[SHORT REVIEWS] #37

Never say never.

Well, this is another Korean edition, because who knew I would find several interesting stories and some that are good!

BOOKS

KOR

Rosetta

I already posted an entire post about this story. But I still want to emphasize that so far it is such an entertaining story, with such a great main female character who is strong and kind and resourceful. Very positive male lead. A lot of fantasy-type content, intrigue. It's very fast-paced and great to me, so I hope the rest of this story is same great as it is now.

Venom Lady

This is such a rollercoaster. I love this type of unhinged female character.

You can say that she comes from Murim, to me it's similar to cultivation world. And when she was ambushed and had her soul extracted she reversed it to give to her little sister instead. She thought she would die from this but she wakes up in a completely different space, fantasy world. Very different from hers. And her situation is grim right now - because she is accused of poisoning her husband the Third Prince. But she is framed by that very Third Prince if we speak the truth.

We don't like him at the beginning, but you can feel the tension between them.

So how the things went, it's like first 20 chapters. She is woken up and realizes she resides in a body of a Rowan Oult, a girl who comes from a dangerous area full of poisonous flora and fauna (just right for our girl, dream home!) she wants to get there asap, but at first she needs to get rid of these people. Og Rowan was abused and taken to be the wife of third prince by the Empress, she should have poisoned the prince, but because she fell for the prince she ingested the poison herself, so she was in worst condition (best for our FMC she uses poison as cultivation). Now she is accused for poisoning the prince who lies as if dead, but he is not dead, hewanted to frame his wife for assassination before he will rise and create the legend. She woke up earlier because she is immune to poisons unlike him. But out girl made an antidote and fed him, stubborn prince didn't even want to wake up so she kissed him. Imagine the surprise.

But at least for prince everything ended as he planned, at least he created a legend about himself, Empress was pissed and FMC asked to be sent back since she's a suspect and she will wait for the investigation to be done, but everyone knows it won't happen. She happily goes home with minimum people. But before that with a bit of cultivation she collected she meets the prince and asks him for a divorce, but now the prince who is interested in her (really guessed randomly that there is new person in her body, but it was just a guess he dismissed) refuses to divorce her. They had a knife to sharp pin confrontation that was full of tension and her inner monologue about how he made her want to cultivate and beat his ass and drag that face through mud made me love her more. Is it weird?

Also I love that imagery is more detail at times. Like the picture doesn't feel as empty as it is in many stories.

They travel and one of the maid unsatisfied with her fate decided to run away with a knight but she also poured oil and wanted to lit it all on fire, creating "accident", but I like that like in movies the plan isn't perfect and there is always a human factor, one maid wakes up whose belongings were reached out for. They have a  fight, the fire starts and people run away except for a rigidly natured knight who thinks Rowan is inside the carriage (she is not) and a mute maid. The number of people accompanying decreased when those who ran away were caught and some even executed by Legion Vectus (I don't know, the name sounds cool to me). I also read Ruby's because it's more coherent. He provides home and thanks FMC for not letting the fire spread, but asks to leave soon since they have a curse, the girl after listening is like - nah, it's a poison and it's my thing.

Indeed it is, it's a huge poisonous salamander (see those little babies surrounding her on the cover, I think she will leave them fromt his time) and she defeats it, quite cool fight scene. She doesn't mind getting things dirty or getting hurt. I also like the details how it is described her nailtips getting black when she uses poison.

It is a pity that the cover doesn't really rely that she has different colored eyes, one is greener while other is more yellow. But she looks gorgeous. Pity they often use this modern type of dress for fantasy settings. But I love the colors. Dark green, very rare~

Can't wat to read mroe!

At the end of betrayal, I found paradise

I LOVED THIS.

I still ahve to finish it, but if this story will be as beautiful as it is now, it wll be a great reading experience for those who love historical romance.

The beginning is a bit cliche, with Helena being divorced by her husband because she couldn't conceive, but his lover (who is actually someone Helena found and helped) is now pregnant.

Although she is a victim, she is still talked about a lot and she can't do anything about it, she is shamed by her bitchy mother and sent to her grandfather to recuperate, but basically out of public eye, which is truly cruel. But Helena does have some issues now which is her fear of being in public and she feels like everyone knows her and discusses her, basically paranoia.

She arrives at her grandpa who she visits for the first time, again because of he rmother, and she starts her daily life.

But she is not the only guest resident, there is also Alexander, he is a war hero who refuses to be back to the capital, since he hates all the fanfare around him and wants a quiet life.

The two have absolutely great banter, they start with sparks that end in flames.

They also care for each other and begin the healing they needed so much.

I really didn't expect much from something with a catchy title like that, but it is a lovely story, the feelings are burning and Alexander is such a sweet man. But the only problem that stays between them is that he is not only a hero to everyone, but also a Duke. While Helena is a divorced woman. Alexander is ready to handle everyone and everything to protect her, but Helena does not want to be that blemish on him. She loves hima nd wants to be together, but is aware her past will drag him down.

