Reviews for The Master of Diabolism 2

Capitalism lives on and I paid a membership to finish this season (8eps in total) early, here comes the review you're looking for that is not a 10. Mo Dao Zu Shi did not become popular over a night, since the beginning in 2015, it has gained popularity day by day with the BL fans. The growth of the online novel gained a large following which resulted in an audio drama, a manhua, anime, live action drama, and now a second season to the anime. Not to mention a handful of original doujin music. Out of curiosity, I decided to give it a try. To keep thereview sharp, the success of Mo Dao Zu Shi isn’t purely living off the energy of horny fujoshis but rather, the story, is, quite, interesting.

The novel in relation to the anime:

The world in which the vast amount of characters’ lives in is a complicated well thought out map. The sheer amount of important characters is insane, and to keep all of them somewhat relevant is no easy job. They all have a place in the plot. Mo Dao Zu Shi have manged to break itself out of China demonstrates that even when the gay element is removed, the story still holds up, now that says something. If you rethink all the hetero anime, dramas and books you have encountered, if the romantic bit was removed, does the story still hold up?

Mo Dao is a mystery, supernatural story that follows the growth of our characters, allowing you to grow an attachment to the loveable(hateable) boys. Personally, I felt season 1 was rushed and missed out a few details. The beginning wasn’t explained very well and the switch over from the past and present is a bit blurry, if you blink you may have missed it, plus, the beginning of the story was already a bit messy in my opinion since you get introduced to a lot of characters you do not know, but it’s introduced in a way as if you knew them for twenty odd years. Chinese Xianxia shows are a whole new genre, if you are not very familiar with the concepts, it may be a little difficult to digest at first. I recommend to re-watch the first few episodes of season 1 of the ‘present’ timeline again after the memoires before season two – that is, if you decide to watch on.

The elephant in the room:

I have a few major issues with the anime, it seems like most people, including me, is being clouded by too many positive comments to the point where we can’t objectively point out the flaws of the anime, especially when all the reviews are 10s.

First and foremost, the art is quite the ‘bang’. The anime made a what I would call a Shinkai Makoto mistakes, meaning the landscapes and backgrounds look beautiful while character designs are shite. Other than the clothes, I can’t pinpoint the characters, everyone else is just a blur, Sizhui and Jingyi is just one design. Individually, the characters appear quite slick, but all of them in a single anime? It really does not hold up.

Which lead to the next point, the messy story doesn’t help the large amount of characters that are unidentifiable. The anime missed out a lot of details, including the sworn brotherhood between Mingjue, Xichen and Guangyao and suddenly you hear them calling each other brother in the second season, and no, a narrator saying a 5000 word essay does not count as good story telling in an animated show.

If we were to speak from the perspective of a newbie for Mo Dao, the anime is going to be confusing, the reason why I don’t particularly feel that way is because my head automatically filled in the gaps with the novel knowledge. When in reality, if you just watched the anime, there are too many gaps, difficult to follow the story, the events do not flow together and it jumps back and forth on the timeline too much, you kind of have to take the snippets of the past and piece it together in your head to make a flowing story. On top, it can be difficult to identify whether it’s a snippet of the past or an imagination, eg. the scene where Wei Wuxian is talking to what seems like a 3/4 year old Jinling, when really Wei Wuxian never meet Jinling until the present timeline but that was attached to the flashback - unless the anime implied that actually happened, because they also added a scene where apparently Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji meet as kids, cute, but what is going on.

Bottom line, by the progression of the show up until now, I don’t have much hope for the writing to suddenly improve, maybe in season 3 the Yicheng arc will shock me, but until then this adaption up to season 2 is a meh.

Arguably one of the best Chinese studios out there, G.CMay Animation, decided to develop a season 2 for Mo Dao Zu shi -also known as Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation-. What they’ve managed to create is an emotional and stunning piece of animation, along the lines set out on the first season. However, instead of taking the time to unfold the extensive backstory of the characters as they did in the onset of season 1, this time they took the plunge to the action-packed wonderful pace of the end of the 1st season from the very start, making it really enjoyable. Without changing too much the recipethat lead to the success of season 1, Mo Dao Zu shi presents a character-driven story based on a Chinese cultivation world setting with a fair amount of action scenes, Wei Wuxian comedic paintbrushes, and an amazing work in the artistic department; still, a darker tone is set, mainly due to the darkening/despair effect that both the misfortunate events and the demonic arts have in our protagonist.

