[TOPIC] "Lazy" costuming in romantasy manhwa

I've been on a new wave of reading manhwa lately, but I noticed several peculiar things about the creative process in manhwa that seemed to be dominating for the one final result - efficiency. A lot of usage of 3D modeling, same images, patterns etc. The only thing that makes them look different is the art style. Though sometimes it also looks rushed and crude.

I personally love costuming, especially in movies, if it's a decently budgeted film and the director invites a visionary we can end up with some amazing costume decisions that will distinct the movie from the rest. The movie even may up ending a complete garbage truck, but costuming may take it to another level and impact the viewer. Nowadays a good styling at the premiere also attracts a lot of attention.

And it doesn't matter the genre, be it fantasy or urban story. Costuming may play a big role and become some sort of an iconic moment. At least in Hollywood that's for sure.

As of lately I've read some decent Korean novels and manhwas, which was surprising to me. The reason being the love of Korean authors writing many toxic plots just for the sake of it. It may be completely illogical and bad, but it will mask itself behiind some heart-wrenching moments that people will be distracted by to notice the fallacy. But I digress.

But I found it surprising how downright foolish some of the visuals actually are and how lazy the thought process behind the costuming is. All for the sake one goal - efficiency. Draw fast, throw some stock images and be done with it.

If you've read at least one or two manhwas, you probably have seen the majority of them, because they look the same. The excessive use of 3D modeling for everything, starting from houses, horses that will give me nightmares and even the plates and food. Sometimes artists are lazy to draw correctly around those and the entire thing often looks wanky and uggo.

While the costuming uses no rhyme or reason, the female gowns are always these wackadoodle pastes of hundreds details that are meant to distract you from how crazy it looks or how modern it feels. And they mean to say it is "European ambience". These are not my words, it's a legit tag used for romantasy set in a country that will remind you of something European, even though it's a fantasy country.

I'd love to talk about how messy it looks with styles mixed, too many modern pieces included everywhere, which to me as a reader doesn't help to immerse myself into what supposed to be a fantasy.

But when it comes to dresses... girl. This is a mess.

Even if they would just follow some past historical fashion they would be totally fine, copy and paste what a big deal, but they need to bring this girl fantasy of sparkles and gems that often just looks illogical.

Before I dive into it I must have an honorable mention, this should be given best costuming award, at least arist had put some thought in it - My In-Laws are obsessed with me. And not to mention artist will never forget the gloves, which is a big part of the story (if you know, you know). But has a better distinction between day wear, ball gowns and overall female / male fashion. The artist even takes care of the hairstyle for the FMC. Also the story is great, I loved it.

For example, Pereshati here wears an evening dress that is more elegant, usually ones worn for the dinner, the palette is always subdued and dark, like she wears darker colors than anyone else, the same as the rest of the family. It may be connected to family's curse. She also has her gloves on at all times. Everything is simple and conforms the settings and supports the gloomy situation of the family she married. She also has always her hair up in a simplest of buns, but still it's not as frivulous as other manhwas.

Another one that stood out to me among others was Mother's Contract Marriage, which is visually stunning, totally stands out among others. And I don't care if our main characters wardrobe looks too modern tbh, but it looks cute. It has a strong theme of found family and discovering happiness, which is why it has a lot of yellowich color scheme.

The wardrobe is also interesting, since it helps to tell the difference between characters and they all have their own individuality. Lyrica is the one with assortment of cute dresses appropriate for a girl her age, colorful and cute, very much like herself.

Like this one here, cute simple dress with apron from getting dirty and it's one of the simplest ones. Prince on the other hand looks really modern in his pants that look like jeans, his jacket bears some of the medals but also some other adornments, which fits his contradictory personality and rebelling spirit.

