[MUSIC] Madison Beer - yes baby

 

[Chinese BL novel] 一篇狗血虐渣文[快穿] by 润莹 / Bloody and tragic story

Summary: He Xuezhen was sent to the worlds to experience a hundred years of loving someone who is hard to love and when he finally woke up it was now the path of him to re-live his lives and get rid of his feelings. So in each world he had someone he loved deeply but who did not reciprocate his feelings with the same passion with a lot of misunderstandings and hurt.

#QT, chasing wife to the crematorium (each world has an "ex" Cui Zhi that MC loved in the previous life, who is also reborn in this life and of course finds many things that he missed to realize in the previous life); ML is He Jingshu (appears in the second world); old-school bloody script.

I've read only 2 arcs and will not continue reading, the reason is basically the whole bloody script. Why did I have this in my bookmarks, how old is this even.

Cui Zhi is someone Xuexhen loved deeply, but only got hurt in return. Cui Zhi is the type of toxic jealous and possessive type but with total lack of trust.

He Jingshu as the designated ML is actually a green tea person, what is his deal is unknow at the point where I stopped.

My main problem lies with the MC. So his goal is to get rid of emotions, I bet main ones should be love. But in general his personality feels weak and gullible. I prefer those with a bit more sass.

Like World 1 is a cultivation setting. He and Cui Zhi are a Taoist couple, they've been so for a hundred years, but there is an illegitimate son of his father Fan Xueping who joined their sect and rose to prominence under the guide of his father. Cui Zhi protects Xueping even from Xuezhen because he believes the guy saved him, the world starts from Xuezhen self-destructing together with Cui Zhi because that guy fed his last saving medicine to treat Xueping's wounds which did not need such a precious medicine.

Throughout the years Cui Zhi got used to the dynamic of Xuezhen loving him and forgiving him, but still protected Xueping and believed what the guy sad.

What I don't like in these novels is how low the average IQ characters have, such a low-level tactic from Xueping's side, but Cui Zhi never truly protected him.

Another thing is that the new life has a lot of bit from the past to showcase how bloody their misunderstandings are, but the timeline felt off a lot of the time.

Andhonestly Cui Zhi saved Xueping so many times that he long should have returned the debt of the saving grace, but he continued to support the guy, without realizing how misleading Xueping acted and how he allowed his own partner to misunderstand.

The thing is misunderstanding got so deep that Xuezhen truly believed that his partner did not love him back, while Cui Zhi actually loved him, but his path of cultivation did not allow him to have karmic debts like the one to Xueping. Another part I don't like in such plots is the lack of trust from both sides. Maybe Xuezhen also was in the clutches of going through trubulations this si why he never actually left. Another side of this is how do we know what is true and what is not then.

Not everyone could guess that Xueping not only is a lying sack of shit, but loves to claim what others did for himself. Like Xuezhen was the one who saved Cui Zhi, but Xueping claimed it as his own, Xuezhen never cleared this part.

Also a funny thing about "love" that Cui Zhi claims to have - he never knew that Xuezhen suffered from demonic poisoning and the pill he fed to Xueping in last life was the last. Of course he found out.

Because Cui Zhi is reborn he finds that things do not move as they previously had. He also agrees to break the engagement, being all proud and thinking it's a tactic of Xuezhen... what a dumb thought. But later figures Xuezhen is ready to marry someone else to deal with his father.

The situation of Xuezhen's sect is that his father was helped by his mother's sect to rise to the highest sect leader position, but he betrayed not only their family and brought Xueping to let him be under his guidince, while he dealth with Xuezhen's maternal family with the help of demons with whom he colluded with, which in this timeline led to a big confrontation. Which wasn't exciting tbh.

Cui Zhi first broke the engagement then regretted it but it was too late. Xuezhen married someone for convenience, but I always thought - why he just didn't stay alone? His partner not only loved his sword spirit but even had a child with it. Becaus ethe spirit was killed by Cui Zhi in the fit of anger because he thought Xuezhen's partner cheated, Xuezhen felt guilty and did a lot of things to make up for it. Like he did not marry for convenience and his husband agreed to it himself. This is one of misunderstandings that Cui Zhi had and Xuezhen of course never cleared. That his marriage is fake, child is not his and he never was close to his husband. Xuezhen honestly felt like a marginal figure in entire story.

Cui Zhi on the other hand went through a lot of mental regret and suffering, also making some bad decisions, like marrying Xueping thinking Xuezhen will pay attention to him... dude, are you serious?

A lot of it felt like a forced conflict just to make things worse.

I don't want to say that Cui Zhi deserves forgiveness, I believe in this story this character had the same relationship with Xuezhen in the upper realm, Xuezhen was chasing and this guy did not feel the same, but now his reborn clones go through regret. Same pattern over and over.

I want to say that I basically don't like the chasing wife plot because people often don't write it well. For example they make MC pitiful while MC might have been at fault too, ML is always made a jerk, he always is made into a rag to wipe MC's shoes with. I personally thnk that some relationships can get pretty bad, it's not all sunshine and flowers and I think it would be cool to show more how two characters can work though if they truly love each other and still have feelings (not including this novel, I'm just talking in general). 

World 2 has a deposed Emperor (Xuezhen). Cui Zhi is the male Empress in this one that defected to the opposing prince and he also poisoned Xuezhen to death in previous life.

While Xuezen saved his entire clan by the only thing he could think of, making his the royal family, otherwise his entire family would be offed by the Regent who was the ruling party at that time. Cui Zhi didn't even know that his father managed to cuckold the Regent with his concubine.

Another world full of misunderstanding. Xuezhen lived his entire life as a puppet Emperor, while Regent and the Queen were the ones ruling. Xuezhen did not live a prosperous life but one of constant humiliation and being controlled. Cui Zhi did not understand that before entering the palace.

Although their life was harmonious for some time but he couldn't change his jealousy of the guy who used to be close to Xuezhen. Another streak of misunderstandings.

But tbh I was asking myself, why people are not being honest. The answer is - where would misunderstandings come from. 

Cui Zhi for whome this position was always a humiliation eventually went to another Prince to serve and the previous person whom he thought was the love Xuezhen could never forget also deflected to this Prince, the entire company rebelled and dethroned Xuezhen, while Cui Zhi fed him poison believing that Xuezhen poisoned his brother. Which was a complete misunderstanding and no matter how many times Xuezhen claimed he did not do those things it never did anything.

So yeah Cui Zhi is not a person who really deserves forgiveness, he can spend a lot of time atoning for what he did though. But honestly even by the second arc it becomes tedious to watch that he has the same action pattern at all time. Regretting and going crazy. Now in this life nothing else matter like Xuezhen who is unreachable.

As for Xuezhen to continue his weakass act, even if he took the cultivation to this world with him, he welcomed a new male concubine He Jingshu. But this guy always acted with him and was getting closer to the edge. And what makes me question it is how Xuezhen acts in return, as if he did not recollect that he lived so many lives and the previous one, as if he is untouched virgin who knows nothing. Even the simple difference between Jingshu and Cui Zhi made him surprised time and time again... the guy should get rid of love and says he will not love Jingshu, but acts the opposite.

Oh yeah, another thing that surprised me. Okay Cui Zhi and the other person stayed to serve the Emperor, but they almost did the entire job for Emperor, as they should of course, but Xuezhen felt like hands-off boss who doesn't matter in this plot as well. He just changed the perception of people around him to think he is a chosen one while using some Taoist tricks.

So yeah, same pattern through two arcs. We see Cui Zhi suffering from regret and getting crazy. Xuezhen tries to live a new life, but honestly he doesn't sound like an MC. As for Jingshu, they lived together in this life and in perfect harmony, so you can guess where this will go. But Xuezhen describes it as also feeling like he owned Jingshu something. Maybe there is a secret about it, I don't know, don't plan to find out. I've been pretty strict with filtering what I saved through years in the category "for later" and it's hundreds of titles, so I thought why I still need them to pile up. This type of story does not inspire me to continue, it's been a long while since I realized how I dislike this type of crematorium chase story, so I don't gravitate towards them.

