World of Chinese web novels is but a peculiar place. It's a place where quality is more often than not disregarded in pursuit of meeting word quotas and making sure to hit that weekly quota of written chapters. A truly hellish landscape for someone who is trying to write an honest to god, good story. And while there are authors who manage to make it work with their craft, unfortunately most of them are destined to fail and resort to writing nothing but rather uninspiring rehash of all the tropes that readers came to love. With author of the original TGD novel "Mad Snail" falling into the latter group, though with a twist of actually never finishing a single novel he wrote, TGD included.
Now that we more or less know what to expect from it's background, let's tackle the Manhua itself and maybe even compare it to the original source, the forsaken TGD webnovel.
So, starting out with the story depicted, it's uh, uh, not good. And even that is saying it rather meekly, as the way the story is presented to us is honestly like a spit to the face of everyone who is willing to spend the least amount of time to critically think about what they are reading. It does not offer anything of value for someone who is looking for good story with interesting plot points and proper challenges for our heroes to overcome. To the point that there is literally no suspense at all throughout the whole thing, and even when the story tries to take itself outside of this deep hole by trying something more drastic, it still promptly takes it all back in the very next chapter. As in to say that we can't have anything bad happening to our cast that the readers came to like. Story and suspense be damned, it's all about feeling good in this wish fulfilling fantasy world, even if it's detrimental to the overall quality of the novel. Basically no matter what, the hero will always triumph and get ridiculous power ups as long as he seems to be just a little bit stuck. Like I said, no suspense but full on deus ex machina.
And yeah, I can see some people saying that "what if the Manhua took liberties with adapting the story", well, in that case I have bad news as the webnovel is just as bad if not even worse on this front, as it tends to drag out the whole thing even more than the manhua itself. Which to it's merit is actually way more condensed, and that in return makes it a considerably better read than the original work. Which, is atrocious in it's own way.
Still, if you turn off your brain and don't focus on glaring stupidities of this story, then you might actually come to enjoy it just like one would enjoy your another typical Isekai, this time in Xianxia sauce. Just turn the brain off and enjoy the wish fulfilment.
Now, regarding the characters I'd dare to say that it's actually just a little bit better. It's not great by any means but honestly it's really hard to go and screw up all of the character tropes of xianxia literature. As such even when the author is trying his utmost best to write trope filled garbage even he won't capable of ruining all of the characters. And it does certainly show in this manhua. Hardest he might have tried, he still got many of the tropes just right enough to make sure that the overall experience with the characters in this work is more or less a neutral one.
Sure there aren't any great characters that you will remember in the next few months or even weeks but there also aren't that many that would etch themselves as utterly horrible. It's just that, it's pretty clear that he didn't try... as such the whole thing basically boils down to the fact that if the side character is meant to be just a little bit longer with us, and more importantly is one of the good guys then he will get some basic exposure to make them at least likeable for your typical brand new xianxia enjoyer. Unfortunately, the moment the person is supposed to be one of the bad guys, it's all going down hill from here. They will be basically nothing but caricatures of the tropes, with the author doing his utmost to make them as unlikable as possible to the point of bad comedy, comedy that was supposed to be serious writing.
Honestly, the main MC falls somewhere in between. If anything calling him your utterly typical Isekai MC is perfectly fine. He's supposed to be funny, witty, brave, intelligent and ofcourse lookin just fine enough. A perfect package by all means. A hero that can do no wrong, and one that will always come out on top. I guess you can already guess why I don't think so highly of him, at least make him have some kind of flaw or some other blemish in his current life, 'cuz sure as hell the fact that his first life didn't go so well doesn't count(honestly novel about his first life would have been so much better...). Still, it's the hero that this story needed and it's one that works just fine. Cuz honestly, the moment I turned of my brain he actually became just fun enough to follow him around this trope filled journey.
Oh, and I forgot to mention but every second female character will fall in love with him. Though on the other hand his heart is set on that one single girl he loved in previous life so I guess there's that?
Honestly, for how much I bash it, this can actually be enjoyable "fast food" manhua if you are willing to turn of your brain and just kill some time with trope filled wish fulfilment fantasy. I guess my problem mainly stems from the fact that there are just so many better xianxia works than this one. One's that you will remember for way longer than this one, cuz let me tell you. I'm already forgetting half the plot points of this manhua, not to mention the names of it's character.
Anyway, moving on to the art style. This is IMO the biggest strength of this little work. While it's not amazing in depicting the fights between the characters it sure as hell does a great job at conveying a rather light hearted attitude that this work have. Especially when it comes to the character expressions which honestly look great with their plethora of reactions. It's also good at conveying the wonders of your typical xianxia worlds, from the floating islands to the dangerous under realms waiting for our heroes to explore. Now that I think about it, this lighthearted but still rather nice art style is the most redeeming part of this manhua, without it the whole thing would be in my opinion unsalvageable. Which is especially true considering that the original novel is full of pointless word filler meant to only make the chapters longer by describing the outside world at every possible moment. Up to the point of mindless repetition.
Well, I think I wrote already to much and wasted enough of mine and your time so here's the TLDR or rather closing thoughts.
TLDR:TGD is a story that's reveling in it's trope filled mediocrity, though as long as you turn off your brain you might actually enjoy it as a time killer. Just, don't expect anything else from it but most basic wish fulfillment story in xianxia sauce. Otherwise if you are looking for actually good xianxia stories then try out Coiling Dragon(don't touch it's manhua, it's garbage) or if you want one with more comedy then ISSTH.
4.5/10