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DeCheng (pronounced Dee Chang) is the story of an orphan who is to become the hero of a people besieged. Set in China before the Common Era, DeCheng, 
(whose name means a person with a virtuous and sincere character), opens the first volume nearly giving his life during a flood to save his neighbor and child, and master, Zhong, from an assassin.
Zhong, a former Military Official turned Buddhist Monk/Public Intellectual, trains DeCheng to become a warrior whose honesty and valor are traits even adversaries cannot help admire. Ever the atypical hero full of valor and near supernatural martial arts skills, DeCheng has a Son Goku aura making him easy to find endearing.
However, in spite of DeCheng being a strong main character this series seemed thrown together. The episodes were choppy and introduced and removed seemingly rich characters and story arcs before allowing these factors to deepen the series. This first volume could have easily featured at least 8 episodes instead of four!
Animation wise DeCheng was atypical TV style 2D animation. In a move to save money, the number of cells used was minimal resulting in fight scenes that were little more than two or three cheesy moves. However, this flaw was offset somewhat by the series character design and cinematography. The overall imagery of DeCheng was much like a comic book and perfectly illustrated the series heroic folktale theme.
What was most enjoyable about the first Volume of DeCheng was the choice of watching the series subtitled in its original language, Mandarin. Watching DeCheng in its original language presented the emotion of the story the animation itself did not convey. DeCheng does feature English dubbed episodes, but these episodes made the characters dialogue seem almost comedic and quite frankly the vocal matches and acting were weak to say the least.
Overall by the end of the first volume of DeCheng, one cannot help but being curious about how the hero will fair. DeCheng, though clearly aimed for a younger audience, is interesting enough view for adults seeking to expand their animated horizons.
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