The Blood of Youth

Classic wuxia with well-developed backlore

I absolutely loved this show for the first 10 episodes or so. The humor is excellent. Lei Wujie is so adorably dumb, in the best and cutest way (I also like that he totally just owns up to it, not offended at all). Xiao Se is kind of the opposite, but hilarious in another way- deadpan sarcastic. Add in Wu Xin, who has his own style of calm quipping, and I was laughing every episode. It is so much fun to watch them and their other friends traipsing across the Jianghu, that I barely cared that such a deep friendship came out of nowhere.

Sadly, the fun and games don’t really last. I will credit this show with maintaining some excellent flashes of humor all the way to the end. But the sparkling fun tone doesn’t make it through, and by the second half it’s pretty much devolved into classic power struggles and throne drama. These are not badly done, but power struggles can only be so interesting to me. I would have preferred more focus on the characters, their development, and their interactions.

This show does have a band-of-friends feel and a focus on camaraderie. But in the end, it’s mostly Xiao Se’s story. I found him to be a likable protagonist with his own set of relatable emotions; a sullen streak and some past trauma, but mostly a good guy and of course a very smart mastermind. In his orbit are some other likable characters as well, but it was this show’s loss to relegate Wuxin- one of the best characters- to the back burner for the majority of the show.

There are a lot of other characters of varying importance, plus a lot of complicated relations, a lot of gradually revealed backstories, and a lot of traditions and lore in this universe. Some of it is straight up told to us by Xiao Se through dialogue- lazy storytelling but still helpful to an overwhelmed viewer. Still, I had a hard time keeping track of everything. I found the show better on a second pass when I already knew a little of what was going on, but I only rewatched because I took a long break; I didn’t like this show enough to rewatch for fun.

I think the plot is not bad, just all the power struggles did not fully captivate me. There is a good amount of pathos, a realistic emperor, backstories with depth (hence an entire prequel for it!), and a villain that is easy to hate. It also, to its credit, stays strong until the end. But I think the real strengths of this show are its humor and snarky characters, which they did not lean into nearly enough.

Unlike most Cdramas, the title is actually relevant. “Blood of Youth”- there is indeed a consistent focus on the youth of the heroes and how they must forge their own paths. It’s especially relevant since this Jianghu is filled with the legends of the past generation, who’s prior actions brought us to our present state. The way this idea of youth comes up regularly and in different ways, is actually quite well done.

Unfortunately, it’s just not a theme that particularly resonates with me. It might be more meaningful to a younger person. The show in general feels very shounen, or maybe classic wuxia. For example, the endless parade of powerful legends, each more powerful than the last, and the obsession with who is more powerful than whom. Lots of posing, looking cool, and being proud to be a badass.

Some parts of this martial world I do appreciate. It feels very RPG-esque how everyone has their own characteristic weapon, as well as a few distinctive abilities that are accompanied by flashy CGI sequences of dubious functionality (what are all those flower petals for again?) It’s all good fun, but sometimes they go a little overboard trying to make people look cool. I am too old to be impressed by somebody yelling some noble-sounding catchphrase.

This show is also kind of casually sexist. Everyone seems to care a bit too much about the beauty of the women. At least it is mostly just the culture of the show’s world, rather than baked into reality- there are still plenty of strong, capable female characters. Even they, though, also seem to think that beauty is a woman’s most important trait. And don’t get me started on Li Hanyi; some of her interactions seem like they came out of my HR training.

And while we’re on it, many of the female characters come with romance stories, and the romances are not done well. I never understood “no chemistry” until I saw Xiao Se and Sikong Qianluo. My goodness, it was so awkward and cringe, but at least not that important. Plus Qianluo is not developed enough for me to care about her. Lei Wujie’s romance was funny as comedic relief only; when it seemed like it might work out, I started to cringe. Luckily, also not that important.

Acting-wise, I think this cast did a pretty good job. My favorite is probably Ao Ruipeng as Lei Wujie- this is still the best role I’ve seen him in, managed to make the guy 100% lovable instead of dumb or annoying. The emperor also did a great job.

