Michelle Topham

Oh, right, you're one of those people who believe only YOUR opinion is valid. Go away you clown.

Yep, it does. And I didn't like much about TLORC in the 1 1/2 episodes I watched so it was an easy drop, but the dubbing especially is horrible. In some scenes it's a full second behind the person's mouth moving, and I'd say about 40% of the voice actors' voices don't match the actor/character at all, but especially Li Yi Tong's. Even that fake squeaky child's voice in the first scenes was like nails screeching down a blackboard to me.

Dubbing on DWAD was superb, but expected for the leads as both LYT and LYN never fail in that respect. Seems to have been an afterthought by the sound team on this drama unfortunately, and it shows.

I've liked Wang Chu Ran since The Longest Promise, but even she couldn't keep me interested in that :) Hope you enjoy it more than I did!!!

None right now. Dropped Love Has Fireworks after Ep 1 (Nope, to AI-face swap and helping destroy an actor's career), and I rarely put dramas on hold anyway. I either watch them or drop them (but my drop list is also really small :)

Keep going. I'm on Ep 7 and have seen some of the spoilers (don't know WHHHHHHY people can't use the Spoiler button that's provided for them???), and I'm still really enjoying it. The two leads are fabulous.

I'm just finishing up Episode 6 but have to say this is SO well done. The CGI is excellent, the stunts/wire work is cool, and the bromance chemistry between the two leads is incredibly believable. Zhang Xin Cheng and Ding Yu Xi are perfectly cast as well -- superb performances. Excellent writing, as well as very funny when it's supposed to be funny. Loving it so far.

Honestly, if I was to watch it now, I'm not sure I would like it as much as I did when it first came out in 2006 as, for one reason, I hate that art style. But back then, it was just another anime with a very well-written plot and cool characters. Maybe try the first episode and see if you like it?

She dubbed her own voice, as she usually does, and as did Liu Yu Ning, which is one of the reasons why that drama was so good. God knows why they've chosen a voice actress here whose voice does NOT match either the character or Li Yi Tong.

Yep. And even now in Episode 24, Feng Zhi Yao is still calling her "brother" and treating her like she's a man -- "you're a successful businessman" -- even though he knows, and it's apparent to anyone who hasn't been stabbed in both eyes, she's female :) It's dumb. But C-dramas always do it :)

I posted below about this and, honestly, I'm not trying to call anyone out as many people do this (and I know some people don't understand what is legal and what isn't), but pleeeeasse, if you're going to listen to the OST, don't share bootleg videos but instead share/listen to it on legal videos or on legal channels like Spotify.

This is Zhou Shen's video from his official YouTube channel for the opening theme (which is fabulous by the way) --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW-UO70eVL8

and this is the insert song (you can tell it's legal as, underneath the video, it says "Provided to YouTube by Tencent").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCUljs17yx8

I've been a music journalist for 30 years (moved to Austria after writing over 300 articles about one Austrian singer :), and know thousands of singers/bands in many countries, and almost every one of them struggles to get the money for their music that they deserve due to greedy record labels/promoters etc. Even the mid-tier ones. Watching bootleg videos takes even more money away from them. It's no wonder half the musicians I know have to work second jobs.

Plus, the Chinese music publishers are doing a MUCH better job lately of giving us access to legal OSTs. Pleeeeease support them where you can, and then we'll get more :)

That's a bootleg channel on YouTube, which I never use, as the artists themselves don't get credit. That one, for instance, already has over 4,000 views on their video. Views that belong to the artist, and not to someone randomly stealing their songs on YouTube.

The official channels almost always upload the official video/music video, and the artists themselves earn money/view counts there. And, if they don't, or are late uploading, Spotify usually has the songs legally.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1bdconQo7ngIcxaqaiwUqs?si=b2f68cb086fa4932

and Zhou Shen's theme song...

https://open.spotify.com/track/6RcDHOS8kTJFDmY1SKaLZ8?si=ece058b71282417a

And sorry to be strident about this, but I'm a music journalist (I moved to Austria specifically because of one singer I wrote about), and it PISSES me off when I see people stealing musicians' work, as every single singer/band I know, and I know thousands in about 15 countries, struggles to get the money they deserve for their music after the record labels have taken their cut.

Nope. It's just what Chinese dramas do. We're all supposed to believe that someone who is obviously a woman due to boobs, make up, voice etc is actually a man :)

English title The Story of Saiunkoku. Came out in 2006, so it's an older one, but somewhat of a classic.

Oh I'm sure many people will enjoy it as there are huge numbers of Joseph Zeng and Li Yi Tong fans out there and, if it's their thing, more power to 'em. I'll give it a fair one-episode test and, if I'm wrong and it's much better than it looks and sounds, I will be happy to admit I was wrong.

Like you, though, I've been looking forward to this one for ages as the anime was one of the first longer anime series I watched when it first came out in 2007, and have seen it twice more since as I liked the FL, ML, SML etc and the writing so much. Hugely disappointed they've messed with the plot to the extent they have then.

It's awful, isn't it? The first time he showed up, I couldn't figure out why his face was so horribly white compared to his neck and body, then it just got worse from there :)

And agree with you on 'AI assisted' instead of 'AI slop' (a term I really hate anyway :)

Ah you could be correct about that. I hadn't thought about it that way.

IMO, she wasn't being arrogant. She knew the Marquis' days as the Empress's favored are numbered and, when she does get rid of him, he will be killed along with anyone close to him. That's why she was warning Qin to leave now while he could. Qin was too arrogant and ignored her, which is why he ended up in the mess he did.

Sadly this may be a miss for me. Li Yi Tong's voice actress sounds awful, and the plot has been changed so much from the original anime (which is superb), it's barely recognizable. So effing disappointed, as I had been really looking forward to this one.

Will give Episode 1 a shot, but it's likely to be an easy drop for me.

That's what I plan on doing. Especially when you throw in they've used a horrible voice actress for Li Yi Tong's character and, with that, plus the massively changed plot (the anime is one of my all-time favorites) I hate this thing before it even starts.

Unfortunately, Chinese "writers" and I use that term loosely, as many Chinese dramas are written by not-particularly talented committees, often destroy an original work. Look at how many C-dramas we get where an original happy ending gets changed to a sad one because the idiots writing it thought it was "better".

Sadly, it's likely to be a not watch for me (although I will give the first episode a go). I love, love, love, the original anime, but the FL didn't sound like an effing 5-year-old girl like the voice actress has Li Yi Tong sounding in this. Sooooo tired of C-dramas doing this to grown women.