[SHORT REVIEWS] #32 (TALKATIVE / RANTING)

WE START FROM 

ANIMATION

DNF (Dungeon & Fighter)

BIIIITCCHHHH LOOK AT THIS, JUST LOOK AT THIS

YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME. THIS LOOKS AMAZING. Surely can as well be a complete flop, but visually i wanna see it. This is a Chinese animation based on a game.

Koori no Jouheki / 氷の城壁 (2026)

Stylistically it looks exactly like Seihantai na kimi to boku. I can only bet on same author but I can't look up the info because mangaupdates has been down for forever now. I don't have any other reliable site for manga database type.

I saw the first episode and it tell a story of high school girl who was bullied before, especially because she is so petite compared to others. Although it looks like Seihantai the vibes are so different. Hurts to see a young girl being harassed by men around her and even if she says 'no' no one listens or jokes that she takes it too seriously.

Also, Seihantai has started airing and it's just as cute as ever~

Release that start in July.

THE GHOST IN THE SHELL (2026)

It's the closest in design of characters to original manga by Shirow Masamune. It's fantastic what this franchise became. Like any other it did not escape reboots etc. I tried to watch the Alternative Architecture one and I must say... it felt like they tried to tell a different story completely, while I was watching and getting bored I had a deep feeling that all the Sector 9 people did not meet like this at all.

I wish they would leave it alone one day, but I can't escape the appeal of trying the new releases, even if I know the chances of liking it will be small.

Just watch the original movie and also the first two seasons of anime and it'll be everything you need. With good story and good music. And major Kusanagi who looks like a woman and not a midget.

UPDATE: IT LOOKS AWESOME. It has absolutely different feel, even if the story and characters follow some of the storylines previously used, but the animation / character design make it look different, it's looks like classic 80's anime with animation being very high quality and the tone of the story also is goofier because of it, but it doesn't seem weird. The overall look is more colorful and fun so the goofiness doesn't seem weird.

Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Adolescence Mokushiroku / 少女革命ウテナ アドゥレセンス黙示録

Something in me asked me to rewatch the Utena movie. I don't remember what triggered the idea.

This is the anime when anime is so anime.

When 'anime' becomes a verb.

This movie is totaly bizarre in what visuals it uses to convey the story. Some things are hard to accept, because it's the type of - are you trying to convey something through symbolism or are ou goofing around? It was always crazy to me how different the movie and series are. Because despite some silly parts of anime, it is mostly a normal anime and lacks the same crazy visuals (as far as I remember).

I will make a separate post about it because I want to include some juicy screenshots. After all despite the crazy story and what you see the quality of it is still amazing.

Also the passionate sapphic on-screen kiss.

Tenshi no Tamago / 天使のたまご

I think this is another example of anime that animes hard. Not going to create a separate post, though again visuals are amazing. But in a different way.

Who would have thought that this is directed by Mamoru Oshii. Yes, the one and only director of Ghost in the Shell.

Actually Angel's Egg may be a bit hypnotic, with the use of many silent long shots and almost silent movie when dialogue comes later in the movie.

Although if you want to joke about it when you start watching the first thought I had - girl, you dehydrated.

But again, this is what you want to show people when you mean when sometimes anime goes into philosophy and symbolism.

I also re-watched

Steamboy / スチームボーイ

Katsuhiro Ootomo is amazing to me. I can see how much work was put into this as it looks amazing, at least visually it makes me drool.

Story-wise it's a simple story of inventions, the different path the invention takes depending on scientist's goal. Scientific ambitions and their application in the world.

Many might not find the main charactr Ray appealing, though to me he is just a kid who is almost led by the nose by adults. Which is mortifying to think about. He believes what his grandfather says before he meets the father who obviously suffered from injuries, but he still complies with what his father says not really understanding the scope of invention or the direction of application before realizing that both sides want to achieve dominance and not for any good reason.

There is also Scarlett, a spoilt rich lady who absolutely has no preservation skills, too snob about her own position and also, I bet everyone hated her when she hit her own dog. She is honestly not likable, but also in a way the result of such upbringing and a kid who has no real grasp on things.

Otherwise I will try few from the summer season, but will see which one sticks and which not.

