YueofBlueGables
Visually speaking, it is an excellent adaptation, beyond my expectations. The cast is spot on, the setting and costumes are just like straight out of a manga/anime, and what it is the most important, they don't look like cosplay nor props. Even characters are Nezumi and Arlong don't look out of place at all. Strictly speaking, I am not a fan of Sanji nor Nami but they were my favorites in this LA... I love that they toned down the aggressiveness of Nami and the pervert-ness of Sanji. Instead, she is just tough and he is a smooth flirt. Can't wait to see the rest of the crew!
I understand they had to cut many stuff and rush things up, so I have no complaints there. Everything went smoothly anyway. Maybe there were too many scenes of Garp and Koby, but the actors were so good I didn't mind too much (specially Koby, like WOW, he looked and behaved just like anime-Koby)
I loove that we have so many accents and not just American accent. There are actors from South Africa, Australia, UK, Mexico, Spain... Sanji and Luffy saying "Nami" with such a Latin accent, I love it <3
My complaint would be the script though. Like there are many lines that are straight "Marvel"-like; as in, a bit cheesy, funny lines are a bit cheap, other lines are a bit fan-service-ish.... specially those from Luffy.
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Best Singing Competition Show... ever
There is no other competition show as good as this one. You will just watch the performances in awe, all of them. All 36 contestants are not only sweet and attractive, but they are all talented as heck and you can see how much they love what they do. The only reason the final does not have 36 Principals, ergo, Winners, is just because of the lack of confidence and/or experience... ALL of them are wonderful, and I love that each one of them had a moment where they shine on stage.Prior starting this, I was a fan of Ayunga and Zhou Shen. I was also familiar with Gao Tianhe (because of TTXS) and Zheng Yunlong (because of YunCiFang). After finishing this, I became a fan of maybe 95% of them. Like Wang Xi... the moment he sung the first note, I was in love. I think he shines best as a solo, instead of in a group, but I loved how he supported ZS who had little confidence in himself.
Yu Di was so consistent and each of his performances was a standing ovation one. I guess I loved the most experienced artists (they were unbeatable), like him, Wang Kai, YunCiFang and Wang Xi. In that sense it was amazing to see Cai-Cai, who was one of the youngest, to perform each time like a pro. Still, there are others not that experienced but still performed like stars, like Li Qi (that voice! Their renditon of "The Sound of Silence"... wow); Liao Jialin (he suited Wang Kai so well); Zhai Lishuotian (he was born to be on stage).
I looove the bond btw Ayunga and Dalong, and how much they love the art of musicals. They were the harshest judges on themselves, and the best mentors on the younger guys in their team. Each of their duets was a pleasure to watch (their chemistry!) and there is no doubt Ayunga was the star of the show. The judges adored him and the competitors were always clapping for him. Ayunga singing in French? His French wasn't as good as the other two but who cares when his harmonizations are the best? The rendition of "I'll cover you" with ZYL... how much they improved from their uni days!
I love that there is no elimination (all 36 are there till the end) and I am thrilled that this show made them popular and made bel canto and musicals a much popular genre in China. The guys were mostly there to make this art more well known and to improve themselves. I am not lying when I say I am rooting for each one of them (ok, not so much for Gao Tianhe haha, such a diva) and I looove that the Professor Liao who was also a judge, made some good advices and even invited the 1975 children :) and even Yu Di got some job offers! I love it :)
I wish I could read more about each one of them and see what are they performing now, if they are still in this bussiness and what happen to each one of them. At least we still have Yuncifang and Zhou Shen and Wang Xi **teary-eyes**
There are 2 versions, the normal one (1hr30min each ep) and the extended one (2hrs each ep approx). I wish I could watch the extended version, but the subs in youtube are not synchronized, while in DM are ( the normal version). So please watch this amazing show on Dailymotion... YT also mutes some performances.
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I knew almost nothing to nothing about skateboarding before this show, and I appreciate how it teaches it to the ignorants like me a bit about ollies, flips, etc. Made me want to try a bit while I was watching it, so in that sense, I think the objective of this show was a success.
I love the sense of community these guys, and 3 or 4 girls, have in the show. While there are 3 groups, leaded by 3 celebrities, and there are challenges and competitions, it was never really a competition between the skaters. All of them rejoiced when one succeeded, even if he/she was in the rival team, and all of them suffered when a skater couldn't do a trick. Most of the skaters knew each other before the show anyway, so there is a strong feeling of comradeship that was very nice to watch in the entire show. Even the leaders know each other a bit (Yibo treats Chen Xiao like his schoolmate, it was fun; while Joe Chen, who was leader for a couple of episodes, treated Yibo like she was her older sister, so cute!)