Back to other manhwas. The fashion is weird. Mostly, it exists, but trends don't. I see no trends in romantasy manhwa, ever. It always feels like - whichever idea came to mind, we will realize it. And I find it funny because often time they mention fashion in the manhwa itself, but they don't have distinct elements to make up a trend. Like the FMC can wear a full skirt, then it's more fishtail, she can wear a hat, then she wears a bonnet. It's like mix and match of styles. It can exist, but it looks like a mess.

There are no trends, no silhouettes that are fashionable, it's always just a lot of ruffles and a lot of stock images that are used. You know those, 2D images of necklaces that look obviously flat or other embellishments and patterns that looks same dead.

There is often no distinction between day wear and ball gowns. This is baffling to me because otherwise characters look like Christmas trees in their everyday life, dressed in full evening gowns with jewellery glittering to the universe.

There is no distinction between status. Like you look at people who definitely should have different status, but they all look the same.

Why I mention this is because I think it's missed opportunity and secondly, artists make some interesting mistakes while disregarding what they're writing about just for the sake of being "pretty".

I can give an example, can't make screenshots though.

In manhwa called Marchioness Maron (or just call it moron, would be fitting considering the story), FMC is sent to isolated territory and she basically has nothing with her outside the dress she's wearing. The mansion Marron is a dilapitated building that does not seem to hold much. Let's admit she might have found a change of clothes, but other than that?

But later she develops the territory slowly and brings in several occupants. The manhwa draws attention several times to the fact that they need to sell some of their produce to survive and Maron herself mentioned the lack of money. So on one of their outings she buys a dress, it's an investment, I admit, but later on she is seen to be walking around always in more sophisticated dresses and each time they're different, not to mention embellishments are all gems, which makes her dresses look expensive. Which in her current settings looked quite not right and conflicting. Not to mention she does not need to wear those for her everyday wear. There is no one to see her, she established her status among her (small bunch of) people.

This is a great example, because it has lacing. Lace was always considered a luxury, even for our modern society which created machine to do the machine-made lace, but where would a romantasy get a high-tech stuff like that, so it's hand-woven item for sure. This is her day dress I mind you, she is just sitting behind a desk doing her thing wearing that. Does it look like a ball gown? Definitely. Does it looks expensive? Absolutely. This is why I said she is dressed rather expensive for their situation. I can understand the idea of finally letting your main character doll up after predicaments, but honestly, it lacks in logic. 

One of the main trends in romantasy is actually the copy of what GoT. Northern territory ruled by a Duke that defends against monsters.

Almost every other romantasy manhwa is about a Norther territory that protects from monsters and they also have beef with central territory which is supposed to be the ruling center. Not to mention almost every other male lead character has dark hair and red eyes, watch out for that shit.

But it's hilarious when characters are drawn in some fine embellished dresses while it's a winter territory they describe as COLD. Clothes always look thin and you would expect more fur but no.

I forgot which manhwa I've opened up lately and it basically showed a female character walking around in winter in her heels. It's not a boot, it's a full high-heeled shoe with some gems and stuff. And it's not a single occurance and no, she did not run out out of urgency, she wore it as if it was okay.

Clothes always look the same in many manhwas, they're elaborate and don't take into consideration anything except looking flashy. Like details of the plot, character growth, status, purchase ability etc.

I can understand efficiency, but sometimes it looks more than that, that artists did not waste even two brain cells on creating something unique or of their own. Sometimes gowns look simple only because the overall art style is like that.

I think novel covers art looks the best out of all, since the artists only draw this one picture and if they add too many details it might end up looking gaudy, but just the working on the texture and making the drawing look good make the most basic things shine. And I don't think it's realistic to draw like that all the time. I'm sure there are plenty out there just drawing, not really aiming to create a masterpiece.

But from time to time it's nice to see at least something. Although usually it's simple things, but at least it will give you something. For example, a color scheme that belongs solely to some regions to distinct the rivalry is the easiest to draw. Or often time the soft-looking female villain who always cries so the males will pity her will look innocent and wearing some light-colored clothes with lots of ruffle to support the girlishness. 

