Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Love Me, Love My Voice
(很想很想你 / Hěn xiǎng hěn xiǎng nǐ / I Really Really Miss You)
MyDramaList rating: 8.0/10

Hello everyone and welcome to a new review. It’s been a very eventful month for me in terms of work and self-growth, so it’s taken me a little longer to complete this new series, although I definitely didn’t mind taking my sweet time with it. For those who follow my reviews chronologically, when writing my last review I was kind of thrown off by the fact that I’d had to scratch off two watchlist items in a row. But you know what they say: patience pays off and good things come to those who wait, which is exactly what happened when my Spin the Wheel app picked out this drama. This was without a doubt the most delightful, wholesome Chinese romance story I’ve ever watched in my life. I can’t wait to share my views on it. As it happens, I’m writing this from my freshly new PC setup, with a lit-up keyboard in front of me and cozy accessories surrounding me, which seems like the most perfect environment. Having said that, I still need to get used to this new keyboard, so I will try to keep the typos to a minimum, lol. Let’s dive into this pearl of a romance, shall we?

Love Me, Love My Voice is a Tencent Video C-Drama that consists of 33 episodes of about 45 minutes, excluding the lengthy opening and ending themes. It tells the love story of a college student majoring in (traditional) music and a popular voice actor who cross paths through their connected work circles and, as the opening song suggests, “slowly, slowly, fall in love”.
Gu Sheng (played by Zhou Ye) is a 22 -year old aspiring music producer. Inspired by her love for traditional music and talent for playing classical instruments as well as songwriting and singing, she has already released several musical pieces under the pseudonym Shengshengman (fun fact: ‘sheng’ is written with the character 声, which means ‘voice’). She’s an only child, living with her parents and an adorable corgi named Peanut. Her parents own a supermarket called ‘Wangjia Supermarket’, which features said corgi in the logo – super cute detail. Despite being an only child, Sheng has five older male cousins who have babied her since birth, as she’s the only daughter in the household. Her grandfather also pops by regularly.
When she’s at college, Sheng mostly hangs out with her roommates Geng Xiao Xing (played by Yang Xi Zi) and Qi Yao (played by Huang Er Chun), with whom she shares her love for voice actors. Outside of uni, Sheng is a member of the band Zhaozhaomumu. They have their own studio where they write and compose songs together; Sheng, band leader She Zhang (Zhang Qiao Er), composer Guai Guai (Xia Zhen) and lyricist Off Key (Lin Lu) – I didn’t catch what they called Off Key in Chinese, but he’s credited as both Zou Diao Er, which seems to refer to this nickname, and Xie Xiao; I’ll just be calling him Off Key.
Sheng has a perfectly peaceful and satisfying life, making music and fangirling over her favorite dubbing artists. She’s particularly fond of one Qiang Qing Ci, a dubbing artist with the most beautiful voice, who never shows his face in public. Sheng has loved his voice since she first heard it, several years ago. Imagine her surprise when this very voice suddenly pops into her personal chatroom and starts sharing recipes with her!
Mo Qing Cheng, aka Qiang Qing Ci (played by Tan Jian Ci) is a 29-year old cardiac surgeon who does voice acting work on the side for the Perfect Voice Studio, which he helped set up with some friends, all famous voice actors. He’s been single all his life and grew up very independently – his parents were doctors as well and he was left alone a lot when he was a child. Besides voice acting, he’s also an amazing cook. Personality-wise, he is very easygoing and enjoys going with the flow, pursuing anything that genuinely piques his interest while commuting back and forth between the hospital and the dubbing studio. While it first appears that he stumbled across Sheng’s chatroom purely by coincidence, it is later revealed that he also knew her voice from before – in fact, after hearing her voice on a demo that she sent in without a name, he has been searching for her for several years.
You could say that they both fell in love with each other’s voice first, before getting a hold of each other’s contact and falling in love in real life as well.

As I mentioned in my introduction, this is probably my favorite Chinese romantic series so far. I can barely even call it a drama because there is no drama. Nothing bad happens, there are no miscommunications, no love rivals, no nasty people trying to keep them apart. It’s just about two people taking their time, putting in the effort, slowly but surely nurturing and enjoying their process of falling in love. Instead of adding unnecessary obstacles, the writers filled this series with depictions of the most wholesome friendships, subtle intimacies and love languages. It shows two people falling in love as naturally as possible, no mixed signals, making the most of every second spent together. They only get more intimate in the final ten episodes, which honestly felt like the cherry on top because their romance had already been built up so beautifully up to that point.
I’m not even exaggerating when I say that this is the most wholesome Chinese romance series I’ve watched, as far as I can remember. Lately, being chronically single has made me kind of allergic to certain romcoms since they immediately give me the “must be nice, i’ll never have this” ick, but for some reason these thoughts never once occurred to me while watching this. I was able to enjoy every second of it, giggling, kicking my feet, everything. If anything, it made me believe in love again. This is what it should be like, if you ask me. Meeting organically through a shared network, slowly getting to know each other, consistent communication and effort… The bare principles of building a relationship, which sadly has become so unusual in modern times. I absolutely loved this.

Something that I also appreciated from the get-go was that the opening sequence only depicted scenes between the main leads. Normally, the opening and ending sequences spoil the majority of the series, giving away a lot of stuff that happens throughout. For this one, the opening sequence only showed the main couple, and the ending sequence was just a credit roll framed by pictures of all the characters during their group activities. In other words: neither the opening nor the ending sequence gave away anything about what actually happened in the series, and I really appreciated that. It made each event and happening all the more exciting and surprising.

It’s entirely possible that this show spoke to me on a personal level because I am very interested in the dubbing industry, myself. I wrote my first MA thesis on the Japanese voice acting industry and even dabbled a bit in it myself, although I’ve strayed from doing actual workshops for a while now (they’re so expensive 😭). Anyways, I could really find myself in the whole concept of listening to your favorite voice actors and feeling your heart skip a beat when they suddenly say your name. As such, I really loved the fact that this show depicted the technicalities of dubbing. Instead of building a story around the profession but never actually depicting the work, this show really put a lot of time into showing the VAs record lines and songs. The parts where they organised live events were some of my favorite parts of the show, because it wasn’t just like “oh yeah, we’re doing a show”, no, they showed the planning and organizing, the recruitment and accommodating of the guests. Heck, they even showed a sped-up sequence of the whole stage being set up. The excitement and passion that went into these events was so palpable, I could FEEL the thrill of the fans over getting to see their favorite VAs live. They did such a good job at depicting these events, I literally felt the fans’ enthusiasm every, single time. I’ll get back to this in my character analysis, since I specifically loved the way these events allowed for the ultimate friendship bonding between Sheng and her roommates.

