#just the 80 first chapters on webtoons

[klaytheguildlessperso]

I've just remembered Romantically Apocalyptic exists

[oh-no-its-bird]

I think a 'surviving as a maid' oneshot where Ash and the queen run away together would cure my depression actually

Same for a fic just about Mio and archmage Ciel interacting in literally any way tbh bc what the fuck the author really thought they could pull a "and there was only one bed" and just have us (the readers) let that slide???? Bitch I see you and I'm so here for it— honestly both from the casual familialness of it and potential shipping. I adore both possible angles of this dynamic

Mio, Ash and archmage Ciel as a dysfunctional little family / maybe throuple (but also it's incredibly unclear what's even happening there) is so compelling to me I'm sorry I'm fully checked out of like all other ships bc that dynamic is so interesting in literally all directions

Rolling it back to Ash and the Queen too, they have such good chemistry and I adore every scene they share together. The Queen has such this like gentle, elegant, tragic air to her that you can just tangible feel. The way I lose my fucking mind whenever Ash gets any real emotion out of her, just, ag. I love them. Fuck.

I can not find a single fic for this webtoon and this saddens me deeply. I think I need to fix this fact immediatley tbh

[pali-and-proud]

ok, I am relatively new to this little fandom but I binged Cinderella boy and I'm just wondering... did everyone forget about that one part where buddy has this dream and he's in ragged clothes in a fancy manor house? Like, no wonder the man likes looking fancy. if that's Ex Libris and that's how they keep him, of course he likes looking good. maybe it's because he doesn't have the chance to otherwise?

also did everyone just forget that bit existed because I'm scrolling through and I'm seeing nothing on buddy seeing chase in the mirror, shattering the mirror, and jumping through. That was deeply impactful and yet I can't figure out what and i've been hyperfixtaing on that for a while now. Can you give me a rant about that bit because I know there's something up there I just cant figure out what, am I the only one who read that part?

This is so funny to me. I'm so happy you got into CB! And I'm so happy you enjoy it! But LMAO I think the Dreams episode broke tumblr--there were so many speculations and it's the basis for like 80% of our Buddy theories! (People analyzing the episode is what caused me to make a tumblr account in the first place, actually!)

(Which! Since you're new to the fandom, I can understand how it might look like we missed it, but I promise--this fandom soaks up Buddy content like it's water and we're in the Sahara)

So since it's a dream, we have to assume a lot of symbolism--we know the outfit Chase wore in his dream was a representation of himself (likely a nod to his repeated selfless, angellic actions, like trying to save Buddy or trying to save his mom), so we can assume the same for Buddy.

He's likely not actually dressed in rags--although we don't have that confirmed, but based off of Chase's fit--but it's possible that he ISNT dressed in the fancier outfit we saw him wear earlier. It's really likely, actually, although we shouldn't discount the possibility that Punko wanted him dressed so simply to reflect how dim/bare his situation is.

Someone (I cant remember who, but if anyone does know, PLEASE @ them bc this was life-changing) pointed out that if that's the case, then Violet would have been making outfits for Buddy the whole time, which would cement Buddy having a good relationship with his key well before Chase. We can assume Buddy has a good relationship with Violet anyway, since she makes him outfits he likes, but still.

The rags also serve another purpose: it reminds us that Buddy is ALSO a protag. That's what Chase realizes, in his dream, and it's what we have to keep in mind when we read the chapters. Buddy's not a side character, nor an antagonist. This is his story, too, and he's trying to secure his own happy ending, just like Chase.

(The title of the Webtoons is Cinderella Boy--and in that episode, between Chase and Buddy, only Buddy looks like Cinderella. Another nod to his true role as a protag, and another reason why we need to treat his attire with caution.)

What the dream DEFINITELY confirms is that Buddy has a bad relationship with Ex Libris. There's really no plausible alternative--from how frantic he is to escape, and how afraid he is of being caught. Beach Boys set the question of whether or not Buddy's in a bad spot with Ex Libris, but we didn't know how truthful he was.

We still don't, really, since he still hasn't told us, 'cause he's a paranoid asshole that we tragically love. But this episode laid some facts: Buddy is definitely in a bad situation, regardless of the specifics.

Plus, the final scene of him throwing the clock at the mirror, effectively destroying the reflection of Chase--clocks are often a representation of time. He's running out of time. There's a time limit, somewhere, but we don't know anything except that the clock's ticking.

(Someone else pointed out the clocks/time thing before me. I swear, I will hunt these @s and give proper citations.)

His escape via the mirror likely refers to his real motive: Buddy wants to escape, and he's aware his escape is going to involve, to some extent, harming Chase. From here, it's pure speculation: does Buddy need the keys to escape, thus betraying Chase? Does Buddy know something important? Is the mirror, or Buddy's escape, in any way tied to how he finds Chase in the books?

It's VERY likely that the keys are critical to Buddy's escape, due to the lock with 12 keyholes. This would also ensure the plotline of Buddy's strive for the keys remains intact, and would give us another reason for why Buddy was so desperate for Chase's key. HOWEVER, this isn't the only theory, and we know Punko's always two steps ahead.

The episode feels symbolic and important because it IS, but until we know more about Buddy's actual situation, it's hard to really break down what the episode means. I promise, though: the more we learn about Buddy's backstory, the more people (including myself, because i cannot shut up) will refer to that episode to swoon over the foreshadowing Punko brilliantly laid out.

[buqbite]

Sending this through asks 'cause I can't do images in dms but my art side blogs are @art-of-fict for gen art and @gershwes-project-archive for specifically current comic project stuff :3 (I have part 1 scripted but I haven't updated the acct in a bit...I got a job and now I'm actually busyyyy and maintaining an update schedule is hardddd)

New year's resolutions include drawing more shitposts for my characters 'cause all I have is this one TTvTT I have so many notes about them written but! It's not enough! I need people know how chaotic they are!!

Only partially related but are you reading any other webnovels/webtoons atm? I know you're also into sctir but. May I interest you in the others I keep in the Same Category of "compelling characters and a self-sacrificing protagonist surrounded by surprisingly deep fantasy worldbuilding that is inevitably leading to some Fucked Up Scenes?"

I am currently caught in the 700+ chapter whirlpool of Trash of the Count's Family, but The Third Wheel Strikes Back and The Greatest Estate Developer have also consumed chunks of my mind. Tged is notable for having an actually good straight ship where they're both kind of insane. Congrats! The others are gay/poly as hell but in the same aromantic/queerplatonic way as orv 'cause they technically don't have a romance subplot. (Which, for twsb is hilarious, given that the novel our protag transmigrated into was originally a rofan. Which, I mean, it's not a romance subplot by technicality. The whole "spiritual partners" thing is. Really, really transparently just being married without the expectation of sex)

(I'm also thinking of maybe practicing panel layouts with tcf? I just...there's some real compelling imagery there. Also very fun protag because he will just sort of lie to you. Like, straight up. But only about himself. Don't trust him when he says he's fine 10x fake idgafer fr. Kind of the opposite of the twsb protag who cares so much with his whole heart on his sleeve but. Very similar results [PICK. UP. THAT. STRAY! Congrats you're now a major religious figure :D])

Anyway I have officially rambled on too much uhh hope you have a nice day/night whatever time it is!!

hell yeah, thanks for the info! im cheering for you and your comic project ^^

and nope, i havent read any new webnovels in a while now. i still have to finish villinit though, as well as lotm.

and ive heard of the three! i read the first few chapters of twsb, and quite liked it. i also read about 80 chapters of tcf, i think? it wasn't my thing though, so i stopped. and i've known about tged for a while now, but haven't gotten around to starting it yet. i'll simply wait until i'm in the mood for it

[cherchersketch]

the webtoon ~classic~ If you ever see the comments on WEBTOON refer to any lady who attempts to steal away the ML as “Trashta”, this is the series that reference comes from. Literally the reason I first started reading was to find out how bad the OG “Trashta” actually is.

