I know it’s hella problematic, but the web novel reverend insanity/master of gu introduced me to the genre a long time ago, and I’d love a tv show/movie with that style of magic system. Anything vaguely similar would be dope if you know what I’m talking about.
Grandmaster of demonic cultivation is the closest I’ve found.
Edit: Thank you everybody :mission-accomplished-1: :mission-accomplished-2: I now have enough content to make the void of capitalist realism feel less empty. I really appreciate all the recs.
If you find any let me know. I've always figured that a TV show would be a fantastic format for this kind of story, because they'd have to have, like, actual writers keeping things reasonably focused and stuff. As opposed to the random internet weirdos writing whatever comes to mind until they get bored that makes up the vast majority of the genre. But it's hard to browse this stuff in English at least, because most people who speak English have literally never heard of this genre.
I’ll save this and tag you if I do (be a buddy and tag me if you find any too though please).
It's probably not quite what you're looking for (the plot isn't usually about our main characters murder scheming to gain ULTIMATE POWER) but there are a lot of fun shows, mainly romance/comedy/dramas set in the world of Chinese fantasy folklore chock full of immortal cultivators and demonic beasts.
If you haven't already checked them out the 2019 Legend of the White Snake could be a fun one to start with.
What did you like about Reverend Insanity that you're looking for more of?
Edit: are you familiar with the web series? I might be able to explain better if so. I tried to be somewhat generic with the response because I couldn’t tell.
The power system, creative use of powers, scheming protagonist, lack of idealism (heroic heroes exist, but their light exists in contrast to a dark reality), and of course the willingness to get weird with it. Honestly, I liked basically everything about it except the times the author decided to do grimdark gross stuff for it’s own sake.
For example, the northern plains arc has him being a deceitful bastard, but he’s going up against not good people. I didn’t care for the times he’s just ruining the lives of good people. I felt the series was it’s best when he is the underdog and against the clock to gain enough power to survive the cicada while also operating within an unjust system so I didn’t feel bad for the people he was up against.
I guess I could summarize it as: I enjoy a less bad villain royally fucking over worse villains through wit and creativity.
The Pokémon aspect was also a big part. I like the idea of cultivating collectible powers within your heart and finding creative uses for them.
Haven’t heard of those, but based on the original comment, I trust you they are good. Added to the list.
:Joseph-Jostar-HOLYSHIT: there is a sequel and an animation!? Thanks for letting me know.
Yee Yee, that sounds like fun. Thanks for taking the time share.
Yoooooo, I meant the anime, but I’ve heard great things about untamed (I also love gay media about heroes, makes me feel valid) had absolutely zero clue they were related. CPC is great and all, but they have had a history of censoring this stuff. It’s on Netflix. You’ve answered my question. Thanks a ton.
Uhhhh, you just murdered my free time. And I love it. I loooove it folks. He’s so happy, he has a wall, there’s a wall, it’s in between him and being productive. He’s going to make procrastination great again. He’s never going to work… he’s just gonna watch shows.
For real though, great rec thank you
The actors are all so pretty... and there are enough different plot beats to feel fresh too. The novel is also really good and has all the sexy times intact like god intended
E: untamed also has like two movies?? and they're both decently fun
yay, more slop. My snout descends.
all the sexy times intact like god intended
oh, oh no. my volcel pledge :bear-despair:
I appreciate the suggestion, but...fuck... I respect your opinions, but YA... It isn't like Sanderson "this character is witty, They'll tell a knock-knock joke and everyone is going to react like they are Sartre " type things is it?
Edit: that is too derogatory: I'll keep it up so I can be dunked on...but the bar is low...you know? I hope you get what I mean. I've seen lots of leftists who haven't read any literature outside YA complain that the YA (in this case avatar) is major liberal brainworms. Not to say YA can't be good , Red Rising is a literal proletarian uprising, but the bar is low... ya know?
Edit: there is a series on audible that used to be free that is basically what I understand of avatar + cultivation. It is more than decent. I'll edit if I remember the name. But the writing is good and the content itself hella accesible to all ages. might be a good rec. I just need to figure out how to google it and find the name.