The fact that all the characters are basically tied together by their shared connections to the music and dubbing world makes it a lot easier for me to construct my character analysis, which I’m very grateful for. I’ll start by discussing the main leads first and then make my way over to their individual circles of friends as well as the Perfect Voice Studio members.
By the way, I just discovered this amazing character chart on DramaWiki and I really want to share it. I love how it frames all the characters in the format of the chatrooms they used!

As I briefly mentioned before, Sheng is a 22-year old woman studying music composition/production at university. While she enjoys sharing her music online and receiving support from people, her shy personality makes her happy to just enjoy this from a distance – as Shengshengman, she’s never revealed her true identity to the public. The only people who know who she is are her roommates and band members. From the start, even before she met Qiang Qing Ci in real life, I found her the coziest person ever. You could see that she had decorated her life to her own liking, both in terms of the people and the environments she surrounded herself with. From her bedroom to the Zhaozhaomumu studio to her dorm room, everything was just so freaking cozy. Just watching her put on her giant headphones, cuddling up with a blanket and a hot mug of tea while listening to a voice chat was so lo-fi, and I loved it. Especially when she’d just gotten in contact with Qiang Qing Ci and he made a habit of recording recipes for her, the way she just closed her eyes to enjoy both his voice and the food imagery was really soothing. She was a simple girl, appreciating the simple things. In a way, this show made me feel like I was reading a fluffy fanfic, where Sheng was Y/N, lol. She was just doing her thing, and then suddenly stumbled into this complete fairytale of a romance with none other than her favorite voice actor. After getting personally connected with the Perfect Voice Studio, she basically got every chance she could’ve dreamed of to build her career and develop her ambitions as a music producer. That’s something I also really liked about Sheng: besides falling head over heels into a whirlwind romance, she never stopped striving for her ambitions. She went through a professional growth as well as a romantic one. I always appreciate it when a romance drama doesn’t just focus on a couple becoming each other’s world, but also shows that they grow individually. One example I always use for this trope is A Little Thing Called First Love, which in my opinion is one of the best coming-of-age romance C-Dramas in existence. Even though the romance forms the main plot, there is still enough room to feature the leads’ individual growth as well as elaborate more on the supporting characters.
Sheng may have been swept off her feet to the point where she couldn’t live without her partner anymore, but she also remained a music producer and a loyal Qiang Qing Ci fan. I loved how she encouraged him to cater to his fans and even introduced him to people (and women!) she knew were his fans as well.
As wholesome and perfect as their romance story was, I also liked that Sheng showed some occasional hesitancy when it came to actually getting together with her celebrity crush. Even before he officially asked her out, she was keeping an eye on online rumors, worried about causing a scandal and tarnishing his reputation. Being a fan of him herself, she also harbored practical worries, like whether she really liked him or just his voice. In-between her almost too perfect romantic developments, factors like these made her more relatable as a character. What made it even better was that she actually expressed these concerns as well. As shy as she was, she asked the right questions when it came to it, and that transparancy was very comforting to watch. Just like the fact that she kept staring at Qiang Qing Ci as if he was some sort of magical being, lol. Admit it: this would literally be all of us if our celebrity crush confessed their undying love for us. I loved that she remained so humble and never got greedy. Even within her romantic relationship, she remained shy and preferred intimacy in private rather than where others could see them. In her career, she was happy to keep making music at her own pace, occasionally joining events and projects from Perfect Voice, but she would never use her connections with them to gain more popularity herself. She was a very sweet and unproblematic character, who I think was very lucky to have encountered such a magically perfect romance. Personally, I could imagine myself getting a bit overwhelmed in certain scenarios, especially in the last two episodes where Qing Cheng went into full acceleration mode as soon as she’d graduated college. But there was nothing icky or red flaggy about it. She never got uncomfortable – only shy and slightly awkward sometimes – and she stuck to her own pace and boundaries which, luckily enough, were respected to the very end.

Mo Qing Cheng, aka Qiang Qing Ci, appeared to me as a very particular person. Not in a stingy way, but I just felt like he had a very good eye for things and people. Just like Sheng, he had decorated his life to his liking, he dabbled in several interests and he didn’t hesitate to pursue anything (or anyone 👀) once he developed a fascination for it/them. Living his life this way obviously gained him a lot of riches. Not only did he become a successful doctor, he also managed to combine it with dubbing jobs, just because he liked doing it. Despite sharing a house with a friend, he just slept wherever he ended up spending the most time. He frequently spent nights at the hospital or the recording studio when work took too long. He seemed to be a very relaxed and calm person, even more so when he started pursuing Sheng, despite allegedly having no dating experience whatsoever. It just came as the most natural thing to him. What really got me is that he ALWAYS found time to contact her, even though he had a fulltime hospital job and kept commuting from one place to another. The behavior of this man should be the manual for EVERY SINGLE MAN who intends to pursue a woman. He made it seem so effortless. The fact that Wangjia Supermarket was located opposite the hospital he worked at made it convenient for them to meet up any time, but he still made sure to pick her up after his hospital shifts or even just come by to get a snack and see her face for a moment. I just couldn’t imagine what a comfort it must’ve been for Sheng to wake up every single day, with a confirmation text that her crush was still there, and still a 100% into her. In our current society of online dating and instant ghosting, Mo Qing Cheng just seemed too good to be true – which he probably is, since this is a fictional drama. Maybe the fact that it felt so fictional made it easier for me to watch, lol.
Anyways, as much of a green flag Mr. Mo was, he also started out as kind of an enigma. He really just appeared as a prince charming to Sheng, without any context of what kind of person he really was. As such, I really liked the flashbacks from how he became a voice actor and started up the Perfect Voice Studio with his friends. It was cool to see that he started out as a sound engineer before incidentally substituting for a VA that didn’t show up one time. It was nice to see how serious he was already in his college days, getting his roommate involved in helping him create the most random sounds to record, lol. I also liked the flashback of when he heard Sheng’s voice for the first time. It just seemed like he’d never even considered dating and he was satisfied with his life as it was, but then that first note hit his ears and he was like: 😳😳. As pure as this love story was, I kind of liked it when he gradually became a little more feral towards the end. At some point, it seemed like the two of them couldn’t look each other in the eye anymore without feeling the urge to kiss and I was here for it. Such amazing development.
Initially, I could really feel the age difference between him and Sheng, just from the way he treated her. It’s very common in Asian dramas that the men feel a need to protect or take care of the woman, which I’m not always a fan of, since it can come across as slightly infantilizing. As such, I really liked that there were so many moments where one glance at Sheng just seemed to take his breath away. The way he gradually started initiating more physical contact without ever crossing her boundaries was TANTALIZING to watch.
One of my favorite moments between them from the beginning stages of their relationship, even before they met in real life, was that they’d exchange voice memos. In one scene, Sheng contacts him in the morning, and he replies with a voice memo that’s just a little sleepy moan (since he just woke up). That alone already felt so freaking intimate! It actually gave me as many goosebumps as it did Sheng, lol. The way she kept asking him questions to which he kept replying with an agreeing: “Hm”. Even when he was too sleepy to talk, he still made an effort to reply to her. What a guy. In Sheng’s part, I talked about how she kept showing support for him as a fan as well. He did the same for her: he always supported her work, introduced her to new opportunities, rooted for her from behind the scenes when her songs were performed. It was so cute when they were planning the Traditional Music Gala and Sheng was sitting in on auditions where people actually performed her songs without making herself known, and he texted her: “I’m so proud of you” 🥹. Even though they never revealed their respective identities to the world, they always showed their support and admiration for each other in these cute, private ways. Also, the code language “Would you like some soda?” as a way to ask consent for a kiss?! Whoever came up with this deserves a raise, ISTG.😭😭

