Shi Yi Chang An: Mingyue Jishi You

I am so pleasantly surprised with this. It was my first Chinese animation show, and I am shocked more people don't talk about it??? It was STUNNING: visually, emotionally, and plot-wise. The characters were all beautiful, the dialogue was hilarious and gripping, the plot was emotional and captivating, the music was gorgeous, and the entertainment value was 100%. I was completely obsessed with this show and could not stop watching. I had to literally pull myself away to get to my real life.

The romance was seriously so fun to watch and the development is realistic and raw. The characters make realistic decisions, have genuinely ... realistic emotional responses, and say relatable things. I am so so impressed with this show.

I really encourage you to give this show a chance. You'll be into it within the first few minutes. The Chinese language takes a few minutes to get used to it and you stop noticing after a while. I could not get enough of this show and I will be so sad when season 2 ends! As I write this, I am already halfway through the second season.

Some people complain that the show is quick and not many minutes, but I really love that I could binge this within three hours.

The art is very pretty, with beautiful backgrounds as well as nice character design. The story was fairly interesting, although quite political, but it doesn't have a proper ending. It just suddenly stops at a random, somewhat downbeat point, so episode 12 doesn't seem like the final episode at all. It's kind of a mix of action, slice of life, and romance, although the romance is almost non-existent (male lead is very cold). Each episode is very short; just over 10 minutes' content between the opening and ending, so it does not take long to get through. I basically kept watching for the art!
(It's based ... on the manhua "Prince! Don't Do This!")

This is very meh. It's not a bad show but most the similar genre shows (like Liang Bu Yi or Tong Ling Fei) do it better. The first season by itself cannot be considered as a complete show, so this review is more applicable to the first two seasons together. It makes no sense to watch the first season by itself as there is no conclusion to any arc and they haven't really developed any romance yet. Actually, they picked a rather atrocious place to end the season which will force you to watch season 2 just out of how unsatisfying it was.

The art and ... animation are pretty good, though nothing special. The backgrounds are detailed, and the foreground combines well with the background. The characters are pretty and wear nice vestments. The music is satisfactory, with some nice dizi or guzheng tracks. Some of voice acting of the minor characters felt a bit forced or fake, but the main characters are ok. It avoids showing the characters' lips most of the time when people are talking; usually the camera is facing the backs.

Unfortunately, I really didn't feel much while watching this. There are too many characters and the plot is too complicated for this short a runtime as a standalone work. Maybe if you already knew the plot it would be easier to follow along. Though, I suppose it is normal for the imperial Chinese drama to have a large amount of politicking and multiple factions. Since it's constantly cutting between different actors doing stuff, there's not much time for the main characters. There are constant assassination attempts, though the characters don't really take them seriously enough and continue with festivals and hunting and more festivals, which seems kind of strange.

The main problems I have are: 1) the protagonist, the FMC, doesn't really do anything to contribute to the plot. Everything happens around her, and to her, but nothing she does herself has any importance. She just aimlessly bumbles around while assassins are constantly trying to get her. MMC doesn't help by not involving FMC with anything, but he doesn't do much himself. 2) it tells us, not shows us, the love between the FMC and MMC. 3) some of the scene ordering and timings seem confusing and not well directed. 4) plot point of FMC secretly overhearing something MMC says to someone else and derailing the romance is cringey as fuck. 5) what the fuck was that ending.