Lord of Mysteries

I'll tell you the truth about this Anime adaptation of Lord of Mysteries that people don't accept, it's very simple, basically the anime was made mainly for fans of the Novel, which doesn't necessarily mean that those who haven't read the original can't enjoy the anime, but as the original is extensive, deep and detailed it becomes an impossible task to add all that amount of information and elements present in each chapter. Many events were done in a different order than in the novel or simply cut and shaped differently, so to put it simply, is it worth watching as a mystery anime with abit of supernatural action? YES! WITHOUT A DOUBT, but those who haven't read the original will be able to pick out all the nuances of the plot between the lines? NO DOUBT THAT NOT! But I recommend that anyone who watches until the last episode reads the novel afterward, because you will not only read a masterpiece, one of the best novels ever made, but also depending on your time and reading, you will be ready for the second season of Donghua, That's it...

Lord Of The Mysteries is one of the greatest fictional stories of all time and the Donghua did not disappoint being an absolute masterpiece as well. This review will go over the entire Donghua as a whole and talk about it's flaws and positives. First the flaws, the only main issue of the LOTM Donghua is the first 3 episodes, I'm not even joking. The truth is that LOTM starts of extremely slow paced and since it's trying to appeal to many viewers which most are only seeking short, fast and brainless entertainment, the studio decided to dump exposition and information with fights to hook viewerson. However this was a mistake and caused a lot of outrage. Besides the bad directing and pacing of the first 3 episodes there are really no other flaws besides what your personal preference might be. Now the positives, first I'll talk about the character cast. Klein Moretti or Zhou Mingrui are the protagonist of the story, with the desire to return home and search for a way back the main character goes through many encounters. From these he is forced to adapt to this cruel and harsh world for just a chance at survival, seeing him struggle through his time in this world and develop as a person not only externally but internally. Over time we also see Klein bond to these characters and the connections between them aren't shallow either which allows for many beautiful and emotional scenes. Next the cast, LOTM has a decently big cast of characters, due to this not every receives equal screen time, some are talked about in passing while others are always on screen. However, this was perfect as it allowed for every character to shine on their own, rather than forcefully showing each character we can see how they act and their dialogues. This slowly built the characters each episode and allowed for amazing writing through showing not telling the viewers. Next the story, while at first it feels like a simple and boring mystery with no actual reasoning behind it, that couldn't be further from the truth. What we slowly see as lucky or coincidences all make logical sense, the characters try to solve their problems but are only part of the puzzle. It honestly stunned me how interesting it was while also keeping it entertaining. Quite literally everything comes together and makes for an amazing story and plot. Being honest, there isn't a way I can describe it, it's more of a feeling you get as you watch the episodes, you feel uneasy, curious, suspenseful or even eerie from how or why this is all happening. Now the emotions, this deserves it's own category as I got completely stunned by this, as someone who doesn't usually get emotional from fiction or stories LOTM managed to make me completely invested into it and had me even feel for the characters. This is obviously personal however I don't think anyone can watch this series and not feel something from it. Thirdly the animation, I think I speak for everyone when I say LOTM is arguably the best overall animated media from Asia, just the backgrounds are enough to leave me speechless. On top of that the quality doesn't drop throughout the season at all and even gets better. From the characters, lighting, monsters, camera angles, etc, LOTM delivers on all of this and makes the viewing experience stunning and unbelievable. Finally the entertainment, here is the big problem, this Donghua isn't for everyone. No matter how much I would recommend this and call it a masterpiece I know deep down not everyone could like it. The main issue is personal enjoyment and comprehension First enjoyment is subjective, many people might like repetitive and slop isekai while others only watch Shonen or strictly Shoujo and copy and paste romances, because of this many people can't exactly find fun in a mystery where things aren't presented to you directly in words or need a fight every episode to keep your focus however I will always say to try anyways, perhaps you'll like it and it'll broaden your horizons. Next comprehension, I'm not trying to act condescending when I say this but some people simply aren't smart enough for this, this doesn't mean you need to be intelligent to watch LOTM but at least have basic media literacy and comprehension, the amount of stupid questions I saw on social media within the first few episodes told me enough that this would get hated online. In conclusion, Lord Of The Mysteries is a masterpiece, it takes a lot for me to praise something this high but LOTM easily shattered any expectations I had and is one of my favourite fictions of all time. 11/10

