LONG ZU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionLongzu I
ONA ActionLong Zu 2

REVIEWS

• 

  zekkkk

  80/100
  Way better than it has ANY RIGHT to be

  Dragon Raja is a Chinese Donghua based off of a mobile/PC MMORPG in which the average newbie MC turns out to secretly be an S-Rank and goes to a magic school for--and already everyone reading this review has given up on this show. But please. Trust me. This show is good. Way better than it should be given what it is.

  Within the first 2 minutes of episode 0 I already knew this show was hitting different. A rare level of polish, detail and undeniable quality already reveals that this is not just The Eminence in Shadow No. 5: Made In China. The camera slowly blinks open, cradled by seawater and bubbles, and then zoom we're suddenly in the Infinity Castle from Demon Slayer, watching two elegantly clad brothers eating grapes and talking about death. Oh wait, they're immortal? And cannibalistic? When did we get inside this beautiful little house by the countryside? Damn that's some good background art. Watch how smoothly their sleeves and fingers move, how the light interacts with them, how the water in the cup ripples. Now we fly into a dragon's mouth and reappear in hell, surrounded by frozen corpses, ruined buildings and caged by a blood-red sky. We slowly stroll through the hellscape, and stop in front of a giant pyramid. Hey look, there's our younger brother, crucified at the top of the temple as the screams of the choir mimic those of the eternally damned. Camera slowly pans away, and the main character wakes up sweating from his nightmare. That's how you open a show.

  This level of detail, visual story telling and just straight-up beautiful animation is maintained throughout the entire season. The exposition in Episode 1 is animated to look like an oil painting. Episode 2's fight scene boasts glorious sakuga to match some of the biggest modern shonens today. 2D, 3D, and special effects are blended perfectly throughout. And don't get me started on the lighting. At the very least, this show looks clean as hell.

  Another major plus in this show's favor is that it knows exactly what it is, and doesn't try to be anything else. The number one reason why I can't stand most modern isekais/fantasies is because they all try so desperately to prove that they're different and unique, and in doing so only prove just how identical they all are. I'm gonna become a parody, because that means I can get away with all my unoriginality because it's a commentary on the current anime landscape! My MC is gonna be wayyyy overpowered, but like, it's funny because he pretends he isn't! I'm gonna make super meta jokes and make references to genre tropes because I forgot how to be actually funny 10 years ago! Inserting tropes is fine, as long as it's satire!

  Dragon Raja doesn't rely on any of that; it just lets its own quality speak for itself. When it wants to be serious, it gets serious and we watch emotionally invested. When it wants to be funny, it tells its funny jokes and slaps its slapstick and we laugh. When it wants to show us something cool, it busts out the sakuga and we grin like idiots. There's a perfect balance between all its aspects, and none of them infringe heavily on the others. All the characters are easy to watch and root for and have fun with. Even when the MC becomes overpowered, the show kinda just plays it straight. They build up to the climax, let the sakuga roll, and leave a hint of the consequences while keeping it open-ended for next season instead of trying to make a massive deal out of it or becoming a parody of itself.

  Above all, Dragon Raja is just incredibly inoffensive. The main character is pretty generic, but he's not aggressively boring or edgy or fantastical. He's kinda naturally amusing and charming. He has emotions, he has flaws, and he works on them and grows. He's just a guy. It's always balanced and never tries too hard to be funny, dark, or cool and risk falling over into dumb, edgy and obnoxious. There are no harems and almost zero sexual fanservice. No over-the-top screaming, no power leveling garbage, no plot contrivances, and just an impressive lack of bullshit (until the last 2 episodes but it's kinda funny so I let it slide). There are certainly reasons why you wouldn't like this show, but there aren't a lot for why you would actively dislike it.

  The biggest flaw of this show isn't really a flaw of the show; it's how completely inaccessible and impossible to watch it is. You cannot watch this show anywhere. You will not be able to watch this show. It's not on any mainstream Western streaming services, and chances are you don't have a Tencent or BiliBili account and are unwilling to create one. Even The Usual Supects one usually resorts to at this point will leave you disappointed, with horrendous video quality that does not make the show look "clean as hell" like I promised. I will now shut the fuck up out of respect for Rule 1 of the Anilist Community Guidelines and pray the mods don't ban me for even alluding to the concept of piracy (I was even actively condemning it by telling everyone how poor quality it was c'mon) (There's gotta be a really funny joke somewhere in here about Anilist Mods, China, censorship and--

  (Removed for Violating Community Guidelines)

  

  Dragon Raja is a really solid, fundementally good show that definitely deserves more attention than it's gotten. It looks great, has a strong cast, some really fantastic moments and it's really just a blast. It's not quite a "hidden gem" per se, that seems a bit too generous. It's more like a super cool looking shiny rock that you found by the side of the beach and really want everyone else to check out. And sometimes I don't want a diamond or a ruby or an amethyst geode worth more than my town: sometimes I just wanna watch that super cool looking shiny rock.