BOOKS

CHN

I still wait for three BL novels to be completed, that I mentioned previously in short reviews, those are my most anticipated.

These are trash finds, with.. mostly trashy stories. Most of them are garbage though. And mind you, I repeat this time and time again. Some trashy stories are entertaining, they may be poorly written and the plots are cliche, but there is something about them, some silliness and absolute madness that is entertaining, but others are simply bad. So these are mostly simply bad.

BUT WE WILL STRART FROM A GOOD FIND :D Which came as a big surprise. Considering this came from Qidian. I'm prejudiced, I know.

[BG] 女战神的黑包群 by 二谦 *Qidian

(mtl: Goddess of War's black envelope group)

Have you heard of red envelopes? Never heard of it outside of China where they give it as a form of good luck, especially on holidays like New Year. And red always bore auspicious meaning for them. I remember playing Time Princess where they also had a red envelope event and you grab envelopes which basically copies what they also used to do. So why back envelope. This is totally not auspicious to me, because of the content of those worlds. It's kinda risky too. But the idea of what is described is you are included in this group and from time to time black envelopes are distributed (by other users too), when you grab it you see a prompt with world title, like Innocent heiress, for example, then you're transported to this world and have minimum information and have to navigate on your own, meeting people with prompt on top of their heads meaning they are key figures in this script, from main characters to side characters. When FMC guesses correctly the prompt changes from something to 'reborn', for example. Like for example in the first arc she saw a girl with 'chaotic data' which later changed to 'reborn'. If you achieve success in doing your task the rewards will follow, some of them are pretty neet, although mainly FMC relies on her super mental strength, physical strength, her intellect and AI smart brain. As far as I could understand, when reaching certain level of task success she can distribute black envelopes herself, while doing so she prompted what she wanted to guess, I suppose. Because her brother is in a coma and she is doing this mostly for him, she heard of some miracle medicine and wanted to try it, but they don't have it, so she thought she might get it through this black envelop group.

This transmigration novel came as a surprise. It's not bad actually. Also / although it is fucking long (3k chapters), which I don't mind because I found the stories interesting so far. Also because of FMC's character it creates a lot of humorous moments.

Dong Shu, FMC is an Interstellar goddes of war, she is 3S type that suddenly had a balck envelope group added to her smart brain, she can travel to worlds and even get rewards, her main idea is that she might get something useful out of it to help her brother who is still in a coma.

Outwardly she is pretty intense, powerful and aloof. Quite cold-hearted too, since she's been through it all. But she also can have a moment of soft-heartedness (I assume some of it will be the result of different environment of worlds, periods she travels to). Her character portrayal is pretty direct, since she is a hardened individual she may not posses so many emotions towards others. But it doesn't mean she is like an ice queen, she has a touch of dark humor to her, likes to tease people sometimes.

When she travels she has her mental power with her as well as smart brain. First helps her a lot, while second may not be as helpful but still follows along.

The idea is also about her not having a clue about these worlds and trying to figure out what was the original wish of those people whose bodies she uses.

She may sound pretty overpowered, but the stories are still interesting. For example, I liked the approach in a story about the general. She landed as an orphan and knew that the main wish was to not let a general protecting the border perish in a court intrigue. Her idea is simple. She travels to border and startes meeting some key figures. One of them is supposedly a protagonist of this story a traversing girl who used the knowledge of future to conquer land. But because her tactics were too plundering it basically enriched only her, but left people devastated. I liked the approach of showing that not all traversers are acting for the good and that their actions may result in tragedy.

Although the story isn't without a flaw it's still interesting to follow. I'm already 170 chapters in and I think do far it is good enough.

What I liked that it retains individuality. I'm also surprised because I found it on Qidian, which is notorious to me for bad writing.

The only thing that sticks out to me is of course lack of editing, when the same thought or notion is reiterated several times, which may get you tired a bit.

Note: Although the author claims it's NoCP story and only first arc had a couple that lived their entire life. Later indeed FMC does not live in these worlds for long, which is explained. But it doesn't mean that others don't fall for her. She lives a glorious short life and she leaves mostly at a crucial time when she is the most needed. But otherwise the bodies she occupies would be dead anyway.

