ShortCircuit

I have a good feeling about this. I hope it'll be an awesome series. Ji Sung is always a good bet, he knows how to pick his dramas :)

I came here for Byakuya, got a bit disappointed (not really Miyavi's fault, anime Byakuya is a tough act to beat), stayed for Ichigo (and I don't even like anime Ichigo all that much, LOL.)

Can't say how it compares to the manga, TBH, that's too long and convoluted for me (and actually got fed up with the anime around the halfway point too), but it's an honest adaptation of the first bits of the first arc that delivers on special FXs (the Hollows could've stood to be a bit scarier), and is not too hard to follow for people who didn't watch even the first part of the anime and/or didn't read the manga.

It kind of falls flat in the part where there's no time at all to develop any of the characters, up to and including the MCs, so there's that. But nothing much on the Quincys (really disappointed on that, too :( ), Urahara was there for the background, nothing at all on the school friends, too much time spent on how Ichigo ~sees~ ghosts. At least they had Eguchi Yosuke (SAITO!!!!) as the dad, and OMG Renji got massacred (OK, time to stop here, or I'll start seeing all the bad parts and none of the good ones.)

The music is just so-so (NOTHING even close to Shiro Sagisu's On the Precipice of Defeat, though I could swear there was just a little SOMETHING there, trying hard to remind people of that awesome theme), but hey, at least Fukushi Sota is cute and he definitely has the right body for action scenes :D

For those who don't remember the first OSTs of Bleach the anime, here's On the Precipice of Defeat, just so you know how amazing that was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLyi5xHtkb0

This has been asked and answered dozens of times, LOL. There's a DVD version (29 eps), and a TV version (32 eps). The content is the same, the cut is a bit different (TV ver. eps are shorter.)

If you found a 29 eps ver., it's probably the DVD ver. Don't worry, it's complete.

As for why the two versions happened - because of time restraints on the TV channel as compared to online, probably.

I have to say this - I love that stony brook. I want to move there forever, build a little cozy wooden house and expel every other human from its area. There, I have staked my land lot, you all can go elsewhere.

I'm starting to really like this - there's heartbreak, there's goofiness, there are mysterious strangers doing whatever the hell they're doing (I don't care), I like how he's only advancing through being in peril of his life, LOL. Yes, I'm strange like that.

Is this going to be something like Naruto or Bleach, LOL? Then Yool is being very Byakuya :D It's looking to be something very shounen anyway, more of the getting-stronger-and-stronger-and-STRONGER!! type. But then they ran away. Heheh.

So yeah, I'll be watching this. Too bad about the 10 eps coda, if it'll happen, because it will definitely break the series' stride. But maybe I'll get lucky and the coda will either happen and make sense, or not happen and the series will stand on its own. Arthdal vibes have mostly settled down at least.

Yes. Lee Jong Suk - GIMME!!!!! :D

After ep 13 - she's really cute playing the new fox, and Xiao Shun Yao should really, really do a drama where he's a father or older brother, he's shining. And the little girl is cute too :)

Episode 2 is better already, in terms of story flow (for me at least). There are some relationships already forming (I love that very young gisaeng with a sense of business :D), the effects are still good, and they stopped hopping from here to there to back again at least for now.

So the dynamics so far are - Wook is interested in Mu-Deok (as master for now, maybe more to come), Mu-Deok is not interested in anything but now has too little choice, Dang-Goo sees her as their pet/mascot (he's always petting her head LOL, some day he's going to get that hand snapped off), and Yool is intrigued by Wook's new maid but still not caught in her gravity net. Poor Cho-Yeon seems relegated to the role of Princess B*tch who got rejected and now is still mad about it.

Overall, there were some Arthdal vibes again, LOL, it looked like half the tribes' chieftains AND half the Arthdal priesthood cast are here :D

The music still sucks, but hey. There's time. Here's hoping.

Wow, this is really very complex. Thank you for the detailed explanation, any new knowledge is appreciated!

I stand corrected. I thought editing was the arrangement of scenes in an official order according to the plot and/or director's choice, after all the filming is done. I would have imagined they had a logical plot or at least an order to shoot the scenes that would need the least money/time expenditures LOL. At least that's how I would do it, were it my job.

Oh, that's such a wonderful idea - Mu Deok's eyes being the actual mark of soul shiting. It would explain how come she's suddenly seeing (if the original was really blind), and also establish that Wook is also good at some things magical, because nobody else has (yet) seen it.

Maybe they need perfect soul-shift mates to not go crazy, who knows. Maybe it'll be part of the magic system later on. And yeah, other than being mad that the king inflicted a rape child on his family, maybe the mage decided a soul-shifter's soul-son is too dangerous to live AND practice magic too.

I wonder how come Wook isn't the king's adopted son or something, though, since the king said he'd need to swipe bodies exactly because he couldn't have kids of his own... Definitely more plot to cover this is needed in the future :D

There's a second part/season planned?! I'm getting bad Arthdal Chronicles vibes whenever I hear about kdrama seasons on Netflix :(

There's a lot of time to add to the story, obviously. Jang Wook's dad who is a vagabond now (according to the rumours) couldn't be the rapist king, though, and he'd be the one who sealed off Wook's power. So he was alive at least until the child was born.

Poor (actual) Mu Deok, LOL, though, If her body juuuuust happened to be the right one for the assassin. She's gone :( Oh well, we never met her anyway :D

I'm going to keep watching for Mu Deok, myself.

