The Blood of Youth – A Gem So Beautiful, So True
I really loved The Blood of Youth. It’s easily one of the best wuxia dramas I’ve ever watched. The flow of the story is beautifully done, keeping you hooked from start to finish. The journey of the fallen prince Xiao Se — his struggles, rise, and transformation — was captivating. And Lei Wu Jie’s growth from scratch into a true warrior was equally inspiring.One of my favorite parts of the drama was the bond between the three “brothers” — Tang Lian, Lei Wu Jie, and Xiao Se. They had such different personalities, yet their loyalty and banter made their dynamic feel so real and heartwarming. Tang Lian’s quiet strength and kindness, Lei Wu Jie’s fiery determination, and Xiao Se’s clever wit and hidden depth made them the perfect trio to root for.
The Xueyue City arc was pure entertainment. Xiao Se constantly demanding money from Vermillion bird Chang Feng had me laughing out loud 😂 — his shameless confidence and Chang Feng’s exasperated reactions were comedy gold. Those lighthearted moments balanced the heavier, emotional arcs beautifully.
Every character had their own rich backstory and strong development. Ye Rou Yi was such a remarkable woman, one I truly admired. Tang Lian completely stole my heart honestly, who could ever hate him? The Wine Deity and the other martial world figures were absolutely amazing as well, adding color, wisdom, and charisma to the story.
The only downside for me was Xiao Se’s love interest, Sikong Qiao Luo. I found her character a bit annoying and overly childish compared to the depth of the others.
Now, about Wu Xin… what an amazing character. His story was emotional, powerful, and unforgettable.
And the eunuchs? Scary as hell — their influence and power over the court created so much tension and danger.
Overall, The Blood of Youth is a must-watch for wuxia fans. It has heart, action, depth, humor, and a perfect balance of character-driven storytelling and thrilling martial arts.
Just go for it !!!
It's amazing!
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Beats my Expectations
Ok, for first, I had to create an account on MyDramalist just to give this review. This is my first time writing a review after watching a drama series. I've watched TBOY 3 times and at each. I watched TBOY in 2022/23 and twice already this year 2025 and at each time, it never felt boring. It has great storyline. I only recently watched DY (Dashing Youths) then coming back to watch TBOY for the 3rd time so as to follow the story.I love every single character in this series. Each one played their role so well. I love the fact that there's a comical side to it.
What I Expected: (Not to a complete spoiler 😁)
I really expected to see some sort of connection between Baili Donjun and Wuxin as the former was the best friend of the latter's father and also, BD was the one who made the 12 years agreement with Tiawantian so I expected that BD would be the closest person to Wuxin. Also, I didn't like BD's expression whenever he mentioned Ye Dingzhi. It was as if they never were first which was my thought until I watched Dashing Youths. I mean, they were best friends so there should be some sort of connection when he's mentioned by his supposedly "best friend."
Do I recommend this drama? Yes, a million times. 👍🤞
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Messy wuxia story
took me a while to understand the timeline of the story of XS, from the time he was crown prince, then lost his skills and then wandering the world. he seemed not to want to care about the others on the outside but was kinda too involved somehow through his position and care for friends.i didnt like the romance in this story, it's a fight for brotherhood and peace... why is there a need to include a love line just because? i didnt find much chemistry between XS and QL and it feels really forced.
i liked watching liu xue yi bald in this show. as usual, his acting is top notch despite looking a bit too mature for the age of the actual character...
overall the show was entertaining but i doubt i will rewatch.
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Not as good.
It's mid, in most ways.Not amazingly good, not too boring or super terrible.
Mid.
The story's super average - you've heard it all before. I am honestly getting quite tired of protagonists with mysterious non-commoner past and I hate how so many wuxia have to steer their story into politics and courtly intrigue.
I hate courtly intrigue! The scheming princes, the power hungry eunuchs, the troubled emperors and forgotten consorts.
