The best ‘Chinese anime’ donghua you can watch right now

Donghua — Chinese animation, sometimes mistakenly conflated with anime — covers as wide a variety of tones and subjects as any other type of animated story, from sunny necromancers to particularly rebellious children with dragon friends. Some Donghua titles are appearing on Crunchyroll or Netflix increasingly lately. Heaven’s Official BlessingFollow familiar emotional rollercoaster tracks. Some have their own tears-jerking and laugh-inducing ways of impact. Many donghua movies and TV series retell household Chinese tales, and all of them reach out and question the audience’s relationship with the contemporary world. They are funny, smart, or determined. This is akin to heroes from stories of any country. However, they combine the past, present and future of an irreplaceable cultural.

They may look like anime films, DreamWorks, Disney or DreamWorks but each have their own storylines, iconographies, and aesthetics. They’ll be as visually grounded as Disney’s Get Tangled One second or as stylized Into the Spider-Verse Each one is different. Here’s a guide to get viewers started on taking in the breadth of Chinese animation by checking out some of the best titles the country has to offer.

Pan Gu

Image: Taiko Studios

Run time: 6 minutes

The Taiko Studios was founded in Chinese America. Pan GuYou can view it on YouTube for free. It’s a little journey that retells the Chinese myth of the creator of the Earth through a father and his son. Neither of them says a word, and they don’t have to. The animation’s geometric design speaks volumes to all generations through the shapes it uses and the differing opinions of the characters. Shaofu Zhang (ex-Animator at Sony Pictures and Disney) founded Taiko Studios. He wanted his own path and Taiko Studios is the result.

Pan GuYou can stream the video on YouTube.

Monkey King: Hero Is Back (Xi You Ji Zhi Qi Tian Da Sheng Gui Lai)

Image: Beijing Weiyingshidai Culture & Media, Hengdian Chinese Film Production Co., October Animation Studio, S&C Pictures, Shandong Film and Television Production Center

Run time: 89 minutes

This crowdfunded underdog became a cultural icon when it was released, becoming China’s highest-grossing animated film of the year. It’s a retelling of the story of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King crushed under a mountain as a punishment for destroying heaven, and his subsequent journey west as the protector of a Buddhist monk.

In the original story, Sun Wukong kills with impunity, and some of the biggest plot points hinge on the pacifist monk’s attempts to teach him compassion. Their master-disciple dynamic is inverted by this film. Sun Wukong still falls from power, but instead of being picked up by the Buddhist monk, he is now the reluctant road-trip dad to Jiang Liu’er, a wide-eyed child monk and the Monkey King’s biggest fan. Sun Wukong, however, is trying to discover the truth. How His former power to be restored. He isn’t done with causing chaos for the gods, after all (or for the world at large, for that matter). To viewers familiar with the original tale, it’s a good chuckle at all the inside jokes sprinkled throughout the dialogue. To those unfamiliar, it’s a slapstick-y, accidental parenting story much like Grogu and the Mandalorian.

Monkey King: Hero Is BackReexamines the relationship between them from the original story. Sun Wukong continues to appreciate the morally upright monk, who is not like him. But instead of Sun Wukong being the annoying thorn in the monk’s side, it’s Jiang Liu’er who’s chittering in his ear.

Monkey King: Hero Is BackYou can stream for free VuduWith ad support

Big Fish & Begonia (Da Yu Hai Tang)

Image: Horgos Coloroom Pictures, Beijing Enlight Media, Biantian (Beijing) Media, Studio Mir

Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes

This is the film they call “the dawn of the Chinese animation industry.” It was inspired by Studio Ghibli-esque animation and designs, but based on cultural texts like the Classic of Mountains and Seas With vast, sweeping designs to show the fine line between nature and the supernatural, this existentialist film pulls on the audience’s heartstrings. To restore the soul of a man who saved her, the dolphin-human Chun defies the natural order — and shakes not just nature, but her relationships with her loved ones, down to their roots.

Big Fish & BegoniaYou can stream the video on FunimationFree on YouTube.

White Snake (Bai She Yuan Qi).

GKIDS Image

Run time: 1 hour 39 minutes

Bai Suzhen was a serpent demon who spent over a thousand centuries transforming into a woman. She’s selfless and loving, a better human than most humans. This is the film that retells the folktale. Legend of the White Snake This tale was originally a story about good and evil. Bai Suzhen, a snake spirit who is malignant, is the main character. But that’s not what the tale is known for: Through the centuries, it evolved into a love story where she marries a mortal, but the happy couple is forced apart by a Buddhist monk. This film evolves the story further from straightforward romance by sending her on a mission to slay the general who’s oppressing her people. She is unable to remember what happened, but she fights for it and falls in love again with the man who will become her husband. Bai Suzhen, in flowing white robes, contrasts starkly with the greenery of the mortal realm. Her DreamWorks-esque gaze can be seen expressing every emotion.

White Snake You can stream it on Apple TV YouTube.

