Meari21

I believe it's because both male leads have knowledge of the modern world that they use to help them advance in a more primitive world. Joy of Life may be more politically-driven than Guardians of the Dafeng but the comedic vibe is somewhat similar, only the latter dialed up the slapstick comedy several notches higher. Xu Qian and Fan Xian are pretty much cut from the same cloth. Both are heroic in nature but rebellious, resourceful, playful, and smart as a whip. Like Fan Xian, Xu Qian also uses modern-day poetry and even song lyrics to impress the scholars in Dafeng. And apparently, their novel versions have harems. But I think Xu Qian's ability to solve crimes makes more logical sense here since he was a police academy trainee aiming to become a police detective, while Fan Xian was only a writer. Those are the only similarities that really stood out to me, though. The genres are different of course, Guardians is an isekai story like Love Game in Eastern Fantasy. I don't know why fans of Joy of Life are tearing this down because of the comparisons. I honestly think both series are enjoyable in their own way.

Funny. One of the reasons why I liked this drama is because of the Joy of Life similarities. I didn't know that there are negative reactions to the comparison.

There's political intrigue and scheming characters. I just don't know yet if the machinations are as elaborate as the ones in Joy of Life. All I know is Xu Qian is one smart cookie. He does remind me of Fan Xian.

The biggest similarity I see are the MLs. Like Fan Xian, Yang Ling/Xu Qian has knowledge of the modern world that they both use to their advantage. He's well-versed in poetry, literature, chemistry, and has the street smarts of a police academy trainee. He's also a capable martial artist. Their personalities are similar too. They're both the playful and troublemaker types. Plus the comedic vibe is somewhat similar although Guardians of the Dafeng lays the slapstick comedy on thick and is much sillier in nature.

Oh somebody edited the plot summary. I was going to ask why it's tagged as a time travel story when it's basically an isekai. I thought maybe I missed something or that's how it is in the novel so I was going to ask about that.

According to many wuxia stories I've encountered over the years, practitioners of certain arts such as martial arts require complete focus and getting involved in sexual affairs would only distract them from their practice. Hence the preference for virgins. In other stories, the qi of virgins is believed to be more pure and more powerful in certain circumstances and is often associated with the yang or positive energy.

I'm not a fan of his but I might become one because of this drama. I never pegged him for someone who could be great at comedy as he seemed to have been typecast as cold, serious, and brooding. But I was surprised to see him so animated and funny in this drama.

I find it quite funny. The comedy is very Asian slapstick, which can be unamusing for those who find that style silly and childish. I grew up watching Jackie Chan wuxia movies and this is very reminiscent of that.

I like seeing this side of Wang Hedi. He actually has great comedic timing! I'm glad he was given the chance to play this role. It's such a refreshing change from his usual brooding tsundere characters.

Personally, I found this season more engaging. The first one was very reminiscent of J-dramas and manga/anime series I've seen in the past. It was a good watch, but to me, it was just another "death game" series with lots of elaborate games, scheming characters, and bloody deaths. But this season has more depth in terms of character motivations and relationships. Sure, it does end on a cliffhanger because it's basically the second act of the story, it's neither the beginning nor the end. But I think there's more to the human aspect of the story in this than in the first season. It further asks the question why it's in people's nature to risk life and limb for the .000001% chance at gaining the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when push comes to shove. Plus I love that two of Korea's finest and most famous leading men play baddies here. Not to mention, TOP who was one of the most well-known members of Big Bang back in the day.

This! Not to mention that Da Vinci's life's work is proof that artists can also dabble in science. From the first season they've already established that Shen Yi is no ordinary artist. His expertise clearly lies in forensic art but he could've studied other forensic fields such as forensic photography, psychology, and chemistry to make him a more well-rounded forensic scientist/police officer. Many people who specialize in forensics do. He did demonstrate his ability to reconstruct images from blurry photos so that can be attributed to his knowledge of forensic photography. He also showed his knowledge in psychology. It's just that they kind of downplay his expertise sometimes, especially since Shen Yi often introduces himself as a mere sketch artist.

And also because in the first season, Du Cheng didn't fully trust him yet so he played a relatively smaller role in investigations. But if you notice, as the season progressed and Du Cheng learned to rely on him more, Shen Yi became a more integral part of the team. This season, he has already proven his worth, so they're giving him more leeway. Even their chief supports him. In the first season, it was already established that Shen Yi became a cop who specializes as a sketch artist because of his remorse for getting Du Cheng's mentor killed. His art mentor even tried to persuade Du Cheng to tell Shen Yi he should give up being a cop and go back to being an artist. So he was never just a sketch artist, he has always had the authority to interrogate suspects.

He's also a cop. He's not just a sketch artist. He also studied psychology and forensics so he's a valuable part of the team.

This season is off to a great start.

They've only released 4 episodes so far, then two episodes every day after that. I no longer have VPN and I don't want to renew it just for this, so I'm just going to watch it on KissKh.

Try iQIYI US

Yep. I am now watching it on KissKh. I would rather watch it on my paid subscription apps though. Bummer!

This is Joy of Life 2 all over again. I specifically subscribed to WeTV for that drama but I ended up watching it on other sites because it's not available in certain territories. This is also a highly anticipated sequel and both WeTV and iQIYI in my region do not carry it. iQIYI often releases their shows globally, but WeTV or Tencent seems to be the one doing most of the region locking for their highly anticipated dramas. They did that with Blossoms Shanghai and The Wolf. I'm still salty about that.

Ahhh... this sucks!

Agreed. I watched the anime but still felt confused by the way they handled the plot progression. I found the talking babies especially jarring and some things were just plain cringe. I understand the interviews are adapted from the manga but there are some things that do not translate well to live action and that's usually my problem with live action adaptations. They don't quite know how to balance things out and make them more palatable for live action. I also didn't appreciate some of the changes they made because it made some things a little less logical. I watched this solely because I was curious how they would adapt certain stuff. But all in all, it's just decent for me. Just your garden variety live action adaptation, which is a shame because this could've been great. The plot is unique and refreshing and it shows the reality of the Japanese entertainment industry. They had the budget and talent to turn this into something bigger. Too bad, this could've been an easy slam dunk.