  
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• 

  Clinsen

  80/100
  Imagine Hideo Kojima directing an anime

  __A short and spoiler-free review on a show I never expected to like this much__

  I'm not a person who writes anime reviews often. Up until now, that has only occured once as a way of paying tribute to my new favorite show. So what exactly pushed me to do this again? Answer being - bewilderment. I refused to believe that a title of such high quality remains unnoticed by so many people for almost two consecutive years. And while there is a good reason to this, I found it extremely hard to cope with. And thus I decided to contribute a little, so even despite the lack of proper official localization, at least more of you will learn about this show to begin with. And since the Japanese dub was already teased, maybe by the time of you reading this, such problem no longer exists, and you simply want to know whether this piece of media is worth your time, so let us start somewhere.

  What do we know about Chinese anime? Or, rather, more correct term being donghua. Among other things, it's usually known for incredibly intricate plotlines. Be it the scope of the story, author's will at giving you an aneurysm, or, more often than not, difference in how we, the consumers, perceive certain cultural elements we are not yet used to. Still the fact remains - it is often challenging to keep track of all the things being thrown at your face without a bottle of strong liquor. But is Dragon Raja an exception? My friend, you won't believe it - no. That being said, don't make haste at writing it off, because it does actually have lots of things to offer. And, I mean, just look at this fragment from the opening sequence and tell me you're not even remotely interested at giving it a chance.

  Now, why I think you should give it a chance? Good question - I reply to myself. Reason being - it's entertaining as hell. Seriously, going in this show fully blind and receiving such a strong amount of dopamine was something I clearly did not expect to say the least. I was surprised by how clean it looks; with their stupid, yet working approach to humor; with the fact that for once I actually needed to pay attention in order to piece things together. It's incredibly fun to watch a popcorn grab of a show that can actually offer something more than you would initially give it credit for. This level of polish for a show barely anyone knows about outside of China is literally mind blowing. What's even more surprising, is that when you really think about it - there is nothing special to point at. Pretty much everything was executed in a solid way simply to keep you invested. This sort of "program minimum" has worked wonders. Just think of an infamous "it has a little something for everyone" quote, but try and take it literally this time, lol.

  Say our main character - who is he? Just an ordinary college student who's good at video games and can transfer his skills to whatever his new calling is? We've seen dozens of those. It's a pretty standard trope for many power fantasy anime. And this show, once again, is no exception. Or is it? Frankly speaking - no. But there is a little spin on it to which I'll get right after finishing talking about our main protagonist. You see, as a leading figure, he is not someone who'll be carrying this show on his shoulders, that's one thing certain. And yet, he has a fairly realistic worldview and is pretty funny in general, so neither can I call him boring. I don't mind him. Daresay, I like him? What is there not to like anyway? He grows as a person and both his awkward and phlegmatic sides seem fairly befitting. Those are real world qualities many people of his age possess. It's a paragon of what I was talking about in a previous paragraph.

  But where is this "spin" I mentioned? Well, let me introduce you to Lu Mingze. What do we know of him? Hardly anything. What matters is his relationship with the main character. He plays a major part in the story and soon you'll realize that perhaps there is a little more to this "coincidence" of Lu Mingfei instantly becoming an S-class student. And while we're at it, I want to commend the author for creating such a unique sense of presence around this character. Bro is literally radiating with mystery and I'm all in for that. Such a nice way to deliver a character identity of which we'll be theorizing about for long.

  And let's also explore the story itself a little. Did I mention it being confusing? You bet it is. However, it's not because the plot itself is complex. Honestly, I'd argue that it's actually pretty straightforward, especially for those familiar with Chinese folklore (as mentioned in the second paragraph). What makes it confusing, though, is how they deliver this plot. They throw so much what would initially seem to be random bullshit at you - it is quite hard not to get confused. But, eventually, given you pay attention, you'll piece together some kind of picture. And, personally, I love this kind of approach to storytelling. There's just something about not understanding what's going on at first, but then, suddenly, having a moment of realization, where it all (or most of it) clicks with you. This is also why I decided to mention Kojima in the summary of this review. He tends to approach the narrative aspect of his creations from a similar direction and I simply love it.

  To conclude this short thought dump, I'd like to once again highlight the remarkable job the studio had done at polishing this donghua. It doesn't particularly shine in a complete definition of the word, yet manages to do just enough to feed your hunger. While not being a comedy, it does a great job even at that. And it also possesses many amazing original soundtracks; the way some of them complement the atmosphere is just chef's kiss. And some I would even include in my playlist, especially the opening sequence. Then there's the aforementioned story, complexity of which doesn't necessarily hide in the size of author's quill as it does in interesting ways of storytelling. The way all of those and other things blend together creates an incredibly entertaining experience, worthy of dedicating your time to. And so, all things considered, it's truly unfair that this piece of media still didn't get a proper worldwide recognition it deserves. Sure, it is far from being perfect. It does possess those shounen-esque moments that are no surprise for us, or weird characters that don't necessarily scream word "deep" when you think of writing. There are also quite a few questions left unanswered. My final score clearly reflects on all those things. And yet I would like to withhold my judgment on some of them until the next season, as it is obvious that things are far from over yet.

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