Spare Me, Great Lord!
2021
Original language: Chinese
- animation
- comedy
- action & adventure
- sci-fi & fantasy
The story
Lü Shu is a frail teenager with an iron will. After losing his parents, he enrolls in a prestigious high school while working for a living and looking after his adoptive sister, Lü Xiaoyu. However, Lü Shu's quiet life abruptly changes when a car accident awakens his latent cultivation superpowers. Now cured of his physical weakness, he decides to hide his newfound abilities, as the art of cultivation is still shrouded in mystery—and the fate of cultivators uncertain. Meanwhile, Tian Luo Di Wang, the international foundation responsible for monitoring the cultivators, sets its plans in motion. Under the impetus of their member Xi Fei, a special cultivation training group is established in Lü Shu's high school. Although Lü Shu is forced to join the program, he is determined to hide the nature of his fearsome power, for his cultivation draws from an unlimited resource: the negative emotions of others brought about by his actions.
What it’s like
Crisp, stylized animation of a modern Chinese city, with grey stairwells, rain-slick streets, and classroom corridors lit by flat daytime fluorescence, then bursting into saturated colour during fights, when cultivation energy flares in bright arcs and ink-like trails. The sound mixes ordinary school noise (chatter, footsteps, a bell) with a driving, percussive score that swells for combat and drops out for quieter, lonelier beats. The vibe is wry and restless, a mix of underdog comedy and brooding urban fantasy, and it suits a weeknight binge, a commute on a bus, or background viewing while doing something else, though its fight scenes reward full attention. Pacing is brisk, with episodic set-pieces punctuated by slower stretches on loss and family. Its intensity runs medium: frequent martial-arts violence and fights with some blood and impact, bullying and school cruelty, a zombie-tinged threat, and a heavy undercurrent of grief and resentment, but no sexual content and little gore for its own sake. A protagonist who keeps his head down and gradually learns to trust others gives the story its emotional spine. It is for viewers who enjoy action-forward fantasy with a melancholy, coming-of-age heart and an antihero who would rather be left alone.
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