Probably no one will read this review, but I have some thoughts and I want to share them.
First of all, to be clear, this is an 11 episode show with 1 bonus episode. Some sites show this as a 12 episode show, but "Episode 12" is just something for the fans, which wraps up a few story threads if you were interested, and throws some fanservice out. Episode 11 is the actual story finale. I suspect some people were confused by this and got annoyed by why 12 seemed slow and just full of flirting. It's because it's not a real episode.
- This legitimately upended my expectations. Based on what little I'd heard of TGCF, and also how the fandom can be, I wasn't particularly interested. It ended up being one of the later shows I watched in my recent danmei blitz. Having finished the season, I...loved it way more than I thought I would going in.
- You are not likely to enjoy this if you watch this because
- you deeply love the book and want a show exactly like that
- you deeply love MDZS and want a show exactly like that but with slightly different characters
- you can't believe some stupid Chinese gay show ended up at the top of the rankings.
If this is you, don't watch this show. Don't do things you know you won't enjoy. Having an opinion is not a personality.
- The art is very good (particularly the OP and ED), although as people have mentioned, there are some flaws in the later episodes. The last few have some lip flap problems and a few off-model moments. I came from 80s/90s anime, though, so...eh.
- The OP and ED are very good, some of the best produced examples amongst my danmei run (although my favorite is still the ED from The Defectives).
- I actually love the characters here so far. They're not all fully developed, but that shouldn't be a requirement of a single season, particularly when it's clear they intend to have more. Like a lot of other danmei, this is based on a book that was written as a novel. Unlike your standard manga-to-anime pipeline in Japan, these novels are not necessarily written with the same fixed standards in mind. If you're not willing to be open-minded past Japanese show structures, Chinese series are probably going to be hit-or-miss.
I was really surprised by how much I ended up liking Xie Lian in particular. He seemed like he would be that sort of poor/sweet/innocent (美白惨) stereotype, which is not really my thing normally. However, we actually end up finding out he's more badass than he looks, and also kind of a troll, and I actually ended up liking him even more than Hua Cheng.
Side note: Fu Yao and Nan Yang are adorable and I love them.
- The storyline and worldbuilding and writing are excellent, but very much a Chinese style where the mechanics of how things work slowly unfold with the book. I suspect if you finished the book (or the show, if they do end up making enough seasons to get through the whole story), you would have a full understanding of the magic system, and a better sense of all the characters. I really like this style of writing and am eagerly awaiting more. I've seen multiple people complain about things that basically boil down to this - I maintain there's nothing inherently WRONG with this writing style, it just may not be everyone's cup of tea.
- ...I love Wind Master? She gives me the same vibes as Beidou from Genshin Impact, and I think I might have a type.