Besides, the moral conflict WW brings to the table much more complexity and tragedy making the show much more interesting. So, though we are not facing a really complex story, they way things are told and conducted make it a really nice piece of storytelling.

Moreover, though the cast is pretty much the same, we can observe that on season 2, G.CMay Animation steps up in the characterization of both our main cast and the intricacy of the villains/evil, as on season 1 felt kind of cartoonish, given the usual pillory attitude which Wei Wuxian displayed combined with the childish goals –and attitude- our main villain -Weng Chao- had. They have managed to portray much better their feelings, their ambitions, what they seek in life, generating in the viewer different impressions depending on the characters –and their actions/state of mind/circumstances- displayed on screen. Furthermore, the score was absolutely breathtaking and well used during the course of this season, endowing much more emotion to a lot of shots of this anime.

Speaking about visuals, this show continues to do things incredibly well. Striking use of angles, elegant coloring, and smooth shading gave so much detail that even the slightest feeling was portrayed on screen; even conversations felt much more realistic than on your usual anime thanks to the animators work. That being said, this last statement can also be applied to action sequences, as both are amazing –even the use of CGI was nice-. Last but not least, backgrounds, oh backgrounds, what can I say other than what an amazing display of talent it was (again)?

So, to sum up things, season 2 has hands down taken another step forward in its project of making Mo Dao Zu Shi franchise one of the all-time great productions of the Chinese anime industry.

I can't fathom why this season is rated as high as it is, giving it a 5 feels overly generous already. I have never seen a show as rushed as this, to the point where literally nothing makes sense unless you've read the source material. Watching it feels like sticking eight bookmarks randomly into a book you haven't read and then ONLY reading the eight pages you landed on with zero context. The story wildly jumps through time by huge increments, often without ANY indication that time has passed, nothing is ever explained, characters and things just show up and immediately are forgotten for the restof the story.

I don't know why they only got eight episodes to work with instead of fifteen like the first season, but the creators seemed determined to squeeze fifteen episodes worth of story into eight anyways (and then add their own fanfiction on top of it which takes up another 2+ episodes, which is MAYBE not such a great idea when you are seriously pressed for time already...).

The result of that is a jumbled mess of unrelated scenes just vaguely strung together without rhyme or reason. A few episodes in I gave up and read the novel instead. Armed with that knowledge, I could finally understand what was going on, but even then, it was a rather unsatisfactory experience because they combined several scenes from the novel into one to save time more than once, regardless of the scenes fitting well together or not and absolutely shredding any natural character interaction in the process (for example, one character goes from hating and accusing a girl of fraud to shouting at her to awkwardly being in love to having a baby with her and getting murdered in like 30 seconds flat, without the fraud case ever getting resolved, without us ever seeing how/why they fall in love, NO TIME, GOTTA MOVE ON TO THE NEXT SCENE).

It's frustrating to watch even if you do know about everything that was cut out in between, because it leaves the characters as empty husks that just stumble through the vauge resemblance of a plot, with no time to actually show character traits or relations that make them unique.

From an adaption standpoint, there's also the issue that core concepts of the plot were completely changed, and at least in my opinion, for the worse.

SPOILER NEXT.

A big part of what makes the characters in MDZS so intriguing is that many of them aren't just shining perfect heroes. They struggle and fail and do terrible, unforgivable things, especially the protagonist, but the reader can hardly hate them for it because the circumstances they do these things in are relateable.

The animation takes these interesting, multifaceted characters and declares "Nope! Anything bad they ever did was because they were the victim of an evil conspiracy!" Not because they gave in to their anger and grief. Not because they used a power that they had always been warned they would lose control of. It's because someone secretly fed them evil energy or some bs like that. Turns out, the heroes were always perfect and never did anything risky or wrong, immediately stripping them of that entire interesting aspect of their character. Demonic cultivation is in the title, for god's sake, but I guess the writers for this animation thought it was better if it is just the same as normal cultivation, lol.

SPOILER OVER.

The only thing elevating this season is the art and music, which are once again absolutely stellar, though they did reuse quite a few shots from the first season, which does make it feel a bit lazy in comparison.

