As a long time fan of this series (I watched them back in 2001 when it first aired), I'm actually not looking forward to this drama. Lu Xia (Echizen Ryoma) is my prince since I was 12. In my imagination, he's my perfect prince. So watching this drama make me feel a mix of emotions actually since I don't want to see a "failure" version of him (which China did once already)

But I'm pleasantly surprised by how well written the drama actually is. It follows closely to the manga version more, so it gives me more reason to love it. And I also love the actors. They look just like the characters in the original series I could even recognize their rivals easily. That's quite amazing. And the Yu Qing (Seigaku) boys exactly look like their original counterparts. Except for Qiao Chen, who plays Momo, since I think that he is too handsome to be Momo lol

1. Story (8.5 points)
While I like the story, since it follows anime more than the manga, I saw some fillers in the drama as well. It's not unwatchable, but for those who don't like PoT would think that it's totally silly and unnecessary. I'm actually worried about how the tennis would look like, as PoT is not what you call "normal" tennis, it's more like "fantasy" tennis with all those super weird techniques. But it looks fine enough to me. The CGI is smooth and it's integrated well in the drama, making the techniques believable (somehow). I also love that they include Yan-juice (Inui-juice/Penal-tea) in this drama, which is also a pleasant surprise

2. Acting (9.0 points)
Very on-point. I love that Lu Xia is just... Lu Xia. The actor got the character on point and he plays the calm and arrogant character card very well. The other characters also seem to know the original characters very well, because they act just like the original characters. What surprised me is the one who plays Zhou Zi (Fuji), because that character is very hard to portray, but the actor actually played it very well. I'm impressed

3. Music (10 points)
I love the music. The opening and ending are suitable for the drama

4. Rewatch value (7.5 points)
Because you know who's going to win, so I don't think rewatch is necessary. For people like me who is a die hard fan of this story, I would definitely rewatch them. For casual drama watchers, rewatch would be hard with 40 episodes. I'm someone who watch 178 episodes (and more) of the anime like thousand times, so 40 episodes is nothing to me

Overall, my score is 8.0 points for this drama. The production value is surprisingly also quite good. It's not high budget, but I could see the care the production team put into the drama. If they ever release second season, then I would definitely watch them as well

Where to watch: Netflix