#the manwha all but explicitly says it

[yellowocaballero]

One of the many things that I've been doing instead of writing are these damn manwha binges and Villain To Kill is literally so funny. The comic premise is straightforward action, think Tokyo Ghoul meets Solo Leveling - local Genetically Superpowered Superhero Cop working for corrupt Hero Organization gets #betrayed and #murdered and is reincarnated into the body of a Genetically Superpowered Villain Teenager so now he has to join up with all the other villain superpower people to get justice.

It's so 5/10. Cassian is extremely OP and the story isn't well-written enough to pull that off well. The worldbuilding is so incredibly nonsensical and weak that it falls apart if you think about it for more than five minutes (tried to write fic for it and failed because I would have had to rework the entire world - which, I could have, but that's a lot of effort for Villain to Kill). The plot is mostly any OP action hero plot where guy gets increasingly powerful by fighting increasingly powerful guys. Cassian himself has almost nothing going on internally, to the point of elegance. And it is somehow the gayest manwha I've ever read.

It's the fucking character designs. And like its narrative but it's the fucking 100/10 character designs. The entire cast's design and characters slam. There's not that much depth but we don't care. You know if we don't like somebody if they look vaguely straight, and you know that we like somebody if they look like they were set to tumble dry in the queerness washing machine. The (great!) women are high femme or hard butch. The corrupt institution assassinated a man Cassian loved and framed & murdered him, at which point he was adopted by a rag-tag bunch of flamboyant homosexuals deemed unacceptable and undesired by society who all teamed up and decided to villainize society in exclusively funny ways and spend most of their time gossiping or hacking the Pentagon. An AFAB character dresses as a man and goes by he/him pronouns half the time for no good reason. Cassian is physiologically incapable of thinking about anything but violence so the heartwarming found family scenario's going over his head, but his Painfully Het Hero Foil Indoctrinated Into Homophobia caught the found family ball and now he's dancing in their gay bars and dressing in drag. There's only a few characters who are explicitly gay but this is gayer than that.

I talked a while back about how important a decent supporting cast is to a good story, and this is yet again good proof. Looking at this, I think I'd go further and say - it's an action manwha, we're reading it for a reason, we don't need character-driven story arcs or really complex characters. I think it's just charisma. A story can go really far on characters with charisma.

TV Shows that are carried on the lead actor (Columbo I love you) - it's because the actor has charisma. You watch it to see the actor hang out being himself. That's way way harder to do in fiction, but I think that "a complex character" isn't necessarily a "charismatic character". I'd rather have a cast of only charismatic characters rather than only complex ones. A story of any genre needs a strong cast of charismatic characters. They can be deep or they can just be chaotic lesbians. Charisma invests the reader in the story and the characters. It's simple but it's really powerful. And it is fucking hilarious how sometimes all you need to do on that front is "Rupaul this shit".

I can't genuinely recommend Villain to Kill and this is not a recommendation. But random stuff always interests me like this, and I really had no idea that I would read 120ch of a manwha bc the designs fuck so hard. Also, like, this is queerest manwha I've ever read. Somehow. Fucking somehow.

[cometrose]

Queen of Tears is so interesting cause i've never dealt with two really complex leads like this in romcom (i mean it is funny)

i've said it before but Haein and Hyunwoo know each other very well but don't know each other at all (i don't know if i've ever seen communication issues this bad).

Losing the baby clearly drove them apart. She blamed herself and put up high walls. He wears his heart on his sleeve and cried over it. We can argue that he should've comforted her in that moment but at the same time she clearly knew he was upset so why didn't she go to him? Haein thought she had no right to grieve and consequently Hyunwoo thought she didn't grieve at all. The moment where they needed each other more than ever- the moment they should've been together they both fucked up.

The core of the issue is that they can't read each other's mind, this is literally said at the beginning of 6- they love each other dearly but also tripping over each in the process.

