Dramatic turnaround

Chinese pop idol Yang Yang, who has a following of 41 million fans on Sina Weibo, headlines as the protagonist Lin who ends up as a powerful martial arts hero by the end of the story. The star-studded cast also includes actress Zhang Tian'ai, Wang Likun and Chinese Bruneian singer-actor Wu Chun.

The first season of the drama, which runs for a total of 40 episodes, aired on Shanghai-based Dragon TV and the Youku video-streaming platform between Aug 7 and Sept 19, and will be followed up by a second season of 20 episodes, which will debut on Youku on Oct 11.

Zhang Wei, chief producer of the series and CEO of its production firm, Azure Media Corporation, says the first season of Martial Universe initially opened in 18 countries and regions, including Malaysia, Brunei, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, as well as being available to view on YouTube.

Although the series has received mixed reviews domestically, it seems to have been met with a better reception overseas, with Viki-a US-headquartered site which mainly streams Asian dramas-awarding it 8.7 points out of ten and IMDb-a popular online TV and movie database-giving it 8.3 points.