Summary Exactly what it says on the tin. Our main girl, Navier, gets divorced from her childhood sweetheart/arranged marriage partner. But she pulls an UNO Reverse on him and immediately turns around to marry the neighbouring kingdom’s ruler. It’s one of those in media res series so we’re only caught up to “present day” around Chapter 70+. In general, mostly about all the ~political intrigue~ of switching from Empress of an Empire, to Queen of the neighbouring Kingdom, as well as how the replacement takes over her job and how the ex is coping. (not well on both counts)

Tropes   - the art does a *glow-up* over time   - oh my god there’s so much plot   - who run the world? GIRLS   - a lady’s battlefield is tea parties and banquets

FL - Navier

 - a walking Defrosting Ice Queen trope. You see that image of her on the cover? That’s 80% of her face in the manhwa. Lol  - *real nobles* can’t reveal their ~FEELINGS~  - gaslight gatekeep GIRLBOSS  - trying her best

ML - Heinrey

 - from penpals-to-married in a few months. good for you, king  - the guy always falls in love first ;w;  - lowkey actually kinda sus (and then I read ahead in the novels and yea, baby boy sus af)  - not as dumb as he pretends to be  - when in doubt, turn into cute bird

that lady - Rashta

 - technically trying her best but not the sharpest knife in the drawer  - I wouldn’t say I hate her, like some trashbin-worthy family members from other series, but a lot of her actions make me facepalm  - the fandom’s Hate Sink. literally the reason it’s a hazard to mention her in r/OtomeIsekai. lololol

the ex - Sovieshu

 - how is he so dumb when he’s the Emperor  - someone get him better advisors

Rating: It’s not bad if you’re bored and enjoy the tropes The fact that I went to read ahead in the novels means I did enjoy it initially. But it was one of the first few manhwa I actually read and since then I’ve found other similar series that I prefer. Status (as of 11 July 2023) Ongoing. Season 3 just started. Having read ahead in the novel, and some spoilers, there’s still a long long way to go.

Same Same but Different  - Amina of the Lamp  - Iris: The Lady and Her Smartphone  - The Soulless Duchess

full rec list

[goddamnwebcomics]

My Brief Review of Letters on the Wall (Chapters 1-11)

When I started reading this comic, I was a bit suspicious. Anyone who has read this blog or has read webcomics in general knows that webtoon comics focusing on LGBT+ couples are either attempting to be a Coffee Shop AU levels of fetishized wholesomeness, or just are really insulting. Thankfully Letters on the Wall quickly proved itself to be more nuanced. But what is it about anyway?

Plot and Writing

Letters on the Wall follows Tara, an introverted artist who returns to Manchester after living in Spain for 5 years to get her bachelor's degree in arts. Tara can't handle big changes and unfortunately a lot of things have changed. She is forced to live in a campus because her mother is pregnant and out of town. There she runs into Emma, her childhood friend and a fashion designer. Tara is also forced to see how much his childhood friends and the city have changed to her dismay. But also, a romance starts brewing between her and Emma, slowly but surely as their shared passion for arts and moments of romantic tension keep happening between them.

Let me start my review by stating I am not on this comic's target audience. Not because of the lesbian relationship but more because of the setting, the comic focuses on two university students who are coping with the childhood's end and reaching their young adulthood, while I am slowly capping up my 20's. Thankfully since the comic is set in UK, it feels very European so the ever-present cliches of American college life aren't there to annoy me. It's also very mundane, there are no supernatural elements sprinkled in, aliens are mentioned but they play no role whatsoever.

In terms of writing, the comic is written very realistically, nothing is exaggerated for the sake of comedy or strawmen, which makes me think it may be mostly based on the author's own experiences and memories. Characters rarely feel like gimmicks, though some of them do require a bit of expansion, I will talk about that more on the characters section.

A lot of chapters begin with a random flashback, which gave me bad memories of Console Girl, but most of the time the flashbacks do have a convenient role in helping to build the relationship with Tara and Emma, or establish Tara's relationship with one of the secondary characters. I do think some of the flashbacks are too long, and take away from the present day, like the most recent chapter as of this writing, Chapter 11, is 80% flashback and 20% modern day. I think flashbacks could have their own chapter as long as it's framed well.

Now I know what you're thinking, on a scale of Tsuki and Kriti to Burke and Sulfur how does the main relationship of this comic rank? Well, what I like the most about it is, it's not Love at First Sight type deal, it's romance that started from a childhood friendship. Yes, both of them being in a career field that involves drawing is a bit too convenient in my taste, but I do like the contrasting personalities of the protagonists, while both of them are socially awkward Tara is a very introverted cynic while Emma is a sweet-tooth perfectionist with more of a social side. I do elaborate on my thoughts on them as individuals later. But the comic does dedicate a chapter to introducing both characters, instead of just throwing the love interest into the scene for the protagonist to flirt with like a lot of other comics do. Objectively it's easily the best written lesbian couple I've seen in any webcomic, but when compared to every couple in this blog I still prefer Lexx and Chel due to both of them having more screentime and Burke and Sulfur out of pure bias.

In terms of writing flaws, as you can see my synopsis of the story was very short. There are 11 chapters of the story out, and I can confirm the story progresses very slowly, though sometimes the chapter progresses an entire week within the span of one chapter, and sometimes it takes 3 chapters to go through one day's events. Webcomic pacing, especially with Webtoon comics, is nothing new, and a lot of the negative aspects of this comic can be attributed to the problems of Webtoon's structure, but I'll talk about that more in the art section.

Characters

We talked about the protagonist relationships, but what about protagonists as individuals?

Tara Muñiz is an introverted art student, she's never been a people person but also she is not incapable of having relationships. Deep inside she is afraid of becoming an outsider as the world around her changes. She also carries guilt for some past event that the comic only hinted at in the first chapter. Tara does tend to be somewhat pokerfaced when Emma is not around, which can be irritating sometimes. She is capable of showing a wider arrange of emotions but it takes people she likes to get them out, like Emma and her grandparents. She is still a good protagonist, in any other comic she would've been written as an edgelord whose only defining trait is her introvert personality and she probably would hate people to the point of being a misanthropist but when she meets Emma she goes so fucking bananas she might as well be out of character. But this is thankfully not the case.

Emma is Tara's childhood friend, a perfectionist fashion designer who's much more motivated at studying than Tara is. She is also a scaredy cat and a sweet tooth. Emma feels like a human version of Noelle Holiday from Deltarune, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. That being said, I think she is weaker than Tara because she doesn't get that much screentime when she isn't around Tara outside of her introduction chapter. It's not as bad as most love interests in this blog, but you know it's still a flaw. I do wish we got to see flashbacks with her that wouldn't involve Tara, so we could get a good idea of how she handles the world around her. This comic isn't always told from Tara's point of view, and the most recent chapter featured more of Emma's inner monologue. Retroactively this does make me appreciate the scenes of Lexx and Chel being separated in Alien Dice more because those scenes helped to build them up as individuals, even if every decision wasn't perfect, but I'm going off-topic here. Emma's foundation is good, but she needs a bit more independency to help establish her as a fully grown person and not just "person in Tara's life".

As for rest of the cast, we have Min. Tara and Emma's childhood friend and a neurotic nutcase who acts as Student Council President and campus's tour guide. I was worried that her quirk was going to be the "girl who scolds everyone" but while she does scold people a lot and basically act as the comic relief more or less, she is still a decent character. She was apparently bullied at school as shown in one flashback and Emma and Tara helped to fend off their bullies, but she looked so different I didn't realize it was her until while I was writing this part of the review. I'll go more in detail on the art section, again. She is decent but she still needs a bit more establishment.

