Due to Ne Zha 2's nature as a sequel, this page may contain unmarked spoilers for the first Ne Zha. Spoilers for Ne Zha 2 will be marked as usual. You Have Been Warned.

Ne Zha 2 (Chinese: 哪吒之魔童闹海, Pinyin: Nézhā zhī Mótóng Nàohǎi^note means "Ne Zha: The Demon Child Churns the Seas" in English) is a 2025 Chinese animated film. It is the direct sequel of the 2019 film Ne Zha.

After surviving the Heavenly Lightning Strike, Nezha and Ao Bing's soul remain, but without a body, their soul would fade away, so Taiyi Zhenren plans to remake their bodies with the Seven-Colored Lotus. However, at the same time, Shen Gongbao, along with Ao Guang, invades Chentang Pass to get revenge for his son, accidentally destroying Ao Bing's new body in the process. To recharge the Seven-Colored Lotus and rebuild Ao Bing's body in time, Taiyi would need the essence from the heaven, which can only be obtained from Wuliang Xianweng after one passes the test to become a god in the heavens. To save Chentang Pass from Ao Guang's rage and to free himself from the demon's curse, Nezha, now with Ao Bing inside his body, goes on a new adventure.

The film released in China on January 29th, 2025, in Australia and New Zealand on February 13th, 2025, and in Canada and the United States on February 14th, 2025. An English dub handled by A24 was later released on August 22, 2025.

This animated film provides examples of:

• All for Nothing: The dragons spent a millennium as the reluctant wardens for a vast army of primordial demons underneath the Dragon Palace at the bottom of the ocean, hoping they could eventually be rewarded with divinity for their devotion in the fight against evil. They find out this is not the case, when Xianweng commits a horrific atrocity in a False Flag Operation and pins it on them, just so he'd have an excuse to genocide the dragons and keep them from potentially being a threat against heaven. Realizing it was hopeless all along, Ao Guang lets all the demons go, and they help the dragons escape their mutual fate, with the sea demons presumably allowed to go free at the end.
• Autocannibalism: Inside Wuliang Xianweng's furnace, the octopus demon burns one of his tentacles, eats it, and remarks that it is "quite delicious". He and some other demons then eat each other until one of them suddenly becomes a pill.
• Back from the Dead: The movie begins with Nezha and Ao Bing being given new bodies using a ritual involving a magical Seven-Coloured Lotus, after they were both obliterated at the end of the last movie. The process is rather complex, recreating two bodies at once causes the Seven-Coloured Lotus to wilt, and Ao Bing expending too much strength before his body is fully solidified destroys it again. Much of the rest of the movie is spent trying to acquire a magic potion that will revitalize the Seven-Coloured Lotus so they can create another new body for Ao Bing before his soul dissipates for good.
• Bait-and-Switch: We're given to understand that Shen Gongbao was the one who allowed the dragons to destroy Chentang Pass, since the movie cuts away immediately after his brother Xiaobao dies in his arms after revealing that it was Nezha who cut off their father's arm and is besieging their hometown. As it turns out later in a flashback, he realizes immediately that it was a setup by Wuliang and actually took a last stand in protecting Chentang from the dragons (who had betrayed both him and Ao Guang to side with Wuliang).
• Battle atop the Poles: Shen Zhengdao vs. Nezha in the hills, atop multiple bamboo poles. Nezha uses one to propel himself and land an empowered uppercut on his opponent along the way.
• Battle Discretion Shot: Played for Laughs. After Ao Bing is able to fully take control of Nezha's body, Zhenren makes him demonstrate how well he can fight this way with a duel. This happens just offscreen, with only the sounds of hitting and debris flying on-screen, until Zhenren stumbles back into frame, his face badly swollen, bruises all over, and his nose bleeding, while Ao Bing is unscathed. Zhenren claims it was a close fight.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: When Shen Gongbao's brother gets captured by his demons, Shen Xiaobao goes on Big Brother Worship, then asks what's going on since Chentang Pass is under siege. Li Jing tells that Shen Gongbao's "forces" are "defending" Chentang Pass from a distant enemy. After Shen Xiaobao is allowed to leave satisfied, Shen Gongbao gets soft and agrees to get provisions Li Jing was asking for.
• Big Bad: You would expect either Ao Guang or Shen Gongbao to fill in that role following the events of the first film, as they led the attack on Chengtang Pass. However, it turns out that Wuliang was the one who ordered the attack as a means of capturing and turning the dragons and demons into immortality pills; even Ao Gaung and Shen Gongbao aren't very happy upon realizing Wuliang's true colors.