[Chinese BG novel] 女配独自美丽[快穿] by 猫月之谔 / Supporting female character is beautiful alone

Do not be happy with things, do not be sad with yourself.

This is the only truly good phrase that came out of this novel.

Summary: Every world has a supporting role, blinded by love that is ready to give everything she has to the person she loves. But she is not the main protagonist so her fate is to be a stepping stone for others, becoming a basic cannon fodder in the script.

Lu Xi works as a traverser who changes the script/fate for these women and charges to a new and successful future.

Author mentioned ML, which is a spliced character, but basically this is another NoCP novel under the guise of "romance" tag (after all romance is more popular than NoCP), just because FMC ends up always alone throughout her entire short life she has and this ML appears in just few worlds and is such a background character. Thos who pursue FMC are not counted.

Note: I feel like I've read this novel before, because I know this cover, but I couldn't remember a thing, so I ended up re-reading, but mostly skipping through to get the idea of it. And to me it is much to be desired, so no wonder I forgot the entire thing.

I love QT as a genre, it fascinates me, because it covers all types of different worlds, author can create all types of stories and plotlines. But this one undofrtuntely falls under the category of I'm full of tropes and cliches and I have little individuality.

But don't get me wrong, this is pretty much basic novel and there is nothing wrong with it, but on the other hand it doesn't hold anything exciting or particularly new.

Also my main complain about it is how we concentrate on something for the whole period of time, but the conclusion is basically described in few paragraphs. I don't wait from these novels anything spectacular, but if you want to be entertaining, be it. This novel was published in '21, so all the things written in here were done a million times, but because there is nothing to it, it became so forgettable.

The only commendable thing must be the protagonist Lu Xi, tenacious and resilient. But it's again nothing new on the market, there are ton characters like her. And because the work is shallow her highlights are not that bright anymore.

I don't remember if this was under this novel or another one I saw a comment which was quite interesting and I agree on it. Most of the rebirth script are followed along revenge scripts (partially this one too), but sometimes people who our character retaliates against did not commit anything yet, which isn't actually fair. I agree with this take, because most of the time those we claim as villains are foul through and through, but sometimes people have not committed anything yet but they get a full on revenge for those who exist in parallel time. So is it fair for them to go through it or no? This commentator also said they liked to see main characters doing their all in the previous life to get revenge and even if they fail eventually or succeed, at least they tried. I also like when authors logically follow the development instead of mindless - I'll get revenge no matter what!

This was going on a tangent.

Back to the boring.

At least it's kinda whatever to me since everything is all convenient for FMC and follows her "plan", but actually it's better not to look for logic at some places.

Even the beginning, the system shows her stats, which are particularly barren except for some engineering stuff, but she is mentioned to already travel several worlds (doesn't add up, since she has at least some health accumulated and low-level wolrds give her like 1 point of health - her main goal to accumulate the health points - but her other stats are basically non-existent, while in other worlds she tries to accumulate knowledge in other fields as well). In consequent worlds her stats begin to change considering which path she choce, but mainly it is connected with tech. 

The main goal for her is to go back to her original world, like no matter how short her life will be there, it is her original roots.

World 1.

Lu Xi is a supporting character in the period novel. She is childhood sweetheart who followed a boy she liked, but who doesn't like her to the village to build the motherland, because she pestered him she got into trouble and eventually since she had no connections like him she stayed there for a longer period of time and her life was ruined.

Tbh many of the period novels describing '70-'80ss are like self-criticism to me.

Lu Xi changes her attitude upon arrival, she is a tech bro, so she trie to alleviate the problems for the village, like fixing the waterwheel to irrigate the fields. And I was like - did everyone loose all the knowledge they ever had? Or did they off all the intellectuals? Anyway, she became a well-known figure in that village and eventually moved on to capital to work on other things, not mentioned.

I agree with people who said that the OG girl really jumped around and was annoying to the man, but the guy also was unkind since he knew this is a hellhole, he has a way out but she doesn't, and despite her being annoying he could have mentioned it to her or her parents.

The guy ended up badly for some reason. He did not end up with the girl he met in the village, she was a basic white flower type who relied on others. He remembered Lu Xi as his white moonlight in a way, but eventually married and worked at the place of his father (when people inherited the work of their parents), but something went wrong and he was apprehended. See no reason for such an ending for this guy tbh. Just write that they parted ways and that's all. Also Lu Xu was pursued by her collegue in the lab but she refused. She does not need a man and also she lives a short life in these worlds.

World 2.

Supporting character in the campus romance. Lu Xi became a daughter in a reconstructed family, her parents divorced and each got their own family. She followed her father who came around with a new wife and child who was obviously his. With a stepmother you'll get a stepfather. She got along with a person since she was bullied and he saved her, but he was a "bad boy". She became also like him to stay close. But when they guy fell in love with a student he changed his ways.

Lu Xi changed her ways first, she became a good student and other "good brothers" followed along, which eventually changed their life too. She studied medicine since she is in "poor health". Do you think she ever used this knowledge or it was mentioned later? only once I think.

The couple from campus actually dated for some time but then they broke up. She was pretty cruel in her words to the guy I'll be honest. A mature woman who lived for hundreds of years against a teenage boy in love who has not corrected his ways. It was kinda embarrassing.

World 3.

The world says ex-celebrity. While in reality Lu Xi became a household name after her fame.

Tbh the way she came into fame is so weird. She was hyped by her company and used as a stepping stone, but when the guy became famous it was her who sucked his blood as they said.

She went to a variety show and showed how she can survive in the wilderness and everyone was inspired and she became an instant hit...why? She said - I'll become a hit and everyone is like - you go girl.

During one of the shows she exposed the guy who hyped with her. Because she managed to create a hand-made telescope ???!!!!!!!! from thing lying around. You got to be kidding me. And somehow looked out, said - oh, got attention from others and said she saw the guy (insert his name here) and the girl who wanted to get close to this man followed with the live camera and they saw him out of sight at another pool with a woman, so he dated while he also filmed the show. How did she see him? Unknown to me. Anyway the guy was dragged through the mud of course.

She became a hit and a name of variety queen. Why... She didn't do anything except surprise everyone during her "survival".

World 4.

About a Phoenix man. Nothing new here as well, the guy targetted a wealthy lady and his in-laws helped with his job. She became a housewife with a child.

Anyway, since he was also cheating she managed to get everything back since his own lover testified against him lol.

She got everything back, he got basically nothing of worth. He also has weak abilities so he was fired from different places and ended up with a simple job. Regretting to have treated his ex-wife so poorly.

Lu Xi had a son with him but she was awarded the custody because her husband had a baby on the way and she became sterile. She brought her son up to be a good man.

World 5. 

The real and fake daughters.

Lu Xi traveled as a kid and wrote to her parents about her situation, she might as well found another way, but it was one of those.

She was taken back at the age of 11 I think, thin and small.

A lot of flash forwards. Her mother took her to dance since she showed talent and tenacity. While she also managed to be good in her academics and her father also paid attention to her.

Lu Xi didn't care and followed their wishes for some time, because everything will come to fruition later.

Her parents still didn't really care about her as a person but as a product and a puppet.

In OG world it was the same, fake was favored since she was so accomplished, but now fake is a child and can't do anything against adult Lu Xi. Her actions are childish and provocative and she is always hostile. Tbh questionable actions for Lu Xi since she is an adult and the girl is a child still who lacks education. But anyway. When Lu Xi grew up and was praised she retired after winning a dance competition announcing she no longer wants to be her mother's puppet, which created a rift between husband and wife for years, she wanted her to complete what she failed to achieve. While the father wanted her to follow his path. She again chose medicine and was already admitted and said - you never cared to know, I chose the college entrance exam just to experience life.