Then we have Richard, the most important male character. Richard is even more of a pokerface than Emma. He is Min's boyfriend, son of a tech company owner, but he prefers baking. Richard never changes his facial expression, and he is often very blunt, but he is thankfully not a strawman of men in general, like other comics would portray him as. Still he is shown to be somewhat of a negative character due to the fact he isn't someone Tara knows from her childhood, and he also finds Emma still treating Tara like her childhood bestie weird. I think Richard is a very very very light anti-hero of the comic because of this. Richard could have potential to be the most interesting character in the comic, because his stonefaced nature is a sign that he is very heavily repressing his emotions, and him dating someone very emotional like Min is an interesting contrast to say the least.

The other guy in the comic, Ethan is a diabetic bodybuilder who used to be fat when he was younger. He has a good relationship with Tara because they go way back, but other than that, he is more positive male character than Richard is. He is even less established than Min, so moving on.

The final important characters I want to spotlight are Emma's grandparents, her italian grandmother and her sick but optimistic grandfather with a tendency to tell wild stories about aliens. These two are my favourite characters in the comic because the elderly being depicted positively AND realistically is a rarity in webcomics, and I think both of them work great, and them having such a wholesome relationship with Tara and eachother is nice to see.

Lastly there is Tara's deadbeat pregnant mother who Tara has so little respect for she only calls her by her real name instead of calling her Mom. She is still unseen as of chapter 11 but Tara tends to have very tense phone conversations with her. She has a tendency to be very controlling, she forced Tara to move back to Manchester from Spain, forces her to live on a campus and she disapproves of her career as an artist, and Tara herself believes she's only having a baby because she considers her only daughter to be a failure. I do hope the comic approaches her on a nuanced level and isn't just Author's Mommy Issues: The Character.

There's also a receptionist woman who appears frequently in the early chapters of the comic, she mainly works as the exposition character but she doesn't have a name so I guess for now she isn't that important.

The cast of the comic is very strong and at worst need a bit more time in the oven. I do think some of them having mystery to them is a good thing because it gives the reader some reason to continue looking forward to future chapters.

Art

Art is probably the section I have the most critical things to say about. The comic is on Webtoons so naturally it follows Webtoons toilet paper format, and a lot of scrolling is required just to get one speech bubble. Thankfully it's not as bad as in Console Girl, but if I ever were to riff this it would be incredibly tedious and difficult to turn the comic into a more traditional comic format.

But enough about formatting, for the art itself, it's passable on the first look, but something that I had an issue since chapter 1 is, most characters tend to default for the same expression. Tara has a constant bored look on her face (which is even acknowledged in the comic), Emma has a constant look of uncertainty, Min has a constant look of neurotic disapproval, Richard has a constant bored look similar to Tara but more refined and so forth. Characters get more expressive as the comic goes on, especially Tara, and the comic does a nice job to justify lack of change in Richard's part, and also Emma's grandparents are immune to this problem. However if the characters aren't having samey expressions, you do notice how samey their faces tend to be. I don't want to accuse the artist of having same face syndrome, as again, Emma's grandparents and Ethan look very different from everyone else, but some characters just have identical facial structure and it is a bit distracting.

Speaking of faces, I mentioned the flashbacks earlier and they're often set in either 2008 or 2011 while the main comic takes place in 2016. although they're younger, the faces of the protagonists barely change. They have different haircuts but they're practically the same, and it's rather distracting and see how the characters look like little adults in 2008 when they're supposed to be in middle school or something. Again, Emma's grandparents are immune to this because they have more wrinkles in the present than they do in the past, but then again adding more wrinkles is a bit more easier than making two characters who I presume are 18 or 19 look 10. With Ethan we see he was fat in his childhood, but he also looks like a child at least. Min also looks more like a child, to the point of being a bit too unrecognizable as I had no idea she was supposed to be Min when I first read the page.

Lastly, the comic for some reason treats facial expressions as sound effects. That doesn't help with the "lack of expression" criticism. Like here is an example.

I know this is one of the few manga-esque elements this comic has, but I find it dumb and the comic tends to overuse it instead of having it happen occassionally.

Lastly, the comic is very inconsistent about backgrounds, we see a real background in far shots, but in closeups we just see a gradient backdrop that doesn't match the color of the scene, and of course we get fades to black and white at times. Do you love the colour of the sky?

In a nutshell, while also not irredeemable, there are some things about this comic's art that need the most improvement.

Final Thoughts

Now some of you may be thinking "What the hell GW? Why are you reviewing a random lesbian webcomic out of the blue? Are they holding your family hostage?"

Well, the reason I am riffing this is because my friend became an english translator to this comic, and since I am the webcomic riffing man, I did decide to give it a look. I wouldn't have probably touched this comic otherwise. But I am glad I did.

Even if the pacing is slow, the comic is easy to digest and doesn't take too long to catch up. I found myself getting invested into the story and the characters. I do hope they don't mystery monger too much about the past event Tara feels guilty about, I hope they don't screw up with Richard or Tara's mother and make them generic soap opera bad guy characters and I especially hope they don't make Tara's mother a super homophobe who hates gay women more than Cydnee hates dogs or Siggy hates orcs. But I do have a lot of trust in the creators of this webcomic, and I don't think my friend would've become a translator for the comic if it was bad. She has a good taste.

The comic did have an old version that is still readable online, and while I haven't read it this old version had a goth butch woman who I presume might be making this a love triangle, which I really really hope isn't the case.

I will be returning to Letters on the Wall in the future as more chapters come out. You can read it here. If you're a fan of slice-of-life webcomics about lesbians that aren't fucking insulting, you'll definitely get something out of it.

[siren-serenity]

𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐇𝐖𝐀/𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐀 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒 ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

if you've read my 'about me' section, you probably might know that i love reading manwha/manga! the apps i primarily use are from tapas and webtoon so you might have/have not heard of some of these works. without further ado, let's get started!

↳˳;; ❝ 𝐓𝐀𝐏𝐀𝐒 ᵕ̈೫˚∗

romance ⋆·˚ ༘ * beware the villainess! ⋆·˚ ༘ * the villainess is a marionette ⋆·˚ ༘ * villainesses have more fun ⋆·˚ ༘ * i shall master this family ⋆·˚ ༘ * the male lead's little lion daughter (a/n: although it is under the romance section, it's currently non-romantic! it states it in the description, which made me put it here) ⋆·˚ ༘ * my boss's special request ⋆·˚ ༘ * the siren: becoming the villain's family ⋆·˚ ༘ * revenge on the real one ⋆·˚ ༘ * marriage of convenience ⋆·˚ ༘ * villains are destined to die ⋆·˚ ༘ * what it means to be you (a/n: caution! heavy mentions of depression and suicide, but the plotline is very interesting!) ⋆·˚ ༘ * cassmire: the loyal sword ⋆·˚ ༘ * writing my male lead's happily ever after ⋆·˚ ༘ * just leave me be ⋆·˚ ༘ * the perks of being a villainess

action ⋆·˚ ༘ * solo leveling (a/n: it's getting an anime adaptation yall!!) ⋆·˚ ༘ * the novel's extra ⋆·˚ ༘ * gourmet gaming ⋆·˚ ༘ * second try idol ⋆·˚ ༘ * rookie chef with the magic touch

