The 10 Best Chinese Anime (Donghua) to Watch

The best Chinese anime to start with are Mo Dao Zu Shi, Link Click and Lord of Mysteries: a xianxia revenge mystery, a time-travel thriller and a Victorian occult drama, each a match for the best Japanese anime of its year. Below are all ten with studio, length, October 2026 status and where to start.

The 10 best donghua at a glance

#	Donghua	Studio and years	Length and status (Oct 2026)	Best for
1	Mo Dao Zu Shi	B.CMAY Pictures, 2018-2021	35 episodes, complete	Story-first fantasy fans
2	Link Click	Studio LAN, 2021-present	Season 3 part 1 airing	Thriller fans
3	Lord of Mysteries	B.CMAY Pictures, 2025-present	13 episodes; season 2 in 2027	Mystery and worldbuilding
4	Soul Land	Sparkly Key, 2018-2023	260+ episodes, complete	Cultivation beginners
5	Heaven Official's Blessing	Haoliners, then Red Dog Culture House; 2020-2024	24 episodes; no season 3 yet	Mythic romance
6	Fog Hill of Five Elements	Samsara Animation Studio, 2020 and 2023	7 long episodes	Animation lovers
7	Scissor Seven	Sharefun Studio, 2018-2024	54 short episodes	Comedy with real fights
8	A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality	Original Force, 2020-present	180+ episodes, weekly	Patient cultivation fans
9	The King's Avatar	G.CMay, then Colored-Pencil; 2017-2024	41 episodes plus a film	Gamers
10	Ne Zha 2	Chengdu Coco Cartoon, 2025	Feature film	A one-night introduction

We ranked on how well each show holds up, how much of its story you actually get and how easy it is to enter from Japanese anime, so an unfinished story with no confirmed continuation costs a place.

What is donghua?

Donghua (动画) is the everyday Chinese word for animation; in English it means animation made in China, the way "anime" means animation from Japan. The tradition is old (the Wan brothers' Princess Iron Fan, from 1941, was Asia's first animated feature), but the modern boom is paid for by streaming platforms, chiefly Bilibili, Tencent Video, iQIYI and Youku, which commission and premiere most series.

How donghua differs from Japanese anime

• 3D is the default. Long cultivation series such as Soul Land are fully CGI; anime-style 2D shows like Link Click and Fog Hill are the exception.
• Web novels, not manga. Many of the biggest hits adapt online novels from sites such as Qidian or Jinjiang, so stories run long and dense.
• Different genres. Xianxia (immortals and sects), wuxia (martial heroes) and cultivation stories, where fighters climb named power ranks, do the job shonen battle series do in Japan.
• Year-round releases. Big franchises often use the nianfan (year-round) format, putting out an episode almost every week for a year or more instead of a 12-episode season.

What is a good donghua for beginners?

Take three shows in this order: Link Click season one, Mo Dao Zu Shi, then Lord of Mysteries. That is 60 episodes with no genre homework, enough to know whether donghua is for you. Then branch out:

• Shonen power ladders: Soul Land, then A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality.
• Historical fantasy and slow-burn bonds: Mo Dao Zu Shi, then Heaven Official's Blessing.
• Sports anime: The King's Avatar.
• Just a taste: Ne Zha 2 or Fog Hill of Five Elements.

1. Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Master of Diabolism): the benchmark

Wei Wuxian invented a forbidden "ghost path" of cultivation, was hated for it and died. Thirteen years later Mo Xuanyu, a young man abused by his own family, gives up his body in a curse ritual to summon him for revenge, and Wei Wuxian wakes into a mystery about a dismembered body that pulls him back into the politics of the great sects, beside the stern Lan Wangji. B.CMAY Pictures told the whole story in 35 episodes across 2018, 2019 and 2021, and a finished ending is rare at this level. Season one jumps between past and present abruptly, so give it four episodes. The source is a danmei (male-male romance) novel by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, and censorship keeps the couple in subtext: loyalty and lingering looks.

