I decided to add this to tmdb and write this review because I feel like it would be great for the community on this site to see this and potentially branch off into other mediums such as webnovels, visual novels, light novels, etc. Especially considering that this community widely consists of media critics who appreciate good writing, these other mediums excel in that regard, which makes sense considering how the writer only focuses on the text and story, rather than other aspects that culminate to create TV shows or movies.
Reverend Insanity is a highly acclaimed webnovel written by Gu Zhen Ren. Before the Chinese government banned it, Reverend Insanity was at the pinnacle of popularity among webnovels, with tens of millions of fans. To this day, Reverend Insanity remains widely regarded as one of the greatest webnovels ever written.
I’ve been wanting to read Reverend Insanity for years now, mostly because of all the great things I’ve heard about the main character, Fang Yuan (i.e. “Greatest / Most Well-Written / Smartest Protagonist in fiction”), but I always held off on reading because I wasn’t sure if it was actually a well-made story, or just edgy teens who think some guy aura farming makes the story good. Additionally, as an avid webnovel reader in the past, I began to realize that most cultivation-style novels are way too similar to one another, ultimately becoming redundant to read (think isekai for anime, or dungeons for manhwa), so when I heard that Reverend Insanity was also a cultivation novel, I was put off.
What made me want to give Reverend Insanity a try, other than the fact that my friends were reading it, was the great experience I had reading another extremely popular webnovel, titled ‘Shadow Slave’. Despite this novel being fantastic, it was the general consensus of the webnovel community that in terms of writing, it paled in comparison to the two greatest webnovels: ‘Lord of the Mysteries’ and ‘Reverend Insanity’. Ultimately I decided to go with Reverend Insanity, and I quickly realized that I had put this novel off for far too long.
Right from the start, the novel blew me away. If there was one word I could use to describe how this novel is different from other novels, it would be that this novel is “genius.” Every monologue oozes wisdom, every plot point deliberate, and whenever the protagonist speaks or has an internal monologue, you feel the need to pay close attention.
However, it took me a while before feeling this way. Occasionally, the things Fang Yuan says are said in a very “profound” tone, despite often being pretty surface-level ideas. This makes it easy to fall under the misunderstanding that Reverend Insanity’s praise comes from edgy teens with little to no media-literacy who believe that these shallow monologues are highly profound. However, that’s just how the protagonist is- he acts with complete confidence in his choices and his experience, whether his thoughts/actions are simple, or, from our perspective, profound.
Reverend Insanity follows the story of Fang Yuan, originally a Chinese scholar who reincarnated into a fantasy world, lived for over 500 years, then reversed time to about 500 years in the past to his childhood in the fantasy world using an item he painstakingly refined throughout his lifespan called the Spring Autumn Cicada. To achieve his ultimate goal of immortality, Fang Yuan is ruthless and amoral, committing whatever atrocities necessary to ensure his success. Many of the evil acts Fang Yuan commits are highly disturbing to read.
This leads me to my warning, being that Reverend Insanity should only be read by mature audiences. Many of Fang Yuan’s evil deeds may seem glorified, so the true message of the book is often misinterpreted, with the book ultimately imparting unhealthy ideas to immature readers. However, those who can tolerate but look beyond his cruelty and evil can understand that Fang Yuan’s ruthless character and despicable actions are the bridge that enables us to truly understand the essence of the novel, and the messages behind it. Reverend Insanity takes a massive risk in choosing such a method of storytelling, therefore it is truly one-of-a-kind.
Not only is Reverend Insanity astonishingly well-written, but it’s also incredibly entertaining to read. It’s extremely exciting to follow Fang Yuan’s journey as he uses his wits in unique and engaging ways to streamline his path to getting stronger. Reverend Insanity does its “peaks,” or best moments, ridiculously well, which allows the best moments to stick with you. Because of all this, Reverend Insanity has a larger presence on my mind outside of reading it than any other media.
And while the protagonist is stellar, the side cast is amazing too. One of the characters introduced in the latter half of the first volume has quickly become one of my favorite side characters of all time, with every scene featuring him being remarkably engaging. The power system is unique, allowing for very interesting but well thought-out plot developments, and is considered one of the best power systems in the medium. The world-building is exceptional, well-paced, and thoroughly captivating. The plot twists are great and are frequent. I am still on volume 2 so I haven’t seen the best ones, but they are compared with the best plot twists from Gintama, Attack on Titan, Mr. Robot, and more (most fans say they are infinitely better but more reliable sources put the best Reverend Insanity plot twists on par with the episodes Memories of the Future from Attack on Titan and Karma from Gintama, but the only thing I can really derive from that information is that there’s “good” plot twists since I didn’t actually read).
While I have only finished about ⅛ of the novel thus far, and haven’t even read any of the top 10 arcs or peaks yet, the first 300 chapters alone place Fang Yuan in my top 10 protagonists of all time, and it is highly likely that he would end up as my #1 by the time I finish, just based on the trajectory of the story and how people compare the upcoming content to what I have already read. By the time I finish sometime in 2026, I’ll make an updated review to confirm whether or not it lived up to my high expectations, but I seriously doubt it won’t to some extent.
Unfortunately, in 2019, the Chinese government banned Reverend Insanity for consisting of ideas that conflicted with the government’s ideology, therefore the 6th and final volume will forever remain incomplete. However, the ban serves to emphasize the uncensored and unadulterated nature of the novel, a novel that will, similarly to its protagonist, do whatever is necessary to achieve its goal.