Outside of Hyunwoo jumping up and down at her diagnosis and faking his way into her will (which was painfully cruel and soooo funny) It's very clear that this is a two person game. Although I always interpreted Hyunwoo's joy as the same as the mistress of a wealthy man who is just waiting for him to die so she can get the money, (it's mean but most times the master either sucks or he's naive as hell and she has no reason to mourn) and at that point Hyunwoo's in the same situation.

Why didn't Haein defend him in front of her relatives? Why scold him publicly in front of the employees? She does a lot of things behind the scenes but good intentions can only go so far if object of those affections is ignorant of the full story. The same thing happens in episode 6, she is trying to protect Hyunwoo from her family but without telling him so he is ignorant of the big picture. Why wasn't Hyunwoo honest with his feelings? Why is he always assuming the worst when she never explicitly says something? We see he tries to talk to her (it fails) but his fear of upsetting her leads him to do otherwise cruel things to keep her happy.

Which is also why the divorce paper is so interesting. That paper was one of the best things he’s done. He was completely justified in writing that. It breaks Haein's heart but severing ties like that was way healthier than him forcing himself to stay in this marriage and pamper her with fake love.

One thing I will admire this piece for is the role reversal, like i'm seeing so many typical fl tropes on Hyunwoo and ml tropes on Haein. You ever read one those isekai or time reverse manwha's were the fl goes back in time to get a divorce but falls in love with her partner again? yeah this is the same exact thing.

[gillianthecat]

My favorite thing about The New Employee so far is the way Jong Chan looks at Seung Hyun. And grabs his wrist or takes his hand. Or leans his head on Seung Hyun’s shoulder. Or can’t stop touching him as he shows him off to their advertising clients. Plus I love his soft morning casual look with his hair down. Overall, I don’t think the show is quite for me, for a variety of reasons, but WOW can Kwon Hyuk convey desire. The pure want dripping off of him when he allows himself to let his mask drop. (And there are no dead fish kisses here, no sirree! I think we were worried suspicious last week because it looked like they were using fancy camera angles to hide bad kisses, but, uh, they do not need to do that.)

I am excited about the new complications introduced at the end though! Was the logo on the pen a connection to Seung Hyun’s college crush, Yoo Seong? (Would I recognize it if I’d been paying more attention?) What is Jong Chan’s relationship with Yoo Seung’s anyway? And who is the mysterious person Yoo Seung is in love with? (You can see I have a bit of second lead syndrome going on. He’s just so pretty.)

Needless to say, I’m going to keep watching despite my reservations, because I want to find out all the answers! And because I suspect that Seung Hyun and Jong Chan will change quite a bit over the course of the story, and I’m curious to see who they become.

My other favorite thing is continues to be how explicitly queer this show is, as @heretherebedork says here (and other places).

I had decided to keep this post positive, but I can’t resist complaining. Or at least talking about the parts that aren’t working for me. Besides my general struggles with the ad agency office setting, which I’ve complained about anytime anything like it comes up, I’m just not that into a smiley eager puppy of a protagonist. It’s why I didn’t connect as much with Choco/Jungwoo in Choco Milk Shake, it’s probably part of the reason PayuRain never worked for me. And Seung Hyun is more complex than just an eager intern, but I’m still not really connecting with him. And part of that is that it feels like his eagerness and shyness compounds the already sizable power difference between the two. Which, given the ending, I suspect that dynamic will be upended soon, but it did make watching this episode less interesting to me because I wasn’t really feeling their connection. Which I realize is a me thing, and other people enjoy that kind of power dynamic much more. I felt Jong Chan’s physical attraction for sure, and Seung Hyun’s admiration (hero worship perhaps?) but I’m not really sure what they like about each other. I guess it just feels like they don’t actually know each other yet. Which I suppose might be the point, at this moment of their arc. Lee Boem even said basically as much, that this awkward getting to know each other stage is fun. So I think I’ve talked myself around to appreciating how their courtship is being depicted, at least intellectually. If this is just the calm before the storm, if it’s actually setting them up for a crisis that deepens their relationship, then it works.