2. Link Click: the one to show a sceptic

From a small photo studio, Cheng Xiaoshi jumps into clients' photographs and lives 12 hours inside whoever took them, while his partner Lu Guang, who sees everything that happened in those hours, coaches him by telepathy. Their rule is never to change the past, and the best episodes are about a kind person failing to keep it. Writer-director Li Haoling and Studio LAN open with tidy cases before season one's last stretch swerves somewhere far darker. Watch in release order: season one (2021), season two (2023), the six-episode Bridon Arc (2024-2025), then season three, whose 12-episode first part has run weekly on Bilibili and Crunchyroll since 14 August 2026. If the time-travel rules of Steins;Gate hooked you, start here.

3. Lord of Mysteries: the 2025 breakout with a ten-year plan

A man from modern China wakes as Klein Moretti, a history graduate in the gaslit city of Tingen, carrying a gunshot wound to the head that the original Klein did not survive. He joins the Nighthawks, a church-run squad that handles supernatural cases, while a luck ritual pulls strangers into a grey-fog realm where he presides as "The Fool". Beyonders gain powers by drinking potions, a system we unpack in our best magic anime ranking. B.CMAY Pictures adapted Cuttlefish That Loves Diving's novel into 13 episodes from 28 June to 13 September 2025, on Tencent Video and Crunchyroll. Three specials followed from June 2026, and season two, Faceless, is due in 2027 with more than 30 episodes.

4. Soul Land: the cultivation gateway, flaws and all

This is the template Chinese hit: fully 3D, weekly and adapted from a huge web novel by Tang Jia San Shao. Tang San steals his sect's secret techniques, leaps off Hell's Peak and is reborn on Douluo Continent, where every six-year-old awakens a Martial Soul. His is the mocked Blue Silver Grass; a hidden second soul, the Clear Sky Hammer, drives the plot, and power grows by hunting soul beasts for Spirit Rings. Sparkly Key ran it on Tencent Video from January 2018 to June 2023, more than 260 episodes of about 20 minutes that finish the first novel. The stiff early CGI keeps it out of the top three. A sequel, Soul Land 2: The Peerless Tang Sect, began in June 2023 and is still running as of October 2026.

5. Heaven Official's Blessing: gorgeous, but unfinished

Eight hundred years after his glory days as Crown Prince of Xianle, Xie Lian ascends to heaven a third time with no worshippers, no money and a reputation as bad luck. His first case, a ghost snatching brides near Mount Yujun, puts him beside Hua Cheng, a ghost king all three realms fear. It is Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's other famous novel, and again the romance is shown as devotion rather than declared. Haoliners made season one (from October 2020, 12 episodes counting a special, dubbed in English by Funimation); season two, animated by Red Dog Culture House, ran from October 2023 to January 2024. As of October 2026 there is no confirmed season three, so the story stops partway through the novel.

6. Fog Hill of Five Elements: seven episodes animators pass around

Five elemental envoys guard a mountain gateway between the human and demon realms, and when that balance breaks you get some of the most kinetic hand-drawn fighting to come out of China, all ink-splash impacts and swooping camera work. Director Lin Hun's Samsara Animation Studio began with three people and was still under ten when its first three episodes, about three years in the making, premiered on Bilibili in July 2020. Lin is credited for the script, key animation, colouring and voice work. A four-episode second part, Xichuan Huan Zi Lin, followed in 2023, each episode close to 40 minutes. The lore arrives unexplained, which caps its rank.

7. Scissor Seven: a slapstick assassin comedy that grows teeth

Seven is broke, cheerful and terrible at contract killing, so he cuts hair on Chicken Island as cover, armed with a pair of scissors. He also cannot remember who he was, and that thread slowly turns a gag series into a well-choreographed martial-arts drama. Creator He Xiaofeng directs at Sharefun Studio and voices Seven himself. Five seasons (2018-2024) add up to 54 episodes of roughly 13 to 20 minutes, a weekend's viewing. Netflix carries it internationally, and season five arrived there with an English dub in November 2025; a feature film set in the martial kingdom of Xuanwu, announced at BilibiliWorld in July 2026, is aimed at a 2028 worldwide release.

