Since those reddit comments were maybe a bit too judgemental, here is my opinion as someone who has in fact read all the books and did so before watching any adaptations. First I have to say that as a book fan I personally prefer the donghua to the live action. Most people are not readers and it's hard to convince someone to sit through all 5 books so I usually recommend to watch the donghua first, if you liked it read the books or the manhua, and then watch The Untamed at the end. This is to avoid getting the two VERY different stories mixed up. You need to know the characters to avoid getting confused when things happen differently. Otherwise you'd start forgetting who knows who, getting the timeline mixed up, etc. Still, both are pretty good, but for different reasons. I like the donghua because I LOVE the books and I think this kind of fantasy story will always work better as an animation, no exceptions. With live action there's always the issue with budget (which the reddit post already covered, they were right about all of that) and how the special effects will end up looking, which often is *not good.* I also love the way it tried to follow the canon storyline from the book as closely as possible with the chinese censorship. While it's true the donghua is rushed towards the end, I can understand why they had to do that. There are not many major differences with the book (other than censoring some book moments that are too gay, too violent or too morally grey, which were also censored similarly in The Untamed). The story is amazing, the voice acting was great, the animation is beautiful, the soundtrack is so good, especially the opening songs, and the emotional scenes hit so hard, even harder than the book in two particular occasions towards the end (both times it was scenes involving side characters). Plus, they kept a VERY similar ending to the book which The Untamed didn't due to censorship. I guess they just couldn't do that in The Untamed because it makes it too obvious that they are gay (or bisexual, in Wei Ying's case). Biggest issue with the donghua is, as I already said, the way they rushed the ending but also a particular episode where they had to use CGI for a monster and it did *not* work. At all. Worst part is that the episode has one of my favourite book scenes but that CGI genuinely ruined the entire thing for me. Maybe I'm just too dramatic but it objectively looks awful and stands out too much with everything else being animated in 2d. It's only one episode though while The Untamed suffers from this problem in every single fight scene. And there's a lot of that in MDZS. The Untamed is AMAZING, don't get me wrong. My biggest problem was the changes they made to the canon storyline, mainly making it so that all the characters that only were supposed to be around AFTER Wei Ying came back be relevant during Wei Ying's teenage years too. I assume they wanted to make it a more cohesive story by making everyone be acquainted from the beginning, and also make the audience get more emotionally involved with certain characters, and as a new fan that might have worked but I just prefer the way it was in the book. I got attached enough as is and most of the time the changes didn't add anything I hadn't gotten from the book, other than fan service and more content for the amazing titkok edits, so there's that. I think that one of the reddit comments said it best, The Untamed is a MDZS Au. Personally I mostly see it as a canon divergent Au fanfiction, and it makes the experience of watching it much more enjoyable. Despite the changes it feels like it was made with effort and with love for the story. The plot line is very different, and the characters behave quite differently at times, but it still felt like MDZS. At least in my opinion since I'm in rehabilitation so I no longer hate on stuff just because That's Not What Happened In The Book. The best thing about The Untamed are the incredible performances. All the actors did SO GOOD even when at times the script wasn't the best. I have to give credit in particular to Wang Yibo, the actor who played Lan Wangji. It's so hard to show off your acting skills with a character who barely speaks or shows any facial expressions but somehow he managed to do SO MUCH with so little. If you pay attention you can understand exactly what he's feeling, but it's still subtle enough that most people wouldn't notice... His scenes with Wei Ying are a real pleasure to watch and the main reason why I watched the drama at all, because I normally prefer to just read the books and it's very rare for me to sit through 50 episodes. I couldn't believe I actually finished watching the whole thing. But even with my many criticisms The Untamed was too good and I just wanted to see more. Xiao Zhan as Wei Ying also did AMAZING, especially during his Yiling Patriarch era and any scenes when he was just being silly and messing around. You just feel like he was born to play Wei Ying. He made me smile so much and even when the plot was something entirely different it felt like I was just watching the Wei Ying from the books. I didn't even mind the fact that they were genuinely trying to make us believe those actors were 15 because I wouldn't want anyone to play Wei Ying other than Xiao Zhan. Obviously as the main actors they get the most praise because they're the ones who get the most screen time but every single actor did amazing (even when they were doing shit that ended up looking weird with the way the effects were managed). I'll just say Zhu Zanjin did my favourite MDZS character justice, even though he doesn't look anything like I pictured in the book now every time I think about him I just see that actor. MDZS is a masterpiece and I think all the adaptations are worth it. No matter which one you watch, you'll fall in love with the characters and story. It's only my second favourite MXTX work (the first is Tian Guan Ci Fu) but I can definitely see why it's the most popular. I will never be one of those people who claim it's overrated. If anything, it's the other books that are underrated. MDZS deserves all the hype it gets and then some.
