This was based ona real novel and the animation is great it takes a break with all the intenst colors of normal anime and has a great story, character developement (even though it is confusing) you would get confused with some terms used in the Donghua if you don't know some of the terms meaning but if you don't know what they are it si still enjoyable. being someone who knows the terms and meaning of some of the things taht confused others (can't name them too many) the characters have sucha beautiful design and i just honsetsly love it down to the core. Highly recommen it to anyone who loves chinese cultivation world shows and they aren't really called anime or chinese anime the proper term is Donghua (do-ng who-wa. don't know if that helps) the soundtrack is amazing, the opening is such a adictive song to sing and just vibe with.
Wei-yings so called "death" from the wen clan made me honestly cry and when lan zhan asked him to come back to gusu i cried because after all they been through lan zhan and Wei Ying it lead to that moment where Wei Ying had enough of the rules and went to the so called dark side.
Wei Ying promised his aunt to take care of his brother but when he was negelcted and push around he kept his promise up until he was consumed by the darkness, Jiang Chang honestly i hated him before but when he lost his family it made me cry even more and angry at him for blaming Wei Ying when he should reach out for comfort from his only family left and his actions lead sort of him to the dark side, when every single sect member turned their back to Wei Ying for going int ot ehdark arts it's not like he choose to he had to since it was the only thing to make him stronf to protect the good wen clan members, the other sect, maybe other than the gusu sect, tried to massacre the good wen clan members it made me almost puke for not seeign the good in them and see they are innocent tainted by the bad clanmembers and made them like this so when Wei Ying tried to protect them and help them i was happy.
Overall the ending of the first season made me all emotional and i like that a bit. i liked the animation, music, character development, and characters (some of them) its a masterpiece when you understand most of the things that is culture related and when you read the novel (translated).