Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit (虹猫蓝兔, pinyin: Hóng Māo Lán Tù) is a Chinese animated television franchise that started in 2004. The franchise comprises several series with various premises, usually centered around the eponymous Hongmao ("Rainbow Cat") and Lantu ("Blue Rabbit"), as well as their friends Sally, Daben, Doudou, Tiaotiao, and Dada. These various entries span many different time periods and settings, typically with a comedy or action focus.
However, the franchise is nearly synonymous with its best-known incarnation, Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit: Legend of the Seven Swordsmen (虹猫蓝兔七侠传, pinyin: Hóng Maō Lán Tù Qī Xiá Zhuàn), a dark and dramatic wuxia tale and the subject of this page. The series follows Hongmao as he embarks on a journey prevent Black Tiger's conquest and destruction of his homeland by uniting the heirs of the seven swordsmen who first defeated him half a century ago. It received four follow-up series: Amu Star (虹冒藍兔阿木星), Wielding a Sword to Distant Lands (虹猫仗剑走天涯), Bright Sword (虹猫蓝兔光明剑), and Return of the Brave (虹猫蓝兔勇者归来), as well as a movie called Fire Phoenix (虹猫蓝兔火凤凰, lit: "Fire Fenghuang"). The Seven Warriors line has attracted much attention and some controversy for its mature themes and situations as well as its depictions of blood, violence, and self-sacrifice.
The series has an official English dub, but overall, it seems to be mostly unknown outside of China.
Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Lantu and Sally fit the bill, as well as Ma Sanniang. In fact, many of the girls in the series are capable of asskicking in one way or another, heroes and villains alike.
- A Day in the Limelight: Each of the Seven get their own character arcs that give them a decent amount of screentime (at least in the first season).
- Affably Evil: Niu Xuanfeng is far less cruel and threatening than the rest of the antagonists. He and Daben refer to each other with the honourific "xiōngdì" (the Chinese equivalent of calling someone "bro") and are drinking/gambling buddies. He even has a Heel–Face Turn and uses his own body to shield Daben from arrows, losing his own life in the process.
- The Alcoholic: A large part of Daben's character arc involves him overcoming his alcoholism in order to take his place as the user of the lightning blade.
- Amazon Brigade: All the bodyguards at Lantu’s palace are female. Ma Sanniang's followers, whom she sends to kill the Seven during the finale, are also all female.
- Ambition Is Evil: A recurring theme for villains in the series is that they want to be the most powerful, whether in power or authority.
- Back from the Dead: Ma Sanniang is killed by Sally at the end of Legend of the Seven Swordsmen, but returns in the follow-up series Amu Star focused around her son. Also, Zhu Wujie was killed by Heixiaohu near the end of season 1, but he comes back in season 2.
- Battle Couple: Due to the setting that involves a lot of fighting, many couples in this series kick ass together, with the most prominent being our titular Hongmao and Lantu.
- Big Fancy House: The Yuchan Palace lives up to its title by being a whole ass manor with many establishments in it, along with a lotus lake and huge cherry blossom garden.
- Blood Magic: In a scene which got the show banned for a week
, Lantu must sacrifice her own blood to a crystal flower to help cure Sally. - Brainwashed: Ma Sanniang force-feeds brainwashing drugs to Sally for much of the first series, turning her against the other heroes.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Daben is the Hot-Blooded big guy of the Seven.
- Brainwash Residue: After Sally recovers from brainwashing, she still shows some hostility to her old friends.
- Break the Cutie: Sally and Lantu are both sweet and adorable yet suffer often; Sally in particular undergoes a lot of abuse in the first series.
- Call to Adventure: In the first episode of the series, Hongmao's father informs him that evil has overtaken the land, and that it is Hongmao's responsibility to find the heirs of the remaining six swords and thwart Heixinhu's plans.
- Character Development: Doudou starts off somewhat cowardly, but by the end of the series, he's just as brave as the rest of the Seven.Doudou: I'm no longer the same Doudou who was scared of death!
- A negative example of this is Heixiaohu - he originally started off noble and honourable, even going so far as to help Lantu on multiple occasions, but after she rejects him one too many times, he begins to use shady and deceptive tactics à la Zhu Wujie.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Niu Xuanfeng and Heixiaohu say their last words in the arms of Daben and Heixinhu respectively.
- Driven to Suicide: Happens multiple times throughout the series. Sally attempts suicide after she no longer can use her right hand to wield a sword as a result of Ma Sanniang's torture. Tiaotiao almost jumps off a cliff when he thinks that his ten years of revenge planning were useless, but is stopped by Doudou. Dada attempts to slit his own throat after being forced to work against the other swordsmasters by Heixiaohu, who has his pregnant wife as a hostage.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Daben gets silly drunk and starts hallucinating after Bull Whirlwind dies and Sally goes missing.
