Mostly a breather from the action this week--they really turned up the heat/romance. The backgrounds and cinematography were sure pretty. Personally I'd be too distracted to train on a Tahiti-like beach🎣 . I LOL when TS got blasted into the cliff wall, and he's like, "it's nothing, I'm fine"🤣 . And I couldn't help but think of Jaws when they were in the underwater cage LOL.

Devil Great White Shark next week--I'm hyped asf.

Most definitely hype for that shark that turns into a waifu.

That unfortunately didn't happen (which was surprising)!

Oh

Will the second test, and all following tests take as long as the first one?

That depends on whether you're talking about DD's time frame or ours. Some of the future tests like the third are also one year, while others are only a few days but cover quite a bit of material. The 8th and 9th have the most content as I recall. But in general, yes the SG are long--they take up 28% of the entire novel if you count from their landing on the island to TS's inheritance.

I mean our time frame of course, episode-based though. Also, I'm rather unfamiliar with the abbreviated terms like SG and TS so care to clarify?

The anime/donghua follows the novel quite faithfully. So the basic timeline will roughly be the same. For example, the duration of the trials so far is the same as in the novel, just not as drawn out. They mentioned that they are given one year for each trial. Of course, not every trial, took a full year. I suspect, they won’t drag it out on SG island because I already saw upcoming previews for the later episodes and it’s much faster than the novel.

Btw, SG means SeaGod but here in the subs they translate it as God of the Ocean. TS is none other than our MC, Tang San.

DD is Douluo Dalu, the Chinese name for this novel and anime. In English, the anime is called Soul Land but people in the fandom call it DD in short.

@douluo and I often use terms from the novel which may be different from the subs. Unfortunately, the subs are not always accurate especially the names. One thing that irks me the most is the way the subbers shortened the names, like Xiao Wu becomes Wu and Tang San becomes San.

This is the intricacy of the novel and the Chinese language which is ignored by the subbers. E.g., there’s a difference between Tang San and Xiao San in the novel. The latter is a term of endearment used only by people who are older or are very close to TS. As for Xiao Wu, if you pay attention to the Chinese dialogues in the anime, no one ever calls Xiao Wu as Wu. Her name is special because she’s a soul beast and they don’t have surnames like the humans, e.g. for Tang San, Tang is the surname. Technically you can call Tang San as San because San is his first name but Xiao Wu’s first name is Xiao Wu. Anyway, I shan’t bore you with the details.

If you’re curious, do check the English translation of the novel out at bluesilvertranslations.

I didn't really need the whole thing on surnames, I knew about it a long time ago, especially the stuff about "Xiao" being used to substitute surnames, it's often a sign of closeness or endearment as you've said, same principle goes for people adding "er" after their given name, for example, a name like Ruo Yuqi would be "Xiao Yuqi/Qi" or "Qi'er"... Not necessary but eh... Thanks by the way!

Looks like you even know more than me with the whole name calling in Chinese. Sorry, I have a tendency to go blabbing.

It's fine haha, I just read a lot of Webtoons and such so I'm rather familiar

Wow, 28% huh, indeed a long arc.

Lol I seem to remember an Advert at the end, post tournament arc - where Dai Mu Bai is caught by ZZQ cheating on her with three ladies in blue and white - and he has the balls to say to her ‘you’re the only one for me’ 🤣.
—
Definitely a couples retreat episode for the first half, but why was Oscar hiding behind the palm tree? and that poor shark fatty skewers for no reason - maybe a relative of the white shark 😉

I know which ad you're talking about! Poor Mubai got blasted out of the building! 🤣 ZZQ may be hawt, but she seems to be colder than those three icy ladies.

Oscar couldn't join in because he's supposed to train/cultivate until he reaches level 70. This is definitely not explicit enough. In the novel, they all waited (doing nothing) for Oscar to reach 70 before starting their second trial.

