skygiants | (no subject)

I had both accurate and inaccurate impressions about The Imperial Coroner going in.

The inaccurate impression was that this show was going to be a sort of historical procedural featuring a series of cases-of-the-week that our plucky Tang Dynasty coroner heroine was going to become responsible for solving; this was untrue! Most of the show is actually a big overarching metaplot in which our protagonists go on a long road trip to find a missing person and sort out a political conspiracy while their parents all deal with more political conspiracies back home at the Palace. This wrong-footed me a little in that I forgot to pay attention to the political conspiracies at first and I did have to do a little confused catch-up once it became clear that I should have been trying to sort out what was going along with them from the start.

The accurate impression (gained from other people's posts) was that this show features a perfect and charming sedoretu. This was one thousand percent correct and did not lose my attention for a moment!

The main characters include:

- Chu Chu (adorable bow hair), a wide-eyed but talented baby from a family of small-town coroners who has come to the big city to take the Imperial coroner exam and prove she's the best she can be! Chu Chu is GIFTED AND PROFESSIONAL in the art of autopsy and she LOVES her work and she LOVES her handsome and ethical but moderately antisocial new boss and she has NEVER previously had cause to suspect anybody's motives in her earnest little life, which might be because she grew up in a tiny town that until recently was completely inaccessible except by crossing a canyon hand-over-hand on a rope

- Commandery Prince Xiao Jin Yu (stern in red), Chu Chu's handsome and ethical but moderately antisocial new boss, a member of the royal family filling a post as prosecutor and well on his way to deeply offending the entire rest of the court in his Pursuit of Justice! Just as serious and professional as Chu Chu but significantly less trusting, which might be because he grew up in the palace, Notorious Pit Of Vipers; nonetheless completely willing to let Chu Chu earnestly re-enact various crime reconstructions on his consenting body, a.) because he loves justice and b.) because he loves a puzzlebox and c.) because he loves Chu Chu

- Jing Yi (perky ponytail), Prince An's longterm action-comedy sidekick; a cheery young man with boundless reserves of good humor who enjoys running around on rooftops, leaping in and out of windows regardless of whether there are perfectly good doors, running elaborate secret identity scams, being pinned to the ground and/or against the wall by Prince An, and pining for Leng Yue

- Leng Yue (less perky ponytail), the granddaughter of a vaguely sinister official whom everyone more or less suspects to be planning a coup against the throne, who has channeled her resentment at her granddad into running off to the jianghu to become the best Action Heroine she can be; self-assigned bodyguard to Jin Yu (platonic), self-assigned rival to Jing Yi (romantic), and the most beautiful woman that Chu Chu has ever seen, which Chu Chu is SO happy to explain to her at length

- General Xiao Jin Li (armor), Jin Yu's non-identical twin brother, who does NOT understand his brother's interests and hobbies and is also NOT interested in getting involved in the romance quadrangle in any way shape or form but WILL hang around for thirty episodes being aggressively supportive as best he knows how! midway through the show switches to an opening theme that seems to be earnestly trying to convince us that he is the main character, which is rather like if The Untamed launched a new intro around episode 20 that focused entirely on Lan Xichen

Aside from these main youths, the rest of the cast is mostly comprised of various parents, mentors, and scheming eunuchs. Unfortunately I had just finished She Who Became the Sun at the time that we started watching this show and thus I felt obliged to tune out whenever the show started edging into Evil Eunuch Comedy Hour rather than spiraling into a long and underinformed discussion with myself about gender and masculinity and eunuchs in palace television, but I don't actually think the evil eunuchs knew what was going on in the plot either until like episode 40 so I don't think I missed all that much.

Eunuchs aside, a very pleasant show and overall I enjoyed it very much! Enjoyable to see youths with a diverse array of talents Solving Puzzles And Enjoying Each Other's Company.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

superborb

To be honest, even going in without an episodic case bias, the politics didn't really make sense for a while anyway!! Who cares about politics when our main characters are cutely bantering!!!

From:

skygiants

Right! I have no idea who the secret possible heir to the throne is and I'm truly not sure that I need to? Anyway Chu Chu just gave Jin Yu a handkerchief touchingly embroidered with her favorite bone!

From:

thistleingrey

The characters sound great!

From:

skygiants

It's a very pleasant example of allowing everyone to be competent in their field and excited to encounter others doing the same!

From:

salinea

sounds fun! *takes note for future series watch*

From:

skygiants

I hope you enjoy if you watch!

From:

schneefink

midway through the show switches to an opening theme that seems to be earnestly trying to convince us that he is the main character, which is rather like if The Untamed launched a new intro around episode 20 that focused entirely on Lan Xichen
Quoting my flatmate: "I wouldn't have minded that, but also, what the fuck?"
xD

From:

skygiants

It was SO funny. "Is he secretly the villain?" we speculated. "Is he the long lost heir? Is this OP the relic of the show they originally intended to make before he got relegated to side character? Did they just let one GFX artist go to town on this OP without supervision and he happens to be their fave?"

