REVIEW: Heaven Official's Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu): The Comic (manhua, vol. 1) original story by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, adapted and illustrated by STARember, translated by Mimi

Heaven Official's Blessing is danmei with fantasy and historicalish elements. This is the first volume of the Bilibili manhua adaptation of the story. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I think this is now the third format in which I've experienced this story. It follows Xie Lian, once the beloved crown prince of Xianle, now a god who has ascended three times and been banished from the heavenly realm twice. 

Xie Lian's third ascension caused some damage that he is being allowed to pay for with whatever merits he earns investigating a case for the Heavenly Emperor. There have been reports of brides being snatched from their wedding processions around Mount Yujun. The culprit is being referred to as the "Ghost Groom." Xie Lian has been tasked with finding and stopping this Ghost Groom.

This volume covers the whole Ghost Groom storyline, up to the revelation about what's under Lang Ying's bandages.

Heaven Official's Blessing rewatch completed

I enjoyed the Hua Cheng and Xie Lian bits even more the second time around, but the Banyue portion was such a drag I accidentally skipped part of it and the only thing I regretted was that I didn't get to see San Lang's reaction to learning what Xie Lian's pseudonym used to be. Episode 12 made everything better, though - hurray for fanservice (in the more general meaning of the word).

I'm now 42% of the way through the utterly massive webnovel this series is based on (Goodreads says it's over 2000 pages), and while there's a lot I want to see get adapted, I really hope the animation improves the pacing.

Heaven Official's Blessing rewatch, first 6 episodes

Yes, I just finished this series and am already rewatching it. What can I say, it's enjoyable and I'm in need of a comfort rewatch. This is going to be a tough week at work, with people asking my department to perform miracles with hair straighteners when we could have just followed the directions of the disaster recovery we paid for me to take (this is on me, too: I am apparently a complete failure at convincing anyone to do anything that doesn't involve MARC data).

Those depressing thoughts aside: I'm enjoying this show even more the second time around, because I don't have to simultaneously concentrate quite so much on the subs (which I still think are terrible - even the first episode contains something like "Your dress is broken" rather than "Your dress is torn") and visuals.

Some notes:

• One of Xie Lian's assistants is horrified when he learns that Xie Lian only has one bed and that he and San Lang must therefore have shared a bed. San Lang, meanwhile, is on the sidelines looking incredibly smug.
• I think poor Ling Wen is the primary person keeping heaven functional. While all the other deities are bickering amongst themselves, she's the one keeping things organized and getting stuff done.
• If you put Xie Lian's assistants and their generals in a room together, I might be able to tell them apart. Separately, however, I can never remember who's who.
• I'm not sure if he does it due to a flash of jealousy or if it's just that San Lang doesn't feel like trying to get along with anyone who isn't Xie Lian, but I enjoy his attempts to rile up Xie Lian's assistants.
• I've now finished Book 2 of the novel, the long plague flashback and Hua Cheng's first interactions with Xie Lian, and several of the quickie flashback scenes in the animation now make a lot more sense. Like, that particular umbrella has a lot more significance than I realized. Also, San Lang might have been lying about the origin of Hua Cheng's name ("Crimson Rain Sought Flower") - another explanation seems to be that young Hua Cheng used to pick flowers for one of Xie Lian's statues on a daily basis.

I still have the Banyue stuff to rewatch, and I'm still not wild about it, but at least I have a few more San Lang and Xie Lian cute scene rewatches to look forward to. Based on what I've read of the novel, I've been trying to guess what Season 2 will be like, and I'm thinking it'll start with the gambling stuff (which is going to be great fun to see on-screen) and then move into a long series of flashback episodes that will be made somewhat bearable with Xie Lian and young Hua Cheng scenes. But ugh, I'm not looking forward to seeing Xie Lian suffer and angst over what to do about Yong'an's drought and the ensuing plague. It's too much like all the angst and suffering that eventually sucked out all my enjoyment of one of the author's other series, Mo Dao Zu Shi.

REVIEW: Heaven Official's Blessing, Season 1 (donghua TV series)

Heaven Official's Blessing is a Chinese animated (donghua) fantasy series. It's based on a novel of the same name.

Review:

Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Xian Le kingdom about 800 years ago. He ascended to heaven at a young age, only to get kicked out, ascend another time, get kicked out again, and then ascend a third time about the time this series starts. He's now pretty much a joke among the other heaven officials (deities?), and no one in the mortal realm even builds temples for him anymore.

Since his third ascension causes a bunch of damage in heaven, Xie Lian is instructed to go to the mortal realm to investigate rumors of a supposed ghost groom who's been stealing away a bunch of brides. Because he has no mana anymore, he's given two assistants (who'd really rather be elsewhere and don't even like each other very much). During the course of his investigation, he crosses paths with Hua Cheng, a Devastation level demon (ghost? can't recall) who makes all of heaven shiver in fear...and yet for some reason Hua Cheng seems surprisingly gentle towards Xie Lian.

In later episodes, Xie Lian attempts to gain followers by building a temple for himself and travels to a desert city to investigate disappearances of merchant caravans.