Well that explains why we had the classic beach episode - but no fatty in a mankini? damn the ladies will be so disappointed lol

Don’t want to spoil too much but I could totally see Fatty parading himself in a mankini. And it might be sooner than you think. 🤭

Lol 😂 please no

Yup that's one 7th I'm really looking forward to. It's crazy to think how far they've come and that they're all (nearly) Spirit Saints now--that overhead shot of Oscar absorbing his 7th, rings all splayed out with three black was great. The opening has a lot of catch up work to do lol.

mankini 😂😂

Ikr, I had the same thought when I saw the underwater cage! 🤣
A bit of comic relief today. I love it when they show ZZQ proudly holding her prized catch while Mubai was "battling" a squid. For a moment, I thought bunny was fishing while TS was sunbathing, but all is good, lol!

On a more serious note, I love that they show glimpses of what is going on, on the antagonist side. This was completely left out in the novel and only much later we were told the bad guys did this and that in TS's absence! The anime/donghua balances this discrepancy quite nicely.

Btw, I’m actually more looking forward to Oscar’s first demonstration of his 7th ring ability (if you know what I mean)! I don’t know how explicit they dare to make it. 😂😂🤣🤣

BTW, I hadn't checked on the official weibo page for a long time so I just had a look and OMG....the comments on TS's new modeling are relentless/merciless
🤣--'snake face, ponytail, and two huge ugly bangs covering face like curtains' LOL. I remember you mentioning it earlier but I didn't realize it had blown up to this extent--practically every other comment! The former Blue Silver model always did look more realistic and natural to me but it wasn't until I saw the side-by-sides that the extent of the structural changes became obvious. Add in the ponytail and overly emphasized bangs..and you basically have Aerith from FF7, only more girly since the tail is pinned up 🤦‍♂️. Production better hope TS's SG transformation is well received because from the looks of it things are reaching fever pitch 😂. Thing is though, I'd be shocked if they made any changes to the model or his hair before then. Shit sure got real on Weibo! LOL

Ikr, I told you the official Weibo page has become my source of entertainment. 😂🤣🤣

I seriously don’t understand what went wrong. There are some comments that actually explained what they suspect was the cause of the glitch, how the technicality of the modelling and image rendering works but I didn’t quite get it, maybe the real meaning is lost in translation.

But majority of the comments are just bewailing and condemning the current model. Like you said, when you put them side by side, the contrast is quite obvious and some shots are just plain hideous.

Some people even alleged that the producer deliberately delay fixing the model in order to gain more discussions on the Supertopic. On Weibo, every post/comment counts as “traffic” which indirectly indicates the popularity of whatever people are discussing.

I’m also worried that the next change will only be after that “transformation”. I actually didn’t mind it that much until I saw the comparisons. Now, I can’t get the “Buddha TS” out of my head! 🤦‍♂️

Holy cow I just saw the preview for Fatty's Spirit Avatar. Did you see the pic that was posted of him on Weibo's first thread? I don't know if that's proposed or official, but damn😲. Looking good!

LOL IKR, a true adaptation of his 7th would be comedic gold 😂.

Yea it was a more chill episode this week.

A comment to make my presence and love for this Donghua aware😋

Fatty finally accepted he'll be a chicken even if it's drenched one.😂😂😂

The Chance to fight a millennium soul beast who will not kill you. They're getting the VIP service.

I always liked Xiao Ao's mimic ability more then any skill in this Anime. I mean he can copy any Soul form's ability with equal power too as long as his soul strength is equal or greater then the opponent.
He was using TS spear was awesome.

Tang San using the new hammer skill was also sick. The visuals were great.

I think his ability is not good unless he gets blood of a strong af guy

I'm pretty sure it said 30% of the original power.

70%to 80 based on circumstances

so...they are training in Australia?

Won't Tang San be a part of the re-election contest? He will miss all the fun

Everyone! Don't be Shark food!

Why is xiao wu always crying when helping the mc...Does it take that much out of her??...I’m quite curious🧐

Could've sworn they said they were gonna be back for that reselection of the 7 clans to make Tang clan known.

It’s great they didn’t go and are getting stronger...If they attended what are they gonna do?? Tangle them to death with a grass??

in the long awaited beach episode, I found out that mc seems to think of every single thing as a great way to TRAIN

Won't these people miss the election?

I think their goal is just trying to make it back before martial hall invades the emperor's land. The selection gives them a little time before that happens.

and TS is probably on bibi dong personnal 'kill on sight' list, going to a tournament she is in charge of would be pretty suicidal anyway.

Oh i get it