8. A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: cultivation for grown-ups

Han Li is a poor village boy of mediocre talent who scrapes into a minor sect as an unofficial disciple, and he survives by caution: he hides his strength, flees fights he cannot win and treats every elder as a threat. That paranoia keeps Wang Yu's story tense where rivals repeat themselves. Original Force and Wan Wei Mao Donghua have made it in 3D for Bilibili since July 2020, and to our eyes it is the best-looking long-running cultivation show. After a five-month pause from January 2026, it returned on 13 June 2026 with the 52-episode Mulan War arc, released every Saturday, and has passed 180 episodes as of October 2026. Watch it after Soul Land if you want a smarter lead.

9. The King's Avatar: an e-sports drama with real stakes

Ye Xiu is the best player in the history of Glory, a fictional online game, until his club forces him out and keeps his famous account, One Autumn Leaf. He takes a night shift at an internet café, starts a new character on the game's tenth server and climbs again from nothing. Adapted from Butterfly Blue's novel, it plays like a sports anime: tactics, rival teams and a veteran outthinking faster youngsters. Season one (2017), season two (2020) and a 17-episode season three (2024) total 41 episodes, plus three specials and the 2019 film For the Glory. It needs no cultivation vocabulary, which makes it the best bridge for anyone who bounces off cultivation.

10. Ne Zha 2: the highest-grossing animated film ever

Director Jiaozi and Chengdu Coco Cartoon continue their 2019 hit Ne Zha, a cheeky retelling of the boy-god from the Ming-era novel Investiture of the Gods: born from the Demon Orb, he is bonded to Ao Bing, the dragon prince of the Spirit Pearl. Released on 29 January 2025, the sequel grossed more than $2.2 billion, passing Inside Out 2 as the highest-grossing animated film ever and becoming the highest-earning non-English film ever; it still holds both records as of October 2026, ahead of Zootopia 2. More than 4,000 people across 138 studios built its 3D spectacle, and A24 released an English dub, with Michelle Yeoh in the cast, in August 2025. Watch the 2019 film first; for more great animated features, see our best anime movies list.

Three more worth your time

Battle Through the Heavens, Soul Land's great 3D rival, has run year-round at Motion Magic since July 2022 and, as of October 2026, is heading for a planned final count of 219 episodes. To Be Hero X, Li Haoling's 24-episode superhero series co-produced with Aniplex, began on Fuji TV in April 2025 and changes animation style along with its heroes. White Snake (2019), Light Chaser Animation's romantic prequel to the Legend of the White Snake, started a run of films that continued with Green Snake (2021) and White Snake: Afloat (2024).

Where to watch donghua legally

Availability varies by region, but as of October 2026 Crunchyroll is the main English-language home: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Link Click, Lord of Mysteries, Heaven Official's Blessing season two and the first two seasons of The King's Avatar are there. Netflix has Scissor Seven. Long cultivation shows stay mainly on their home platforms: Tencent Video (WeTV abroad) for Soul Land, Bilibili for Mortal's Journey and Fog Hill.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Chinese anime?

Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Master of Diabolism) is the best Chinese anime for most viewers: B.CMAY Pictures told its complete xianxia revenge mystery in 35 episodes between 2018 and 2021. Link Click and Lord of Mysteries are close behind, and Link Click is the easiest starting point.

Are Chinese anime as good as Japanese anime?

At the top end, yes. Link Click, Mo Dao Zu Shi and Lord of Mysteries hold up against the best Japanese series of their years, and Lord of Mysteries made our best anime of 2025 list. The average weekly cultivation series is weaker, trading polish for volume.

Is Lord of Mysteries a Chinese anime?

Yes. Lord of Mysteries is a Chinese donghua made by B.CMAY Pictures from a web novel by Cuttlefish That Loves Diving. Its 13-episode first season aired from June to September 2025 on Tencent Video and Crunchyroll, and season two, Faceless, is planned for 2027.

Is Link Click finished?

No. Link Click has two seasons and a six-episode Bridon Arc, and season three began on 14 August 2026 on Bilibili and Crunchyroll. As of October 2026 its 12-episode first part is still airing weekly, and a second part is reported for 2027.

Will Heaven Official's Blessing get a season 3?

Not officially, as of October 2026. Season two ended in January 2024; Bilibili has since released a series of short films, the fifth in September 2026, but has not confirmed a third season.