Reviews for X&Y

Imma just put it out there, but I genuinely think this anime is gonna be the "Link click of the season". First off, for a Chinese anime, or Donghua, this stuff has incredible animation and an eye-catching art style for its scenery. And I'm not even joking, but the CGI is really bloody good. Right now, I am only about reaching halfway through the airing of this, but I am wholeheartedly invested in this, that is how gripping the plot is. To put this into context, I, myself, have seen and completed over 100 animes, so I like to think that I know a thing or twoabout what makes an anime good. And this one just doesn't disappoint. I am in love with the way the story is told, unfolding a mystery from one thing, but then out of nowhere, that leads to an even bigger mystery from that.

The escape room and game-like element fit really well with the storytelling, and the anime literally pulls a "never let em know your next move."

Right now, I feel like I am on an acid trip trying to understand what is going on, (in a good way).

The story begins with zooming on a duo main cast, but we then begin to see just who exactly the MC is and things start to spiral out of hand.

Like seriously, the MC here is having a bloody nightmare about an escape room.

So, without trying to spoil much, just please go ahead and watch 1 episode. You honestly will like this, if you would enjoy the psychological, borderline supernatural mystery to it.

Note: There might be a little bit of spoilers in here. To sum it up: the visuals and atmosphere are great, but there is very little plot and characters in here, and what is in it, is a waste of time. It’s interesting that this donghua even caught some attention, given that initially the premise was very vague, and it adapts a seemingly not that well known webcomic. I guess it has to do with it being easily available. Well, aside from that, there’s the hook, two dudes go to an escape room and win it, for one of them, the protagonist, to have recurring visionsof different escape rooms and the female owner of the place they went to, afterwards. Quite unusual, plus during the first three episodes the pacing is quite good, having the setup and a cliffhanger in the first, the resolution in the second, and a hint of the backdrop stories that connects all the characters in the third.

The visuals are also very good, nothing mind blowing but definitely way better than the average anime out there, especially modern ones. The artwork is very well done, it’s always consistent without quality drops whatsoever, very well made backgrounds despite being limited to the same places in the same city all the time, and a better use of lighting and shading than any anime out there these days. The special effects are also very good, and the CGI used in the show is mixed very well with the rest, compared to other anime, and donghua as well. Plus the visuals and directing during the hallucination parts are very good as well. The parts that stood out the most for me were the genuinely visually dark moments in the show, which nowadays I don’t find anywhere else, even in series that are supposed to have dark aesthetics. The minuses in this department have to do with how stiff the series is most of the time, and how simple the character designs are, the only character that stands out a little is the main girl, and only because of her dress, black and red like her hair and eyes respectively. When she appears with other clothes she blends within everyone else like the rest of the cast.

The sound department is also very good, very well made sound effects during both relaxing and intense moments and the soundtrack is pretty immersive. The opening fits the mysterious vibe from the initial episodes very well and the ending, although nothing special, is fine as well. I take out points here because of the voice acting, it feels very generic and without much variety in delivery among different scenes and events.

But that’s as far as the positives go for me.

Initially the series plays out as a suspenseful psychological thriller making the viewer guess why is this happening? Is it all just a dream? Is the protagonist going crazy? Did he fall in love with the woman? Is she a demon that bewitches all men as the rumors say? Is it that all Chinese men can’t stop having recurring thoughts about a woman they met for like an hour?

Well, let me tell you, from episode 4 to 13 and half of 14, X & Y is not a psychological thriller, is not suspenseful and it’s not a drama in the least. It’s a romcom about the two main characters teasing each other. You can forget about the setup because so does the show, as it becomes a lighthearted slice of life and romantic comedy series with no plot progression whatsoever that made it feel way longer than just a 16 episodes series of a runtime of 15 minutes per episode. Plus from that point the initial thrilling tone and atmosphere became weaker and weaker until disappearing almost completely. No wonder it ended up falling into obscurity once again.

Ok, sometimes a character would appear to yell at the protagonist to STAY AWAY FROM THAT WOMAN, SHE IS THE DEVIL is a most exaggerated and ridiculous way, only for that to lead to nothing. Ok, bad things keep happening to people that harass the main girl, as well as acquaintances of the main character, fuelling the initial suspicion. But that also leads to nothing happening in the end, a girl gets kidnapped and placed in an escape room for several episodes? Nothing happens to her in the end, it was all fake tension, the show just felt like wasting some episodes. Did a character die for harassing that other woman? It happens out of screen or you won’t see what ends up happening to the asshole.

They also keep bringing up how suspicious it is that the woman could build such a big and complex escape room place out of nowhere, but I don’t recall the show ever answering that.

Another big issue are the slice of life moments, which normally serve to at least flesh out the cast, but that doesn’t happen either. Everyone remains one note up until the last two and a half episodes. In the meantime they have the most unnatural interactions in a slice of life series ever, maybe the translation is to blame but seriously who talks like that? Even leaving the dialogues aside, there’s nothing to learn about this cast, they only appear in one place and they do the exact same things every time. Do you want to know more about the protagonist and what the heck is going on in his head? Well, too bad, he is amnesiac and he doesn’t get a clue about himself or the plot until the 14th episode out of 16, and the way he got that was so easy and simple you can’t help but think that it should have happened way earlier.