Perhaps the problem is that everything about their date seemed stressful to me. Watching them sitting alone in a dark, cold (it looked like the kind of place that would be over air conditioned) fancy restaurant, too nervous to have a real conversation, made me want to walk out of there on Seung Hyun’s behalf. Not that he wanted to leave, I was just projecting. And if we count the ad pitch as a second date, which I think we can since it was clearly part of their courting, well, that seems even more miserable. But again, very much a me thing, the characters were clearly thrilled by it.

The other thing I struggle with is the interjections in of the manwha comic that’s telling Seung Hyun’s story as he’s living it? I don’t understand the purpose of these fourth wall breaks, or fantasy elements, or whatever it’s supposed to be, and so I just find them annoying. Like, it doesn’t feel so far like it’s connected to anything else in the story, or helping Seung Hyun learn something, or otherwise is meaningful, just like they’re trying to be cute. It doesn’t help that I don’t like most manwha/comic/manga drawing styles, including thus one, and I’d rather spend the time on the actors’ faces.

And, like many Korean BL, the run time is just too short for the story they’re trying to tell, so it leaves things feeling rushed and unfinished. Alas.

Despite all my criticisms, I am very curious to see where this goes, so I will keep watching. And, as I said above, there are many things I like, I just needed to get my complaints off my chest.

(oh, and the sound effects! (one last complaint and then I'll stop for real.) I continue to not be a fan of comedic sound effects, although these at least are well matched and timed. I think its part of the same issue as the vaguely supernatural manwha; the show is going for a comedic slapstick one when I want a bit more seriousness from it. I'm very particular about slapstick, I love it when well executed, but it annoys me when not, and I have a high threshold for well executed. Kabe Koji is the only thing I can remember recently succeeding for me in that regard.)

[prjctdiva]

What book are you reading?

i'm so glad you asked 😈

i'm currently 800+ chapters deep into Turning (터닝) by Kuyu, it's a still ongoing webnovel actually (+ a manwha that will take forever to catch up)

it's the kind of novel that should not be good in theory. like when you look at the novelupdates page and see shit like "fantasy" "past lives" mixed with the dreaded "omegaverse" tag, you think "oh this is gonna be so ass"

but hear me out and i'm saying this 100% unironically: this bitch manages to make it work and it manages to make it work WELL. Turning has it all; main focus is on the worldbuilding and plotline (there is romance! but it never overshadows the story), everything and everyone is introduced for a reason, a main cast of mature adults who COMMUNICATE trust and rely on each other, and genuinely well written character development.

and if anyone thinks the premise sounds interesting but is on the fence about the whole ABO thing (fair), that shit is literally irrelevant at least 90% of the time. the author really uses it more as a genuine plot and world building device (sometimes we even get the psychological horror special). it's not even a defining character trait!

this thing also has the longest slowburn i've ever read (400+ chapters) and everything that does happen at present is explicitly consensual. yippee! these guys are actually better at reading and understanding each other's boundaries than a good chunk of romance i've read, gay straight or otherwise.

anyway this ended up being a huge rant but this novel genuinely altered my brain chemistry when I never had hope of it being any good. def not for everyone, but still undeniably really good and I stand by that! in conclusion once again:

[biblically-accurate-soup]

khunbam really is about two people who care about each other so much and try to help shoulder each others burdens and stand by each other even when the rest of the world turns against them huh

[zoobus]

Is there a piece of media that you absolutely detest? And I do mean detest, like, a movie or book or man(hu/hw/g)a (etc) that when you remember it's existence makes you go fricking ballistic (or the nearest negative emotion).

I've written this essay for at least different platforms but somehow not tumblr. Yes. One of the most popular otome isekais out there no less. And for once I'm going to put this under a cut. I know people browse the otoisekai tag for fun and aren't looking the beating I want to give this manwha. Also because this is a copy-paste-edit of something I wrote months ago on reddit and it's too long. Stale material gets the snip.