By the way, I think this mutual support came out the most when Qiang Qing Ci declared he would step back from voice acting. This was a very noble thing to do, seeing as he realized how much he enjoyed mentoring and nurturing new talent. It showed how aware he was of his own position – he knew the big VAs would always get approached for new jobs first, and he wanted to create an entrance for new talent, like Off Key. Of course, this decision came as a huge blow to the studio as well as his fans, including Sheng. As such, it was really heartwarming to see how she still managed to support him as his girlfriend, even though it broke her heart as his fan.

Honestly, I’d go as far as to say that this was the most perfect romantic buildup I’ve ever seen in a C-Drama. This is what I would like to have, and never will. To meet someone within your circle of work that you’re both equally passionate about, building a relationship that also includes supporting each other’s individual careers. Honestly, the transparency, the continued effort, the subtle gestures, the shared love languages, everything was so good. They went from exchanging recipes and asking each other to sing songs on the spot for fun, to recording duets together and hanging out every single day. They acknowledged their mutual affection and took the time to get to know each other from scratch. I just can’t put into words how satisfying it was to see them grow together. As her partner basically had two identities, it was easier for Sheng in the beginning to just introduce her new boyfriend as Mo Qing Cheng, the cardiac surgeon, but that made it even more satisfying when she finally started revealing to her friends that he was actually Qiang Qing Ci. Despite the rumors about how Qiang Qing Ci and Shengshengman’s collaborations might have led to a romantic development, they took their sweet, sweet time to explore their feelings in private, outside of the public eye, and it made for the most wholesome story ever. In the final couple of episodes I just felt so proud of how far they’d come, starting from a respectful distance to being glued together and unwilling to say goodbye anymore. Being used to typical Asian romcoms, I’d nearly forgotten the mere possibility of a simply wonderful, uninterrupted and unproblematic relationship in which every single person rooted for the main leads, but this show really turned the genre upside down for me. I’m beyond happy that this series found me at this time in my life, as I’m also starting to surround myself with things and people that make me happy again. What an absolute gem of a love story.

Moving on to the amazing cast of supporting characters about whom I’ve purposely not said too much yet. Besides from the incredibly wholesome romantic main storyline, these side characters definitely made the show for me. I liked every single one of them, they made me laugh out loud and feel all warm and fuzzy inside and I can’t wait to discuss them.
Let me start by giving a short summary of the Perfect Voice Studio. Perfect Voice was originally set up by a handful of friends who were all somehow involved in dubbing or music-related work. Realizing the success of the studio and its VAs, they became one of the most popular recording studios within the dubbing world, and they occasionally even organized live events to showcase their artists, although Qiang Qing Ci always remained anonymous in these.
The studio is most known for managing the three biggest male voice actors of the moment: Qiang Qing Ci, Juemei Shayi and Feng Yasong.
Zhou Zheng, aka Juemei Shayi (played by Hou Wen Yuan) is Mo Qing Cheng’s housemate. Although his main job is running a business that develops medical equipment, he was the one who originally came up with the idea to start a recording studio. In contrast to Qiang Qing Ci, Juemei is always at the forefront of fan interactions and doesn’t shy away from showing his face in public. He’s seen as the coolest and most confident VA at Perfect Voice, although his demeanor definitely hides an awkward side. This side mainly comes out when he falls for Sheng’s roommate and bestie Geng Xiao Xing at first sight.
I’m not even gonna lie: I think Juemei was my favorite character. I just loved the contrast between his cool exterior and hidden goof. His scenes with Xiao Xing in particular really brought out his charm, since she made him lose his cool and get flustered by the most mundane things. I also loved his contribution to the scenes where Sheng came to hang out at their shared house. It just made me think of that scene from Harry Potter VII (part 1) where Harry is zipping up Ginny’s dress and then George comes in with a: “Morning 😉”, lol. He cracked me up so much. My favorite scenes are definitely ones where Xiao Xing made him weak. That one time when he had invited her to the studio and came out of the recording booth to see her sitting there and he just couldn’t hide his goofy smile – LOVE. So much love, in fact, that I made a gif out of it. Look at my cuties!! 😭😭

Another scene that made me laugh out loud was when they were all hanging out at the pool on one of their group trips, and he specifically waited for Xiao Xing to arrive before taking his shirt off and diving into the water – he just wanted to show off and it was adorable.
All in all, Juemei was the kind of friend who acted all nonchalant but cared the most. The way he was just gross sobbing in the back during Qiang Qing Ci’s final live performance 😭😭 after initially pretending he wasn’t that emotional about his friend stepping back. I think the fact that he suggested starting up the studio already said enough, honestly. He already had his company back then, but he still came up with the idea to start this passion project with his best friends. He was the best, I really loved him.

