Doupo Cangqiong

As someone who is familiar with the Douluo Dalu series, this story doesn't feel quite refreshing or original. Despite that, it's highly enjoyable, hence I finished it in a couple of hours.

Story [6]:
The story is like something I have seen before, which is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it is done right. So far, the story is good, but not outstanding. There are things I personally would like to see go in a different direction, but for now these are OK.

Art [7]:
This series art isn't your typical 2D anime, instead it's more 3Dish. I personally appreciate the 3D animation and art style. ... The way this series looks, reminds me of a PS3 game or perhaps a Final Fantasy game. It isn't thát pretty, but very well done.

Sound [7]:
Unlike many other shows that I have watched, where I barely noticed the music, there were some sound effects in this show that I actually noticed. The music and other sound effects are more present, which adds to the show.

Character [7]:
The characters are not very outstanding in comparison to other similar shows. Yet I feel like they're still written pretty well. The protagonist is this cocky, weak lad who develops very well. I can't go in further detail about character development due to spoilers. The rest of the characters are not per se developing, yet you come to learn more about them, which is also fun and intriguing.

Enjoyment [7]:
Pretty much sums up the above combined.

I'm writing this review after watching all 3 seasons of the anime as well as all the specials that are available at this moment.

This review will be spoiler free, so feel free to read before you watch.

The first season of Doupo Cangqiong is garbage, there are no other ways to put it. The story is stale and have been done many times before. Normally I don't have a problem with overused stories as long as the execution is good, but as you guessed it, the execution is also trash.

Story:
This story starts with our protagonist Xiao, Yan. When he was just a young boy, he ... had great power that surpassed everyone his age. He was a genius, and because of his amazing abilities, he was engaged to Yan Ran, Na Lan, a girl from a powerful family. Just as everything was going well for Xiao, Yan, something terrible happened. After he turned 11, his power stopped growing and even became weaker as time went on. After three years, he was one of the weakest in his family, and deemed useless by his peers.

Because of this, Yan Ran, Na Lan wanted to break their engagement as she doesn't not want to be married to a useless husband. This was devastating to Xiao, Yan's family as her family was very powerful and sacred off people who tried to take over.

In the Heat of the Moment, Xiao, Yan promised a 1v1 with Yan Ran, Na Lan in 3 years time. If he was to win, he can do whatever he wants with her, but if she wins, she'll get to break off their engagement. From there the story begins.

Conclusion:
The reason I said the first season was garbage isn't necessarily because of the plot, but more of the poor execution when it comes to story telling. It was incredibly boring to watch the predictable plot points happen one after another. The music used isn't that great, even the OP is questionable. Overall the whole season could have been cut down to 3-4 episodes.

However, I'm writing this review not to drive you away from watching this anime as the second and third seasons are so much better after a new animation studios took over. I recommend skipping through the first season or reading the webnovel so you know the main plot points and moving on to the next seasons.

This season is a 5 out of 10 at most while the next two seasons are easily 7-8 out of ten. So please, do not turn away from a great anime due to this first shitty season.

BTTH is one of the most poorly written stories among the many many many that I have read/watched.
If you are a teen with VERY low standard for writing and you have a like for 8th grade syndrome stories, power fantasies with people who scream while powering up and everybody's actions are COMPLETELY nonsensical and even hundreds years old spiritually advanced people act like teenagers with ZERO control over their emotions, maybe you can like this shit.
But if you have even the slightest need for quality writing, skip BTTH completely, it's together with Soul Land the absolute scum among the famous cultivation stories. Actually, surprisingly it's ... even worse then Soul Land.
Even Renegade Immortal, which is a very poorly written story, is MUCH better than BTTH in all possible ways. And the revenge is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more fulfilling.
Here you have to go though FOUR SEASONS to get to the long awaited pathetic 3 years agreement arc where the MC will fight against his ex fiance, and the whole ends in ONE episode!!!!!! And after that it's all a complete disaster of very very very poor writing and nonsense plot.
Quality of animation aside, if we strictly speak only of the story, pretty much ANY other cultivation story is MUCH better than this one BY FAR.
And for the animation, this one gets somehow acceptable only in the fourth season.
This first season has among the worst animation what you can find around. If you are determined to watch this trash story, skip S1 and watch the Origin version instead, it's basically a remastered first season, condensed in 3 longer episodes. It's much better than S1 in all aspects (tho it's still trash, because BTTH is trash, and once trash always trash).