↳˳;; ❝ 𝐖𝐄𝐁𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐍 ᵕ̈೫˚∗

romance ⋆·˚ ༘ * the remarried empress ⋆·˚ ༘ * secretary out-of-order ⋆·˚ ༘ * marry my husband ⋆·˚ ༘ * daytime star ⋆·˚ ༘ * serena ⋆·˚ ༘ * leveling up my husband to the max ⋆·˚ ༘ * maybe meant to be (a/n: ML, please just get contacts...i'm begging you) ⋆·˚ ༘ * operation: true love ⋆·˚ ༘ * your throne (a/n: two badass FL is all i can ask for :)) ⋆·˚ ༘ * for my derelict favorite ⋆·˚ ༘ * sixth sense kiss ⋆·˚ ༘ * my in-laws are obsessed with me ⋆·˚ ༘ * i thought my time was up!

action ⋆·˚ ༘ * omniscient reader (a/n: literally my #1 on webtoon! bro i'm addicted to the art and the storyline like hello please grant me those magical abilities tq) ⋆·˚ ༘ * the greatest estate developer (a/n: the mc is so funny like pls- his expressions lmao!! every other second the guy's like: "money, money, money, must be funny, in the rich man's world") ⋆·˚ ༘ * get schooled (honestly i loved this series so much that i binged all 100+ episodes in two days! it finished it's first season and i love each and every arc. the art was magnificient. the character development was amazing. i love it so much!!) ⋆·˚ ༘ * teenage mercenary (10/10 for real!! ijin is so badass, i love the entire concept and 006 can marry me. oh, and 005 can willingly have me as her puppet. i binged all 110+ episodes in two days also! right before exams- sue me, but goddamn i love the series) ⋆·˚ ༘ * lookism (holy shit this was a rollercoaster of emotions idk how i'm going to recover from it- ITS SO GOOD LIKE I JUST WANT MORE!! 400+ EPISODES CAN'T HOLD ME BACK I NEED MOREE)

horror ⋆·˚ ༘ * melvina's therapy (a/n: personally, i'm not into horror but i read a couple of chapters of this and loved it! the art is amazing, everything has so many intricate details that the author literally has to put a message at the end of each 'mini-story' to show the readers little easter eggs they sneaked in and i'm always like: wth??) ⋆·˚ ༘ * surviving romance (a/n: the art is so beautiful!! the plot is tso heartwrenchingly sad, funny, and gorgeous all at once! i binged read all 80+ chapters in two days hahaha)

[domokunrainbowkinz]

(FUCKING TUMBLR POSTED THIS BEFORE I WAS DONE ADDING TO IT AGAIN RAGHHHHH...whatever just take these)

HAPPY FIRST MANHWA/WEBNOVEL POST OF 2025 LETS GO BESTIES!!!!!!

Titles discussed:

the hunter's going to lay low / the hunter wants to live quietly (manhwa + webnovel)

omniscient reader's viewpoint (webnovel)

count tachibana (manhwa)

the hunter's going to lay low / the hunter wants to live quietly: another action dungeon-crawler BL, it kept popping up so I decided to pick up the manhwa and ohhhh my god. I was enjoying this one a lot so I decided to pick up the novel and I GOT FUCKING BAITED BY THE UNSERIOUSNESS. DO NOT LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU THIS IS NOT A SIMPLE COMEDY STORY ABOUT A GUY TRYING TO LAY LOW AND RUN HIS SOUP RESTAURANT. the warning signs were there when the ML is a yjh looking motherfucker this is a story about preventing the fucking apocalypse. the story starts off about what you'd expect based on the title and only starts to reveal the Actual plot about 80-90 chapters in, and it gets REALLY sad. once you find out more about what the mc went thru as the number 1 hunter and hero of the country, as well as his "one and only success" you WILL want to eat glass. and part 2 is when the story REALLY leans into the apocalypse genre, it starts to get really fucking bleak. despite that, there are still some lighthearted and humorous moments sprinkled in, and the rship between the mc and ml AOUGH!!!!!!!! it's like they made them in a lab targeted to me, specifically....i love their interactions so so much, from their bickering to the funny moments to the more serious and sad ones...they match each others freak and idk if this novel is 18+ but they DEFINITELY would have extremely nasty disrespectful sex, absolute fucking freaks about each other. this one came as such a pleasant surprise to me since I kind of read it on a whim, and as someone who just finished orv. I think the orv-ers may want to check this one out :) that is all I will say....

omniscient reader's viewpoint: OK I may as well also post my Thoughts about it here now that I've had a few weeks to marinate over the main story + epilogue. man I rly wonder how tf the authors came up with this story bc it literally is a story about Stories: what makes a story, what happens when a story is written, the relationship between a writer, their reader, and the story being told through thr characters. it really reels you in unsuspectingly with the tried-and-true reverse isekai trope and then it starts to slowly reveal its true colours as it gets more and more meta and philosophical. like when I got to the epilogue i felt like I needed a PhD in time travel + philosophy to fully understand what's going on. for a kr webnovel it is packed so densely with lots of interesting ideas that as someone who likes to read and write stories, it led to a lot of fun thought experiments. and I haven't even gotten to the characters yet OUGH they are all so much fun I love them and kdj....ohhhhhh my god kdj....I almost feel like I want to do commentaries on this novel like I used to in high school except instead of doing it for grades I'm doing it cuz I'm insane in the head. anyways I really liked it yes I may have cried 49/51 babey!!! I do think this is worth a read for anyone who likes to analyze the nature of stories and the rship between a writer/reader/character, and I do think it is best experienced as a novel. there are certain aspects where idk how they'll translate it to the webtoon, and I'm even more curious about how they'll translate it to anime + live action without it looking weird or goofy lol

count tachibana: I actually read a chunk of this wayyy back but I stopped bc I saw there's a love triangle that eventually crops up in the story. the art style for this is SO unique and it's actually what caught my eye in the first place, and it also takes place during the Japanese colonial rule, which isnt a time period that I've seen often depicted in manhwa (maybe there are lots out there and i just havent encountered them yet lol). I honestly really do want to continue this one bc the plot so far is intriguing, and the mystery of the "count", the mansion, and the tachibana lineage all tickle my brain is the best way. HOWEVER. I just personally Cannot deal with love triangles (and from previews I Know it's an actual triangle bc the MC kisses the 2nd ML multiple times and when the 2nd ML was introduced he was set up as a romantic rival). listen yall I did my time in shoujo trenches I'm done with love triangles. and the mystery and plot and intrigue itself is enough for tension, as well as the secrets the ML is hiding from the MC so I don't get why they had to throw in a triangle 😭 in my heart of hearts I really do want to pick this one back up again but I just need to mentally prepare myself for The Triangle.

[obstinaterixatrix]

webtoon-wise:

Her Tale of Shim Chong (~90 chapters), retelling of korean folklore, solid art/pacing/writing from what I remember (though it's been a while), also good for almost-rancid (but not quite) vibes

I Love Amy (~60 chapters), high school setting, artist's goal was to have a yandere character get a happy ending, good reference for high energy/dysfunctional characters and relationship building while a main character is switching targets (as opposed to master of the fox bead which imo spent a little too much time on the red herring love interest guy)

Sherbet Above the Sea of Fog (~60+ chapters), good reference point for fantasy, one-sided relationships, and very gag-oriented super comedic writing that still leaves room for pathos and interesting developments (as opposed to hero and former general, which imo is too gag-oriented for emotional investment)

Partition (~60 chapters), office romance, hits a very BL-type vibe because both characters are high energy and the main character kinda sucks a little as a person (LOL), main story extends beyond establishing relationship

indie project-wise:

After Hours (20 pgs), office/supernatural romance, good reference for short-form genre-juggling and tension building, I LOVE THIS COMIC!!!!