Speaking of Xiao Xing, I really liked her as well. I’ll talk a bit more about her friendship with Sheng in a moment, but I thought it was nice that she became a part of the Perfect Voice Studio as well, through her collaboration with them in the beginning. It felt like her connection with Juemei started similarly to Sheng and Qiang Qing Ci – she was already a fan of his voice work, and when he started reaching out more, she initially didn’t know what to do. From a fan perspective, she probably felt like she shouldn’t take up too much of his time. At first, it felt like she was being a bit avoidant with him – even though she admired him, she kept giving evasive answers to his questions and made it seem like she wasn’t interested in spending more one-on-one time together. However, you could tell from her reactions at getting texts from him and seeing him perform that she was definitely feeling something. It was cute when Sheng and Qing Cheng started noticing the tension between Xiao Xing and Juemei and started rooting for them; it was just encouragement all around, from everyone. I liked how Xiao Xing was written as such an individual character, as well. Her presence never fully disappeared, even when she was off screen for a while. It was cool to see how, although she wasn’t involved in the Traditional Music Gala at all, she still attended the event as a fan together with Qi Yao and even brought a little Juemei lightstick. It was really cute to see her slowly but surely open up to Juemei’s advances and invitations to hang out together. I really wish they could’ve had a bit more development throughout the show, but I’m happy that they ended up together.
As I’m on the topic, I’d also like to say something about Qi Yao. First of all: I LOVED her look, from the round cat ear glasses to her quirky hair and fashion styles. I’m really glad they kept her in as a recurring side character. Even though she wasn’t as present as Sheng and Xiao Xing, whom I would pretty much call the first and second female characters, I just loved that Qi Yao was her own person entirely. She had a boyfriend of her own, who was even shown through a video chat at some point (loved that detail), and she was just doing her own thing in the dorm while her two friends were going through their first ever romantic experience together. I also loved her giant goose plushie, lol. It was great that they showed her watching the Yangshuo livestream as well, when Sheng and Xiao Xing were both on location. I loved how well-established every single character was, and how everyone had their own storyline playing in the background that was never made out to be less important than the main one.

Following up on this, as I mentioned before, I absolutely loved the depiction of Sheng’s friendship with Xiao Xing and Qi Yao. The moments that they spent together, either fangirling or celebrating their respective wins, were so incredibly wholesome. The fact that Xiao Xing and Qi Yao actually started cheering and hugging each other in pure joy when Sheng told them she’d started dating Qiang Qing Ci healed my heart. They were all so genuinely happy, supportive and appreciating towards each other. Here’s to genuine friendships. To underline my argument, I just want to include a couple of screenshots of scenes that captured their friendship so well it warmed my heart.
The first picture is from when the girls watched the Sound and Soulmates live broadcast together. This was the moment Qiang Qing Ci started dubbing himself while giving feedback. The way all of them just got instant goosebumps and grabbed each other to share this experience was so freaking wholesome.
The second picture is from the night before Sheng and Xiao Xing would go on the Perfect Voice group trip to Yangshuo (I’ll say more about this trip later because it was incredible in so many ways). Xiao Xing slept over at Sheng’s house and the way they lay chatting in bed together, getting excited about the trip, just gave me ultimate girl friendship vibes.
The third one is from the Traditional Music Gala, and it shows Xiao Xing and Qi Yao’s reactions to seeing Sheng’s composition being performed live on stage for the first time, by a VA they all admire. You know you’ve found some real friends if this is how they react to your achievements. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got something in my eye…

It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a sincere depiction of friendship in a C-Drama. Forget the romance, these scenes alone were enough to make me all warm and fuzzy inside. Bring back these kinds of female friendships in Asian dramas, please!

Moving on to the other Perfect Voice members, let’s talk about Doudou. Dou Bing (played by Chen Hao Lan), also known under her VA pseudonym Mo Mo Er, is the manager of the studio. She was basically assigned this role because she was the only one working a parttime job at the time of their establishment. The guys all had college studies and other main jobs, which left her as the only person in the position to take on the management. It was fun seeing the flashback of this moment, in which she was still so insecure about whether or not she’d be able to pull it off. Having already seen her in the future, handling all of the studio’s business like an absolute pro, this just added a bit more to her character and made her more relatable. Honestly, Doudou was such a boss. For the only woman in the friend group, she had no trouble handling herself between all those men. Being used to typical dramas, I half expected her to become a love rival to Sheng or something, but she was one of the first people to clock what was going on between them and immediately rooted for them. As a matter of fact, she rooted for everyone. I loved the smirk she’d get when she picked up on a certain tension between people, like her mind immediately went: “Gotcha.” Being a respected VA herself, I loved how she instantly became a reliable older sister to Sheng and Xiao Xing, and to every new person at the studio, really. She made sure everyone felt welcome and had a nice time. I really liked her character.
Although I would’ve also been happy if she’d stayed the way she was, I did like that she got a little romantic development as well, at the end. She got a little love story going on with Feng Yasong (played by Cao En Qi/Vincent Cao), the third big VA of the recording studio. Just like Qing Cheng, Yasong was a fulltime doctor (pediatrician) and he only dabbled in dubbing jobs when his work allowed it. He worked at a different hospital than Qing Cheng, maybe one that was located farther away from the studio, which could be why he only came back occasionally. Somehow the realism of him having to miss out on the Traditional Music Gala was a good thing, because it showed that the VAs were only people, and sometimes life and work just got in the way of their side passions. By the way, I thought it was pretty funny how the Big Three all had jobs in the medical industry: Qing Cheng and Yasong were doctors and Juemei ran a company that developed medical applications. I’m not entirely sure how they came together as VAs, but it would make sense if they somehow also knew each other from their medical studies or something.
Going back to the relationship between Doudou and Yasong: what made this interesting was that they had a noona-dongsaeng dynamic going on (I know this is a Chinese drama, but it’s easier to explain this way). When they first met in person, she was in college and he was still in high school. Although they always kind of flirted on and off, neither of them really made the step to pursue things further, but then always got anxious when it was mentioned that the other might be dating someone. While their relationship doesn’t proceed much throughout the series, I guess the writers still wanted to push them together, because they suddenly had a breakthrough in the second to last episode, after the 2-year time jump. Then the tensions between them suddenly rise and Yasong ends up mustering his courage to express that he doesn’t want her to treat him like a little brother anymore. It was cute in its own way, although I do feel like they could’ve used a little more buildup.

