Quick Update:Your probably thinking "Hey, Drawnseeker, didn't you want to start a W.I.T.C.H. retrospective? When is that coming out?" Well, dear reader, that will be released soon. I have way more to say on both the first story arc and series as a whole. Sorting and turning a small mountain of notes into a readable blog post isn't easy. So please bear with me as I try to make this into something I'll be proud of.
But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop blogging until I work this out. So here's my first anime review on this blog. Enjoy
Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary is a strange beast indeed. Based on a Taiwanese video game from 2004 and made into an anime in 2018 by Japanese anime production studio, Studio DEEN. Why wait so long to make an adaptation? Is it any good? I don't know the answer to the former but as for the latter, I think it's pretty darn good.
In an alternate ancient China the Taibai Empire expands it's power with Constructs, robots made of wood and bronze powered by magic. They swept across the land leaving death in their wake. Fu Yin and Fu Ning are two sisters who lived in a small nomadic village with their friend, a boy named Pu Zhao. After a brutal attack by the Empire Ning loses her arms and Pu Zhao is assumed dead.
The plot sounds very generic at first but it's the intense focus this show has on it's leads: the Fu sisters and Pu Zhao that is where it's at it's best. Within 5 episodes the characters grow leaps and bounds but the plot itself moves at a glacial pace.
The show starts with the sisters as travelling entertainers, Yin with her impressive sword skills and Ning with her spear which she wields using her prosthetic arms. There's a great scene in Episode one where the pair put on a show for the villagers and Ning's prosthetics fly off and she wields her a sword with her feet! It's all part of their show, but I wish Ning got to fight with her feet more. With shows like
Avatar the Last Airbender and
Legend of Korra, the bar for having main character with disabilities has been raised. I'm not expecting Ning to have the badass skills of Ming Hua, a great villain from Season 3 of Legend of Korra who uses her water bending to supplement being born without arms. It seems like they're not sure what she can and do without her artificial arms so for a few episodes she kind of just stands around while Yin does everything for her. The writers realize this flaw and turn it into character growth for both sisters. But I don't have physical disability so take my critique of her with a grain of salt.
Ming Hua from the amazing Legend of Korra
Yin struggles with being the protector. Even in flashbacks, it's shown that Yin looks out for Ning to the point where she butts in on the budding romance between Ning and Pu Zhao. But Ning especially after getting her magical enhanced prosthetics, puts herself in more and more danger. The younger sister wants to kill Taibai soldiers with a nearly serial killer like need. This scares Yin because she's never seen such a violent side of her sister and once Ning can protect herself, just what is her role now? Who is she suppose to be?
While Ning takes to killing like a fish to water, Yin is much more hesitant. Although Yin finding the scroll that contains the Xuan Yuan sword of the title she's not excited. She takes no joy in combat. Even when they return to a village they helped save only to discover that its been razed to the ground, Yin and Yun (a Construct that Yin can summon forth from her scroll) she doesn't kill the enemy commander. Ning does, in a fit of rage fueled by finding the body of a little girl they had saved. It's violence that continues to drive a rift between the sisters. Even when approached by rebels who are impressed by Yin's abilities she still refuses to join them. She wants a quite life with Ning. Hell, she goes so far as to give up the magic scroll, only to learn that she's the only person who can wield it's powers. It's only later when Ning mentions that fighting for the people you love is important and how happy she feels that she can finally help her sister that Yin realizes she was wrong. Even when they get ambushed by Taibai troops, Yin tries to talk things out with them. Only when Ning is (yet again) put in mortal danger does her older sister summon her blade. I do love how the show chooses to portray this fight. It's not a heroic stand against evil but it's one of utter bloodshed as Yin's eyes go wild and she butchers the soldiers all while getting stained with blood.
The Fu sisters internal struggles split over in episode 5 after they have an argument because the younger sister what to liberate a town under the control of a corrupt lord, but the rebels rightly point out that the area has too many troops stationed so they can't launch an offensive. Yin admits to liking who Ning was before she got combat useful arms. Ning runs off, sad and enraged. In a moment that I didn't see coming, Fu Ning murders a Taibai soldier who had decided to leave her alone after Yin quickly makes up an excuse for why they were out so late. The way Ning rationalizes her actions as just because he's an enemy soldier is chilling. This is no longer the playful little girl that Yin watched over all those years ago.
