[Manhua] 顶流夫妇有点甜 / The top couple is a bit sweet

Based on the novel of the same title "顶流夫妇有点甜" by 图样先森. Having signed works to be done in different media is not new, but having a final product like manhua or cdrama out there is totally different to me, or maybe I did not search well enough for other works that have 'manhua' or 'tvshow' markers on them.

It follows the story of Wen Li and Song Yan, a contractual couple that is famous on the network for being contractual (though no one has proof except them not accepting work together), but they have a massive CP following anyway. Because of getting the short end of a stick when it came to her last CP hype, she spent half a year being messaged that she's a horrible person and the mistress must leave the industry. Thus she entered the marriage with Song Yan. Now two years later, they still don't really love each other (as she thinks), but they have a physical relationship. After being approached by a program about couples and hearing that there will be the couple that ruined her reputation, she dragged Song Yan along. But spending time together she finds herself falling for Song Yan.

Song Yan was actually secretly in love with Wen Li for years and there were some bumps and obstacles on the way to get her heart. Find it a pretty cliche setting, I've seen a ton of arranged marriage novels and even the Bite of the peach mentioned before also is the same contractual marriage, man is in love and the girl is dense and she has to take her time.

 

Anyway, I switched to manhua for a reason. When I started reading the novel I basically didn't click with FL. Simply because she was too whimsical and arrogant for her own good, before I could feel her charm and loveliness. She is a combo of two extremes, confidence and being too self-conscious. Like there were episodes that she considered so embarrassing that she would dug a sandcastle with her toes, but I didn't see anything that bad in it. Especially in the sea of novels where self-deprecating characters still exist. But then I switched to manhua and things changed. First of all it has absolutely beautiful style, it is adorable and colorful. It gave the characters an image to follow (sometimes I do lack it in the novels, because many times people are too vague on description on which type the person is, so the character stays faceless basically) and I followed along and because of the style and constant switch to chibis basically made the characters even cuter, so the style helped to feel that endearing feeling even if Wen Li was quite arrogant or tsundere at times.

Manhua after all cuts a lot of textual content and leaves the basics. This is why many of her "bad" sides were left off without much depth to them. Like I didn't like her side to shift blame all the time in the novel, but in manhua it was barely present and the art helped to live through it without a notch.

I saw many people absolutely loving it and they think Wen Li is absolutely killing it, I do agree with it, but it's just a personal thing that she was presented before me with her temperament like that before those sides that I'm sure I would like about it. But because I chose one of the two (or three, should I watch the drama lol?), I think I won't return to the novel. Reading manhua is so fast-paced and quite entertaining. And I do recommend it. Maybe I should read some more, I feel like I haven't watched any manhua/manga/manhwa for a while, unless it's 19 days and it's a whole different story.