The fake daughter was found guilty of plagiarism (since she played Beethoven as her own music, essentially this world didn't have him). And after the shame she was sent away abroad, so no beautiful career for her.

And no perfect daughter for the parents, she was known and brought them fame and honor, but not in a way they wanted her to. So yeah.

World 6. 

Weird script that somehow should have tested FMC

In this script she is a chosen illegitimate daughter to be sent to her fiance, this is a bloody old-fashioned script, OG FMC is happy with how it turned out. Lu Xi died several times when she wanted to avoid following the script, but returned at different time nodes, the last one her killing the guy who tortured OG person and this is how she proved she can do it and her mentality is strong....

World 7.

Apocalypse. Because Lu Xi is so accomplished in tech, she used her time to learn Sanda for protection, she knew the doomsday will come. She was again a part of reconstructed family. Biological father, stepmother and a sister (non-related), but her father treated the girl better than her of course. She is the girl who stole her script in this world (OG supposed to be a heroine). She also had a spring in her bracelet that the girl took away.

This time she starts early and prepares. later the apocalypse arrives. Two words - she comes fro her grandparents (I skipped the most of this arc, since it was whatever, and have no idea what happened to them, she took them away and later spent her time at the safe base in the lab, no mention of her grandparents since they arrived).

She met with some guys along the way - one of them is called Yun Xia. Which I guess is supposed to be the spliced ML? He appeared in the celebrity arc as a minor character that FMC saved. Nothing serious. Now it's the same name and face.

Anyway they created their own place full of order, she found her father who was a zombie and used him for tests. I mean... she never learnt these things, it was described as if she is so knowledgable about it, while it is different from her previous surgeries and physicians etc. Anyway she experimented and reliazed her spring has power to cure but not entirely? At least can be used for vaccine. SO they spent like a decade, not to mention their base was the best and msot organized and orderly she also helped with semi-finished vaccines that were useful. 

The step-sister who survived as a woman of a man from another base came around decade later, she was thrown out and among other her skills were much lower even if she had a head start, by this time Lu Xi's father gained most of his original human look back, so when she arrived Yun Xia (ML) showed her the way to the lab and Lu Xi let her meet the father that was pushed to feed zombies by her and she was infected and became a conscious zombie herself. What a fate.

What a pipe dream. So Lu Xi became the savior who helped people to reclaim the land and defeat the virus. Applause.

World 8.

Real daughter again, but now Lu Xi is the mother. Her child was kidnapped and changed by the mistress. OG wife never ceased to look for her daughter, but found her pretty late. This time she took her home earlier and taught her well. Fake/illegitimate daughter is reborn, she knows her fate and wants to change it, when her mother returned with her biological daughter she was pushed aside (since Lu Xi knew that she was an adult in a kid's body). Her husband thought he was so smart but he was promiscuous outside. This time Lu Xi created some buzz online catching her famous husband cheating and while she was taking her daughter away he was out there having fun, which helped her fight for company and custody during their divorce. The husband seeing the company falling down due to the social impact (what a fantasy) decided to take away all the assets like houses and cars etc. Lu Xi took the company and of course led it to suceed becoming a legend. The husband liked the new and hated the old, blamed his failure on everyone around him, since he somehow managed to lose a lot fo many on investments... no comment how a guy who led a huge company with so many ssets managed to get to this point. Possible but still kinda weird. So his mistress (fake daughter mother) escaped eventually with another man lol, the fake daughter stayed since she had nothing and chose her father for money. They moved from good place to worser and cheaper places.

World 9.

Withered Imperial Rose. Interstellar world, she was betrayed by family and her twin-sister who took her identity as famous Imperial Rose, a warrior who chose to settle down and teach and marry and not follow her previous career path. While wounded real Lu Xi was thrown to garbage planet.

The managed to build a spaceship okay? And they landed on a closest planet. She saw the tournament of schools was coming up so she joined as part of some backwards school.

How no one recognized her even if she always wore sunglasses beats me. Her face is everywhere.

So they defeated every school and she won single-handedly the last final and exposed her twin sister also announcing she will put her to trial. Actually because Lu Xi was part of the military the trial in my opinion should have happened despite wanting her or not, her parents should be brought to justice too despie any type of verbal distancing. So the way the mother was untouched was baffling, while father was flogged? Lol what. The twin sister was thrown to a garbage planet.

Oh yeah in this world OG Lu Xi had a fiance but he didn't notice the change, well, he noticed but did not dig deeper, which I think is completely stupid, the fact she has a twin must have been know, so where is the twin while new "Lu Xi" can't even pilot her mecha well. So stupid.

World 10. 

Exiled Princess. European ambience.

Ugh... don't get me started.

In this world the church has the power - you get it? The criticism of church. And the monarchy is a mascot. Also the belief is the darker the hair, the worse it is. Ai No Kusabi where are you?

OG Lu Xi has black hair but she also has open mind, she tried to fight against the dogmatic church but failed and was exiled. 

Her new land is the full of black oil. I was like - how do you gonna process it? Her land is also barren, she used her money to recruit some people at first, so she used to build houses and promised land, which helped her to recruit more people, from rent etc she started to receive the money. While everyone who came by at first were supposed to be quite poor though... Anyway, her small town grew, becoming a city (where she get so much metal producing a lot of stuff, especially engines that worked with gas).

People arrived with prospects, since everyone was treated well and equally. She also had good policies and people reclaimed the land etc. She called it industrial revolution.

Then she also produced guns. Again, where did she get all thematerials is unknown, she's talented, get over it. It is explained, but I felt it is quite perfunctory explanation.

Anyway, at the most peak part she is called back, she returns, frames the Pope for attempting to murder the Queen and strikes a deal with him, letting him return and say - everything church said was a lie, there are no gods, they created it to manipulate public and control people.

He wanted to live so he did as he was told.

Convenience is that many believed in it............... I mean try to convince a brainwashed person.

So she became a Queen herself, introduced her technology, at least because of this people believed that she can bring them mroe than some god figure.

And she became the last queen, letting people choose the ruler from among other people....................

Won't it create other conflicts? So shallow.

World 11.

Short story about the sister-in-law or favored daughter in the family who because of her pursuit of a young man ended up with soiled reputation and ended up lonely.

Although graded A, it didn't feel like it. her family truly loved her. Now Lu Xi also helped them improve their lives through things she knew and could do. This is suddenly more of a gourmet part, because Lu Xi cooked a lot...and I'm like when did she became so knowledgable in cooking again?

Anyway, since it's a very fast and shallow we move really fast.

Lu Xi sometimes goes to the mountains, does and cooks things and then sells them, allowing their family to live a little better. Though their entire family is said to be not good, but she has three brothers, except the second one who is a live-in son-in-law who never contacted them (why include such a character that never appears lol), so two brothers are quite enough for support.

Anyway, her third brother returns from the army with a friend who is Yun Xia.

The previous guy whome OG chased decided to pursue Lu Xi for a bit, but was disappointed, found this part weird. Just why someone whould start regretting their choice all the time, she had so many men in each arc regretting how they separated. This time too. But the thing is, in OG plot he has a girl at home he likes. So wtf?

Yun Xia and Lu Xi were again together in this world. The last part is described again in few words that she led her family to prosperity etc.

World 12. 

Cultivation. Author used the same plot with someone replacing the OG Lu Xi, same as with Imperial Rose of interstellar. She was a guarded girl cultivator of her parents, but when she went down to experience they met a lose cultivator who later replaced Lu Xi with the magic weapon of "thousand faces" the senior brother supported this plan since he didn't want to be punished by the master and his wife who were the ones who took care of him from a nobody to a disciple.

