Crunchyroll's New Chinese Anime Has the Makings of the Greatest Isekai of All Time

If you’re looking for a new donghua to add to your watchlist, you won’t want to miss Lord of Mysteries. With a supernatural steampunk Victorian twist, this fantastical and suspenseful action-packed dark mystery isekai is sure to keep you guessing. Mysticism, divine supernatural powers, secret societies, warring churches, Lovecraftian occult horror, and puzzling mysteries to be solved — this donghua hits all the steampunk bells and whistles for the makings of perhaps the greatest isekai of all time.

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As the web novel by author Cuttlefish That Loves Diving, Yuan Ye, began its serialized debut in 2018 on Qidian, its eighth and final volume finished in April of 2020. Thanks to CKTalon, it was officially translated and published on Webnovel. And now with the donghua adaptation being created by B.CMay PICTURES, we can’t wait to see more of what this blend of Victorian steampunk, Lovecraftian horror, and supernatural mysticism has to offer as the protagonist navigates occult horrors in this dark, fantastical mystery. With some truly innovative takes on the otherwise tiresome isekai genre without overtly claiming the label, Lord of Mysteries should definitely have its time to shine for the major hit it truly deserves to be.

A Rabbit Hole of Mysteries

June 28th, 1349 of the Epoch Calendar. Tingen City, Loen Kingdom. Time ticks as Tingen City’s Doomsday on September 9th gets ever closer. And this is the time and place Chinese youth Zhou Mingrui awakens to when his “Luck Enhancement Ritual” goes awry, transmigrating him into the body of university graduate Klein Moretti, a man who’d just committed suicide.

In a world where those with supernatural abilities, called Beyonders, strive to achieve god-like powers on the Path of the Divine, the newly awakened Klein must uncover the truth behind secret mysticism societies and his own mysterious suicide and transmigration. Using his wits to survive and masquerading as a god-like entity is only the beginning, as he forms an organization known as the “Tarot Club” and increases his own powers to return home.

Beautiful and Innovative, This Donghua Deserves Recognition as Perhaps the Best Isekai Yet

As many fans may be initially put off by the donghua’s use of 3D graphics, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched if Lord of Mysteries were to also be lost under the radar. But with a storyline that transcends time and space, the visuals definitely don’t disappoint when it comes to portraying such; Studio B.C May Pictures instantly shows its artistic prowess by utilizing both 2D and 3D assets to showcase a beautiful, seamless blend of styles within the animation, creating an absolutely stunning world immersed in both dark, muted industrial grit and brightly saturated mysticism and intrigue. If you’re a fan of supernatural Victorian era plots and aesthetics like that of Black Butler, you should definitely not sleep on this donghua.

And with an absolute rabbit hole of secrets, mysteries, underlying societies, and supernatural, even divine, powers, Lord of Mysteries also includes Xuanhuan elements (fantasy genre inspired by traditional Chinese culture, mythology, philosophies, etc.). With religious inspiration and a whole systematic magic structure, the Beyonder’s use of magic isn’t just arbitrary. On the journey of the Path of the Divine, they utilize potions and aim to ascend to Divinity via 22 Pathways (inspired by the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and 22 cards of the Major Arcana in the Tarot) with different levels, or Sequences, wherein the lower the Sequence, the closer one is to having god-like powers.

While many isekai in recent years have had the typical bland, boring, overpowered protagonist, tiresome tropes, and settings that may as well take place in the same, stale fantasy universe, Lord of Mysteries has finally brought a refreshing take on the isekai genre. With beautiful animation, mysteries as deep as their occult inspirations, and a new setting unlike that of the overused fantasy or video game worlds, this Chinese anime definitely has what it takes to be the greatest isekai of all time.

The Lord of Mysteries ONA is to have a total of 13 episodes for its inaugural season, with each episode released Fridays on Crunchyroll.

Are you hyped for this refreshing take on the isekai genre? Let us know in the comments your thoughts!