Guimi Zhi Zhu: Xiaochou Pian

7.5/10 - a rare find

I was suggested this by another user as one of their favorite shows. And I have to say I understand why this would be someone's favorite. For me it's hard to really fall in love with only part of a whole so only having one true season that does take away from it a bit as always. This show is odd by western and even more Japanese centric focused shows. It doesn't spoon feed you the answers and makes you want to pay attention. I imagine it is going to be a great rewatch to catch all the little details ... they sprinkle in. That being said being very Chinese proverb and history based, it wants you to be confused like the main character and learn as you go. Certainly not something for everyone. My personal problem was many of the voice cast, who did a good job to fit the Victorian England esthetic, were a bit hard to understand and that and a bit too much of making characters learn information and world building off screen it made it very easy to get lost and have to rewind. Might just be a skill issue on my part?

The way the episodes were broken up was also odd, and my god if you were watching this like I was on Crunchyroll, DO not skip any of the intro and outro scenes, but manually fast foward. Most of the episodes have something tucked away, and it's almost always something to add context.

Visually the show was great and very centered on being grand to say the least. But my only gripe was how CGI all the buildings were... and there's so many scenic city and architecture shots that just look bad to the point where I had to question if it was AI lol...

But alas the show was compelling, had great world building and had an overall good mystery. I'll be back for season 2

Pacing. If the pacing had been handled properly, this could’ve been great.

There was a lot of hype on social media about how massive the source material is and how unique the power system is. Maybe that’s true—but the anime didn’t manage to present it well. I found myself constantly Googling and watching YouTube explanations just to understand what was going on. Eventually, I stopped doing that and just followed the main story loosely.

If the source material has too much content, cramming everything together and expecting viewers to keep up isn’t a good idea. That’s exactly what this felt like. It seemed tailored more for people ... already familiar with the world rather than anime-only watchers.

Animation
Honestly, very good. The animation quality and camera angles are strong. However, it sometimes moves way too much, making it hard to focus. I get the stylistic choice, but I wasn’t a big fan of it. The details are impressive, though some character faces felt slightly plastic and lacked emotional expression.

Characters
Decent overall. They did a good job introducing a variety of characters, but because the pacing jumps around so much, it’s hard to form a real connection with them.

Recommendation
Mixed feelings. It might not work well for first-time viewers, but those already familiar with the world could enjoy it more.

The story is an incoherent mess of concepts thrown together with little to no introduction, explanation, characterization, or world-building. Half the time, I have no idea what's going on or what the series is trying to convey. I've never seen an anime whose high rating feels so undeserved.

It honestly feels like this adaptation was made exclusively for people who have already read the novel. So much seems to be skipped or omitted that following the story is practically impossible without reading the source material or searching online for episode explanations. Even the special episodes that supposedly provide additional context seem to reinforce just how much ... is missing from the main series. An anime should be able to stand on its own, not require viewers to do homework to find information in other sources just to understand the plot, the world, power systems, characters, etc.

Perhaps the original novel handles things better, or maybe I'm missing some cultural or historical context that helps you understand everything, but as an adaptation, this is a failure. The only redeeming quality is the animation, which is admittedly pretty good, but beautiful visuals can't compensate for horrendous storytelling, world-building, and characterization. Animation is at the bottom of the list when it comes to making a good show.

This desperately needs a remake that properly adapts the source material and takes the time to establish its world, characters, and story. There might be something worthwhile buried underneath this anime, but you'd never know it from this adaptation. As it stands, it's an absolute mess and an incredibly disappointing viewing experience.

Made for people that know the series well, not for people that are new to the series. If you're new to it, you'll be completely lost, and the whole thing will feel like an incoherent mess of trash.

Edit: Finding the Old Neil's Mysticism Class episodes just pissed me off to no end....

Instead of integrating essential information into the actual show, they decide to dump it all into some throwaway, mind-numbing classroom-like shorts?

……. So stupid. How about just focusing on proper storytelling and world-building next time? It would have made the actual series much easier to understand and enjoy if this information was added naturally to the show, instead of the mess we ended up with.