Lu Xi was trapped in Demon Swamp and spent time cultivating there, while finding treasures on corpses of others. One of those was a space which had a lot of good stuff and she could grow herbs there. One of those became purple bamboo she later cultivated as her weapon.

She decided to cultivate a different technique called a thief, which gave her invisibility and other perks.

Eventually she came out and many years passed by.

She used a different school (again same tactic as previous interstellar story) and joined a competition (god, just a copy-paste) where she defeated the pair of scums. Revealing the truth of that time.

The good part is that her parents felt something was wrong with their daughter, but they couldn't put a hand on it, but not only the fake deceived them, but the good desciple and even the sect's master who used "Lu Xi" for prestige, while fake "Lu Xi" did not achieve the same result as OG.

The only cute part is that bamoboo who gained conscience and the scene of him in hot springs, not the novel, but the in my imagination a bamboo thrashing and having fun in the hot springs is cute. Novel just mentioned that it had fun in hot springs.

So yeah, she cultivated, revealed the truth, left with her parents and then when the time was up she came back to the system.

Sigh.

World 13.

Because she wanted a "vacation" she entered another A-world. Tbh there is no difference between them, just because she is exhausted or sometimes wounded is considered bad, but in a low-level world of a celebrity she tried to off herself and had wounds upon arrival, so what's the difference.

Anyway, ancient plane, she is a bullied widow, after her husbands death her husband's family eyed her house and land (have no idea how this happens) so she was robbed of everything and sent to another man to be a stepmother. Her mother-in-law did not treat her well, so she worked for two years before a flood, during escape she fell ill and was left behind.

This is where Lu Xi arrives, she spent the winter in mountains with her son, because her stats in physique were great she recovered, treated it as vacation and mountains fed them well. So they followed to the capital, she found the family that was ready to marry in her good husband, revealed the story, then beat the gond and went through trial explaining what they did to her and asked for divorce.

The scholar was sacked by the wealthy family, divorced and his life plummetted again, while his entire family relied on hm, him trying to earn did not allow to concentrate on studying and he failed the exams and had to return home.

Lu Xi surprisingly met with Yun Xia (he was presiding her trial) in this world and they married and had a happy life, raising her son together. Again described in few passages. 

World 14.

Goddes of Light. She is a saintess, but was tripped by her fellow saintess, who used her brother as a honey trap, so Lu Xi (Lucy) left the temple, fell for the trap and was devastated by betrayal, she is a reincarnation of the goddess so this betrayal left a scar on her and the gods fell. At least her for sure.

Like where is the S-rank difficulty?

Lu Xi just stopped associating with the girl who tried to hurt her and exposed the guy.

She again found Yun Xia (5th and last piece) who is the reincarnation of God of Darkness. They lived together happily, changed the world for the better and returned to their realm where spent.. mtl says 100k years. So if the s-rank comes from time spent then ok. She and her lover were together for so long. How they did not tire from each other haha

And that's it, she completed her tasks, retained her memories and returned to her world. And also found Yun Xia in it. The end.

I can appreciate the effort but this is shallow and hard to praise.

Maybe because the excitement aspect is so lacking?

Mainly these plots tell you "been there, done that" some even done more than that.

Was the technical aspect interesting? Not, I think some novels have done it better. Like my best of all is With the God of knowledge in hand, I own the world (me personal interpretation, since the one on NU is something about learning god) but it's from author of FOD with MC being a genius, yet the arcs are interesting, some I'd call innovative and unexpected. It made me surprised. Here I was not surprised.

Is the story interesting? I find it lackluster, since we just concentrate on one thing, often re-using same material in the same novel (like interstellar and cultivation worlds have the same story, but other stories are basically same situation but from a bit different angle).

Also what comes to OG characters, some do not deserve what came upon them, some tbh do.

As for the FMC, she is a remarkable character, but is she the only one like that? I often review Lan Gui and the way I think her FMC is basically the same character over and over again, but at least the way she is always about "let's stek one step at a time" and doesn't make it sound like things progress with unrealistic rates. Or the novel anout Heng Yu, not to mention that she herself is remarkable and knowledgable, but the plots is touching.

Because arcs are so short it all seems quite shallow and rushed. So what is the point?

RATE: 2/5.

[ANIME] DAN DA DAN - ダンダダン (Season 1, 2)

This was whacky, camp, ridiculous and fun. It was the best. I haven't enjoyed anime this much in a very long time.

My first thought when watching was - what was author smoking? Or my imagination is just not enough to realize where all this craziness and boldness comes from.

The story begins with quite random acquaintance between Ayase Momo and Takakura Ken, whom she (and all of us) later calls Okarun, while she does not believe in UFO he in turn does not believe in ghosts and they challenge each other and what a coincidence both meet UFO and supernatural the same evening in chosen spots for each other. She awakens her superpowers and he is posessed by an evil spirit. What a development (if you don't read any summary it comes as a crazy surprise). And that's just like a basic overview of things that happened, because it has so much more.

I mean, the type of unexpected reactions, turns etc. this anime takes is kinda insane to me. I never knew what to expect from it, I just sat to enjoy the experience. It is fun to watch how it goes wild in all sorts of directions. It's not serious at all, but it manages to have some really good moments and Momo with Okarun don't have the usual romantic development , but they manage to have one of the best on-screen chemistry and romance I've seen in a while. They even have all the tropes others have, but they manage to make it work.

Truly iconic.

The animation style was fantastic, it's bold bright and fun. The plot is ridiculous, but funnily it had touching moments and was relatable in many ways. 

Oh yeah, few words about music. I say and will repeat that I find the most of anime music (OPs and EDs) quite generic nowadays, but I have no idea how they worked it out with performers, but 'Dan da Dan' was somehow included in the lyrics and made as a great point in both OPs. Not to mention the songs were good overall. And the exorcism one, damn.

Note: One topic that surprised me was SA. It's not truly a direct one that was discussed, but it was implied I think, I saw many discussed it.

Spoilers but the scene with aliens who look like office workers remind you of sexual harassment that is often present at work. Even before that or during the school days Momo's first scene is her break-up with bf who surely objectifies her, not to mention he portrays all the toxic traits in one go, only seeing her value in her body, beats her up when she does not agree. Other boys who heard the rumor created by Aira believe it quite easily and the rumor spread far and wide that Momo would sleep with anyone and what would guys want to do? Of course they would one a bit of that. The other scene with hot springs is kinda disturbing also. I don't have the statistics, but again assaulted by some middle-aged dudes, are we surprised. But I think it indeed serves another purpose too, showcasing that the entire Kito family is the local snake and is up to no good. 

Momo's ideal type is Ken Takakura, funnily he is the silent, strong type and she gets Ken Takakura, who is also silent yet strong in a way, but just looks like a nerd.

I will be waiting for new season to come, because it really clicked with me and I enjoyed it a lot. I'll be honest nothing is as easy as putting down an anime these days for me, I had a longest pause in watching any, now they all look the same, nothing touches my heart and everything feels cliche. Sometimes I feel like I'm simply old, but DanDaDan made me remember what it feels like to enjoy anime once again.

RATE: 10/10.

[ANIME] SPY x FAMILY (Season 1, Part 1,2) (2022)

This was wholesome. I mean the topic and settings aren't funny at all, you can draw the parallels. But SxF managed to kind of balance the comedy part and not dig too deep into the true drama of the subject.

It has such a great exploration of the "found family" trope. Where the two people (because Anya is the happiest to have a home) become part of this family for a goal. Just watch them gaslight each other when things are weird for sure, but they let it slide like it's nto big deal. They even constantly mentioned that this family is a sham family. And yet they still follow heart more than cold logic. Basically the entire main cast lives with secrets they must protect, except for Anya.. no wait, she does protect her secret as a telepath. But compared to others it's nothing.

But I was surprised how heartfelt and wholesome it was.