It's YA that features a genocide as a major plot beat. It's very well regarded for good reasons. Lots of character development, cool fight scenes, great world building, wrestles with some pretty heavy topics, hilarious writing. One episode is generally regarded as the most tear-jerking cartoon episode since Jurassic Bark.
There's a reason Millennials wouldn't shut up about it for like a decade.
fuck, maybe I need to check it out. Wasn't allowed to watch non-educational TV, so despite being a millennial never got into it. It does sound good based on your description.
I kinda mentioned more than one. Which are you referring to? Sorry, I just don’t want to be the asshole how goes off on something that isn’t the topic at hand.
Cradle by will wright. I’m like 99% percent sure this is the one.
Cradle is really good, even if the author is a :lmayo:. It's probably the series I have reread most.
Cradle is amazing! Somehow it never gets old--my dad and I re-listen constantly; just finished up Skysworn the other day, now on to Ghostwater :D
It's gotta be. Perhaps the best cultivation series out there, and Travis Baldree is just incredible with the narration. I was actually going to recommend Cradle in this thread lol
Edit: It's Will Wight, by the way (no R in the last name). Link to series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0753FP6SP
Cultivation in manga tends to be lackluster usually due to them being rushed novel adaptations. It's still not original high art or anything, but it probably exacerbates the issue. The genre obviously has the appeal of power growth in a way that makes sense compared to the popular video gamey level systems that are (were?) getting popular in anime and manga. Getting to level 10 by getting enough experience and gaining a new ability is boring, reaching the Golden core stage after condensing your internal qi from gas, to liquid, to solid state then surviving a heavenly tribulation is way more interesting, combined with different quality levels of cultivators due to how solid their "foundation" of their power is. There's also a few fun tropes like deathtrap dungeons a (very) loose coalition of factions enter only for horrible casualties to happen either from the dungeons or from other people, to stuck up rich kids being minor villians, to silly ability names and titles for the characters. (Universe Lord Nine Blades struck using his strongest technique, "Fading Light Chases the Nine Swallows.")
That sounds like a good rec.
I can't explain why other people like it or dislike it, but for me the appeal is the world-building. The magic system is cohesively built into the structure of the society it exists (if monasteries really could give you the ability to fly and summon guardian spirits we would probably have a lot more of them and maybe even have entire cities built around them). I also am a massive weeb and really enjoy most things that are at least China-adjacent. The strong emphasis on becoming stronger by improving your internal self also resonates with me. I agree, there is a lot of "trash-tier" content, but the good ones are worth sifting for in my opinion.
I don't have any TV show recs, but Cradle was mentioned earlier (anyone who hasn't read Cradle owes it to themselves to change that, btw), and in that vein, I can recommend some books:
General Progression Fantasy (basically a broader category that includes wuxia/xianxia and other forms of fantasy whose plots focus on character power progression in particular):
- Bastion by Phil Tucker is an excellent book. Unfortunately, it's the beginning of a series, and no other books have yet been published.
- The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter, and its sequel The Fires of Vengeance, are both excellent as well. The fantasy setting is inspired, not by medieval Europe as so many others are, but instead by Bronze Age Africa. I think these are also the beginning of a series, though I haven't heard anything about another one in a while. (Recent quote from his twitter, which I checked to make sure he's still alive: "Billionaires shouldn't exist")
- Mage Errant by John Bierce is a bit more YA than the above two, and many Cradle fans don't like it (it's certainly not as good as Cradle, admittedly), but it's got a fun kind of atmosphere, similar to Cradle's, and the author is at least a radlib if not an actual leftist (he spent the pandemic in Vietnam, and is very outspoken about his belief in anti-imperialism both online and in the books, and he even once dunked on Ben Shapiro in the Cradle subreddit). There are 6 of 7 books in the series out so far; last one expected sometime this year. Audiobook is fine, but the narrator likes somewhat long pauses, which some people don't like.
