Advance Bravely

Advance Bravely (Chinese) - Yuan Zong & Xia Yao

This was an excellent drama to watch, even though only the first season is out. I actually finished watching it last weekend but I have been reading the translated chapters (there's two hundred-plus and only ninety are done) for the past week. I like that some things were changed such as the characters. In the book, just about everybody smoked. In the show, no one smokes which I like.

I like Yuan Zong and Xia Yao's chemistry because it keeps me guessing as to if Xia Yao is starting to fall in love with Yuan Zong in this scene or that scene. The same thing with Yuan Zong. Also, with how a certain scene between them ends, it makes me wonder if they kiss or just look passionately into each other's eyes. I do have to say that my favorite scenes are with them together. They could be talking about the weather or staring into each other's eyes while twenty people are around them and I would still think, “Kiss already!”

I wish the second season was already out because, in the opening and ending credits, they have scenes from it. One of the scenes shows Xia Yao with a shoe on his face being pressed into the gravel. Another is Yuan Zong rushing alongside Xia Yao (on a gurney), looking like he's begging Xia Yao to not die. A third shows Yuan Zong jumping down from the rafters in an abandoned warehouse onto a vehicle and breaking the windshield. And then there are explosions going on around Yuan Zong who is walking out of the warehouse as if nothing happened. Another shows them inside what appears to be a well and Yuan Zong with his chin barely above the water while Xia Yao is on his shoulders. I have watched fanmade videos that include lines from untranslated chapers (some about the last scene I mentioned), and I must say that I am shocked. By reading those lines and seeing those scenes, I wonder if they are related and what the heck is going on! From what I understand from what I have seen about that last scene, Yuan Zong and Xia Yao had broken up, Yuan Zong goes to save Xia Yao who is stuck in a well, they both end up stuck in it, something terrible happens, and when people come to rescue them, Xia Yao begs them to save Yuan Zong first.

Just thinking about this last scene has me terrified of what is going on. I just wish that the next season or the rest of the chapters (although translated) would come out rather than having to wait for something. All in all, I enjoyed this season and am very much looking forward to the next one.