The only thing is it gets a bit old with time. We have a main goal of getting Anya in this prestigious school because only in this way we can organically contact a certain person, but all the side quests are basically have the same pattern of being quite ridiculous and then we somehow make it work.

Anya mainly saves the day to me, because she is a kid with a great storyline a lot of time spent on her and her antics. She is the unexpected element in this one. Also the fact that animation is quite cute and her seiyuu does a fabulous job helps a lot.

[Chinese BG novel] 不孝子瑟瑟发抖[快穿] by 兰桂 / Unfilial son trembles in fear

This author has been reviewed not once, but this time I'm truly disappointed.

Summary: Yun Xi is a demonic cultivator who travels the world to help with her tribulations, collects merits by helping women to re-live their lives and punish their unfilial descendants.

The most disappointing part in these is that, they are completely nothing new, like a recycled stories that we've seen a ton of times.

The second disappointing part is that author even stops any attempts at being interesting. It's the same plot and same "unfilial children" everyone acts the same and the story progresses the same way.

There is no value in the QT stories when the main character has nothing to do to change their fate, while those she abandoned continue to be dog-kin plasters that continue to pester FMC with the same rhethoric. And each arc it is the same thing over and over again, the same plot but just different settings. Even if FMC changes the fate of OG in the first chapter, but I think at least change something more.

This reminds me of a comment under a different novel that also reflects my thoughts. It is cool to see the revenge story of original character, who fought with teeth and claws instead of coming back and facing people and getting revenge on people who did not comit anything yet.

But to escape this Lan Gui always makes the "villains" act as the worst scum ever who never change their ways. This makes the story feel like you watch the same plot on repeat and nothing changes. I wish she had some changes, but because of the settings the story must follow what they set at the beginning - each person has deep hatred towards their children who made them suffer unfairly, so no matter what Yun Xi must avenge it. But to conform this idea no one changes their ways and stay scumbags.

I only read 3 arcs, with the 4th arc I started skipping large parts of texts because it led to nowhere and nothing was missed.

Arc 1. The hard-working mother in the 70's. Worked hard for her children but each child is more selfish than another, so they always demanded their mother to divide everything evenly. But she brought up all her children but they still did not have enough. But when they were able to work for themselves everyone thought she is a shrew mother who is not presentable, disregarding any feelings.

Yun Xi who arrived separated from her children and went to work, so she slowly advanced with her career, she lived a better life, but her story became known to others in the village, in the city etc. So they were shamed. And because all four had something to look for her several times the impression of these children worsened. Of course their lives were ruined by these events, like losing jobs because of what happened etc. Grandchildren also did not respect their elders and despised them for not sticking to Yun Xi who became a big shot and could ease their life while they have to be poor.

This is the part that I found annoying in any arc and it's not the first novel where they use the same tactic. People who are against FMC always ends up badly. And the better FMC lives the worse their reputation becomes and Yun Xi because of teh settings is unforgiving. And all the children (despite them being adults actually) never change and only live in regret like "what is they sucked it up to Yun Xi".

Arc 2. Rich CEO mom. Very cliche story of unfilial son who found himself a true love and always went against his mother, trying to prove his gf is not for his money. He didn't want to be a heir and live an ordinary life and that his mother is just obsessed with money and doesn't understand anything at all. Yun Xi granted him his wish and disoned him, so from riches to pauper, which eventually revealed the faces of his gf who became his wife, his own and everyone around. Like a story where everyone saw him as a crazy son who thought he is a big shot who means something without his mother and doesn't realize the significance of his mother not truly being harsh on him, he is the sole heir.

So yeah Yun Xi basically brought her company to new heights, but eventually gave it to the country, while her son and the daughter-in-law tried to reconnect many times and failed, eventually getting into troubles because they wanted to harm Yun Xi as they did in the previous life.

Fun fact of previous life, her son was abandoned by his true love wife when he went bankrupt since he had no idea how to manage a company.

Arc 3. Apocalypse. Unfilial son who considered his mother a drag during the travel, while actually he took his friends home who squandered all the stockpiled food she prepared for the two of them. But because he was physically stronger and thought he was a big deal he ordered her around when everything at home was eaten by him and his friends and they set on a path to a base, but he pushed her to feed zombies feeling she is a drag.

New Yun Xi separated from her son eventually, while she also figured the rain in this world has demonic energy she used to cultivate and become the strongest, she had strength, lightning power and spatial space she had originally.

Nothing new, the son always being sarcastic how she is a drag, after he failed to push her to zombies, because of course he is so vicious, they separated and no matter how he cried he of course never took him back, she broke his knee so he would be a drag for others.

Boredom.

Really boring. Disappointed because this should be a more mature author with years of writing.

I decided to put it down after 3 arcs. It's a first for me when it comes to Lan Gui.

Honestly, FMC is always so good, but how can she be bad, she is the FMC, but she has no connection to these children and she just pays them back, that's all. I see no meaning in such stories, after al they're not even entertaining. The plots are very cliche and I've read smething similar. Like something called "Good mother system" or smth, but I'm not sure it was written by Lan Gui.

Also, why put it under "romance" tag, Yun Xi has no one in her life. If someone is in a relatiosnhip outside FMC it's not a romance in my eyes. It's just an attempt not to put into a less popular category.

[Chinese BG novel] 天生大佬[娱乐圈] by 蝎言蝎语 / She was born to be a big brother of entertainment

Accidentally xenophobic.

I decided to review this novel after reading, just to showcase another xenophobic trash. It's not fully xenophobic, I ust have no idea if author themselves realized their actions what they wrote (at one point their praised Hollywood system and the star treatment, which showcased to me they know little about Hollywood at all), from another side they used a balck and white person for very stereotypical roles in one part. Speechless.

You won't know it's garbage, it didn't start like one but eventually you reach a certain point of the story and realize "wow, this is kinda racist" and the more you read the more confusing it becomes.

I wish authors would just stay in the lane of writing their small online novels, because stepping on others to highlight yourself just to condemn the same behavior in your writing is hypocritical. I'm surprised this story has a pretty high ranking on JJ. But I suppose many are okay with what they see.

The story is about Jian Yiyu. FMC comes from the apocalyptic world (at the beginning we know little about it, before FMC reveals that only few bases only in China survived in her world), she does not follow the usual script of starved ghost who survived famish and is not a foodie persona which is abundant in such articles, she is more open-minded and a bit childish about her curiosity about the world she now wants to experience, since her world lacked everything this peaceful time has. But she is not naive or gullible or stupid. The chance to film in a movie and a promise of expanding her worldview she agrees to shoot a movie, which lets her enter the entertainment industry this novel is about.

My main dissatisfaction with this novel (few actually). Objectification. Although it's the fault of the MTL, but if you took a shot every time the FMC is described as "sexy" you'd die of poisoning. Author tries to downplay it by making Jian Yiyu to choose only significant roles, which do not portray her as stupid bimbo or just use her for hype since her figure is so sexy~. But still uses so much time to describe her beauty. The problem of beauty in Asia (like anywhere else, but still) is known globally. Because of it I can't find a lot of redeeming qualities of Jian Yiyu outside of her beauty and body. Outside her personality that is ready to help which is good and love for life and innocence of kids she wants to protect, I have no idea what else to praise. She is always described by others how great she is, how stunning she is, that she is a great actress, but outside of her martial arts that ppl praised for 100 times, I haven't seen at least one good portrayal of her great acting. It's the classic example of tell, but don't show. She has some really good moments actually, but they drown in the praise at other times.

LOGIC. Yiyu openly uses her strength which is beyong normal and no one says a thing or doubts it. I bet you anything she'd be locked up in a second. Logic of many other things is to be desired.

Shallow. Characters, plot, quite everything is pretty shallow. Although it's an entertainment industry story, but surprisingly it's shallow overall. Dialogues, barrages, movie scripts are mentioned as ideas or never mentioned at all, variety shows are lacking etc. Also what author doesn't want to describe will be fast-forwarded. The writing style is mostly meh.