Good grief, shoot me now, I can't take it.
For the most part the story seems to have a clear goal and an endpoint and the pacing forward is not bad. But towards the end it slows down and almost stumbles into the ending head first, trips over its own feet and stops suddenly.
It felt quite awkward.
The characters are fine. You've seen it all before, every single character is a stereotype. But they're ok.
The acting is serviceable, with the older actors carrying the young ones quite often. Ao Rui Peng was too cartoony and weird for me, I didn't care for Lei Wu Jie.
Li Hong Yi held a single note for the entire show and it was ok? He's a pretty guy and the script didn't ask much more from him.
Liu Xue Yi seems to have had fun? Question mark? Wuxin as a character is used weirdly, mostly not being present and having his own story arc in the background. Also cartoony as a performance, but a much better actor than Ao Rui Peng.
Neither of the two female leads convinced me, or grabbed me in any way.
Tang Lian was also there.
Shout out to Cui Peng as Luo Qing Yang, who gave an incredibly strange performance and I had to laugh every time his weirdo sulky face was on screen.
Last honorable mention goes to Hu Wei, who looks like he was animated by Pixar. Very cute tho.
A good wuxia has to have cool fights.
The Blood of Youth does have fights, sure.
OK, I won't talk around it - I hate this stuff. Not just the heavy use of CG, I dislike how uninteresting it is and how low stakes it feels.
There's no tension, there's no context for anything. How strong is this character? Who the F knows, I guess I'll wait for them to tell me.
The main problem is that everyone already starts quite strong and every single character that comes later is even stronger.
But there's no difference in any of the fights, the environment doesn't matter, nothing matters.
The characters will conjure up some CG effects, point their weapon or fingers against the opponent and stand there.
That's it. Every single fight ends up as a finger contest with magical auras clashing into each other. No clever use of techniques, or the battlefield, no smart cooperation between characters. No, just point at the enemy and hope you're stronger.
This kind of power creep is a common problem in anime, compare the fights at the start of Naruto to many later ones in Shippuuden. And here it's like that from the very beginning.
Overall I didn't hate it, but it's nowhere near as good as people claim.
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Waste of time, stupid plots I waited for many episodes to say any twists or plots but only stupid love/costum drama. the main character is an arrogant guy with no smartness only some losers tricks and the actors are not skilled.
Waste of time, stupid plots I waited for many episodes to say any twists or plots but only stupid love/costum drama. the main character is an arrogant guy with no smartness only some losers tricks and the actors are not skilled.
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This review may contain spoilers
EDIT AFTER FINISHING THE SERIES: I WANT SECOND SEASON ALREADY. That's it. That's the edit."I was wrong about you. I thought you pretended to be broke. You are actually broke."
Xiao Se spews gems like this all the time. His lines are full of dry humour delivered in a deadpannest deadpan. He and Lei Wenjie are either always lost or broke, despite being a prince and a general's son. In the beginning, Xiao Se loses one layer of his expensive clothing everytime they get to a new place because he has to sell them to fund their travel. He might have to travel naked had they not reach their destination. Eventually they do reach the Xenyue city (?), but three months behind schedule thanks to Xiaojie's terrible sense of direction.
I haven't finished this series but I have snorted some laughs many times. There are some sad moments too. But the camaraderie of these young people keeps me glued to the tiny screen of my smartphone. I will update when I finish it.
OH AND BEAUTIFUL MEN. The male casts are way more beautiful than their female counterparts. My favourites are Xiao Se and the Tao Sword Deity, and Daddy Spear deity. And of course Wuxin. The prettiest bald boy. I still can't accept that he is supposed to be 17. More like 17 going on 35. Still pretty tho.
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This review may contain spoilers
the best series i have seen
This series is one of the best series I have seen. I am watching the series now for the tenth time.The reasons why this series is my favorite are:
It has a really good ending.
nobody died , Except for the evil one who died by suicide.