Anyways, once the answers are given, turns out there’s no supernatural stuff, and the protagonist isn’t losing his mind either, everything was a lie the whole time. To be fair, the reason behind all of this isn’t too bad, if the series was good, it could have been something like a mix between The Truman Show (minus the reality show aspect) and Memento or some shit. But there’s none of that here, and what ends up being the answer certainly isn’t very believable, in fact I dare to say it’s not at all, the characters shouldn’t interact the way they do at all, given their backdrop story, and it definitely didn’t mindfucked the protagonist nearly as much as it should have done, and it definitely didn’t need 16 episodes to show it, it could have been a short movie combining the first three episodes, very few scenes of the next ten, and then the last three. Either that but with better writing, or at least anticipate the outcome a bit for it to not feel as sudden as it was, plus it would have been more impactful and relevant for the protagonist. Ok, maybe if we track every escape room shown prior in the series we could find some hints, but I’m not doing that, and even if I did and they exist, I bet they are few, little, very easy to miss, and not really adding to the big picture nor highlighted in a way that might feel well written or directed. You would find more pausing the opening.

And you know what the worst thing about this show is? The ending is open and circular, and from what I read the series only adapts half the source material, which follows a similar pattern to end with, again, an open and circular ending.

Down to it, this is a show that promises a suspenseful psychological thriller early on, only to give Babylon vibes in a most exaggerated way, full of red herrings and fake tension, a dead pacing with barely any plot progression, a very inconsistent tone, some of the most unnatural interactions among characters ever in one of the emptiest slice of life series ever, no proper anticipation for the outcome, very nonsensical writing as a whole, disappointing resolutions, a story that essentially goes nowhere, and a complete waste of very good visuals, directing, sound, and atmosphere. I didn’t complete many donghua so far, but among those few, this is the worst of them all (but certainly not the worst one I ever checked out, that is Evil or Live, by far).

I previously gave a preliminary review after 6 episodes, giving it a 9 and calling it a must watch unless they screw up the ending. I'm going to downgrade it to an 8, which is still a high recommendation. Aiyou de Mishi has an incredibly strong start, and does so much to build atmosphere and tension that it just draws you in. Watch the first episode, and you won't be able to escape. There's something odd about the escape room that Yuechu and his coworker try out. There's rumors of people becoming obsessed and getting dreams about the escape room or the beautiful owner Aiyou. Aiyou usesa spooky salutation for all the leaving customers: "I will never let you go"

It's a thriller where it's probably best to not spoil anything. Like Link Click, Aiyou de Mishi or X&Y likes to end episodes on cliffhangers. The primary draw of this show is the mystery, so you'll have a different experience if you are watching the simulcast with everyone else. You (the audience) look for clues to understand what's going on. Unlike Link Click, there isn't much of any B plot, and it doesn't evoke many emotions beyond that of mystery.

It does a good job using atmosphere to create tension. The direction is near flawless. Everything (the cinematography, audio, pacing, transitions) comes together to generate the mood.

The animation is good. Backgrounds are lush and detailed. Lighting is used effectively. There aren't really heavy action scenes to animate, so there isn't any really spectacular sakuga, but the scenes are all set nicely.

The OP has outstanding visuals and music which really set the mood of the show. The ED is also great. It's hard to express just how well they mesh with the show.

The ending wasn't as strong as I would have liked. But the journey was good.

This is my opinion after witching this anime, just in a clear cut brief (this is solely my opinion on this show) DISCLAIMER:contains spoiler ●Animation is great ●Music,SFX and Soundtrack is amazing ●Story mode is good but not so promising, it's a mystery bewteen the characters based on a escape room. ●The characters and the situations are always mysterious and it's okay but revealing scenes are not a promising level (for me it wasn't great impact on my experience) because characters weren't enough developed to the story (at leats for me) ●Everything until epsiode 15 was a good but the last Last epsiode being trouble with explaining the Transitionof ending the story. It was confusing to analyse what's actually happening with characters at then end.

What i understood is that the Main character had a past that he can't remember and coming to final epsiode the main character again goes into amnesia like his past.

If this was the Whole story with some excape room elements? then this is a time pass watch with a popcorn.

I welcome the counterpart explanation of the last epsiodes or the whole series if I'm wrong.

The art, music and animation are beautiful. For anyone trying to understand this whole show, here's my understanding (Episode 15 basically summed up everything I tihink) The way I see it being described is Xu, Yan, Quin, and Hu were all close friends in college. They enjoyed making escape rooms. Yan (the main character), was in love with Xu. Based on other episodes, I'm guessing Xu's dad cheated on Xu's mother. So Yan took revenge by creating an escape room that gave him a heart attack? Yan has some kind of mental break from the whole experience and forgets who he is. Any recollection of the pastmakes him pass out and forget everything again.

Xu is upset with Yan for "killing" her father so she teases and toys with him waiting for a good opportunity to kill him once he remembers everything and doesn't black out from it? That's the way I understand it at least.