Nezha

Image: Chengdu Coco Cartoon/Beijing Enlight Pictures

Run time: 1 hour 50 minutes

“Oh my God, he’s so ugly, I love it,” says Accented Cinema, YouTube’s resident expert on Chinese film. The little imp Nezha — not a literal imp, but a classic Chinese character who appears in a variety of forms in a variety of myths — terrorizes a town for slapstick kicks and bonds with his other half, a prissy, princely dragon who spends most of his time in human form. Things really go down as the day approaches where both of them have to reckon with their terrifying god-tier powers — and the fact that they were born and raised to destroy each other. The fights aren’t just fluid and wild, they’re titanic and absolutely magical.

NezhaIs streaming on Netflix.

New Gods: Nezha Reborn (Xin Feng Shen: Nezha Chong Sheng)

Image: Light Chaser Animation Studios

Run time: 1 hour 50 minutes

Another remake of the original story of Nezha, but this time, it’s steampunk. The director of this CG feature features White SnakeNezha, now Li Yunxiang is born, an aspiring motorbike-racing rebel, who seeks out to distribute hoarded water to poor people in Donghai City. The action speeds through Donghai — a New York-meets-1920s-Shanghai metropolis — and its “how the other half lives” story. The city’s ocean namesake ripples in detail as it rises. Li Yunxiang is close to his friends, and he struggles with his inner conflict while trying to figure out who could be hurt by his quest for saving the world. This one’s a timeless, immersive film — the city’s Roaring ’20s aesthetics may be a thing of the past in the 21st century, but its rich-and-poor narrative isn’t.

New Gods: Nezha RebornYou can stream it on Netflix.

Nezha Conquer the Dragon King (Nezha Nao Hai).

Image: Shanghai Animation Film Studio

Run time: 1 hour 5 minutes

It is both the OG in animated Nezha stories as well as animated Chinese features. This animation is the result of all roads leading to the Cultural Revolution’s return to expressive storytelling. This was the first Ming Dynasty novel adaptation. Investiture in the Gods. We see the character designs in every other Nezha This film inspired adaptations over the past few years. It directly informs the Chinese perception of what Nezha’s story symbolizes today.

Nezha is his father and the military leader. Ao Guang is the oppressive Dragon King of Eastern Sea. When Ao Guang eats a local child, Nezha attacks him in retribution, but justice isn’t cut and dried: Ao Guang threatens Nezha’s town, and the conflict shifts as Nezha’s father demands Nezha apologize to appease the dragon king. This storyline has set in motion each consequential adaptation’s contemporary take on juggling familial and societal duty. The retro animation features a side trip of 40 minutes that follows the exaggerated actions of the characters. It’s a style based on traditional arts like Chinese opera, a bombastic performance known to pull no punches when it comes to brightly colored flair.

Nezha conquers the Dragon KingAvailable to stream online YouTube.

The King’s Avatar

B.C. May Pictures

Running time: 12 episodes of 24 minutes each + 3 specials lasting 27 minutes

Based on a web novel of the same name, this series brought together young Chinese people’s appreciation for anime and esports. Ye Xiu is a pro esports player who must leave the team after many years. Forced to start again, he slowly chips his way back to the top of his game’s ranked ladder in an internet cafe. The King’s Avatar It’s as much about what his avatar does in the virtual world as about his emotional connections with his friends.

It is influenced by anime, which is why the fantasy action found in gaming shows the influence of anime. League of Legends, and it’s balanced out by the emotional tenor shown through the characters’ slight smiles as they wander the bright snow of the city. This film captures the excitement of urban action while also capturing a rare glimpse into contemporary Chinese urban life.

Ye Xiu’s quiet determination is so effective, The King’s Avatar This film has been turned into a live-action movie, which is now available on Netflix.

The King’s AvatarIt is now available for streaming YouTube.

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Image: Tencent Penguin Pictures, B.C May Pictures

Run time: 35 ~24 minute episodes (three seasons)

Based on the Mo XiangTong Xiu web book that flooded bestsellers lists after a US print edition was issued, Mo Dao Zu Shi is the story of Wei Wuxian, a sunny-dispositioned young man who invents necromancy to fight a war, dies, and is resurrected — this time with a chance to connect with a man who has been in love with him since they were teenagers. Critics praise the results and transitions for large, magical battles and scenes built around emotional conflict. Wei Wuxian has been called the “scourge” of the Earth and must pick up any past hurt relationships that he caused. The music, world-building, voice acting, and reimaginings of the original web novel’s plot all come together to create an enrapturing fantasy world.

Mo Dao Zu ShiYou can stream the video on YouTube Viki.

Heaven Official’s Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu)

Run time: 12 episodes (season 1)

Based on a Mo Xiang Tong Xiu novel, which reached No. 8 on the New York Times Bestsellers list. Heaven Official’s Blessing doesn’t pull its emotional punches. The viewers can have a good laugh at the exiled martial god Xie Lian. It abruptly changes the tone and showers viewers with silver butterflies, blood-stained wedding scenes and a rainbow of other colors.

As the story progresses and Xie Lian begins to fight with surprising competency, it becomes clear there’s more to him than meets the eye. He’s led away by a stranger with an eyepatch who seems to know him well. That’s just the pilot episode. Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s storytelling asks audiences to look beyond a single person’s reputation and examine instead how they came to earn it. Take a look at the Tian Guan Ci Fu scenery, then dive deep into the gods’ entangled histories and motivations in this character-driven narrative.

Heaven Official’s BlessingYou can stream the video on Funimation Netflix.