#not going into my pet peeves area such as style of humor because i ve had to tame that down multiple times already

[potahun]

im watching blood of youth and have made it to ep 6 so far, and it is starting to grow on me after episode 5. however, since i've seen a few comparisons between the two which have led to my watching it, i would not say it has a similar vibe to mysterious lotus casebook, so i would not recommend watching one because you like the other and hope to find something similar.

to clarify, the vibe i get so far from BoY is very similar to a shounen . it has the young teenage protagonists on a grand mission, the companions coming to each other's aid, it has the fighting spirit, the leveling up (even the training sequences with hype music!) Possibly, it is also more of a traditional wuxia (but experts pls weigh in on this) because there is a much greater focus on fighting and overcoming adversities in a martial arts context. i understand there is a great political intrigue coming up at the end, so maybe things will change. for now, i see a lot about martial arts with impressive visuals, youths choosing their paths regardless of the previous generations' choices (a theme i like!) and about growth and breaking out of the shell in general

mysterious lotus casebook leans strongly towards murder-mystery and intrigues. it also deals a lot less with the passion of youth as a theme. the protagonists are older (li lianhua and di feisheng should be in their early thirties, fang duobing is likely around 20, but it's not specified). the mood varies wildly, but it's sometimes a soft ghibli and sometimes an eerie ghost story... it deals with accepting the fragility of human life, haunting/escaping the narrative, closure, death and rebirth, being queer (yeah, i'm saying this), mirror sides of human bonds and their sometimes coincidental, brittle but precious nature... despite impressive fight sequences, leveling up in martial arts really falls to the far background. much of the heart of the story is li xiangyi being given a chance to make his goodbyes to the jiang hu, but also living again as li lianhua.

also, a point that seems minor, but can lead to very different feels: the visuals of both shows are different. mysterious lotus casebook is soft colors and low contrast. it's crisp fights, but barely any magical attacks and few effects. it makes up for the lack of special effects with agile and artistic camera work, and smart use of speed, as well as elegance in the choreography. blood of youth uses more highly saturated colors. the visuals are aimed at impressing. the cgi is very decent, and can lead to a pleasant image on their own, but sharp moves are also used. i think if you come out of BoY and head into MLC expecting the same level of visual shock, you might come out thinking MLC has less impressive fights. or on the contrary, if you are not into cgi at all, you might head into BoY and think it's overkill.

not saying that you can't enjoy both! i adore MLC to death, but i enjoy a good shounen and i am starting to enjoy BoY. so far, i feel like they've told very well what they set out to tell, but i would not pit the two against each other in an objective manner. they feel like apples and pears to me, despite some jokes feeling similar (xiao se being a miser, li lianhua being an iron rooster, wu xin's bad cooking, li lianhua's bad cooking etc) the atmosphere of the two shows have extremely different vibes to me. MLC feels like blossoms falling softly on grass and waterfalls, BoY (so far) feels like setting off firecrackers and a storm on the rise. they are love letters to different aspects of the jiang hu. if you want to tackle both, please don't expect the same thing out of the two