Hunter2022

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Bilibili-is-going-global-to-take-on-YouTube-Crunchyroll-and-more.1372579.0.html

Bilibili is going global to take on YouTube, Crunchyroll, and more

Bilibili has spent years building its audience in China. Now, it is setting its eyes on the rest of the world, and with over 5 million downloads on Google Play in mere days, the start looks promising.

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This makes sense. They already have a lot of donghua series dubbed in ENG: To Be Hero X, Link Click, etc. I wonder if we will eventually get an ENG dub of Fanren too...

What I really want though is a continuation S2 of that backup Fanren donghua. It was getting good, then there is no news they will even make the next season. Of course dubbed in ENG would be icing on the cake!

You can see 9/10 top series are Tencent series. This donghua is BiliBili's one and only contender for Top 10!

May explain why BiliBili bent over backwards and remade episodes 177-178 because fans complained. That becoz this donghua is their bread and butter.

So Fanren is not just any donghua, but the one making the most money for BiliBili which means it also the one they pour the most money into it to maintain top quality!!

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BTW, I am surprised Ling Cage/Incarnation (another BiliBili donghua) is not among the Top20. Because I watch(ed) it (Season 3 upcoming) on a projector that almost fills up my entire bedroom wall, those lighthouse scenes really give me goosebumps how high up in the sky it is. It's the only donghua I would rate as Top BiliBili #2 after Fanren. The distant #3 would be that new donghua that BiliBili makes as a backup to their Top #1 (see my other posts to find out which one it is).

This info comes from a Deepseek chat:


Here is a list of the top 20 most-watched donghua:

1. Renegade Immortal (Xian Ni) – The undisputed #1 in 2025/H1 2026. It earned 3.46 billion effective views in 2025, and 1.89 billion in H1 2026.
2. Battle Through the Heavens (Dou Po Cang Qiong) – A consistent top performer with 2.83 billion effective views in 2025 and over 1 billion in H1 2026.
3. Sword of Coming (Jian Lai) – Season 2 was a massive hit in early 2026, amassing over 1 billion effective views.
4. Perfect World (Wan Mei Shi Jie) – Ranked 4th in H1 2026; collected 2.28 billion effective views in 2025.
5. Swallowed Star (Tun Shi Xing Kong) – Ranked 5th in H1 2026; had 1.67 billion effective views in 2025.
6. Soul Land II: Peerless Tang Sect – A strong 2025 performer with 1.78 billion effective views.
7. A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality (Fan Ren Xiu Xian Chuan) – Ranked 9th in H1 2026; had 1.47 billion effective views in 2025.
8. Against the Sky Supreme (Ni Tian Zhi Zun) – Noted for steady popularity with 1.40 billion effective views in 2025.
9. Throne of Seal (Shen Yin Wang Zuo) – Registered 1.36 billion effective views in 2025.
10. Soul Land (Dou Luo Da Lu) – A legendary title with over 11 billion cumulative views.

The remainder of the top 20 are also highly popular, including Stellar Transformation, Immortality (Yong Sheng), Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mo Dao Zu Shi), Heaven Official's Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu), Lord of the Mysteries (Guì Mì Zhī Zhǔ), The King's Avatar (Quan Zhi Gao Shou), Link Click (Shi Guang Dai Li Ren), The Daily Life of the Immortal King (Xian Wang De Ri Chang Sheng Huo), Rakshasa Street (Zhen Hun Jie), and Non-Human (Fei Ren Zai).

Very short-lived #2 movie of the year in China (but very very very far behind #1). I THINK GIVE IT A COUPLE MORE WEEKS OUaTitME will become this year's #2 in the Mainland China!

(Stephen Chow will never make another movie as big as The Mermaid. Lin YUN popularity preserved...)

China lacks a movie genre to tackle Hollywood superhero movies in the domestic market. I think some company should be brave enough to step up and take charge. They did it with space scifi (Wandering Earth) so why wouldn't they want to compete in people with superpowers genre too?