The fighting is very CGI-based, sometimes very fake-looking, but not bad if you think of it as a CGI sequence in an RPG. The flashiness of a particular technique means nothing. They all look infinitely destructive and are countered by equally destructive-looking things.

The costumes are nice, and also color-coordinated well. Somehow nobody seems to look very good wearing them, though.

The music is very good. The songs are more energetic rather than slow or romance-y, which matches the tone and focus, and the BGM in particular sounds good and is used well to set mood.

Overall, this is an enjoyable show that I liked but did not love. I would watch the sequel when that comes out, but I don’t care enough to, for instance, watch the anime. There is also currently a prequel and spinoff that gives background on some of the other characters; however, since I already know how they end based on this show, I have no intention of watching them.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





This show has a happy ending. The main conflict ends in the second to last episode, giving us an entire episode to wrap things up peacefully and send Xiao Se and friends off to happily travel the world. Some people scatter, but there is a promise to meet again. There is even a special which shows Tang Lian coming back. It’s a pretty satisfying ending. I have wanted a sequel more for other shows than this one, but I'm sure they'll come up with something good.

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Entertaining

I finally had a chance to watch this and was not disappointed. I liked the overarching storyline but admittedly had to rewind periodically to understand who some of the new characters and subplots inserted throughout the first half of the series were. But what kept me watching was the entertaining dynamics of the bond/friendship development and humorous interactions of the 3 main characters Xiao Se, Wu Xin, and Lei Wu Jie. I also enjoyed the fact that the female characters were also powerful fighters. Almost every episode was action filled. The love connection between Xiao Se and the female love interest wasn’t very strong. The music matched well with the scenes - there’s a a couple in particular that I really like. Perfect casting of the 3 main ML’s: Li Hong Yi’s calm, cool and elegant demeanor, Ao Rui Peng’s silly, naive, and high-energy, and Liu Xue Yi’s serious and domineering presence.

Overall - very entertaining and will be on my rewatch list.

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Wuxia series lovers will be spoiled with good martial arts scenes

At the beginning of the story, our eyes have been spoiled with scenes of martial arts with cool CGI effects, lots of kung fu fight scenes. The theme of the story is already visible, namely the Power Struggle to become Emperor but the characteristics of the wuxia series are also still highlighted. All Characters from the Kingdom are described as proficient in martial arts Kungfu, this was a combination of the royal world and the martial world, it's a shame between the middle and the end of the episode the martial arts scenes are reduced but the kung fu martial arts fight at the end of the story is quite epic. The series features more friendship than love relationships between the characters, If you are a lover of romantic historical stories, don't expect to see sweet romantic scenes between ML and FL. At first, I thought that there would be a lot of amazing strategic battle scenes, but until the end of the story, I saw that strategy battles were still not that exciting, little bit of plot twist. the acting of all the male actors is good but the acting of all the female actors is not good maybe because of the demands of the scenario. For fans of the Wuxia series, this is worth watching

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Balance well

Drama is good and enjoyable to watch.
Ml is pure and innocent and also have high iq.

Fighting skill is amazing.
CGI is good.
Characters develop nice.
Story is good.
Adventure nice.

This drama is balance about morality and society well.

you can kill a person but you can't kill loyalty and honest and also honour.

This is good drama and it focus on relationships base on value of loyalty and respect.

The ml lose everything but he didn't lose his loyalty so he gain his power back and also lot of friends to journey with him.

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Shonen to its core; rewatchable feel-good show

NOTE: I consider a score of 5 average, therefore my score of 8/10 is very high.

Mostly wanted to write this review after watching the anime, which is apparently closer to the webnovel, and rewatching this for the first time in preparation for the prequel (Dashing Youth). This is only the 2nd show I've ever rewatched, so take that as a very high compliment.

Overall, given the government constraints of 40 eps max, I think the pacing and execution of the webnovel plot (several hundred chapters long) is actually superior to the source material. There are pivotal moment rewrites and rearrangements (Xiao Se's identity reveal, the first time Xiao Se uses his powers again, Wuxin's return, the appearance of important characters such as the 2 other princes, etc.) that are much more impactful in the drama than in the anime/novel because of their timing/writing. Huge kudos to the screenwriter for cleaning up the OG plot and orchestrating everything so much better.

