Chinese Animation Guide – Part 2: Chinese Anime shows

As much as I hated the term Chinese Anime (Anime stands for Japanese animation, strictly speaking), this is the exact term for those shows. Their influence from the Anime was so heavy that apart from the voice cast and some scene settings, you can’t tell those apart from the original anime. With that said, judge from anime standard, some of the shows here are solid or at least entertainment. Here are the 6 shows in no particular order:

Spirit Blade Mountain – Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage – 从前有座灵剑山

In the anime’s story, a comet falling will bring about a great calamity, and in order to choose a child fated by the falling comet, the family of the “Reiken” clan with a long storied history is once again resuming its entrance examination process to find disciples. The protagonist, who possesses a special soul that is only available once in a thousand years, decides to take the exam, and he starts down the path toward becoming an exceptional sage. This is an anime adaptation of the popular manga “Spirit Blade Mountain“ by Studio DEEN and just released in Winter 2016. This first episode benefits both from the double length (20 minutes compared to other series’ 10 minutes) and a huge likeable cast on their way to the Reiken trial. Each of them have their own designs and personalities so this is fun to watch them working together. This is the most anime-quese of all the shows I watch, but considering an anime studio adapting it, it would make sense. The story is good and fun so far but I’m not quite convinced to watch more of it.

Chu Feng BEE (雛蜂-BEE-)

In 2017, a group of genius scientists achieve a remarkable breakthrough in bioengineering. However, all the new technologies are put into military use, beginning a new round of arms race. Vanguards, as the most significant achievement of the modern bioengineering and the most advanced weapon, are widely utilized in the race. The heroine Liuli has also consumed too much of her lifespan after executing missions for a long time. With only 380 days left in her life, Liuli receives a new mission, to rescue a hostage being held in a civilian facility. During the mission, Liuli surprisingly finds that the man who holds the hostage was once a vanguard. The art is gorgeous and the production is very solid here: from the background design, the sound, the music, everything just in high standard here, but the story, even in its 1st episode, is so heavy-handed. I don’t really like all the political elements of the show, but it seems like they going for that direction. This is one of the most popular Chinese titles out there as well. I will give it couple more episodes to see how everything unfolds.

Nüwa’s Growth Diary (女娲成长日记)

A girl finds out by her creepy father that she is in fact Nuwa, the goddess who creating mankind and repairing the pillar of heaven. Now she has to come to term with it. The first episode focuses on the father who keep convincing her daughter that she’s a goddess, but she understandably thinks that he’s a nut. I think this is one of the most solid comedy show in this list. My favorite part would be when the father and daughter stop arguing for a moment, turn back and ask the director if their “acting” is good enough. I don’t think this shows will break any rules but it is an enjoyable work.

The Devil Ring (戒魔人)

What a great hook. The story about a freshman guy, forced to wear unknown origin ancient ring, soon after a terrible evil literally leaps out from his mouth, and attacks people, these strange monsters may hide the mystery of the origin of human. I’d say I’m impressed with the hook, but from this first episode I can’t really say where the show decides to head into? Is it a thriller Ajin-style, where everyone would hunt him and the monster down, is it a psychological one where he has to learn how to control the monster, or is it just simply a mindless action show? The art is not really my type but I don’t mind to explore more of this work.

Eros Chocolate (爱神巧克力)

A guy, unknowingly eats a “love” pie and shares the pie to 4 girls, as a result those four girls, with so different personalities, chase him down like crazy. This is your typically harem show, and as far as I can tell not a good one. All the girls are archetypes: a Queen bee, a Sporty one, a Bookworm one, and a Weird Weilding Sword one. Haizz, this show makes me sad that even the harem stuff still have its fan overseas.

NANOCORE (纳米核心)

Nanocore is a science fiction Chinese TV cartoon in 3D. The stage of the story is established on a fictional planet Birthigin. In this young planet, human will never stop longing for a bright future despite reason and fear. In revolutions and evolutions, human keeps challenging the Creator, and which eventually induces contractions intensified. People choose to wake up and struggle for their own ideals.  Seems like an intrigue idea, but what’s up with this show’s character designs? A pink hair girl with pink eyes and pink outfit, who has a brother that has red hair and red eyes; plus, they are in 3D computer animated and we have a completely ridiculous art designs. The story features a brother and sister who were looking for food, then suddenly a huge aircraft fell right behind them. Other elements are all right though, I have to say the sci-fi setting is rather well though, but not too stand out from the rest.

~SuperMario~