This review may contain spoilers
Brotherhood, betrayal, and brilliant sword fights—romance sold separately
I had to do a double-take when I watched the first few episodes. I thought it was Cheng Yi playing Xiao Se until I realized it wasn’t. (I don’t check the actor list before watching a drama). Anyway, though Cheng Yi remains a favorite, Li Hong Yi deserves praise for his portrayal for the cheeky and cunning Xiao Se, who is as removed from the Marial Arts world he used to dominate, as he is much embroiled with it because of his real identity.Also, upping up their games are Liu Xue Yi as Wu Xin and Li Xin Ze as Tang Lian. I’ve seen both of them mostly in support roles, and I finally got to see them shining in their major roles. Not to be outdone, Ao Rui Peng easily portrays the happy-go-lucky Wu Jie, whose naivete is endearing. As for the two other female characters, unfortunately, I find them a little lacklustre. I do not know if it’s intentional or not, but these female characters seemed weaker than their male counterparts, and I am unsure if it’s due to the acting or the writing. Since Ruo Yi had a backstory of being a sickly child, it’s understandable that her martial arts prowess wasn’t as advanced as the others. But for a supposedly skilled fighter such as Si Kong Qian Luo, I am not sure why production forced a love line on her with Xiao Se, when there’s none to be found. They look more like a pair of siblings than a romantic couple. I don’t understand why production forced a love line on Si Kong Qian Luo and Xiao Se when there is no chemistry between them. Removing it would not impact the plot.
The rest of the characters were multi-dimensional and well-portrayed. There’s an abundance of personalities to keep the side-quests intriguing. The main plot itself is rich and intricate, without being too convoluted. I enjoyed the backstories, especially those of the martial art masters and immortal deities who predated the younger generation.
Speaking of the young ones, I admire the camaraderie among the group, especially the unusual bond between Xiao Se and Wu Xin. They are total opposites of each other, in terms of personality, upbringing and identity, and yet they are very in tune with each other’s thoughts and motivation. They may disagree sometimes, but they have the utmost respect for each other. Also along their journey, the team built a bond of trust where they can rely on each other to do their own parts. And it is their journey that I found entertaining, and it’s all kudos to the scriptwriters and the production crew. Also to be commended are the expertly choreographed fights, the carefully-thought-out strategies, the intricate costumes made by the production company.
Overall, this is such a great watch, even if they didn’t incorporate romantic elements. It was so hard for me to even decide where to put this in my top 20 list as China has been producing a lot of amazing Wuxia/Xanxia in the last five years but this one is certainly in my top 5 Historical Chinese dramas (as of this writing).
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This review may contain spoilers
wuxin is so fine
i started watching this on a saturday and finished it just now. it only took me 3/4 days because i was literally binging. i found out about this drama from a tiktok. the comments section said that this drama reminded them of the untamed and word of honor. now those two dramas are definitely in my top5 of all time. both of those are based of a danmei novel and turned into a bromance drama due to censorship. since i saw that the blood of youth reminded them of those two, i thought it was also a bromance - so i proceeded to watch it. at first, i thought leiwujie and xiaose would be the "couple" then wuxin came and i thought him and xiaose would be the "couple." (i know wuxin is a monk idk why i thought that) later on, leiwujie started liking the general's daughter (i forget names easly). tanglian and wujie also started shipping xiaose with sikong girl. thats when i realized it wasnt a bromance drama. honestly i felt kinda disappointed and betrayed. i usually dont watch shows with straight romance but i was too invested in the story to stop watching. the storyline didnt disappoint. most of the acting is done well, some of the scenes/acting were a bit... childish/cringe. I also expected more scenes of wuxin since he's one of the main characters.. after he left for i forgot where, his scenes were so short and sometimes he wouldnt appear for a whole episode or two. since hes my favorite character, that kinda threw me off. towards ep 25-30, i thought wuxin would get a lot more scenes when he comes back.. but i was wrong. because of that, i took off 1.5 stars on my rewatch rating. it still deserves to be watched, but i personally wouldnt rewatch it. if there were more scenes of wuxin, the rewatch value would def be higher. the special effects were good.. there are definitely better though. overall a decent drama.Was this review helpful to you?