• Bittersweet Ending: Chentang Pass is destroyed and Nezha's mother dies, but Xianweng's scheme to convert the dragons and demons into immortality pills is permanently foiled. However, he and his followers are able to escape back to their domain to plot retribution, and Shen Gongbao is shown to have been captured by his forces.
• Bilingual Bonus: In the English dub, Nezha calls Wuliang "you old fart" in Mandarin after the latter reveals his true nature, identically to the original version. He uses the insult again, this time in translated English, after becoming his teen form.
• Bloodless Carnage: Most battle are fairly bloodless, even when deadly intent is shown. One exception is the final battle. Though it is shown at a distance, whenever the dark cloud of demons and the golden cloud of warriors clash against each other, there are intense sprays of red signifying the deadly fighting.
• Broken Record: Nezha comments on how bright the Heavenly Palace is while Crana shows him where's the toilet.
  Nezha: It's white.
  Nezha: It's white.
  Nezha: It's white.
  Nezha: It's white.
  [a minute later]
  Nezha: Whoa. It's white.
• Celestial Deadline: The initial reconstruction of Ao Bing's body is destroyed, and his soul is transferred into Nezha's body to prevent it from permanently fading away. However, he can only reside in this body for a week before the body rejects his soul, so Nezha and Zhenren have that long to retrieve an elixir to revive the Seven-Colored Lotus and make another body. There is additional pressure from Ao Guang warning them if they fail to revive his son, he'll destroy Chentang Pass, although this ends up being a moot point when Xianweng destroys Chentang Pass anyway to frame Ao Guang.
• Co-Dragons: On both fronts.
  • The Dragon King's army of sea creature-hybrids, early on when they're portrayed as villains, has two prominent enforcers leading the charge, a giant octopus-man and a Shark Man who battles Li Jing and Lady Yin, respectively.
  • In the wake of the revelation that Wuliang is the film's Hidden Villain and the immortals aren't the righteous heroes they seem, Wuliang's two main enforcers Deero and Crana serves this role for the rest of their screentime.
• Comically Missing the Point: As the villagers are creating the lotus root paste to rebuild Nezha and Ao Bing's bodies, Nezha is not happy with the unsanitary practices he observes as they're creating the mixture, such as one scratching between his toes with the same hand he's handling a lotus root with. When Nezha points this out, the villager tells him not to worry, he'll wash his foot later.
• Crystalline Creature: The skies of Wuliang's heavenly palace is populated by animated jade birds, a flock of them fying towards Nezha and Taiyi Zhenren signifying they've arrived at the right place.
• Damned by Faint Praise: When telling Nezha You Are Better Than You Think You Are, Ao Bing accidentally points out his friend’s shortcomings first (that said, he earnestly emphasizes Nezha’s better, opposite traits as well). Nezha takes these blunt descriptors as well as you’d probably expect.
  Ao Bing: Even though you’re lazy, you never give up. Even though you’re small, you have the biggest heart. Even though you’re hard to look like, you’re kind inside. And— and (as Nezha’s face falls) even with your baggy raccoon eyes and a pig nose and a missing tooth, I— I still think you’re perfect just the way you are!
• Darker and Edgier: While a half of the film remains comedic, the other goes into much more violence than the previous film, with two cases of arm decapitation with visible blood, the persecution of were-demons being portrayed as a result of corruption of divine authority, Shen Xiaobao apparently dying to his wounds, and two attempts of genocide with Chentang Pass really being reduced to ashes with all of its citizens.
• Dead Hat Shot: The heroes returns to Chentang Pass only to find the whole place destroyed, and Nezha uncovers his mother's helm realizing his parents are likely among the victims. But things aren't what they seemed at first...
• Destroy the Villain's Weapon: With all their forces combined, the heroes, the dragons, and the demons of the Abyssal Army are able to use the massive stone seal that previously kept all the demons chained up to smash the bagua cauldron from within like a battering ram. This greatly weakens Xianweng's power hold, as he can no longer easily eliminate the dragons and otherwise virtually invincible primordial demons, and makes it impossible to keep making immortality pills.
• Doomed Hometown: Downplayed in the beginning, where the destruction of Chentang Pass is barely stopped by the reunion of Ao Bing and Ao Guang, and Nezha is going on an adventure to help recreate Ao Bing's body to prevent this from happening. Chentang Pass is destroyed anyways halfway through the film, prompting Nezha to get his revenge on the culprit responsible.