An excellent combination of well executed plot and fantastic animation – That is how I would like to describe this anime. Animes like ‘Aiyou de mi shi’ are just proving the fact that Chinese animes are getting better at an astonishing pace. Plot(8/10): The plot of this anime centers around a mysterious woman and the escape room which she owns. And as male lead we have a relatively normal guy, who is not that normal (Big twist at the end) . As a mystery show it ticks almost all the boxes. It had good pacing, several interesting characters combined with great direction. Some ofthe scenes really justified the suspense tag it has. The initial phase got me hooked easily and made me watch the whole show. Though we barely discover what happened throughout those days and what was the motive behind it, the story is still intriguing until the point it covers from the source material.

Animation,Audio(9.5/10): Probably the best part of the show. Background art was outstanding, character designs were also great. I read some chapters of the source material afterwards and compared it with the anime. I was genuinely shocked to see how much the anime improved the art. Great job done by the studio.The backround music and sounds were good as well. It was able to create the vibe needed for the situations. It has an ending song which was also not bad .

Overall (8.5/10): Out of the few Chinese animes I have watched so far ,‘Aiyou de mi shi’ stands out as one of the best among them in terms of quality of the story and animation. The story stops at a crucial point and it definitely deserves a second season. It hasn’t got even half of the recognition it deserves , probably because it’s a Chinese anime . If you are not bothered by the language, you should definitely watch this. Highly recommended.

This was honestly beyond my expectations! Starting off with it being a donghua adaptation, the animation style and the cgi was fairly impressive! What caught me most is still how the story proceeded with lots of twists while giving us character development as much as possible. I loved how the story proceeded with the starting episode. It basically was the best way to grab people's attention with the escape room theme. As much as once could piece the story together, the ending still caught me hanging and wanting for more. There were definitely a couple of loose ends throughout but honestly it feels like theywere kept in purpose to enthrall the user experience and keep them wanting for more. I do feel a couple of scenes were exaggerated however it didn't fail its purpose and I liked that it made me think.

It was a great watch altogether! Binge-worthy!

I'll try not to give spoilers, but there might be some. This donghua is the best "mind work" I've seen in a long time. The animation and music are really good. Donghua teams are working really hard. I hope they can reach more international audiences because they are really good. I want to say this about this series, I love the editing! The metaphors for the main story connected to the escape rooms were very good. It's a very successful progression in terms of the slow build-up of the story and its memorability. Whether it's the escape rooms or what happens to the characters, you tryto figure it out one by one. It's a story that really manages to draw you in. I can't wait for season 2, I hope it will be announced soon. Because I really can't wait to see how the problem between Xu Aiyou and Yan Yuechu will be solved!

I would have give it a 9 almost, but the story isn't finished yet, we want to know more about the story and what actually happened on the past. As i finished it, I can feel questions were given but they didn't answer any. But why am I still recommending it? Because-- ART: Chinese anime and their animations are always eye-catching for me. SONGS: It's peak, the bgm, the intro, the outro--- especially the last episode's outro is my favorite. The intro is soooo soothing to watch and the music is the cherry on top. Honestly, it added so much to this anime. I never skippedit's intro.

THRILL: Instead of the main story, the escape rooms are more enjoyable and will pique your interest, since it occur very randomly, even you will also feel that you are trapped and you need to escape to breathe.

CHARACTER DESIGN: I loved it, it's not very exaggerated, simple and matches the vibe of the character, especially Xu Aiyu's dress and hairstyle is amazing. Yan's hair mark is also makes him stylish. The development---well, Aiyu's one is great, so is Hu Zhu's one. I loved how Yan's is always calm when it's about solving an escape room but in the last episode, he was panicking and screaming.

Now, why 8? Because it threw lots of questions to the audience but they themselves didn't solve it and now I don't think there will be a s2 since it's been a long time it was released. Overall, if you enjoy the idea of escape rooms and a story evolving it, please watch this.

If you enjoy psychological mind games then this underrated donghua is a must see. Aiyou de Mishi is a Chinese animated adaptation of the manhua Ai You De Mi Shi by Bi Shui Yu. We're dropped into the life of Yuecha, as he and a work colleague visit an escape room called X&Y. The story quickly pulls you through an anxiety inducing, riddle solving journey that slowly starts to mess with your mind. It leaves you with the feeling that you may have escaped the room, but the room has not escaped you. The plot is really good. I cannot say much without giving spoilers, but goingin blind in this case is not a bad idea.

The animation quality is great, this and Link Click give me hope for the future of Chinese animation. The music is excellent, opening title animation and music really gives it an edgy feel. The main character is interesting, with an complicated unfolding backstory. Aiyou, the owner of the escape room, is intriguing and mysterious. Overall, cast is just *chef's kiss* complete with mad hatter moments.

For me, the biggest drawback was the poor translation quality that gives the interpersonal dynamic a discombobulated feel. Ironically it works to add to the overall confused feeling one has, but at key moments meaning is sometimes lost. It is my sincere hope that Chinese production houses will pay more attention to localization of their English audience. I wanted to read the manhua in order to flesh out critical scenes, but unfortunately English translation is not up to date.

I would have rated this donghua higher if not for script translation issues, 8/10