I was rooting for the skater girls just because they were girls, and I loved that the teams with girls on it had an advantage, unlike the "brotherhood" of Yibo XD His team really felt like a frat boy team; as a fan of Yibo I loved to watch him so easy going with his team and how fun and tight they were. My sister and I were half joking that they all probably got a group tattoo, they got along so well XD I give the "music" aspect a high rating because, while Chen Xiao's and Wang Luodan's sections got sweet type of songs, Yibo's and his team got "who let the dogs out" song XD
Thankfully the elimination process was removed by half of the show... it didn't make sense and it dampened the dynamic of the skaters. Unfortunately there is only one winner group at the end which was a shame because all of them deserved the award. But still, the winner group was very good under pressure, and I hope they all have enjoyed their trip to who-knows-where.
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Is it weird to say this 6episodes drama felt much longer than the 70episode drama??I felt like I was never going to finish... it was pretty bad. It helped to see the familiar clothes and places and listen to the bgm though.
Watch it if you love Yingluo and/or the Emperor. I do and I do not regret watching this bad short drama... it was so nice to see them (and their servants) again ^_^
There are 4 main characters in this short drama: Yingluo's daughter (Zhaohua), Erqing's son (Fu KangAn), a prince and Prince He's daughter (when did he become a father?? if this princess was born around the same time as Zhaohua, her father was already dead??). None of these 4 characters were likeable. There is a lot of screaming, jealousy and falling in/out of love in the space of 2-3 episodes, which didn't make sense at all.
Zhaohua is a very immature and annoying princess and I guess she only resembles her mother in the stubbornness part. Otherwise, no idea why she was her father's favorite **eyerolling**. She falls for the prince in ep2 or 3 and by the next episode, she was in love with the other guy **eyerolling**. The prince doesn't like her in one episode but by the next he is in love **eyerolling**. The "scheming" and revenge plays were like a kid doing them... a spoiled brat doing them. Not brainy like the prequel.
I don't think saying this was short made it impossible to like the new characters since I've watched many short dramas that were very well executed in a short length. It still amazes me that both dramas were written by the same screenwriter O_O
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I may have liked this season as much as season 1, which I didn't think it was possible. The group of talented people in this show! While S1 had the best selection of songs (many were traditional Chinese songs or songs from C-movies, which I adore to listen to), the elimination process of this season was much, much better. Why? Because there are a total of 5 duos in the final, from the total of 8. And the final 5 were seriously amazing, they all deserved to win (but of course there is only one winner).
My favorite duos were all from Group A: George Lam/Hu Xia; Joker Xue/Lisa and Jam Hsiao/Bichen Their voices, together and alone, were WOW.
My least favorite: Miriam/Eric Chou and Lui Fong/Zhai Xiao Wen... the least exciting group, and they didn't really contribute in anything, performance-wise speaking.
I think all duos learned something from their partner. Well, almost all, except for Jam Hsiao/Bichen... they were perfect from the beginning (thank God he could be in the show!!) and carried themselves like the royalty they are ? The true winner, though, was Hu Xia... to be partnered with George Lam alone but also the vocal training... ahhh George Lam was truly the cutest contestant. I cried like a baby with their Bygone Years performance.
Great chemistry between the duos (but only 5 duos that got to the end... the other 3 duos were too awkward). Penny was a little shy at first but Liu Yuning put her on ease, the camaraderie was ?. The talent of Lisa, WOW, her voice is amazing. Da Zhang Wei is so creative and I am glad Silence Wang was his partner because all their performances were fun.
What will I watch now ? Can't wait for S4, and crossing my fingers it is going to be as good as S1 and S3
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This drama was so thrilling and intense since the very first episode. You have to dismiss the realism in order to enjoy the whole drama (I am talking mainly about the several kidnappings). But I enjoyed every episode and I loved that it surprised me every time. I do think the last episode was a bit underwhelming but overall I think this was one of the best drama of this season. None of the characters is dumb, some of them are suspicious but fortunately the cops are not useless (I wasn't expecting anything less from Tamaki Hiroshi).
The acting was very good from everyone; of course Nino was excellent as always and I don't know if I was just sensitive watching him with a baby in his arms, but I cried a bit at the end. I loved to see him with Tabe-chan, even though I never watched Yamada Monogatari.
The truth about Koharu-chan was sadly not unexpected, so unfortunately not everyone gets a HEA.
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If you need something relaxing after a long day, just like the FL when she comes home, watch this nice little show. She provides the recipe of every dinner she makes, and the expression on her face when she says おいしい will make you smile instantly.
