Spectacular fights, somewhat platonic OT3, and a solid exploration of the justice theme
Finished Zhan Zhao Adventures, and it was quite consistent in it's hero journey from start to finish. Despite it being a story about three characters, still Zhan Zhao's relationship with justice runs throughout the whole series, painting it in certain colors.
I also love how his besties are much more flexible when it comes to killing and serving that justice hot and ready on a plate XD It's like they live fully in jianghu, but he's partly in officialdom, so his perspective and choices are different. Also, it doesn't hurt to always have the bigger picture in mind rather than running and finishing off small fish when bigger conspiracies prevail.
Zhan Zhao being the ultimate and quite invincible hero of the story never once was irritating, for some reason. I just enjoyed him surviving through stuff XD being badly poisoned and all. The ending wasn't fantastic, per se, but I'm a sucker for the mains surviving their ordeals and moving on with their lives, so I don't have any beef with the way it was a bit rushed/convoluted. We've seen worse XD
Yang Yang did show some range throughout the series, although I can't say I've fallen in love with the character, as one might, but he was solid. The OT3 was cute, mind-blowingly platonic, and I enjoyed the soulmateism of it all, it gave a very classic wuxia feel with valorous fighters and baddy bad guys, finding friends along the way and forming families with ppl that really matter, and not just bonded by blood, A++, would recommend :D The lack of obvious romance is quite refreshing, and whatever they had going on between the three of them - was pure and lovely beyond words. I'd even go so far as call it a show about friendship and camaraderie, apart from the main glaring justice leitmotif.
Finally, the fights continuously got me nodding in approval, whispering to myself 'Jackie Chan would totally approve of this' XD they grew somehow meatier and more realistic after the first ep, despite some twirling and wire-acrobatics thrown in the mix, it was a very good balance. Like, the best fighting choreo I've seen in a while, very reminiscent of some oldie Chinese action movies I grew up watching - yes, exaggerated in their own right, but with a similar very realistic feel to them. In ZZA they all used not only swords and blades, but also varying fighting styles and their surroundings and whatever objects were there (hence I remembered Jackie Chan who awesomely used whatever he could around him for combat).
Having distinct fighting styles is smth we rarely see even in wuxia. And it's the old-fashioned martial arts devoid of special effects, which I hold very dear to my heart. It's a dying art, and I'm happy some directors still appreciate this type of style in Cdramaland.
All in all, it was quite a joyful ride. Not too many ups and downs emotionally, but there were a few quite gripping and well-made scenes, so as a wuxia fan - this show was right up my alley :D
A few things worth mentioning:
good storytelling in terms of character consistency and various cases (maybe apart from that one time Bai Yutang was keeping secrets from his besties, but I write it off as character growth :D)
villains are truly villainous and many :D
a good protag is worthless without his justice quest, and here he was given ample bad guys to fight with
good thing he had powerful ppl on his side :)
all supporting characters well-written and acted out
pretty overall visuals that sometimes turn deliciously gritty
in general, subdued realistic tone and styling
plot interesting enough to keep on watching (not too draggy)
And his ponytail must have been going to brothels while he was asleep and not dying from poison XD it's so slutty)))
I probably won't be returning to this show, but it was a good watch and sometimes that's enough :D
