Zhu Xian

This donghua is an adaptation of a popular web novel that I have read, so I will review this as an individual work and as an adaptation. General plot summary: The story follows Xiao Fan, an ordinary villager child turned cultivator, due to events in his childhood. Xiao Fan was an ordinary child living in a village close to the leader of the just(or righteous) sects: QingYun Sect. One day, an old monk passes by the village and is attacked by an unknown assailant. Xiao Fan, who was asked to send him food, witnesses the fight and is knocked out. Though the monk successfully forces theassailant to retreat, he is seriously injured and forced to take the "three day guaranteed death pill"; this pill restores his strength temporarily but he is now guaranteed to die in 3 days. Now on his death bed, he comes up with a crazy idea to fulfill his lifelong dream. He will teach the Buddhist cultivation technique to Xiao Fan and have him join the QingYun Sect so that he can unlock the secrets the monk has been pursuing (cultivation techniques are the most guarded secrets of this world). Xiao Fan after learning the Buddhist technique is knocked out and wakes up to find his village massacred. The survivors (Xiao Fan and another) is taken to QingYun sect as orphans and thus raised as cultivators. Xiao Fan, a stubborn and unyielding to a fault individual, is raised with black & white values regarding justice/righteousness vs evil, until he starts to wander the world. Then he learns that the world is not as morally black & white as he once thought, as he interacts with a variety of different people. This story could be considered Xiao Fan's journey or life story. The themes of this story revolves around justice/righteousness vs evil and moral ambiguity, brought to life through Xiao Fan's life story. The plot is reasonable paced and the character models are good. The action is a bit hit or miss though, most of the 1v1 scenes are great, the camera angles are just perfect, the choreography is smooth and on-point, but some of the group fights are really bad, feel slow and have a weak impact. However, this donghua is much deeper than what you see on the surface. Another person said that "the devil is in the details", to which I agree. The character interactions, mannerisms etc, matter just as much as much of the narration. It is a story where you have to pay attention to subtleties as well. If you do start to watch this, I suggest you at least watch it to the end. Now as an adaptation(may contain spoilers as I compare novel to donghua): As an adaptation, I felt that it was well-done, though not exactly perfect. I had 3 main complaints about this adaptation: the explanation regarding Xiao Fan's weapon, the removed world building strengthening the theme of moral ambiguity, and Lu Xueqi's presentation/buildup. First, with regards to Xiao Fan's weapon, they never really explained in detail its influence on him. Because he was sentimental, he ended up keeping the Blood-sucking pearl which later got blood refined with the soul-devouring staff to form his weapon. Since these two were extremely evil weapons, they influenced his mind, but because he cultivated the Buddhist technique, the effects were mitigated unless he had emotional swings. Overall not super important, but his use of it for justice/righteousness highlights the moral ambiguity theme and ties into the second point. Second, while the donghua did a decent job showcasing/debating the moral ambiguity between just vs. evil, they left out much of the back story. The just vs evil debate has been around for 100's of years and slowly changed over time. The most obvious examples were Xiao Fan's weapon, a blood-refined weapon created by merging 2 of the most evil weapons to exist now being used by the just faction and the fan being used by an evil faction member (fan was originally a weapon of a renowned neutral-just leaning figure). The final complaint I have is the portrayal of Lu Xueqi. --First, Lu Xueqi was supposed to be extremely beautiful, but her design is very plain, even the Senior Sister Tian Ling'er overshadowed her; I can only attribute this to her way of dress, and hopefully the design shown in the Season 2 concept art shows a more beautiful Lu Xueqi. --Second, Lu Xueqi's development was really weak. She was originally portrayed as cold and aloof, only showing some interest in Xiao Fan after his loss to her. This action confused her sparking her interest in him. Afterward, the most crucial part in building their subtle relationship, the fight against the evil sect in the cave, to falling into the abyss, to the subsequent fight against the serpent were all core events laid the foundation for her love for him, but these were severely simplified or poorly presented so the build up in their relationship has a weak foundation. Lu Xueqi's "goodwill" (not yet love) for him stems from her perception/understanding (read: interpreted from her worldview) of his actions; she basically rationalized the reasons for him helping her, you could say she made some wrong assumptions that led to her eventual affection for him. This all started with why she believed he "voluntarily forfeited" his match against her; then his "suicide charge" to save her when she was captured by the whip-using girl. The final "nail in the coffin" for the buildup is after they two were swept into the abyss. This scene was heavily modified by the donghua team. In essence, the two fell down into a pool of water, Xiao Fan wakes up first and pulls her out and stands guard until she wakes up. While Xiao Fan is more injured, his weapon's blood-suck ability helped alleviate his wounds so he's more healthy in a sense. Once she wakes up, they try to leave together; Xiao Fan's weapon is the natural enemy of the vengeful spirits that surround them so they are kept at bay. It's not until he falls unconscious that Lu Xueqi "realizes" how much effort he put in to protect her. She comes to the conclusion that Xiao Fan could have abandoned her and survived, but she ended up burdening him, deepening her "goodwill" towards him. They also encounter at least two monsters which Xiao Fan does most of the work to defeat, while Lu Xueqi keeps piling on injuries. TLDR, they severely weakened the buildup of Lu Xueqi's "goodwill"/affection towards Xiao Fan. Her buildup is "the devil in the details", but when the details are removed, there isn't much left. Despite these complaints, the adaptation was very faithful to the source. The last episode was a beautiful climax/portrayal of that scene. Adaptation score (how faithful to the source): 8/10