Youku Animation Premieres Ground-Breaking Original 3D Donghua Oriental Martial Academy for Summer 2026;

 Diverse Slate Expands Creative Boundaries for Chinese Animation

Oriental Martial Academy (Dongda Gao Wu Xueyuan), flagship original title under Youku Animation’s “Starry Ocean” initiative, premieres exclusively on Youku today. Ahead of launch, the title accumulated over 2.3 million preregistrations, claiming No. 1 on both the 2026 original donghua presave chart and Youku’s all-time newseries preregistration chart. It stands out as one of the most anticipated Chinese animated productions of the summer 2026 season.

Following the critical success of Dream Among Clouds, Oriental Martial Academy breaks free from conventional ancientfantasy tropes and pioneers the largelyuntapped urbancultivation genre for 3D Chinese animation, blending modernday city life, Eastern cultivation lore and youth campus comingofage storytelling.

Set on a spiritrevived Blue Star, the world faces constant demonic incursions from the Abyss. Eight elite martial academies are established across China to train cultivators for humanity’s defense. As the topranked institution, Dongda Martial Academy houses five specialist faculties: pill refinement, artifact forging, beast taming, talisman craft and formation magic, creating an Easternstyle magicalschool universe often described as “Chinese Hogwarts”. Orphaned teenager Qin Yu receives special admission after awakening the residual soul of Martial Emperor and gaining access to the ancient power system “AllLiving Genesis”. Together with diverse classmates, Qin Yu undergoes rigorous training and dangerous trials, evolving from a lonewolf seeker of personal fate toward a young guardian bearing collective responsibility for humankind.

A major creative highlight lies in its cultural adaptation: the core power system “AllLiving Genesis” draws deeply on China’s 24 Solar Terms philosophy and fiveelement cosmology. Visual effects and combat moves embody seasonal imagery — spring germination, rain nourishing spirits, grainfull vitality and more. Rather than superficial decorative cultural motifs, the series translates traditional Chinese perceptions of nature and time into core narrative and combat mechanics, offering fresh, youthoriented modernmedia interpretations of heritage culture.

Youku Animation’s Full Summer 2026 Slate: Diversified IP Portfolio Explores Underserved Genres

For summer 2026, Youku Animation fully executes its brand strategy “Watch Original Donghua on Youku”. The platform showcased its IP lineup at ChinaJoy 2026, covering womenoriented fantasy, urban xianxia, dark antitrope wuxia, urban superpower thrillers and established returning franchises. Its content philosophy follows three pillars: pioneering original IPs, benchmark flagship titles, and revitalizing classic properties.

Brand-new Original Works

• Oriental Martial Academy: Trailblazing 3D urbancultivation donghua merging modern campus and Eastern mysticism.
• Dream Among Clouds (Special Episode: Battle of Vanishing Twilight & Season 2): Standout femalecentric Chinese fantasy original IP.
• Sword of Severance: Coproduced with Shenman Culture; subversive dark xianxia following a brokensword youth’s quest for justice and vengeance.
• Night Watchers: Groundbreaking 3D antihero thriller built upon hardedged urban superpower elements.

Established Flagship & Ongoing Annual Series

• Metropolitan Divine Lord (Cang Yuan Tu) Season 3: Youku’s cornerstone IP with consistently highquality action sequences and audience acclaim.
• Senior Brother Senior Brother (New Annual Arc): Epic primordialchaos storyline reaches major climactic turningpoints.
• Beyond Time (Guang Yin Zhi Wai) Season 2: Continues highstakes breakthrough battles, sustaining solid viewership performance.

Fan Luyuan, Chairman & CEO of Orca Entertainment Group, commented that the group keeps investing systematically in original content, advanced production pipelines and emerging creative talent. Sustainable competitive strength for longform streaming relies not merely on shortterm viral heat, but continuous innovation to build enduring IP value.

Through this multifaceted content strategy, Youku Animation strengthens its market differentiation. It explores underrepresented genres to incubate original IPs from scratch, while advancing domestic animation craft in visual design, narrative structure and cultural expression. The launch of Oriental Martial Academy marks a key milestone as Youku Animation’s originalIP investment moves from strategic planning toward tangible market delivery.

Project Fact Sheet — Oriental Martial Academy

• Genres: Urban Cultivation / Youth Campus / Eastern Fantasy
• Platform: Exclusive release on Youku
• Initiative: Youku Animation “Starry Ocean”
• Episode Count: 26
• Release Date: July 16 2026; new episodes every Thursday at 10:00 (CST)