The introduction of the overarching imperial palace plot is brought in earlier and integrated much more frequently, and keeps you hooked through the first half to see how it develops. Because of this early sprinkling, the transition from being mostly wuxia/jianghu-heavy to court politics feels very smooth, and as someone who watches mostly wuxia/xianxia and historical/court politics dramas, this is one of the most well-executed shows that balances the two nicely. I first watched this shortly after watching Nirvana in Fire and craving something that was slightly more wuxia-heavy but still had enough plotting to be satisfying, and although the tone of this show is incredibly different from NIF, the combination of those two elements here satisfied that craving. Also a rare thing to see within the genre is such a well done generationally balanced cast--the young and older generations are equally important and present in the story, and actual older actors/actresses play older characters, which is sorely needed in the idol drama genre.

I think if you approach the show as a live action version of a shonen anime/manga (少年 is literally in the title of the show, lol), i.e. not too grim-dark, where the power of friendship and justice always prevails, and everyone gets their magical cure and happy ending, then you'll be in for a very fun ride. It's true that there are very frequent and fast character introductions of many, many characters, which is why I also rated the rewatch value so highly, as you'll understand and appreciate much better who everyone is talking about and how it ties in with other aspects of the plot.

Minor notes:
- They somehow cast almost everyone to be very similar to their anime appearance, the major difference being Xiao Se. I haven't read the webnovel, but assuming the anime characterization is closer, I'd also say that Xiao Se's characterization is very different in the drama compared to the webnovel/anime. In the latter he's more laid back, expressive, talkative, and extravagant(?)(pretentious?), while in the drama I'd describe him as more direct, impassive/inscrutable, short/reticent, and irritable. I'd say they're both equally sarcastic/quick-witted/judgmental, but just in different flavors. The drama version makes him feel more childish at times but I personally think that makes him more likeable. Just a word of warning so you don't go into the anime/novel expecting the same Xiao Se.

- If I could, I'd rate the costuming as 10/10--some of the outfits stick closely to the anime for good reason (e.g. Lei Yun He--PEAK), but other times it surpasses it.

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the Drama are so perfect

First of all… Im not a fan of wuxia drama.. I love.. the romantic comedy.. but since lots of the actor is so eye catching.. and of course li hong yi, ao rui peng and liu xue yi on it i try to give it a try.. episode 1 i still try to figure out their character..but the story made me want to watch next episode…
i watch it on Youku apps..
I Cry When tang lian Died…
I love it when Wuxin always showed up when xiao se and wu jie in trouble.. but yet My tears cannot be hold when tang lian died..
I hate Xiao Yu so much..
Since the genre is not about romance so the ❤️ between the actor and actress not the main purpose on this drama.. Im not that disapointed about that..
i love that each character given are so perfect..

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a story worth watching

One of the recurring challenges with many long-form Chinese dramas is their tendency to lose focus over time, often becoming drawn out or repetitive. Blood of Youth, however, manages to sustain its momentum across all episodes. It presents a narrative that feels complete, with each arc contributing meaningfully to the overall story.

The series distinguishes itself through the depth and complexity of its characters. Each figure—whether central or supporting—has a clear backstory and motivation, contributing to a broader understanding of the world the drama builds. The storytelling maintains a balance between action, emotion, and reflection, keeping the viewer engaged without overwhelming them.

Acting and Themes
At its heart, Blood of Youth explores themes of redemption, loyalty, and betrayal. The performances are consistently strong, capturing both the moral ambiguity and the emotional struggles that drive the characters. The antagonistic roles are portrayed with nuance, and the interplay between good and evil feels grounded rather than exaggerated.

The only notable drawback lies in the large number of supporting characters. For non-Chinese speakers, it can be challenging to keep track of names and relationships, though this is more an accessibility issue than a narrative flaw.

In an era where the sheer volume of C-dramas can lead to creative fatigue among both creators and audiences, Blood of Youth stands out as a reminder that quality storytelling still exists within the genre. Though viewed later than its initial release, the series proves to be a rewarding experience—an example of how thoughtful writing and direction can elevate familiar tropes into something memorable.

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