DESCRIPTION

CAST

ONA ActionModao Zushi 2
MANGA ActionModao Zushi
ONA ComedyModao Zushi Q
MANGA ActionMadou Soshi

REVIEWS

• 

  Satan66

  90/100
  First chinese "anime" I watched. Smooth characters floating on swords

  "The Founder of Diabolism" is an anime I actually watched with my mother. There is also a chinese series about this anime -I'll just call it anime, don't judge- which is already completed. It is the first chinese anime I watched, I think.

  Here a pic from the series.

  Let's exorcist some demons from your minds, shall we? Eventhough it's a bit sarcastic when I say, that we should exorcist some demons xP. Anyways, I'll begin with my review now:

  1. Story

  "The Founder of Diabolism" is a very hard to explain anime... The story can be devided into the main story and the story about the past. While watching the anime, the timeline always changes back and forth which is very irritating at first. The only difference -at least it was the one which helped me the most- was the way how the main character Wuxian Wei tied his hair. Here some examples:

  his hair is tied in this picture. It is for the timeline which takes place "now".

  In this picture his hair is open. It means, we are in the past now.

  The whole story starts in the present time and the setting is being told how an evil spirit takes over people. Wuxian is playing a character with madness.

  I personally think, it was really hard to get in the story because when I watched it, I didn't know what the hell the characters are talking about and what actually was going on. The time change factor was really confusing too. This could have been done much better. When I got used to it, the second problem was the names. It was really hard for me to remember the names of each person -I'm personally not good in remembering names too- that is why it was even harder for me to get into the story.

  

  2. Characters

  The characters in "The Founder of Diabolism" are really detailed and very interesting. As I watched the anime, the further it got, the more interesting it was for me to watch them. It is one of the less anime I actually watched in one go.

  Backgroundstories of the characters are being told in the time change to the past and you get a glimps, why the characters changed that much during the time and how they changed. I really liked the drawing style of the characters but one point I didn't really like is, that the characters are looking much alike. Especially the side characters are not as easy to say who is who. The similarity in clothes didn't make it easier.

  

  3. Art / Animation / Soundtracks

  As I already said in 2, the characters are very much alike, but I think the art is very smooth and give the character a more noble touch. It was really enjoyable to watch them. Each move the character did, was like they are floating, very elegant.

  

  I really liked the soundtracks of this anime too. The flute really suited the style of the anime and gave me a warm feeling. Also, this is my first anime where I listened to the opening very often because I like it.

  I really liked how the voice actors were chosen too. They performed the characters attributed very well and it really was fun to watch.

  4. Conclusion

  Besides of some issues I had, I really liked this anime. I'm currently waiting for the release of season 3. It is a nice peace of art the studio created. Big story behind the anime and nice voice actors. It made me laugh a lot too, but it had it's sad sides underlined as well. I loved the smoothness of this anime, that is why I will give a 9/10 for it. The 1 point I chose to throw away because it gave me a hard time to find into the story at first.

  
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• 

  SnoccSan

  95/100
  A beautiful anime with stunning animation, a fitting soundtrack, lovable characters and a great plot,a Masterpiece

  CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS

  Mo Dao Zu Shi [Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation] is a Chinese anime which revolves around the cultivation clans from different regions. The story revolves around the clans Jiang, Lan, Jin, Wen, and Nie, with Yanmeng Jiang Clan and Gusu Lan being the main focuses.
  Our MCs; Wei Ying/Wuxian and Lan Zhan/Wangji are a part of the Jiang Clan and Gusu clan respectively.

  The story is about the past of these two characters, and the 5 clans, as well as the present of Wei Wuxian, who is currently in the body of Mo Xuanyu.

  The plot itself I will not reveal much about, as there are huge revelations throughout the story which I don't want to spoil.

  ---

  But I will say, the plot is so intricately written and is so well presented that towards the end, I did not want to stop watching until I got a resolution to the whole plot towards the end of this season.
  There's gut wrenching moments which gave me anxiety, the voice acting from the VA of Jiang Cheng especially sent chills down my spine towards the end. Overall, the voice from not only him, but all the characters were so well done, that even if you weren't used to listening to Chinese audio, you wouldn't care. You would just get engrossed in natural voice acting.

  ---

  The animation uses a lot of CGI for backgrounds and other objects but never have I ever seen cgi being implemented so well. There were a few scenes which looked really off-putting but that only happens like 4-5 times and barely for a few seconds so I let it slide. Doing CGI this well, does deserve a lot of praise.
  The direction was really well done, I could feel like I was standing right there, watching everything happen. The fights were well choreographed, they always showed the complete fights instead of 2 seconds of fighting and a minute of monologue.