This series requires you to trust the process and have patience. Anime-only. I watched all the donghua episodes and it was truly a cinematic experience. It’s more like a movie rather than an anime. Also, it’s best to binge-watch it since you will remember a lot of the context from before. Now, about the series, I watched the first four episodes and I was just confused and decided to drop it. Everything felt disconnected; I couldn’t make sense of the information being thrown at me and I was confused about half the things. Well, I went to the novel readers and spoke to them aboutit and gave my complains. Often they said, “have patience and trust the process.” I was like cool. Sure, the world is intriguing—I am not even going to bother talking about the cinematography, art design, and sound track since it’s best experienced and on god level; lord of mysteries has set an unrealistic benchmark for other anime to reach—and had me wondering about it, also the power system seemed good but I felt, “what’s the point of watching something that I do not understand?” But, trusting the novel readers, I gave it a shot and thought, “let’s decide at the end of the season.” I was already curious, just lost. Sure enough, it delivered. Furthermore, I realized that you’re not supposed to know everything. It’s a tendency for an anime to explain you things in the introductory episode, and walk you through it. This series is not that. It’s a MYSTERIES series and in hindsight, I feel stupid to be confused about the mysteries. It will be explained in the later season. I highly recommend it, AND atleast give it a try until episode 7. Furthermore, try the English dub(I did not need it since subs were fine). I am also okay with pausing and rewinding. Lastly, I want to thank the novel readers who were patient enough to explain me things when I felt lost. I just picked up the novel since the world and the power are so interesting and I plan on finishing the novel(Vol 2 for anyone who wants to read it from the end.)

I have still to encounter a good donghua, these shows producers think shiny images substitutes having a compelling story with good characters, as people say, doesn't matter how much you polish a turd, in the end it's still a turd. The 2D animation is super inconsistent, really stiff in dialogue scenes without any sign of character acting and the bad character desing doesn't help. The 3D bg stands out way too much in scenes that aren't covered in shadows, making the 2D characters look really out of place and whenever we have a tracking shot, the bg looks like miniatures. Action scenes are the only timesthe 2D team seems to be put to work, but they're still awkward, i also have no idea what the Nightmare power actually does in most fights sequences, are people sleep fighting? are they just seeing an illusion while the NightHawk suckerpunch them, maybe a partial illusion, like what we're actually seeing, also what's with the seemingly time travel or premonition power it has. Why is the story called Lord of Mysteries? This show is not a mystery show at all, Klein just follows his divination to a destination where they find a bad guy, then they fight. Story beats feel aggressively truncated, as if it's running through a checklist, characters are introduced, framed as significant and disposed off, why do i care if they die??? Have not read the novel, that's probably more of an adaptation problem i think. It expects emotional investment without making the audience actually care about the character, guy gets engaged, dead, guy gets leisure scene, dead, only time this kind of works is with Neil, but it's in a really weird manner, all the signs are there, we see the eyes, we're told about the Hidden Sage, we're shown the people he's lost, we see him change his demeanor but what happens makes no sense, even with all that it's too abrupt, he doesn't go days without contact or anything, he doesn't lose control, he instead makes a potion to bring back the dead FMA style, but it turns him into a monster blob, why did he take the potion, isn't it supposed to create a body, why would he ingest it? Also what does the Sage gain by turning him into a mosnter, was that not the sage and actually a higher level beyonder from the same pathway as Neil, colluding with Lanevus and Zangwill, so it's easier to control Dunn's actions? I don't really like the coincidence plot point, there is an object that can control someone's action without them realizing, even a beyonder and they end up thinking they're the ones choosing to do what it's written on the book/object, even if you take that out, it doesn't really make any more sense, Lanevus and Zangwill just needed Dunn to take out the Ashes, so they could steal it, there was no need for anything else to happen, no telling him to eat the dead, no telling him to lend the sun artifact, no anything to do with the Antigunous book, the only thing that did was make Klein stronger and allow him to revive himself at the end of S1(i presume him being able to revive himself has to do with the doll showing him the vertical eye drawing), also i didn't understand why Zangwill killed Klein like that, anyone with a brain could tell that the thing that killed Klein wasn't the "beast" they were fighting. Some other things i didn't like, Rose petals guy seems really out of place, dude legit thinks he's the main character with the secret power that he never actually uses. Why does it look like Daly is taking Klein as her pupil? Isn't there supposed to be secrets for those not in the know, why was she there in episode 1? She doesn't work under Dunn, it makes no sense for her to be in a suicide investigation. Why would Dunn take Klein to become a beyonder? Could they feel his "fog power"? If so, shouldn't that make them weary, he would be the prime suspect in that crime they were investigating. Also do people have other powers outside of beyonder powers? Things in this world are too obtuse, i know you're not supposed to reveal everything to keep some eerie aspect to the story, but we have no information about anything, things just happen, the whole plan about killing Klein and the other guys to get the Antigonus book and summoning the true god was just to get some artifact in the volt of a minor branch of the Nighthawks... I'm sure the novel is better, but i can't imagine it being much better than this, it's not just pacing, storytelling and art that are bad, but the plotpoints, the characters, the logic of what happens, this is seemingly just another power fantasy isekai, but with a complex magic system.