The Blood of Youth – A Gem So Beautiful, So True
I really loved The Blood of Youth. It’s easily one of the best wuxia dramas I’ve ever watched. The flow of the story is beautifully done, keeping you hooked from start to finish. The journey of the fallen prince Xiao Se — his struggles, rise, and transformation — was captivating. And Lei Wu Jie’s growth from scratch into a true warrior was equally inspiring.One of my favorite parts of the drama was the bond between the three “brothers” — Tang Lian, Lei Wu Jie, and Xiao Se. They had such different personalities, yet their loyalty and banter made their dynamic feel so real and heartwarming. Tang Lian’s quiet strength and kindness, Lei Wu Jie’s fiery determination, and Xiao Se’s clever wit and hidden depth made them the perfect trio to root for.
The Xueyue City arc was pure entertainment. Xiao Se constantly demanding money from Vermillion bird Chang Feng had me laughing out loud 😂 — his shameless confidence and Chang Feng’s exasperated reactions were comedy gold. Those lighthearted moments balanced the heavier, emotional arcs beautifully.
Every character had their own rich backstory and strong development. Ye Rou Yi was such a remarkable woman, one I truly admired. Tang Lian completely stole my heart honestly, who could ever hate him? The Wine Deity and the other martial world figures were absolutely amazing as well, adding color, wisdom, and charisma to the story.
The only downside for me was Xiao Se’s love interest, Sikong Qiao Luo. I found her character a bit annoying and overly childish compared to the depth of the others.
Now, about Wu Xin… what an amazing character. His story was emotional, powerful, and unforgettable.
And the eunuchs? Scary as hell — their influence and power over the court created so much tension and danger.
Overall, The Blood of Youth is a must-watch for wuxia fans. It has heart, action, depth, humor, and a perfect balance of character-driven storytelling and thrilling martial arts.
Just go for it !!!
It's amazing!
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Beats my Expectations
Ok, for first, I had to create an account on MyDramalist just to give this review. This is my first time writing a review after watching a drama series. I've watched TBOY 3 times and at each. I watched TBOY in 2022/23 and twice already this year 2025 and at each time, it never felt boring. It has great storyline. I only recently watched DY (Dashing Youths) then coming back to watch TBOY for the 3rd time so as to follow the story.I love every single character in this series. Each one played their role so well. I love the fact that there's a comical side to it.
What I Expected: (Not to a complete spoiler 😁)
I really expected to see some sort of connection between Baili Donjun and Wuxin as the former was the best friend of the latter's father and also, BD was the one who made the 12 years agreement with Tiawantian so I expected that BD would be the closest person to Wuxin. Also, I didn't like BD's expression whenever he mentioned Ye Dingzhi. It was as if they never were first which was my thought until I watched Dashing Youths. I mean, they were best friends so there should be some sort of connection when he's mentioned by his supposedly "best friend."
Do I recommend this drama? Yes, a million times. 👍🤞
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Messy wuxia story
took me a while to understand the timeline of the story of XS, from the time he was crown prince, then lost his skills and then wandering the world. he seemed not to want to care about the others on the outside but was kinda too involved somehow through his position and care for friends.i didnt like the romance in this story, it's a fight for brotherhood and peace... why is there a need to include a love line just because? i didnt find much chemistry between XS and QL and it feels really forced.
i liked watching liu xue yi bald in this show. as usual, his acting is top notch despite looking a bit too mature for the age of the actual character...
overall the show was entertaining but i doubt i will rewatch.
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this drama realyy abou young adventure
menurutku, so far, ini adalah drama wuxia terbaik yg ak tonton dan benar-benar layak untuk ditonton ulang. sesuai judulnya, drama ini benar-benar menceritakan tentang petualangan para remaja. dari yg awalnya nggak saling kenal berakhir menjadi persahabatan sejati yg saling melindungi. pengembangan dari tiap karakternya ada dan berasa banget, bukan hanya kekuatan tapi juga kepribadian yg perlahan berubah. persahabatan mereka sungguh membuat iri. ini benar-benar cerita tentang dunia persilatan, dibubuhi romansanya tipis tapi tetap terasa di hati penonton. romance nya yg tipis bikin salting muluu😭please... ak tidak sabar menunggu Season 2 nyaa, cepatlah syutingg...😭✨
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Not as good.
It's mid, in most ways.Not amazingly good, not too boring or super terrible.
Mid.
The story's super average - you've heard it all before. I am honestly getting quite tired of protagonists with mysterious non-commoner past and I hate how so many wuxia have to steer their story into politics and courtly intrigue.
