[Donghua] To be fair to the creators, the first volume is impossible to adapt

If you stick too close to the book, the first few episodes would feel way too tame and slice-of-life, probably boring for most people who’d otherwise love the bigger story. His daily life with family, coworkers, and the divination club might be fun as a reread, but let’s be real: it’s not exactly hype for a first-time viewer.

But if you go full Tencent and speedrun straight to the flashy fights, you are now drowning your audience with new characters and terms, leaving them confused and overwhelmed, with no idea what’s happening during the fight scene.

While I dislike the fact that they cut so much content from the first three episodes, I do get why the execs demanded the clown fight by Episode 3—that’s usually when people tap out. And hey, they want this show to succeed way more than we do.

Even though I do think a "proper" adaptation would probably make a better series overall, it's highly debatable which version will be more successful. (not that it is very successful right now)