I truly enjoyed your synopsis. I too am a fan of the book, however i preferred the series - however, thanks to your synopsis I shall watch the donghua again. Your comments praising Wang Yibo’s performance made me smile. In a BTS video, Yibo described how he read through the script and noted he had page after page without Dialog. He went on to describe Xiao Zhan’s reaction to Wie Wuxian’s script and whatever Zhan’s reaction was the producers censored out of the interview. Looking forward to your comments on other Reaction videos
The first reddit comment you picked to read... not a great one. They criticize the drama about added stuff that feels/doesn't feel right to the original (which is the novel) while they admitted to not having read it. How does that work? They also keep calling the donghua as 'anime' (anime is the japanese name for animated series, donghua is the chinese name).
I personally never recomend people to watch the animation first cause the viewers will be lost and confused, especially in season 2, when more plots gets entangled and there's not enough time to explain it all. I watched the live-action first, then I read the novel, and then I watched the animation. I was obsessed with the story and STILL got confused with the animation, took me some time to think through and realized what - and who - was happening in some of the scenes. I cannot imagine what it would be like for someone who doesn't know the plot to watch some arcs. But yes, the animation is amazing.
I actually recommend reading the novel first. The animation is more true to the original book. The Untamed had lots of parts added to increase the screen time of female characters - which is amazing, - whilst still keeping to the heart of the story. Granted both the Untamed and the animation cut alot of the chemistry between the two male leads due to censorship. But yes - read the book first
I like the live action better as it has a better lay-out of what happened, than with the animation where the flashbacks are spread throughout. We would really love if you will react to the 50 episodes of The Untamed.
I watched both and they're both great. The untamed has a great cast and I'm a big fan of Xiao Zhan's acting performance. There's one scene I don't want to spoil who's a masterclass. Musics are great and scenery. Ma dao Zu Shi (the animated version) got more moment between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanji. The lack of censorship made it more touching in my opinion.
I read the books first because I read Scum Villain by the same author and really enjoyed it so I sought out Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. The books were *intense* with explicit material (sex, violence, and general moral grayness) The live action did change a several things in the story line but unless you were already familiar with the original story I don't think you'd notice. Several of my friends only watched The Untamed and loved it unreservedly. I enjoyed The Untamed and I understood why they had to change certain things for logistical reasons. I have not watched the donghua so I can not comment on it's accuracy.
Honestly it depends on your own preference. Out of all of these versions, source material will always be the best. Second to that, the audio drama which is basically just the novel without visuals from how much they keep in (minus some necessary changes as it's a sound focused adaption, and the fade to black on nsfw scenes) My personal favorite adaption is the donghua for a *lot* of reasons as someone who read the book first and is more focused on book accuracy. I also tend to appreciate animation more. For you, I think it'll be whether you prefer slow paced with character focus or something very fast paced, beautifully animated, with more action focus. They both deviate from the source material at different degrees and both have their own pros and cons. However, they both stand up on their own as enjoyable watches. The donghua tends to be more enjoyable when you read the book first, and the drama is more enjoyable when you haven't.
10:10 that comment is incredibly biased and while I'll give it some points like better fight choreo, crappy CGI and censorship... I *adore* the music in the live action and find most of the acting to be very good. Of course you'll get a few people who only have a couple lines whose acting isn't great but the main cast did an incredible job.
Even though the live action has the biggest difference from the og novel, I would say go for the LIVE-ACTION first (I personally prefer the Live-action as well). Then watch the animation, then read the novel. If you go in that order, you wont feel irritated about the live-action story deviating from the novel since you don't know the story. It will also help you understand the timelines and relationships better. This would in turn help with watching the animation. And because the animation is more closer to novel, the extra story lines from the live-action is not present and you will have a more faithful adaptation which will give you a new feel to the story. And if after all that you want a completely uncensored and original story, read the novel. Because the animation is quite fast paced, you might miss out on certain things which could be more easily understood in the live-action.
As someone who has watched both the Donghua and The Untamed, I keep coming back to watch The Untamed more. The Donghua and the novel keep jumping around between the past and the present timelines. The Untamed shifted it so the past was a 30 episode flashback and we got to watch the events chronologically. Most of The Untamed original content is in the flashback part. But I still find it easier to follow than the Donghua. Also The Untamed was my introduction to the story and I fell in love with the cast as well.
