“Da Wang Rao Ming” is the title of the eponymous novel by Hui Shuohua De Zhouzi, which, after the manhua version by Yue Dong Wenhua, found a successful animated adaptation released on December 3, 2021, in China. Better known by the title “Spare Me, Great Lord!”, the series is the result of the joint work of directors Ziliang Lao and Tianxing Wei, but also involves the participation of the renowned Hiromatsu Shu as episode director of an aesthetically eye-catching and hypnotic stylized OP that launched the series, generating interest worldwide. The 12 episodes earned Tianxing Wei the Golden Penguin Award (Tencent Video TV and Movie Award) in the category of best director for an animation.
During the celebrations of the Lunar New Year, a girl of about 10 years old wants to eat hawthorn candy: her name is Lu Xiaoyu, and she is accompanied by a 17-year-old teenager named Lu Shu, who attends the third section of the Kota Lou Foreign Language School. Lu Shu and Lu Xiaoyu are not siblings, but they come from the same orphanage, and their bond is deep: they take care of each other as soulmates. During their walk, they stop to admire the performance of an artist who controls fire: flames erupt from the man’s palms and fly towards the audience, and when the flames get nearer to Lu Shu, his consciousness is momentarily catapulted into an abstract dimension with dark contours where he clearly see a sword floating in a starry space.
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At the end of the show, the two orphans sneak backstage to try to meet the young artist and find him talking to four people dressed in black. One of them pulls out a gun and shoots a needle-like object into the neck of the performer, who falls to the floor, motionless. Once discovered, Lu Shu and Xiaoyu claim to be looking for the bathroom and are redirected by the men who present themselves as police officers. However, Lu Shu can’t help but think that they are actually hunters of people with special abilities. Back home, Lu Shu starts preparing dinner, but lacking ingredients, he goes out to buy instant noodles for Xiaoyu; while crossing the street on the crosswalk, he is hit by a truck and ends up on the ground severely injured and unconscious.
The directors opt for a dynamic and propulsive pace for the action scenes, making the anime effortlessly engaging. This is alternated with numerous reflective scenes revolving around the protagonists’ social interactions that open the curtain on the overwhelming irony of the series. This is the most interesting aspect of the dialogues! Lu Shu’s sharp remarks generate resentment, frustration, envy, and fear in the other characters: all emotions he exploits to gain credit points. The unscrupulous ease with which Lu Shu, through the prism of a brilliant irony, systematically exploits the resentment of others makes his excesses of zeal and cynicism fascinating, but above all, it makes him an antihero capable of exposing the mix of narcissism, vanity, envy, and susceptibility that warms the hearts of every human being who finds themselves brooding in the shadows.
From this perspective, the choice of Yang Tianxiang as the voice of the protagonist’s inner flow and, at the same time, as a sniper who targets others with sharp and provocative remarks, is spot on! What stands out is the tonal variety that the actor instills in the character every time Lu Shu interacts with different people in various contexts: he accurately draws characteristics and peculiarities from different identities and converges them into a Lu Shu who sometimes behaves in a cold and aloof manner, at other times reveals himself to be sweet, and at yet other times is boastful and grandiose, but is always extremely intelligent and calculating, and much more…it seems that the vocal portrait that emerges is that of a character who can quickly shift identities in order to achieve his goals. Yang Tianxiang showcases great technique for a character with a painful and complex past who tries to survive in a society where economic profit is what matters.
Several authors take turns in the key animation: Hiromatsu Shu (Zhou Haosong, see episode 1) and Jay1Jay1Jay1 (see episodes 2 and 7) are the most notable. Regarding Shu, his ability to understand and personally recreate the sci-fi setting is extraordinarily original: we can notice the meticulous addition of scenic details in the foreground of outdoor scenes (lanterns, incense, hawthorn candy, fireworks…), vertical shots on a visual level in a way to convey the scale and depth of the scenarios, sky backgrounds rich in impressionistic hues, and an air of playfulness that adds to the overall context.
In the animation, the use of the frame rate stands out, allowing for the capture of volumes and making the fluidity of body movement more natural, as seen in the case of the pyrotechnic show but also in the fight scenes and energy explosions. Furthermore, some of the angles and visuals are expanded in the inner world of the protagonists, made up of nebulas rich in shades and spatial lights: an aspect crafted with care that makes the anime unique.
“Da Wang Rao Ming” is an anime that conveys the necessity of irony even when one finds themselves in difficult moments and is populated by characters who, although they are never straining to win the audience’s affection, succeed completely in doing so.