I hate The Villainess Lives Twice/Again. I hate it so much. tl;dr don't quadruple amputee your morally black heroine and have her draw a pentagram on a dirty floor with the bloody remains of her tongue in chapter 1 if you're not gonna follow through. I really felt like I was bamboozled into reading what was ultimately a generic contract marriage, saved by the hot duke romance, and I hate it. If you like this comic, don't click this.

I know TVLT is popular. I know it's well-loved and often trotted out as an ur-example of the genre. Why? I'm not really sure.

I hate it because on every single level, for any possible reason I enjoy otoisekai, it fails. All the charms of the genres it attempts end in failure. I hate it for lying about what kind of otome story it intended to be.

The concept? Great. Wonderful. I have a mighty need for writers to fill the gap on villainess characters that are actually villainous. I love otome isekai and stories where they let a girl-boss stay winning? They're the best. Let👏female👏protags👏be👏toxic👏👏👏

And here? Chapter one STARTS with our MC getting taken down for some crime she didn't commit and you know what? She can't even be mad, because what she's accused of pales in comparison to what she's actually done. Chapter one ENDS with our now limbless MC squirming across a filthy floor, dragging the remains of her sliced out tongue to form a pentagram so she can sacrifice herself and turn back time, knowing full well this alone could never atone for the crimes she committed for her own selfish gain.

The execution? oh my god, I hate this comic for hyping me up like that. Every single chapter after had me desperately searching for the potential I saw in the first. A peak into what could have been. But there's nothing. Why is there nothing.

1. Agency

Chapter 1 is essentially MC getting tortured for a wrongful accusation, with her noting the irony of this. She explicitly refuses to apologize or justify her actions. She knows there's no point in doing so. We're presented with a woman who knows there's no excuse for the innocent lives she's destroyed - no sad childhood or miserable backstory can make up for the evil she's puppeteered. She had choices and she chose evil.

Lol jk actually she has a tragic backstory that is vewy sad :,( and we're not saying you should feel sorry for this poor little war criminal lady, but she just wanted her mamma's love!

I can't tell you how much I despise the "cool motive, still murder" meme but it really applies here.

Chapter 2 is a slap in 1's face. After seeing her go to such lengths to own her actions, we get a frustrating and, frankly, confusing recollection of her terrible childhood (they suggest she's being starved, but that doesn't really make sense with other info given; MC doesn't have a lot of clothes but wouldn't that make her ambitious family look...bad? because nobles are always looking for weaknesses and you're intentionally sending a representative of your family name outside looking like a scrub? The emperor passed a law that only married people can have affairs - why?? What does this bizarre piece of law do besides marginalize our MC??? You think you're too good for normal concubines? These aren't spoilers, they're just weird details that add nothing or make things less coherent). Chapter 2 is a long way of saying "I know there's no excuse for what I did, BUT"

2. Dumbass's Machiavelli

Did you assume the mastermind-orchestrator MC would be equally brilliant and manipulative once she returns to the past? lol. It's a 1-2 combo of "plot conveniently happens to MC in a way she could not have planned but we'll pretend she did" and "MC does objectively dumb shit."

An example of the former -

MC walks downstairs, gets randomly slapped for no other reason than she needs a reason to lecture the slapper "you need to get your father's attention in a different way than throwing tantrums at his mistress's house." Said slapper is in her 30/40s with two kids, so uh. If she's still throwing tantrums, I don't see this being a convincing argument.

An example of her doing objectively dumb shit - hey, if you know you're going to the poorest area in the whole empire, why would you roll up in a noble carriage and put your black cloak disguise on after you step out and the beggars have already seen your noble-exclusive golden hair?

I can't even edit this screenshot smaller, you have to see this fucking framing in its entirety:

This fucking screenshot. This FUCKING PAGE. It throws me into fits, it turns me into an incoherent animal because there's SO MUCH bad, it throws off my numbered list format 1 2 3 4 THIS PAGE the depiction of POVERTY before a noblewoman gets PRINCESS CARRIED out of a carriage, complete with the pink glitter background because this is meant to be a ROMANTIC scene for an INTELLIGENT character by a KIND male lead AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THIS???