Personally I prefer the donghua (that's what Chinese animations are called 'anime' refers to Japanese animation) but that's because I read the novel but for newcomers I would recommend the live action so they're less confused
As someone who read the novel first, then watched the live action, then the donghua, I'm team live action. I found the novel difficult to follow at times (It was one of the first Chinese novel translations I read which definitely didn't help) due to the constantly switching timelines, and getting the names and titles of the characters mixed up. The live action streamlined the timeline in a way that makes it easier to follow, and I'm a massive sucker for character driven stories, so the lower quality action and cgi didn't bother me as much because the fleshed out characters made up for that in my book. The small changes they make to the original novels plotlines were pretty well done in my opinion, and I didn't mind them, in fact I liked some of them. That being said, I did absolutely adored the action and magic scenes in the donghua. The artists really went all out on them.
If you want to understand the story line you gotta read the novel. I'm actually not the type to read bl novel, but I learned a lot from Harry Potter. I didn't understand the whole story until I read the novels. The novel just straight up gore tbh
If you are a first time viewer of chinese stories involving magic, i recommend the live action as it takes its time to explain whats happening. I have read the books, watched the live action and attempted to watch the donghua. Surprisingly i found the donghua deviation from the original plot lines much more annoying than the Untamed. In certain scenes in the animation they change the location of where an incident is supposed to happen and that messed with my head. I lost my interest half way through. I live for amazing character arcs and emotion and the live action delivers on that. The live action follows the story almost dialogue by dialogue. And all the characters feel real and less annoying to me specially the villains. Some of the characters lack nuance in the donghua. The changes in the untamed honestly are very minor if you look at the entire series as one single narrative and it only adds to the depth to the original story. It is a cheesy soap opera but its a good cheesy soap opera that takes itself seriously when it needs to. The author of the book mxtx also have specified that MDZS is supposed be low fantasy. It is character driven. Sort of like spirited away. Its all about emotion and not specifically about the happenings but about the why of the happenings. But ultimately its about preference. The donghua does have good action scenes. But I'm not an action person so thats one of the primary reasons I'm not as impressed by it. I even found myself hitting fast forward sometimes. ADDING THIS Some of the most iconic fan favorite scenes from the live action are not even part of the books.... that goes to show you how well the screenwriters did their job.
I am confused the Donghua changed loads of things and added random scenes as well. Some of which I enjoyed some of which I did not. I enjoyed the books, the donghua and the live action for different reasons.
Okay, so I do love the doughua and the live action, but i myself prefer the dounghua a little bit more. Then reason is that because of some things, the live action does better than the dounghua. And there are some things in the dounghua done a lot better than the live action. And yes, the live action does put some things in the live action that didn't happen in the novel like Wei wuxian, knowing that Frost guy and his friend. (I forgot their name) the whole statue part where Wei wuxian and lan wangi had in the cave and sealed it. That never happened in Doungua. (If I remember correctly, that didn't happen in the dounghua either) Wei wuxian knowing Wen Ning and Wen Qing didn't happen while wei wuxian was at The Gusu training Wei wuxian first meets Wen ning dueing a bow and arrow contest between diffrent clans. He only first meets Wen qing first when he tries to get Jiang Cheng back. What I do love what the live action did that they didn't follow from sorce material is how much screentime Jiang Yanli got, which makes the death of Jiang Yanli more sad than in the Dounghua. I wil aslo give that the actor of Wen Qing did a good job when they find Wen nings body her emotions actually brought me into tears. Which I kinda wish the dounghua had more emotions with that sceans don't get me wrong both are sad. The live action just did it better in my opinion.
I prefer the novel over any adaption, but for me the untamed was better than the animation. The last season was too short for the story it tried to tell, so everything had to happen too quickly. I liked the animation a lot, but untamed managed to really bring out the feels.
To answer your question: I Watched the series, read the Novel and watched the strangely shortened anime and the explicit Manwa. The anime literally takes dialog from novel however the more adult chapters are omitted online. IMO- I prefer the novel and series- the Series did add elements- like the Lan ancestral cave scene. However that scene reinforced the bond between Lan Wangi and Wei Wuxian. The series does attempt to “forgive” Wei wuXian’s descent into Demonic cultivation by blaming his loss of control on another- who was villainous, but not directly responsible -and adding the element of the Zin Iron to explain Wei’s vulnerability to the dark side. However, IMO, If the series was attempting to conceal the fact that Lan Wangi and Wei Wuxian loved each other they should have cast a less capable and hard working ensemble of actors and a different script. The series did reflect the Novel’s depiction of Wei wuxian’s free spirit, righteous nature yet stubborn resistance to the reality that cultivating feelings of resentment, fear, and hatred would and did damage his soul. I was troubled by Wei Wuxian’s suicide in the series- way to beautiful a scene to depict taking one’s life. The suicide is not in the novel- he dies from a backfire and there is nothing to retrieve of his body except his soul. And i understand why they did not choose two adult actors to portray Wei WuXian after his second resurrection. He In the Novel-was still beautiful, but in the body of another man. I don’t want to spoil any more. Indulging in all the media of a good story was rewarding in this case as the series stayed faithful as possible to theme. But this is not- for me - always the case with other Dramas, no matter the culture. I do hope you can add the series to your watch list.