Anyways, I think this IP would make some serious box office if they did a theatrical release live action movie. They should make it so hard core donghua fans will puke walking out of the theater becoz it don't resemble the donghua at all. The focus of the (live action) movie should be ppl who never watched the TV series at all (live action nor animated) and think that donghua shows are comical and childish. Write a script for this kind of audience and it will be guaranteed huge box office becoz the stats show Chinese movie goers actually love watching superpower movies. Only it seems only Hollywood ever bothers to make this movie genre to satisfy their thirst.

Psshh. How am I supposed to type properly on mobile? It's a Godsend I can even type at all.

BTW, takes one to know one (if you get my gist)

Once Upon a Time in the Middle East smoking both Spiderman and Eight Immortals in Chinese daily B.O. Will 2026 be the year of "Shen Teng" movies? Everything looks like Shen Teng will (have been) the star ML protagonist of both (annual) Top #1 and #2 movies in China!

(Meanwhile KFS looks to max take home 50% of Top #1 this year. Give it another decade where China produces one or two movies or maybe even 3 if it's a lucky year that are on the level of Pegasus 3 each year, KFS will be lucky to break top 50 in China!)

The novel confirms Shi Mu has two main Dao companions

:

Ximen Xue [aka NANGONG WAN-like CHARACTER]: She is described as his first love and one of his Dao companions

. Shi Mu and Ximen Xue are both powerful cultivators who face many trials together, including escaping a star domain and fighting against the celestial court

.

Zhong Xiu [aka MO CAIHUAN-like CHARACTER]: She is described as his true love and another Dao companion
. She and Shi Mu share a deep, long-standing bond and face numerous life-and-death situations together from a young age. Their relationship is highlighted as one built on trust and shared hardship.

Imagine yourself as BiliBili CEO. You have one particular series (Journey to Immortality) donghua that's driving most subscription users to your service. You must be in panic mode as that's like placing all your eggs into one basket.

How do you prepare for any potential contingencies? Prepare a "backup".

Introducing another donghua series primarily intended as a "backup" in case who knows what may happen to the main primary one: Gate of the Mystical Realm.

The reason why BiliBili treats it with the same tender love and care: The story almost mirrors Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan. There is a female char like Mo Caihuan. There is also another female char like Nangong Wan. The difference is, this backup series actually does the Mo Caihuan-like character much justice as in the novel, the protagonist takes them both as his wives...

Also, you notice the donghua is animated by another contract studio, a different one than Fanren. It's because, you know they would want a backup studio to animate the backup donghua series...

To get their "fix" while they await the S2 live action drama...

BTW, I wonder where the The Mermaid/Monster Hunt 1/2 crowd? WHERE ARE YE? This movie needs your support!

20-30 years from now, nobody will remember Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yunfat, nor Stephen Chow. Just as nobody watches Bruce Lee movies (nor care) anymore.

But ppl will always look back at Wolf Warrior 2, Wandering Earths 1/2/3, Pegasuses 1/2/3/4, Nezhas 1/2/3 and think those were the formative years when China was starting to become really high tech in cinema technology and their mirror in real life military, car, drone tech.

Kung fu/wuxia will always be relegated to the era when China could only employ manual labor working in sweat shop factories to manufacture things.

This movie is an embarrassment to all Chinese. Only a HKer would dare embarass China like that. Most HKers usually don't care because they don't even identify themselves as Chinese but honorary Whites. To hell with national pride and dignity, HK always remain a British colony in HK ppl's hearts.

Also, I never would in a million years think a Mainland director would make a movie about soccer. First you country can be in the World Cup, then ye can brag all ye want about the sport and even incorporate Shaolin kungfu...

Lol, it's about made ~50% of the box office of Pegasus 3. Every year, there's a (domestic) movie that makes the level of Pegasus 3 or better (or more) in the Chinese market. To make only ~50% of that movie, meh... Not even worth consideration. Plus the movie only made ~60% of Stephen Chow's "prime" (NOT!! he was like gray haired when he made) The Mermaid.

So whoever new actress he casted to overthrow Lin Yun... Shucks, it ain't working!!