Actually, there’s one more doctor, and at Qing Cheng’s hospital, to boot. Mo Qiao Qiao, also known under her VA pseudonym Ling Long Ti Tou (played by Xian Zi), was Qing Cheng’s cousin who also dabbled in dubbing work. Since her voice lends itself perfectly for traditional music, she’s also been an artist that Sheng had admired for a long time. With her as well, when she was first introduced I half feared she might become a love rival, especially with how she initially reached out to Sheng to collaborate. But then she turned out to be Qing Cheng’s cousin, and all tensions were gone again. In the end, she was the one who performed Sheng’s song at the Traditional Music Gala. I LOVED the sound of her voice, it had that traditional twang to it that fit Sheng’s song perfectly. She also turned out to be the loveliest older sister figure to Sheng that she could’ve hoped for. I really liked her.

As we’re talking about Perfect Voice, I can’t skip out on Wang Ke and Feishao. These two (played by Liu Zhe Hui and Xia Ning Jun, respectively) were the life of the party at the studio. They were the comedy duo that always made for a good laugh, even though they often ended up involuntarily interrupting the main leads, lol. I could never get frustrated with them though, because they were 100% aware and felt genuinely bad every time they realized they were interrupting.
We don’t get to know much about their backgrounds or personal lives, just that they’re more involved with traditional music/trot singing than the dubbing side. It was really cool to see them perform live! These two made me laugh out loud so many times, both in their interactions with each other and with others. They kept the group lively and fun, for sure.
Two other fun characters that kind of fell into the same category for me were the cosplayers Mo Bai and Mu Mu (played by Fu Han Yuan and Huang Jing Xiang, respectively). Sheng first meets them at the game event that Qing Cheng takes her to, and they immediately make such a fun duo. I wonder how they got along in the first place, honestly, because their energies were so different. Mo Bai was the more carefree one, whereas Mu was more stoic. They had a classic tsukkomi-boke dynamic going on, where Mu was always correcting Mo Bai on stuff, lol. Besides appearing at conventions, they also appeared at the Perfect Voice live events, where they cosplayed and acted out the drama plays while being dubbed by the VAs on stage. They also joined the group trips and became more involved in the friend group. I LOVED the scene where they coincidentally came across Sheng and Qing Cheng’s ‘secret’ wedding photoshoot. They were just watching it, going: “Well, would you look at that” 😂. That was also the first time we ever saw Mu smile, by the way, so more love for that. It was fun to see snippets of their realtime jobs as well, with Mo Bai working in construction and Mu as a children’s art teacher – you’d think it would be the other way around looking at their personalities! Anyways, they were really fun supporting characters as well.

Lastly, I just want to give a shoutout to Brother Mao, the main technical engineer at PV. He never joined on the group trips, which made it all the more satisfying to see him on location at the Traditional Music Gala. I liked seeing him do fist pumps from behind the sound table, all happy with how well everything was going. He was such a cool character, honestly. I loved how much everyone respected him, no one ever made fun of his age and he was just a genuinely chill person to work with. It cracked me up when Wang Ke and Feishao tried to beat around the bush about everyone’s relationships and it turned out Mao was 100% aware of everything that was happening, haha. When they were trying to be subtle about their opinion that Juemei should make a bolder move on Xiao Xing, he just went: “yeah, he really needs to step up his game, I don’t know what he’s doing”, lol.

Honestly, I just can’t shut up about how much I loved the dynamics and interactions between every single character in this show. EVERYthing was satisfying to watch, from Sheng’s five cousins gathering together and making merry at her house, to the Perfect Voice group sharing a meal together.
I know I keep lumping everything under ‘my favorite parts’, but one of these was definitely the PV group trip to Yangshuo and Guilin. No C-Drama has ever made me want to go to China, but this one did. That trip was straight out of a fantasy. The whole area was so incredibly beautiful that, for the first time, I actually wanted to see it in person. The concept of them going to a certain place for a special live event, and then making the most of the trip by seeing the sights, dressing up in traditional costume, eating the most delicious looking food, making core memories and having the best time ever was so well done. It actually made me want to join them.
All in all, this show just had a knack for creating hype. I don’t know how they did it, but they made everything look so cool and interesting that I was immersed from beginning to end.

Before moving on to some more practical comments, I’d like to talk a bit more about Sheng’s family and Zhaozhaomumu, as they were important supporting characters as well.
As I mentioned before, Sheng grew up with her mom and dad (Juan Zi and Chen Guang Ning, respectively) as an only child. As if to make up for being the only daughter in the family, she has five older male cousins. Truthfully, I kept getting confused whether they were her brothers or her cousins – the subtitles kind of went back and forth about it and we never saw any uncles and aunts (except for her mom’s sister who went to see a gyneacologist that one time). In any case, I’m pretty sure that Gu Jia (played by Zou Ji Xin) was introduced as her cousin – I seem to remember him referring to Sheng’s parents as “your mom and dad” – and MDL also credits them as her cousins, so let’s keep it at that. Gu Jia helped out at Sheng’s parents supermarket and was a recurring supporting character, whereas Sheng’s other cousins only made occasional appearances.
I want to give a special shoutout to Sheng’s grandpa (played by Liang Tian). He was the sweetest man ever. I loved that he was always on Sheng’s side, allowing her to go on the group trips and never making any fuss about her dating. In fact, he was constantly keeping her cousins in check to leave her alone, lol. He was such a wholesome old man, with his little cheeky eye smile. I loved that Sheng kept referring to his experiences as a doctor when trying to relate to Qing Cheng’s work as well. I loved her grandpa, he was the best.