• Dub Name Change: Mentions of the Demon Orb is changed from the Demon Pill from the first film's English dub. This is possibly to avoid confusion with the pills introduced in the film.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Nezha and Ao Bing aren't entirely without peer, but as the incarnated Demon Orb and Spirit Pearl there are very few who can challenge them, especially now that they're working together. Which is likely why the plot of the film endeavors to limit their power in several ways.
  • The attack on Chengtang Pass means that both Nezha and Ao Bing don't have the time to let their new bodies be properly tempered, and in Ao Bing's case he's forced to strain himself to the point that he immediately dies again. Nezha's body gradually hardens over the course of the film, but it still can't withstand the full force of either his or Ao Bing's power for the majority of the story, which allows foes to give the duo more trouble than they'd normally have. Ao Bing arrives at the final battle in a fully tempered body, but Nezha's body isn't fully tempered until he's sealed in Wuliang's furnace where the Samhadi Fire finishes the job.
  • Nezha can't use his demonic powers for any of the ascension trials for fear of exposing himself as a demon, and Ao Bing struggles to pilot their shared body while the former is still conscious due to their conflicting impulses. A bottle of sleeping pills helps to work around the issue, but getting the dosages right proves rather tricky.
  • After learning of Nezha and Ao Bing's true nature, Wuliang Xianweng discreetly places a Heart Piercing Curse upon them, which serves as his trump card allowing him to instantly incapacitate the two with a simple command.
• Enemy Mine: When all the demons of the Abyssal Army and the dragons are trapped in the bagua cauldron and about to be cooked into immortality pills, Ao Guang decides to let all the demons free from their chains because they're all going to die anyway. Both the demons and dragons end up working together with the protagonists to destroy the cauldron and fight against the Demon Hunter army.
• Epic Movie: With a runtime of two hours and twenty-five minutes (a remarkable runtime that ranks Ne Zha 2 among the longest animated movies ever made), the movie took five years to be produced, 138 animation companies were involved in the production and over 4000 animators worked on the project, making this film having the most studios and animators involved of any animated product ever, which is a remarkable achievement to do so. Not only the movie broke the record of highest-grossing animated movie of all time and in China, which resulted outsourcing costs for the country raising significantly, but it is also expands the story introduced in the first installment, puts higher stakes, gives the characters more depth, opens the story to a more complex plot and takes it up to eleven through a monumental direction and majestic battle scenes.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The conniving and selfish Shen Gongbao, who secretly conspired with the dragons to serve his own ends even if that meant massacring an innocent village, turns out to have both a younger brother and father whom he genuinely cherishes dearly. This familial love is strong enough that he's ashamed of himself for leading the siege against Chentang Pass, because it isn't setting a good example of an upstanding and noble demon that his brother could look up to as a role model.
• Evil All Along: Wuliang Xianweng and his Demon Hunter followers are secretly committing genocide on demons that did nothing to deserve it in order to harvest immortality pills from their souls to maintain their tyrannical hold over the mortal world, and conduct a False Flag Operation that kills countless innocent civilians to have an excuse to harvest dragon souls too.
• Eyes Are Mental: Whenever Ao Bing takes control of Nezha's body his face (and voice) changes to resemble him. This isn't just for the sake of the audience; other characters in the story notice the discrepancy between Nezha's usual bluntness and Ao Bing's politeness whenever they exchange control.
• Fairest of Them All: Played for Laughs. Shiji Niangniang, a rock demon, asks her Magic Mirror who the most beautiful woman in the world is, and the mirror, of course, says it's her. Shiji isn't so vain as to believe a lie so obvious, and promises not to hurt the mirror for telling the truth. Unfortunately, she discovers that not only is she not considered the most beautiful woman in the world, she's not even the most beautiful on the one mountain where she lives. When she points out no one else even lives here, the magic mirror coyly reminds her that she's female too. Needless to say, the rock demon goes back on her promise in her exasperated rage.
• False Flag Attack: Wuliang Xianweng glasses Chentang Pass with the aid of Ao Run, Ao Qin, and Ao Shun to make it look like Ao Guang decided to destroy the village, thus giving him a casus belli against the dragons.