There is an obvious brotherhood and some romance.
The fights are really amazing, the best I've seen.
And there is something that bothered me:
in the series Xiao Se lost his inner strength but you don't have to worry about episode 23 / 24 he regains his inner strength and he will be stronger than ever.
In short, you should see it.
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Why did they waste such a good character (Wu Xin)?
To start, I have not read Shao Nian Ge Xing the novel or series (not sure what it is). I don’t know if the original story misses out on what could have been with Wu Xin or not. Either way, the screen writer or the original author missed out here.This would have been a perfect drama if the character of Wu Xin was on screen more than he was.
Characters:
The Blood of Youth is wuxia show with an ensemble cast of interesting characters. It all starts out with Xiao Se meeting Lei Wu Jie and setting off on a journey. I believe that the goal of this drama is to take Xiao Se (played by Li Hong Yi) on a road to redemption. After several episodes, Xiao Se, Lei Wu Jie (portrayed by Ao Rui Peng), and Wu Xin (well done Liu Xue Yi) develop a strong friendship.
Sikong Qian Luo (Lin Bo Yang), Ye Ruo Yi (Flora Dai), and Tang Lian (Li Xin Ze) all come in and out of episodes like ships passing in the night. Don’t get me wrong, I like all the interesting characters that ebb and flow in this drama. It keeps things lively.
Wu Xin was the best character of all, full of inconsistencies and fun. Liu Xue Yi did an amazing job portraying such a likeable character who could have been obnoxious or too understated. I wanted him on the screen……as much as possible.
Sadly, by episode 7, Wu Xin leaves and doesn’t comeback for anything meaningful until the wrap up of story lines towards the end of the 40 episodes.
Why???
The dichotomy and chemistry between Wu Xin, Xiao Se, and Lei Wu Jie are amazing. Why couldn’t that keep going? Why did they just trot him out to fix things in the middle and then provide the answers at the end?
This drama would have been so much better if the relationship between these three had been explored more in depth.
A special shout out to some of my favorite characters: Luo Ming Xuan (Zhao Wen Hao) played the phenom who was in love with his shifu. Wu Shuang (Dong Li Wu You) cocky kid who could use a sword and had integrity, Hua Jin (Ai Mi) doctor extraordinaire, and Mu Chun Feng (Hu Wei) rich kid and intellectual with a sunny attitude.
Story:
The story of this drama mainly revolves around Xiao Se and his quest for redemption. His ending was spot on and could have really been bungled, same with Lei Wu Jie. To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that Xiao Se had the most to lose in this drama, but Lei Wu Jie, Sikong Qian Luo, and Ye Ruo Yi remained steadfast in their support of him. I loved that his friends NEVER wavered.
The friendships developed in this drama are what kept me watching until episode 40. The romance was non-existent but the friendships…….top notch.
Music:
The music did not detract from the show, but it wasn’t as fun as A Dream within a Dream or timeless as Love Between Fairy and Devil. Would I purchase any of the songs…….NOPE. Production spent their money on sets, costumes, and enough actors to populate a small village, not the music.
Overall:
I plan to rewatch much of this, especially the parts with WuXian, because he was the best character by far. My lower rating stems from how much he was underutilized. His character should have been written out or written in instead of this strange on-the-fence type of situation…….I’m so frustrated.
If you’re looking for a good drama about friendship, this is exactly the one you want to watch, but don’t get attached to Wu Xin. You’ll be pissed off like I am.
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What is Jianghu? This is Jianghu.
It didn't occur to me that the concept of Jianghu (江湖) is unique to the Chinese culture until recently when my friend asked us "what is Jianghu?" and I realised I had difficulty explaining it.Indeed, what is Jianghu? It's not a venue, it's not a society/clubs/gangs, it's not a country, so what is it?
When people mentioned "Jianghu", we all knew what it meant - it is "somewhere" where people with martial arts ability from different walks of life meet each other. They fight for all sorts of reasons but principled and they are definitely have 义气 (another term that doesn't have an equivalence in English, closest translation is loyalty/brotherhood).