Going back to Gu Jia for a bit, I actually really liked his character. I initially got the feeling that he would be made out to be the annoying cousin, but he really wasn’t that bad. I did like that he came on the final group trip to “keep an eye on Sheng and Qing Cheng” and just ended up watching them with a smile, going: “That’s my brother-in-law”, lol.
I also really liked his dynamic with Yi Ru. Dong Yi Ru (played by Wang Zhi Yi) was a parttimer at Wangjia Supermarket, and also a big fan of VAs and Qiang Qing Ci in particular. At first it seemed like she might turn out to be a fangirl that would go against Sheng when she found out she was dating her idol, but she too was just such a great character. I was really happy that she got to come on that last trip for PV’s 10th anniversary. I loved her expressions, mostly. The scene where Sheng finally introduced her boyfriend to her as Qiang Qing Ci and gave her his autograph was PRICELESS. Also, her face when she spotted Doudou and Yasong holding hands on the trip cracked me up. Episodes 29/30 were such a blast, honestly. I laughed out loud so many times. I mean, look at this girl.

Finally, I just want to say a bit more about the members of Zhaozhaomumu. I liked that Sheng had different groups of friends, although it would’ve been cool to see Xiao Xing and Qi Yao meet the band members at some point as well. Like every single character, each of the band members were their own person with their own life, who didn’t purely exist to support Sheng. It was so cool when Guai Guai auditioned for the Traditional Music Gala, and She Zhang came to support her. I also loved that Off Key ended up writing the lyrics for ‘Qi Ao’, the song Sheng wrote for Ling Long, and that we also got to see him tear up in happiness when it was performed live. I just relished in all the little details that contributed to the fleshing out of every single character, it gave so much extra life to everyone.
To elaborate a bit on Off Key: at some point, the Perfect Voice Studio holds auditions for internships for new aspiring VAs to join their group, and Off Key ends up getting one of the spots. He then becomes more involved with the studio and even gets the chance to substitute for Yasong, his big idol, during the Traditional Music Gala. It was so cool to see him get more coverage and grow as both a lyricist and a dubber. I really liked the scene where Qing Cheng helped him improve his dubbing skills. You could actually hear him getting better with each try, it was amazing!

Honestly, it was so refreshing to have such uncomplicated characters, who just lived in the moment and took the chances that came their way without feeling the need to take detours or give mixed signals. Although I do feel like there could’ve been a little more emotional depth to the characters here and there, I can’t deny that it was AMAZING to not feel frustrated for the majority of the show. Au contraire, I felt for every single person, even when I didn’t know them that well yet. I found myself clapping and cheering for Off Key when he got the internship at Perfect Voice, and feeling sorry for Yi Ru when she didn’t. I experienced every live VA event as if I were a fan sitting in the audience, I curled my toes in giddiness with every romantic interaction. After my previous couple of watches, this drama was the breath of fresh air that I didn’t even know existed, but that I desperately needed.

Now that I’ve mentioned all the characters, I’d like to discuss a couple of elements that jumped out to me in the series for different reasons. I’ve already gushed about a lot of things, I know, but I can’t help it – as I’m writing I keep thinking of more things to add, I haven’t had this in a while! 😂
First of all: the music. I’ve often complained about the lack of its utilization in C-Dramas, because why would you create an idol or musical artist and then blatantly make them mouth random words or drown out their performance entirely with a completely different soundtrack? As such, I can’t even express how good it felt to actually see the VAs perform on stage. Although some voices were dubbed over – which is kind of ironic – it really didn’t stand out to me. Also, the songs that were performed within the show made up the majority of the soundtrack, and they kept switching up the tunes that played over the ending credits as well. My absolute favorite song, which I never skipped, was “Wintersweet” by Shi Shang. The tone of his voice, the alternating notes, the music… everything gives me the goosest of bumps. I know that several actors recorded songs themselves as well – in the duet versions that the main leads sang together, the male parts were actually sung by Tan Jian Ci, for example. ‘Qi Ao‘ was also sung by Ling Long’s actress in real life. Her traditional twangy notes just scratch my brain in the best way. I guess it just goes to show what a difference it makes to hire actors that are also singers in real life! The way they incorporated the music and the performances into the story was just amazing.
Overall, I just loved the representation of traditional music. Frankly, I would have liked to see more. The only times we see Zhaozhaomumu actually perform on classical instruments is in the first episode when the members are introduced, and when Guai Guai auditions for the Gala. We do see Sheng occasionally plucking the guzhen or playing the piano, but there could’ve been much more of that, in my opinion.

One final detail I adore is that the original Chinese title actually refers to a lyric in the song “Dawn & Dusk“, which is basically Sheng and Qing Cheng’s love song. Although the title sounds a bit generic (‘I Really Really Miss You’), the fact that it refers to their song in the show does give it a really sweet additional meaning.
Speaking of the title, although I do like that the English title refers to the ‘voice’ element and Sheng’s initial concern that she might be more in love with Qing Cheng’s voice than with him, I still feel like it falls a bit flat. Going into the series blindly, the title itself made it sound like your typical cute romcom without any depth to it. I have no idea what would be a better title, but with the masterpiece they created, I’m sure something else would fit the bill a bit more nicely.

I’ve already covered the splendid incorporation of music, not to mention the mouth-watering and advertisement-worthy food imagery, but I also thought the whole thing had amazing cinematography. After finishing my previous watch, what immediately jumped out to me was the quality of the subtitles – better English than I’ve seen in any C-Drama so far – and the framing of everything. From start to finish, everything was depicted in such a cozy and warm way that I couldn’t help but feel at ease watching it. Everything combined just created such a beautiful and comforting watching experience, and that always gets bonus points from me. Every single time I thought it couldn’t possibly get more wholesome or romantic, they added in more and better things. It was a feast for both eyes and ears.
It’s no secret that I am a stickler for attention to detail, and that was another thing that this show did a great job at. Besides the way every character was built up and given their own quirks and accessories, and the interior of every single place they visited, I also loved seeing subtleties in the acting that seemed so natural that it wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t scripted. For example, in one scene Sheng is helping her grandpa cut some fruits, but then Qing Cheng texts her to meet up and she immediately tells Gu Jia, who just happens to walk by, that grandpa “wants him to cut these fruits for him”. As she says this, her grandpa just snickers in the background, knowing she’s about to head out to meet her lover. The way he laughed at her saying that was so natural and affectionate that it made me smile as well. Also, I remember one scene where Sheng and Qing Cheng where in the PV recording room together and she commented on someone’s chat message to him. Maybe it was a personal question, I don’t remember exactly, but it seemed like she was going to ask on about it, but then she dropped it and started talking about something else. For a fraction of a second, you can see a surprised look on Qing Cheng’s face, as if he also assumed she would ask more about it, but then he just smiles when she drops it. I guess it just meant that Sheng didn’t want to put him on the spot and dig too deep, and he appreciated that. But it was so subtle, especially since Sheng didn’t even seem to notice it, that it actually made me wonder whether that was improvised or not.