- Stormweaver: Iron Prince by Bryce O'Connor and Luke Chmilenko is a sci-fi book about a future in which the sporting world is entirely focused on what are called SCTs (simulated combat tournaments) in which Users of power combat-assistance devices (CADs) engage in (simulated) gladiatorial combat. It's also YA-ish, and the author and story are definitely lib, and it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief (you have to accept that people can survive blows that would in truth be 100% fatal and get back up again), but it's also one of the few books that captures some form of the Cradle progression-fantasy magic, so I'm throwing it in here anyway. The second book is mostly finished being written (it's being posted on Patreon chapter by chapter currently, and also, delayed, in the Stormweaver subreddit), but is not out yet. The audiobook is not done by Travis Baldree, and as a result it's less good than it would be if it had been, but not bad.
Wuxia/Xianxia specifically:
- A Thousand Li by Tao Wong is a more traditional Chinese xianxia series, which in its text includes many footnotes explaining bits of Chinese culture. The audiobooks are, like Cradle's, narrated by Travis Baldree. This series is somewhat slower-paced than Cradle, though, and it's also unfinished.
- Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer is a fun read; it's a largely satirical xianxia isekai story in which the main character, upon arriving from Earth into the body of a young cultivator who has just been killed by a fellow sect disciple, then decides to abandon cultivation to start farming instead. It sounds kinda odd, I know, but it's a really fun read. It started as a webnovel on Royal Road, and volumes after 1 can still be read there, but here's a link where you can read volume 1 without paying Jeff Bezos for it: https://www.webnovelpub.com/novel/beware-of-chicken-09111244/chapters (note, though, that Beware of Chicken, too, has its audiobook narrated by Travis Baldree, so there is some reason to pay for the Kindle version, since that gets you a massive discount on the Audible version). Word of warning: this series is very taken with a pastoral, patriarchal vision of "the simple life" and occasionally exposes less-than-great politics in minor ways (there's an unfortunate transphobic joke during one of the final scenes of Volume 1, though it's one of a form that most cis people probably wouldn't even recognize as transphobic). The story really shines in particular when the main character and his friends interact with cultivators and others who are familiar with cultivation. The title is on account of the fact that the rooster starts cultivating, with many comic results.
Those all sound worth checking out, thank you for the effort put into collating such a strong list.
I really enjoy the idea of being isekai'd and just fucking off to a farm. Such a novel idea. I love it.
:meow-hug: thanks for recommending stuff
Baldree is good folks. Gonna check out your recs.
Painting the Mists is also a solid xianxia that is further along than A Thousand Li and is a bit more fantastical (though still unfinished at least with audiobooks). Guy expresses some liberalism and makes some really bad campy references. The second book made me cringe from how the female characters were written about, but that smoothed out over time. I've been making my way through it for a while now, and it's been a pretty solid driving and work audiobook that I don't have to focus on too much.
Forge of Destiny and Fates Parallel are two different YA xianxia series about a girl (a thief) stumbling into a cultivation sect and learning to cultivate. Forge of Destiny is kind of the og, while Fates Parallel feels kind of like a response in that it's gayer and it'll get out of the sect setting much faster. FoD holds a soft spot in my heart as it was the first xianxia webnovel I started reading, western or Chinese.
He Who Fights with Monsters is progression fantasy about a wisecracking Australian guy who gets isekai-ed into a magic world, and the author makes it work. The wisecracks aren't really about "funny reference" but it feels more like "funny reference and also the protag coping with his ridiculous circumstances in probably unhealthy ways." The narrator is really good, which may contribute heavily, and the emotional state of the protag is pretty juicy drama. Author is a massive radlib who thinks authoritarian is an aesthetic and despite being critical of American foreign policy, still hates all of its enemies. When real world locations and politics aren't relevant, it's pretty good. Also unfinished, but that may be a bit of a theme with western written webnovels in the genre.
Everyone seems to describe HWFWM as litRPG, but you don't describe it as such. I generally avoid anything with that label because I prefer real stakes; would you say that's a mistake wrt HWFWM?
Forge of Destiny is among those on my to-read list that I keep forgetting about; I'll give that a shot soon. I plan to save (as in "Save page as...") this whole thread once it dies down, in fact, but I appreciate this comment especially, and not least because you didn't name a single thing I've already read :)
Ehh, tbh the label litRPG doesn't really mean anything to me, probably due to me not actually being into fantasy until I really got into cultivation fantasy. It just seems to be a tool to develop a framework for helping write and tell a story, and give structure to the power system. HWFWM literally has litrpg in its tagline, but other than it's propensity to read "System text" for 5 minutes straight I can't really tell. FoD likely has more of a litRPG feel with a large cast of characters who just kind of fade in and out and basically no stakes, though I am not versed enough in the genre and its tropes to say much there.
