Synopsis:
Set during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Tang, the story unfolds in the Dali Court, which oversees major cases nationwide. Led by Li Bing, the White Cat Vice Minister, the story follows the staff of the Dali Court as they embark on thrilling crime-solving adventures, defying fate and upholding their inner sense of justice.
Genre: Comedy, Action, Historical
Number of episode: 24
Studio: Nice Boat Animation
Where to watch?: Bilibili & Tencent Video
Douban score: 8.1 (season 1); 8.3 (season 2)
Platform rating: 9.8 (S1 with > 125k raters), 9.4 (S2 with 196k raters)
My rating: Love to Watch, casually
Status: Season 2 complete. Waiting for Season 3
Recommended if you like:
Story about palace scheme and investigation
What I Like
- Tbh, there are a lot of things that I like about White Cat Legend. The 1st season is funny, I love the animation, and the story gets more interesting and heartfelt in season 2.
- Li Bing is a flawed character, he’s not omnipotent. He is in the middle of a complicated and cruel palace scheme. I sympathize a lot with him because having a terrible government that makes you feel powerless to do anything to oppose it is an experience that I also share in real life.
My Other Comments
- The story has potential to be great, with its layer of palace scheme, grey morality & human relationship but the way they tell the story is just bad. Season 1 focus on comedy and the relationship of Li Bing with his subordinates & superiors. But they barely solving cases although Dali Court main function is crime-solving. They do show cases that related to government incompetence tho, so we know that the government is bad.
- This donghua took inspiration from history. Season 2 take a different tone and become more serious. It shows how the empress (based on Wu Zetian) maintain her power through killing her sons and also establishing a notorious and brutal secret police to frame her political opponents. Other bad guys in season 2 are based on Lai Junchen and Zhou Xing of secret police, who were known to frame and torture suspects for the empress.
- There’s a lot of flashback in season 2 about Li Bing’s past with general Qiu Shenji but sometimes you can’t really tell because lack of information or differentiation with non flashback scenes.
- This donghua don’t explain things enough or explain things too late. Until season 2 we don’t even know how Li Bing become a cat.
- Tbh, I’m a bit surprised that one of the character here disguised as a Kunlun Nu. Previously I didn’t know there were African slaves in China. The Kunlun Nu arrived in China through the Arab slave trade and remained largely in royal courts and rich people’s households.
Other Fun Facts
White Cat Legend is adapted from popular manhua.
My Donghua Review 
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