Gimm*r Vol 1 (~100 pgs), anthology, a lot of good examples of short-form comics

Influenca (~80 pgs), supernatural slice of life, good reference point for more experimental/non-linear narrative stuff

Of Thunder and Lightning (~60 pgs), good point of reference for violence and vibes that don't hit explicit romance but are very loaded

Misc:

Fear and Trembling is a 2003 french-japanese film where part of it is the main character having a weird toxic unfulfilled relationship with her supervisor, watch it to get a reference point for weird toxic unfulfilled relationships

yuricon is a site run by erica friedman, who is the writer of 'by your side: the first 100 years of yuri anime and manga'--good english resource for the genre, I've been meaning to actually sit down and read it. the website has essays/podcasts/yuri news (just checked okazu and learned that galette is having a kickstarter...!), so it's a good academic/news reference. There's a lot of narratives/tropes that you kind of pick up when you learn about the genre, like class s narratives, which can contextualize older yuri and what some current yuri might be referencing/subverting.

translation of a jp blog post about yuri taxonomy

yuri made me human interview part 1 & part 2

Where Is My Place in the World?: Early Shojo Manga Portrayals of Lesbianism by Fujimoto Yukari, translated by Lucy Fraser (got the link to the paper from this tumblr post)

The Sexual and Textual Politics of Japanese Lesbian Comics: Reading Romantic and Erotic Yuri Narratives (using the archive.org link because the website is down)

Bit of an odd one here, but do you have any yuri/GL recommendations for people interested in learning how to learn and write the genre well? Stuff that fires on all cylinders and hits every target, even if it doesn't exactly break the mold (tbh I just want to write girls... no, I shan't say. But I want to do it WELL, y'know?)

YES, manga-wise:

Still Sick (3 volumes) is good for grounded but still silly office romance, the main character tables at cons selling yuri doujin and her coworker finds out her secret, the women are just some guys

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko (3 volumes) is good for high energy high stupidity office romance (that still hits pathos, does explore internalized homophobia), ayaka is down bad for hiroko and hiroko is very ‘WOAH STRAIGHT WOMEN ARE SO SCARY… STAY BACK, TEMPTRESS’, the women are just some guys

5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls In Love (2 chapters + short extra) is good for short-form action-oriented romance with a witch hunter and a witch, the artist mainly writes BL, the women are just some guys

Hana to Hoshi (2 volumes) is good high energy high stupidity high school romance between table tennis ex-rivals, the gals are just some guy

my preferences skew towards romcom rather than drama/slice of life so if you’re looking for that I have some titles but not a lot to say (and I haven’t read all of these in-depth):

Run Away With Me, Girl where a woman reunited with her high school ex who is in a currently abusive relationship and they run away together. Good for distinct art style, heavier storyline that still wraps up in 3 volumes

Even Though We’re Adults, a woman hooks up with someone who turns out to be married; shimura is pretty prolific (I mean she wrote aoi hana), as far as I remember competent character writing and scope; good for long-form reference for heavier storylines (10 volumes)

How Do We Relationship, more coming of age than yuri imo but good for long-form messy college relationships

She Likes to Cook, She Likes to Eat, very slice of life, grounded to realistic emotions and experiences, definitely comes from a place of Wanting To Represent The Queer Experience, can be a reference for low-key romance

The Two of Them are Pretty Much Like This, age gap slice of life established relationship, good for slow atmosphere and conflicts beyond will-they-won’t-they

I have a couple webtoons to add to the list but this is eating up my snow frolicking time so I’ll add that in like 4-5 hours if I remember. also I have an ff recs tag

[manhwa-reader]

#50 List of 10 favourite manhwa ><

Hello ^^

Oh my god this time it's really been a very long time since I last wrote 😭. Yesterday I finished the last thing I had left to do from my degree. Now I'm officially graduated!! I'm so happy ><

Also this is post #50 and it's been a whole year since I started this tumblr. So I thought I should make something special. After thinking a bit I thought that I could do a 10 favourite manhwa list. I hope you enjoy it ☺️

First I would like to say that I've had a rough semester so I couldn't read many manhwas. Also, the website I used to read them had some problems and it doesn't update like it used to, so many manhwas that I would have read I couldn't read them.

Most of these manhwas are webtoon, let's start with the overview of the list:

After school for unrippen apples

Act like you love me!

The spark in your eyes

Romance 101

'Til debt do us part

A stepmother's märchen

Carrier falcon princess

Maybe meant to be

A whirlwind campus affair

Twilight poem

And now we'll do a quick review of every manhwa:

1.After school for unrippen apples

It's been several months since I started this manhwa and it has never disappointed me. There is comedy, romance and friendship. The story is set in the 80s and the emotions descripted by all the characters are sublime. If you haven't read it yet, trust me when I say it's wonderful ☺️

2.Act like you love me!

Okay now I bring you a great romcom ! We have a handsome and cute actor and a hardworking woman. Guess what? He falls for her first !! I love that 🥰 It's a very funny manhwa and the story only gets better and better with each chapter.

3.The spark in your eyes

Surprisingly I didn't post about this historical manhwa. The male lead is pharmacist who looks very big but actually has a very good heart. The female lead is the sun witch and as the name sounds she is very powerful. The plot is very interesting and it shows us the point of view and backstory of each character. I really recommend it !

4.Romance 101

It's such a cute and wholesome manhwa ! There are already more than a 100 chapters and yes it is so much worth it ! The romance builds up slowly but it doesn't get boring at all. The main character is very relatable which makes you loving her a lot. Without realizing you get to see the development of all the characters.

5.'Til debt do us part

When I read the manhwa it hadn't been officially translated yet to webtoon. It's a typical "from enemies to lovers". It's not really enemies, it's just that the characters didn't like each other much at first but when they get to really know each other they start catching feelings. I honestly enjoyed reading it a lot ><

6.A stepmother's märchen

This historical manhwa is so beautiful ! The main character is smart and strong. Even if she is young she is able to take care of all the children and give them all the love that they deserve. I can't wait to see how the story will develop. I root for her happiness and love ☺️

7.Cavier falcon princess

This historical manhwa is different but very nice. Lately there hasn't been many updates but the current chapters are great. It focuses more on the war but there is still romance. And I'm sure the romance will be worth the wait !

The next ones that I bring you are newer ones so I'm not sure if I'll keep liking them but for now I'm loving them :)

8.Maybe meant to be

I'm not sure what it is, if the plot, the characters or the art but it I've really taken a liking to it. The female lead is a tomboy but relatable woman. The male lead is a geek but sweet man. And they marry on the first episodes ! It awaits us so much fun 😂. At first I thought that they didn't look very good together but after they start getting to know each other you realize they make a great couple. So give it shot.

9.A whirlwind campus affair

This webtoon has a drama set but oh there is a lot of comedy too. The main character seems weird at first but you realize that she is a strong and nice girl. The art is very beautiful and the characters have secrets that with time they will help solve the mystery that surrounds the story.

10.Twilight poem

This pretty new historical manhwa is absolutely stunning ! The female lead is pitiful and the male lead for now is a jerk. But I'm sure he will end up being a good man. There is also supernatural stuff which makes it pretty cool. I can't wait to see more of this story and to finally see the female lead happy.

These are all the manhwa that I currently love.

Now that I have more free time I'll try to post a bit more.

I hope that you are alright ☺️

Bye bye ❤️

PS. I spent hours making the post and it got deleted so I had to do it all over again 😟. It was hard but anyway I hope you enjoy it ☺️

[svteenroses]

As I’m browsing social media, specifically WMMAP media, people have some negative thoughts or opinions on the manhwa that I think are rooted in either misunderstanding or misinformation or simply not remembering details about the story and I want to address some of them. (Also, I am not at all saying you can’t have negative opinions, I am just here to remind people of story details that they may have forgotten)

Forgotten Details in WMMAP

Claude put two layers of black magic on himself—one to slowly erase his emotions and one to slowly erase his memories. The reason why he rejected Athanasia in her first life was because by age 9, Claude’s black magic has finished its process in erasing his emotions and memories of Athanasia and Diana. Which is why, in the chapter 102, seeing the jewels Athy hid made him remember her existence and which is also why he had faded/splotchy memory when he first met Athy at 5[ie. Saying “what did that wench name you?” Or “it seems like there’s something I’ve forgotten”].

