Advance Bravely - Episodes 19 to 30 (Season Two)
I was ecstatic to be able to find the rest of Advance Bravely episodes 19 through to 30 on Dailymotion. This was a binge-watch feast and the happiest any BL series has made me. If you can find any of the season 2 episodes on youtube, watch them there, as the quality of the Dailymotion uploads is poor at this point.
UPDATE: If you haven't read it yet, you can find my review of Season 1 here.
SPOILERS WARNING: there's a lot of detail about the plot in this review. Don't read it if you want to be surprised or if you haven't watched season one yet.
Summary: Xia Yao and Yuan Zong's relationship goes from strength to strength, and they are increasingly unfazed by being seen as 'close' by their colleagues, families and friends. Xia Yao's father gives him an ultimatum to find a girlfriend or else a marriage will be arranged. Xia Yao takes advantage of his parents' obliviousness to escape Beijing and go to Northeastern China for Chinese New Year to surprise Yuan Zong. The bodyguard business is successfully promoted on TV but it comes under closer scrutiny when a jealous rival company creates tension. Xia Yao is caught up in the ensuing violence. There are ongoing problems with his best friend Da Yu, who has a crush on him but can't understand his feelings, or his jealousy of Yuan Zong. Da Yu finally finds the thief from season one Wang Zhi Shui. After discovering some of the boy's shocking family history, he decides to help Wang Zhi Shui financially. Yao's other friend Peng Ze continues his strange relationship with feminine Li Zhen Zhen, though Ze's facade of using him solely to interest a girl is fading fast. Xia Yao helps rescue an injured construction worker, with catastrophic results.
Credibility never enters the equation with this second set of episodes, just as it didn't in the first, but it's so harmless and inoffensive that it doesn't matter. This series is enormously entertaining by any measure and no amount of stupid behaviour and Daliesque plot points can detract from it.
Just as it was in season one, it's easy to list memorably ludicrous scenes from season two. Even the secondary characters get some fun moments that are worth watching. The screenplay takes some extended tangents that are so entirely inexplicable, and so completely unrelated to the story, they are a disgrace to logic and reasoning. Wang Zhi Shui is a vaudevillian clown?? To what possible end does the rival bodyguard company violently attack Zong's team?? What reasoning does Wang Zhi Shui use to justify hurling tofu and eggs at Yuan Ru?? Why does Yao see everywhere a transvestite's beautiful legs from a video chat he masturbated to eight years earlier?? Is he seriously so traumatised by the incident that he believes it "converted" him to homosexuality?? There's a gobsmacking scene involving a chicken that has to be seen to be believed. What sort of a scriptwriter would dream up something so senseless and absurd, a propos of nothing?? Even more absurd is an animated sequence at the end of the final episode that will have you howling with derision. Who on earth came up with the idea of ending the series with something so completely insane?? There's a stunningly awkward dinner party with all six of the male leads (who were meant to bring their girlfriends!) that is so awful and cringeworthy, it's perversely brilliant. In uncharacteristic Gay Bitch mode, Yao makes a savage observation to Wang Zhi Shui that having had anal sex appears to have improved his fashion sense. Beyond any sensible reason, this huge toilet dump of snark and ludicrousness ends up being riveting TV.
When Advance Bravely turns the Stupid volume down a notch, it gives us a couple of very decent romantic moments with Zong and Yao. The Northeastern China village scenes are a joy to watch and provide some real BL gems. Yao's squeal of delight when he finally finds Zong at his isolated country home and leaps into his arms is an adorable highlight. Get ready to feel your heart melt when Zong and Yao visit a Chinese New Year fair in the village; it's acted and directed with a cheesy perfection that's unsurpassed anywhere else in the series. There's a magnificent laugh-out-loud breakfast scene where Yao throws a meatball at Yuan Ru's face. (That's more of a romantic scene for the boys at her expense - as always - but it still works a treat.)
This season certainly feels like it's cramming more into each short episode, which eliminates a lot of the useless filler, but it unfortunately doesn't detract from the lack of continuity between plot points. When something happens, it occurs in a vacuum; it has almost no bearing on future episodes. This is still one of the series' weakest aspects, and the thin thread of blossoming love between the two leads is the only element that ties all the various events together. It's debatable as to whether this sole unifying element actually achieves this aim, but on the whole I feel it doesn't.
In the end, it doesn't matter anyway.
This series is a tribute to the incontestable power of surrendering oneself to the potential of the ridiculous. Once a screenwriter accepts that his ostensibly dramatic plot will never be taken seriously, it frees him from any expectations and he can be as daring and original as he likes. (Or just about - this being censorious China. Zong and Yao never kiss once.) Advance Bravely goes way over the top - spinning upwards higher and higher into the atmosphere, out of control, threatening to burn up! - and whether or not you accept it as original, successful and entertaining rests entirely on your sense of humour and your tolerance for complete bullshit.
Just give us a third season already! Surely such a fun series with so much promise can't end so appallingly.
