Shi Yi Chang An: Mingyue Jishi You Er

The Chinese anime "Shi Yi Chang An: Mingyue Jishi You Er/ Memory of Chang'an Season 2" is well animated and very enjoyable. You laugh and cry with the character or get mad at them for being daft here and there.

In the first season Princess Ming Yue and Li Qiang, the emperor's ninth prince, are forced to marry in order to keep the peace in their kingdoms. Since then there has been a lot of trouble for Ming Yue because some lot of other clans tried to stop the marriage from happening and even went so far to assessenate the princess.

Now it ... looks like that Li Qiang has finally realized that he loves his wife. With just 4 episodes left of the second season I hope that Ming Yue feels the same for her husband.

The art is actually quite lovely - Li Qiang and Lian Shiying especially. The fight scenes are nice, and the characters are quite badass. There's an element of mystery and political intrigue, which is nice. Finding out Li Qiang's backstory, and seeing his character develop is actually fairly interesting. A good blend of humor and more serious elements. The problem I have with this is that it has a large roster of characters, but doesn't do the best job at convincing us to care about them. The show is fun to watch -- mostly for the character designs -- but they don't do the best ... job of investing us in the storyline and plot. With maybe the exception of Li Qiang and the childhood friend, Memory of Chang'an, the characters aren't fleshed out enough to be interesting. Also, Li Qiang almost seems kind of OOC in the second season, especially when compared to the first - and it's nice that he's opening up a bit, but the rest of his changes, the oft-patented jealousy especially, don't really feel natural; the lying, especially, is kind of cringy. I got second-hand embarassment watching it. Compared to better Chinese anime like qzgs and mdzs, Memory of Chang'an is fairly mediocre. However, if you're just looking for something to pass time and/or some pretty characters, Memory of Chang'an has that. All in all, not the worst show out there.