Athanasia has 3 total lives. The first is the original “Lovely Princess” novel where she was executed at 18 and where Jennette is more loved. The second life is the Korean Ji-Hye where she was a poor orphan who read the “Lovely Princess.” The third is our current Athy where she is loved by Claude.

Jennette’s Black Magic acts as a toxic painkiller towards Claude. In both lives, Jennette’s black magic is the main reason that Claude kept her by his side. Her black magic takes away the headaches and pain that Claude feels everytime he tries to remember Diana or Athanasia. At the same time, Jennette’s black magic is accelerating the black magic in Claude and is killing Claude faster. It is implied that LP Claude died or may have died a little after the LP novel ended.

It is implied that Korean Athanasia committed suicide. Athy herself doesn’t remember how she died but mentioned perhaps not turning on the heater during winter. However, panels of pills were shown a couple times in the webtoon meaning she could have overdosed. Lucas also warns multiple times for Athy to “not give up” and mentions that she “had a record” of “giving up.”

This one is specifically about Lucathy where people are saying that Lucas is a pedo. Both Lucas and Athy know that the other person is an adult on the inside. Athy met Lucas as a grown adult and Lucas knows about Athy’s reincarnations. Both were simply keeping up the appearances as children towards the outside world but both knew the other was not who they seemed to be. Both of their relationship also started out as sort of frenemies and the signs of actual romance [quite minimal at that point imo] appearing was after the timeskip where its close to Athy’s debutante and those two have spent years with each other as playmates.

References: Chap 75, 80

[crystal-prism]

Sadie's Masterlist

(Updated as of 5-29-2022)

WELCOME to my world!

The name's Sadie! I write and do some graphic design on the side. I am a chiper shipper first and a person second. Just kidding, I do have some personality, but I'm stuck in a brainrot right now so you'll have to deal with me spreading the chiper (much better known as bitemark here on tumblr) agenda 80% of the time in this blog. If that's what you came here for, expect occasional fanfiction posts and a WHOLE LOT of memes.

You can catch me on Ao3 and Twitter.

LITTLE bit about me

Pronouns: She/Her

I'm currently a freshman in college studying how to be a corporate slave

I'm into a lot of things creative! Talk to me about writing, graphic design (not a drawer-ist guys, there's a difference), ui/ux design, music (i do piano), and photography!

I beta-read for my writer friends and ideate with my artist friends a lot

Q&A

What do you do?

I read, write, and make some memes. Asks and DMs are open for artists, writers and chiper shippers. I'm open to collaborations, beta-reading, and talking about each other's brainrot (preferably about chiper)! I'm open to talking about other things. To see what fandoms I'm part of, scroll to the next section.

Do you take commissions?

I do! But not at the moment because finals is killing me, I will be available during the summer break. Commissions are coming on June 30th—let me work the logistics first so that you get a smooth experience commissioning me, yeah? Stay tuned!

Can I submit a fic/headcanon/imagine/meme to your blog?

Sure! This would mean that the post might be subject to editing though. Other details such as crediting and post details may be negotiated in the DMs.

ALL aboard my ship of ships!

Am currently on my valorant brainrot rampage, but believe it or not I came from many fandoms (and hence: many ships) before becoming active. Here are some of them:

Games: Valorant, Life is Strange, Until Dawn, Final Fantasy VII, Detroit: Become Human, Overwatch, Tears of Themis, Genshin, Choices, Storyscapes (only real ones know), Dress Up! Time Princess

Books: Nancy Drew, Percy Jackson, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Divergent, Hunger Games, Legend, Shadowhunters, Market of Monsters, Selection

Shows: Castlevania, James Bond, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sherlock, Arcane, Crash Landing On You, My Private Life, My Name

Miscellaneous: Webtoon/Manhwa/Otome Isekai (too many)

Note that while I'm familiar with the aforementioned works, it doesn't necessarily mean I know the community/fanworks.

MASTERLIST

fanfiction

viper x chamber

Fosse Aux Vipères: Chapter 1

To Grow Old In.: Part 1, Part 2

In Written Adoration One-Shot

imagines, fanfic ideas

lying (viper x chamber)

kingdom employees (viper x chamber)

incorrect quotes

touch me (viper x chamber)

we aren't dating (viper x chamber)

my tea (cypher)

valorant x eleceed (jett & yoru)

two can keep a secret (chamber & chamber)

memes, miscellaneous

chiper shipping dynamic: dangerous

rejection (viper, chamber, yoru, skye)

Valorant Agents as Kim Possible Characters

canonical flirting chamber lines with viper

knock knock (viper & chamber)

in this house (chiper)

valorant agents to their doubles (brimstone, cypher, neon, chamber)

[antiloreolympus]

8 Anti LO Asks

1. at the very least persephone could have been a nice pastel green to match demeter instead looking more like rhea's child, or demeter and rhea could have switched colors so demeter matches persephone and now the big three could take after the mother's green. even hepheastus and ares are in the orange range to be close to hera's yellow, meanwhile the most important mother and daughter relationship dont look related at all. the character design choses in this series make no sense to me.

2. I'd love to say smth critical about lo but I couldn't even read several chapters because of how boring it was. Like why should I read it. Story is not interesting at all and there is no plotpoint that can keep me invested. Also artstyle is super ugly and I don't understand what is happening and who is who most of the time. Won't pick it up ever again lol :]

From OP, not Anon: It's so weird because I first read LO in one sitting (it was about 80 or so episodes at the time) but now I can barely get past the first 20 episodes. Maybe that's just me though.

3. honestly thats kinda what i dont get at this point? because if it was a clear cut gossip girl lije secret dating focus on hxp's relationship then i would get it and it'd probably stay pretty consistent, but what does the AOW, trials, attempted coups, another war with kronos, and the like really add to the series? it just makes the story become unfocused and confusing, and does not aide in developing hxp's relationship. its supposed to be their story yet they're secondary in many ways.

4. i can honestly only remember one time rachel actually drew any genuine greek like LO art and it was a single illustration of hxp in the style of a black line greek vase and that's it, and that was over three years ago at this point. meanwhile instead the majority of LO artwork is 50 shades-inspired wattpad manips from her than anything that would actually give away this is supposed to be about greek mythology.

5. i also found it weird webtoons isn't using any stuff from the last two years to promo LO with? like the stuff they're reusing from 2018 looks nothing like it does now (even the colors dont match) so its like?? why not update it? even lets play and unordinary (which have been running longer than LO) have their promo stuff match the current product's look, not clinging to what it was like literal years ago. that's such a weird admittance that the current LO stuff isn't really good to use.

6. LO stans are banned from acting like they're superior to anyone. Y'all get no high ground on anything when you disrespect a whole ass culture, even more so when y'all defend Miss white af Rachel Smythe who also disrespects and tell Greeks they're wrong for trying to help her get her shit straight on their culture.

I genuinely wish webtoon would drop LO and promote actual better series and creators, or at the very least give me a block function, I'm tired of seeing LO whenever I open the app.

7. Rachel created her dream cast by rolling dice. None of the actors have any rhyme or reason or rythme about them. They were chosen randomly so she could get brownie points.

8. I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING. RS is framing Helios as an enemy of Persephone, but in the older myths, Helios was the only god who actually saw what happened to Persephone when Hades kidnapped her and he was key for Demeter to start finding Persephone. He was the second deity (after Hekate) who found out that something was up.

[yankee-am]

One thing that's disappointing to me is that the societal idea of "men can't hit women, ever! even in fiction!" is alive and well in webtoon world, apparently.