I'm half-way through, I have my thoughts on how they might come to terms and be together through thick and thin, but I'm not sure if I'm right, we'll see. But it's such a great story, very tender, very romantic.

I seduced the mastermind with an aphrodisiac

That's such a melodramatic title, but the story itself is kinda like that.

Cynthia is a girl who grew up in abuse before her grandmother took her away from her family, she is currently a very talented apothecary.

We have our fmc who is reborn as her, she also is very knowledgable in medicine, so it fits like a glove. But the bigger issue is, the abusive family, her grandma is dead now (actually murdered) and her family presses her into unwanted marriage.

She thought she was a twin sister, but there is a mystery behind it.

To save herself she offers her help to a cursed duke whose days are numbered as they say, al about the dragon curse, he may be the most powerful mage, but he will die if he won't unite with the fated person. Everyone thought it was the twin sister and promoted it as such (again, conspiracy).

But Cynthia knew it wasn't so, the Duke's end is bad and her sister Iris loved the prince and wanted to be with him.

Iris is the very one-dimensional ambitious character who wants to climb, first be a wealthy widow of the duke, then join hands with imperial family and marry the prince.

Imperial family is involved in the whole thing because they want to get rid of the Duke.

Cynthia actually makes him feel better physically, unlike pervious physicians, and she becomes his personal apothecary. She resides withing his grounds, away from her toxic family. But as time goes by they fall in love with each other, but she promised only several months of help and he is planning to marry her sister, since she is supposedly the fated person because of her name (he has name Iris on his body). 

But as the fate has it when Iris arrives in the Duke's estate to establish herself before marriage a lot happens and eventual Cynthia leaves. She loves MMC but she also wants him to live.

On the other hand MMC is not afraid of spending the last days of his life with a beloved woman, even if the time is short. But here is the conspiracy that come to light.

She is not the daughter of her family, she was taken away from her mother as a child, it happened in the palace, she was also cursed, her original name was Iris, her father was killed (framed as accident) and her mother went into labor. Her family belongs to magic tower and Palace wanted to weaken them. Emperor made the olda lady take the child, otherwise death. She takes it to her son and because both girls were born around same time she asked to make them twins, also their daughter was named iris instead, get it? switcheroo. But because she came out of nowhere they abused her and out of guilt and love the girl was taken away by the old lady of the house. before the story started.

FMC leaves on orders from Emperor, otherwise death, but she stays with the mage tower family, not knowing she's their relative, she wants to decipher her grandma's diary and MMC follows her since he decided to spend the best days with her. They marry and they make love and he stays alive, hurray.

meanwhile in the capital Iris marries his phantom in front of others, MMC left it as decoy. But imperial family wants to get their hands on the duchy and with Iris they can do it, they think. But our couple returns and Iris is thrown out. She plans a smear campaign, claiming it is her who revived duke, but he wasn't even around. I'm waiting to see how she'll be dealt wih since the entire imperial family sucks. I can feel they'll be overthrown, otherwise who needs those fuckers.

Emperor also got backlash from the curse, since it was broken. Hahaha, got his ass!

very entertaining, a lot going on... I actually put out too many spoilers.

How to love someone arrogant like you

This is a lovely short piece, very nice read, I completed it in no time.

The story is about Andrea who is taken from the streets by her father, she is an illegitimate daughter who lived outside, but when he lost his wife and sons she was his only blood alive.

So it's a story of rags-to-riches. 

Andrea embodies many contradicting sides to her, because despite her seeing how her mother withered day by day in her delusion that the marquis will return and take her back did not stop her from facing love. She does not fear it and even embraces it, she shows its' full form. But when it comes to being with Crown Prince Michael she realizes like no one else that her standing in society is not ideal and the only thing they could have is this illicit relationship she initiated.

but to her those were the days of cherishment like a dream she will remember forever, she was also realistic and quiet, not demanding anything. Eventually she decides to step back, because the time is up.

Michael on the other hand is a pampered prince, he was born with such high status and good looks, the world seem to be laying at his feet. He wasn't a scumbag, he tried not to give false hope by giving her treatment that was beyond what he could offer, but at the same time the more time they spent the more it felt like he doesn't realize his own feelings and looks at it rationally.

Only when it hits him he realizes that he loves her and is ready to bear the responsibility of protecting her. This is what I found endearing almost, that the love matured as well, it's not just a dreamy season of fantasy that will not last long, but actually facing reality and taking steps towards things to be done to have the woman you love.

there is a side-tracked piece where Andrea is engaged to other person whom her father deems best option, but this person is kinda creepy since he sees his past love in her. At first Andrea was not bothered by it, but her close maid Maria told her honestly that she could do anything, she shouldn't be burdened, she deserves happinness. She decides to leave. And soon after found by Michael who proposes (he was on his way to propose when he found she disappeared) and confesses his love and that he did not realize before, he felt guilty for the words that definitely hurt her.