- Dub Name Change: Since the characters’ names are all Chinese and very difficult for foreign audiences, they get changed for the dubs, saved for a very few that are easier to understand (like Sally or Dada). Tease (Dou Dou), Big Ben (Daben) and Jumper (Tiao-tiao) are among the most visibly altered.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Heixinhu and Heixiaohu are a father-son duo who care for each other deeply. After Heixiaohu's death, Heixinhu openly laments his original masterplan, saying it was all meaningless without his son.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed with Niu Xuanfeng. He's a lot less conventionally evil than the rest of the antagonists, but he ultimately dies because he took action against Zhu Wujie, who broke the rules of his gamble with Daben.
- Played straight with Heixiaohu, at least initially. Moved by Lantu's self-sacrifice and kindness when she was getting the Crystal Flower, he refuses Zhu Wujie's suggestion to attack her while she was weakened.
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: As is the case with most wuxia works.
- Fountain of Youth: The fourth season has all the heroes fall down one, reducing them - saved for Hongmao and Lantu - to powerless innocent babies. Lantu, in her amnesiac state, comes to care for them like her own children.
- Funny Animal: The cast is all made up from various animals in appearance, but they’re totally human in speech, behavior and pretty much anything else.
- The Hermit: Hongmao and his father Baimao lived in a forest where Qilin resides almost all the early stages of the former’s life, until Heixinhu barged into the place.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: The seven heroes are all incredibly skilled swordsman and worthy enough to wield the sacred swords.
- Heroic Lineage: A majority of the Seven Warriors are direct descendants of the former Warriors generation whose The Fellowship Has Ended 50 years ago, such as Hongmao’s dad Baimao; Doudou’s, Dada’s and Tiaotiao’s father; Sally’s mother and Lantu’s ancestor - the Jade Rabbit Fairy.
- Heroic Sacrifice: A recurring subject in this series, meant to promote dedication towards one's country and peers,
according to the creators. You can probably expect at least two people will die because of this in every season. - Implausible Fencing Powers: The characters are able to carve out sentences in stone, among other things, using their swords.
- Ineffectual Death Threats: These happen many times throughout the series.
- Instrument of Murder: Dada's guzheng.
- Jerkass: Zhu Wujie is known for his dishonourable behaviour and petty tricks. He's also just an overall unpleasant person, and even antagonists like Heixiaohu acknowledge this.
- Kid Hero: Most prominent with Doudou, who is twelve years old. Every other member of the Seven is seventeen, including Dada the Absurdly Youthful Father.
- Love Triangle:
- In the first season, Heixiaohu - Heixinhu’s son, falls for Lantu because of her chivalry and kindness. Though he comes to hate Hongmao guts out of envy for her affection, his feeling ends up saving the heroes several times.
- Season 4 makes it a love rectangle. Basically, we have the daughter of Phoenix Guǎn, Shui Dingdang, who develops a crush on Hongmao after he acknowledges her wish to do martial arts while an amnesiac Lantu sees herself having affection for the ice-cold genius Hantian, the person who saved her and has been taking care of her because he thought she’s similar to his late mother.
- MacGuffin Super-Person: Qilin, whose blood provides tremendous strength to the drinker, is the primary target of Heixinhu's campaign.
- Manly Tears: The male characters aren't afraid to shed tears, be it for a fallen comrade or a joyous occasion.
- The Mole:
- Ma Sanniang steals Sally's sword and pretends to be its rightful heir, attempting to turn the other heroes against Sally.
- Tiatiao the monkey is one of Bull Whirlwind's comrades at the beginning of the series, but he works to protect Hongmao and Lantu from Bull Whirlwind's attempts to capture them.
- Moon Rabbit: Lantu’s lineage came from the Jade Rabbit Fairy, the first owner of the Yuchan Palace she resides.
- Official Couple: Downplayed - as a kids' show, none of the romances are outright/explicitly depicted, but there is very strong hinting. Hongmao/Lantu, though because of that they get tossed into some complex Love Triangle (see above). On the side, we have Daben/Sally.
- Pacifist Dojo: The Phoenix Guǎn, being owned by two Reasonable Authority Figures who genuinely want to help Hongmao get better at martial arts.
- Parental Abandonment: None of the Seven have parents who are still around.
- Religion of Evil: The appropriately named Demon Cult, the villains of Season 1.
- Rescue Romance: Lantu saves and nurses Hongmao after the latter arrived at her Yuchan Palace heavily injured. They develop affection from there.
- Rule of Seven: Seven heroes, seven sacred swords.
- Unicorns Are Sacred: Qilin's presence keeps the peace of the land in balance.note
- Violence Isthe Only Option: The heroes have to fight their way out of most problems.
- Wuxia: The series' genre.
- You Killed My Father: Tiaotiao's primary motivation in the series is to seek revenge for the murder of his parents at the hands of Heixinhu. In the finale episode of S1, he and the rest of the Seven kill Heixinhu. Similarly, Daben is furious at Zhu Wujie for causing the death of his Godmother, though it is ultimately Heixiaohu who kills Zhu Wujie.
