You're right, it's not the easiest TV series to follow without subtitles.. which is why I watch it with English and Chinese subtitles. I've found that's a good way for me to learn and practice my Chinese :) Even if I can't understand half of what they're saying and need to rely on the English subs a lot, I try to pay attention to what they are saying. Sometimes I end up hearing words that I've recently learnt - which helps me memorise them. Also if they say something interesting I sometimes pause the video and write down some notes.
This is probably just individual preference, but I've had more luck with finding something that really keeps me motivated to keep watching and then watch that with English and Chinese subs, rather than trying to find something I can watch without English subs. Of course, I can't read the English and Chinese subs at the same time, so it takes slightly more time.. When I have the time and energy, I try to read the Chinese subs, and pause if I need to read the English translation. And other times I just rely on the English subs, but try to pay attention to what they're saying.
And yes, I agree with that. The things I dislike the most about digital entertainment today are DRM, subscription-based services only, and everything that's "free" (with annoying ads, and sometimes you have to pay AND watch ads, which makes even less sense to me..).
Oh, and I also made a community for discussing donghua, for anyone interested: https://lemmy.world/c/donghua
Best Chinese donghua or video games for learning Chinese?
Does anyone have any donghua (Chinese anime) or video games they would recommend for learning Chinese?
I'm open for most kinds of TV shows, though since I'm not fluent then something with not too advanced language would be good!
Fairies Albums (百妖谱, Bai Yao Pu)
I watched this donghua a while ago, and I really liked it.
It has 3 seasons, each consisting of 12 episodes. The series follows a spirit doctor, as she travels around healing saving various kinds of spirits. Each "story" is usually made up of 2 episodes, but eventually we're faced with more of a main storyline instead. I found the stories are quite clever, and have a deeper meaning (such as the first one, that shows how "any" human being can be corrupted by power after becoming leaders). It's also sometimes quite funny.
I watched the whole series here (it has both Chinese and English subtitles, which is nice if you're learning Chinese): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBakWosU0sfgV7gPQHReort3y4fta8GQm
You can probably find it for free somewhere else, though I couldn't find any other places that had both Chinese and English subtitles.
Nice, thanks for sharing! Might make it easier to remember new Hanzi if I start using this.. I'll give that a try!
Firefox users: The website doesn't seem to display properly in Firefox btw.