• Feed It with Fire: When Nezha is dropped into the bagua cauldron, the samadhi fires don't harm him, because the flames of the Demon Orb and the flames of the samadhi fire are one and the same. When his physical body is destroyed breaking free of the heart-piercing curse, the samadhi fires reforge Nezha into his true form. What's more, he and Ao Bing are able to absorb and redirect the flames of the cauldron to destroy it from the inside.
• Fish People: Demons usually (although not always) resemble anthropomorphic animals; the demons of the Abyssal Army specifically resemble anthropomorphic aquatic animals, like sea turtles, sharks, octopi, crabs, fish, and shrimp.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early in the film, when Nezha's parents ask Shen Gongbao if they can go out of the town to get ingredients for medicine, Gongbao's little brother, Xiaobao, comes to visit him, and the two leopard spirits are shown to be very happy and peaceful. Gongbao also agrees to help ship the ingredients, foreshadowing that he may have a nicer side to him.
  • When Xiaobao demonstrates his shapeshifting magic from leopard to human, he retains pointy ears as a human. Notably, Deero also has pointy ears, subtly indicating that he too is a demon in a human disguise. His name is also "Deero" and his magical bow resembles a pair of antlers, while his partner's name is "Crana" and fights with a pair of Razor Wings, signifying their true identities.
  • During Wuliang Xianweng's meeting with the Twelve Golden Immortals, the latter were surprised that the former produced nine thousand immortality pills in a short time. It turns out that Xianweng and his demon hunters have been indiscriminately rounding up demons to turn them into pills under the pretense of rehabilitation.
  • The demons Nezha is tasked to fight and help capture aren't evil: the marmot-like demons are doing nothing but living peacefully, Shiji Niangniang was living alone in her mountain and is not interested in anything beyond talking to her mirror, and the master is also training other demons to help them find a better place in the world despite being demons, not to mention that he is Shen Gongbao's loving father. Indeed, all of them exclaim surprise and/or are willing to let Nezha go even after he's provoked a fight with them. There would be no need to put these demons into rehabilitation.
  • After passing the trials, Wuliang Xianweng casts a spell on Nezha to promote him into a god, but Taiyi Zhenren notices that the casting is longer than he remembered. As it turns out, Wuliang Xianweng was also applying the Heart-Piercing Curse onto Nezha (and by extension, Ao Bing), as he already knows his true identity.
  • When Nezha's mother tries to hug him, he refuses, on the grounds that he plans to return quickly. In the climax she hugs him right before getting disintegrated by Bagua Cauldron.
• Gender Flip: Ao Run is shown as female in this film while her mythological counterpart was unambiguously male.
• Glamour: More skilled demons can learn to use shapeshifting magic to disguise their demonic appearance, although the disguise will fail if they take too much damage. After he's defeated, Wuliang Xianweng also turns out to be using a similar type of magic to make himself look softer and baby-faced; after getting punched in the face enough times, the spell is broken and he shrivels into his true appearance of a decrepit-looking, scrawny grandpa.
• Gratuitous English: When the Yaksha escapes from the two Shieldos, he mockingly waves them farewell, including saying "Bye-bye!" in English in the original Chinese version.
• Green Thumb: Wuliang Xianweng's magical specialty involves growing and manipulating the wood from his staff to create huge vines and tendrils as weapons. Or just to generate a peach from it to eat as a snack.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. Of the two highest-ranking Demon Hunters, one fights with Razor Wings, and the other with a Multishot magic bow; the former is the female, the latter is the male.
• Happy Ending Override: The previous movie ended with Nezha saving Chentang Pass from destruction. In this movie, Chentang Pass is destroyed anyway. Worse, this is an Immediate Sequel, so only a few days passed between the end of the last movie and the village's final destruction.
• Hired by the Oppressor: During the Final Battle, it's revealed that Xianweng's top ranking Demon Hunters are themselves demons in human disguises who knowingly betrayed their own kind for the promise of immortality. Ao Guang wryly notes the irony behind their career choices after he strips away their human disguises during the final battle.
• Immediate Sequel: The events of this film begin only a few hours after the ending of the first film, with it being specifically stated that only two hours have passed between the first film's post-credits scene and Gongbao leading the attack on Chentang Pass.
• Innocently Insensitive: Nezha is nervous meeting his two older brothers for the first time, feeling he won't meet up to their expectations of him. Ao Bing tries to convince him You Are Better Than You Think You Are, but his pep talk makes Nezha feel worse instead of better, calling him short and ugly (but with loads of inner beauty).
