# The Legend of Luo Xiaohei (罗小黑战记)
**The Legend of Luo Xiaohei** (罗小黑战记) is a Chinese 2D animated franchise created by the animator MTJJ (木头, born 1984), centered on Luo Xiaohei, a black cat spirit who is taken in by a human girl named Luo Xiaobai (罗小白). It began as a Flash web series in 2011, became one of the highest-rated Chinese animated series, and expanded into a 2019 theatrical film, a 2025 sequel film, and a Japanese-dubbed television broadcast.[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) • [2](https://wenhui.whb.cn/third/jinri/201909/16/289568.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Creator | MTJJ (木头), born 1984; created the Luo Xiaohei character in 2010[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) • [2](https://wenhui.whb.cn/third/jinri/201909/16/289568.html) |
| Web series launch | March 17, 2011; episodes about 5 minutes each, 40 episodes released over ten years[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) |
| Ratings | Douban 9.6 for the series (about 100,000 raters at 9.5 by 2025); Bilibili 9.9 from 150,000 raters; over 1 billion total plays across platforms[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) |
| 2019 film | Released September 7, 2019; over 70,000 cels at 12 cels per second, five years of production; box office 244 million yuan by September 18[3](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-09/07/c_1124972259.htm) • [4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html) |
| Japan | Film screened in Japan two weeks after the mainland release, with full commercial release on November 7, 2020; Japanese-dubbed TV broadcast began October 2025[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) • [5](https://www.aniplex.co.jp/lineup/luoxiaohei-tv/) |
| Sequels | Film sequel *The Legend of Hei 2* (罗小黑战记2, 2025); TV continuation "Xueqian Pian" (学前篇) scheduled for October 30, 2026 on Bilibili[6](https://www.gamersky.com/news/202609/2217201.shtml) |
## Spoilers
### Story and world
The series is set in a Chinese fantasy world where humans and spirits (妖精) coexist. The main storyline follows the girl Luo Xiaobai, who picks up an injured little black cat, names it Luo Xiaohei after her own surname, and lives with it as strange events accumulate around them.[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) • [5](https://www.aniplex.co.jp/lineup/luoxiaohei-tv/) What begins as a gentle comedy about a girl and her cat gradually reveals a larger setting of humans, spirits, and gods sharing the world.[7](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0913/c1012-31352653.html)
The 2019 film is a prequel set before Xiaohei meets Xiaobai. After his forest home is destroyed by human development, the cat spirit wanders the city, encounters both kindred spirits and accepting humans, and is caught between opposing sides; the film also carries an environmental theme reflecting on humanity's overuse of nature.[3](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-09/07/c_1124972259.htm) • [8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0919/c40606-31361084.html) MTJJ said he chose a precast story so that viewers unfamiliar with the series could enter it from zero.[10](https://www.jiemian.com/article/3480788.html)
### Sequels and current status
A second theatrical film, *The Legend of Hei 2* ([罗小黑战记2](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-legend-of-hei-ii)), was released in 2025, continuing the story of Xiaohei and his master Wuxian; coverage noted the production expanded its hand-drawn cels to about 200,000.[13](https://epaper.qlwb.com.cn/qlwb/PDF/20250729/A10.pdf) A TV continuation, "Xueqian Pian" (学前篇), whose timeline follows directly after episode 40, "The Gate of All Beings" (众生之门), was announced for exclusive release on Bilibili on October 30, 2026, with weekly Friday updates.[6](https://www.gamersky.com/news/202609/2217201.shtml) The franchise's commercial side has also grown: in December 2024 it received a "goods economy influence IP" award, and the official store carries more than one hundred licensed products, several of which sold over 3,000 units a month shortly after release.[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html)
## Origin and production
MTJJ, a designer rather than a formally trained animator, worked for two years at Biantian (彼岸天), the studio behind *Big Fish and Begonia*, helping complete that film's first sample reel before leaving to work independently.[2](https://wenhui.whb.cn/third/jinri/201909/16/289568.html) • [4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html) In 2010, with 3,000 yuan left after paying rent, he began creating the Luo Xiaohei animation alone. The character's inspiration came from a stray black cat he had rescued in the wild years earlier; the cat proved untamable and kept escaping to the rooftop of his 24th-floor apartment, so he returned it to where they had met.[4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html)
The first episode of the Flash-animated web series appeared in March 2011. The first two episodes were drawn almost entirely by MTJJ himself, and the roughly 3,000-yuan cost of the first episode represented six months of frugal living; the figure later became a topic of online debate, with some viewers assuming the low budget meant shoddy work.[4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html) • [1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) After two episodes, the Beijing company Meng Zhi Cheng (梦之城) invested, and in March 2012 the studio Hanmu Chunhua (寒木春华) was founded with MTJJ as its legal representative and registered capital of 200,000 yuan.[4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html)
