I really loved the characters of Ancient Detective. Imo all the actors did a really good job. My favorites were probably Zhan Shiqi and Ye Xiaoxiao. For Zhan Shiqi, I loved her desire to become a person rather than just an assassin, an organization's tool, a number. And her romance with Jian Buzhi was very cute ;). For Ye Xiaoxiao... he was just so bizarre! and also very competent, but just so bizarre!

Jian Buzhi, our male lead, is mostly interesting in how he plays off others. While his investment in solving the case of Wang Hua makes sense, the answer to the mystery is fairly obvious and so it did not hold much tension for me. But it was always fun seeing Jian Buzhi sleuthing around or being a damsel in distress for the other characters to rescue. Speaking of which, Zhao Wohuan, the second male lead, is also excellent. I love his friendship with Jian Buzhi. 10/10, would ship.

So given all that, why don't I love love the drama? Well, the cases kind of dragged for me. I always get frustrated when a detective is unable to solve a case until two or three (or more!) more people have already been murdered, and these cases were no exception. I also prefer with mysteries when you can solve the mystery along with the characters, but apart from last minute clues, the answers to the mysteries would have been very hard to predict (most of the motives were buried deep in the past, for example, and could not possibly have been predicted). I also thought Zhao Wohuan's romance with Mingyue was kind of boring. So not a perfect drama, but still pretty good.