  

  I can't even begin to imagine how much effort the animation of the fights must have took. They showed full hands-on fighting with little to no scene cuts, and the clothes were animated so naturally as well. As someone who does draw, i can say for sure that it's a challenging task to draw clothes even as a still image but to do it so flawlessly during a fight baffled me. Every movement of each cloth was done with proper care and attention. Mind you, there's like tons of characters in almost each scene, so it's visible that the animation team really cared about what they were doing and gave it their best. Chinese animation studios are scary, someone once said to me, after watching MDZS, I understood what they meant.

  

  Also as a sucker for hair animation, they did that flawlessly as well. With long hair, there's bound to be a lot of flowiness to it, and they showed that perfectly with such smoothness.

  

  ---

  Nothing except a few CGI scenes here and there looked out of place, and I commend the animation studio for that level of detail. Even the SFX was so well done, like there were sound effects for rain falling onto a sword in ep 5, and it was a nice little touch

  ---

  Onto the part that actually disappointed me, because I went into this anime mainly because it was tagged BL. Tho I have read the manhua too, and knew there was little to no romance, there was even less of it in the anime. While it doesn't affect my overall rating for the show, it's more of a personal taste thing, I still feel like there's too much chemistry being developed for something that leads to nothing so far. Lan Zhan was being taunted by Wei Ying and he hinted that he did indeed liked Wei Ying, as he would be really Tsundere around him, but it all led to just a worried Lan Zhan and Wei Ying not even noticing. I hope that changes in the remaining two seasons.
  Though, the lack of romance does attract a bigger audience, which it truly deserves, so at least I'm happy about that.

  ---

  Wei Ying, Lan Zhan, Jiang Cheng are the main focus of this season and they truly are well written characters that I have come to love and care for after reading the manhua as it releases and now, watching the anime with pure dedication. I would definitely recommend this show to people who love groundbreaking fights, good animation and historical themes. It's a masterpiece in my eyes.

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• 

  ScarletLily24

  100/100
  Beautiful Chinese Cultivation BL Anime

  Founder of Diabolism or Mo Dao Zu Shi, more commonly called "MDZS" is a beautiful Chinese cultivation BL.

  MDZS is about a boy, Wei Wuxian, a gifted cultivator from Jiang clan, who is mischievous by nature and isn't afraid to question the way of the cultivation world. He believes you can use demonic cultivation for good. This brings a lot of trouble to him since other cultivators believe it should not be used. Wei Wuxian eventually learns demonic cultivation and the only one truly worried for him is Lan Zhan (Lan Wangji), a "perfect" cultivator, one of the twin jades of Gusu Lan, the younger brother of Lan Xichen. The anime is a BL, even though it is censored due to China not being supportive of LBTQ.

  SPOILERS OF THE STORY:

  Wen clan has been wanting to be the only ruling clan for a long time and eventually a war breaks out. After defeating the Wen Clan, The other clans plan on killing every Wen left, even the old, young and innocent. Wei Wuxian sees this as injustice and goes against the other clans as the other clans want to control Wei Wuxian. Eventually this leads to a war between the clans and Wei Wuxian, ending in Wei Wuxian's death. He wakes up 13 years later in a new body. The body is Mo Xuanyu's, an illegimate child of the Jin clan who sacrificed his life to resurrect Wei Wuxian, so Wei Wuxian has to avenge his death and kill the people that caused Mo Xuanyu pain. As Wei Wuxian goes on his journey, he encounters Lan Zhan, who has been looking for Wei Wuxian for 13 years as he is in love with him. He hides his identity but soon is discovered by Lan Zhan and his "adopted brother", Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng however, holds deep grudge towards Wei Wuxian.

  Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian eventually begin their journey together to find out who was behind those tragedies and schemes 13 years ago. And Lan Zhan will do everything this time to be by Wei Wuxian's side.

  Personal Opinion:

  Personally i loved MDZS very much. The anime is just beautiful to watch and has such an interesting plot. I have read the novel and watched the Chinese drama adaptation "The Untamed" and i have to say that i truly loved them all. I feel like they complimented each other well and i am now too deep into the world of MDZS. It fast became my favorite anime of all time due to it's complicated, beautiful and interesting plot, characters and animation. Something about Lan Zhan's personality and care for Wei Wuxian made him my favorite anime character too. I highly suggest this drama if you are a fan of BL or Chinese cultivation stories. If you have seen Heaven Official's Blessing, u cannot skip MDZS.
  Personally watched this in Chinese, but japanese dub is also available.

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