Summary:

A beautiful show that got absolutely RUINED by the abysmal pacing and massive cuts to the story. Watchable only if you've read or seen the source material or another adaption already, and even then you have to be okay with detrimental changes to the core narrative. If you enjoyed season 1, don't ruin that enjoyment by watching this.

Season 2 doesn't disappoint.This season is just as great as the first one. I wouldn't give it a 10 but a 9 is definitely appropriate. Although the main action happens in the present, where WWX and LWJ try to solve the riddle of who the Demonic Ghost Hand belongs to. Some open questions are answered, when snippets of the past are beautifully interwoven with the main narrative. As usual, the fight scenes are great and directed well, while significantly less compared to the first season. The voice acting isn't lacking in any aspect, either. Every character's emotions and nuances to them are conveyed beautifully and thesoundtracks match perfectly.

So why wouldn't I give it a 10?

Because sometimes the drawing were too rushed, not every scene was as neatly drawn as I expected it to be. I heard their deadline was in April so unfortunately they had to rush a bit.

I’m not very good at expressing my opinions in writing but I felt that I needed to try for this show. I absolutely adore the novel and the 1st season of the donghua (Chinese anime) and I have been obsessed with it since I found the show last October. While this 2nd season is still beautifully animated the characters are still wonderful, the story is sorely lacking and I feel really bad for “anime only” watchers. I don’t know how they followed along with the story as its messy. It’s just difficult to follow the story if you don’t have knowledge from the novel tofill the the gaps. The past and the present scenes don’t flow well this season. This could have been prevented if they had had the original 15 episodes to flesh out the story but for some reason they only had 8 episodes to work with. Continuing with talking about it being a shortened season, I felt it was a disservice to the show to put in filler in a season that needed every minute to tell its story. The season felt so rushed and I don’t understand why they put the filler in. I guess I’m just disappointed in this season. It’s not necessarily bad, but it could have been so much better.

Honestly, as a Chinese person, I've never found much draw in period Chinese dramas/animations. I just tend to find the idea of ancient China and notions like sworn brotherhoods over-romanticized... but Mo Dao Zu Shi drew me in easily. The music is fantastic. I don't think I've ever come across any show that made music instruments seem so cool and believable as "weapons". The consistent emphasis on the idea of "cultivation" grounds the possibility that sounds created by instruments can have that power. This "cultivation" affects one's personality, status in society, sense of identity etc. And instruments having powers isn't treated as a whim ina overdramatic action packed anime. Not only that, the theme songs and interludes creates the sense of a sweeping romance transcending time.

I have to say, it was a struggle at first to tell the characters apart from each other. Hence the art score rating of 8, although just based on aesthetics and appeal, it certainly deserved a 10. It adds complexity to the task to understanding the layered storyline, when some of the characters in similar clothing also look so similar... buuut, I still gave this show a high overall score of 9 because:

- The two main characters are fantastic. They're layered and flawed and aware of their own flaws. There isn't this tendency for them to be always right just because they are heroes and protagonists. The voice actors are amazingly expressive with a wide range of nuanced emotions.

- The relationship between the main characters are beautiful and believable. They don't suddenly abandon all their duties because now they've found a soulmate that they want to spend their lives with. There are so many hurdles, it almost seems impossible for this relationship to flourish, but it does... and the audience is painfully aware of the cost of that.

- You don't totally have to understand the exact chronological sequence of everything that unfolded to really enjoy this show. It's beautiful, and pacing is great, the character relationships are fascinating and complex. The timelines are still unfolding but it doesn't bother me. I mean it's a reincarnation plot. Even the characters are figuring things out.

It's all about the anime ok? I think the anime messed the story up. you would most likely not understand anything because it goes up and forth between the present and the past in ununderstandable way in addition to the misleading drawing (I'm not saying it's not beautiful) they all look like each other and Mo Xuanyu looks exactly the same as wei wuxian. I had to repeat the 1.st 3 episodes of the 1.season many times to get it. I decided then to read the novel and it was surprisingly amazing and I would likely not understand anything from this season if I didn't do that thereal story is perfect I enjoyed every single word of it

the anime is also entertaining but I advice you to read the novel if you want to have the perfect fun