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My own comparison to Ashes of Love
Inevitable to compare them...- Female Lead: both are lacking in senses but XuanJi seemed more naive and innocent while JinMi looked like a psycho. By far XuanJi is the best one, she can actually fight, she is the God Of War for God's sake, she protects SiFeng like 90% of the times, and her "stabbing" wasn't as insulting as JinMi's. While both are manipulated and gaslighted by other people, XuanJi's situation was more understandable because the others wanted to use her and what better than to guilt-tripping her? JinMi's was just unforgivable. Also, while both of them didn't "feel" anything, XuanJi actually "felt" something for SiFeng, an affinity, friendship, etc. JinMi's supposedly curse was not to fall in love, but it seemed like she actually couldn't feel a thing... XuFeng could die before her eyes and she wouldn't even blink. I think Yuan Bing Yan (XuanJi) was better actress than Yang Zi.. YangZi just had to look pretty with tons of make-up, while Yuan Bing Yan was able to portray the innocent and the resentful GOW at the same time (with a very natural make-up)
- Male Lead: both are "Feng" and have beautiful, golden wings <3 tbh, SiFeng got on my nerves most of the times and I could never really liked him. A hero with a victim/martyr complex? Nah. He didn't care even for his life, as long as XuanJi lived. Bad guys could get away because SiFeng was so forgivable. He was never angry, impatient, resentful... his character was to love Xuanji, unconditionally, only. And of course, to vomit blood every episode. In this case, XuFeng wins by far, being a ML with many flaws (spoiled, resentful, fun, naughty); and while he also loves JinMi unconditionally, when she betrays him, he resents her; when she is being a pain, he rolls his eyes; when she was being silly, he teased her... that's what I liked in their romance. I also didn't like most of the times the make-up on SiFeng... 90% of the times his eyebrows were awful, not to mention his lips either full of blood, or totally white.
- Romance: saccharine and dramatically sweet in L&R; playful and dramatically sweet in AOL; the big plus in L&R is that there is no RunYu; the big plus in AoL is that they have a whole arc of being sweet and romantic with no rivals at all (except a bit of SuiHe but she loses very soon :D) I think there was more chemistry between the leads in AoL than in L&R.
- Supporting Characters: both have good supported friends and awful villains. In L&R we have several, like Teng She (who provides the comedic relief), the merman, brother Liu, and Wu ZhiQi was underdeveloped, or he would have been amazing too. And Purple Fox was the voice of reason! Demon Lord was so good I wished he was the main character :( I really disliked LingLong, she was so annoying and I couldn't understand why MinYan would love her, but she loved her sister and her own story was so painful and it made me cry :( It made me crazy to read comments in Viki saying Linglong had all the fault.. the fault of being RAPED? Because that is what that disgusting WuTong did.. he RAPED her. I hated him the most grrr. So the 2nd couple is much better in L&R, the 2nd couple in AoL was boring and I just wanted Muci to die, but the princess was so good :(
- Villains: honestly the villains in L&R were disgusting. WuTong was the most repulsive of all of them; Bailin the most disgusting of all but as manipulative as RunYu was anyway, the sect leaders were all stupid and useless, and worst of all, most of these villains do not get what they deserved. I honestly couldn't believe that that asshole Bailin made a mess of everything for more than 50 episodes, thought he was right (like a Nazi) and in the final episode, realizes he was wrong, has a minor punishment while all his men cry. Whut. The sect leaders were all manipulative and behave awfully with Sifeng, and then you have them in the final episode cheering for SiFeng and XuanJi, all good friends... Whut.
- OST: the good thing about xianxia, as far as I can see, is their OST. L&R has an excellent OP song but the ED is even better. But my favorite of all of their soundtrack is "Love Like Colored Glass" by Zhou Shen. So beautiful and moving. Nevertheless, there would be no song that would beat Sa DingDing in the near future. This song is just THE BEST, period. Besides, AoL has songs performed by YangZi and Deng Lun.
- Plot: there is no winner in this. I love that AoL has 3 arcs, but I also like that L&R is mostly in Human Realm. Both of them have very draggy parts and a better first half than second half, and both of them have very nice CGI. Both of them could have been at least 10 episodes shorter.
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I was familiar with Justin but he impressed me here since he was smart and proactive and one of the bravest, being the youngest. He also contributes with the fanservice (as in looks, with glasses, hair, hats, etc).
Da Laoshi is funny and he always has a lot of energy. I am used to him since I am a regular watcher of DDU/TTXS. He makes the funniest faces sometimes, and says some silly things here and there. Love him.