Like, everyone can see that the female characters in Lookism don't get nearly as much screen or action time. I'd say a good 80% of the reason for that is because, for the last 150+ chapters, it's been about people fighting each other. If a character can't get smacked around by their opponent, they won't be able to have a major presence in the current incarnation of Lookism.

Like, look at Sowol Jin. At first you think oh, hey, a badass female fighter! ...who never gets to fight anyone on screen, except for Johan doing a socially-acceptable 'sweep her off her feet' move. Because to show her in an actual fight would mean showing her *gasp* getting hit by male characters.

As much as I love the female characters in HtF, and as much as I love the Gyeoul/Eul fight scene, you can't deny that having the ONLY female XJ member fight Eul instead of Hobin was a copout. Because you can't have a boy hit a girl, you see.

It's just sad because it severely limits what roles female characters can play in action-oriented series. It sucks that they're being relegated to love interests because they're not being allowed to do the thing that the plot is *about.*

[rotblut]

Thoughts on sweet home? Your rating?

.

GOD I AM PISSED OFF ABOUT THAT FUCKING ADAPTATION. that was a shitty way to adapt a perfectly paced, well-structured, written, and character-driven plot from the webtoon into a messy and confusing drama. and I am mostly speaking about the writing that was a big no from me. the biggest problem for me was the writing for 85% of the time. acting was amazing and have no problem with that (aside from 1 criminal). my problem was how it was written. 

if I hadn’t read the webtoon i would be so confused about it all. and I know the webtoon wasn’t finished while they were shooting the drama, so why didn’t or couldn’t they adapt faithfully the first 70 chapters in the first 10 eps (season1) and the last 71 chapters into season 2 (because from that fucking open-ended cliffhanger they sure as hell want to make a season 2). and I know dramas can never be as faithful to a webtoon but still :(((((((((( that shit was insulting they came up with instead.

they kept 30% of the webtoon and said fuck to the rest of the plot that was thhere. the new written plot for the drama was obnoxious af and not needed and hardly better than the plot that was in the webtoon. characters that were in the webtoon were reduced to the minimum or completely re-written, or personalities-events switched. minor side characters were terribly dumb. also, fuck the unnecessary violence. the only new character that was made for the drama who i  liked was the pregnant women (and she did a looooooooooooooooot. like they made her do a looooooooooooooooooot of stuff.) but the subplot that they specifically wrote for her??????? NAh, wasn’t a fan of that at all. the actress was amazing tho.

sooooooooooooo many fucking plotholes, the monsters conveniently disappearing and showing up when needed to show up made no sense. also fuck the director for hiring the r*pist to play a character named wook. his character was completely re-written and i hated both him and his newly written character. the only thing they kept was his name and his new subplot was fucking terrible but fuck him to the infinite for his real life crimes. (ironic how they hired a r*pist to play a character in the drama who’s after revenge and murders a guy who's a p*do and r*pist too.......................)

Park Gyu Young as Yoon Ji Su was hardly present at all in the drama the way she was in the webtoon. she was reduced to the bare minimum, even tho her character was one of the main characters but honestly she was better here than in psycho but okay......but not that exciting to me either. really liked Park Gyu Young as Yoon Ji Su too and his character more or less was the same as he was in the webtoon but in the drama he went out with a bigger banger. (also them making him an ex-alcoholic was not needed but oh well). loved the 2 old guys too they had more screentime in the drama but also at the same time they didn’t because in the webtoon they were like father figures to hyun and here it didn’t really work well because of time restrictions. Go Yoon Jung’s character was great too but she was most of the time with the r*pist so that was a no for me. 

ANYWAY THE HIGHLIGHT FOR ME was song kang, lee do hyun and go min shi. PERFECT CASTING FOR THEM. PERFECT. LOVED IT. LOVED IT. WANTED MORE. WANTED A LOOOOOOOOOOOOT MORE WITH THEM TOGETHER. the progression of her being a tsundere and all cold and rough on the outside but inside she’s hurt and she just loves her big brother and hyun so much. I did enjoy how they gave her more screen time in the drama and made her more flashed out because in the webtoon she’s more of a comedic character (aside from the last 20 chapters). and I did enjoy those changes a lot and that they focused on her as the main romantic love interest for hyun. she was really perfect and she could balance the rudeness with the tenderness and the comedy with the serious scenes so well. they did give her some plot points that belonged originally to Yoon Ji Su in the webtoon.  also the chemistry with the 2 boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I watched her act with song kang in love alarm too and i haven’t seen it there because i didn’t like the way her character was written there. but here......yeahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!)

LEE DO HYUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he did what he had to do and he’s the perfect hyuk. the way he loves his lil sister soooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE LOVE HE HAS FOR HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST BROTHER LIKE BEST BROTHHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HIM and sang tae for best bros of 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was a big part of his character in the webtoon and I am glad they kept that. I do wish that they would have made him sometimes even more of an asshole. wished him and song kang had more scenes together. sad they erased his otaku loving self that he had in the webtoon and for that very reason was connected to hyun in a way the others weren’t.  missed the frenemy scenes between them. his *ending* (sacrifice in the webtoon) was much more meaningful in the webtoon. I mean I did cry like a lil bitch at him saying goodbye to his sis and all that because i love my siblings and i love him and it was powerful but something was missing. 

SONG KANG SAID THAT HE IS AN ACTOR!!!!!!!!!! LOOK at him act and act well and I am so proud like he did his part in love alarm too but that was hardly challenging acting lmaooooo. again, i am bitter they diminished his otaku self because in the webtoon (i shit you not) he overcomes his inner greed into turning into a monster a loooooooooooooot of the time with the power of the anime-webtoon-gaming gods and his obsession and enjoyment over 1 female character and her knight sidekick. the fanboy inside him was living and the reason for him to survive that long. so I was really sad tthat hey reduced that part because aside from him playing a fps in the first few eps it was hardly important. also wished they went more into his struggle with his inner greed-filled asshole self-monster (I loved those scenes in the webtoon). his webtoon persona was sooooooooooooo rich and it was such a satisfying way to read his character progression and what made him into a hikikomori and how he struggled with his past and how he slowly overcomes it. So sad they reduced that. 

also forgot about acting king  Kim Sung Chul as the antagonist was amazing but his character in the webtoon had so much more depth but of course in 2 eps you can’t achieve that. still he did that!

I can go on and on but anyway. the ost was nice, i don’t even care about the sometimes tacky looking cgi because that wasn’t really the problem here and i expected something like that. but MY BIG PROBLEM WAS THE FUCKING WRITING FOR THAT DRAMA and for 80% of the time it failed me deeply and it hurt because i wanted to love it and i do like some aspects a loooooooot but fuck it was a mess. alice in borderland did it better. LIKE THEY DID A LOOOOOOOOOOOOT BETTER. and will i gif it? YES. disliking a lot of aspects of a drama doesn’t stop me from not giffing it. but i do wish the writing was better. I’ll give it a 3/10 because they fucked up way too much when it comes to the writing. 

[kagemajaya]

Unripe Expression - High school romance and friendship done well

Misughan Pyohyeon - 2016, Aga - 9/10

Jaewon and his boys - my favorite harem yet

I’m not much of a manga reader, if you don’t count BLs that is. BL manga is one of the very few things that can pull me out of boredom, and I consume on average one volume a day. Korean webtoons are definitely a part of this comic devotion of mine. They are almost always easy to consume (not something I can say for manga) and the format lends itself to binging extremely well. Many a night, starting a new 80+ chapter webtoon has been a grave mistake for me, as I end up welcoming the sun with whatever couple I’m on a journey with at the time. Another feature of most BL webtoons is that somehow their drama never suffocates me, no matter the seriousness. Albeit a huge generalization, even when they make me cry rivers, they never feel quite so pessimistic as their Japanese counterparts. I always know what sort of an emotional reaction I’ll get out of them - which is not a bad thing if you are reading romance as a enjoyable pastime.

