WM

Not sure about the dramas fitting your criteria.
I'm sure, if you asked in different places, people would offer you some modern masterpieces, aka "nicely powdered crap", but personally I'm not sure.

Maybe "The Rise of Phoenixes" or "Story of Kunning Palace"? I didn't watch either of them for multiple reasons, but MAYBE they would somehow fit what you are looking for.

Did you watch "Story of Minglan"? The court politics is a side story there, but it has one of the best romances you can find around. A very good drama; just be ready for a snail pace and a high episode count :).

For me, the Romance is pretty much always pathetic, so I can't help you.
Plus, there are no "any more like this" when talking "NiF".

Nobody would watch it in 2026, lol :).

I'm guessing maybe there are better candidates to rival it, but among the ones I watched after "Minglan", the only one done in a similar manner AND somewhat close in quality was IMO "Flourished Peony". The second season/part sucked ass though,

But Minglan's final episodes were also getting weaker. Just not to that extent,

I'm not a romance fan though, so I don't care if the leads kiss/marry/etc...

But I do care if they have dumb misunderstandings just to extend the story, by ruining their otherwise strong and competent characters.

The final rebellion was also rather weak IMO; although at least, the writers had some decent ideas how to use FF there despite her not having any martial arts or military strategic skills (I'm looking at you, "Prisoner of Beauty").

Bu Shu Lin (Blossoms of Power) is saying "Hi" to this waste of gender-bending.

Well, you won't be missing much if you drop it, especially if you expect a serious drama about the iconic female general.
It's nothing like that.

But, maybe you would like it as a military romcom with decent fighting and poorly executed politics sprinkled here and there.

Romance is minimal here...fortunately :).

Yeah, in almost every drama I'm thinking, "how did she not only survive, but even thrive before meeting ML, since he has to rescue her every damm time..."

Thankfully they didn't hide Zombies in the trailer, so the drama was easy to skip based on it alone.

Woman-centric dramas are what I'm looking for mostly, and typically, I have different issues - as they are pretty much never made the most capable/powerful person around; there are always some pumped-up Marty Sue ML with other lower interests around (hello "Blossoms of Power") to rescue her over and over and over again.

One of the exceptions (2025, I think, but I watched it recently) that I really enjoyed was "Kill My Sins".

In general, vertical dramas help in this aspect :).

Remember to drop it early too, heh :).

Only half-joking, as after episodes 11-12 the female lead becomes significantly more useless, and her initial brilliance, plus high stakes mixed with tension everywhere, were the reason I enjoyed it at the beginning.

But, some people are there for romance (very average IMO) or humour (automatic FF in my case).

I recommend you read "I became the cannon fodder who died early, and I angrily married the villain" and at the same time, hope it will never be televised in big drama format, as this is the most non-feminist story with a powerful female running things; it also lacks typical tropes (like love triangle, in-family fighting, misunderstanding between CP, etc...)

Title is horrible, novel is great.
There is also Vertical Drama (Parts 1&2) following around 25-30% of the book (should be 6 parts total to cover it fully) - https://mydramalist.com/797412-huan-qin-hou-wo-shun-bian-huan-le-jiang-shan-hen-he-li-ba

To be precise - a high-level military couple should be as much involved in the political Court as possible to make sure members of the ruling family or powerful clans opposing them (for whatever reason) won't be backstabbing them in front of the Emperor with a lack of food & grass provisions, or rebellion/treason accusations.
Or... a million other things that brought down so many military clans in dramas (and real life).

Thank you.

Thank you.

Actually, it's you who is a joke here, making the 2nd post in a row when you don't differentiate between the actress and the character she is playing.
I don't know even know anything about this actress; you dumb idiot.
Why I am supposed to hate her?

It reminds me of my old post about "Military Academy", where I did not like the character Bai Lu was playing (at least in the beginning episodes that I watched), as she seemed super weak and relying a lot on the guys around her.
Yet, a similarly dumb person thought I was criticising Bai Lu, when she actually is one of my favourite actresses,
Grow up.

Finally a negative post about the FL, which may give me a reason to not start it at all, since I'm strongly female-centric when choosing dramas.

"She has done some incredibly dumb things" - typically, this is one of the biggest disappointments for me.

It has very good reviews overall, though.

I think it's possible that I tried "Rakuen" in the past, as I was checking out many of Nakama's dramas; maybe I just didn't like it.
I watched a bit of Trick, not my type of genre, but it was quite fun; Abe is also a very good actor.
Also, you reminded me that I really liked music there; I will have to add it to my Playlist :).

"Joshi Deka (2007)" was quite good, plus Yuki Nakama slimmed down a bit in that drama (playing a clumsy policewoman, who was a great sharpshooter) and looked super hot :).
And the music was great as well there, too.

And "Arifureta Kiseki (2009)" had some interesting moments, especially the opening episode.

Some of the dramas with her were impossible to watch because of the lack of subtitles :(

Come on; I have dozens of dramas to watch (mostly verticals these days) and many actresses I like to follow. Why would I waste my time on someone I dislike? I am not a masochist.
Cheers from Poland.

There is no clear reason why I dislike Ryoko Hirousu so much, but I just do. Fortunately, I've watched only two or three dramas with her, so she doesn't mess up my plans as much as some Chinese actors who are everywhere :).

And Yuki Nakama is fantastic, both in "Gokusn" and in more serious dramas as well.