• I've Come Too Far: Gongbao starts feeling shame and regret for being morally repugnant following a visit from his younger brother, who thinks the world of him. Li Jing tries to convince Gongbao it's not too late to repent for his actions and lift the siege, but Gongbao justifies himself by saying he's already done too many terrible things to ever be forgiven now.
• Knight Templar: Wuliang Xianweng doesn't deny his repeated massacres of innocent humans and demons are unforgivably evil, but he also believes it to be absolutely necessary to keep the power of balance from shifting, as he considers it preemptively taking out any forces that could potentially grow to threaten the realm of the immortals. However, after he's beaten, he has a Motive Rant that reveals he simply wants to be on what he considers to be the strongest side, and is willing to do whatever it takes to remain at a position of great power.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the post-credits scene, Xianweng curses the guard to his dungeon to sleep for ten years for daring to giggle at his badly beaten face while updating the facial recognition security system (which doesn't recognize Xianweng now that his face is all bruised and swollen). However, his face heals while in the dungeon, so he's again no longer recognized by the security system, trapping him and his two lieutenants inside. The only person that can bypass the security system is the guard... who he just put to sleep for ten years. Cue his two lieutenants beating Xianweng relentlessly to try and make his face as bruised and swollen as it was before.
• Last Stand: After finding his family has been seemingly killed or captured by the Demon Hunters, and being betrayed by the three Dragon Kings, Shen Gongbao helps Nezha's parents survive the massacre of Chentang Pass and then, figuring he has nothing else left to live for, decides to go down fighting the Abyssal Army. Subverted in The Stinger, which shows he was captured and imprisoned.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Gongbao's father slices off his own arm to avoid being captured by the Demon Hunters. Ao Bing (in Nezha's body) calls this out as extreme and unnecessary, since they weren't going to kill him (the Demon Hunters actually were planning on killing him, not that Ao Bing knew that).
• Light Is Not Good: Wuliang Xianweng and his Demon Hunters are Taoist celestials who are dressed in white and gold and reside in a heavenly realm where all the buildings are constructed of pure-white jade. They're also revealed to be deceptive and genocidal tyrants interested only in hoarding power at the cost of countless innocent lives.
• Like Cannot Cut Like: The flames generated from Nezha's Demon Orb and the samadhi fires of the bagua cauldron are one and the same, meaning he's the only one who can theoretically survive the immolation unscathed. Even better, when he destroys his body breaking free of his immobilization curse, the samadhi fires not only instantly repair his body, but infuse him with additional power, allowing him to achieve his final form and get enough strength to push open the cauldron's lid.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": Xianweng's top Demon Hunters are named Deero and Crana. In the Final Battle, it turns out they're both demons using shapeshifting magic to disguise themselves as humans and are actually a deer and crane demon, respectively.
• Make It Look Like a Struggle: Played for Laughs. After their idiocy allows the Yaksha they were guarding to escape, the two Shieldos beat each other up with rocks to make it seem as though they were viciously beaten by the Yaksha to avoid being punished for their failure. It doesn't work because Zhenren is standing right behind them, but he has more important things to worry about at that point than punishing them.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": It's Nezha we're talking about.
  • The moment he's revived in the opening scene, the excited citizens of Chentang Pass welcomes Nezha's return... until Nezha announces his intention to play hacky-sack. Everyone responds rather aptly.
  • A less funny example occurs when everyone's trapped within Wuliang's giant floating cauldron; and then, one of the crab-people suddenly dissolves into a mystical orb...
• Mistaken for Toilet: When Nezha arrives at the realm of the immortals, he really needs to use the restroom. He loses his way there due to ambiguous directions, and pees in what he assumes to be a toilet. Immediately after returning to the meeting hall, everyone is given refreshments of sacred dew collected in jade barrels. Only after Nezha drinks the dew is when he realizes the jade barrel was what he assumed to be a toilet, resulting in a Spit Take from both him and then Zhenren when Nezha whispers into his ear what they're drinking.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • There's one occuring right in the opening minutes, after Nezha and Aobing are revived, followed by scenes of comical antics between the duo, Taiyi Zhenren, Nezha's parents... and the arrival of the Dragon King's army led by Shen Gongbao ready to wipe out the city.