Rating: 14 out of 20
Ending: Happy.
Best scene: it's a toss up between the fairground scene, and the moment Yao joyously finds Zong's country house.
UPDATE: If you haven't read it yet, you can find my review of Season 1 here.
SPOILERS WARNING: there's a lot of detail about the plot in this review. Don't read it if you want to be surprised or if you haven't watched season one yet.
Summary: Xia Yao and Yuan Zong's relationship goes from strength to strength, and they are increasingly unfazed by being seen as 'close' by their colleagues, families and friends. Xia Yao's father gives him an ultimatum to find a girlfriend or else a marriage will be arranged. Xia Yao takes advantage of his parents' obliviousness to escape Beijing and go to Northeastern China for Chinese New Year to surprise Yuan Zong. The bodyguard business is successfully promoted on TV but it comes under closer scrutiny when a jealous rival company creates tension. Xia Yao is caught up in the ensuing violence. There are ongoing problems with his best friend Da Yu, who has a crush on him but can't understand his feelings, or his jealousy of Yuan Zong. Da Yu finally finds the thief from season one Wang Zhi Shui. After discovering some of the boy's shocking family history, he decides to help Wang Zhi Shui financially. Yao's other friend Peng Ze continues his strange relationship with feminine Li Zhen Zhen, though Ze's facade of using him solely to interest a girl is fading fast. Xia Yao helps rescue an injured construction worker, with catastrophic results.
Credibility never enters the equation with this second set of episodes, just as it didn't in the first, but it's so harmless and inoffensive that it doesn't matter. This series is enormously entertaining by any measure and no amount of stupid behaviour and Daliesque plot points can detract from it.
Just as it was in season one, it's easy to list memorably ludicrous scenes from season two. Even the secondary characters get some fun moments that are worth watching. The screenplay takes some extended tangents that are so entirely inexplicable, and so completely unrelated to the story, they are a disgrace to logic and reasoning. Wang Zhi Shui is a vaudevillian clown?? To what possible end does the rival bodyguard company violently attack Zong's team?? What reasoning does Wang Zhi Shui use to justify hurling tofu and eggs at Yuan Ru?? Why does Yao see everywhere a transvestite's beautiful legs from a video chat he masturbated to eight years earlier?? Is he seriously so traumatised by the incident that he believes it "converted" him to homosexuality?? There's a gobsmacking scene involving a chicken that has to be seen to be believed. What sort of a scriptwriter would dream up something so senseless and absurd, a propos of nothing?? Even more absurd is an animated sequence at the end of the final episode that will have you howling with derision. Who on earth came up with the idea of ending the series with something so completely insane?? There's a stunningly awkward dinner party with all six of the male leads (who were meant to bring their girlfriends!) that is so awful and cringeworthy, it's perversely brilliant. In uncharacteristic Gay Bitch mode, Yao makes a savage observation to Wang Zhi Shui that having had anal sex appears to have improved his fashion sense. Beyond any sensible reason, this huge toilet dump of snark and ludicrousness ends up being riveting TV.
When Advance Bravely turns the Stupid volume down a notch, it gives us a couple of very decent romantic moments with Zong and Yao. The Northeastern China village scenes are a joy to watch and provide some real BL gems. Yao's squeal of delight when he finally finds Zong at his isolated country home and leaps into his arms is an adorable highlight. Get ready to feel your heart melt when Zong and Yao visit a Chinese New Year fair in the village; it's acted and directed with a cheesy perfection that's unsurpassed anywhere else in the series. There's a magnificent laugh-out-loud breakfast scene where Yao throws a meatball at Yuan Ru's face. (That's more of a romantic scene for the boys at her expense - as always - but it still works a treat.)
This season certainly feels like it's cramming more into each short episode, which eliminates a lot of the useless filler, but it unfortunately doesn't detract from the lack of continuity between plot points. When something happens, it occurs in a vacuum; it has almost no bearing on future episodes. This is still one of the series' weakest aspects, and the thin thread of blossoming love between the two leads is the only element that ties all the various events together. It's debatable as to whether this sole unifying element actually achieves this aim, but on the whole I feel it doesn't.
In the end, it doesn't matter anyway.
This series is a tribute to the incontestable power of surrendering oneself to the potential of the ridiculous. Once a screenwriter accepts that his ostensibly dramatic plot will never be taken seriously, it frees him from any expectations and he can be as daring and original as he likes. (Or just about - this being censorious China. Zong and Yao never kiss once.) Advance Bravely goes way over the top - spinning upwards higher and higher into the atmosphere, out of control, threatening to burn up! - and whether or not you accept it as original, successful and entertaining rests entirely on your sense of humour and your tolerance for complete bullshit.
Just give us a third season already! Surely such a fun series with so much promise can't end so appallingly.
Rating: 14 out of 20
Ending: Happy.
Best scene: it's a toss up between the fairground scene, and the moment Yao joyously finds Zong's country house.
Comments