I really don’t have anything bad to say about this show. The only ‘critical’ remarks I have are about things I would’ve liked to see more of, which is the best kind of criticism, since it means I genuinely felt sad to part with this story and its characters. I’m not even lying when I say I’ve been dreading the moment I’d finish it, because it’s going to be hard to top the pure satisfaction I felt while watching this.
First of all, and I already kind of mentioned this before, once the relationship between the main leads had reached its conclusion, I really would’ve liked to get more coverage on the romantic development between the two remaining couples, particularly Juemei and Xiao Xing. I’d really hoped that, once Sheng and Qing Cheng were a done deal, the focus would shift to them. It was very clear that they were being pushed together and I was very much rooting for them. But then first the Traditional Music Gala came, in which Xiao Xing didn’t play any part, and after that their progress also remained kind of stagnant. I’d hoped for some last minute development, but they basically just skipped ahead to two years later to reveal them as a couple, which didn’t feel as satisfying compared to the 30 episodes of buildup that the main leads got. I get that Sheng and Qing Cheng were the main focus, but at some point there just wasn’t much to continue on from their side. The final couple of episodes just depicted them taking naps together and whispering sweet things to each other, and I ended up feeling like there could’ve been more progression in other relationships instead.
The same kind of went for Doudou and Yasong – they barely had any development throughout the show and then were suddenly pushed together in the second to last episode, as if the writers thought: “oh right, we still need these two together, there you go”. So yeah, as much as I loved the gradual buildup between the main leads, I wished the supporting couples could’ve also gotten a bit more buildup throughout the main body of the series, instead of just being turned into a couple off-screen after the 2-year gap. I mean, I’m not complaining about the kiss between Juemei and Xiao Xing, but it was very sudden and last minute. I was so curious to see how they would finally come clear about their feelings to each other, and when the others asked them about it in the final episode I would’ve loved to get a short flashback that showed it, but alas. Still, I’m glad they all ended up together.

I already mentioned that I would’ve liked to see more traditional music rehearsals, because that was such a big part of Sheng’s world. In the end, I don’t think we actually saw her compose music as much as she talked about it.  In the same way, despite being a cardiac surgeon we didn’t actually see Qing Cheng appear in an ER even once. We did see him at the hospital a lot, but mostly he was just walking through the halls and taking lunch in the breakroom. I would’ve liked to see everyone in their main jobs, for a change. We only got a glimpse of the main cast’s ‘normal lives’ in the final episode, but not everyone. For example, I remember for example that She Zhang and Guai Guai from Zhaozhaomumu also had jobs as a beautician and an English teacher, and we also never got to see them at work, so it would’ve been cool to see more of that.

Another thing that I found a shame was that, although so much preparation went into each and every live event, they all felt like they were over in like half an hour! Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded watching an entire episode of just an event. They had so much to work with, all the live dubbing stages and singing performances and guests, and then within no time it was already like: “Okay guys, that was it, thanks for coming!” 😅 That was kind of a bummer, seeing how much everyone was anticipating those things.

I guess you could say that my ‘criticisms’ mostly stem from a place of yearning for more, lol. The last time I didn’t want to say goodbye to a story was with Alchemy of Souls, I think. They did such a good job at making everything (and everyone) so immersive and interesting and cool that I can’t stop thinking about it. Although I personally love a story with a bit more emotionally depth, I still can’t take that away from this series because it was absolutely delightful as it was. Within the genre of romance, I’d give this a 10/10 without a doubt. My rating is based on dramas in general, which I generally like to be a little more gritty and emotionally impactful. Still, this show gave me goosebumps in all the right ways and I’m still rating it fairly high for my standards. Literally the only complaint I can think of is that it was unrealistic how everyone could just burst into perfect pitch song at the drop of a hat, lol. For the rest, is was just wonderful. Just wonderful.

It’s time for the cast comments! As usual for Chinese dramas, I knew almost none of the actors, but there were some familiar faces! All in all, I thought the casting was amazing, everyone embodied their character to a T, and I loved watching everyone get a chance to shine. If I go over every single character, I’m going to be here all day, so I’m picking out a couple that I have specific remarks about.

First of all, Zhou Ye. She is so freaking pretty. She has this really natural and youthful glow about her, which fit Sheng perfectly. This is the first drama I’m seeing her in, although there is another (historical!) drama with her on my watchlist. From the moment she appeared, I just loved how natural her acting was. I could relate to every single expression and feeling she portrayed, and the recurring “meow” sound when she felt shy or awkward was always on point. Her chemistry with her co-star was amazing as well. When this show aired, she was 25 and he was 33, which kind of correlates with the age difference between their characters. Maybe that’s why they felt so natural together. Anyways, I loved getting to know her through this and I can’t wait to see more of her.

Tan Jian Ci was also a new face to me. I still think it’s really cool that he sang his parts of the duets himself, it added yet another bit of reality and immersion to his performance. Although he’s personally not my type, I was more than able to appreciate what he delivered to the role of Mo Qing Cheng/Qiang Qing Ci (I hope my alternating between the two names in my review isn’t too confusing, by the way). He had incredible chemistry with Zhou Ye, and I really liked how easygoing he was in general. Sometimes it did feel like he was so focussed on his own life and decisions that he didn’t really think about how others would react – he seemed almost surprised to see how sad the whole PV group got when he announced he’d be stepping back from dubbing activities. Other than that, he was both incredibly respectful and understanding of others. He nailed the balance between being set in his ways and joking around with friends perfectly. It was cool seeing him in this, and I hope I can see him as a completely different role someday, it’d be cool to see his versatility!

When I say that Juemei was my favorite character, I need to add that Hou Wen Yuan is also very much my type, lol. I still can’t get over the way he let Xiao Xing bump into him while she was taking graduation pictures, that was… something.😳 I really liked how well the actor portrayed the different sides and layers to Juemei, from “keeping” to “losing” his cool, with the gross sobbing at Qiang Qing Ci’s farewell performance at its peak. He just cracked me up so much, and I loved every single appearance he made, even if he interrupted the main couple with his presence. I lived for him and Xiao Xing. 😭 I already discussed how I wish they had more buildup, but seeing them being so cute together in the final episode, I can be forgiving. He really embodied Juemei the way he was meant to be, a perfect casting choice. I really hope I’ll see him in some other drama sometime!
Also, I’m just leaving this here. For reasons.