Unripe Expression, while seemingly just another one of the cute high school romances with some light drama, changed my mind as it built towards something subtly different. Throughout the majority of the story, I had two main feelings: that the story was ordinary but very involving, and that the main cast was individually superb characters. They were well-written and had lives and feelings of their own, and they were all extremely sympathetic even after they made mistakes. At the end, my feelings on the boys remained strong, but another thought struck me. The story was their desires, interactions, overall relationships, and characterization otherwise. The romantic pursuits and the friendships that Aga showed us were nuanced and alive, and I love each and every one of them.

Jaewon, the MC, is a sweet guy and first and foremost I wanted his choice to be realized, and this was in spite of Junseo being my best boy. While Jaewon had agency in the narrative, and he had a choice from the very beginning, the romantic plot never revealed what it had in store for us at the end. This is a 70 chapter comic, and I only knew who the lucky guy was in the last 2-3 chapters, a truly unpredictable gem. This can rattle a lot of people, and perhaps, if I hadn’t been convinced by the relationships of Jaewon and the boys, I’d have felt the same. Looking up some reviews after I finished the story, I found that not a lot of people were happy about the ending, so this might not be one of the stories you choose to read when you are in the mood for wish fulfillment. Speaking for myself, it fulfilled my wishes in terms of great relationship development on all counts, so even if I felt sad for the unlucky ones, I was completely satisfied with the way this particular story turned out. I bought every one of their plotlines, and that none of them were tools for fanservice to the audience. I was reading the real lives of a bunch of good high school boys, and what I wanted for them was not really their concern. Aga certainly has the qualities of a writer that I respect passionately. They seem to be writing for art and not the reader. Having said that, I’m still a weak human, so I’d love to see a continuation story for the other boys who couldn’t get Jaewon. [Big spoilers past this point until marked otherwise.]

Is it gonna be him or him or him? An embarrassment of riches...

First and foremost of those boys is of course Junseo, the reason for the public outcry in reviews. Junseo is the most well-built character and it is perfectly natural to be on his side as he helps Jaewon through his identity crisis and romantic troubles chasing Karam. He is sweet, loyal, a great friend, and as we witness him support his friend wholeheartedly, he falls in love with him in the process. The fact that he had already had a very intense relationship before high school and was broken hearted over it adds to our deep sympathy for him. His own transition from friend to boy in love is believable, and the story helps us support him in his quest through the first half of it - until we start getting a bit more into how Karam sees Jaewon (well at least me!)

My journey in what I want for Jaewon was quite shaky. In fact I’d say I’d have probably felt okay with whoever he ended up with. However, my top choice changed throughout the story; first Karam, then Junseo, and Karam again. I never stopped loving Junseo the best and feeling for him, but as mentioned, I wanted Jaewon to have who he wanted. We knew Karam was slightly interested in him from the beginning but the nature of that was not entirely clear. As we got further away from understanding him, my heart was turning towards Junseo and giving him what he wanted. However, Aga eventually turned the story back to Karam, with a new tool in the game - Jaewon’s first love Yoonsung. Yoonsung didn’t only trigger Karam to understand his own feelings better, he also showed us that Jaewon’s feelings were fully mutual. Karam can come across as the least developed of the group, and he is certainly the “less exciting” choice, but his own struggles with his feelings were gripping. Despite feeling that Jaewon was special, and despite being confessed to, he turned down Jaewon and still wanted to stay with him. This trope of being scared to lose a friend can come across as ordinary, but in this case the execution was superb. Karam wasn’t actually scared, and without respite, he kept sticking to Jaewon and flirting with him and doing everything in his power to stay in his heart. He didn’t want to lose Jaewon’s love for him to Yoonsung. The inherent selfishness of this is also inherently titillating to me - as long as Jaewon was only looking at him, he didn’t want to bother with the troubles that come with romance. Thankfully, Yoonsung came across as a very open threat to his possessive love. Little did he know, the real possible competition was Jaewon’s best friend Junseo.

Yoonsung himself comes across as the easy boy, the playboy who is playing games, and why would we ever root for him? The truth is we’ve read plenty of BL where the childhood love of the hero returns and has had a transformation of his own and gains the heart of his love again. Yoonsung is a charming boy, and from his perspective, the story is a sad one. The boy he’s loved all his life doesn’t pick him, and he doesn’t even make it simple. Jaewon’s protests against Yoonsung’s advances are flimsy at best. In the space of a few days, he gives hope to all three boys with his actions. Karam has already been confessed to, Yoonsung is allowed physical closeness, and Junseo emotional closeness. Jaewon’s relationships with each of them make these interactions believable and not-unlikeable. They are all a part of the natural flow, and in the end, as a boy who has been turned down, his confusion is natural. I find the final choice of Karam incredibly realistic, as he’s never stopped loving him. And luckily for Karam, he wasn’t too late to fix what he had almost undone. Unlucky for Junseo of course, because given enough time, I have no doubt that he could have made Jaewon forget about Karam’s rejection. Just the timing wasn’t right. Poor Yoonsung, on the other hand, was entirely too late. His time had been almost ten years ago. His unintentional rejection of Jaewon as a well-meaning child was the final chance he was ever going to get. 

Jaewon is the wholesomest slut in the world of BL

Another entirely doki doki element of the webtoon is that throughout the story no one ever finds out how close Jaewon and Junseo were. It was their own world, making their friendship particularly special - and make no mistake, it was a friendship, of the best kind. A huge strength of this webtoon was that despite most of the boys being in love with Jaewon, it wasn’t only about romance. It was very much about friendship, friendship of people who might have romantic connections as well. Whilst in many romance stories, friendship can be neglected, it is even rarer to see lovers or love interests portrayed properly as a friend. The perfection of how Junseo was equally in love and a loyal friend is one of the biggest draws here. Of course, we don’t only have Junseo as a friend but also Jaehee, who was the only straight boy in the crowd, Jaewon’s other best friend. Jaehee had a smaller role compared to the others, however, from his initial reaction to how he got himself forgiven and how he silently watched over his friend without wanting to make him uncomfortable, he had a subtle and sweet character development of his own. He was the less complicated friend-the one who was always there, unlike Junseo who had to leave at the end. And that choice was probably the one that made me the saddest. It was clear to me that Jaewon wasn’t only a crush for Junseo, so seeing him throw away his friendship was particularly sad. Jaewon respected his choice in the end, as he had briefly been there with Karam and didn’t appreciate the situation he was put in (once again showing that Karam is not such a goodie two-shoes.) In the end, this made the ending particularly bittersweet - not only because best boy Junseo didn’t get the boy but also because they had lost their best friends in each other as well. If we ever get a sequel, I would love to see Junseo get a boyfriend of his own, and back to being friends with Jaewon - and close friends at that! If I had to complain about anything at all, it would be that friendship does come behind romance as the main theme, and this means that once the romantic plotline ends, we don’t get to see any “side stories” to see where they all end up. Given how important friendship is to the rest of the story, it would have been more fulfilling to have one for the road.

Spoilers done!

In the end, Unripe Expression was a great success - telling a heartfelt story of love and friendship of five sweet boys, all of whom you could route for, for their own happiness. Harem is a particularly difficult structure to realistically execute and Aga did it perfectly here. None of the characters’ interest in the main character felt forced and I never found myself thinking, oh my god, why does everyone like this one boy! Even if the last choice may be controversial to some, Unripe Expression tells the story of Jaewon’s romantic escapades in a heartfelt and well-constructed fashion. Hopefully, you’ll give this beautiful (and extremely bingeable) webtoon a shot and Aga will one day grace us with more of their imagination and more of these boys’ friendships.