I believe Chinese censorship does not allow them to show things like people being possessed or zombies. That why the walking corpses are "puppets" instead. And why they went with suicide for Wei Wuxian with they body not being found after, instead of being torn apart by ghost due to the backlash of his own power because they needed to bring him back in his own body instead of him taking Mo Xuanyu's body. In both the donghua and the drama, they had outside forces that made Wei Wuxian lose control of his power rather than him just losing control on his own because apparently they can't have that with their good guy
@@breezy3392 I agree they couldn’t have two actors as Wei Wixian. However, objection to the suicide was that it was a beautiful depiction of suicide- surrendering to self harm in slow motion with that mesmerizing smile and powerful score. But it is done so no point in “woulda, coulda, shouldas” 😭. Thank you for your explanation of the extent of Chinese Censorship. There is another series based on a novel I loved - until I read the novel- which went to great lengths to sanitize the lead couple. Also, an American Not of Chinese descent, there is philosophy, tradition, that is unfamiliar. The Author of the English translation I read was very patient with explanation of names, philosophy, moral attitudes. I will try to fine a definitive video of Lan Xichen for this reaction channel
@Bobsyermomsuncle I understood what you were objecting to about the scene. I wasn't disagreeing. Just pointing out why they went with that manner of death rather than the original
@@breezy3392 thank you. For the record, i would have been a fan ready to slay the director for replacing Xiao Zhan with some other actor. He is gorgeous, however he gave so much to the performance and IMHO, very much embodied the character. I am happy they omitted some things- ( the demonic flesh eating toddler) although I would have paid good money , (because of Wang Yibo’s excellent acting chops) to see Lan Wangi’s reaction to the demon woman in red cuddling up to his Wei Wuxian like a concubine!😱. Come on Todd! Watch the series so we can discuss.
I have watched both of them but haven't read the LN yet and in my opinion the donghua and the drama kind gives a feeling like they're different from each other but still the same like you can't compare the? As it was said the drama's story is different from the LN and the donghua and that is one of the reasons why i still re-watch the drama. If it was exactly same as the donghua i would've felt it was too repetitive it's just my opinion
@@hikkibu I guess the first one isn't technically a scene, but a line of dialogue. "When he wakes, I'll tell him 'I'm sorry, it wasn't your fault'." I was looking forward to that line, because that line got me emotional when I heard it for the first time in the animation, but was surprised when it was left out in the live-action. The second scene is the reappearance of the Wens during the second siege. It made no sense to me in the drama when all of the Wens gave themselves up, when the Jins only asked for the two Wen siblings. Realized afterwards that it was because the first siege had to be completely cut out, which meant the blood pool scene in the second siege had to be left out as well. It was such a good and emotional scene too, the Wens coming to his aid, proving that what he did back then wasn't for nothing.
The live action adaptation had to be less faithful due to different levels of censorship in that medium. For me, I like both, but prefer the story with real faces.
I’m used to anime and it was my first Chinese animation so I really liked it more than the live action. I’m more of an animation person cause I do animation 😅
I’ve read the novel first, then watched the LA, and watched the animated version when it came out. Each one has slight differences and they’re all great. I like the LA most because I’m a huge fan of Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan. I already loved them and The Untamed shot them into the stratosphere. They were perfectly cast and were incredible in their roles. Plus, I much prefer ogle real boys over 2D. And let’s be honest, they’re absolutely gorgeous. 😍🤣
@@Jing_Ling_Uncles what the directors made him do in that movie was not his choice. He wasn’t even the only person that was made to do it. He’s just the actor and he is not racist.
9.5 BILLION watched The Untamed in 2 years from the time it was aired. That is how good it was and still is. Hope you will be one of them soon.
It can't be 9.5 billion different people. The population of the world is only 8 billion. Could it be 9.5 billion views?
That’s me rewatching it over and over lmao
Y'all, half the billion is just me rewatching, no lie
That's because it's a series everytime we watch any episode or open counts as a view @@myst0dreamer
Since those reddit comments were maybe a bit too judgemental, here is my opinion as someone who has in fact read all the books and did so before watching any adaptations.
