second season, even though the plotlines are fairly typical anime plots.
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ChirashiD
 Posts: 106 Location: WA |
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All we need to do is find a way to get China on the isekai bandwagon, and then we'll all be screwed.
 
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2398 Location: United States |
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I watched Link Click dubbed and the show itself is amazing! Please watch it, its criminally underrated!
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Nyapan
 Posts: 34 |
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I don't have much experience with donghua. I enjoyed Link Click and the first two seasons of Mo Dao Zu Shi I watched. I've also seen the first season of The King's Avatar but I wasn't a fan. Either way, donghua can definitely bring interesting shows so its rise is a good thing.
I'm surprised nobody talked about censorship. I'm not an expert on the subject at all but it seems like an important part of donghua to me. Sorry if this is bringing the mood down though. |
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kaoru99
Posts: 54 |
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Going to be honest. Every person I've seen that talks positively about donghua does so in the same breath that they talk about disliking and criticizing anime, like Maruyama's comments and this article. It feels like a prerequisite to liking donghua is also disliking anime to some degree, so I think people would find the censorship a net positive since they don't have to worry about things like fanservice or other stuff they dislike about anime. Limiting what you're allowed to write and show means less fear that the medium starts showcasing what you dislike, like the irrational fear of isekai some people seem to have. The only donghua I've seen that I somewhat liked was Link Click since it seemed the most anime like in it's art, direction, and themes. But apparently it's the rare exception. |
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DamianSalazar
Posts: 722 |
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Kinda like how the prerequisite to liking anime for some was getting tired of Western Animation. |
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Nyapan
Posts: 34 |
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I haven't seen as much criticism towards anime as you but it can happen. I wouldn't go as far as saying that disliking anime is necessary to like donghua though. I'm not the biggest fan of ecchi, harem and isekai so I agree with some of the criticisms but I am also totally against censorship. To be honest I was more talking about censorship regarding queer content since that's what I have experience with but I don't like any type of censorship including what you're talking about. I enjoyed the first two seasons of Mo Dao Zu Shi but when I learned that it was based on a BL novel and the show removed most of the gay content to comply with the guidelines I was disappointed. I don't want to watch a censored show so I didn't watch the third season. It also made me avoid all the other BL donghua because what's the point if it always gets censored? |
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Saeryen
 Posts: 900 |
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There is to be a donghua adaptation of Who Made Me a Princess, and I'm super excited!
I haven't seen any donghua yet, though Psychic Princess is on my to-watch list. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2128 |
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Well, like the post above you said, they've already adapted a Narou novel.
I think this is an "arguing against the person in your head" moment. |
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zztop
Posts: 646 |
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All this talk reminds me of a random Reddit comment looking at the issue in a positive manner; using a cake analogy they said now consumers can enjoy 2 kinds of cake/animation instead of seeing the other cake as some kind of ursurper to the Japanese cake.
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BluIndigoVi
Posts: 5 |
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I love anime, and I will always love it no matter the highs and lows of the modern industry. At the same time, I want to see more donghua because I see the potential and enthusiasm there with the projects coming out in the last few years. I say it's a win-win that we're getting both donghua and anime now. I have watched parts of Heaven's Official Blessing and Link Clink, and I was blown away by their distinct animation, art styles, characters, and worlds. There's a deep, raw beauty in seeing another country tell their stories in their own unique ways. Yes, there are definitely donghua with resemblances to anime, but it feels different to me in a good way.