There were a lot of actors in this show that looked familiar to me, but that I’d never seen before. Yang Xi Zi was one of these. I loved her portrayal of Xiao Xing, and that she became more than just a sidekick character to Sheng. The dynamic between her and Juemei was the cutest thing ever, but I also respected that she had her hesitations at first. Everything was already going so unrealistically smoothly with the main leads that it made sense for these two to be a little (read: very) awkward with each other in the beginning. I also have to add that I LOVED her friendship chemistry with Zhuo Ye, they were so natural together as well. There is another drama with her on my watchlist, which I’m already looking forward to. I hope I’ll get to it soon! Also, I really liked her more curly hairstyle in the last couple of episodes, it suited her so well!

Chen Hao Lan was one of the few actors that I’d seen before: she was Yao Qing in Lucky’s First Love! I remember her as one of the few cool characters from that show, so seeing her as another amazing woman felt so satisfying. There’s two other dramas with her on my list, as well, so I know I’ll be seeing her again. Chen Hao Lan has such a great energy, her smile is so bright and she’s just really good at emanating that loving elderly sister vibe. As the only woman in the PV friend group, it was cool to see her so at ease amongst all these guys. Her blossoming feelings for Yasong, whom she’d always treated as a younger brother, was really sweet to see. I loved how she intertwined her fingers with his and just naturally laid her head on his shoulder as an answer to his confession. I’m really excited to see more of her, she seems like such a mature and intelligent actress and it was great seeing her in this.

Vincent Cao was another actor that looked very familiar to me, but that I haven’t actually seen in anything yet. First of all: I loved his look, with the curly hair and the glasses – we love a classic cute nerd look. 😌👌🏻Since he only made occasional appearances, I didn’t manage to gauge him as well as the more recurring characters, but he still seemed like an interesting person. Despite how mature he was as a doctor and all, I loved how pouty he got when the subject turned to Doudou and dating. It felt like they already knew from the start that they were meant to be, but it took them some time to finally bridge that noona-dongsaeng threshold. Still, they were really cute together. I loved how the story had already built him up as a character powerfully enough that it actually made an impact when he finally appeared at the studio for the first time. I really went: “Omg is this Feng Yasong?? Are we finally meeting him??” It was nice being introduced to him through this show!

Another actor that I could’ve sworn I’d seen before but haven’t: Liu Zhe Hui. He just has one of those faces, I guess? I see that there’s a couple more dramas with him on my list, so I’m looking forward to that! The casting directors really did an amazing job, because he too embodied Wang Ke perfectly. I loved that he was a trot singer whose voice got pretty high-pitched when he sang, that was a nice quirk he got. His dynamic with Feishao was always on point, but I also liked that he became super self-conscious when he realized he’d interrupted something. I loved the scene where Sheng had stayed over at Qing Cheng’s place and walked out of his bedroom to find Wang Ke sipping noodles there, lol. It just became a running gag that they kept coming over to the house unannounced and then got mad at Juemei for not telling them Sheng was there, haha. He brought a really fun energy with his performance and I’m excited to see him again.

While it initially didn’t click what I recognized Xia Ning Jun from, I just discovered that he was the ML’s younger brother in Love Under the Moon! I have to admit I don’t remember much about his performance there – read my review if you’re interested! – but I’m pretty sure he played a completely different character here. Him and Liu Zhe Hui were the perfect comedy duo, honestly. They cracked me up all the time. Their interactions were just so natural and genuine. You know what I always say about being funny: it’s never funny when you try to be, and these two were just effortlessly hilarious. I can say the same about Fu Han Yuan and Huang Jing Xiang by the way, who played Mo Bai and Mu Mu. All of them were assigned the perfect partner with whom they managed to get the greatest comical dynamic. I loved it.

Apparently, this was Huang Er Chun’s first ever drama role, and she was so natural at it! That just makes me love Qi Yao even more. This proves that you don’t have to be the main lead to create a full character, because she was her own person through and through. I loved her chemistry with Zhou Ye and Yang Xi Zi, you can see it from the screenshots I shared. The excitement just beamed off her face, she was an absolute delight.

Finally, I want to give a shoutout to Wang Zhi Yi, who played Dong Yi Ru. I already mentioned her before, but I just loved her acting so much. Her expressions were all so natural and priceless, I couldn’t help but root for her. It was also cute that she kind of warmed up to Gu Jia towards the end, I think they would’ve made a cute couple as well, from bickering to loving. 🥰 I really hope I can see her in something again!

By the way, it really surprised me to see that the majority of the main cast didn’t even have that many drama appearances yet. I guess the directors were just really awesome at their jobs and picked out lesser known yet more talented people. Honestly, everyone’s acting was just so natural, I don’t have any remarks whatsoever.

We have reached the end of this review! I admit I was a bit worried about writing this since I took a long time to finish it and I was afraid I would’ve forgotten a lot (I didn’t take any notes because I was so ‘in the moment’ while watching this). I feel like there’s loads more to say about it, but I think I’ve mentioned most of what I wanted to say. Also, I managed to write it within one day again!
While I rated it an 8 within the big picture of dramas in general, as I said, I would give this a 10/10 within the romance genre itself. It’s literally a perfect love story in every single way. The romance is to die for, all the characters are cool and well-written, all the environments look amazing, the cinematography and imagery look great, the dubbing and the music elements are fantastic – what more could you want? I’m so glad they didn’t start adding drama and misunderstandings halfway through. It was an incredibly pleasant watch, and it warms my heart to think there are still gems like this out there, waiting to be discovered! Also, this is the first time where I just couldn’t stop adding screenshots and gifs – too many great moments came to mind that I wanted to share! 😭 I would 100% recommend this – I actually already gushed about it to a friend after the very first episode, lol.

I’m very curious to find out what I’ll be watching next. It’s always tricky when you finish something really good and you just hope the next one will be satisfying as well, but I’ll try not to let it influence me too much. I had an amazing time watching this, taking one episode a day as a final swoon moment before going to bed. It was very recommendable, especially in my current mindset. I advise everyone to keep their windows open for unexpected experiences, and good things are sure to find you!

Until next time!
Bye-bee! x