Note 2: I plan to have a separate post whenever I finish this or stop reading for some reason.

[BG] 恣爷的心尖宠又飒又野 by 林木十一 *Qidian

(mtl: Prince's beloved is both charming and wild)

I basically stopped around chapter 471. Chapters are short, but I still think the story drags quite a bit.

The story itself is about reborn FMC Lu Qingqiao, she fell a victim to her own relatives in her previous life, even if she treated them with utmost care it seems it wasn't enough to feed the greed. 

Lu Qingqiao is a famous throughout her city female CEO that inherited the mantle from her brother who is now in a coma, her parents unfortunately perished in a car accident. She became successful and took care of the second family, especially her cousin, but it's this cousin who schemed against her the most. FMC felt she was stupid to believe her and taking care of her in entertainment industry.

The first half is mainly about FMC who takes control of the situation even before she was schemed against. Using her knowledge she fights both sides. Her family actually takes a lot of time and it doesn't look like a good story because the narrative always changes as if FMC's cousin gained another wave of support, even if she was exposed doing some really nasty shit, but it always felt like their network is too short-lived. So the situation with FMC dealing with these scoundrels escalated and dragged for quite a bit.

Overall portrayal of FMC was quite good, she is a cool type of older sister, accomplished and unrestrained.

On the other hand is MMC Qin Zi, he is a heir to the infamous Qin family which has a lot of going on. He was living almost incognito when he was taken by FMC, because she remembered him from previous life and wanted to repay him, she believed he was a poor student and others also felt like that for the longest time. Even the several encounters when they almost came face to face, which got tired quite soon, made you think they're going to find things soon, but no, it took a while.

Another point is the basic over the top habit when authors write some out of ordinary stuff that should sound.. I don't know cool? Like, for example, when FMC connects to a famous genius doctor she allows him to take her brother away in hope of recovering from a coma. I have no idea why she said she was sent some gruesome photos of her brother, like what that doctor did to him, but tbh it wasn't that long before this bro not only woke up but also stood up. Rehab is a long and tedious process, everyone knows that. There's a lot of stuff like that, which is basically a big delusion.

[BG] 快穿之绿茶靠边站 by 洛轻辰 *Qidian

(mtl: The green tea should step aside)

TRASH. I just dropped this one pretty quickly.

FMC transimgrates into some secondary characters and her goal is basically exposing the green tea female protags that are described as nothing special, but they're acting both pitiful and try to be strong and basically they're "not like everybody else". Like for example the first arc describes some palace maid figure that attracted FMC's brother, the Emperor, but later she jumped into a river and disappeared, since FMC knew where to search for her she arrived. The woman is not a imple one, she used what she learned in the palace to earn money, basically selling recipes of palace Imperisal Kitchen to a restaurant. later she is all "oh, I'm such a pitiful little creature" while she sedued men left and right, even sleeping with them. So she is tossed around like that.

The way FMC exposed it I don't remember but I do remember I thought it made no sense and was rudimentary.

A complete waste fo time. Good thing I didn't spend much time reading.

[BG] 快穿好孕：绝嗣反派掐腰吻娇娇 by 叶若轩 *Qidian

(mtl: Pregnancy system - the villain who had no heirs now spoils his darling)

I am so free-wheeling with that mtl and title all-together, because this is the essence of the story in a sense.

Basically, I wanted some sweet novel and I don't discriminate against such novels, although most of the time where there is a task it always feels like fake love, because it's all a task and does not involve feelings that can be called truly pure.

Same here. Also such a mediocre story and plots. It feels like FMC is taking out a conflict out of her ass every few minutes so the reader will feel it's not an empty story, but it is.

I find plots like from the first arc truly ridiculous, worthy of a vertical drama. In first arc she plays a supporting role, her fiance is called again by a green tea girl when he leaves the wedding with no regard for his fiancee. Later on even thinks she should wait for him, forgive him and accept how things are. That it's already such a big consession that he makes her his legal wife, while his mistress can only be his mistress.

FMC instead hooks up with the villain of course, but honestly the way villains in these stories feel for FMC is so cheap, like that type of instant love and "she's not like other girls" rhethoric repeated so many times.

