FINAL RATING: 8.35/10

NOTE: I have changed some of my initial review (which I had written after watching 25 episodes). Some of those thoughts still hold true though.

Ren Anle, a female pirate with 30,000 naval forces under her command (the show never forgets to remind us of this in almost every episode) steps into the capital with an ulterior motive. 10 years ago her entire family, as well as 80,000 troops serving her family were massacred by the ruling emperor as a result of a conspiracy. As a sole survivor of the Di family, she was sent to a mountain to spend her days in seclusion. 10 years later, she returns under a fake name and a fake identity to infiltrate the court and bring her family and troops to justice. She puts up a flirtatious facade with the crown prince Han Ye, who was betrothed to her since childhood. However, Ren Anle (or Di Ziyuan) and Han Ye slowly develop feelings for each other but are embroiled in complex relations and conspiracies from the past.

As of episode 25, The Legend of Anle did not feel like a spectacular show with incredibly layered writing and characters. However, it picked up pace after that and delivered some strong emotional moments during the last quarter of the show. Initially, it felt like they were going for a Nirvana in Fire-esque approach, but of course it did not reach that mark. The palace politics and scheming on this show were not as deep and detailed and hence, it might be easier to follow for newbies to this genre. Dilraba and Gong Jun did a good job (particularly when it came to the later parts of the show where their characters have to go through some pretty traumatic events).

I think this show could have benefitted from fewer episodes. As of episode 25, it had been a rather slow buildup to something that should have happened episodes ago. The show could’ve saved itself from comparisons to NIF by simply shortening the “clearing the Di family name” arc.

The big, important moments of the show (which happen in the last quarter) were handled quite well. Supporting characters we had grown to like, such as Anning, Wen Shuo and Linglang were given their own arcs. Anning in particular had quite an emotional one and became one of the most tragic characters on the show.

As not episode 24, the logic did not flow very well and hence questions arose, such as what is the point of having a fake Di Ziyuan come down from the mountain and cause a stir in the capital? Isn’t Luo Mingxi the same age, or close in age to Anle - if so how did he amass so much influence in 10 years when he was just a child bodyguard? How does Anle have so many forces under her command in such a short amount of time and at such a young age? Why and how doesn’t the fake Di Ziyuan know about the real Di Ziyuan? Does she think she can become Crown Princess without any issues - if she’s fake, wouldn’t someone rat her out? Why do Luo Mingxi and Ren Anle let the fake Di Ziyuan just act rashly? If the Dowager Empress wants to kill Di Ziyuan in the capital, why didn’t she try to kill her before when she was living in the mountains? Sadly, these weren’t really answered.

The last two episodes seemed to be a bit more saccharine than I was expecting. I know both Di Ziyuan and Han Ye go through some rather terrible times and it’s only natural to want them to live happily at least. However, the way everything was wrapped up in the end was not too satisfying. Luo Mingxi got a farewell that should have been a bit more emotional and hard-hitting than it was. He was a main character after all.

The music is good enough - although I’ve noticed that a lot of instrumental tracks from Princess Agents are used here. It’s a bit distracting if you tend to notice these things (which I do).

Overall this is a good show and is quite entertaining. It isn’t the best in its genre but it isn’t a waste of time either.