The Defective

Since the only other review is relatively critical, I thought I would offer my perspective, which was decidedly more positive. Story - this is based on a novel by Priest, who is always good for an interesting storyline. I personally had no issues following along, although I did watch in Chinese, and the subtitles are mediocre which may lead to confusion. Note that the original source was written as novel, not a manga, so I would caution against assuming each season will be a true "arc" the way a lot of Japanese anime shows are. Personally I loved the world-building and the exciting sci-fipace, and the pacing style didn't bother me. For what it's worth, my wife also enjoyed this show tremendously even though she doesn't know much Chinese. Art - this is your standard Chinese CG anime, but I would count it on the higher end. I loved all the character designs, and the two main leads are so pretty it hurts. The rest of the art was nice too - not exactly the pure art of, for example, MDZS season 1, but it really worked with the futuristic setting and looked good. I think the biggest issue art-wise is the fact that the rigging of the characters is slightly janky, which is pretty common for CG anime, and doesn't bother me that much because I've watched a lot of these. Sound - the music was generally enjoyable, although nothing was super memorable from the soundtrack, but the ending theme is SO GOOD. I can't articulate exactly how much I love it, but it's this interesting jazz-inspired track, with a truly interesting melody, and it's sung by classical baritone Wang Xi. And the lyrics are very very good. Character - this REALLY sold the show for me. Hand Butler (Zhan Lu) and Dad (One-Eyed Hawk) are the best, and I feel like this show is worth it for the two of them, even if you're not as interested in the rest. The original story culminates in the two main characters being a pairing, but this season is only a fraction of the story, so not much develops just yet, a nice slow burn. I also ended up liking pretty much all of the side characters who weren't intended to be villains. Enjoyment - okay, look. If you have very strict standards and expectations of your anime, or if you read the book and have strong opinions on what an adaptation should look like, or if you dislike having to put story pieces together slowly and by yourself (and also not getting answers to all your questions by the end of the first season), this is probably not the show for you. But if you're willing to be open-minded and dive into a fun and interesting story, and you can overlook a few issues here and there, this show is very very enjoyable. In summary: I really enjoyed this show and would love to see more seasons. I think it's worth watching if you are interested in the type of story it's telling, but there is some divide between its storytelling style and that of the average modern Japanese anime.

After watching the first time, i got interested enough to read the novel too. The anime is great as it is fast pace and the visuals and fighting scenes are awesome. The novels fills out a lot of interesting details that are not captured in the anime, with a lot of plots and politics involves it is therefore quite slow pace for the novel. but this is a deeply thought out story that puts a lot of effort in character and relationship growth. the relationship between the 2 main lead is really touching and sweet ... really wish i can see in the anime, butknowing the issue with china censorship, it probably wont really bring out the true sweetness/passion between the two. nevertheless, really hope to see the next season