I remember someone made a hilarious comment how they're gonna have a PTSD from pink- or light-haired villains who look and act innocent (Chinese equivalent of White Lotus x Green Tea Bitch mix).

So basically, not everything is lost and it looks good, but often time it just does not look appropriate for what scene / situation the characters are in.

Well, ranting is over. I can go on even longer rant, but that's the gist of it.

Canaries in danmei

    I have no idea how I managed to cross the search engine of jjwxc (probably 'revenge the scum' tag :'D) that I came across a fair amount of works that are all about raised canaries a.k.a. lovers that are nothing more but a beautiful vases to business marriages or smth like that.

    Don't get me started on the point where all these novels are like a copy-paste version of each other. I don't expect anything extraordinary, after all we've all seen what a trending writing/genres are. And they are actually that. But for some reason people still see logic to some of those, even though the events that mostly happen are a bit weird from a perspective of normal human thinking and actions. We all know that everything is playing for the convenience, but that's exactly what I don't like about it.

Common pre-settings for 'canary' plots:

• As the 'canary' suggest the attack is in the dominant position, both in profession adn the relationship, such as a president usually, while the receive is a beautiful being and taken advantage of for various reasons. Character settings are always the same, until the canary escapes and the whole chasing wife starts;
• Canary has no status. Usually the relationship might not be official or even if it is, friends and colleagues might not know about it or disrespect the partner. Nothing is done by the gongs in such cases of course;
• No communication whatsoever prior to break-up (which basically leads to the conflicts, duh, u surprised?). It either existed before, but ceased to be meaningful, or stays shallow. While two people live together, they often have more sex together than conversations;

And here's my pet peeve with such stories:

• The lack of communication what first starts the problems. Authors often portray shous as if they're the biggest victims, but actually they don't do anything about their situation and act very submissive during the relationship. It lasts only until they say - bye, I'm leaving - that they suddenly have the guts to oppose, which I find funny, because it seems they didn't really care about the relationship at all as authors try to convey, because they show character (that they have one and are not just sloppy rags), but they refused to fight or do anything or cause a havoc in the relationship, while they had all the chances to (e.g. I've read one where both agreed to consolidate relationship in 8 years, but shou didn't do much of fixing his partner's attitude when it started to go wrong, just started to accept his bs, later just packed up and left);
• Exchange of roles/positions. As you can tell canaries and presidents often exchange positions when the relationship is broken. Because gongs start the mad wife chase, everything that mattered and kept them busy before loses meaning entirely, only the wife exists. Which puts everything under the weird light. Due to miscommunication both parties don't really understand each other and their own motivation, which in my opinion makes both partners bad and not only one that is chased. And I guess it's a thing, because gongs are put into a position of being shoved into the ground for some sort of satisfaction. They're surely not the best partners to begin with, but it ticks me off the most that only one side is the bad side, but if you think carefully you'll see that no one is good though.

    It would be cool, if people wrote something not this weird. It doesn't mean the whole theme of raised lovers should cease to exist, I do think it might show the relationships that are not all sunshine, but just why it's written in the same damn  weird way all the time.

    Anyway, if you come across a novel like that, be sure you'll read something like the abovementioned.

[Topic] Currently ongoing reading

NEW

• (Completed) 深情男配偏爱神展开[快穿] / Affectionate male partner prefers God [Quick Wear]: MC - Lu Shijin - travels worlds and has to follow the script, but he is not like previous hosts and basically twists the plot to become the protagonist himself.
• (Completed) 恶毒炮灰重生以后 / After the vicious cannon fodder was reborn: MC - Tao Mu - travels back and realizes he's part of a book as a cannon fodder and protagonist is Shen Yu, who was swapped with him after birth, he was controlled by the plot and now wants to fix his path and disrupt the plot.
• (Ongoing) 炮灰替身联盟 / Cannon Fodder Stand-in Alliance: MC - Cheng Lang - wears the book and becomes a stand-in that should progress the plot, but instead he insitgates the plot, pulls out protagonist and other stand-ins and forms an alliance in doing business.