I liked Handsome Siblings, I'm not familiar worth those other shows.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt11541444/
The description sounds cool! Thanks for recommending.
Oh hey it's my topic. I love wuxia/xianxia and while I'm no expert, I at least have some recs and their caveats. As you are probably aware, there are two obvious issues with the genre: lots of the shows and media are really :yikes:, and often the show translations are either bad or hard to find. Harems, threatened and sometimes real sexual assault, slavery, and misogyny seems common across the genre. Think how shounen ends up with a lot of problematic elements. At least this features characters who often get older rather than being an eternally sexualized 14 year old. That said, I've watched and read more than I should and can at least go over what I've seen and try to be upfront with the problematic bits.
Martial World (Novel) is the xianxiaiest xianxia to ever xianxia. It has a pretty straightforward protag and world, and the cultivation system is pretty normal until the higher levels start coming around, and those get to be pretty fun. From what I remember, the only way it's problematic is that the main character has like 4 wives by the end of it. It has a hilarious sex scene where the main character is fucking but also punching ghosts at the same time. Extremely long novel, which is saying something as all of these are already very long running.
A Will Eternal (Novel w/ 2d show and I think manga adaptation) is a lighterhearted take, and at first seems pretty mild. The main character is an accidental troublemaker who is so afraid of death he stumbles his way into becoming a powerful cultivator. It starts :yikes-1: when he accidently makes extremely strong beast aphrodisiac pills and weaponizes them. I think the show made that less of a thing, but my memory is fuzzy of it, and it didn't have a great translation when I watched so I could barely understand what was going on anyways. I wouldn't really rec the novel (:yikes-3:), but if you can find a good translation for the show it's probably serviceable.
The Daily Life of an Immortal King (Show) is a comedy set in a modern xianxia setting about a kid who is just born too powerful. I don't remember the first season that much, but several of the bits in the second season had me laughing.
Way of Choices (Novel w/ 2d show adaptation and maybe a live action show) is pretty good as a novel, but I don't think it translated well to the show as it is kind of monologue heavy. I did watch the show first and liked it enough to read the novel, however. The romance was kind of cute, and the characters are all awkward and blunt to the point it's endearing. Has some unchallenged misogyny going on from secondary characters towards the female empress of the setting, which isn't really pushed back on at all.
Swallowed Star (Novel w/ 3d show adaptation) it's xianxia sci-fi. Solid enough show, the later events in the novel feature a lot of slavery of warriors, which the protag participates in, buying tons of slaves early on as a quick military when he steps on the intergalactic stage. Haven't finished the novel, it's kind of dragging so I have the chapter in an eternally open tab on my phone.
Battle Through the Heavens (Novel w/ 3d show adaptation) is another xianxia that seems pretty straightforward. The show has the advantage of being to the point that characters are power enough to break space itself when fighting, which is really cool. MC's path to power is the spirit of an old expert following him around. The main character seems to like to threaten sexual assault in the novel, which has dampened my enthusiasm for reading longer, and yet the main character will still likely develop a harem.
Soulmate Adventure (2d show) is a wuxia with softer power levels. Has GL vibes, and I love me a good jianghu adventure. Kind of short and I don't remember much except some cool fights.
Zhen Dao Ge (3d show) is a wuxia that's a classic revenge story of an angry dude killing his way through a conspiracy. Has long and cool fight scenes. Has cool jianghu characters with named moves and the whole deal, lots of fun. Easy enough to get that I can watch it with friends.
yeah, I'm honestly surprised at how problematic it can be at times, but I'm a weeb. I am well-versed in the cognitive dissonance required to enjoy a genre.
the only way it’s problematic is that the main character has like 4 wives by the end of it
slapping the table between words Add. more. husbands.
fucking while fighting ghosts? sounds hilarious.
I appreciate the emphasis on comedy. I never considered the potential for humor within the genre. I now realize it is ripe with it.
Thank you for taking the time to write out a list with good descriptions. All of those sound really good.
