Ten Thousand Worlds

If the sky wants to crush me, I’ll pierce the sky. If the earth wants to bury me, I’ll tear it apart.

Ten Thousand Worlds

More of the Same, Really

At this point, I’ve watched a few donghuas, but the story that Ten Thousand Worlds sells feels like I’ve watched it ten thousand times already. In fact, Lin Feng’s family situation is pretty much exactly the same as Yun Che’s from Against the Gods. This could work if, like in Dominator of Martial Gods, the show was so bad it’s hilarious (although I hear the donghua is way better), or if the protagonist was really likeable, or even if the script managed to offer something fresh and new to the old recipe.

Unfortunately, none of those are the case here. Lin Feng, on the contrary, just comes across as really pretentious for a lot of reasons: first, his costume feels way over the top. Then come his general posture and attitude: while he doesn’t talk haughtily, he has a habit of clasping his hands behind his back as he walks that makes him look smug. And finally, the camera keeps going for low angles while he looks up determinedly, and it gets very old, very quickly.

This is only one of the problems with the show, however: the character design and general quality of the animation, while not bad, are nowhere near good either. It shows the most when it comes to the secondary characters: they look like old video games NPCs!

Story-wise, while I do appreciate the fact that Lin Feng at least does struggle marginally more than most of the other protagonists of the exact same stories out there, he’s still pretty much a Gary Stu whom all the men either want to kill or mentor, and all the women fall in love with at first sight. He has a gorgeous fairy by his side that only he can see (because of course), and overcomes obstacles at a staggering speed after being mocked by everyone under the sun.

And then, of course, there’s the usual sect hypocrisy, with the most entitled, pampered little brats picking fights, getting beat up, crying about it to their elders, and said elders coming to make a scene because of their heirs being crippled even though they wouldn’t have cared one bit had it been Lin Feng that had been maimed or killed. This also features in pretty much every single revenge martial arts story out there.

Then again, in this case, I realize I had pretty much the same gripe with The Peak of True Martial Arts… which so happens to be a production of the very same studio. Is this lazy copy-pasting I smell?

Still Somewhat Satisfying

So yes, Ten Thousand Worlds is far from being stellar TV, but it’s entertaining for sure. Once you get past the annoying tropes, bullies and other such niceties, it becomes incredibly satisfying to see the protagonist wipe the floor with the people who seek to harm him (and refuse to act according to the most basic self-preservation or intelligence). It’s just that the entire thing is so over the top that you won’t be able to refrain from rolling your eyes and mocking the characters out loud. I guess that’s where part of the fun lies, though.

All in All

A standard martial arts revenge story with every single trope of the genre and no real redeeming feature for the obnoxious laziness of both the writing and animation. Watch if there’s nothing else on air, maybe. Or if you’re really bored. Or if you need white noise.

(Please note: this review concerns season 1. If I get around to watching season 2 and actually have things to add, I’ll add a paragraph.)

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Title: Ten Thousand Worlds

Country: China

Aired: 04/06/2021 to 09/18/2022

Number of episodes: 50

Studio: Ruo Hong Culture

Genres: Fantasy, Martial Arts, Action and Adventure

My rating: ★☆☆☆☆