3. Fuck the male lead

That's him in that last pic. ML is stated to be the people's Duke, a duke who cares, a duke who is disgusted by the treatment of commoners at the hands of the aristocratic elite. Commoners should receive just as much valor for the efforts as us nobles!

"Riches aren't important," he says that verbatim. We, the reader, should root for his ascension to the throne because he's not like the other noble boys ;^)

He displays his unrelenting commitment to justice and commoners by:

Verbally attacking and embarrassing MC's bully at a party, despite the implausibility of sherlocking enough facts to recognize the bully is in the wrong (side note, I was #teambully - she points out MC has worn the same dress to six parties in a year, not even aware that MC is wearing her filthy clothes from the day before, when she was out in the sunshine cooking up a BO-storm. I know enough about historical garments to know that those layers heat up and that she did not wash them before the party). I got off-topic, I'm just saying I would not be comfortable with a guy who jumps to conclusions like this being my political representative - we know she's a bully. He could not.

Terrifying a visibly nervous butler for giving info the ML literally just demanded, which is treated as proof the MC has an abusive life, as there's no other reason a butler would say "Oh MC's at the ball" to the scary 6'5 war hero duke glaring down at him. Again, a noble second to the king jumping to conclusions without considering how his intimidating presence might affect how less powerful people perceive him is not actually a good look. I know you have a brain cell in there somewhere, use it.

Openly hostile to beggars living in what we are explicitly told is the most poverty-stricken part of town for having the audacity to ask rich people stepping out of a noble carriage for money.

😍 Dripping wet over being princess carried in front of the wretched poor before my boyfie whips his sword out in case one tries to touch me😍

4. "Banter"

Yeah so if you've ever seen the actual video where this gif comes from, the context is that the smirking guy is "roasting" the other dude with these bizarre quips that either aren't clever or make no sense, but his friends are going nuts anyway.

MC cannot banter. She shares personal info unbecoming of an alleged mastermind. Her jokes suck, like booooo get off the stage boooooo. I'm not even going back to screenshot them, they're too tryhard/corny.

5. Just say you hate fashion

The fashion is hideous, anachronistic, and at points, clearly traced from something else. I don't expect all otoisekai to care about fashion - it's a perk when they do, but I can ignore it when it's not - but all the clothes are noticeably from different centuries, at times it's super obvious the artist traced a stock photo, and the stylistic inconsistency is weirdly notable. I have never cared about this kind of thing before, but I guess you could say TVLT has a special place in my heart. NONE of these clothes are from the same period which would be fine except they're UGLY. How dare you.

tl;dr2 The Villainess Lives Twice is the worst OI I've ever read because they baited me with an MC who's literally willing to crawl in the dirt, to spill blood to get what she wants, a boss-bitch more than prepared to play 12th dimension human-chess.

And then those stakes turned out to be tripping over her own feet on prom night.

✌️Cliffhanger✌️

[claresona]

My final thoughts on Kami no Tou season 1 (spoilers ahead)

Before I get into this, this is all just my opinion and I am totally open to discussion on some of my comments and critiques (although I truly don’t have a lot at all).

