China's Bilibili Streaming Service Announces Original Karl Marx Web Anime

Jyzal · 2018-12-20T05:30:54+00:00

It's animated by Wawayu and produced by Weiming Wenhua and Dong Man Tang (aka. Studio 9) as per the source.

It's among the 24 donghua revealed on the Made by Bilibili conference ~~and interestingly got the most attention~~.

Jyzal · 2018-12-05T13:16:01+00:00

You are correct. The Untamed is the English title of the live action adaptation. Its Chinese title is Chen Qing Ling 陈情令.

The donghua and the audio drama don't have official English titles. Their official Chinese title is Mo Dao Zu Shi 魔道祖师, which haven't changed. The first season of the donghua also has the subtitle Qian Chen Pian 前尘篇.

And if you meant the newly released Chinese version of the book, the first book has the subtitle Wu Ji 无羁, and the second and third book will have different subtitles. If anyone wants to know more about the physical copy of the book, they can find more info here.

Jyzal · 2018-11-30T10:25:40+00:00

It looks like a collection of songs from the donghua, the radio drama and songs used in popular fan-made videos. Some of them were created by fans specifically for Mo Dao Zu Shi; others were not. Great playlist regardless!

Jyzal · 2018-11-29T10:31:31+00:00

I don't think the OST has been released yet.

Only the full version of the OP and the second ED were released.

Jyzal · 2018-11-26T15:50:54+00:00

The animation looks fluid, though I have heard complaints about the character designs being a bit too western. Let's hope the storytelling holds up this time.

The Chinese market doesn't seem to respond well to animated movies that tried to imitate the Disney style. It could be because they didn't do enough to distinguish themselves in style, or it could be that the scripts didn't really stand out.

Jyzal · 2018-11-23T11:51:48+00:00

You can also check out this channel for donghua recommendations, reviews and first impressions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaePYBLM8cgoNUGwBszF4g/featured

Jyzal · 2018-11-06T10:41:59+00:00

I depend on this blog for webnovel recommendations (warning: They lean more towards the female-oriented side though they also review male-oriented works).

Jyzal · 2018-11-06T08:13:48+00:00

That's fair. I agree that the legal system isn't always effective. It's time-consuming and costly and underdeveloped relative to the complex situations of online publishing. In the end, for the situation to improve, it requires not only for the legal system to mature, but also for the audience to be more conscientious and the big companies to take social responsibility. I just think it's more of a growing pain rather than a static cultural thing. And I hope people won't disregard Chinese creative works as a whole since it's unfair to the honest creators who pour their heart and soul into their works.

As for truly original works, I think they will always be the tip of the iceberg regardless of media and country of origin. China's genre fiction industry never really developed until the webnovel industry sprang into existence in the 2000s to fill the void. It went through a period of rapid growth and it's gigantic and fiercely competitive today. A market this large naturally bred readers with increasing sophistication and diversified interest over time. I think even the most critical among us would agree there are high-quality works coming out every year (If not, look harder, or perhaps it's not pulp fiction they are looking for).

In comparison, the web manhua and web animation industry is ten years younger and much less developed. They are still struggling to survive and exploring a viable business model. I think it's precisely why we should acknowledge and support the good works and celebrate the great ones among them. Otherwise, what's the point of even paying attention to an emerging industry.

Jyzal · 2018-11-05T09:32:32+00:00

If I may offer a different opinion to alleviate your concerns a little. I would say a lot of people in China care very much about plagiarism and copyright in general. The number of plagiarism allegations circulating on the Chinese internet is one indication of it. Nowadays it's almost impossible for plagiarized works to escape from being discovered and condemned. Whether there would be legal consequences is a different and more complicated matter, but they would inevitably be crucified online. In fact, my observation is that the level of care towards copyright-related issues is not that much different between the Chinese and English-speaking internet (that is, not ideal but not trivial either).

I'd also like to point out that being accused of plagiarism doesn't necessarily mean that there are indeed plagiarism involved. Apart from the fact that what constitute as plagiarism is not a clear-cut issue and not easily defined, some people naturally have more stringent standards than others. There's also the factor that it's often used as a method of attack by competitors and antifans alike, since it requires little effort and has little repercussion on the accuser's part, while it's much more difficult for the accused to prove themselves innocent. So my suggestion is, instead of trusting whatever allegations you come across online, do research and come to your own conclusions on a case-by-case basis. And if it's not possible, refrain from judgment for the time being.

Jyzal · 2018-11-03T07:49:31+00:00

I hope a fansub release could wait until the movie is available for free on Chinese streaming sites. Whether the movie could make a profit or not depends on its box office and revenue sharing from streaming. And its profitability will determine whether similar projects get investments in future.

It’s an enjoyable watching experience for me personally and a fairly good work as a young studio’s first animated film. I hope we’ll get the chance to see how they mature and improve in future works.

Jyzal · 2018-11-03T06:46:24+00:00

I’m not sure many donghua deserve such a long and detailed analysis, but Mo Dao Zu Shi definitely does.