Also this has too few arcs and the last one dragged for so long for no apparent reason. I just feel sorry for my time, but I had such a cheap mood and something of this level was quite fitting, now I can rant about it. It just proves my initial impression of Qidian that I got years prior, out of many stories most of them will be like a cheap script for a vertical drama.

Second to last from the trash pile, this is not the worst of it all, just wait, the last one is a true gem of 'I'd break author's hands'.

[BG] 好孕快穿：娇软狐狸在位面被团宠 by 福禄果 *Qidian

(mtl: QT: The soft and delicate pampered fox)

Another waste of time. 

FMC is a fox from a transmigration bureau. You know what I hate about this one? Everything.

FMC does nothing and is said to have completed many worlds, it's just because of her nature that she couldn't have accepted the failure, now she is transferred to childbearing system. I can't help it, what Qidian recommends is what I see, usually it's always like that, based on what you read.

So FMC can't do shit. She even cooks thanks to the system by spending points (did not get how the system works, since she is asked to spend affection points?), she has no other talent except she thinks highly of herself and can seduce any man because she's a vixen. The girl is pretty proud about herself.

The arcs / worlds / plots are a shame to ever exist. I'm sure if the text had the self-delete option it'd opt for that. It's hard to watch how nonsense it is. Her male protagonists fall for her instantly almost. At least she attarcts her targets a lot. Then comes some nonsense script that is absolutely chopped as if they're basic notes left by author. Even if a cat was randomly smashing on a keyboard I'm sure it'd do a better job. 

I haven't seen such a self-absorbed FMC in a while. She really thinks she is a present to wish for. She can't do shit herself. Spends most of her points on pointless stuff, mainly beauty, otherwise how can you conquer a man without a face?

Another worst part is that after each task she returns and we hear about some dude that is like a head manager of her division. But at the end when she meets him he actually confesses to her and says some bizarre stull like he sent her to this branch so she can live several lives where she is pampered and loved. I honestly was skipping like crazy by that point not even paying attention if he was with her in those worlds or otherwise it's going to be fucked up anyway.

Fuck this author they can go to hell for their sins in writing.

[BG] 老婆是隐形大佬 by 苏家紫七 *Qidian

(mtl: My wife is a hidden boss)

I haven't met a pile of text, I can't call it a story, that would make me this mad, it's been a while.

This is so bad.

Why am I even mad though?

The thing is about the FMC. Author claims that FMC will et beter at communicating and she is having issues at first, but honestly FMC makes you think like she is soulless robot and a progrm that should be super smart, but she only does the commands others ask her to do.

And the most infuriating to me is how everyone praises her for being a sensible girl and a good child and may feel sorry for her, then pat her on her head. She is aloof but is kind inside and they find it endearing and cute. BUT TO ME THEY TREAT HER LIKE A DOG. Here, let me pat you on the head, because you're sensible. While FMC is non-existent at the beginning of the story. No worries, I saw the ending, which did not impress me and it was horrible, but also because FMC felt like a different person, opened and romantic.

I can understand the fact author wants her to change, but at the begining she feels like a girl who is so naive in her head, has no personal thoughts of her own, acts according to commands, is happy with bare minimum, does know nothing about life, should be super intelligent and dense at the same time.

Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with this author.

The story also makes you cringe and feel like all the moisture will be squeezed out of your face because how scrunched up you want to be.

This world should have more martial arts, above normal human level. And of course FMC is super-duper above anyone else. Of course she is too naive about the outside world to know these things and has no idea how strong she is.

It's not the end, she is also profecient in calligraphy, because of course in the small village she resides several prominent figures live a quiet life, one of whom is a character who is close to a shrew but is actually a famous painter. She taught FMC everything. But FMC never used this skill for gain because of course she is a sensible girl and listens to her master who says - we do not gain from things that did not come out of our sect, so instead of earning a good buck and never know hardships of course she never uses the chance.

But wait, it's not the end, she also was taught by some master a way of woodworking that is so rare and it's also worth a lot, but she usually just gives things she did herself away, while others marvel that these things may be left as inheritance for future generations.

So you never know if the girl is aware or not, but she lives by the rules.