(As of writing this, I have seen 6 episodes of MDZS 2. Will update when all episodes are translated.) Mo Dao Zu Shi caught my eye when I found out that it was both a BL and a Xianxia; this intrigued me as, while I had read both genres separately, I hadn't yet seen them together. As not an avid anime watcher, the first season of Mo Dao Zu Shi is actually the first donghua I watched- the first season did not disappoint, and I looked forward to the second season to see if the story would continue to be told well. STORY After the flashbacks that wasseason one, the story is brought back to the present to tell the current story of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. My main criticism of the second season is the slightly muddled plot. The donghua has added in scenes that weren't told in the original novel, I guess intending to add clarity to the story. While this should be helpful for donghua-only watchers, some few episodes are 'wasted' to do so and personally I think the donghua could've went without a few of those DH-only scenes. The plot of the novel is also not followed strictly: certain events are pushed forward in time and changed significantly, and plot-heavy flashbacks are spread out throughout the episodes, in contrast to the novel which instead tells a lot of the present story before employing the use of flashbacks. I don't necessarily think this is a bad idea, but I feel as if much more of the current timeline could've been told instead of the many flashbacks. Some significant details also would've been better off having been revealed later rather than sooner. Nevertheless, the story is still interesting and thought-provoking; suspense and tension is created well in certain scenes, and the plot is unpredictable and surprising at times.

ART

The art of the second season feels a bit rushed compared to the first season. The fight scenes are fluid and fascinating to watch, and we still get the smooth animations of the movement of strands of hairs, and the picturesque landscapes, yet I think some of the facial expressions could've had more time spent on them, and smaller details could've been added in.

SOUND

I really enjoy how they used the second verse of Zui Meng Qian Chen as the opening to link the first and second season together, and also the past and present lives of Wei Wuxian. The BGM is unusual at times, but compliments the mood and the atmosphere of the current scene well. The voice acting of the main characters gives them a distinguishable voice and adds emotion and depth to their personalities.

CHARACTER

The characters of MDZS are all likeable and more or less realistic. Although so far, there hasn't been a lot of development of the characters in this season, this is probably due to the fact not much of the present has actually been animated yet. Furthermore, small hints have been made of Lan Wangji's yearning for Wei Wuxian, though I doubt their relationship will get developed to more than a bromance, considering China's censorship.

OVERALL

Mo Dao Zu Shi is overall fun to watch and unpredictable: the intricacies of the plot and the interactions of the characters come together to create an interesting story where any watcher will anticipate what will happen next. While I wouldn't call it a work of art because of certain factors, this donghua is still a pleasure to watch.

Mo Dao Zu Shi S1 did exceptionally well. Therefore, S2 was no exception. Like always, the animation is very good, the story is intriguing as always, and the characters never cease to amaze me, both in a good and bad way. However, I ended up repeating the first season's mistake: I didn't understand the story again on the first watch again. It's not the donghua's fault as it is on mine, so that's an easy thing to overlook. Other than that, and the shorter run time, I didn't have any problems with season 2. Overall, Mo Dao Zu Shi S2 is great, but S1 was just slightlybetter. If S2 had around the same number of episodes as S1, I feel like it could've easily been 10/10.

In my opinion, the second season of Mo Dao Zu Shi got to be as good as the first, unfortunately it was much short. What bothered me about the first one is that she left many things open, events were very fast (aside from the timeline being a bit confusing). But the second explained them with great mastery. And honestly, it was a very exciting arc! Not only did Wei Xuxian have a tragic end in his other life, but also other characters that I loved very much. Patriarch Yiling thought that if he used demonic powers to do good, everything would be fine and everythingwould be under control. But that is not what happened. Lan Zhan ~ tried to warn him, but to no avail. Someone very malicious was on the prowl to curse Yiling. And for me, it was a surprise to find out who the Phantom General is! I was really perplexed, because I thought it was the patriarch's corpse.

About adult Jiang Cheng: before I thought than he was a complete imbecile! But it turns out that the reason he became so was not just the extermination caused in his clan. It goes far beyond that. I still don't like him very much, but now I understand his rude behavior.

Huai Sang is beautiful. In fact, all the characters are admirable! They do not need to have colored hair or exotic cuts to be unique. Not to mention that the personality of each one and their facial expressions amaze me. The art - and soundtrack - of this anime is really superb. Aaah, and I loved the second ending!

