First impression: SVSSS Donghua

 

I'm starting to get into SVSSS and TGCF. My first exposure to MDZS was the donghua after all. On an aside note, I am anticipating excitedly about live-action adaptations of these two, particularly the latter, that I think it will do well adaptational-wise. I'm still going to watch 2ha's Immortality just to see how on earth they are going to execute the story and the main pairing well without destroying what made the original novel good in the first place. Look, troubling BL tropes aside, these stories are interesting and I think people should at least grant that. 

Setting aside the problems of BL, the stories are interesting. Of all the characters, I adore Shen Yuan and his cursing caustic ways. For now, I'm still kinda reading it on and off just like how I typically read BL novels because if you want me to read a book, get me a book, an actual book, or a site that is obviously for fanfiction. Novels aren't my thing online and even now, I'm still considering cutting down my novels to bearable levels I can write. Even my bare outlines felt too large and I want to cut it down so that it could be concise while having enough info and description to maintain that level. I'm better at short stories while novel lengths are still a process I'm not looking forward to. 

Anyway, firstly, the animation is a mixed bag. Character designs for MDZS donghua aren't that great since I kept messing up Sizhui and Jingyi and Lan Wangji's character design isn't exceptional since he seems so much older than younger, especially when he's supposed to be a teenager. On the other hand, Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, Wen Ning, and Wei Wuxian's designs are great. Though not so much Mo Xuanyu since apparently make him similar to Wei Wuxian's past body was the way to go. Look, I get it from a story perspective but it's not great character design when they looked like they made only a tiny bit of change. When I watched the 2D origin of PIDW, I wondered why it wasn't 2D in the first place since the animation can get wonky and rough in places. I don't know how to feel about it since while MDZS donghua is beautiful, the character designs aren't amazing. The questionable fashion of Wen Qing in the donghua doesn't help either. 

One of the upsides immediately is the opening and endings songs. They're great. On an aside note, I found it amusing two members of X9 had their stamp in an MXTX adaptation with Xiao Zhan as one of the main leads and Zhao Lei as the singer of the first opening number. What made it more ridiculous was that for XZ, he actually fell for his co-star who is the Lan Wangji actor of the series and in a stable happy relationship meaning a Wangxian couple became a real couple. I'm wearing my clown makeup and wig right now for those two but at least I admit it. 

This is slightly better since I can tell which character is which for the time being. The expressiveness of Shen Yuan is great with his VA's amazing work. 

As for the romances, it's obvious they aren't going to un-homo it by making Luo Binghe have romantic moments with Ning YingYing. 

Instead, the obvious standout was the leaf and pendant parallel that I heard from fans was true to the novel due to the prevalence of the endgame couple. We are shown how SY will care for LBH in the opening and hints. The endings and openings do show they are trying to preserve the romance as much as they can.

I wonder how they will tackle it since they will have to censor points. Will it be like CQL in which they skirt the laws by showing it how it can be played with? 

In animation, you can show anything that's impossible. I wonder if they will show LBH's lust in his eyes slowly throughout. Though I heard a joke that it could be a daddy kink from trying to make it a father-son relationship. 

They are still trying to preserve the romance as they can though so who knows how the hell they are going to tackle it. Unlike MDZS where the main plot has the backbone of the main couple - CQL made this work just enough even without all the explicit stuff, SVSSS is predominantly romance first as it's primarily character-driven. So I wonder how they are going to tackle this. 

I mean the animation is a mixed bag yet the voice acting is decent though Shen Yuan's VA is amazing for his comedic timing and delivery. If there's a reason to see this show made on little to no budget, the voice actor of our Shizun and his character design. 

As far as how far they are going to animate, I hope to do the rest of the story while cutting out the filler. In the first episode, they are already setting up the true villain of the story so I guess that. MDZS donghua has its final season being the third one so I can see this one being a two or three-season series as well. 

I mean we already got adult Luo Binghe in official art so I'm betting we're going to see adult Binghe. In the opening, we don't see adult Binghe. They got the character model and design already done so I'm pretty sure we are going to see adult Binghe in some form pre-time skip. 

Okay, for a few isekai, like My Next Life as a Villainess and SVSSS, there's a theory that the isekaid people are the reincarnations who later reincarnated back into their original carnation to change their fates. 

It's a reasonably popular theory since I can name a few popular fics that do this theory. It's not pervasive nor is it insanely popular that even the casuals know about it. 

I only know about it because I dug deeper on the fandom. 

Of course, there are so many similarities between them that the people who actually knew them just see them as people returning to their base personalities. It's why these guys who should be screaming internally about how they knew this doesn't pick up how they knew this. I understand why it wasn't explained in-universe or even touched on because Isekai but when similarities as we learn more about the incarnation that isekaid took over, it's striking just how similar and probably at the core, they share the same soul. 

But still, it's an interesting story to tell. About a normal modern kid who is actually the reincarnation of the original villain in the previous life returned to that life to change their fates. Because who wants to die early after their own early death?! When they have a new life to contend about?

I wish there are more interesting fics to go with this since there are so many ways to tell this. 

Sorry, I just need to say this so hopefully, I can find more stories that actually take the potential of this and how to tell it. 

So there will be a Chinese drama adapted from Hikago. Hikago is famous and widely recommended as one of the best. 

Of course, I'm going to watch this to see how on earth they are going to change from the Japan-based, especially since in the original source, one character even went to China and met up with Chinese go players. So is the Isumi counterpart going to Japan then? 

I think they have to age up the characters and not in the passage of time the original series did, like age them up from last year of middle school to high school with the Akari counterpart wanting the Hikaru counterpart to come to her uni to teach instead? 

At least with CQL, we get the suspension of disbelief with these older guys as teenagers because of the makeup and the vibing from the actors who can act young with the drinking and hobbies without worrying about war on the horizon. 

But in the original, we start with an elementary school boy and I don't think casting Ji Li as a little boy is going to be believable.

I do want to see who they cast in the counterparts but I want to see Sai the most. I hope that Sai's counterpart's actor is great because Sai needs to be great. 

For now, like the 2ha Immortality, I'm going to wait for this one and see how it goes. Because expect major changes.