Tian Guan Ci Fu - [Anime review] [Update incoming]

Insane visuals, great potential and flawed pacing. Warning for spoilers.

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Story: 

Heaven Official's Blessing has a few plot lines that aren't always followed through. First of all, straight out of nowhere we're being introduced to a world that never explains itself.
Who is the crown prince? Where are we? Who is the blue haired goddess? Who are heavenly officials? What is happening?

We get so few answers, we practically don't get any.

This is where the mix of emotions starts.

On one hand, we get no answers - on the other hand, we don't actually need them. Let me explain. While knowing what is what and who is who would help us to figure out the details and get comfortable in the universe of this anime -- it works well even without the explanation.
The story revolves around different things and plots and characters. So even if some of the scenes are confusing, it is easy to get a grip on what kind of people the main characters are and how their universe works.

Some questions will never get answered. But no one is putting enough stress on those aspects. Meanwhile the things that Heaven Official's Blessing considers important do get explained.

So without knowing who is what, we are getting thrown into our first "arc". 

Let's call it "the ghost that kidnaps brides". This is where everything begins and what we can work with. Forgetting the characters for now, let's only talk about how they approached this plot.

I have to say that the set-up was amazing and I fairly enjoyed the supernatural mystery. The conclusion of it was no so great. 

We have a strong, independent, fearless woman warrior... who freaking folds when a sexy tall broad-shouldered man touches her chin. From that moment on, he is her everything and she'd put her life on line for him. It happens so fast and so simply, that it's quite honestly ridiculous. 
It turns out, that he doesn't want to marry her though. So what does our warrior do? She injures herself - putting her life on the stake for him, throwing away her future, completely giving up on her rank... and he still doesn't marry her. That's how a revengeful spirit is born.

Like I said, meh. Heaven Official's Blessing did an amazing job at portraying her emotions and I did feel bad for her... still it wasn't enough for me to appreciate the first arc.

Another arc is actually a part of it. During the first plot line, there was an emphasis on a certain female character. (Whose fate was again, meh.) She was taking care of a boy, who walked around in bandages.
At the end, they had to figure out what to do with said boy. And while the crown prince tried to tend to his injuries, he realized that this boy had a "two-faced illness".

This was so interesting and I was so curious about what will happen!
Now my problem: what I hoped happened is that they pushed the story line for "later" and completely abandoned it in this season. I understand that other, more important stuff happened... but apart from few flashbacks we got nothing about this illness... yet.

Continuing in this way, we're approaching the last one. I didn't quite care for this one. It was about merchants and strange race of warriors, that made crown prince's life a bit more difficult.
But this arc wasn't supposed to be plot heavy. It was supposed to bring attention to our characters and their past. And it did that well. We understood more about who the crown prince is, we got a taste of what the red gay's Lang San's intentions are... And we met someone important from prince's past.

I do appreciate the way they're introducing and explaining everything. I just missed... more in the story aspect of Heaven Official's Blessing as a show.

Art & Animation:

This shouldn't be even allowed to be commented on. Insanity. It looks so good.
The design of the character is somehow simple, yet insanely beautiful. The male characters and female, the protagonists and the background characters, they all look amazing. Even those that are of no importance are decently designed.

Animation is really high-quality. Everyone moves naturally, and there aren't any interruptingly visible scenes with lazy animation.
We have the occasional CGI, but it can be forgiven.

The opening has amazing sequences of half-animated scenes/drawings. They look like what blessing from god would look like. The amount of detail and crisp... Ugh! So good!

Music:

I am not big on the Chinese language, so neither the opening or ending stuck with me, or stand out to me.

As for the music used in the show itself, I think they did a good job at underlining the mood, so no complaints.

Characters:

Now... this will be something.

As I mentioned before, we get basically no explanation of who is what. I was watching this show with my boyfriend, which is only important for comparison in understanding this and that.

Safe to say, the following are opinions of two very confused people who had so much fun watching.

Our main character is Lian Xie, the crown prince (or as I call him "the gay in white"). He's a soft boy with good heart and quirky personality, that only wants the best for everyone and tries to save the world.
We don't know much about him, but we do get shots of his past here-and-there.
His main goal (that turned into a side quest) was to find followers for himself... but he ends up solving ghost-related crises everywhere he goes.

Appearing in the second half, is the "red gay" - Lang San, who was not really a surprising character to me. I still think the set-up for him was great. And it became a mutual agreement that his twink form (Niko-Niko-Nii) was the preferred one.

Said to be fearsome, strong and cruel... he turns out to be an absolute baby that takes liking to Lian Xie. They even have a special episode just for their newfound friendship... and I am very curious to see where it goes.

Why? Well... exchanging looks, stealing glances. Teasing and being afraid to touch each other. Being gentle and having a bond that cannot be easily explained... what can it possibly be? Ah yes. They're gay.

And like in any other amazing BL, we have the second couple as well.

That being the two assistants Fu Yao and Nan Feng - whose chemistry is so violently funny, it seemed to "some" as too forced and fake. (I on the other hand think that this is a prime example of enemies to lovers trope, just that the enemies are really just faking that they're dating already.)

There is not much else to them, just that.

Other characters didn't have much time or space to be explored or understood... But they had good moments during the show and I enjoyed their presences while it lasted. Most of all, I enjoyed their design.

I do want to point out the amazing character of "human fertilizer". That sent shivers down my spine... repeatedly.

Entertainment value:

Heaven Official's Blessing is a great show. It's strongest parts are definitely art & design, but it doesn't disappoint in setting the mood for it's arcs. 
I wish it was heavier on the story, or at least tried to explain some of the things better... but I still think it's a brilliant watch.

Conclusion: recommended 👍

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