So much so that when she first arrived her master told her - it's good to get even 60 points on your test and you can guess what this genius girl did - she went on and left part of the test blank just because she was told to.

This put her in a predicament that everyone thought she was a country bumpkin and stupid.

Author wanted to show growth without ever showing the inner world of FMC herself, we only hear any other character babbling, by the end we should conclde how cool the FMC is and she's a secret boss with many talents.

Bt FMC problem stemms from the story of her family, her parents died and she was sent to a village many kilometers away, also there is a rumor about her being a jinx that was never dispelled. So when she returns most of her family treats her as unwelcome... I mean.. duh. Her grandpa is the one responsible for the situation and it may be connected to the awesomeness of FMC, being a Guardian, the top position of a martial artist. But otherwise she grew up away with no strings attached and she was basically swindled of her inheritance left by her parents she probably doesn't really remember or cares about, just because others said sign the papers and she signed and relegated her rights. I don't know it just felt like such a heartless move, author at first never mentioned anything from her family and parents. Even taking her back because of a college exam fel like such a big hassle, making the girl go through so much. The idea that is told but not expressed is that she should be blaming herself as if she believes that she is indeed a jinx who caused her parents to die, this is why she stays away from others most of the time.

And I can't blame such a character, I can only blame the author for creating her like that. 

MOVIES

When it comes to movies I was re-watching after several disappointments. And also there is so much going on around new releases but it's all controversy instead of praise and admiration from viewers, which is not a good sign. So I have no big expectations for movies that are released during this period or will be released later this year.

CUBE (1997)

Cube is not a movie I'd re-watch, I just stumbled upon it and thought okay I'll rewatch it. But honestly it's a good one. For such a minimal set and cast this movie has such a great concept and also execution.

Most of all I love that ball-crushing ending, which is on another level of ironic.

And most importantly this movie is unique, so any attempt at replicating it would be just a copy. I never saw the continuation to the series, which is unfortunate attempt at milking this movie, I also never paid attention to a release in 2021, I had no idea it existed before I searched for the poster.

Final Destination 2

Don't you think this movie is goofy? I find it goofy. I know it's quite gruesome and gory at times, but also it is goofy af. The way things stop working or something happens stopped being subtle. Although the first movie lacked in being subtle, but this time everything is too obvious. All the short-circuited outlets or locked doors, spilt liquids. Nothing is safe in this universe. It's interesting how in one scene they are in a flat that has ceiling installation ffs.

Also this movie doesn't shut up for a single second, it doesn't take a break, no-no-no, there is something going on almost all the time.

I find the scene in the elevator the funniest, I'm so sorry for saying this, but the way they tried to untie.. hair? It feels like it wasn't that tangled, but everyone was in a max panic mode making it feel like such unsolvable situation. The whole movie was done withthe same amount of panic.

Back to the Future 1, 2

Do you love these movies? I do. Good, old-school and fun. There is something about movies of those times that were experimenting on new concepts, were bold in their ideas, did not cower from being a bit silly-looking. But most importantly, they were good-natured. Right now things are often too serious. And I'm not saying it's bad, some movies would not fit for being a silly-type film. It's just the majority of movies right now are like that. Even if you see a man in a tracksuit and red hotpants everything should be serious (I'm talking about stuff like Superman, yeah, I can't help it, I'm not against humans with abilities, it's just the costuming that gets to me every time). Even the live adaptations throughout the years that no one needed still have to drag down the wonders of animation to realism no one asked for. And if anything flops it's always blamed on public nowadays too...

A lot of cinema feels stale unfortunately, from casting to acting to scripts and dialogues. Whenever something appears that stands out feels like a breath of fresh air. This is why I can't help but re-watch old stuff and be unapologetic about it. 

I know I'm lamenting too much. I just feel sorry. 

For 1985 these movies look amazing actually. Although the locations and sets look pretty simple, but the way they overlap in all three movies, especially with ever-changing timelines and several main participants, I think it is fantastic. I'm sorry but the way movie 2 re-creates the scene from 50's timeline but from a different angle is such a move. To me it looked amazing. 

I especially always appreciated how it played on how the fate of people will change depending on their decisions and intervention.