Xenophobia (accidental?). My biggest one. Did not start as such, but managed to touch upon racism and I have many questions. In several instances when other are racist and Yiyu has some cool comeback or smth, to showcase that she is above it. In short when authors decided to showcase how popular Jian Yiyu is with her virality she filmed in several blockbusters, one was about vampires (which again was "just a movie about vmpires" with no further details) where a main actress was racist towards Yiyu and used slurs, but not only to Yiyu. A black guy put a bomb in a car used for filming (head full of questions), which was directed at the main actress but detonated when Yiyu was filming (?), of course she and her super strength saved the day pushing the car far away where it blew up. So the guy did it because the actress was racist towards him (I mean.. come on) and he retaliated (that's a murder sir). Doesn't this remind you of stereotypes about black people? The main actress was fired, later when re-shooting happened she appeared again, was arrested for trespassing, but also was found in drug posession. I kid you not, this stereotype isn't even funny.

Auhor also tried to create a buzz online in her novel, but because they're so bad at dialogues it was just so random. Doesn't fully tell you the picture of how it really is. 

Even a small detail how Jian Yiyu never liked eating Western food. 

And also Yiyu expressed she doesn't want to have an English name and her original name has such a great meaning. That's great actually. I have no idea if Chinese will choose an English name nowadays, but I thought they used original names nowadays. Ppl butcher names of foreigners all the time, not China-exclusive. Easiest way to handle is to have introductory video with correct pronunciation.

Unoriginality. Author had no idea of their own I think. The plot of rifters movie might have been taken from somewhere since author later used basically existing movies to fill the gaps. The killer movie with ML basically has the vibe of John Wick. The Vampire movie, with no plot even mentioned. A zombie move, with no plot. Actor's name was Nolan Statham. A movie about superheroes that is decades old - basically Avengers (note: novel was written in '18, which marked the decade of Avengers, authors said that their novel superhero movies earned less and less and wanted to use Yiyu for buzz..as if she became some international celeb, but we all know that the last Avengers movies were box office hits, ironic).

Note: There is a scene of zombie movie promotion, large-scale prank with actors in zombie make-up. Yiyu told everyone to run and for some reason ppl panicked. I thought this was stupid, because I'm sure ppl will not run when seeing zombies, with Halloween culture of US, even me who sits an ocean apart knows that ppl won't think about an outbreak like her panicky ass. It's good she didn't hurt anyone for real. One actor got a concussion because of her, FMC for you.

The saving grace of this novel is the irony of self-criticism? I'm surprised how such authors can pour a lot out, but manage to criticize their own industry through and through. So confusing.

We all know that each country's entertainment industry is unclean. People use their positions to get benefits. A lot of exploitation happens. And author went hard on almost everything. Through several instances criticized a lot.

Another contestant on Dance with the stars revealed more and more and was more and more suggestive in her moves (again, sexy dances that made FMC famous in the first place), while Yiyu of course did not follow the "path of flesh" and danced with connotation.

This is the only worthy phrase of the entire novel to me that described the situation (but I doubt this one belongs to author too)

"She chose this method to attract and gain attention, which is very short-sighted. It will be difficult in the future for her to put on the clothes she took off so easily."

Of course it's all shallow and described how the career of this woman was ruined and she basically landed only notices where she needed to wear revealing clothes.

Through another actor and a child star they created a buzz around child stars exploitation. Tbh I feel like authors are naive when they create their main characters as if they came to this world to "fix all problems". If it wasn't for her who would expose those unscrupulous filming sets (no need to mention she managed to film several hours of footage being on that set like nobody noticed a girl with a phone, I bet she was a ninja).

Water armies and internet troll, discrediting someone's reputation. I forgot in which year they rectified Weibo for this reason, because it became truly unruly.

On another instance where the vampire movie needed investment author through Yiyu praised the Hollywood system, but criticised how home investors like to shove people in and change the script disregarding the result or original script that already took shape. 

I put this under a question mark because you can throw dirty water in both directions. Doesn't excuse you. I just saw no need to ever mentioning the Hollywood movies and US at all. It didn't add anything, only worked in the opposite direction for me.

I think I read other more compelling stories that handled such instances better and were not so shallow.

I think I'm all over the place with this one. But I just don't want to go on a re-telling journay to pinpoint where I think things did not work. It just generally didn't work for me. And I managed to read like 52 chapters (out of 88).

It's one of those novels that started more or less promising, I liked that the FMC wasn't a naive girl who thought only about food. But later she participated more and more, everything was described in passing like a shallow puddle and did not matter at all. Plus the problematic content that could as well not exist at all. She got her portrayal with a halo around her head that is always right. She used strength to prove a point but not always was right, but it was never mentioned. The story wants her to be an actress but it also is all over the place and like a pipe dream. And because of the way it's written I got bored.

[Chinese BL novel] 豪门亲爸在娃综缺德爆红 by 忘书 / The wealthy father's bad behavior became popular on children's variety show

Summary: Tang Can transmigrates into a novel of a fake and true young masters, while his son is a future villain, while the stepson of his "brother" is future protagonist.

Tang Can as someone with an education loves kids and cute things and his son is not only cute, but the best baby in the world. And he wants to pour all his love into this kid.

The small DengDeng had no idea why his abusive father suddenly changed tactics and became musch better, but as a smart ZaiZai he was going to expose his father on the kid variety show that his father signed up for. But the slow affectionate attack from his doting father melted the 3yo heart.

The only thing the both did not expect is how the other father suddenly re-appeared.

#: swapped babies plot, wealthy family infighting, twists and turns, unreliable narrator

tw: mention of DV and SA

This has so much going on, if you like twists and turns that never end but that don't have much to it except entertainment. I personally got tired of it by the end, since there was too much going on. But I indeed liked one of the main ideas.

Another point to like was probaly the MC, but to me not exactly he as a person but his ability to bicker.

In real eduation you won't continue to inflate DengDeng by praise when his state was stabilized from the previous trauma, it's good thing that Tang Can also had moments of laughter at his own son. I don't wait from a novel like this to be realistic.

The romantic line also suffers from the most common trait, it's lust first, but some emotions later (though where they came from is unknown). But because of ML I shaved off another star, not because he's a cliche, but how story treated him. And also the way MC was thirsty for ML was off putting.

For the reason of my general dissatisfaction we need spoilers~

/SPOILERS/

To make it simple I didn't appreciate that MC was quite often thirsty for ML's body, but there is a part that I actually didn't like at all. The thng is it is described as ML having a reaction from some rowdiness, but later we find out that he was not only a victim of DV, but also SA and prescription drug abuse. The novel would take a dark turn if it explored more into ML, because he talked about shame and other stuff (when Tang Can and he had a fiesty night when both were drugged) and later when he did not outright say things, but the implication was about his childhood. While in reality it is possible for victims to have some sexual deviations. Aka getting hard from pain. The most low-class to me was that to me it read like a butt of the joke, although we don't know the details yet, but the way MC treated it all was written poorly.

The twist and turns that I talked about. And why I got tired of them. Let's make it true and false section.

False: Everyone thought that it was Tang Can who drugged Huo Jingyuan, at least that's the legend.

True: Both were drugged, including Tang Can who was sent by his newfound family.

False: Everyone thought that Tang Can as a true master still lakced class etc. but Tang Yichen ("fake") was still popular among the crowd.

True: There is no true and false script at all, but everything was thought out by the Tang couple, they found the other Tang family and scripted it all just to send their own son away, while sending Tang Can to then infamous Huo Jingyuan who was rumored to inherit his mother's mental illness. This is the only true twist that I liked, like it's all a ploy.

False: Huo Jingyuan and his mental illness.

