Answerman

Is Donghua Becoming Popular in the West?

A Reader asks:

Dear Answerman, There seems to be a lot more Chinese animation on streaming platforms these days compared to a few years ago. Crunchyroll has added several titles I'd never have expected to see there, including To Be Hero X, which reached #8 in ANN's 2025 Spring Season rankings. Do you think that Donghua is breaking through internationally, or is this just a niche thing for hardcore fans? And what shows should I watch if I'm a complete beginner? Do you think China could ever genuinely challenge Japan as the home of 2D genre animation for adult audiences?

I didn't even know what donghua was until Manga Entertainment acquired the Chinese animated feature film Big Fish and Begonia in 2017. It is a beautiful piece of work that was much hyped on the festival circuit, but it failed to connect with the anime audiences we targeted. The skill and artistry of its creative team, and its undeniably stunning 2D animation, gave me the confidence to give it a go. You can see the influence of Hayao Miyazaki all over this movie, but the story meandered, and the characters failed to make the emotional connection the movie needed to become a word-of-mouth hit. I will explain why I have underlined “emotional connection” later in this piece. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Donghua is the colloquial name given to Chinese animation. The literal translation is “moving picture.” The Chinese animation industry (1922) is almost as old as Japan's (1917), and while a lot of contemporary 2D output looks similar to anime, there are some major differences. China has been a key animation production service provider for Japan for the last thirty years, so it is not surprising that donghua looks and feels the way it does. Crucially, though, where anime labels like shonen or seinen describe who the publisher is selling to, donghua labels describe the world the story inhabits. Different logic requires a different reading compass.

The four most well-visited story-worlds are: xianxia (cultivation towards immortality, Taoist cosmology, misty mountains; Mo Dao Zu Shi is the standout); xuanhuan (cultivation mixed with Western fantasy and isekai elements); danmei (roughly translates to “indulging in beauty,” featuring romantic relationships between male characters, often written by and for women; Heaven Official's Blessing is the most well-known); and wuxia (extraordinary human martial skill in a romanticized parallel China, no supernatural cultivation required; Scissor Seven is a great example, along with classic Kung-Fu cinema).

Running vertically across all of these genres is a key axis of character energy. On one end sits rèxuě (热血, - “hot blood”), the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese nekketsu hot-blooded protagonist, powered by willpower and the bonds of friendship. On the opposite end sit three equally important archetypes: fùhēi (腹黑, which literally translates to “belly black”), the long-game schemer who wins through hidden motives; lěngjun (冷峻 - “cold and severe”), the stoic who treats every conflict like an engineering problem; and gāo lěng (高冷 - “high and cold”), the aloof, untouchable figure who simply cannot be provoked. Western anime fans will recognize all of this through “competency porn,” which describes the deep satisfaction of watching a protagonist win through absolute mental superiority. There's one crucial Chinese twist: the face-slapping trope, dǎiăn. Where Japanese competency porn lets mastery speak for itself, Chinese narratives weaponize that competency specifically to humiliate antagonists who dared to underestimate the cool lead.

Crunchyroll's current donghua slate including Lord of Mysteries, Link Click, and Release That Witch, sits firmly at the fùhēi and lěngjun end of the spectrum. Crunchyroll is using donghua to offer something tonally distinct from the rèxuě-powered Japanese titles already dominating its catalogue. While I cannot prove that they have deliberately selected these titles for this very reason, it does make sense to me to avoid attempting to out-Naruto Naruto with Chinese animation. These particular donghua do a very effective job of filling a sophisticated, adult-skewing gap that anime is increasingly leaving open.

It is worth remembering that a lot of donghua is not 2D hand-drawn animation. In fact, the Chinese industry is dominated by 3D/CG production, and I suggest to you, that part of donghua's failure to rapidly build overseas audiences is because of the CG element. Nonetheless, what genuinely excites me is the creative space that hybrid animation occupies within it.

