Skibbies

I'm not actually familiar with the original book, I've only seen couple of drama adaptations haha. I've heard people praise it as adaptation, it's apparently surprisingly close to the book (far more than most adaptations) but manage to make it coherent, which is a feat honestly.

It follow straight after s1, so it's better to watch it I think. I think it's possible to follow s2 without watching s1 but you might be confused over character relationships and miss callbacks?

It does look dated due to being filmed in 2018-2019 and special effects done over time, and through covid + financial failure of the main investor (it's why it took so long to air). I wouldn't really call it a hit when it's barely recouping its cost (yes it cost a lot, i think 16 yi for filming + vfx of first movie, doesn't include marketing cost), but it did make enough to attract new investors so the special effects for 2nd movie has started?

there are fair few name puns and references, some are easier to pick up, others harder. I think the hardest one to pick up might be in ep 18, the guy saying "your god plan is terrible" is literally "your feng shen is terrible", the actor is also in the first movie of feng shen bang (investiture of gods) trilogy that's airing in china right now.

Yeah it sort of requires language/cultural context for some of the jokes, agreed the comedic timing isn't the best and the directing can be pretty bad. It does ocassionally have great scenes, but it can be rare.

Plot twist + side switching + its ideals were all present in s1 so I think it's pretty much as expected.

Oooh you are liking it more than lot of people I think, hooray :D There's more terrible homonyms later and other references that I think you'd like too, I'm almost caught up now, I really like the Xi Xia royal family hahaha.

and lol at nif3, I wish that's true, I don't even know if they'd film it this year.

Yeah that's the one, zhang xincheng was filming the daylight drama when they filmed that, same reason he missed their temp gathering at magnolia awards. They are filming the other variety show now, I think it's a case solving one?

They aired You Are Desire already (zhou yiran and zhuang dafei modern drama). Then after that summer is over, and I guess they don't need to line it up so tight? idk i don't follow mango's drama schedule that closely.

I liked him quite a bit in the Hikaru no Go cdrama adaptation :) I think ep 1 have quite a range of issues but I really liked the callbacks and 4th wall breaking explanation and humour.

Just saw your question below, I'm still watching but rather slow since the update schedule was atrocious. (I just started this week's updates, 15-16) I think ep 1 is probably the worst episode, lot of people didn't like the first mini arc (1-3) but I liked it fine, there were usually something that I liked in every episode. The plot tends to stack on itself as it goes on, since the plot twist and information you get stacks on, so I liked it more as I go. I liked a lot of the historical/folklore bits wang juan throws in, the speeches, the gang's trust in each other and when they work together to mess with someone and the humour.

I think they are fast tracking on tuesday, which is *incredible*. A TV drama getting webdrama treatment, so the tv broadcast is functionally 1.5 rounds, and it's getting fast track for maximum profit. They have two variety shows tied with it (one is airing, the other just started filming, which is kinda hysterical since it'll air when the drama finish its fast track + vip + tv + non vip broadcast). *sigh*

I don't need subs, so I'm just using mangotv.

oh that's good to know! They are subbing lot faster than I expected :P I saw someone complain about bad subs below.

there were five directors listed last season, love between fairy and devil's yin zheng was billed first, wang fei was billed second, it's unclear who was responsible for what. wang fei is billed first here, and zhou nan who directed dear diary is billed second.

iirc, directing actually got criticised last season for pacing and cos action scenes was *really* badly shot. this season, the awful horse riding scenes is noticeably bad, and some of the fuzzy background scenes that make them look green screened even though they clearly shot on site. I liked ep 2's grandiose scene though.

yeah then it's following non vip schedule, 7 updates on thursday, then it's an ep a day. come back in two weeks if you are still interested, it ends in about three weeks for non vip (28th).

I thought the initial few ep' subs was okay? If it follows the non vip schedule for subs, then it's decent subs till ep 6? if so, 7 ends at the end of the week and will doing 1 ep a day daily till the end at end of the month.

I think it's better if you watch it yourself? I think ep 1 is paced little off, but it has to reintro chars, throw in some twist and callbacks and intro new mission, I liked ep 2 though. I think fair amount of people didn't like first mini arc (3 ep), but I liked it fine.

Lots of people are also annoyed by the subs which I assume follow the non vip schedule which is stuck on 6 till end of the week since it's waiting for the tv release (the schedule is just all over the place for mangotv to maximise its profit)

I disagree that it's garbage, I like it fine. I think it's paced better than s1 even lol. There are a lot of callbacks to s1 and filling in gaps + plot twists on that. I think Wang Juan excels more in original works than adapted works tbh, but his style isn't for everyone (there's longer setup, too much plot twists, humour is subjective, the directing/production is sort of varying).

I wouldn't worry about JoL s2, since it has the same production team, SSS had a lackluster director and it survived fine.

it was announced as 12 x 70mins slot, so no I don't think so.

I think you can? It has a recap + reintro before the OP in ep 1 that runs through basic info. The drama is mostly arc based, you'd just miss callbacks and might be bit confused for a bit.

hunan tv hasn't actually aired it yet, it's airing on august 7th lol. it's the youtube version that's different I think?

The bit about Ning Ling Ge is actually a spoiler technically lol. (for ep 1) His pseudonym was Ding Er, then he assumed the identity of his subordinate Mi Qin Mu Bei in s1. The Ning Ling Ge thing is technically a twist, one that's been predicted by some audience (and confirmed by Wang Juan post s1 ending on his weibo), but it's still a twist. The guy was also a real historical person.

JoL have more busy actors they might have to work around, its script is harder to adapt too (there might be changes to novel's story to make it more palatable for general public etc?). Wang Juan wrote the rough plot outline for Young Blood from scratch, maybe he had an easier time with it lol.