  • The destruction of Chentang Pass, with it's citizens melted alive and the city reduced to flaming rubble followed by Nezha's Heroic BSoD is depicted in a serious light. It was followed moments later by the chubby Lady Shiji fawning over her looks and squabbling with her Magic Mirror.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The commander of the Abyssal Army is a large octopus demon with six arms (the eighth pair of tentacles are his legs), and he wields six swords at once. Interestingly, at the start of the final battle, he lets Li Jing (now on the same side) borrow one of the swords so he won't be fighting bare-handed (this is only noticeable as a Freeze-Frame Bonus).
• My Master, Right or Wrong: All of the Demon Hunters were intensely trained by Xianweng and have sworn utmost loyalty to him, so the revelation that he's actually a power-mad despot who has repeatedly committed massacres of innocent people does not sway them to turn against him.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Nezha's face while his body is under the control of Ao Bing is much truer to his traditional depictions, with an effeminate face and delicate features.
  • Sun Wukong's signature weapon, the Ruyi Jingu Bang, is shown in its form as a massive pillar in Ao Guang's palace and is used as an impromptu battering ram in the climax to burst open the bagua cauldron.
  • Nezha being torn apart when trying to break free from the Heart-Piercing Curse may be a reference to his equally painful, self-inflicted death in the original work, where he also Came Back Strong.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: After defeating and immobilizing Nezha and his friends, Wuliang Xianweng throws them into his furnace to be made into pills. However, the divine flames inside the furnace is the same kind of energy that the Demon Pill has, so not only isn't Nezha weakened and turned into a pill, it actually helps him finish his new body and awaken his full power.
• No, You: In The Stinger, Xianweng has Gongbao chained up in the dungeon and makes fun of his battered looking state. Gongbao simply scoffs and retorts that Xianweng has no room to talk given how he's even more beat-up than he is
• Numbered Sequels: Ne Zha 2, the second after Ne Zha (not counting Jiang Ziya from the same universe).
• Once More, with Clarity: Li Jing's explanation to Nezha in the climax reveals what really happened to Chentang Pass while Nezha was away: after a badly wounded Shen Xiaobao was brought before Shen Gongbao, Wuliang Xianweng showed up to attack the town. Just as Shen Gongbao was about to fight Wuliang Xianweng, the three Dragon Kings who stayed behind to guard Chentang Pass with Shen Gongbao decided to swear loyalty to Wuliang Xianweng in exchange for having their chains broken, unleashing the Abyss Demon army upon Chentang Pass to make it look like Ao Guang decided to glass the village and leaving behind the two guardian statues to use them as catspaws regarding the situtation.
• One-Winged Angel: After his cauldron is destroyed, Xianweng transforms into a huge, muscular form with a huge mass of woody tendrils growing out of him that he can control and regenerate, and manages to briefly overwhelm Nezha and Ao Bing. However, it proves no match at all against the combined strength of Nezha and Ao Bing fighting together, who beat him completely senseless as he's quickly reduced to feebly bargaining for his life.
• Pet the Dog: After Hao and Qi help Gongbao put up an honourable facade in front of his younger brother Xiaobao, he decides to return the favour by allowing all the food and medicine the village requires to feed and treat the hostages to be shipped to them in the midst of the siege. Shen Gongbao sending Chentang Pass food along with medical supplies stands out rather clearly, as they never asked for the former, yet he had it delivered anyway.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: After it seemed as though Ao Bing's father ordered the destruction of Chentang Pass, Nezha fulfills his promise to Ao Bing of helping restore his body, but then tells him the next time they meet, it will be as enemies, before going to fight Ao Guang. However, next they meet, Ao Bing reveals his father was not responsible for the destruction of Chentang Pass; Xianweng was really responsible and had intentionally framed Ao Guang.
• Protagonist Title: Aside from the "2," the film's name is unchanged from the first and thus repeats being named after the protagonist Nezha.
• The Quisling: Ao Run, Ao Qin, and Ao Shun sell out their fellow dragons in exchange for swearing loyalty to the gods and willingly help Wuliang Xianweng with his False Flag Attack on Chentang Pass.
• Really Dead Montage: As Lady Yin hugs Nezha in her last moments, we get a flashback of all the moments she's shown caring for and loving her son from the time of his birth in the first movie to their goodbye in the beginning of this film.