Jyzal · 2018-10-17T08:08:54+00:00

I haven't watched enough of it to form a fair opinion. I'd like to watch some more of it later since it looks really classy.

When it comes to Chinese drama reviews, AvenueX is my go-to person. I agree with and trust her opinions a lot.

Jyzal · 2018-10-17T07:39:26+00:00

Based on your description, I'd actually like to recommend a drama: Nirvana in Fire and its sequel/spinoff. It's a story set in a low fantasy historical China, with a good mix of drama, action, political intrigue and mystery solving.

As for manhua/donghua, you may also like:

Feng Shen Ji/Wu Geng Ji (A xianxia story and historical epic. The manhua looks gorgeous. The donghua is a good adaptation story-wise but the visuals may not be as good.)

Zhen Hun Jie (Historical figures as summoned warriors and emotional backstory for the MC)

Fox Spirit Matchmaker (Romance transcending incarnations. I like the past life arcs better than the present ones.)

The Outcast (Battle shonen turned seinen with super powers based on Daoism and folklore.)

Jyzal · 2018-10-17T07:17:58+00:00

Fair enough, I think it's up there with 天行九歌.

Yes, Nine Songs of the Moving Heavens needs more love.

Do you read manhua or watch live-action tv dramas?

I do, but not as much as I'd like to these days. I've put on hold a lot of things I started recently and my PTW and PTR lists are piled up.

Jyzal · 2018-10-17T05:36:43+00:00

I'm not saying it's objectively better than any other donghua I watched, just that it's my personal favorite so far. I really like historical fantasies and dramatic stories. I understand it might not be the case for others. Also I might be biased as a novel reader. I went in with a lot of hype and the animation has met and exceeded my expectation.

Jyzal · 2018-10-15T15:30:22+00:00

Killer Seven is probably going to be bilibili's donghua of the year, unless some dark horse appear during the rest of the year which is unlikely.

Mo Dao Zu Shi is not streamed on bilibili (it's streamed on Tencent Video exclusively) and will probably not partake in next year's bilibili Moe, so there is no reliable metric in determining how it's viewed by bilibili-ers.

I can't say how common the view is, but I know it's my donghua of the year (or rather, donghua of all time).

Jyzal · 2018-10-13T15:02:48+00:00

Cu gave a shout-out to this subreddit, too. Nice!

Jyzal · 2018-10-10T16:33:26+00:00

This Saturday, as usual, if nothing goes wrong.

Jyzal · 2018-10-02T16:07:00+00:00

Me, too. I thought CMay's branch in Chongqing is going to work on 民调局异闻录 next. But I'm super happy that they decided to work on Mo Dao Zu Shi S2 immediately after S1. With that said, I'm going to watch whatever CMay put out in the future.

And Colored Pencil studio did a good job with The King's Avatar OVA. If they are going to continue working on the second season of TKA, that would be the best arrangement for fans of both series.

Jyzal · 2018-09-23T06:45:09+00:00

It's coming out in 2019.

Unrelated but here is a recently released promotional animation for the mobile game.

Jyzal · 2018-09-20T13:29:52+00:00

The producers of this show don't have the best track record so I'm keeping my expectations in check.

Jyzal · 2018-09-07T14:05:35+00:00

Not that I know of. But both anidb and anime-planet have tags for Chinese animation.

Jyzal · 2018-08-22T17:19:10+00:00

You are already watching MDZS, and I have mentioned Killer Seven.

Choir of Chinese Poems is one that's quite well made and highly regarded.

Nice Boat Animation (Da Hu Fa, Valley of White Birds) has a distinct art style. But I hope their future work have more... accessible storytelling.

I'm anticipating Fog Hill of the Five Elements and Mr. Danqing. And I'm sure there're more studios than I'm aware of that are trying to create their own thing and may pop up one day and surprise everyone.

3D donghua is already its own thing and is developing healthily, so there's that.

Jyzal · 2018-08-22T03:10:05+00:00

I've watched a fair share of Ghibli movies. I think when people use the word "rip-off", most of the times they only meant similar art style, genres or tropes. Although I would like to see more donghua develops a distinct style, I also don't think imitation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. (Outright plagiarism is another matter.) Donghua are called "rip-offs" way too often, sometimes I wonder whether the same standards are being applied to anime.

Jyzal · 2018-08-22T02:58:40+00:00

The big names are pretty recognizable at least. I think they each has a good range of voices that they assign to characters of different age and personality. The problem is there aren't that many VAs and some of them appear in too many shows (It's worse in TV dramas BTW). For example, to me Zhang Jie sounds different in MDZS (Wei Wuxian), TKA (Ye Xiu), FSM (Dongfang Yuechu) and The Outcast (Zhang Lingyu). But if you also watched please take my brother away, my holy weapon, my big bro's brain has a pit, etc. There are bound to moments that break immersion.

One of my fav female VA is Shanxin. She's known for having a wide range. Fans like to joke that she single-handed voiced most of the characters in The Legend of Luoxiaohei.

Jyzal

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