First I have to say that as a book fan I personally prefer the donghua to the live action. Most people are not readers and it's hard to convince someone to sit through all 5 books so I usually recommend to watch the donghua first, if you liked it read the books or the manhua, and then watch The Untamed at the end. This is to avoid getting the two VERY different stories mixed up. You need to know the characters to avoid getting confused when things happen differently. Otherwise you'd start forgetting who knows who, getting the timeline mixed up, etc.
Still, both are pretty good, but for different reasons. I like the donghua because I LOVE the books and I think this kind of fantasy story will always work better as an animation, no exceptions. With live action there's always the issue with budget (which the reddit post already covered, they were right about all of that) and how the special effects will end up looking, which often is *not good.* I also love the way it tried to follow the canon storyline from the book as closely as possible with the chinese censorship. While it's true the donghua is rushed towards the end, I can understand why they had to do that. There are not many major differences with the book (other than censoring some book moments that are too gay, too violent or too morally grey, which were also censored similarly in The Untamed). The story is amazing, the voice acting was great, the animation is beautiful, the soundtrack is so good, especially the opening songs, and the emotional scenes hit so hard, even harder than the book in two particular occasions towards the end (both times it was scenes involving side characters). Plus, they kept a VERY similar ending to the book which The Untamed didn't due to censorship. I guess they just couldn't do that in The Untamed because it makes it too obvious that they are gay (or bisexual, in Wei Ying's case). Biggest issue with the donghua is, as I already said, the way they rushed the ending but also a particular episode where they had to use CGI for a monster and it did *not* work. At all. Worst part is that the episode has one of my favourite book scenes but that CGI genuinely ruined the entire thing for me. Maybe I'm just too dramatic but it objectively looks awful and stands out too much with everything else being animated in 2d. It's only one episode though while The Untamed suffers from this problem in every single fight scene. And there's a lot of that in MDZS.
The Untamed is AMAZING, don't get me wrong. My biggest problem was the changes they made to the canon storyline, mainly making it so that all the characters that only were supposed to be around AFTER Wei Ying came back be relevant during Wei Ying's teenage years too. I assume they wanted to make it a more cohesive story by making everyone be acquainted from the beginning, and also make the audience get more emotionally involved with certain characters, and as a new fan that might have worked but I just prefer the way it was in the book. I got attached enough as is and most of the time the changes didn't add anything I hadn't gotten from the book, other than fan service and more content for the amazing titkok edits, so there's that.
I think that one of the reddit comments said it best, The Untamed is a MDZS Au. Personally I mostly see it as a canon divergent Au fanfiction, and it makes the experience of watching it much more enjoyable. Despite the changes it feels like it was made with effort and with love for the story. The plot line is very different, and the characters behave quite differently at times, but it still felt like MDZS. At least in my opinion since I'm in rehabilitation so I no longer hate on stuff just because That's Not What Happened In The Book.
The best thing about The Untamed are the incredible performances. All the actors did SO GOOD even when at times the script wasn't the best.
I have to give credit in particular to Wang Yibo, the actor who played Lan Wangji. It's so hard to show off your acting skills with a character who barely speaks or shows any facial expressions but somehow he managed to do SO MUCH with so little. If you pay attention you can understand exactly what he's feeling, but it's still subtle enough that most people wouldn't notice... His scenes with Wei Ying are a real pleasure to watch and the main reason why I watched the drama at all, because I normally prefer to just read the books and it's very rare for me to sit through 50 episodes. I couldn't believe I actually finished watching the whole thing. But even with my many criticisms The Untamed was too good and I just wanted to see more.
Xiao Zhan as Wei Ying also did AMAZING, especially during his Yiling Patriarch era and any scenes when he was just being silly and messing around. You just feel like he was born to play Wei Ying. He made me smile so much and even when the plot was something entirely different it felt like I was just watching the Wei Ying from the books. I didn't even mind the fact that they were genuinely trying to make us believe those actors were 15 because I wouldn't want anyone to play Wei Ying other than Xiao Zhan.
Obviously as the main actors they get the most praise because they're the ones who get the most screen time but every single actor did amazing (even when they were doing shit that ended up looking weird with the way the effects were managed). I'll just say Zhu Zanjin did my favourite MDZS character justice, even though he doesn't look anything like I pictured in the book now every time I think about him I just see that actor.
MDZS is a masterpiece and I think all the adaptations are worth it. No matter which one you watch, you'll fall in love with the characters and story.
It's only my second favourite MXTX work (the first is Tian Guan Ci Fu) but I can definitely see why it's the most popular. I will never be one of those people who claim it's overrated. If anything, it's the other books that are underrated. MDZS deserves all the hype it gets and then some.
I truly enjoyed your synopsis. I too am a fan of the book, however i preferred the series - however, thanks to your synopsis I shall watch the donghua again.