I could easily give a 9 for this season if it weren't for the strange detachment that the author made with his characters.

Attention, SPOILER: It seems to me that the death of some did not have the impact it should have, and it is strange to think that the younger sister overcame her husband's death so easily.

YOU CAN READ NOW.

Finally, at the end of this season two things became clear: Lan Zhan is really in love with Wei Xuxian (although the damn script makes everything very subliminal) and the sect that makes "snow cuts" will begin to be developed in the next episodes.

See you later! I can't wait for the continuation.

Thoroughly enjoyed the second season. I was glad to see more of WWX and LWJ in the present day, although we still saw the scenes from the past that were missed in Season 1, which is great. Although I wanted to rate it 10 based solely on my enjoyment, I did rate it 9 in the end looking at it from a perspective of someone who only saw anime and nothing else. As I have read the novel, watched the drama, I did not really get lost in the plot and it was really just going naturally. However, I did feel like story was a bit quick paced (sadlyit only had 8 episodes) and it might leave you confused. It did jump back and forth from past and present so this could have also caused a little bit confusion.

I feel like everything that they did discover and will discover in the future (S3) is important to understand for the story. If you never read the novel, you might find yourself lost.

However, it was still very intriguing and I loved every episode.

So, overall : 9

Story: 10 - can't wait for third season

Art: 10 - so so beautiful

Sound: 10 - ^

Character: 10 - we finally get some more depth on some characters. Protect Jin Ling at all costs!

Enjoyment: 10

I do recommend the second season but you might have to re-watch before the third season is out!

Chinese animation has come a long way these past few years and Mo Dao Zu Shi is a prime example of that. As someone who is the exact opposite of 'well-versed' in Eastern Fantasy and Xianxia, this series took a little while for me to understand in order to 'get' this big picture of it all. When I did, though, I was hooked. Mo Dao Zu Shi boasts an excellent and large cast of characters with intricate personalities that interact with one another in a truly entertaining way. The comedic scenes are just as poignant as the dramatic, and the pacing is quite nice so thatyou don't get emotional whiplash going from one scene to the next. It builds up and crescendoes nicely.

The world-building is an excellent backdrop for the story and is beautifully designed and animated. The intricate buildings of ancient China mixed with mystical fantasy scenery is truly something to behold. Every background in this show looks like a screensaver. Not to mention the action scenes. Wonderfully choreographed, excellently shot, and musically outstanding.

It really is a shame that Chinese censorship laws has put a proverbial leash over the developing relationship between main characters, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, though. Their progression is notable and can easily be interpreted as romantic- as the author intended (and rather explicitly detailed,) in the original novel. But it just isn't the same as having blatant representation. China has a long way to go in that regard.

Despite that one set back, though, this still is a show that is worth watching. The first season felt like a backdrop for what was to come, and season two has been building up to something huge. I'm very excited for season three.

All in all, give Mo Dao Zu Shi a chance. The double names and mythology might be confusing to a western audience- but if you give it time you'll find that it pays off to the highest extent.

If you're a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, you'll love this more mature take on a similar story.

unbelievably amazing animation and music. so well done so much thought went into the music and the way the characters are portrayed. specifically for wei yings flute and lan zhans guqin.. i watched a short on the creators talking about them specifically and they really blow you away with what they did to create just the perfect sound along with the fantastic animation. i will agree with another review thouhg, if you have not read the novel you may have some trouble following alone. as someone who had already read it, i LOVE this donghua. all the seasons are amazing

They fixed a lot of the little problems that affected the first season. The artwork was pretty much the same brilliant job, and the animation, especially the 3D CGI, was a lot smoother this season and much less obtrusive. Lots of new characters introduced, and our MCs get some development. The BL elements get played up a touch more this season, but it never gets truly obnoxious. This story is still driven by a great plot and not that silliness. Once again, there's good performances from all the VAs. I thought the English subs for the Mandarin were much better rendered this season. The soundtrack waseven better this season, with the traditional Chinese instruments sounding completely etherial. The director uses the actors, animation and sountrack together nicely and in quite a skillful fashion.

I am so torn over scoring this. Definitely an A at 95/100. It's right at the tipping point of being Masterpiece material. If they keep this up, next season will definitely be a 10, though.