Throne of Seal

I never like over-powered MC I never like clichè I never like “perfect MC”( caring, intelligent, hard-working…) BUT this ONA has everything of these (and also much more…) and it is truly interesting and endearing. The story is simple: it’s a linear adventure/fantasy but so well done, that everything is in the right spot at the right moment. If you search for incredibile and spectacular twists (sometimes nonsense twists, which has no reason to exist…) Shen Yin Wangzuo isn’t for you. But it has a very solid base. Has it cliché? Yes, there are a lots, but they are very well thought, so thestory go on in a smooth way. Art is good! I saw other 3d ona/anime but everytime I found something off… mouth with too wide teeth, strange landascape, chaotic scenes. There are some errors (like hairs which don’t move in air or water, but every ona I see so far has this problem) but it is beautiful to see and it shows a lot of fascinating and colorful scenes: there are no difficulties to understand what is happening. Fight scenes are the best Music also is good: it gives me more strong emotions to every events (in particular romantic and fight scenes) There also decent comic relief (in the second par of the ona) and fascinating romantic moments; the lasts are sometimes very sweet althought maybe a little too forced but I think they’ll receive better development and reason to be later on I absolutely LOVE the psychological insight of the characters. The many facets of the mc ( a perfect mc) make him more complex than it apperars; in particular the supporting characters have their own psycological story and many questions to answer, so there is always a good development of everyone. My only displeasure is about the time lenght of every episode: at the beginning they are about 20 minutes long, but at the end only 15…. too short. (And for me every episode seem to last only 5 because I’m so wrapped up in the plot, that they seem to be shorter) Now I’m going to start the second season

This is my first review and it will be short. Great anime! 3D style, reminds me of Soul Land and Battle through the heavens. The fight scenes flow very well. Long, Haochen is a great MC in all assets of his personality! Sheng, Cai Er is the female MC. She is in my top 3 favorite women. She also has a complicated past which adds to her character. The sound tracks were on the most part very good. I would have given this anime a 10 but because they decided to add these really STUPID dance mimics in a few spots and fluffy animals (they weren't as annoyingas the dance scenes! Thank god they were not many. I have NO idea why they were even added! It takes away quality from this great anime) Which I would have given it a 10

The world of Throne of Seal is that of demons and demon hunters; Groups of 6 strong hunters chosen by the Alliance of Temples fight against the demon lord and his 72 pillars. The parties consist of an assassin, mage, summoner, warrior, priest and a knight - They are chosen to fight against the invading demon army's pillar and the demon lord. Long Haochen is a knight-to-be candidate who stays in the remote outskirts of Odin City while training frivolously to become a knight and protect his sick mother. He has a chance encounter with an interesting girl who kickstarts the beginning of his journeyto being a knight. Story & Characters: The plot of Throne of Seal is a very simple one that takes a lot of typical wuxia elements like cultivation and martial arts and mashes it up with medieval style MMORPG elements. Unlike the usual martial arts story, Throne of Seal foregoes lazy character development where a side character clings to MC inciting drama and delaying the main storyline. Instead, the Throne of Seal unravels in a way where the world opens up more as Haochen grows and as a result more chance encounters with key characters occur. This way the storyline feels delineated yet natural where the character interactions feel more organic and not hasty. Another aspect where wuxia stories tend to fall apart especially in longer duration is through its pacing - Stories that are too fast or slow paced have their negatives but Throne of Seals has just enough progression that it doesn't dwell too long or speed up when it comes to pacing. Each arc in the first season of Throne of Seal has its own importance and they work together seamlessly; Even the time skips are used in training arcs to skip a lot of unnecessary filler content. I enjoyed the comedy dynamic between characters it breaks the tension at the right moment preventing a dragged out mood during scenes which a lot of donghua make use of. Overall, the characters and story are well adapted and I expect no less from the works of Tangjia San Shao. Art & Sound: Art and animation style are leagues above other series released in the same time period; Throne of Seal's CGI feels very high budget because the visual fidelity and particle/environmental density. The setting of many scenes feel picturesque and realistic due to the use of shading, shaping of light, atmospheric ambience through leaves, snow etc. This helps to make the viewing experience as immersive as possible without being gimmicky. Though the characters are still animated through key frames instead of motion capture the slow or minimal movement when speaking and moving during dialogue make it a lot more convincing of mo-cap animation. Donghua tend to also enjoy hair physics and this series is no exception, Throne of Seal pays attention to a lot of character hair physics and it's great to see the level of detail when watching movement in characters. In terms of what I didn't enjoy about art and animation, during action scenes in Throne of Seals we see that the shots are fast paced and in between these shots there is always slow motion typically used in close up shots. They break the sense of immersion and urgency in action scenes and I personally am not a fan when it's used in this series. The sound design when it comes to music choice and sound effects are fairly high quality and suitable for the mood; The voice acting is also very decent quality. There aren't any monotone characters in this series and instead the characters are very expressive especially when it comes to comedy like Cai'er and her assassin squad antics. Enjoyment and Overall: This season was enjoyable to watch and didn't need me to think too much about cultivation system, different worlds or character conflict. It has a natural and easy to follow story and characters so that makes it a lot better to watch in longer sessions compared to other donghua. I don't really enjoy the extras/explanation scenes at the end but I do appreciate that they omit these scenes from the actual story to save on pacing and unnecessary content.