• Red Herring: Soon after Shen Gongbao ships ingredients for medicine to the people in Chentang Pass, he is greeted by a gravely injured Shen Xiaobao, who informs him that Nezha has attacked his father. Shen Gongbao is shown raging, and then we are informed that while Nezha is waiting for the third trial, Chentang Pass was destroyed by falling lava, a power that Shen Gongbao is shown to have earlier in the film, making it easy for audiences to believe that either Shen Gongbao and Ao Guang are getting their revenge on Nezha or Shen Gongbao has gone rogue out of grief and rage. Except that it's not the case; this is all of Wuliang Xianweng's actions as part of his plan to get rid of the dragons. In fact, Shen Gongbao immediately deduces that Wuliang Xianweng is the true culprit of his father's capture and his brother's uncertain death after seeing the injury on his brother's body.
• Released to Elsewhere: Xianweng says that all the captured demons are put into a rehabilitation program, but in reality "rehabilitation" is being killed as the ingredients of immortality pills.
• Restraining Bolt: Wuliang Xianweng places one of these on the three Dragon Kings after they betray their own kind to follow him in exchange for freedom and immortality, to ensure they cannot possibly betray him too.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • Nezha goes on a single-minded crusade of vengeance against Ao Guang after he's led to believe that his parents were murdered and Chentang Pass was destroyed by him, managing to best the Dragon King in combat despite his youth.
  • Double subverted with Gongbao. While it seems he had all of Chentang Pass destroyed for the apparent attack on his father and younger brother by Nezha, a Once More, with Clarity flashback afterwards shows Gongabo immediately and correctly deduced the attack was actually by Xianweng and his Demon Hunters, and Xianweng had Chentang Pass destroyed in a False Flag Operation. He then decides he has nothing else to live for and takes on the entire demon army by himself in a final stand.
• Sacred Flames: The samadhi fires produced by the bagua cauldron can hurt and burn the demons of the Abyssal Army, who are otherwise completely impervious to any sort of heat. This is more of an annoyance than anything though, since they can endlessly regenerate, and they pass the time inside the cauldron using the heavenly flames to cook parts of their bodies and eat the grilled meat (up until they start being transformed into immortality pills, at which point they start panicking).
• Sadistic Choice:
  • Discovering that it's impossible for the fires of the bagua cauldron to destroy the Demon Orb, Xianweng gives Nezha a terrible choice; swallow the oblivion pill and die, and he'll let his parents live, or be forced to watch them die. Nezha reluctantly agrees, only for his mother to throw the pill away at the last second, as both she and Nezha's father call out how horrible it would've been to live without him.
  • Xianweng gives Gongbao a similar choice in The Stinger. He tells Gongbao that he will let his father live if he allows a curse to be placed on himself that will force him to be completely loyal to him, no matter what. Gongbao doesn't choose before the scene ends though.
• Sand in My Eyes: While Nezha and Aobing bonds over their older brothers, Nezha noticed Aobing crying. Aobing confesses to Nezha about his family's legacy and Nezha, moved by their bonds, also starts getting teary-eyed. Before raising his voice and claiming there's "sand in his eyes".
• Screams Like a Little Girl: At one point a shark demon and a dragon are fighting each other by biting the other's tail. Both of them squeal like a nervous puppy when the other bites them.
• Sharing a Body: Nezha and Ao Bing share the former's body after Ao Bing's new body is destroyed so that his spirit doesn't fade away while they search for the heavenly essence needed to recharge the Seven-Colored Lotus.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Nezha knocks out a bowl of soup from one marmot bandit, he reacts with the Screaming Marmot's shout.
  • Nezha's permanent transformation into his adult form resulting from his intense rage over losing someone brings to mind Goku first going Super Saiyan against Frieza after Krillin's death as well as Gohan going Super Saiyan 2 against Cell after Android 16's death.
  • Nezha channels Monkey D. Luffy in pummelling Wuliang while openly declaring war on the latter and his corrupt system.
  • Wuliang's sealed cauldron rising into the air thanks to everyone imprisoned inside - the Dragon King, Nezha and his parents, the sea creatures, etc. - pushing their way up, until Wuliang summons a giant World Tree on it's top, looks a lot like Laputa rising into the skies after it's near-destruction. It helps that Studio Ghibli's fanbase in China is huge.
  • A Big Badass Battle Sequence between two factions consisting of sea-creatures and humanoids, where the sea-creatures turns out to be on the side of good, resembling an airborne version of the climax of Aquaman (2018). Again, this is another film with a huge fanbase in China.
