Raised by Demons: Panda Li

李熊猫 (Li Xiongmao)

Ranked #18563

Popularity #13359

Action
Adventure
Fantasy

Episodes: 18
Duration: 20 min per ep
Aired: Jul 29, 2026 to ?
Status: Currently Airing

Synopsis

Li Xiongmao, a human boy nurtured by a clan of demons, embarks on a mission set by his master that will challenge his identity and beliefs. Tasked with eliminating three adversaries responsible for the near annihilation of the demon race, he ventures beyond the safety of Black and White Mountain.

As he delves deeper into this quest, Li uncovers a web of intrigue that reveals the long-standing tensions between humans and demons. Along the way, he encounters hidden truths about his own past and the broader conflict that shapes the fate of both races, leading him to question where his true loyalties lie.

Otaku Consensus

Raised by Demons: Panda Li has earned early attention as a donghua whose direction punches above its database footprint, with episode-one commentary singling out its confident pivots from comedy to betrayal and its fast-moving action. Its strongest selling points are Xin Wang’s tonal control, Garden Culture’s polished fantasy combat, and a novel-derived setup that treats identity and loyalty as dramatic pressure rather than lore decoration. The real caveat is timing: with the series still airing and only a thin critical record so far, it is easier to recommend to weekly fantasy viewers than to anyone waiting for a fully tested consensus.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Raised by Demons: Panda Li if you want human-versus-demon fantasy with moral pressure, but without the long tournament scaffolding or exposition-heavy pacing that can slow the genre down. It scratches a similar itch to Dororo’s identity-driven wandering and Demon Slayer’s cross-species tension, while leaning into the sharper tempo and visual density associated with modern Chinese streaming donghua. The early appeal is not just action; it is how quickly the show can move from comic looseness to a scene with real emotional consequences. Viewers who track direction, adaptation choices, and animation leadership will also find it interesting as a Garden Culture production backed by iQIYI and adapted from Wen Zhou’s novel. If you prefer completed seasons with years of fan sorting, wait; if you like catching an ambitious fantasy while its reputation is forming, start here.

Key Characters

L
Li Xiongmao
Li Xiongmao is compelling because the show frames him less as a chosen hero than as a pressure point between two cultures, making his reactions to comedy, violence, and betrayal the engine of the early episodes.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Episode-one criticism specifically praised the direction for changing tone with unusual confidence, moving from comedy into betrayal without making either mode feel like a separate show.
2
The production is credited to GARDEN Culture, with trailer materials also naming High Energy Studio, giving the series a notable donghua production profile beyond the single-studio listing on many databases.
3
The anime is adapted from a novel by Wen Zhou, which gives its identity-and-loyalty conflict a source-material backbone rather than reading like an anime-original premise built only around action beats.
4
AniList’s dominant tag for the series is Demons at 79%, and the early response reflects that focus: the demon material is treated as the central dramatic architecture, not just a monster-design aesthetic.
5
The series is listed at 18 episodes while still currently airing, which positions it between short seasonal anime and longer Chinese fantasy runs, leaving room for escalation without committing viewers to a massive backlog.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The official third trailer was posted on July 19, 2026, ten days before the July 29 premiere, under the titles Li Xiongmao and Raised by Demons: Panda Li.
Fun fact 2: Trailer materials list iQIYI as producer, placing the show within the platform-driven wave of Chinese animation rather than the traditional Japanese broadcast-anime pipeline.
Fun fact 3: Director Xin Wang is identified in trailer coverage as Wang Xin of Love Between Fairy and Devil, a useful staff connection for viewers tracking Chinese fantasy productions.
Fun fact 4: The animation leadership extends beyond the database’s Si-Min Lee credit: trailer information also names Fan Wenbin and Terumi Nishii among the chief animation directors.
Fun fact 5: Despite its low early database visibility, including 12 AniList favourites and a MAL popularity placement outside the top 14,000, the show drew pre-release attention through a third trailer that logged over 2,300 views on DonghuaStuff.