I don't want donghua and anime to be seen as a competition for what's better, but I also believe that more creators with their distinct visions and ideas can be a great way to inspire and push other creators forward. Anime has been a big influence in modern Western animation, and the beginning roots of manga and anime partially came from Disney animation fascinating Osamu Tezuka. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse crawled so the excellently stylized Japanese and Chinese collaboration TO BE HERO X could run, and The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon from Japan would be influential decades later for Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack and Tomm Moore's Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers. Creations from different sources can spark new creations from onlookers and vice versa. I don't need to know who's the best; I want filmmakers to be inspired by each other. Chinese animators have become courageous in trying out their own animated films and television series, and I'm thrilled to see what entertainment they can bring us from here on out. As donghua keeps evolving from here with exciting new projects, I hope the same can be true someday for Korean animation (aeni) and other Asian countries' animated creations. I read a lot of manwha, and it would be awesome to see more of these stories get animated by their studios and not always needing to be adapted by Japan (like God of High School, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion, and Solo Leveling) or China (like the upcoming Who Made Me a Princess). It was really cool that Studio MIR, known for their stellar work on The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender, got to adapt a story originating from their own country with Lookism. The Philippines released Hayop Ka!, an imperfect but well-animated adult film, back in 2020, and Taiwan has many animated projects in the works that I hope get released internationally. We're in an exciting time where animation in various Asian countries is blossoming, and as anime fans who know how long it took for anime to become more accepted and appreciated internationally, we should be supportive of other creators, artists, animators, and more having the opportunities now to take new heights and broaden the horizon of the medium. As a side note, Crunchyroll or another company, please bring more donghua over and sub them for your audiences. There are a handful on Crunchyroll right now, and it would be amazing to see more brought over. I think it's good for more attempts at dubs to happen, too. Subbing and dubbing for Chinese animation isn't going to come naturally at first, but I thought the dubs for Heaven's Official Blessing and Link Clink turned out good, and with more resources and more experience, I think it won't take long to get used to the differences between anime and donghua localization. |
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kgw
 Posts: 1067 Location: Spain, EU |
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The idea of "China will beat us in a decade or less" from Japan is nothing new. It's been there since the early 2000, at least. And now more due to political issue, PRC foreign policy, Road and Belt, bases in the South China Sea…
But then again, I think it's way more predictable a collapse of Japanese animation (too many projects, too little budgets, over-stressed staff) than "Chinese anime" taking over the world. |
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KlarkKentThe3rd
Posts: 108 |
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But Taiwan does not have much animation being made, if any.......
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Fedora-san
 Posts: 464 |
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You can say that about every non-Japanese country. Japan puts out more animation in one season than other countries do for an entire year. I don't really follow donghua, but even all the examples people are listing in this article and thread are spread out across multiple years. It's also why people claiming any country's animation industry surpassing Japan is dubious to me because none of them are really at a point production wise that it's really comparable. Especially on a global scale. I can see them being indie darlings and arthouse successes, but until we start seeing equivalents to franchises like Demon Slayer or One Piece it's going to be a very lofty claim. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11377 |
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I'm just really disappointed that the Japanese dub never got picked up by Funi or even fansubbers. Another series I'd recommend is Bai Yao Pu (aka Fairies Albums or Manual Of 100 Demons). It's about a spirit doctor traveling around (I forget what it is she's looking for) with a child Buddhist monk in training and a serpent demon in human form (and a fox cub they pick up in the first couple episodes). The stories are all 2 episode arcs, and so far they've been pretty different from each other. The format seems to be some strange affliction, which she diagnoses by magically looking into their pasts to find out what's bugging them, so she can do her healing thing. It's better than I make it sound.
Mostly it reminds me of Mushi-Shi, except with less ethereal ambiance and more cheeky humor, because the doctor is kind of a selfish bitch. Also, when she heals a "fairy" (which can be any kind of demon or spirit being) she makes a contract with them that she can use them as medicine later on. She hasn't done that yet, so I'm not really sure what that means. It reminds me of another anime I can't put my finger on, where the mc helped people who who owe him/her? a favor later on. If that rings any bells, please speak up! While there's not yet an overwhelming amount of isekai in donghua, what they're massively into seems to be reincarnation. It sometimes feels like 2/3 of the series out there are about some magic guy reincarnating and having to relearn all his magic again from scratch or rise through the ranks again using his past-life skillz. Ok, not that rote and simple, but neither is isekai. Just there's a lot of variation on the one basic theme. |
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