• The Smurfette Principle: Done with multiple groups of characters. Of the demons Nezha fights in the three trials, only one is female. Of the four Dragon Kings, only one is female (notably, in the original myths, none were female). Of the notable Demon Hunters, only one is female. Of the main group of protagonists, Nezha's mother is the only female. Of the Twelve Golden Immortals, only one is female.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The three trials Nezha has to complete involve defeating several demons at least "earth-level" or above. The three demons go from weakest to strongest; the first is a marmot bandit boss who has no special abilities, the second is a leopard master who is both an exceptionally skilled martial artist and uses teleportation, and the last one is a rock woman who has the power to assimilate an entire mountain. Ironically, the fights get less challenging with each demon; Nezha and Ao Bing struggle with the first fight due to messing up the dosage of the sleeping pills that allow Ao Bing to control Nezha's body, the second fight is against an exceptionally skilled, but equal foe, and Nezha has stopped caring about hiding his demonic powers by the last fight, and simply uses his fire magic to destroy the entire mountain in one attack.
• The Stinger: The post-credits scene reveals that Shen Gongbao's revenge wasn't successful and he and his father were captured by Wuliang Xianweng, who informs Gongbao that he can spare his father if he allows himself to be cursed. Meanwhile, Jinzha and Muzha, Nezha's brothers, are seen in the now-empty heavenly palace trying to report something.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Gongbao attempts to attack Zhenren and Nezha (who are in a vulnerable position), but his attacks can't penetrate the magical forcefield around them and he just tires himself out trying. Zhenren eagerly eggs him on and dares him to try and strike his cheek. Gongbao then uses the Dimensional Cutter claw he received to summon the three Dragon Kings, who are far more powerful. Realizing how screwed he is now, Zhenren slaps his own cheek.
  • When Nezha sets off on his quest, his mother asks for a hug before he leaves. Still feeling a bit alienated from the other inhabitants of the village, he scoffs at her and refuses. Taiyi Zhenren asks what's so bad about accepting a hug from your mother, but Nezha brushes it off by saying it's not like this is a trip farewell, since they'll only be gone a week at most. The two are horrified to find Chentang Pass was completely destroyed before their quest was done, although they later discover Nezha's parents were able to survive. By the time Nezha does get a hug from his mother, it really is farewell, as she dies right afterwards.
• The Three Trials: Nezha is told he must complete three ascension trials in order to be granted immortality and gain access to the elixir to restore Ao Bing. All three trials involve defeating increasingly powerful demons so they can be captured for rehabilitation, which is actually Xianweng tricking Nezha into obtaining more fuel for his immortality pills. This is made much more challenging by Nezha not being able to use his powers, lest he expose himself as a demon.
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Played for Laughs. Zhenren says that the stress of having to help Nezha pass three trials has killed his appetite. He says this while in the midst of gorging himself on a feast's worth of food, spraying bits of chewed up food as he does so.
• Trust Password: Played for Laughs. During the battle against Ao Shun and Ao Qing, the battlefield becomes covered in steam and Nezha uses the opportunity to shapeshift into Ao Qing. Shun sees the two Qings, and the disguised Nezha quickly blurts out a supposed trust password, which he made up on the spot. The real Qing is dim-witted and confused enough to start thinking he is the imposter.
• Villainous Breakdown: After all the imprisoned demons and dragons are able to completely destroy the bagua cauldron with Nezha and Ao Bing's combined strength, Xianweng literally starts steaming red with rage now that the linchpin of his immortality hoarding operation has been wrecked, and goes One-Winged Angel. He leads the Demon Hunters into a final battle where he does little more than flail aimlessly in anger before he's beaten to a bloody pulp and forced to retreat.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Nezha (or rather, Aobing-trapped-inside-Nezha) throwing up his consumed potion inside a pot in the marmot village was initially a Vomit Discretion Shot, until he realized he had expelled all the potion he had consumed, and need to take it back in. So Nezha goes back to the pot, sees the content, and promptly vomits again hitting the camera lens...
  • Played for laughs in Lady Shiji's scaled-down, doll-sized form, where she's made of rocks and her "vomit" are pebbles and sand.
• Xanatos Gambit: Wuliang Xianweng originally intended to use magic to disguise himself as a dragon and attack Chentang Pass for his false flag attack, but upon discovering three of the Dragon Kings themselves are already at Chentang Pass, he is able to change his strategy by making a deal with them, granting them freedom for their eternal loyalty. He then has them attack Chentang Pass, which ultimately worked out even better for him.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: While trapped in Wuliang Xianweng's furnace, Lady Yin uses her last moments to reassure Nezha that he will always be her beloved son despite what everyone else thinks of him before she's turned into a pill.