Ew it's William Chan. I only watched the first one because back then there weren't many dramas being released and I was bored. I can never picture William Chan as the hero. Evil characters like in Ying Yang Master or Legend of Ravaging Dynasties suit him better.

Plus first one had cheesy as hell crummy effects. I'm sure there are much better effects in store for S2 because time and tech changes, but ew First One left a bad taste in my mouth till this very day. Skipped.

So I noticed doesn't matter if it's BiliBili or a Tencent donghua series, this is only ONE aspect of life where being an international viewer is always better than being a Chinese viewer in the Mainland China. Sometime the donghua series will blast a BGM song all in English, and I can imagine what the Chinese viewers must be thinking... It's like they're the main or primary audience for the donghua series, then the production company decides to blast a song in the background they can hardly understand!

Crap crap crap. I never seen a more masochist donghua where the ML is literally beaten to a pulp/takes abuse after abuse just to temper his body or whatever.

It's almost like he's a dumb piece of metal that needs to be constantly hammered into shape, put back into the furnace, cooled, then hammered again. How dumb could the plot get?

Lost track of the box office stats. There's only one site in the world (from China) that provides daily stats in USD of Chinese box office, now you gotta pay to access their data...

Anwyays, it seem when the KFS run finally ends, it will have made 3/5 = 60% of The Mermaid box office. Part of me thinks Stephen Chow wanted to take the limelight away from Lin Yun, the Mermaid actress. It's like when you hate someone you want to make or cast another person to steal their place or popularity. Too bad the box office of KFS don't support this.

Woohooo yea!!! I'm not even gonna pirate this movie. Some movies like Legend of Condor Hero, I pirate it (even in 4K) and keep it on my HDD so I don't have to watch it. Movies that I don't even bother pirating well...

Lastly, nothing in China ever gonna come remotely close to Pegasus 3 box office this summer. Hong Kong and Cantonese speakers are the minority of the Chinese population. May partly explain why their movies don't make as huge a splash to the overall movie watchers population as authentic Mainland China movies. The other reason has to be I always smell a hint of attention seeking or approval seeking from Mainland audiences in their movies.

Cantonese ppl should just suppress their identity crisis and just be themselves (instead of "see I'm just as good as you" that by the very definition is attention or approval seeking), only then can they stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best top 10 grossing of all time in China!

EP 181 was mind blowing, but it doesn't have a song especially composed for it (BiliBili don't got no budget for songs, they been using the same OP/EN songs since forever).

What made Slay the Gods S2 Ep07 just as mind blowing was Tencent hired some Greek musicians to compose the song just for this particular episode's climax battle (I don't think this song will be reused in any later episodes as it seems to be a one oft thing) aka I nickname it the "Death from ABOVE" song/scene!

This is the SONG btw, it sounds so epic when paired with the action scene from Ep07:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDWQ6hZhOvY&list=RDUDWQ6hZhOvY&start_radio=1

This is one of those rare instances where rich megacompany (Tencent) puts their cash resources to good use to enhance viewer experience!

150 minutes? 2.5 hours? I like it. The typical CGI donghua movie made for TV release these days are almost 2hrs, and they usually feel like nothing happened in that 2hr runtime. 2.5 hours sounds about right for a (more) satisfying viewing experience!

The first theatrical movie for A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality (Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan), titled 《凡人修仙传之瀚海迷踪》 (A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: Lost in the Vast Sea), is currently scheduled for a December 2026 release in Chinese cinemas

.

Here are the key details currently available about the film:

Official Title: A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: Lost in the Vast Sea

Plot: The movie will follow protagonist Han Li on a standalone adventure in the treacherous Western Regions, involving the Thousand Bamboo Sect and the Great Yan Divine Sovereign
. It's meant to be a self-contained arc, not a direct continuation of the ongoing donghua series

.

Production: The film is being made by the same team behind the acclaimed donghua series, with director Wang Yuren returning. It's reported to have a runtime of about 150 minutes and will feature upgraded 4K visuals

.

Please keep in mind that this is a film release date for China, and an international release schedule has not been announced yet. It's also worth noting that release dates can sometimes change, so it's a good idea to follow official sources for the final confirmation.