But what of Pu Zhao? Well, shock of all shocks he's not dead. Instead, his fate is that he's a slave forced to help build the Constructs the empire used to kill his village. By night he experiments with Construct parts making toys instead of weapons. It's on these nightly tinkering sessions that meets the Empress who is just a child herself. The pair become friends of sorts. After Mo Heng, the chief engineer of the Empire defects to the rebels, Empress Cheng declares Pu Zhao to take his place. This puts Zhao in an interesting position in the series. He's clearly an antagonist, willing creating new Constructs and even gaining a military position that has him leading them into battle, but he's given as much emotional complexity as the Fu sisters. He suffers from PTSD, being unable to sleep due to horrible nightmares about his home village being destroyed and all the death he witnessed as a slave. So he's up all night creating new machines. I'm still not sure why he's so ready to make weapons that he knows will cause more bloodshed. He's seen the effect they have on innocent people first hand, yet he still willing making deadly Constructs. Perhaps he thinks if he makes better weapons he can end the war faster, thus ensuring peace? The show never really makes his true motive clear to the viewer so he's an enigma of a character. Empress Cheng is also given quite a bit of development. Although she is still a child, she's more then willing to wield her considerable political power for her own reasons. She keeps the warring going because that was her late father's wish. To untie the world. But she does question whether all this bloodshed is worth it.
The characters overshadow the plot in my eyes, as they get so much development, yet nothing really happens. Oh, there are battles and tactics and plans setup but it never feels like things are really moving forward.
So far, biggest flaw so far the pacing of the series. Things feel like they move very slowly, which would be fine if this was a 20 episode series but it's listed as 13. Xuan Yuan is up to the episode 5 and the sisters have only just started working with the rebels. The first 3 episodes have moments that feel like filler. Such as Pu Zhao building a new type of construct only to have it defeated in the same episode. The reuse of animation is an issue as well such as the summoning sequences for both the Xuan Yuan Sword, Yun and her robot dog transformation showing up almost every episode. I love magical girl anime, so reused animation normally isn't an issue for me but the animation itself can be very lifeless and hollow. So seeing it over and over again just highlights its empty feeling. I've seen a lot of reviewers complain heavily about the bad CGI. The Constructs are all CGI and while their animal and insect inspired designs are cool they look pretty clunky in motion. But I've personally seen worse so I don't knock off too many points for it.
A bigger flaw is that the rebels, for all their importance to the plot, are very one note. They play heavily into classic anime personality types: The hot head, the strong guy, the older woman. I can't even remember their names for this review. So much of the run time is devoted to the central cast that they feel like puppets in comparison. If the show could just control it's pacing and learn to balance it's screen time more it would be for the better.
This is more a personal opinion then an outright flaw but I wish it was a Donghua instead of an anime. Donghua is Chinese anime such as Fox Spirit MatchMaker and Mao do zu shi ( Known as Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation in English) (Both of which are truly excellent series btw give them a watch. Mao is especially beautiful in every sense of the word) I say this because I like the games character designs and I wished this series had a more Mao do Zu Shi style art because it fits better with the overall tone and themes the show wants to address. Also donghua needs more series with female leads that aren't straight up romances.
The original character designs from the game this anime is based on
Mao Do Zu Shi (yes, the art style really is this beautiful. It looks even better in motion)
To sum up my thoughts
The Good
-The strong focus on character relationships lets the core characters feel like people.
- Near utter lack of fan service. There is an as of yet unnamed female villain whose huge chest gets quite a bit of focus but other then that it's pretty tame.
-The Silkpunk setting. Writer Ken Liu defines Silkpunk as "
Like steampunk, silkpunk is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. But while steampunk takes as its inspiration the chrome-brass-glass technology aesthetic of the Victorian era, silkpunk draws inspiration from classical East Asian antiquity." (To read more about Silkpunk see his interview on his novel The Grace of Kings here)
The Bad
-Lack of development for the Rebels
-Overused animation
The Ugly
-Some of the CGI during the battles can get really rough
Overall, it's still worth a watch despite it's glaring flaws. I'd give it a 3.5 out 5 so far.