Your comments praising Wang Yibo’s performance made me smile. In a BTS video, Yibo described how he read through the script and noted he had page after page without Dialog. He went on to describe Xiao Zhan’s reaction to Wie Wuxian’s script and whatever Zhan’s reaction was the producers censored out of the interview.
Looking forward to your comments on other Reaction videos
The first reddit comment you picked to read... not a great one. They criticize the drama about added stuff that feels/doesn't feel right to the original (which is the novel) while they admitted to not having read it. How does that work?
They also keep calling the donghua as 'anime' (anime is the japanese name for animated series, donghua is the chinese name).
I personally never recomend people to watch the animation first cause the viewers will be lost and confused, especially in season 2, when more plots gets entangled and there's not enough time to explain it all. I watched the live-action first, then I read the novel, and then I watched the animation. I was obsessed with the story and STILL got confused with the animation, took me some time to think through and realized what - and who - was happening in some of the scenes. I cannot imagine what it would be like for someone who doesn't know the plot to watch some arcs. But yes, the animation is amazing.
I actually recommend reading the novel first. The animation is more true to the original book. The Untamed had lots of parts added to increase the screen time of female characters - which is amazing, - whilst still keeping to the heart of the story. Granted both the Untamed and the animation cut alot of the chemistry between the two male leads due to censorship. But yes - read the book first
I love your c drama reactions especially the MDZX/The Untamed reactions. I hope you continue to enjoy doing these. 💜
I prefer the donghua adaptation better than the live action. The art & animation & ost are stunning.
I have read the novel, the manwha (graphic novel), the live action, the donwha (animated) and the chibi animated... love them all ❤❤
I like the live action better as it has a better lay-out of what happened, than with the animation where the flashbacks are spread throughout. We would really love if you will react to the 50 episodes of The Untamed.
I watched both and they're both great. The untamed has a great cast and I'm a big fan of Xiao Zhan's acting performance. There's one scene I don't want to spoil who's a masterclass. Musics are great and scenery.
Ma dao Zu Shi (the animated version) got more moment between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanji. The lack of censorship made it more touching in my opinion.
I read the books first because I read Scum Villain by the same author and really enjoyed it so I sought out Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. The books were *intense* with explicit material (sex, violence, and general moral grayness) The live action did change a several things in the story line but unless you were already familiar with the original story I don't think you'd notice. Several of my friends only watched The Untamed and loved it unreservedly. I enjoyed The Untamed and I understood why they had to change certain things for logistical reasons. I have not watched the donghua so I can not comment on it's accuracy.
Anime is Japanese
Chinese animation is called Donghua
Exactly.
Using anime as a shorthand for animation - whoops.
👍🏼
Honestly it depends on your own preference. Out of all of these versions, source material will always be the best. Second to that, the audio drama which is basically just the novel without visuals from how much they keep in (minus some necessary changes as it's a sound focused adaption, and the fade to black on nsfw scenes)
My personal favorite adaption is the donghua for a *lot* of reasons as someone who read the book first and is more focused on book accuracy. I also tend to appreciate animation more.
For you, I think it'll be whether you prefer slow paced with character focus or something very fast paced, beautifully animated, with more action focus. They both deviate from the source material at different degrees and both have their own pros and cons. However, they both stand up on their own as enjoyable watches. The donghua tends to be more enjoyable when you read the book first, and the drama is more enjoyable when you haven't.
10:10 that comment is incredibly biased and while I'll give it some points like better fight choreo, crappy CGI and censorship... I *adore* the music in the live action and find most of the acting to be very good. Of course you'll get a few people who only have a couple lines whose acting isn't great but the main cast did an incredible job.
Even though the live action has the biggest difference from the og novel, I would say go for the LIVE-ACTION first (I personally prefer the Live-action as well).
Then watch the animation, then read the novel.
If you go in that order, you wont feel irritated about the live-action story deviating from the novel since you don't know the story. It will also help you understand the timelines and relationships better. This would in turn help with watching the animation. And because the animation is more closer to novel, the extra story lines from the live-action is not present and you will have a more faithful adaptation which will give you a new feel to the story. And if after all that you want a completely uncensored and original story, read the novel.
Because the animation is quite fast paced, you might miss out on certain things which could be more easily understood in the live-action.
As someone who has watched both the Donghua and The Untamed, I keep coming back to watch The Untamed more. The Donghua and the novel keep jumping around between the past and the present timelines. The Untamed shifted it so the past was a 30 episode flashback and we got to watch the events chronologically. Most of The Untamed original content is in the flashback part. But I still find it easier to follow than the Donghua. Also The Untamed was my introduction to the story and I fell in love with the cast as well.
