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The Immortal Ascension with Yang Yang Premieres to Strong First Reviews and Heat Index

A Koala's Playground Posted on by

With surprise summer 2025 hit Coroner’s Diary ending, there is basically no competition for just premiered big budget and big male lead xianxia C-drama The Immortal Ascension on Youku. But judging from the strong first reviews and impressions from viewers, the drama is likely to vault over any competition anyway. The Immortal Ascension is adapted from a popular novel and already made into an even more popular animated series, so the live-action was always high profile and male lead Yang Yang has been banking it all on this drama to wash away the bad reviews from his last drama Fireworks of the Heart and get back to his popular You are My Glory days. The early feedback is that he’s doing well, not oily per usual, and the story and directing are also very strong right off the bat. This is the third big male lead C-drama to air this year and depending on if this drama has legs and stays strong it could vault over Guardians of the Dafeng in success but it would be a feat to each the level of Legend of Zang Hai.

Comments

The Immortal Ascension with Yang Yang Premieres to Strong First Reviews and Heat Index — 67 Comments

  1. What do they mean when they call him oily or greasy? I was taking the words literally. LOL.

    • It’s a slang used to describe actors who think they’re good-looking and try too hard to show off their charm that it makes people uneasy.

      Yang Yang received a lot of criticism for his greasy and oily acting in Fireworks of My Heart.

  2. Surprisingly, the 3 episodes uploaded to YouTube are in 4K. Although I’m puzzled that for an S production, the special effects still look cartoonish. Lol.

    It’s decent, I’ll keep watching it anyway.

    • Oh noooo really? They didn’t made a proper cgi 🙁 like wtf an S++ or S+ idk hw

  3. Is it so surprising? This IP is so big. I just want to see whether will be a explosive success with this advantage. I really like donghua but i haven’t seen the drama. It seems like they haven’t released many episodes yet.

    • I’m currently chasing another drama and also waiting to see how this one fares (huge IP and Yang Yang) before diving in. Plus, I won’t have the wait for new episodes.

      • I want to give it a chance because Donghua version is one of my huge favorite. I don’t have much hope to not be more disapoint tbh

    • @Inkkk, the three episodes I watched seemed like a solid start. However, you should watch it and draw your own conclusions considering that you are a fan of the donghua and have a better understanding of the story.

  4. I like to congratulate all involved in the drama. A good start…I really hope it carries thru. It is unfortunate for many bad dramas, the lead casts are always the one remembered.

    I do personally believe actors can improve and with time, training and experience, all can get better. I will always start on Yang Yang’s dramas all due to his first breakout role that still resonate in my mind even after all these years. Similar to Xiao Zhan in Untamed, Hu Ge in The little Fairy/ Legend of the Condor Hero, Deng Lun in Ashes of Love etc…along with others.

    I hope I can finish this drama…I drop most of Yang Yang other dramas. Please edit this drama well!!!

    • The wait for some to improve seems endless, especially when they’ve been in the industry for over a decade. Yang Yang is one of them, but curiously, I can see him even though his acting is robotic. It must be because I appreciate a couple of his characters or because I like his visuals. Or both. Lol.

      I wanted to see more of Xiao Zhan, but apart from The Untamed and Legend of Zang Hai, I couldn’t connect with his dramas as I would have liked and ended up putting them on hold.

      • @Kamela, cuz his gorgeous face is gazillion times appealing than your own puking 🤮 face. LOL

      • @1+1, there are quite a few examples of impressive acting growth in K-ent, e.g., Suzy and Junho. They both started off career as Kpop idols, and people had always whined about their acting for quite a while. But years later, they were molded into serious and commendable actors. They both were nominated for Baeksang, the most prestigious Kdrama awards, and Junho even won the best actor for his breakout performance as a Joseon king.

        With intriguing scripts and characters to work with, some boring mannequins LOL on set could be transformed into very lively performers. One of the major issues with Cdrama is a shortage of good scripts. So, C actors in general don’t even have interesting projects to work on and gradually develop their skills to excel. As to why there is a shortage of good scripts for C production nowadays, it’s fundamentally attributed to the system that stymies creativity.

