Dashing Youth is the highly anticipated prequel to the dark horse hit, The Blood of Youth. Did it live up to expectations? Is it as good as its sequel? No and no. But it's still a good watch. If you're a fan of The Blood of Youth, you will want to see how things started and what the older generation of martial arts masters were like when they were young. Dashing Youth revolves around Baili Dongjun, known as the Liquor Deity, and the best martial artist of his generation. The drama follows his adventures and relationships with the people he meets in his journey to become a renowned martial arts master. Most particularly, it focuses on his bond with his best friend and later nemesis, Ye Dingzhi, the leader of the Demon Sect, and also known as Ye Yun, the son of the famed General Ye who fell into ruin after the latter grew too powerful for the emperor to tolerate.

The story centers around bromance with some hetero romance here and there, which I didn't care for to be honest. But those pairings have to happen because these characters have to produce the next generation of martial artists that are going to be featured in The Blood of Youth. Honestly, the bromances are the best part of this series. The relationships are quite engaging and the male characters are not only well-written, but are also portrayed by capable actors who have face cards that would be the envy of any boy group existing today. Hahahaha. Suffice to say, I watched mainly for the eye candy. Sorry, not sorry!

Unfortunately, it is also a cautionary tale of love and tragedy, and a friendship that turns sour because of diverging paths and differing ideals, so that's where the melodrama comes in. Ye Dingzhi's obsession with exacting revenge on the people who wronged him and his family, and taking back what was once his proved to be his demise. By nurturing his hate and insisting on taking back the woman that was once betrothed to him eventually caused his destruction and tainted his friendship with the one person who truly cared for him. His love for Yi Wenjun started a war that almost destroyed the kingdom and forced him to fight Baili Dongjun whom he treated as his beloved little brother. Yi Wenjun is basically the Helen of Troy of this story, the face that launched a thousand ships, so to speak. Obviously, I despised everything about her. Hahaha. I saw her as a selfish woman who only thought about her desires, using Dingzhi to rescue her from her gilded cage and abandoning even her children when it suited her. The other female characters are either meh who contribute nothing substantial to the story, or are even more hateful than Wenjun. So, I decided to just treat them as baby mommas for my pretty boys. I noticed the writer of the original novel can't write good female characters, which is actually typical for fight shonen manga/anime series where this story was clearly patterned from. But no matter, I was still entertained for the most part although I had to take a break from all the melodrama between Dingzhi and Wenjun.

Baili Dongjun, contrary to what most viewers of this drama think, is actually a great lead character. He starts out as a spoiled, bratty, and privileged youth who know nothing of the world, but becomes a reliable and admirable hero by the end of the series. You get to witness his character growth as the series progresses and that, to me, is good writing. Hou Minghao plays him to perfection. Granted that Minghao is not exactly a great actor, Dongjun fits him like a glove and he makes an effort to improve his acting skills with each new role he takes on, so I give him props for that. He Yu as Ye Dingzhi is equally good. He exudes a boyish charm that suits the character's persona before he turns to a darker path, and he also has enough gravitas to project the sadness and anger that weigh heavily on Dingzhi.

The rest of the cast are great in their respective roles as well. The 8 young masters of Beili are basically the historical wuxia drama version of the Taiwanese F4 but better because they can actually sing and are far more good looking! Hahaha. My favorites among them are the androgynous beauty Liu Yue played by Zhu Zhengting, Jun Yu played by Tong Mengshi from Joy of Life fame, and Lei Wujie's dad, Lei Mengsha, played by Wanyan Luorong from I Am Nobody. He made me laugh the most, he's practically a walking meme. But it was Xia Zhiguang as Sikong Changfeng who really stood out to me. His sense of valor and loyalty to his friends made me love him. Zhiguang is an accomplished athlete and martial artist so among all the cast members, his fight scenes looked the most believable to me. He really did learn how to handle that spear like a true expert. Another actor that got into my radar while watching this show is Xue Ba Yi who plays the White Haired Deity, Qi Xuan. I got a newfound respect for that character and I now understand his motivations after watching Ba Yi portray the younger version in this prequel.

In terms of production quality, this drama doesn't look cheap at all. You can tell they spent most of their budget on the special effects. The fight scenes are CGI-heavy, which I didn't mind personally because it was like watching a live action version of a shonen anime. However, unlike the Blood of Youth, it lacks the wuxia-style fight choreography that made its sequel stand out among other wuxia dramas. But I must admit, I would've appreciated more actual fights. I rather enjoyed the fight sequences in the Blood of Youth.

Dashing Youth also has a weaker and more convoluted writing. The plot progression in the beginning is a bit slow and it focuses too much on the love angles instead of showing some of the more vital parts of the story. To make everything fit into 40 episodes, they had to settle for exposition dumps in the form of narrations instead of actually delving into those scenes. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to getting to know the original four guardians of Tianqi, how they came together, and how they protected Beili. But they barely have screen time in this prequel. The ending also felt rushed to me. And that's why I think they should've managed the pacing better instead of dwelling on the romances that are merely plot devices. The politics are less overt than in The Blood of Youth, which I felt was really the strength of that sequel series. I wish they could've dealt with the political aspects more instead.

The music is way better, though. The opening theme is hands down the best I've heard in any C-drama thus far. I liked the OST of The Blood of Youth, but this prequel series has a more banging soundtrack imho. Although both series are set in the same universe, I liked the cinematography of the sequel better. It has a more magical feel to it for some reason.

But despite its flaws, I still think it's a cool series and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys anime-esque live action dramas that has lots of cool-looking special effects and endearing characters with interesting powers. Though not as strong as its sequel storywise, it is still a great standalone drama.