The story ends at the proposal part and there are no side-stories, which I think is such a miss, but still it was a fine read. It had basic storyline, concentrated a lot on romance, oh yeah spicy scenes were also present.

For the Cursed Duke

The story feels interesting, moves fast. Has also a mystery element to it, since while FMC resides in the Duke's house there are many rumors about the murders of young ladies that will be used ahainst the cursed duke.

He actually wears a mask, not really sure how it looks, only that it's black. 

FMC is hired to be somewhat a companion, interpreter, anyway weird combo of things. While she resides in the house a lot of things happen outside, which someone to push towards the duke since it is easy to accuse him, due to all the bad rep.

Will see how it goes, so far it's pretty entertaining. But looking at its' length I'm like.. does it really need to be that long?

Monster Bride

Didn't read much, but the premise is really inetersting, also more fantasy elements are involved (what can I do when previously a lot of romantasy reads did not have any of fantasy, so why call it like that).

Anyway, FMC is reborn into a different body, this world has people with different abilities, either they can execute them freely or need an enhancer type of medicine. FMC was one of those but eas discarded when she served her purpose. Now she resides as a bride to some infamous lord who had three brides before her and she arrives at this delapitated house where she learns more and realizes that the lord is unregistered ability user (they have their own terminology) and he may be connected to another country. She also realizes that the body can wield ability when enhanced, thus she decides to use everything surrounding her while she's still here. Plans to leave one day and live a quiet life, she has no desire for revenge because she accepted her end in that life (she took her own life).

Promising premise with lots of mysteries surrounding this lord etc. also you can't see his face and it's relevant because he is like walking cloud where you can not see his face distinctly at any moment, like you see it an ddon't at the same time.

I love that the FMC is so badass.

MANHWA

(that's her little sister on the cover)

I will become the ex-wife of the Beast.

READ IT if you want to have some fun time, it's new, but it's super fun, I say this story wins a lot of being manhwa drawn in such a humorous way. I had a lot of fun time reading what is out ther at the moment.

It's obviously its' own retelling of Beaty and the Beast. Bella who takes a place instead of her sister in a political marriage since her father failed on one of his ventures again arrives at the archduke's house with her little sister Rose. Lot of fun times, Bella now takes her sister's name Elia in front of others, don't know if it'll last long. The Archduke wears a mask in front of others supporting the claim that his face was destroyed by a curse, but he is actually handsome. They clash immediately and have good tension, so I wait for more. Little Rose also made everyone fall for the little girl (she is only 4) and she is so funny and cutely drawn.

I will fall with the Emperor

Damn this is crazy one ahahahAHAAHahahHAH

It's like romantasy, plus bit of Bachelor, lot of intrigue and sassy Queen, sorry Empress, but she is such a diva.

This story is pretty ridiculous and very surface-level, but it is still entertaining in a way when you want some melodrama, rebirth and revenge story. FMC takes the central place in all of this and story revolves around her.

She is someone who is reborn to the past before a deal from the Emperor arrives, in her previous life she lived in lies of her family who even dyed her hair black just to make her look less like royalty, but because of her sister she attacked the Empire and in the end her family blamed everything on her when she failed and was apprehended. So she was executed and before her death had seen the true faces of her family.

Her personality has such drastic changes because diva is acting like no one else, confident, strong, she has best magical ability, anyway she is something.

She joins the Emperor, becomes the only Empress, bu the also has several concubines (he never sleapt with any, they're like contractual win-win situation wives). Here I do not mind that a lot of cat fighting happens, since some of those ladies are ambitious and our main girl, I like to call her Ras, she occupies the Emperor with her skill and also they are compatible souls.

The main plot is all about territories and who is with whom and how we may use our knowledge and power to make it play out so her former country will surrender. Thing is they have peculiar position among other countries, so this took some time, but it was fine.

But except for gorgeous faces I laughed many times because it was obvious this is done in haste and just to make appearances, but a lot of time the frames suffered from what I call "empty frames". For example some conflict happens, but you see 3 vs 3 and in the background which doesn't make sense too. Anyway, I can understand that drawing more would require too much labor, but it doesn't make it less funny.

In the end Ras gets rid of those girls that are too vicious and leaves only those who have skills and have good hearts. She and Emperor also slowly progress, but honestly except for their sweet moments when they almost daily create a picture of marital bliss when he lays down on her lap and they talk, nothing more happens. I think even first kiss happens quite late in the story. It still has some time to be finished, but the main story with complete revenge is over.

