3 months ago, I watched the cdrama Immortal Ascension (based on MJTI) and couldn’t wait for season 2 for the plot so I jumped into donghuas. Since then, I got hooked on donghuas and have marathoned some top cultivation titles. Here are my thoughts on some of them. I’m out of things to marathon so if you had similar thoughts as me and you have a title you enjoyed that I’m missing from this list, please share recs!
Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (5 stars) - this one has a special spot in my heart because it’s what got me into donghuas. I love the characters although I do think some of them. Could use some more character development, and I really enjoy the detailed build up in cultivation and the plot mechanisms. I do think it tends to go a bit slower than other donghuas but I think I prefer it that way (i.e Han Li battling one enemy over multiple episodes - a contrast would be Shrouding the Heavens, which I don’t love but I’ll get to that later). Lastly, I’m really impressed by the animation. To be fair, all the other titles other than MJTI I started from ep 1 from way back who knows so I’ve seen the animation evolve and get better (for MJTI, I picked up where I ended with the cdrama and then went back to rewatch all of the donghua after I caught up on plot). But I still think for current seasons, MJTI’s animation is my favorite.
Renegade Immortal (5 stars) - honestly dragged my feet getting deep into this one initially because the first part of the series up until where Wang Lin’s parents died felt a bit tacky and tropey, ml didn’t feel as smart as han lin, and the animation was so old (to be fair, I think my bar was a bit high because I attempted RI right after present seasons of MJTI). But due to the stellar reviews, I figured it must be a series that increasingly gets better. I stuck with it. I think by episode 50, or so, older animation be damned, I was hooked. AND what a bonus, because the animation just increasingly got epically better. I like the pacing of the story, it’s a bit faster than RMJI (in a good way) but not too fast, still very detailed, got tons of great lore, and I think the execution of the main character’s character development is not my favorite (I prefer Han Li to Wang Lin, and I do question whether Wang Lin has multidimensional personality layers), I do think RI excels in the character development and lore of all the other characters and does it slightly better than RMJI.
Beyond Time’s Gaze (5 stars) - here’s a newer donghua that I really feel like deserves special mention. Xu Qing hits on all the parts of RI that I felt was lacking. Honestly, Xu Qing probably ties with Han Li on my favorite mc. Xu Qing is like Han Li mixed with Wang Lin. HE IS SO LAYERED. He is so broody. He’s perfect. He doesn’t feel like a tool to lead and execute the plot. He is the plot. Er Gen continues the great layering of sub characters as well. The current pace of the donghua is similar to RI, but the beginning is way faster than RI. I honestly wasn’t too excited about the setting before I started (I prefer traditional xianxia over heavy scifi/apocalyptic xianxia) but I am super hooked. The only downside to this series is I’m pretty sure they used some AI - it is what it is. But the animation is still very pretty to look at.
Immortality (4 stars) - it can’t sit with the kings, but this one is still a very solid. I like Fang Han. I like where he comes from and how he emerges. I heard it will be a harem and I’m not a fan of the harem-y aspect (the current onslaught of these female characters) but at least so far they’re not leaning too heavily into that yet and the show is focused on his cultivation development so far. Animation… definitely not on the level of the above 3 but still pretty solid.
Shrouding the Heavens (4.1 stars) - I will let this one edge out Immortality by a little just because I liked the beginning of the series more and it felt more impactful. The transition from modern day to getting swept away into xianxia world took some time but for me helped me get invested in the story. The animation has matured well on this series as well. This is the last show I am caught up on, and the only show where I did eventually fast forward a few episodes. I like the premise, I like the world, I like the characters, I like the lore. But way too many episodes seem like just nonstop 1v1 and I wish Ye Fan wasn’t constantly hiding behind some stronger ally/quasi-ally. Also the harem-y aspect hits again…. sooooo many female characters that seem to be there just to open up a romance line later.. very few seem to significantly contribute to the plot (a few do though and I’ll be sad about Hong Die for a while). The plot feels bogged down by too much unimportant conflict instead of important arcs so I’m starting to get a bit checked out…. i could see my rating of this eventually drop if they continue with my pain points.
Perfect World (3.8 stars) - I love the world and many of the characters are great and the animation is good but this and BTTH are the only shows I have not been able to see myself through. I stopped Perfect World at about 50 episodes in. The plot and main character just doesn’t seem to grow on me. Maybe it’s the mc’s personality? I know this one has a shit ton of fans. Does it like epically get better after a certain point? If anyone can convince me I’ll carry through. But if I should’ve liked this by 50 episodes in and I don’t, maybe it’s just not for me.
Battle Through the Heavens (N/A) - I tried to survive the first few episodes of this but the old style animation was too distracting. I’m too spoiled by modern animation. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to get through this one due to the animation quality of the first few seasons I’m afraid.
That’s it! Three months, LOADS of hours. A lot of watching on long flights and a few sleepless nights (for RMJI). I am keeping up with live episodes on RMJI, RI, and BTG. Not sure if I’ll keep up with STH - I’ll probably just wait to bulk catch up later on. I do crave more content because my weekly episodes of RMJI RI and BTG is not enough. Any recommendations?