Guo Qilin is a cutie and looks the youngest, with that baby face. He is, along with Deng Lun, one of the scaredy cats. BUT, he is also very smart, there were episodes where the others had a big "?" in their faces while he was explaining the clues. Super cute! Love that the Fan brothers (from Joy of Life) got reunited in the final 2 episodes. His "brother" is also another scaredy cat XD
Yang Mi was my least favorite but I loved her relationship with Deng Lun, how she teases him, it is like a big sister/younger brother thing.
Deng Lun... ahhh one of the reasons I watched this. Not only he is super good-looking (and he knows it... my, does he!) but he is also super charming and even if he was screaming in fear in every episode (he is terrified of the darkness) I was laughing as it was the first time I watch it.. every single episode. He is so funny! He wanted to be the captain so much... he may be smart (this season he couldn't prove it much) but his fears were stronger XD
Loved the group, and loved the final 2 episodes with He-ge, Haoran and Zhang Ruo Yun (from Who is the Murderer)
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Production-wise, it is a very well done drama. I liked the use of illustrations to show battles and fires and flood.... I was expecting more use of it because it was unique.The script wasn't very good imo. It was trying too hard to sell the audience that the characters **ehemChanggeehem** were smart. In almost every episode someone was saying "you are so smart". Huh, where? Changge is making a bad decision in almost every episode, puts people in danger (better said, made them killed); she is also supposed to be a smart strategist, and all she said was "let's put this group to the right and this to the left" and the other party was "wow Changge, you are so smart, be my right-hand commander". It didn't help at all that at the same time I was watching another drama where the smart MC is actually smart, and the script is actually good, so I was like, She is supposed to be SMART ???
First episode, Changge is this intelligent, tomboy girl who knows how to fight, physically and mentally. Second episode, Changge swears to take revenge. 40 episodes later and all Changge did was saying a few blah-blah and oh, she was the smartest; as for the battles, where was the girl so agile who could fight? She was constantly saved by others; the forever damsel in distress. I was expecting Sun to save her every time she messed up, and yup, here comes the hero. I don't mind damsels in distress, but I do mind when the plot is trying to sell me this brave, strong female character that isn't. Yueyan was stronger imo.
Unfortunately I didn't fall in love with Yueyan/Hao Du as I was hoping. She has a lovely character development (she actually overcomes them ON HER OWN, unlike Changge) but the romance was... ehhh, she loves Shuyu for 40 episodes, gets her heart broken and in the same episode realizes Hao Du is the one. Ehhh.
OST is excellent. Performed by the King an Queen of CDramas OST.
This drama was 10 episodes too long; should have ended around 40 at least.
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This kind of BL is right up to my alley since it is the kind of plot I do love to read in books. More specifically, this drama reminded me a lot of the Straight series, a MM romance series where almost always the leads are so f**ked up and may need therapy but you can't help but root for them because of their intense chemistry and lust/romance. They are flawed characters and I love it; I realized this year that I do like my leads to be imperfect, but still perfect for each other.
Is their relationship toxic? Depends of every person but to me it wasn't. It is not like their dynamic made each other miserable or was ruining their lives; they do have a miscommunication (they are teenagers after all) but once they lay out all their feelings *coughkiyoionhiracough* they are on the same page and I can see they will work on their "problems". And about the "kimoi" thing... I love it. I love when in my MM romance books the term of endearment is "jackass", "asshole", etc precisely because it is said with love and endearment, not as a way of abuse. I certainly cringe when the term of endearment is "baby", "honey", etc **cringe** Again, it depends on anyone's taste.
The acting was excellent, both were amazing and had a nice chemistry. So nice I didn't have any 2nd hand embarrassment with scenes like the finger sucking... it was actually pretty hot and kinda sweet. The only time I had 2nd hand embarrassment was at the shower scene in the school yard...it was too long ? Even if it were a straight couple I would have felt the same.
I also liked the OST, both OP song & ED song.
My only complain? Too short, but on the other hand the drama was mostly about them and very little about others.
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The good thing about this show is that the participants are all established singers, so there is no desperate feelings of having to win. All of them are in the show to learn and to have fun.
There are a couple of new singers that didn't really need any improvement and were more like veterans, so in that sense, the competition was not equal. You can't really compare the likes of Zhou Shen and Ayunga to Xiao Zhan and Jiang Yi Qiao. The first two exude confidence in their field; the second pair was shyer and with less experience/confidence and in spite of being very talented and having an amazing voice, they were still obviously new.
Group A is like the artistic group that wants to experience new genres and styles, Group B was more close-minded.
