Cheng Lei is the person I'm seeing the most on the drama Discord I belong to but LYN is a close second

ADWAD is amazing! I haven't watched many Chinese historical dramas but the writing, acting and OST are outstanding. Not only did it literally make me LOL, the writing explored important themes around living bravely when you feel like you have no control over your life #cdrama

I adore him but since acting is only one of the things he does and he got a very late start it might be hard for him to transition to mainstream projects with people his age who have a lot more experience. But he's undeniably at the peak of his career right now and sought after so who knows.

Day 3 Honorable Mention goes to Satoh Takeru. I'd seen him before in First Love but didn't like his character so he didn't make much of an impression. Then I saw him in Marry My Husband Japan and realized this man can act his ass off. #jdrama #EYDC2025

Alas I'm not sure how interested he is in continuing to act. He has zero dramas lined up for 2026, he's aging out of idol dramas and may not be able to transition to more mainstream projects. I'll have to rewatch A Journey to Love and ADWAD on repeat plus his livestreams to get my fix.

He's a close second for me. I'd seen him in First Love but didn't like the character so he was a revelation in MMHJ. And then I watched his Ruoroni Kenshin films and Glass Heart and felt like OH I get why this guy is a huge star. His monologue about the future in MMHJ was amazingly well acted.

Oh and in this Reddit post people are mentioning Netflix promoting cdramas as a factor www.reddit.com/r/CDrama/com...

I think that's very likely part of it but I also think that people have gotten familiar with k-drama tropes and it doesn't feel novel anymore so Cdramas might feel relatively fresh in comparison

He's ridiculous, I adore him 😹

They're definitely not for everyone! I drop 2/3 to 3/4 of the Cdramas I start. But there are gems. Also, I think people who love fantasy are better fed by Cdramas than kdramas.

There were good kdramas but nothing that made it into my top 5 of the year. And I definitely see a trend of people migrating over to cdramas. So I wouldn't say kdramas flopped but I do think a lot of people are feeling less excited about them.

I hadn't heard about this one and it sounds exactly like my kind of drama so thank you for this!

Danish Oppa is HILARIOUS 🤣🤣

But the reason why the actors are so bad is because they literally pull people off the street to do the non-Korean roles because they don't give a shit about the quality of the performance.

LOL'ing over her willingness to have her face sucked off because yes and bless her for it 😆

Excellent choices! I gave Koshiba Fuka an honorable mention. I'd see Shiraishi Sei before but I didn't realize she could be that good as a villain

Honorable mention to Koshiba Fuka in Marry My Husband Japan. She was so sweet, funny warm and relatable in an adaptation that focuses on the FL's emotional Journey over the revenge. #EYDC2025 #jdrama

Yeah and to me there's no benign version of that, it's always low-key controlling and I hate it

Thanks for the rec!