  5. I wouldn’t be so sure about vaulting over any competition so soon… some C-netz have pointed out that the comments under YXHs’ TIA posts on weibo are all eerily similar…

    • Don’t believe the C-netz. When they have someone to protect or bring down, they’ll say anything.

      • Thing is, I can read Chinese so I do agree with C-netz this time based on what I’ve seen.

    • It’s CCP Lilith striking again to sew seeds of doubt. She readily believes anything bad about everyone except Xiao Zhan. 🙄

      • @WYB Fan You’ll be more credible if you didn’t bring up Xiao Zhan using different names each day 😂

        Btw, Koala has posted an article about my fave Dilraba’s new drama. See you there ❤️

  6. I was already bored in the opening scene, where the main character spends five minutes fighting a CGI pig in an obviously fake forest. Why did the pig have to die? Did it eat the villagers? Was the hero just craving roast pork? Who knows.

    The main character’s best friend gets turned into a masked mute pack mule and somehow, the main character barely reacts. He just moves on and starts controlling him with a cowbell? Make it make sense.

    Worst of all it’s BORING from the way the story is told, the main character has zero personality, the actor barely has any expressions , the direction and cinematography it’s all sleep inducing.

    Plus it looks really cheap, the fake sets, bargain- bin costumes, CGI (yes, we are back with the black smoke monsters), really obvious green screens and unsmooth clunky looking wire work. Really where did the production money go?

    I wasn’t asking for much just some good music, cool action scenes and Wang Duo as of episode 6 none of these have appeared yet sigh

    This drama somehow manages to be worse than Legend of Zang Hai and Guardians of the Daifang.

    • I just wanted to say your first paragraph made me laugh out loud 😂 I haven’t checked it out yet but I’m going to watch to see if there will be justice for this pig.

  7. i was not entertained so those who keep following this show are dense ’cause I don’t like it. it’ll be worse than the latest crap Xiao Rat (Zhan, i mean 😂) released. this guy has a horse face BTW. and Yang Yang is not good at acting.

    @1+1 Liu Yuning has amazing dramas under his belt at least. he doesn’t need to be good-looking when he is one if the best actors in Asia right now.

  8. Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy is the best xianxia I’ve seen. I also enjoyed The Unmated, Lost You Forever S1, Love and Destiny, and others.

    Still, I’ll take a look at this drama. I like YangYang.

    • Not the yangzi sh*t again, i seriously don’t understand why people like that drama both s1 and s2 were crap af. Also the starry sky starring chen xingxu and li landi is good too

      • Have you heard of something called different tastes? Or does it bother you that other people prefer what you don’t? What a weak and pathetic mentality. I dropped The Starry Love, it bored me.

  9. It has been one boring drama year so far. I’m looking forward to starting this. I hope it doesn’t disappoint but I’m going in without any expectations just to be safe…

    • Ha, I’m like you and didn’t enjoy any of the so-called hits so far this year. Still patiently waiting for my most anticipated drama to air…

  10. Early reviews of YY’s acting not being greasy is a good sign. Does anyone know if this story involves any romance?

  12. Dropped after 2 episodes. Boring. Just read that it’s a S++ drama. I thought it’s a low budget. Sorry.

    Prefer Meng Ziyi and He Yu’s new drama.

    Plot is everything, i dont really care about the cast.

    • Blossoms of Power? It hasn’t been released yet, how do you know you prefer it without having seen it? Special affection for the novel maybe?

      By the way, I’ve seen the word “blossom” used in many C-dramas titles, even those whose episodes are less than 10 minutes lol.

      • It’s called Duel on Mount Hua : Nine Yin True Sutra. Meng Ziyi and Heyu, it’s said.

        I first thought it was Blossoms of Power but then it’s not. I’ve read Blossom of Power, full of intrigue and twists.

        Blossom is the new love. Lol

      • @Yui. Oh, it’s related to The Legend of Heroes. Zhou Yi Wei fan here. But I couldn’t connect with the original story. Well, I haven’t done that with any adaptation of The Condor Trilogy.

  14. To me, Yang Yang, Dylan Wang, and Xiao Zhan are all basically in the same league in terms of acting.

    TIA vaulting over GOTD is doable as long as YY acts okay and the production is decent…because the IP has a massive fan base and YY is a popular enough actor.