From:

aurumcalendula

tbh I was semi-convinced he was going to be the lost lost heir

From:

shadaras

PERFECT SEDORETU YES <333

Agreed on all points, including the very *sigh* vibe of the evil eunuch portions.

From:

skygiants

It really felt like they were doing it on purpose! The lines were so clearly romantic in exactly four directions and equally clearly and explicitly platonic in the other two!

From:

kate_nepveu

Amazing. Could I theoretically let the politics wash over me and enjoy the youths and the immediate puzzles?

From:

skygiants

Absolutely! This is one hundred percent the way that we experienced the show; we paid attention to the politics only when it forced itself upon us.

From:

kate_nepveu

Excellent, thank you.

From:

osprey_archer

Someday someone will make a show about the Eunuch Experience but clearly today was not that day.

The chemistry between the leads sounds adorable, though! Loving Chu Chu purely on the basis of her perky bow hair.

From:

nineveh_uk

Someday someone will make a show about the Eunuch Experience but clearly today was not that day.

I hope they don't take too long about it, because I'd really like that show.

From:

skygiants

I ALSO long for that day. (Though, interestingly, the kdrama we're currently watching has one subplot that revolves around a palace eunuch's attempts to save the life of his wife, and another that's about a different palace eunuch's secret romance with a minor royal courtesan; the show seems to expect us to take both these plotlines as Romantic without delving any further into it, which I find a pleasant change!)

Chu Chu's hair is always either a perky bow or perky kitty ears and it is consistently amazing.

From:

mneme

Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, but it's just a subplot. An interesting one, though!

From:

aurumcalendula

I love the main characters so much! I have no songs for it yet, but it's on my to-vid list.

(I think it changed its opening credits at least three times, which I found a tad jarring)

From:

skygiants

I'm extremely excited to see whatever vid you end up making!

At first it didn't have any opening credits at all iirc! Then it got one a few episodes in and we were like "aww they finally got enough GFX budget to do credits, good for them!" and then apparently they got so excited by having the GFX budget to make opening credits that they just kept doing it, which in a way I found charming.

From:

aurumcalendula

Thank you!

I think you're right, re: the credits. iirc it did have a tiny budget (I swear I remember reading that its and Word of Honor's crew had a running joke about which production was poorer)

From:

mneme

Ah, Word of Honor, where you occasionally have to stop and decide whether this, in fact, the same creek, or the same receiving room as the last time...or just -looks- the same.

The budget mostly doesn't show that much! Except for that thing about sets and rooms.

From:

aurumcalendula

They did a decent job w/r/t set dressing, but yeah. I'm also pretty sure they only had one jade wine pitcher because it turns up everywhere.

From:

suchasnack

Chu Chu's bow hair is definitely adorable and the rest of the cast sounds great! *adds to the infinite list of stuff to watch*

From:

skygiants

Real kudos to the stylists, who give such a clear and distinct impression of Chu Chu's personality via hairstyle alone!

From:

glitteryv

Ah, this show is such a delight! Tho I did struggled with the goings on at first (for reasons similarlish to yours), I ended up trying to pace myself so that I didn't marathon-watch the entire series.

I love the way you describe the main cast cuz it's hella accurate. (One of these days I'll start posting my C-Drama commentary on my journal cuz I have a lot of thoughts abt IC and other shows. It won't happen today or not any time soon, but one day, LOLsob.)

From:

skygiants

We were watching in four-episode chunks every week, which was really good pacing in some ways and in others made it weirdly difficult for me to follow the shifting politics -- the cast were always a delight regardless, though!

From:

issenllo

It is indeed a perfect sedoretu! They are so sweet and frank with one another that in another universe, I can imagine them setting one up.

At least the ultimate big bad is NOT an eunuch? This period of Tang history contained many instances of eunuchs controlling the court, so I guess their villainy-roles had some justification.

From:

skygiants

Absolutely! I mean we more or less figured that that's what they had going on by the end of the show, it seemed clear that while the two het couples were neatly paired off the whole gang was also going to stay Together in some capacity and not a single thing about the dynamics between Jin Yu/Jing Yi and Chu Chu/Leng Yue were going to change.

We definitely did spend a lot of time going to Wikipedia to look up relevant Tang history! Sometimes it was genuinely helpful in figuring out what was going on in the plot and other times it made us more confused than before, lol.

From:

larryhammer

That pretty much summarizes many episodes of Tang history, yup.

From:

larryhammer

You had me with "charming sedoretu." Nothing more needed to be said, tho' seeing the adorable bow hair certainly didn't hurt.

From:

lirazel

The main characters sound so fun!

midway through the show switches to an opening theme that seems to be earnestly trying to convince us that he is the main character, which is rather like if The Untamed launched a new intro around episode 20 that focused entirely on Lan Xichen

I burst out laughing in my office!