This show put me into an existential crisis. On the surface, it's beautiful, but so heart-breakingly, soul-destroyingly tragic I can't handle it. But if I'm interpreting it right, it's actually unbelievably brilliant, and ridiculously complicated, and even more romantic and beautiful than it appears. And, more importantly, has a happier ending than it appears.

"Many things can be explained by common sense, but sometimes our thinking is also limited by it." - Lanzhu

I’m gonna be honest, I only just finished it, and it exploded my brain and ripped apart my heart. So I'm actually writing this review as a way to try to process this super complicated story and explain it to myself, so I'll be talking more about how I interpret the story and ending, rather than commenting on the acting etc. (Though, seriously, the actors did an amazing job! And everything about the show is very well done. And even the CGI, which starts a little shaky, gets better as the show goes on).

Warning: incoherent ramble and MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

DISCLAIMER: I haven't read the book, so I'm only theorizing based on the show, and how I interpret the show, with no other information.

When it comes to how to interpret The Spirealm, I think there are a lot of options, and I think the show is made in such a way that they are all true. We're told over and over again to question which version of reality is true, and even given the choice to pick our own version of reality or illusion. The references to the multiverse at the end, make this even clearer. And I really love that the show lets us decide how to interpret it... even if it makes it very challenging to process.

Personally, I have two specific ways I like to see it: one is super sad, the other is super happy.

The first option, as I see it, is the most straightforward. It’s a beautiful but incredibly tragic version. In this version, this story is a sci-fi, where most of the show happened in Jiushi’s head while he was in a coma, and Jiushi then spent his entire life trying to make that dream real. After 50 years, he finally succeeded in creating a virtual reality where he could make a version of his dream real (a version where everyone was alive and happy) and he spent the last few minutes of his life in that virtual world with his virtual friends and virtual lover, before he died.

I think this is a plausible and reasonable way to interpret it. The biggest questions would be about Jiushi's hallucinations at the start, and how he knew everyone’s names and occupations in the dream (and after). For the hallucinations, the most plausible way I can think to explain them is that they were part of a bigger emotional breakdown. We saw other evidence of this when he quit his job and was generally so miserable and aimless even his idiot friend was worried about him. It would explain why Jiushi became so deeply attached to his dream. As for how he knew so much about the people around him, I think there’s a very simple explanation: the story makes it very clear Jiushi was a genius. Geniuses can process a seemingly supernatural level of information at both a conscious and subconscious level. Some of the people he saw regularly in his community (eg the twins in the gaming hub, and Li Dongyuan the street seller), others he passed on the street right before the accident and overheard their conversations. With the rest, it’s entirely possible he overheard conversations and names while semi-conscious, even while in his coma. All this information was in his head at a subconscious level, and his coma-brain combined it all together into a slightly distorted representation of reality. Naturally, his coma-brain got some things mixed up (eg. he turned his doctor into a vet, and the wolf game was also the phone game was also his dream of changing the world). Also, his emotions heavily influenced everything. Eg, in reality Dawei abandoned Jiushi and went into economics, but in Jiushi’s dream, Dawei still cared about him and entrusted him with their childhood dream to save the world.

I think the coma-dream interpretation of the story makes perfect sense and is very beautiful. But it’s heart-breakingly, soul-destroyingly tragic. Seriously, if Jiushi spent 50 years trying to recreate a dream, creating a brilliant and world changing form of technology, just so he could spend a few minutes with his imaginary lover in their imaginary life (a lover who may or may not have been an idealized version of the man that left him to die after an earthquake... ouch!) before he died, that hurts way too much.

But, thankfully, there’s another plausible interpretation to the whole thing. But this option is harder to explain, so here goes.

Version two: the story is a fantasy in which the physical, technological, and spiritual/supernatural are interwoven. All the worlds we saw are real. All the events really happened. And the ending is real. And I might just say upfront, the show is listed as a 'fantasy', and tagged as 'Supernatural', 'Fantasy World', 'Survival', and 'Crossworlds Traveler', so I think that strongly suggests we ARE meant to see this as a fantasy world with crossworld travel, not simply a dream. And since the dream option is super sad, I much prefer this option (even if the other one is still a good story).

Basically, in this version, there are different realms. Primarily, there is a physical realm, and a super complex, multi-layered spiritual realm (but again, physical, technological and spiritual/supernatural are interwoven, so it's not quite that clear cut). The virtual self, is actually the 'spirit' self. There are also beings who only exist in the spiritual realm—like in other fantasy stories. All the realms (at least, all the ones we see) have been corrupted, and the problem has to be solved at the deepest level (inside the doors/spirit-realm/spirealm). Restoring/purifying the spiritual realm, purifies the physical realm. That’s why the physical realm changes and no one remembers the doors. Everything really happened, but precisely because it happened, the corrupted reality doesn’t exist anymore. It’s been purified. Now the physical realm exists in its purified version. People are now able to be their true, purified selves.

The thing is, when the realms are purified, the ‘old’ versions of people (the versions we know and love) cease to exist. Now, we have a purified version of the physical realm with purified versions of the same people. And Lanzhu doesn't exist anymore, because Lanzhu was never human. He’s more like a god that came into existence specifically to purify the worlds, and now he’s fulfilled his purpose and doesn't exist anymore. So, Jiushi has to essentially create a spiritual version of the old world, for the ‘deleted’ versions of everyone to exist in. More importantly, a reality where Lanzhu can exist and be ‘made real’, like Jiushi promised. This world is independent of the physical world, it's purely spiritual. Everyone inside is independent of the physical world and the purified version of them that lives there, and they are purely spiritual. And in his realm, Lanzhu is ‘real' and complete too. He has been released from his programming and mission and is autonomous, just like the rest of them. Jiushi has made him 'real'.

In theory, even thought the old doors have ceased to exist, doors are still possible and Jiushi has made new ones? So it's still possible for them to move between worlds if they want to? Unless Jiushi locked himself in the new world when he died? I dunno, I’m still figuring that part out.

But speaking of Jiushi's death... Jiushi was old when he first entered the spirealm because he was still the spirit of a living person. But when he becomes young, that was the moment he died in the physical realm and crossed over to live forever in the spirealm as a spirit/god. Now, he's just like the others.

I really like this reading of the story. Jiushi creates an entire world, saves everyone he loves, saves Lanzhu and makes him real, and they all live happily ever after. Jiushi and Lanzhu live happily ever after, together. And, most importantly, it’s all real. As I've said, it's listed as a fantasy with crossworld travel, but I do think both interpretations make sense. Actually, I kinda like that it was left open to interpretation. Pick the illusion or reality, life or death, just like the 11th door.

Lanzhu tells us: "Many things can be explained by common sense, but sometimes our thinking is also limited by it." So maybe, even if we're told it's a dream, that doesn't mean it is one? And also, maybe more than one thing can be true at a time, even if they seem incompatible?

I’m still wrapping my head around it all. I’ll probably come back and edit this after watching it a few more times and processing it more. But in summary, awesome show. Highly recommended. But be prepared to cry a lot.