True: ML got rid of the plot chains when he was a step away from being offed. He did not care about his husband and child, only wanted to provide for them, especially since he was disgusted by the previous Tang Can. He also had no illness, but again a plot by his own father. His mother was young and because of her beauty was exploited, the old Mr Huo (not the initially mentioned father Huo) made thw young woman mad and let the child fend for himself, later he let the boy return to the family and later trained him before Jingyuan felt the release from the plot. He came back and saw the changes in Tang Can.

False: Tang Can thought he transmigrated into the plot

True: He later remembers that it was his life but somehow many of the events were changed in his head. Tbh unknown about the period of few years when he supposedly changed and who is the other Tang Can. But he lived in this world, it was him whose father was gambler who pushed his own wife into serivng other men for favors. Later when his mother "ran away" (another story twist) and his father was in prison he was taken care of by the Tang family, basically working his ass off all the time. This is why who knows if his life as kindergarten teacher even happened. Later his family agreed to the whole shebang with true/fake young masters and he escaped after being sent to the bed of a man.

Another big twisty-twisty section is about Tang Can himself.

So Tang Yichen, the fake young master who tried to use this show to step on Tang Can and showed off his married life with husband Gu and stepson ShengSheng. But Tang Can changed and no longer was a pushover, plus he had a husband on his side and a powerful aid to deal with Yichen who jumped around all the time. And it's the tang family who revealed that Tang Can falsified the paternity test, but this did nto work when it was revealed Yichen had plastic surgery )meaning he new his blood type etc prior).

But along with Yichen the actions of his husband were weird. And he happened to be less described pervert who actully did not appear much, only mentioned.

He was madly in love with his brother-in-law and that led him to commit many crimes, insluding killins wife and also the mother of Tang Can died because of him. His wife died in birth leaving ShengSheng, she came from Chu family where except her mother, no one was alive. Her brother and father died in accident and her brother left no descendant (or did he?).

At that time gambling father Tang offered his wife to brother Chu, because he wanted his wife to get pregnant from a wealthy person. She indeed got pregnant and gave birth to Tang Can. But before everything else she disappered, others blamed her for running away, but she was taken by traffickers and the instigator is of course the Gu person. She died on the way by jumping, she never wanted to abandon her child. 

Everyone's life experience is honestly so dramatic. And I mean every single character who matters. MC, ML, Dengdeng, original protag, original FL.

Yishen and his husband were main disturbances, but eventually apprehended for their crimes. Basically those in Huo family, both Tang families, Gu and OG FL father and few other fodders.

Although I just summaized it, but I got tired from all the revelations because they never ended.

/-/

Te novel like any other suffered from word count, so too much content is watery. Funnily, at other times I felt liek we do not give much attention to things that matter. Like we're rushing and have no time for dwelling.

Although I think it started more or less promising but to me it lost its' luster in a while.

RATE: 2/5.

[ANIME] Kaiju No. 8 - 怪獣8号 (Season 1) (2024)

Watched because of Hoshino, I think I saw the cuts with his action scenes not once.

Was surprised how generic this anime happened to be. It has generic idea, which is not new, some talentless dude who gets a chance to gain powers above his current state, provided by unknown Kaiju-parasite-looking thing (not explained). And later this person through his acquired power will strive to do a greater good or smth like that. Look back at many of this type of anime and you'll see the pattern.

In general the MMC just wants that p***y. Will sound unhinged, but I did not hear any motivation out of Hibino Kafka (haha Metamorphosis, do you get it?) except "I want to stand beside her" and by "her" we mean his childhood sweetheart who hasn't contacted him for years apparently and now she is a cool captain leading her own division against Kaijus and is considered one of the strongest, while he is some old dude (he's only 32 though) with no prospects of joining the fight. She also fairly ranked him during exams, but that's the promise for you from her. She did agree to that promise of fight together one day, but I guess you can judge her character from never rekindling.

She barely acknowledges him (as I see it) during entire season (and she is barely present too, not mad at that since she is flatter as a surface to me as a character) but he is still stoned on the idea of getting better to stand next to her. Not because he just wants to defeat Kaiju imo.

Anyway, with how boring and predictable the plot was it was just that. I basically felt kinda mental that I started speaking with my laptop whenever some predictable or dumb scene appeared. Like I have a feeling we've seen it many times already. Fighting monsters? Please. Exposing the secret? Of course it will happen.

And it happened. Although Kafka entered the ranks, but he will surely face a situation when he will reveal himself, that was too obvious. Of course he was apprehended afterwards and everyone tried to do something for him, even if it felt impossible.

That scene with all those "big guys" sitting at the "big table" was so hypocritical. Looking at the history of Japan here, kawaii whitewashing worked wonders, but I have a longer memory than that. Criptic way of saying things, do with it what you will. Back to anime. They create weapons out of Kaiju but the Kaiju guy who showed himself more human is out of the question and is dangerous to be controlled, who are you trying to kid with that? But of course one "not like others" and most important big guy out of the bunch says Kafka will stay.

The bigger intrigue is built-up on that intelligent type of Kaiju no.9. or Weird Head as I call him. Since it showed that it now knows everything about humanity or shit like that. As if it's an easy thing to learn in a day or two while playing virtual chess... Why this sounds like something the actual Parasite anime had, when aliens there masked as humans. 

Which reminds me of.

That scene where Weird Head faced two characters and the wounded young men still had the time to have a talk, while that Weird Head might have had fun waiting and playing around. I "love" how they do it in anime, we have no time, situation is dangerous and calls for immediate action, but these dudes always have some time for a motivational, uplifting speech or inner monologue that lasts forever. And this anime is full of that motivational / uplifting speech. I mean, if Kafka just did things and progressed with time wouldn't be motivational enough I suppose? I sometimes feel like we live in era where you need to be told each and every bit of detail, because god forbid you have a brain which can come up with those ideas itself.

I know the second season is currently on air, will see if I have the motivation to see the second season when it's completed.

The only great thing is OP. Titled Abyss and performed by Yungblud (Had no idea they also had their take on Kiss in The Fall Guy). Reminded me of times when OPs were really good. Really, I see people liking OPs and EDs a lot, but when I hear them they sound so generic to me, like no melody sticks to my brain. So what if they get a lot of views on YT, we know it's not the true popularity, you haven't lived through true era of cool songs. 

And the quality of the animation is quite good, after all it's Production IG, I can understand they need a big IP for themselves, because it feels like Mappa has been dominating the action field these years. Says person who haven't watched anime for several years hah. But I'd say Production I.G. is good when it comes to anime, but sometimes they feel a bit lackluster? Dunno, just the feeling.

[ANIME] Kusuriya no Hitorigoto - 薬屋のひとりごと (Season 1, 2)

Now I can understand the hype about it. I was kinda nice and a good combo of things. Although I did have to turn off my brain since the world-building is basically absent and I have so many questions., despite one fact that I am aware of - this is a word of fiction ha. Many of my answers were un answered.

 The story follows MaoMao, she lives in unknown Eastern country, let's call it, which is loosely based on ancient China. I say loosely, because the anime itself makes sure to mention at the beginning of every episode how any place, name etc. are a work of fiction and do not relate to any exiting ones. Every episode, so they won't get into trouble. Plus even if I'm just a consumer, I can tell they did not really follow any historical accuracy whatsoever. And me saying it as a person who simply read some Chinese novels and watched some Chinese movies. But sometimes it was too obvious, it really messes with your head. From furniture to etiquette to people / servants etc. Oh yeah, I noticed about punishments, they were rarely mentioned and never showed, to leave this show as PG as possible, but many of the things they did would not work out if it was for real, that brings us to square one mentioning that this is work of fiction and nothing should be taken at face value, but the story also does not realy establishes many of the things it implies. 