The Blood of Youth depicts such a Jianghu too. It also asked this question in one of the episodes. The answer gave was "Jianghu is where your heart desires." Indeed, the Jianghu in TBOY is what all the characters desire - Xiao Se desired for people who support and love him for who he is as a person and not after his status and/or position, Lei Wu Jie desired for improving his martial arts ability, etc.
TBOY is also about youth - the fervour that the characters have, the pain from the misunderstandings that they have about their parents and loved ones, the maturity after learning from their mistakes... this is exactly what youth is, it is loud and emotional, it is painful yet the joy and happiness experienced are also exhilarating. TBOY did such an excellent job until I would want to join their Jianghu and experienced youth together.
Amazing drama and I can't wait for Season 2.
(tried watching Dashing Youth but the pacing of the drama was a bit off...)
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This has an extensive cast and storyline.
“The Blood of Youth” Wow! This drama has a lot to unpack it was a long, long ride. Whoever read the novel I take my hat off to you this just had so much going on. The cast of characters is so extensive and honestly I could not keep up with all of them. You may want to take notes along the way. There were times I wanted to skip forward but the editing is brilliant in that it changes scenes so intricately that you will miss something important if you skip ahead. I am not saying all the scenes were worth watching but it held my attention.
Story: To me this a story of teenagers coming of age in the wuxia, Xianxia realm. They embark on a journey of cultivation and figuring out who they are along with righting wrongs of the past. They all have martial arts and want to get to the next level. All except the main character (Xiao Se) aka exiled prince who had his meridians broken.
The story is slow paced but with excellent cinematography, CGI and wuxia/xainxia fight scenes it will keep you watching if you can make it past the first few episodes. In the beginning some of the fight scenes tend to go on a little too long but I did enjoy what they did with the CGI. The teens do build a lot of relationships and you will find yourself picking one of more favorites. Some like Wi Xin better but I liked the main character Xiao Se. I also like that there is some implied romance and couples. I think all dramas should have some romance after all people are not born from nuts. If you kill off everyone (as a lot of Asian drams typically do) how does the next generation survive, just in my opinion.
Acting: The acting was okay not really noteworthy. Some of those who have read the novel said they like both the novel and drama. I suppose the most notable thing for me was the age gap between the actors and the characters is very noticeable. Even though they may be eye candy they most certainly do not look like teenagers. After a few episodes I just decided to go with it.
The story is so extensive you will find them explaining some events because it skips ahead of some scenes. Some scenes they probably should have left in.
I could watch this again, because it seem to have a small budget but it did a good job with what it had.
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Exciting start for a new drama!!!
This drama started on Dec 26. So far, the characters and the intense storyline do not disappoint. My only concern going forward, will it maintain this level of excitement for forty episodes. The cast is a well chosen group of actors that pull you into drama! I think you will enjoy this drama if you love lots of action,One of the main characters is surrounded in mystery and one wants to keep watching to find out about this mysterious man. He claims that he had no martial skills, but he knows everything about the different martial clans. So far, no clue to this man’s background.
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This review may contain spoilers
too confusing
too many things going on right from the get-go, with too many characters introduced. no smaller storylines to get you invested in the world and overall character interactions firstCGI/combat is kinda cheesy. It's like 2000s Power Rangers level of practical effects, plus an excessive amount of floaty attacks via wirework. It doesn't have any weight to it. The fights also constantly cut so you don't get the sense the characters are really fighting, it feels like fake camerawork.
The main character Xiao Se kinda doesn't do anything and his secret is revealed already to several characters by like episode 8. No intrigue at all. The Monk character Wu Xin is too prominent in the early episodes, only to disappear after the first arc. The hotheaded main character Lei Wu Jie is already strong and fairly respected so it feels like there's no room for growth.
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