I love being surprised by a series.
In April 2020, that’s exactly what happened. I was browsing through various different anime sites trying to see what was worth watching when I stumbled upon a Chinese ONA called Wan Sheng Jie (or, in English: All Saints Street). As soon as I noticed the art style, I knew I’d like this series and my alarm bells were ringing for this really was a hidden gem that I was slowly uncovering.
Wan Sheng Jie is a ONA with 12 4-minute long episodes following the daily life of the cute little devil called Nini. Living at 1031, his housemates aren’t exactly ordinary. There’s a lazy vampire called Ira who spends most of his time gaming, the unlucky dancer werewolf called Vladimir, the serious landlord Lynn, alongside his naive little sister Lily and many more weird and wonderful friends. That being said, none of them realize just how much power Nini has sleeping inside of him, and with evil forces in pursuit of him, can Nini and his friends prevent disaster from happening?
What Wan Sheng Jie sets out to do, it does it perfectly. The show has a very simple format. Each episode follows the random antics of the housemates and each episode wraps up very nicely. There is an overarcing story, however the majority of the focus is on building up the characters and their relationships. The only hints of the main story, really, appear periodically – more predominantly in the first episode where there is a flash forward and also in the final episode, for it ends on a cliff hanger. Other than that, the series is extremely heartwarming and everything about the show is extremely lovable.
Aside from the adoable art style and the fact we have some lovely characters featuring in a great set of slice-of-life scenarios, my favourite thing about Wan Sheng Jie has to be, without a doubt, the OP. The opening to this show is ridiculously catchy and I’m pretty sure it’s up for my personal OP of the Year.
Personally, I would love it if more people gave this short ONA a chance, especially considering the second season is currently airing, as of writing this post. I realise I may not have said much along the lines of encouraging one to go watch it, but I truly cannot say anything more than I already have. The episodes are very short and so it is very hard to comment on the series, as is the issue with any short-form anime. If I am completely honest, this would be my only complaint – it is too short. Although I’m glad we have a second series on the go, I would love for the episodes to be longer. Perhaps I’m just biased towards the show, but getting to spend as much time as possible with each of the characters would be amazing, particularly those that don’t get as much focus, such as Abu – the mummy.
It may be a difficult find, but if you can find it this Halloween, I would definitely recommend that you sit down for a short time and relax with these cuties. Not everything has to be scary during Halloween and Wan Sheng Jie proves that!
Where can I watch this?
Wan Sheng Jie is available to watch on QQ and Weibo.
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