**A deliberately slow series.** Each episode runs about five minutes, a format Chinese viewers call a "instant-noodle anime" (泡面番), and updates came far more slowly than the industry norm of weekly 20-minute episodes. Only 28 episodes had appeared after eight years, and one hiatus lasted more than 500 days, leading fans to joke that the show was a "once-in-a-lifetime" series they might not live to see finished.[7](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0913/c1012-31352653.html) MTJJ attributed the pace simply to having too few hands: a single episode required roughly 1,000 cels of key animation, and at the fastest the six-or-seven-person studio managed six episodes in a year.[4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html) • [8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0919/c40606-31361084.html) Because the series itself did not make money, the studio's income came from merchandise and licensing, which kept the small company financially balanced; by 2019 the official Tmall store and emoji stickers, plush toys, badges, and licensed games had made the cat a familiar figure even to people who had never watched the show.[4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html) • [9](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0912/c40606-31350060.html)
## The 2019 film
The film took five years from project launch to release. As 2D animation it required 12 cels per second, more than 70,000 cels for a film of over 100 minutes; the team grew from about a dozen members to more than 50, and the storyboards for the final battle alone took about two years to draw.[3](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-09/07/c_1124972259.htm) • [8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0919/c40606-31361084.html) • [4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html) MTJJ said the team experimented with more than a dozen art styles for the same image before settling on the final look.[11](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0907/c1012-31341829.html)
Released on September 7, 2019 after being moved up from the Mid-Autumn holiday slot, the film topped the mainland daily box office on its first day and passed 200 million yuan in its first week, with a Douban score that opened at 8.8 and stood at 9.2 in early reviews.[7](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0913/c1012-31352653.html) • [12](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2019/0917/c419388-31356242.html) By September 18 it had earned 244 million yuan, second among domestic 2D animated films behind *Big Fish and Begonia*.[4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html) Reception was not uniform: commentators praised its unhurried, hand-drawn guofeng (Chinese-style) storytelling, while some viewers outside the fan base criticized pacing and thin character design, and MTJJ acknowledged that budget limits kept the final battle from reaching its intended quality.[12](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2019/0917/c419388-31356242.html) • [4](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html)
## Style and reception
The franchise is known for 2D hand-drawn animation in an era when 3D dominates theatrical animation. Commentators contrasted it with the 3D *Ne Zha* (2019), which earned about 4.9 billion yuan and ranked second on China's all-time box office chart: where *Ne Zha* succeeded with a modernized myth, *Luo Xiaohei* drew its audience with a restrained, painterly modern setting that mixes traditional architecture with contemporary cities, low-saturation ink-painting palettes, and hanfu-influenced costume design.[12](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2019/0917/c419388-31356242.html) • [1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) The web series held a Douban score of 9.6, described in 2019 coverage as the highest-rated domestic animated series on the platform.[7](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0913/c1012-31352653.html)
**International reach.** The 2019 film screened in Japan in single-theater showings two weeks after its mainland release and opened in commercial Japanese cinemas on November 7, 2020, setting a record for a Chinese animated film's overseas release in that market.[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html) In October 2025, a Japanese-dubbed television version of the web series, edited into TV-length episodes, began broadcasting on TOKYO MX, BS11, and ABC TV, distributed by Aniplex with a cast including [Kana Hanazawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/kana-hanazawa) as Xiaohei and [Mamoru Miyano](https://www.edgepedia.org/mamoru-miyano) as Wuxian; Aniplex reports the series has exceeded 700 million views on Bilibili alone.[5](https://www.aniplex.co.jp/lineup/luoxiaohei-tv/)
## References
1. [从内容到衍生品，罗小黑如何延续IP影响力？新华网 (2025-01-13)](https://www.xinhuanet.com/digital/20250113/336a43511efa416093cefe9e38d5fbba/c.html)
2. [《罗小黑战记》影版导演木头专访，文汇报 (2019-09-16)](https://wenhui.whb.cn/third/jinri/201909/16/289568.html)
3. ["年更"动画《罗小黑战记》推出电影版，新华网 (2019-09-07)](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-09/07/c_1124972259.htm)
4. [又一部国漫得到市场认可，二维动画《罗小黑战记》逆袭路，第一财经 (2019-09-19)](https://www.yicai.com/news/100336327.html)
5. [羅小黒戦記 | アニメ | アニプレックス オフィシャルサイト](https://www.aniplex.co.jp/lineup/luoxiaohei-tv/)
6. [《罗小黑战记 学前篇》官宣定档10月30日 B站独播，游民星空 (2026-09)](https://www.gamersky.com/news/202609/2217201.shtml)
7. [《罗小黑战记》导演木头：影片保本就好，人民网转羊城晚报 (2019-09-13)](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0913/c1012-31352653.html)
8. [从小动画走向大电影 《罗小黑战记》导演谈幕后，人民网 (2019-09-19)](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0919/c40606-31361084.html)
9. [挑战大银幕"罗小黑"忙拓圈 国产IP如何"圈粉"无数，人民网 (2019-09-12)](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0912/c40606-31350060.html)
10. [专访《罗小黑战记》导演：用前传从零开始讲一个故事，界面新闻 (2019)](https://www.jiemian.com/article/3480788.html)
11. [《罗小黑战记》搬上大银幕，人民网转新快报 (2019-09-07)](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0907/c1012-31341829.html)
12. [一部"非顶配"国漫缘何收获高口碑，文汇报 via 中国作家网 (2019-09-17)](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2019/0917/c419388-31356242.html)
13. [一只小黑猫如何成为"国漫新"，齐鲁晚报 (2025-07-29)](https://epaper.qlwb.com.cn/qlwb/PDF/20250729/A10.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Children's animated adventure and fantasy series › Comedy and slice-of-life series*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license