What Are Your Thoughts on Donghua (Chinese Anime)?
I think they’re slowly producing works that are on par if not better than some anime. Overall they still don’t have the same quality as Anime, but they’re good enough to be enjoyable.
What they bring in the scene is the great stories adapted or inspired from the plethora of novels Chinese authors write. Particularly the cultivation stuff.
Some noteworthy Donghua I’ve liked were Link Click and Daily Life of the Immortal King.
What I don’t like about Donghua is they’re dubbing. I don’t know if it’s just the tone of chinese in general, or they don’t have good enough voice acting industry yet, but chinese dub irks me in a way that the japanese dub never did. I’ve put off a lot of Donghua because of the chinese dub, I remember watching Link Click on japanese dub instead.
What are your thoughts on Donghua?
It’s kinda weird listening the Chinese dub after so many years listening Japanese. That’s my only complaint and I believe that the issue is the one I said, we’re to used to listening Japanese voices, I even understood some words thing that I can’t say about Chinese
Haven’t watched any yet, but I’d be keen.
I read a lot of Wuxia/Xianxia manhua, like Martial Peak, Apotheosis, GOMA etc, and would be interested in a similar Donghua - got any recommendations?
I haven’t watched it, but they said the adaptation of A Will Eternal was good.
If you liked any of the Er Gen novels (I Shall Seal The Heavens, Renegade Immortal, etc.), you probably would like it.
I recommend The Legend of Hei. This is by far the best action animation I’ve seen period. The action is so good you have to watch it twice.
AniDB and MAL rating 8/10. I’ll definitely check it out.
Noteworthy comment I found while checking it out:
The English version of this movie has many differences, its runtimes are not the same, there is a colour palette change and it is missing the second Ending Song that was only released for the JPN version.
I think the distinction is somewhat arbitrary. There’s Japanese anime shovelware, good and bad anime. Chinese studios have been making contributions and have been part of the Japanese anime industry. So I don’t make a distinction generally or primarily.
I guess the biggest factor and differentiator is the audio language - if that is where you want to draw the line. (A consequence of the primary or only targeted market.)
I’ve watched one with CN dub, which was an interesting experience. But I’m willing to accept and explore it and it feeling different - what matters in the end is the dub/voicing and general audio quality.
The one I watched was ok. Decent, but not more. I watched it through. I peeked into Link Click - which is rated quite high on AniDB (8/10) - but it didn’t particularly get me invested and interested. Which is not a Donghua vs Anime thing primarily though.
Overall I think it’s a very good thing. China is a big market and has the chance of becoming a big industry - even moreso than it is now. It means we can and will get more products, more to choose from, more good stuff too. I’m looking forward to it.
I’m not seeking it out actively. But AniDB is one of my discovery resources, and it lists them too. (Condition created primarily for the Japanese, Chinese, or Korean (“CJK”) market) So I will see them and consider them for what they are.
Now I’m wondering whether the one I watched a while ago was Chinese or Korean. 🤔 I don’t quite remember.
I’m watching Link Click. I don’t mind the audio: they’re in China and it just makes sense they speak Chinese. That’s one of the best thrillers I’ve seen yet. The hand-drawn animation does not have the polish you would see from the best Japanese studios, but their 3D CGI is easily better than Japanese and much of Western animation. Maybe it’s because they have more expertise in games like Genshin Impact.
I’ve watched those you talked about but I wasn’t impressed by either, I’m more of a slice of life guy.
Tell me when they make an adaptation of My Wife Is From a Thousand Years Ago. That one I would watch.
My only exposure to Chinese animation is Wolf Smoke Studio. Top tier quality, and I really like their style and everything else.
That the only one that I’ve watched was Yaoguai Mingdan / Monster List. Rather low production value; frankly it left me disappointed because I read the manhua and I think that the story deserved something better. (I wish that they adapted The Fairy Captivity and My Wife is the Demon Queen, but I lost my hopes as both manhua series were finished and nothing popped up.)
Voice acting was weak IMO, too - a bit too emotionless.
How was the ending of MWDQ btw? I kinda lost interest around the dwarf fortress rescue bit and stopped reading it.
My Wife is the Demon Queen ending spoilers
Xiang Ye and Isabella got married, and become that sort of diabetes-inducing couple. As they had the first night, as typical for the demons, Xiang Ye got most (not all) of Isabella’s powers, becoming the demon king. They fought against the human realm (with the help of a lot of people, incl. Andre), including the regent and the infant. Then they fought against the god race - it didn’t create the other races, it was simply leeching off them. The chief of the gods absorb the other gods becoming an ultramenace and tries to hop across dimensions to Earth. An even bigger race, the Ark, intervene, getting rid of the chief god and sending Xiang Ye back to Earth “where he belongs”. Andre has no place to go, so he ends working for the Ark, and one of the perks is that he’s able to let Xiang Ye and Isabella meet.
This is from the manhua, not the novel. I feel like the ending was a deus ex machina, but it’s okay I guess?
Thank you, I guess that wasn’t too bad of an ending from the sounds of it. :)
It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad either.
I’ve never seen any tbh. Is it a recent thing? I’ve only started hearing about it since like either last year or this year or so.
What’s a good entry level one?
I hate China and everything from China has to be avoided if possible. (also Chinese language sounds very unpleasant to me… No offense in that regard)