    Reaching the level of LOZH is another story. Both are S+ male lead centric dramas from Youku and both star popular 90s actors. If TIA wants to reach LOZH level, the team behind TIA and YY need to take a page from the team behind LOZH and XZ to market, hype, and buy whatever they can in terms of hot searches and data.

    There’s probably no S+ male lead centric drama this year that will surpass the phony baloney that was the LOZH because that one vaulted itself to where it is despite the same amount of mixed reviews and complaints about acting that GOTD and Dylan received.

    • LOZH, the biggest forced hit of all time. Heavy marketing and manipulated success metrics. A perfect example of a drama hanging sheep’s head and selling dog meat. XZ was serviceable in The Untamed but other than that, the guy cannot act his way out of a paper bag. He always looks like he’s pretend playing to act. I just can’t take him seriously.

      • Immortal Ascension already beat LZH
        the fastest in 2025 to reach 100 Million Yuan
        and reach 10,100 heat index, while LZH never broke 10,000

    • @Jules. WOW. Different perspectives are certainly interesting because it never even crossed my mind to even put Yang Yang and Xiao Zhan’s acting on the same page. LOL.

      Yang Yang’s performance is frozen in time, his mannerisms are similar from character to character. I don’t get the impression that he’s suffering in emotional/painful scenes. Xiao Zhan, on the other hand, has more varied facial expressions and body language. I’ve only seen him in two dramas though, I may have more to see.

      • I agree with the overall gist of what you wrote about their acting. I’ve seen both actors in several of their dramas/films. To me, their acting is different but not enough to place them in different leagues.

        Your opinion might not change but you should definitely check out more XZ works if you care to.

    • The amount of bitterness that Xiao Zhan and Zanghai elicit on these pages make my days so much brighter. I can literally see you all seething in jealousy and hatred, it is so beautiful.

      • Ikr. It’s been the end of July, and people are still raving about LoZH. They are kinda obsessed. LOL.

        Even as a fan myself, I’ve long moved on to many other newly premiered C- and K- dramas. But heck these people are still residing at anguish, unable to move on. LOL

    • XZ sucks and his fans suck too even though there isn’t an innocent fandom in C-ent.

      LOZH’s broadcast overlapped with TPOB and his fans were viciously attacking LYN for being ugly and SZE for her tax scandal. They were also using the alleged recording of Li Kai Xin insulting Chinese people to maliciously slander TJOL to bring down any potential competitor being able to air their drama. It’s funny XZ fans made the news today. TLOJ’s production team turned the issue over to a law firm and are now suing for criminal offense, so it won’t be solved by writing some handwritten apology letter on Weibo. It’s clear which fandom was behind the malicious slander when you look at the list of users being sued. 😂

      https://m.weibo.cn/status/5193699845476854?jumpfrom=weibocom

      https://weibo.com/1642592432/5193756183626829

      https://x.com/doozy_bug/status/1950032934745899278?t=rVIBv6Tg1GBrm4ak2NFRzQ&s=19

      https://x.com/ForCdrama/status/1950113435615719904/photo/4

    • @Jules, do you mind telling which actors you admire or consider one or several levels above this league of beautiful men (at least)? LOL.

    • Immortal Ascension already beat LZH
      the fastest in 2025 to reach 100 Million Yuan
      and reach 10,100 heat index, while LZH never broke 10,000

  15. On the home page it appeared that there were 30 comments on this post, when I opened it only 6 were shown. I reloaded the tab and now nothing appears. The same thing happens in previous entries. I want to read the replies. Lol.

    • It’s because of people spamming under multiple names here. Koala should do something about this already, she used to call out a ZLY anti back then, I’m surprised she hasn’t called this person out yet.

      • I think there are multiple people doing that but the site has technical issues to begin with…

        Someone said that you have to post a comment to see all the comments or something like that. I’ve been seeing a few “testing to see comments” kind of post. Lol.

      • @Claire..yes, I started it awhile ago and now, more are using their method. This is the method that works for me.

  17. I love who rules thw world. So i gonna watch this. Both ml and fl drama on who rule the world written interestingly. Yangyang as someone mentioned above can connect with the viewer. Not his fan or anythinh.

