同坠 | Notion

When I first started this AD way back in November, solely because of Gu Jiangshan’s shou role, I did not expect for me to take 3 MONTHS to finish it. Cen Zhisen’s instant physical attraction towards his brother Ning Zhiyuan sounded straight up creepy, and while it is something I can easily overlook in a novel, the sudden change of medium made me unable to do so, making me pause it.

Gu Jiangshan’s is truly one of my favorite VAs ever. His monologue of Ning Zhiyuan’s sadness and heartbreak over not having neither the Cen family’s recognition nor the Ning family's love and care; delivered in a throaty, broken voice, was so infectious that it had me shedding tears. First time I've cried over an AD scene, that's for sure.

While episode 1-5 only had me mildly impressed, episode 6 literally had my jaw on the floor. The beautiful transitions, the intense, sexy background music were so stunningly done, creating a gorgeous, cinematic experience. The transitions especially, were done so well and naturally, without any possibility of immersion break. What I noticed was the amount of trendy English songs used, way more than your usual audio drama uses.

Liushan’s pairing is undeniably the one with the most chemistry I have ever seen. No wonder every AD team is trying to cast them as friends at least in almost every AD. Every conversation exchanged between them is so thickly charged with tension, to the point it is almost suffocating. In their ambiguous phase they genuinely had me feel like I was interrupting something, that I wasn't supposed to /hear them, their private conversation.

Their slow, gentle whispers, every single pause and breath, were done so well, without coming off as intentional or deliberate.

And Liu Yiming’s voice is so gentle and smooth and rich. His tone is unique enough in the sense that I don't get the deep voice 1, deep voice 2 vibes that I get from most gong VAs.

Some of the characters arts are not exactly my favorite. But the non character arts were actually really pretty! After Xuanri this is my 2nd time where I felt the non character arts were better than the character arts.

Unlike the complete lack of context ckues in YXAT AD and the detailed context clues in An Pi, Tong Zhui’s context clues are actually perfect, (and borderline refreshing I must say, to hear an AD which actually puts their context clues to use) without feeling like they're straight up copying lines off the novel or as if they provide no purpose other than showing what the characters are saying.

Each episode is almost 50-60 minutes long which I'm pretty surprised about, considering the length of the AD at 17 eps, when all the ADs I've come across only had their last episodes one hour long. Nonetheless the pacing was handled well, it didn't feel like their relationship didn't progress too rapidly, keeping the playful suspense and uncertainty from their bet intact. Nor did it feel like they're needlessly adapting the unnecessary, skippable scenes in the novel either.