Review of Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage

This is one of those anime where either you love it, or you hate it. You will love it if you are familiar with the Chinese Taoist cultivation themes. You will be weirded out if you do not, the anime also does not give much explanation until further into the story. The good: the story is about overcoming trials and ascending deity-hood. It portrayed that side of cultivating life well. If you watched the first half of the season you are sure to see all the tests for choosing a disciple. Those are tests you never see in other anime, and makes the entrance test into so manymagic/swordsman/adventurer/etc. academy looks like a cake walk.

The bad: Generic characters, you will feel a constant sense of deja vu watching this. The author did not put his mind into making original characters and developing them unfortunately. In fact if you see the original work you can see that character changes take several hundred chapters, which can span up to several seasons of the anime. This makes chinese novels a bad adapdation target for the "fast food" ecology of anime.

The bad: The music is not unpleasant at best. Non intrusive to the show but not memorable. It cannot compare to those brainwashing songs from "overlord" or "kekkai sensen". The Op is horribly make, i cannot bear to watch it.

Overall, it is something worth a try. If you like xianxia you will appreciate it. Watch it in Chinese dubs if you can.