The editing AND the genres. You have the intro with the horror soul shifter (which I don't mind, they add some more horror stuff later, or at least it's horror for me, since some things out there look like zombies, LOL), then the soul switch with the intention-to-rape villain added in, then the action sequence with the fearless assassin, then the fantasy with the soul shifting assassin, then the rom-com, then the bits of childhood memory, then the origin of the assassin's obsession with the four main mages families, then again some rom-com harem, then some more action, then a chase (but is he really wanting to harm her or just wants to find out about the whistles from his childhood?), then the dramatic declaration of Jang Wook etc.

I got whiplash, a bit. So it's settled - this is a mash up of rom-com and fantasy, with a background of horror, let's see how well they make it work in the end. But it would really help if the transitions are bit more smooth, at least for me. I see now it's by the Hong sisters, which I didn't really watch before (because of cast and genre, mosty), so it might be a hit-and-miss in the end for me anyway, but I'm willing to give it a go at least for a few eps.

Edit

PS, you added some more, so I'm adding a bit too, LOL. I DO understand what is going on, actually, while I haven't watched Hong sisters' dramas in the horror mash up genre before, I am WAY too familiar with fantasy of any kind, including horror rom-com fantasies, even if only in books. I also HAVE watched a lot of fantasy dramas - Western or Asian - and so I am not a newbie scared off by a new-to-them genre LOL. This added for background.

What I'm saying is that the first episode is interesting (even for someone who didn't watch the writers' previous work so is unfamiliar with their preferred tropes - which is a good thing) but that the tech details could use some help. Particularly in editing and music, come to think of it. But also, yes, despite the cast's previous work, some of them are still not yet convincing, hopefully because they didn't yet have any time to be settled and properly introduced (which brings me back to editing, but let's give it a rest there).

This is a long drama, they'll have plenty of time to iron out any problems, hopefully. Let's see and enjoy then, shall we? :D

Why would Jang Wook's dad reject him? I mean, okay, it was the other dude's SOUL who was inside his body doing the thing and getting his wife pregnant, but the BODY was his. Would the magic system imply that when there's a transferrence of soul, something changes in what that inhabited body does to the world in return (aside being under another soul's operation, LOL). I mean, the genes are the same right? If Jang Wook is going to have some magic powers, he got them from his father's body, not the soul.

Also, is it implied that ALL soul shifters eventually go mad and need to attack people to retain their human aspect? Then wouldn't Mu Deok sooner or later become a zombie-look alike and lose herself too? Why would she actually want to soul-shift and REMAIN there until she gets her power back? What then? Would she shift again?

The editing is all over the place, there are parts where I wondered if it'll be a reverse-harem comedy, then they added some sprinkles of horror, one of the main female characters hasn't even put up an appearence yet, LOL, I see why they need 20 eps for this one. Add that some of the cast (support or main, even) are acting a bit raw, like they're not certain on how to actually move, talk or even express emotions. I hope they'd grown into it, this is a pretty long series, and they'd have had the time to get it right.

On the plus side, though, this really looks to be an actually original fantasy drama (well, nevermind the tropes), I love the sets and costumes (no more hanboks for the scullery maids, yay!), the beginning is really intriguing - because seriously, I'll use a spoiler on this later - and there's the comedy. The FL manages to convey the comedic aspect rather well so far, and it's not her fault I keep thinking about Zhang Zi Yi in Hero (CN, 2002) when I see her face, they look so much alike! (Or is it just me?)

The effects are amazing for such a long drama, I hope they didn't spend the whole budget on just the first eps and there's going to be some more magic in the future eps. The music also could stand some upgrading, but it's the first ep only, there's time to improve.

Overall, I'll watch the next one, and maybe a few more after that, until it either shows they'll keep up, or that they're spent, and then decide.

She has only been dying for these eps. Does the plot move somewhere else and soon, please? He's the still the whipped puppy, err, fish, from part 1, she STILL treats him like he's an idiot (I mean, he's the prince of North Abyss, people go to war to die on his command, but she doesn't tell him anything important, DESPITE knowing theirs is supposedly a lifebond and he'll end up alone forever soon enough.)

What kind of love is that? Is he supposed to be inferior because she's a Spiritual Master and he's a ~big-tailed white fish~?

I still love the songs, the cinematography is still pretty good (it was amazing in the first part), but TBH I'm pretty fed up with the lake prison house setting, the butterfly girl is getting much more annoying than in the first part, and the story really needs to move on. Soonest, please. I'm almost in the second half of the season, and things haven't moved an inch from where they were at the end of part 1.

I think there's going to be some rebirth involved, given the OP song, and I love a good rebirth story, I just wish it happens soon enough things aren't expedited in the last 2-3 eps for the sake of a HEA/HFN.

PS Li Shu, while also a whipped puppy, is getting much more interesting every moment. Ci Sha's are the only honest reactions / convincing emotions I've seen from a lot of the actors, in this second part.

PPS The cat lady's cousin, the troublemaker, is a complete and total idiot. Who TF decided he should still be a military leader?!

After 7 eps of this second part...

No, it's not, but the leads, who happen to be both male, have great chemistry.

This is such a great rom-com, why wouldn't you watch this? :D

Don't believe me, watch the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt0PFf2CWCI

If those looks LWJ gives WWX when he isn't looking are appearing as bromance, thank the powers that be we never got the full-on romance, LOL. The Earth can't stand to be so scorched :D