Personally I prefer the donghua (that's what Chinese animations are called 'anime' refers to Japanese animation) but that's because I read the novel but for newcomers I would recommend the live action so they're less confused
As someone who read the novel first, then watched the live action, then the donghua, I'm team live action. I found the novel difficult to follow at times (It was one of the first Chinese novel translations I read which definitely didn't help) due to the constantly switching timelines, and getting the names and titles of the characters mixed up. The live action streamlined the timeline in a way that makes it easier to follow, and I'm a massive sucker for character driven stories, so the lower quality action and cgi didn't bother me as much because the fleshed out characters made up for that in my book. The small changes they make to the original novels plotlines were pretty well done in my opinion, and I didn't mind them, in fact I liked some of them. That being said, I did absolutely adored the action and magic scenes in the donghua. The artists really went all out on them.
I feel like I'm the only one who was not confused at all by the flashbacks in any rendition of this story 😅
If you want to understand the story line you gotta read the novel. I'm actually not the type to read bl novel, but I learned a lot from Harry Potter. I didn't understand the whole story until I read the novels.
The novel just straight up gore tbh
If you are a first time viewer of chinese stories involving magic, i recommend the live action as it takes its time to explain whats happening.
I have read the books, watched the live action and attempted to watch the donghua. Surprisingly i found the donghua deviation from the original plot lines much more annoying than the Untamed.
In certain scenes in the animation they change the location of where an incident is supposed to happen and that messed with my head. I lost my interest half way through.
I live for amazing character arcs and emotion and the live action delivers on that.
The live action follows the story almost dialogue by dialogue. And all the characters feel real and less annoying to me specially the villains. Some of the characters lack nuance in the donghua.
The changes in the untamed honestly are very minor if you look at the entire series as one single narrative and it only adds to the depth to the original story. It is a cheesy soap opera but its a good cheesy soap opera that takes itself seriously when it needs to.
The author of the book mxtx also have specified that MDZS is supposed be low fantasy. It is character driven. Sort of like spirited away. Its all about emotion and not specifically about the happenings but about the why of the happenings.
But ultimately its about preference.
The donghua does have good action scenes. But I'm not an action person so thats one of the primary reasons I'm not as impressed by it.
I even found myself hitting fast forward sometimes.
ADDING THIS
Some of the most iconic fan favorite scenes from the live action are not even part of the books.... that goes to show you how well the screenwriters did their job.
I am confused the Donghua changed loads of things and added random scenes as well. Some of which I enjoyed some of which I did not.
I enjoyed the books, the donghua and the live action for different reasons.
Okay, so I do love the doughua and the live action, but i myself prefer the dounghua a little bit more. Then reason is that because of some things, the live action does better than the dounghua. And there are some things in the dounghua done a lot better than the live action. And yes, the live action does put some things in the live action that didn't happen in the novel like Wei wuxian, knowing that Frost guy and his friend. (I forgot their name) the whole statue part where Wei wuxian and lan wangi had in the cave and sealed it. That never happened in Doungua. (If I remember correctly, that didn't happen in the dounghua either) Wei wuxian knowing Wen Ning and Wen Qing didn't happen while wei wuxian was at The Gusu training Wei wuxian first meets Wen ning dueing a bow and arrow contest between diffrent clans. He only first meets Wen qing first when he tries to get Jiang Cheng back. What I do love what the live action did that they didn't follow from sorce material is how much screentime Jiang Yanli got, which makes the death of Jiang Yanli more sad than in the Dounghua. I wil aslo give that the actor of Wen Qing did a good job when they find Wen nings body her emotions actually brought me into tears. Which I kinda wish the dounghua had more emotions with that sceans don't get me wrong both are sad. The live action just did it better in my opinion.
I prefer the novel over any adaption, but for me the untamed was better than the animation. The last season was too short for the story it tried to tell, so everything had to happen too quickly. I liked the animation a lot, but untamed managed to really bring out the feels.
To answer your question: I Watched the series, read the Novel and watched the strangely shortened anime and the explicit Manwa. The anime literally takes dialog from novel however the more adult chapters are omitted online.
IMO- I prefer the novel and series- the Series did add elements- like the Lan ancestral cave scene. However that scene reinforced the bond between Lan Wangi and Wei Wuxian.
The series does attempt to “forgive” Wei wuXian’s descent into Demonic cultivation by blaming his loss of control on another- who was villainous, but not directly responsible -and adding the element of the Zin Iron to explain Wei’s vulnerability to the dark side.
However, IMO, If the series was attempting to conceal the fact that Lan Wangi and Wei Wuxian loved each other they should have cast a less capable and hard working ensemble of actors and a different script.