I hate courtly intrigue! The scheming princes, the power hungry eunuchs, the troubled emperors and forgotten consorts.
Good grief, shoot me now, I can't take it.
For the most part the story seems to have a clear goal and an endpoint and the pacing forward is not bad. But towards the end it slows down and almost stumbles into the ending head first, trips over its own feet and stops suddenly.
It felt quite awkward.
The characters are fine. You've seen it all before, every single character is a stereotype. But they're ok.
The acting is serviceable, with the older actors carrying the young ones quite often. Ao Rui Peng was too cartoony and weird for me, I didn't care for Lei Wu Jie.
Li Hong Yi held a single note for the entire show and it was ok? He's a pretty guy and the script didn't ask much more from him.
Liu Xue Yi seems to have had fun? Question mark? Wuxin as a character is used weirdly, mostly not being present and having his own story arc in the background. Also cartoony as a performance, but a much better actor than Ao Rui Peng.
Neither of the two female leads convinced me, or grabbed me in any way.
Tang Lian was also there.
Shout out to Cui Peng as Luo Qing Yang, who gave an incredibly strange performance and I had to laugh every time his weirdo sulky face was on screen.
Last honorable mention goes to Hu Wei, who looks like he was animated by Pixar. Very cute tho.
A good wuxia has to have cool fights.
The Blood of Youth does have fights, sure.
OK, I won't talk around it - I hate this stuff. Not just the heavy use of CG, I dislike how uninteresting it is and how low stakes it feels.
There's no tension, there's no context for anything. How strong is this character? Who the F knows, I guess I'll wait for them to tell me.
The main problem is that everyone already starts quite strong and every single character that comes later is even stronger.
But there's no difference in any of the fights, the environment doesn't matter, nothing matters.
The characters will conjure up some CG effects, point their weapon or fingers against the opponent and stand there.
That's it. Every single fight ends up as a finger contest with magical auras clashing into each other. No clever use of techniques, or the battlefield, no smart cooperation between characters. No, just point at the enemy and hope you're stronger.
This kind of power creep is a common problem in anime, compare the fights at the start of Naruto to many later ones in Shippuuden. And here it's like that from the very beginning.
Overall I didn't hate it, but it's nowhere near as good as people claim.
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Waste of time, stupid plots I waited for many episodes to say any twists or plots but only stupid love/costum drama. the main character is an arrogant guy with no smartness only some losers tricks and the actors are not skilled.
Waste of time, stupid plots I waited for many episodes to say any twists or plots but only stupid love/costum drama. the main character is an arrogant guy with no smartness only some losers tricks and the actors are not skilled.
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This review may contain spoilers
EDIT AFTER FINISHING THE SERIES: I WANT SECOND SEASON ALREADY. That's it. That's the edit."I was wrong about you. I thought you pretended to be broke. You are actually broke."
Xiao Se spews gems like this all the time. His lines are full of dry humour delivered in a deadpannest deadpan. He and Lei Wenjie are either always lost or broke, despite being a prince and a general's son. In the beginning, Xiao Se loses one layer of his expensive clothing everytime they get to a new place because he has to sell them to fund their travel. He might have to travel naked had they not reach their destination. Eventually they do reach the Xenyue city (?), but three months behind schedule thanks to Xiaojie's terrible sense of direction.
I haven't finished this series but I have snorted some laughs many times. There are some sad moments too. But the camaraderie of these young people keeps me glued to the tiny screen of my smartphone. I will update when I finish it.
OH AND BEAUTIFUL MEN. The male casts are way more beautiful than their female counterparts. My favourites are Xiao Se and the Tao Sword Deity, and Daddy Spear deity. And of course Wuxin. The prettiest bald boy. I still can't accept that he is supposed to be 17. More like 17 going on 35. Still pretty tho.
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This review may contain spoilers
the best series i have seen
This series is one of the best series I have seen. I am watching the series now for the tenth time.The reasons why this series is my favorite are:
It has a really good ending.
nobody died , Except for the evil one who died by suicide.
There is an obvious brotherhood and some romance.
The fights are really amazing, the best I've seen.
And there is something that bothered me:
in the series Xiao Se lost his inner strength but you don't have to worry about episode 23 / 24 he regains his inner strength and he will be stronger than ever.
In short, you should see it.
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Why did they waste such a good character (Wu Xin)?
