The Starry Love is an intricately layered xianxia full of dynamic characters, swoony romances, and hilarious hijinks. Yetan and QingKui, the sisters at the heart of this story, are distinctive women each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Despite being raised in different environments and with different expectations placed on them, their love and loyalty to each other is strong. Every scene with them brought joy to my heart, no matter the dire (or not so dire) circumstances. While the romances are the driving force for much of the series, it’s these two sister’s connection that makes the story work so well.

The opposites attract trope defines the romances between each sister and their subsequent love interests. Yetan, Void Princess To Be, and Xuan Shang, Empyrean of the Heavenly Realm, are given the most screen time in the series. It’s totally deserved because these two shine together, whether they are at odds or in synch. The actors had wonderful range together with the ability to hit both emotional moments and crazy hijinks. While less screen time is devoted to QingKui, Empyean Consort To-Be, and Chaofeng, the Void’s Third Prince, the same energy and connection is as present. All of these characters grow over the course of the story as they overcome the trials and tribulations together and separately.

It’s rare for me to find an ensemble story where I care about both main and side characters equally, but it happened with this series. I love the found family both sisters discover over the course of the story. Some of my favorite scenes occur between Yetan and her posse of friends (Bestie Man-man, Beast Prince Di Lan Ju, Heavenly Princess Zi Wu, and Heavenly Prince Qing Heng). In the Void realm, the relationship the Third Prince has with his right hand man is comedic gold. The two are like brothers, both egging each other on and yet standing by each other’s side no matter the circumstances. If anything, I wish the void side characters had a bit more depth to really round out the characters and realms as a whole.

Despite the phenomenal cast and intricate plot, the series failed to deliver an impactful finale. It’s not the first xianxia I’ve seen that puts the littlest bow on a sweeping saga. Whether the ending is happy or sad, the audience deserves a longer moment to reflect on the characters and their story than the 5 minute wrap-up I’ve seen with most of these shows. The ending is overall hopeful, but it’s dissatisfying to be told rather than shown the results with a tidy little monologue. Other than that small quibble, I really loved this story and I look forward to revisiting this series in the future.