Tales of the Herding Gods’ Village Chief character designs – Su Muzhe as a young Sword God and an old grandfather

Along with the release of the Chinese action adventure donghua Tales of Herding Gods, Episode 26 earlier this week, character designs are also out for the Village Chief of the Disabled Elderly Village.

A man who is not only one of protagonist Qin Mu’er’s “grandfathers” but who, we also recently learned, is the former Sword God — an almost-deity who has been in seclusion for almost 400 years.

And, if you have already watched Episode 26, the powerful grandfather who is currently “stepping up” and traveling with Qin Mu’er to the Dark Realm.

The official character designs feature the Village Chief, both in his younger days as the Sword God and Human Emperor, and as we know him today — elderly, crippled, without arms and legs, and living his life in a wheelchair.

They show close ups of his face, and also of the clothing he wears in both eras.

Along with the Village Chief character designs, animation studio Sparkly Key commented:

Village Chief Su Muzhe! From a peerless elegance of the past to a broken elder of the present, what remains unchanged is the same indomitable pride!! 

What other untold stories lie hidden behind the members of Disabled Elderly Village? More secrets await in the main series~

The new designs were released via Weibo.

Tales of Herding Gods running for a full year

As we also learned last week, Episode 26 is not the end of the current run of Tales of Herding Gods.

That is because, the Chinese anime has been so popular, Sparkly Key Animation Studio will now continue animating it with new episodes now scheduled to premiere weekly for at least a full year.

New episodes will air every Sunday at 11:00 AM (Beijing Time) exclusively on Bilibili’s own streaming platform, and will also be available to watch via their YouTube channel.

Episode 27 of Tales of Herding Gods then hits on Sunday, April 20th.