The series did reflect the Novel’s depiction of Wei wuxian’s free spirit, righteous nature yet stubborn resistance to the reality that cultivating feelings of resentment, fear, and hatred would and did damage his soul.
I was troubled by Wei Wuxian’s suicide in the series- way to beautiful a scene to depict taking one’s life. The suicide is not in the novel- he dies from a backfire and there is nothing to retrieve of his body except his soul.
And i understand why they did not choose two adult actors to portray Wei WuXian after his second resurrection. He In the Novel-was still beautiful, but in the body of another man.
I don’t want to spoil any more.
Indulging in all the media of a good story was rewarding in this case as the series stayed faithful as possible to theme. But this is not- for me - always the case with other Dramas, no matter the culture.
I do hope you can add the series to your watch list.
I believe Chinese censorship does not allow them to show things like people being possessed or zombies. That why the walking corpses are "puppets" instead. And why they went with suicide for Wei Wuxian with they body not being found after, instead of being torn apart by ghost due to the backlash of his own power because they needed to bring him back in his own body instead of him taking Mo Xuanyu's body.
In both the donghua and the drama, they had outside forces that made Wei Wuxian lose control of his power rather than him just losing control on his own because apparently they can't have that with their good guy
@@breezy3392 I agree they couldn’t have two actors as Wei Wixian. However, objection to the suicide was that it was a beautiful depiction of suicide- surrendering to self harm in slow motion with that mesmerizing smile and powerful score. But it is done so no point in “woulda, coulda, shouldas” 😭.
Thank you for your explanation of the extent of Chinese Censorship. There is another series based on a novel I loved - until I read the novel- which went to great lengths to sanitize the lead couple.
Also, an American Not of Chinese descent, there is philosophy, tradition, that is unfamiliar. The Author of the English translation I read was very patient with explanation of names, philosophy, moral attitudes.
I will try to fine a definitive video of Lan Xichen for this reaction channel
@Bobsyermomsuncle I understood what you were objecting to about the scene. I wasn't disagreeing. Just pointing out why they went with that manner of death rather than the original
@@breezy3392 thank you.
For the record, i would have been a fan ready to slay the director for replacing Xiao Zhan with some other actor. He is gorgeous, however he gave so much to the performance and IMHO, very much embodied the character. I am happy they omitted some things- ( the demonic flesh eating toddler) although I would have paid good money , (because of Wang Yibo’s excellent acting chops) to see Lan Wangi’s reaction to the demon woman in red cuddling up to his Wei Wuxian like a concubine!😱.
Come on Todd! Watch the series so we can discuss.
I have watched both of them but haven't read the LN yet and in my opinion the donghua and the drama kind gives a feeling like they're different from each other but still the same like you can't compare the? As it was said the drama's story is different from the LN and the donghua and that is one of the reasons why i still re-watch the drama. If it was exactly same as the donghua i would've felt it was too repetitive it's just my opinion
Oh my goddd, Wei Wuxiannnn
These ppl try to disrespect to the donghua is so funny. Lol, it's came out even before the untamed.
I'll never forgive The Untamed (live action) for ruining and skipping two of the best scenes in the story. I'd go for the audio drama.
i'm curius what scenes are you talking about?
@@hikkibu I guess the first one isn't technically a scene, but a line of dialogue. "When he wakes, I'll tell him 'I'm sorry, it wasn't your fault'." I was looking forward to that line, because that line got me emotional when I heard it for the first time in the animation, but was surprised when it was left out in the live-action.
The second scene is the reappearance of the Wens during the second siege. It made no sense to me in the drama when all of the Wens gave themselves up, when the Jins only asked for the two Wen siblings. Realized afterwards that it was because the first siege had to be completely cut out, which meant the blood pool scene in the second siege had to be left out as well. It was such a good and emotional scene too, the Wens coming to his aid, proving that what he did back then wasn't for nothing.
Watch the animation its so much better!
The live action adaptation had to be less faithful due to different levels of censorship in that medium. For me, I like both, but prefer the story with real faces.
I’m used to anime and it was my first Chinese animation so I really liked it more than the live action. I’m more of an animation person cause I do animation 😅
I’ve read the novel first, then watched the LA, and watched the animated version when it came out. Each one has slight differences and they’re all great. I like the LA most because I’m a huge fan of Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan. I already loved them and The Untamed shot them into the stratosphere. They were perfectly cast and were incredible in their roles. Plus, I much prefer ogle real boys over 2D. And let’s be honest, they’re absolutely gorgeous. 😍🤣
I stopped being a fan of wang hobo after I found out his racism’s 😭
@@Jing_Ling_Uncles what the directors made him do in that movie was not his choice. He wasn’t even the only person that was made to do it. He’s just the actor and he is not racist.