To Be Hero X, the bilibili/Aniplex co-production, is the flagship example: a dimension-shifting action-adventure where the constant shift between 3D and 2D is literally baked into the narrative. When the protagonist activates his power, the world shifts from a 3D space to a flat 2D plane. Director Li Haoling is a creator worthy of our celebrations, especially for the way they use the medium of animation itself as a storytelling device. For anime audiences raised on faithful manga adaptations, this is genuinely revolutionary. And then there is Fog Hill of Five Elements; pure 2D ink-wash painting in motion, with action sequences that match Demon Slayer in terms of bold line animation and elemental supernatural fights. The fact that this series has not yet found an official streaming partner overseas is an ongoing crime.

Donghua is breaking through, but it is being hampered by an uneven distribution strategy. Three major players, bilibili, Tencent/WeTV, and iQIYI, have radically different approaches. bilibili has been the most aggressive, working through partners who already own genre-aligned audiences: Funimation (now Crunchyroll), Starzplay for MENA, and ADN for France, Germany, and Poland. Tencent/WeTV is building direct-to-consumer bases in Southeast Asia, where Chinese cultural content has pre-existing traction. Far less effective in Western markets where they have no brand equity.

And here we arrive at what matters most. Cool-looking animation is not what drives anime's popularity. It is the story that does it! More importantly, it is the correct combination of storyworld, character development and plot that creates the prerequisite emotional connection between storyteller and audience. That is anime's true secret. Donghua, for the most part, lacks narrative intimacy - the emotional architecture that sits at the heart of why anime travels with minimal cultural friction. Decades of manga serialization built a storytelling grammar that Japanese animation refined into something global. Most successful donghua adapts web novels and manhua across wuxia, xianxia and cultivation fantasy. These are story types with very culturally specific tropes that require the audience to meet them halfway.

Link Click is an excellent proof of concept for the contemporary-set donghua that can close that gap. It's a suspenseful psychological thriller with intimate character dynamics and echoes of Death Note, perhaps the GOAT of the shonen suspense genre. It follows two friends whose photo studio is a front for a supernatural time-travel problem-solving agency; our heroes attempt to alter the past for clients by body-swapping with their former selves, solving their problems, and trying to avoid disastrous time paradox consequences along the way. It works on its own terms, and no prior genre knowledge is required.

China won't overtake Japan any time soon, but the more interesting question is whether it needs to. If Chinese creators crack the narrative walnut fully, and the evidence suggests they are getting closer each season, they may do something more disruptive than overtaking. They may end up owning the original IP space that anime increasingly vacates in favor of safe adaptations. Unlike Japan's industry, which has become synonymous with faithful adaptations of beloved literary works, donghua through bilibili's original production pipeline is developing made-for-animation IP with its own narrative destiny from day one. Japanese originals rarely make bank domestically. Japanese audiences are not being trained to adopt and enjoy new, original stories made purely for animation. That is a race Japan does not even know it's running yet.

Where to start on your Donghua journey?

●Link Click - start here. Modern, urban, emotionally devastating, zero genre prior knowledge required. Crunchyroll.

●To Be Hero X - for the anime fan who wants to see the medium itself used as storytelling. A tantalising glimpse into the future of Japan/China collabs. Crunchyroll.

●The Fated Magical Princess - for the manhwa fan craving a lush royal fantasy; a stunning bridge between Korean storytelling and Chinese animation that proves high-tier webtoons have a home in donghua. Crunchyroll.

●Fog Hill of Five Elements - for the animation purist. Warning: you'll be furious about the release schedule. Finding this one will require a bit of sleuthing.

●The Legend of Hei (film) - deceptively cute exterior, Ghibli-rival fluidity underneath. Best single film entry point. No distributor yet.

●Mo Dao Zu Shi - for the viewer ready to commit to xianxia beauty and danmei emotional depth. Crunchyroll (S1–S2), bilibili (S3). Also known as MDZS and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.

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