The baddest villainess is back

Well, this looks interesting. Haven't read the original novel, but like what I'm seeing on screen, very pretty, gorgeous artwork. Even though the story is a bit cliche that a our main girl feels lingering feelings to the fact that she could have had a different life if she was more open and honest, voicing her concerns instead of tantrums. Before the life of her family was changed drastically.

Badass female character, we love those. She is reborn and decides to distance from her family, but instead finds that things aren't as she thought them to be.

A lot of intrigue and stuff like that is promised to happen.

Oh yeah, they even have a country ruled by a woman so yay. Badass dominating women.

ANIMATION

 

Rick and Morty Season 2, Season 3, Season 4 (partially)

I actually never thought I'd return to watching this show ever. It's raunchy, it's gooey, gory (it's so gory like wtf ahahaha) etc. etc. I bet any fan of this show will run after me with a big bat and ask me not to say anything bad about it. I don't really want to, but I think it's quite ridiculous one. I don't take it seriously and that's how it is possible to watch it with a good laugh.

Considering trash entertainment stuff I consume I can't criticise. I only want to say that either I was not in the mood or something, I didn't vibe with the first season. But then on YT it recommended me the cuts from several seasons on their official channel and curiosity got the best of me and while I was watching I though tto myself - damn, this is so ridiculous holy fuck - that I decided to watch the full episodes.

But nothing beats Pickle Rick.

The Secret of Kells (2009)

I must say, I watched this solely because it's the same guys who produced song of the sea, but at the same time I should be honest that I didn't vibe with it, it's not my theme, it's pretty depressing honestly. I mean it even depicts how vikings breach the doors of Kells and they slaughter people, it's not gory, but the tragedy of human lives lost is heavily implied.

I know guys love their folklore, but it was kinda.. two parts made me question it. Like the snake part which lost its' second eye to the boy. And the second time was when they escaped he never returned to check on his uncle because the book was far more important. Just rubbed me the wrong way. Sometimes things should be done, it's the same like for a sailor to be away for months from his family, but at the same the human touch should not belost.

Anywa, I can see the message, the animation is beautiful, but not my thing.

Firefly Wedding / ホタルの嫁入り

UNHINGEEEED

Lol, just watch this one. It's a new one, but so entertaining.

The summary sound like this - Afflicted with a heart condition, Meiji-era noblewoman Satoko is determined to secure a marriage that will benefit her family before she dies. But before she can realize her goal, she's targeted by a mysterious assassin named Shinpei. In a last-ditch effort to save her life, she asks her would-be murderer to marry her. Her proposal isn't sincere, but unfortunately for her, Shinpei loves as intensely as he kills.

The animation is gorgeous, the characters are somethng else, the story is something that I never predicted (never saw the manga it is based on). Shinpei is the male lead right out of dark romance. And I must say I am amazed by Satoko, since she has a tough decision to make, she amazes me by her nature.

But I'm sure it's a story not for one season only.

Hello, I Am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion! / どうも, 好きな人に惚れ薬を依頼された魔女です.

This is surprisingly entertaining. The title is so melodramatic, but the content is cute and surprisingly good. The animation is also on par, so it's not some cheap-looking animation that I stumbled upon while looking for new stuff, it's truly gorge. This little witch had a crush on this knight for a long time, but then one day he comes and asks for a love potion and the girl stalls the process. The story has different moments. But I found it interesting so I left it for watching. This season my anime list is longer than usual.

To this you can add Apothecary Diaries I will come to eventually but the next one is from last season?

Goodbye Lara / さよならララ

Absolutely stunning animation, such bold solid colors that my eyes became teary from beauty. Very interesting character design choice and the story itself!! It's a new take on the Little Mermaid, but to me it looks more like Ariel version. The first episode is full of everything, it's so packed I was overwhelmed but it was so cool. Will continue watching of course, since it is one of those series I chose through what I call 'let's watch the first episode and see how it goes".

Last in this list will be anime from Kyoto animation, I had no ide ait belong to them, so uncharacteristic of their style, I mean character design is there, but overall feel is kinda different.

Nijuuseiki Denki Mokuroku: Eureka Evrika / 二十世紀電氣目録-ユーレカ・エヴリカ-

It is the summer of 1907. 15-year-old Momokawa Inako lives in the Fushimi area of Kyoto, and is the second daughter of a sake brewer. Nothing she does ever comes out right, and she receives a scolding from her father every day. Her only relief is the trust she places in her prayers to the gods. One day while at Fushimi Inari shrine, she meets a freewheeling young man named Sakamoto Kihachi. He rejects the gods, and boasts of the incoming age of electricity.

As Kyoto animation it is really pretty, but baiting as like they did in the past haha

But it's good to see something fascinating from them.

The last thing to mention is nothing much but I had a good laugh at the Wyrd Sisters which I re-watched. While animation style isn't the prettiest some of the scenes really make you life when they come to life through it.