 Not to go on a tangent, we follow MaoMao, who lives with her apothecary adoptive father in a pleasure district at the bottom of society basically and she is kidnapped to be sold to the palace to serve as a maid. Which is pretty legit thing that happened in many places, but doesn't really dive into details (for example what the reason for the child to be sold was, is it a big family who can't feed themselves, is it famine, is it pure greed). Though anime treats it quite airly considering the duration of her service time (yes the anime explains that slavery was abolised, although still existed in another form, but the social structure and the etiquette, which MaoMao should have learned by her arrival are never mentoned). I'm getting too distracted at all times. No one knows MaoMao has a talent for medicine and she keeps a low profile to just pass the time and be let go, but then she noticed the condition of two concubines and had an idea why they and their children were sick. So she left a message on a strip of fabric, which one consort followed and the other dismissed. You can guess what happened next.

 But because of her move she was noticed by the main "eunuch" let's call him. Because he is obviously not. Jinshi is a renowned figure in the rear / inner palace, in other words the harem. You can easily tell that he's not what he seems. He overlooks many things that are going on in there and this is where many of the incidents that they investigate come from. Not to go on another tangent, but actually as a head eunuch so to say, he wouldn't be doing all that work, with his secret identity he might get involved though, but different departments were involved in different fields. I suppose he is a bit like an outsider who supervises it, but still it felt a bit all over the place. Doesn't mean he couldn't, it all depends on the Emperor who was never shown during his morning court or as a ruler, but mostly as rarely appearing in the harem. Which is supposed to have 2000 beauties? Which is a huge number which I doubted a lot and was thinking if it was literall or figurative meaning, because it is a huge expense and he didn't strike me as one who would indulge...I have many questions as I said.

 Because MaoMao treats Jinshi differently, almost with disdain, he gets interested in her and as a result she showcases a great deal of intellect when dealing with things he appoints her.

 MaoMao is actually fun to follow, she is quirky, loves her occupation as apothecary and she is devoted to poisons (this is how she got promoted to being a tester). A refreshing combination of grumpy, realistic and also kind. But slowly we find out more about her past, who is her adoptive father, how is she connected to a brothel etc. She is serious about her job and has kindness in her heart, despite looking a bit lacking in emotions. She gets involved in investigating several cases, which have something to do with poisoning or they're suspected as such. Even if she would rather stay away.

 Her story does remind you a framework of palace fight dramas, because the way her status changes, she finds herself changing places while making small steps up the ladder, but as a female servant in the palace. Since she was a simple maid, then a tester of poisons to one of the consorts, then was re-hired by Jinshi and I'm pretty sure her path doesn't end there. While exploring the mysteries the plot also touches upon women. Like women in the harem or in the brothel, interpersonal relationships, livelihood etc.

 And the first season peaks with several final episodes to reveal some of the past. It's a good thing to finish on such an emotional note.

 Plus the animation manages to balance the humorous and serious parts well throughout the whole season. Like when MaoMao has ears peaking out to break the scene with a bit of humor. Or when the tone and music change when the situation is not a joking matter.

 Correct me if I'm wrong but MaoMao is also used to often call cats...

 Her "relationship" with Jinshi also slowly progresses. Jinshi's attitude towards her also changes from thinking she is fun, to actually not wanting to use her as a pawn as he initially planned.

 For MaoMao it will be obviously a longer path to get closer.

Many elements of this anime made it an enjoyable watch, the animation, the story, the characters. Even if I know it's a huge mix-match of things. But maybe someone will be interested enough to learn the true way of things. Although it's more complex and less fun.

 And since I watched season 1 with such vigor, I didn't stop there and continued on.

 I don't have much thoughts on it to be honest. I wonder if manga goes into greater details when it comes to mapping and distribution of power? Because for example they entertain those delegates at banquets and such (which allows story to finally dress Jinshi as a female dancer ha), since it is said briefly that they hold two trade points in their hands, so it was important to at least impress them.

 Now makes me wonder if they agreed to the exchange of "feifa" so they could just stand by and watch the conflict within the country occur, while they may come in later and conquer with less obstruction. Just my sudden wild idea.

 Anyway we continue from where we left off. One of the 4 highest concubines A'Dou is retired, she is replaced with daughter of a minister left from the previous reign of the infamous Emperor who was just a puppet figure to his mother. Although we know little about influence and such.

 The first part is lighter and funnier, while the second part becomes quite dark. Spoilers.

 I honestly liked the twist about Loulan, I kinda didn't think in that direction when I saw Shisui. Simply because when you read all those novels you get the idea that collateral families or just distant relatives could have been brought as servants etc. In my head I could easily imagine that but not them being the same person. Ngl the way MaoMao thought the twins might have been swapped (we know it's a popular trope too) threw me off for a bit, especially when Jinshi bid farewell to A'Dou and they looked alike, before others started pointing out that Jinshi looked like the split image of former Emperor when he was young. I wonder if this will be brought back. So far anime paid attention to all things that were pointed out in similar fashion. Like for exaple MaoMao gave the silver pin to Loulan/Shisui and it was placed near her heart. It was significant later on.

 It may be me, but partially I started thinking why Loulan would drag it for so long and although it's a matter of convenience I let it slide, because otherwise where all the action would go if Loulan would just request Emperor for some slack for innocent lives etc. basically she wanted kids to be safe. We need intrigue after all. And who knows what people think, at least she was aware how all of  it was futile and they were fucked either way. She was lucky she met Jinshi who is a softie. But otherwise things would be dire. After all Jinshi and the co. realized that the stronghold is being supported by embezzled money on their own and they now had all the evidence not only to lead troops, but also save MaoMao. Anyway, this scene should have been "sad" but I didn't care about this family at all. That old minister appeared like a fleeting picture in any of the previous episodes, including the hunting incident, so I wasn't touched by his sob story and info dump how he loved his fiancee, but she was ambitious about becoming Empress, not knowing the Emperor's preferences, only with time he could return her back, but she was gifted and with her extreme ego it ended up as it was shown, he allowed his own wife to go crazy and abuse people around her, also supported her idea of rebelling, which would lead to devastating consequences no matter how you look at it. The old crazy hag Shenmei is just obsessed with her own pride that was wounded and was absolutely blind to things happening around her, which is another info dump and I couldn't care less for her perverted ass. Anyway, I have many questions. Maybe I just need to sit on it for a bit. But I thought the scale was not enough for me, this is a big country and they acted like a small workshop. Maybe because the screen feels empty this is why I don't feel it.

 I wondered if MaoMao would do something crazier, but she indeed tried to stay put for the most part. I wonder if she is too laid-back that even in such circumstances she was happy to find new books, because she doesn't strike you as a person who knew how to turn her situation around. Kinda disappointed ngl.

 But because of those blondies being involved I still think that the plot might go into that direction. I haven't read neither novel nor manga so what do I know. I have no idea how true it stays to it.

 Maybe my disappointment comes from all that intrigue that has been laid down for two seasons, since all is connected to that family and I was expecting much more. But despite those incidents we spend a good deal on other things to care, also their portrayal never comes up until the very last moment. I was like - HUH?! That crazy old hag started this because of her damn wounded pride? That's it?....ok. And she had a beef with the previous Emperor not the current one and we have no idea if he's a good one, but by his actions at least towards the harem women we can say he is benevolent. And now that I think about it I wouldn't have wanted to find out more about their story, otherwise disappointment would follow for the entire season. It's not like pride can't be one of the reasons, but it felt so shallow. Maybe someone will say - well, that's the point. Especially coming from a woman who looked like she could chop anyone any second, but later shown spending most of her time in her rooms watching her closest maids going crazy. Her desire for immortality medicine also wasn't explored much except MaoMao saying she has her own pride, but again shown as fleeting shots. And this is the anime that has "apothecary" in the title.

 That frog scene might have saved the entire thing.

 I have certain disappointments and consider the show enjoyable, I easily watched it. But the further it goes the more questions it raises, to me.