Pros (there are lots): - The animation/visuals are brilliant. It’s the kind of art style that makes me want to go save a bunch of wallpapers. This show is an aesthetic for me. - Voice acting. For the most part, I was quite impressed with the vocal performances especially of Khun, Anaak, Endorsi, etc. I thought the voice actor for Bam was also the same one who played Tanjiro from Kimetsu no Yaiba, but I was wrong in that regard. - OST. I have to say I do like the opening song more than the ending, but both were pretty great. I haven’t been able to stop listening to TOP by Stray Kids. In addition, Kevin Penkin did a MARVELOUS job at composing the OST for the show. - Characters: As I said in one of my prior posts, I am genuinely impressed as to how much effort and emphasis was placed upon supporting characters backstories. I don’t know if I’ve seen an anime that has had me so intrigued by some minor characters before, but this show certainly has made me feel for them. I also don’t dislike any characters in this show other than for maybe Rachel, which I don’t dislike her because she’s annoying or made the show unbearable to watch, rather she’s just an asshole at this point in time. I perceive this as a positive as I think she’s a truly complex character whose ambitions and reasoning I want to understand in later seasons. - Narrative/plot direction. People may disagree with me on this (or on anything for that matter, which is 100% okay!) but I really appreciate the uniqueness of the plot. I am intrigued by the premise, itching to know what happens next, and I feel the show is introspective and allows for a lot of theories and discussion which I enjoy. - Enjoyment. Moderate to high amounts of enjoyment. I was hooked by the third episode and wanting to binge it in one go (but I didn’t, considering I was watching it with my SO, haha). Cons: - Pacing. I felt towards the middle-end that the show was a bit rushed and that some of the tests felt... unneeded for lack of a better word, at least as to why they were implemented. The “positioning” system in the show I don’t know was explicitly explained. I know there were various points where the test administrators stated that: “x person is guaranteed to pass,” or “x person will fail if they fail this test.” My SO disagrees with me on this and I am more than open to discussing on this point. - Bam. I love Bam, he’s an indisputable sweetheart and I had made a post stating that if someone breaks his heart in the show that I would riot (not actually). As of right now, I think he is way too nice for his own good and he feels like a “blank slate” character you play in some games which does somewhat bother me. However, it is not at all a deterrence to me watching the show or reading the manwha (which I plan to do shortly). I hope he does develop more of a personality within the upcoming seasons and shows some change especially towards Rachel. Overall, really excited to see what comes next. I hope we don’t have to wait an egregiously long time for another season given the current circumstances in the world. I’d also like to send a huge shoutout to the fandom as I have said previously you guys might be one of the nicest fandoms I’ve encountered here on tumblr. You guys are super interactive and helpful and I could not be more thankful!

Clare’s rating (out of 100): 80/100

[avadaqdavra]

why don't you want killing stalking fans following your blog? isn't that a bit rude?

okay so i have a lot to say about this so i’m gonna write it all under the cut

firstly, the creator of the manwha is a bitch. she could have listed it as something like horror, which is what it SHOULD be considering some of the themes, but she lists it as ‘boy love’. basically she sees the relationship between the characters and goes ‘ah yes,,, this toxic ass relationship is love. sure. completely healthy, 100% accurate. because apparently literally torturing someone should be listed as a safe, ‘loving’ relationship.’ this is taking an explicitly abusive and toxic relationship and making it appear okay in any way. which is fucking disgusting.

secondly, it demonises people with mental illness, particularly bpd, which is something i suffer from. it shows the characters with mental illnesses and makes them come off as creepy, villainous people with no good things about them. in the fandom i’ve noticed it’s become an excuse to blame whatever awful shit sang//woo does to yoon//bum with the fact that he’s mentally ill. first of all, being neurodivergent is NOT an excuse for abusing, torturing and killing people. it’s also terrible representation for people with mental illnesses or disorders by making them sound dangerous and abusive.

thirdly, the creator’s target audience is straight women. anything ‘mlm’ targeted at straight women (such as yaoi) is always some fetishisation of gay men. essentially, the reason the creator even made the damn thing in the first place is for straight women to get off to it. they’re invalidating abuse survivors and fetishising all the shit in the comic just because they find it hot.

most of the fandom is made up of older straight women, so it’s not like i’m just guessing or whatever.

apparently almost everyone in the fandom thinks it’s okay to draw fanart and write fics depicting rape, abuse and torture. these things aren’t even portrayed in a negative way - it’s just there on show, with the ‘it’s only fiction uwuwuw’ excuse yelled at anyone that points out the harm it causes. because apparently saying something is fictional is an excuse to romanticise those things.

finally, if i don’t want someone following my blog for whatever reason, i’ll tell them not to follow. i’m not having such a toxic, inexcusably homophobic community being associated with me and this blog.