To start, I have not read Shao Nian Ge Xing the novel or series (not sure what it is). I don’t know if the original story misses out on what could have been with Wu Xin or not. Either way, the screen writer or the original author missed out here.This would have been a perfect drama if the character of Wu Xin was on screen more than he was.
Characters:
The Blood of Youth is wuxia show with an ensemble cast of interesting characters. It all starts out with Xiao Se meeting Lei Wu Jie and setting off on a journey. I believe that the goal of this drama is to take Xiao Se (played by Li Hong Yi) on a road to redemption. After several episodes, Xiao Se, Lei Wu Jie (portrayed by Ao Rui Peng), and Wu Xin (well done Liu Xue Yi) develop a strong friendship.
Sikong Qian Luo (Lin Bo Yang), Ye Ruo Yi (Flora Dai), and Tang Lian (Li Xin Ze) all come in and out of episodes like ships passing in the night. Don’t get me wrong, I like all the interesting characters that ebb and flow in this drama. It keeps things lively.
Wu Xin was the best character of all, full of inconsistencies and fun. Liu Xue Yi did an amazing job portraying such a likeable character who could have been obnoxious or too understated. I wanted him on the screen……as much as possible.
Sadly, by episode 7, Wu Xin leaves and doesn’t comeback for anything meaningful until the wrap up of story lines towards the end of the 40 episodes.
Why???
The dichotomy and chemistry between Wu Xin, Xiao Se, and Lei Wu Jie are amazing. Why couldn’t that keep going? Why did they just trot him out to fix things in the middle and then provide the answers at the end?
This drama would have been so much better if the relationship between these three had been explored more in depth.
A special shout out to some of my favorite characters: Luo Ming Xuan (Zhao Wen Hao) played the phenom who was in love with his shifu. Wu Shuang (Dong Li Wu You) cocky kid who could use a sword and had integrity, Hua Jin (Ai Mi) doctor extraordinaire, and Mu Chun Feng (Hu Wei) rich kid and intellectual with a sunny attitude.
Story:
The story of this drama mainly revolves around Xiao Se and his quest for redemption. His ending was spot on and could have really been bungled, same with Lei Wu Jie. To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that Xiao Se had the most to lose in this drama, but Lei Wu Jie, Sikong Qian Luo, and Ye Ruo Yi remained steadfast in their support of him. I loved that his friends NEVER wavered.
The friendships developed in this drama are what kept me watching until episode 40. The romance was non-existent but the friendships…….top notch.
Music:
The music did not detract from the show, but it wasn’t as fun as A Dream within a Dream or timeless as Love Between Fairy and Devil. Would I purchase any of the songs…….NOPE. Production spent their money on sets, costumes, and enough actors to populate a small village, not the music.
Overall:
I plan to rewatch much of this, especially the parts with WuXian, because he was the best character by far. My lower rating stems from how much he was underutilized. His character should have been written out or written in instead of this strange on-the-fence type of situation…….I’m so frustrated.
If you’re looking for a good drama about friendship, this is exactly the one you want to watch, but don’t get attached to Wu Xin. You’ll be pissed off like I am.
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What is Jianghu? This is Jianghu.
It didn't occur to me that the concept of Jianghu (江湖) is unique to the Chinese culture until recently when my friend asked us "what is Jianghu?" and I realised I had difficulty explaining it.Indeed, what is Jianghu? It's not a venue, it's not a society/clubs/gangs, it's not a country, so what is it?
When people mentioned "Jianghu", we all knew what it meant - it is "somewhere" where people with martial arts ability from different walks of life meet each other. They fight for all sorts of reasons but principled and they are definitely have 义气 (another term that doesn't have an equivalence in English, closest translation is loyalty/brotherhood).
The Blood of Youth depicts such a Jianghu too. It also asked this question in one of the episodes. The answer gave was "Jianghu is where your heart desires." Indeed, the Jianghu in TBOY is what all the characters desire - Xiao Se desired for people who support and love him for who he is as a person and not after his status and/or position, Lei Wu Jie desired for improving his martial arts ability, etc.
TBOY is also about youth - the fervour that the characters have, the pain from the misunderstandings that they have about their parents and loved ones, the maturity after learning from their mistakes... this is exactly what youth is, it is loud and emotional, it is painful yet the joy and happiness experienced are also exhilarating. TBOY did such an excellent job until I would want to join their Jianghu and experienced youth together.
Amazing drama and I can't wait for Season 2.
(tried watching Dashing Youth but the pacing of the drama was a bit off...)
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