  18. Dropped, he is a disaster when it comes to acting, no matter how pretty he is and the plot is classic, simplistic light novel so not worth the bother. Even the special effects are only occasionally good.

    The heat was fake, they tried desperately to get some hype going but it didn’t work. The second day is already evening out. It is below First frost, Legend of Zanghai and The story of pearl girl in data. I don’t see what records it is suppose to break. I am sure it will go over 10k heat because the platform can’t afford not to push it over.

    • Every time I see a comment about a drama’s heat index/data/rating, I’ll see another comment about how all the numbers are fake/manipulated/watered. Can’t believe anything in C-ent. Lol.

    • so many netizen is toxic like this one
      they only know to attack and attack others
      but with all their success (26 Advertisememt0
      and over 350 Million view they got the profit for sure
      Who care about the hater?
      I know people like this usually have a bad life, bad karma
      Thats why you should stop being negative to other to collect good karma

  19. Basically people believe the data when it favours their Fav, the data becomes fake when it favours another actor

  20. Koala periodically shares the Douban rating when a drama ends its run. There usually isn’t a big kerfuffle but then this unsatisfactory rating came out.

    https://koalasplayground.com/2025/06/08/youku-period-c-drama-legend-of-zang-hai-wraps-highly-successful-run-and-douban-ratings-open-with-7-1/

    Since then, Douban has become the biggest joke with some claiming to know how the rating system works like the back of their hand and what payments to make to receive which numbers. It fits their narrative.

    If that drama was actually able to muster a 9 or better, the comments would be completely different. Would they still call Douban a joke? Would they accuse the actor/drama of paying for the rating? I think we all know the answers to those questions.

    Maybe if his next drama actually manages to score a Douban rating that they’re satisfied with, they’ll reinstate Douban as being more legitimate. Whatever fits the changing narrative.

  21. passing 10 K heat index this is hit drama already
    watch by over 300 Million People and the article being read 850 million time
    dont listen to the toxic chinese netizen
    this is xianxia masterpice that you should not miss. Amazing duel, scenery and acting
    watched till ep 10 and cannot wait for more !

  22. As Yang Yang now being acknowledged no longer oily and make complete turn around :
    https://www.msn.com/zh-cn/news/other/%E9%87%91%E6%99%A8%E4%B8%8E%E9%A2%96%E5%84%BF%E5%87%91%E4%B8%80%E5%9D%97%E7%A1%AC%E6%98%AF%E6%BC%94%E4%B8%8D%E5%87%BA%E4%BB%99%E5%A5%B3%E6%A0%B7-%E6%9D%A8%E6%B4%8B%E5%80%92%E6%98%AF%E8%AE%A9%E6%88%91%E7%9C%8B%E9%A1%BA%E7%9C%BC%E4%BA%86/ar-AA1JHgXU?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ASTS&cvid=728b285b374649519f468ac3d4366349&ei=7
    The netizen start to attack Gina Jin said she is not beautiful enough to be the first beauty…what a disgust1ng people….do they watch drama or becoming a judge?
    Poor Gina Jin facing barbaric people who insult other like that

    • I read the article with link…thanks for the link! What I like about Yang Yang is his nature of not taking on roles after roles and wearing himself out, not giving himself time to take in critism and improve on his skills. He has limited acting chops to start with but he clearly work hard on improving it over time. I like his approach.

  24. I am loving it! 🥰 The Immortal Ascension really entertains me. Yang Yang played so well as Han Li! I really paid the episodes just to see it as I cannot see it anywhere even in youtube. But it’s worth it! All for Yang Yang, all for Han Li and all for The Immortal Ascension! So far I finished episode 15 and waiting for Episode 16, not yet loaded. Only trailer I can see. I cannot wait! Excited for the next episodes. ♥️🫶😍🥰

  25. Thank you for bringing The Immortal Ascension to life with such respectful dedication to the original novel. The world and characters feel real so immersive and powerful.I was deeply moved by Mo Caihuan’s quiet strength and her bond with Han Liso much warmth and potential there. It would be incredible if Season 2 included a twist reuniting them or at least honoring that emotional connection in a meaningful way. That kind of unexpected, heartfelt turn would truly elevate the story. Please consider giving that thread more space it would mean so much to fans like me.

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