White Cat Legend

A highly under-appreciated show. Maybe because it's in Chinese? I'll never know, but do stay with me and try to give it a shot. Plop, plop, plop... water droplets echoed through a dark basement hall with chain laden wooden bars across each side. The scene carries us the sounds and smells of rust, dust, must. Empty cells with spooky roars coming only from the last cubicle scares away our last patrol on duty. There's no one left to guard this monster. Is it a prisoner? a caged lion? some type of demon? It's actually a cat. Well not really. It's a human-cat, or is it acat-human. Story/Character We'll need to add bit of setting to this story. We're actually at a period of the Tang Dynasty right after the Li clan rebellion was eliminated, leading to mass execution and imprisonment. Chen Shi, our friendly country bumpkin protagonist, decides to move to the capital in search for his long-lost brother. But he's stupid, poor, and in desperate need of a job. Without knowing much he ends up working on guard for our human-cat. With certain power shifts happening in the Tang empire, this cat-human who is also a part of the Li family becomes officially pardoned and no longer needs to be imprisoned. He becomes tasked to work as the senior official head of the Dali Court (a government bureau similar to the Supreme Court). Chen Shi who was able to persist as the prison guard to our cute cat humanoid is suddenly promoted as secretary to the senior official. This mysterious and comedic story then follows Chen Shi, Li Bing (the cat-human's name) and a few other members as they work in the Dali Court to solve crime cases and deal with the political struggles within the Tang dynasty. As the story progresses we get glimpses into our characters' backgrounds, slowly revealing fragments of how this human-cat came to be and who Chen Shi's brother really is. Art The art of the series is well drawn. There is an explicit character design choice where our simple-minded characters have beady-eyes reminiscent of Kirby, and the more intellectual characters have actual eyes. Don't ask me, I have no idea why this choice was made. More than the style of art (which is largely subjective), the attention to where simplicity and detail are used should be applauded. There are fluid and high production quality animations that continue throughout the series and a grand finale fight scene that is most pleasing to the eye. Enjoyment The comedy, characters, and mystery are what kept this show going for me. Characters were very likable, funny, and interesting. There are a lot of questions left unanswered from this season, so supposedly there is a continuation. Overall "A diamond in the rough." There are quite a few bits that need polishing, but for me it was at least a great experience 9/10

A hilarious 12 episode jorney thru the Tang dynasty The comedy of this donghua is so simple yet so effective, there wasn't one episode where i didn't find myself in fits of laughter... probably wasn't that wise of me to binge this at 3 in the morning Though there is an underlying plot which connects the whole series, it feels very episodic, with each episode telling it's own little story of ancient chinese slice of life with a pinch of insanity Every time things start to feel too serious and brooding you get thrown right back into hysteria at the most unexpected times But most of all, even withit's light and comedic tone it still manages to pull at your heartstrings The post-credit scenes illustrating little snippets of Tang dynasty culture are a very nice touch