The last 2 episodes are not subbed, sadly, and my understanding of Chinese is null, but I still enjoyed every minute of it, since they are only eating, performing amazing songs and just having fun. Even the MC (Lin Hai) was a sweetheart, I dare people who watch this show to not love every single one of them by the final episode.
I want to thank Xiao Zhan one more time to make me his fan and make me watch this show. Yes, I started for him but I became a fan of all of them. And thank you stylist for that hairstyle in Faded, which was the main reason I started it :)
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Basically, for me, this was:
- First 35 or so episodes (till they come back from Human Realm): 9/10 (the love triangle + the evil mother were just too much to handle)
- Last 30 episodes: 5/10, don't let me get started with the scheming + victimization of Runyu, all the tears and fainting of that b*** JinMin, the obsession of Suihe and the resentment of Xufeng.
- OST + Deng Lun: 1000/10 both perfect, I miss him + listening to that OST so much. Most of the eye-rolling scenes were bearable because of the BGM.
Rewatch Value: only the sweet moments of Xufeng + JinMi, meaning, this video: youtube.com(/)watch?v=UmcpnE-MrTY
My longer review: https://sunakoyue.livejournal.com/77242.html
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I started this drama because of Xiao Zhan, but he is in the last 8 episodes or so, and since the very first episode I didn't mind because I was immediately hooked. The little boy that played Fan Xian was so good and charming I was sad to see "older" Fan Xian... I wouldn't have minded to have at least 10 episodes with little Fan Xian.
But I didn't know this was just Season 1 and Season 2 has not even started filming yet till I was on Ep15 or so :( so I think people who starts this should keep that in mind.. the cliffhanger is O_O
While I liked the characterization of all characters, and I specially like Fan Xian, I didn't trust half of them. Or more than half of them. Is this one a bad guy or a good guy? It was like this for most of the drama, but even with that, I was enjoying it. The passive-aggressiveness is hilarious, from Fan Xian and the Princess Royal, to the Crown Prince and the 2nd Prince, to the stepmother and Fan Xian at the beginning of the drama.
I am not one that particularly enjoys too much romance, so this one has just the perfect amount of it. Not too much and besides, Wan'Er makes Fan Xian happy. And she isn't dumb nor a damsel in distress, except for the fact that she is sick. So I don't understand why people do not like her :( If this was a harem, I wouldn't have minded to see Fan Xian married to Wan'Er, Si Lili and Duo Duo... all these girls were good in a way or the other and very different from each other, and best of all, they all had chemistry with Fan Xian.
The acting was good, wigs and costumes were excellent; the plot is WOW, so there isn't a single dull moment in the entire 46 episodes. In fact, I even think it was a bit short because I wanted to see more of Uncle Wu Zhu, of Fan Xian's siblings (Ruo Ruo and Fan Si Zhe... so smart and caring one, while so funny and charming the other), of the Ninth Masters (I wanted more fight scenes tbh). The songs were so fitting, specially the OP song, while the ED song became easily one of my favorites... I listen to it regularly <3 with XZ beautiful voice.
If I had to complain, it would be that I didn't understand a few things... or it was extremely witty and too advanced for my poor brain, or some things got lost in translation...
Looking forward to see them all in Season 2! I love that little smile from Zhang Ruo Yun at the end XD
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Abridged review
Like a Sentai show, only fancier. A group of young students who form a team and learn to be better and fight arm in arm to defeat the bad guys.- The Good: The Grandmaster, a true guide for Tang San + the other 2 teachers. The costumes. The team. The world-building.
- The Bad: The MC, Tang San and Xiao Wu: together and by themselves. So clingy, both of them, if he was going to the bathroom, she needed to go as well. And he visited her every morning to braid her hair :S She was supposedly strong, but has many "damsel in distress" moments and he was always trying to save her. "I will protect you, Tang San/Xiao Wu" moments x100000. Every time one of them was in real danger, the other was overacting like it was the end of the world.
Individually, Tang San is a Gary Stu and Xiao Wu has the tag of "Childish Female Character" which says everything. I don't know if it was because of their 2D characters only, but to me they were both the worst actors in the series, which pains me so much because I adore Xiao Zhan and he brings tears to my eyes every time he cries, but in this series, when he is listening to his mother talking for 10minutes straight, he just stands there crying like a fool for 10minutes straight. It pains me to say I laughed thinking it was bad acting, and this is XZ we are talking about :(
Also, the bgm: what with that song in the background at the least imaginable moments! The song is nice, kinda like a music box, but it didn't suit ANY of the moments and it made my skin crawl.
It would have been a good fantasy drama if the MC weren't Gary Stu and Childish Female character...
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