Promotional material for Ne Zha Photo: IC

A Chinese animation that is recomposed from a fantasy fiction about boys' love and was released on Sunday has gotten lots of compliments for its high-quality production and exquisite artwork. Many commenters said the work shows Chinese animation is upgrading.

Legend of Exorcism was launched on Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili on Sunday and a few hours later it had been viewed more than 5.5 million times. 

The fantasy fiction tells stories about Kong Hongjun, a prince of a monsters' world trying to defeat evil powers with his friends and guard the safety of human society. In the process, he falls in love with one of his partners, Li Jinglong, a human general. The background of the stories is the Tang Dynasty (618-907). 

Many netizens praised the animation, saying they could tell the production company spent a lot of time and money on it. Fans of the novel were also impressed.

"This is what Hongjun and Jinglong looked like in my imagination when I read the fiction. The animation shows their actions, expressions and personalities accurately," a fan surnamed Lu told the Global Times on Monday.

Lu read the book years ago and fell in love with the fantasy world the novel builds. When seeing the animation online, she watched it instantly and was stunned by the pictures and characters. 

"One scene was most impressive for me. The office governing monsters of the Tang government sends a letter to the monsters' king. In the scene, the letter is conveyed to the fantasy world by a river and red-crowned cranes, which is so dreamy and beautiful," she recalled.

Many others had similar views. "I can see the progress of Chinese animation through this work. The production companies can choose more diverse topics and they use higher technology," one netizen commented on media review platform Douban.

A Chinese animation film, The Legend of LuoXiaohei, was shortlisted for the 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, The Beijing News reported in May.