CONTINUED

• (Ongoing) 穿成炮灰O后他A爆了 / He exploded after wearing cannon fodder O
• (Ongoing) 男配只想做工具人[娱乐圈] / The male partner just wants to be a tool man [Entertainment Circle]

Most of these are at 4-5/5 rate so far. Especially "Toolman", it has one of the best humor out of all. Although some start as something you've heard before, but Stand-in alliance is fresh, it's new author for me I took a fancy to. Affectionate male partner system so far has a mix of play and fooling the plot. "Wearing O" is definitely sweet, in retrospective it has a lot fo mecha fighting though.

[Topic] Lengthy movies good or bad?

    To be completely honest with the amount of never-ending TV shows that expand for countless seasons (Doctor Who, Supernatural etc. as example), which add hours upon hours of content, it is interesting for me to hear the argument of "This movie is too long". It sounds really strange.

    Even excluding TV shows, if we look at movie franchises that get constant sequels, the argument of time length becomes even weirder.

    But is it a good or a bad thing? Is such a criticism a valid thing?

    My answer is - both 'yes' and 'no'. Since it is all an industry and audience perspective. From the industry point of view these people are still professionals, but also individuals and shoot their movies however they deem appropriate and the audience being so diverse also have different vision on movies.

    The whole notion downed on me once again during one YouTube video, more like a video essay, that I absolutely loved and it was dedicated to Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049"

    I'll put the video here, because it is really interesting.

    Unfortunately, what waited "Blade Runner 2049" after the release was the expected faith of majority of neo noir movies. The movie was received well, of course not without conflicting question of time/pacing. Even Ridley Scott, the director of the first movie, said he'd cut at least half an hour from the timerun. But I personally, being not convinced by many latest Scott's projects don't take his criticism seriously. And it's also ironic, since Alien is also a franchise, which under Scott's leadership went out of control and lost any of its original charm.

    As it happened the 'long' in case for the audience were scenes in BR2049, which is indeed true, some shots do take their time to linger and intensify the atmosphere, it's a pity many times these moment were underappreciated. Personally, I had no problem with long cuts, since I watched this movie in one breath. BR2049 never positioned itself as an action movie in the first place and neo noir movies are like that.

    The other day I had what I call a HP marathon, because when you re-watch HP movies you need to watch all of them, including Fantastic Beasts. And I must say, despite being such a popular franchise that grossed so much money wordwide, it's a pity that it suffered from being cut short. I bet no Potter fan would ever say that they're against the movies to be expanded to add a little flavor to the characters and events. Though partially I understand where directors came from. After all the readers would watch and in their mind it would create a simbiosis of some sort, I had the same feeling that interconnected all versions of Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Diabolism in my head, although versions might have been flawed, but my knowledge of other adaptations filled in the gaps. But for average viewers they might not need those details and they might not realize the reference and see the movie as it is.

    It's really amazing how sometimes single movies are considred too long, but other franchises who get continuous sequels (like Star Wars is the best example) don't receive the same criticism (except for random viewers). And ironically the producers of such franchises openly say - it will never end, while people keep watching it.

    But do movies suffer from such treatment? Absolutely. Although it is a needed evil. From one point you understand that you don't need 20 movies on Pirates of Caribbean (well, many ppl agree on that, remembering the criticism), because they might not bring you anything (I don't take such movies seriously). But what most viewers want is to be taken on adventure, not to a brain ring where they have to explore their minds. People want to be entertained. And that deeply affected any other genre that doesn't comply with it. Thus they don't earn as much, they are not as popular. Which is a pity.

[Topic] Omegaverse, ABO, ger - the overabundance of the mpreg genre on the market, can it stay interesting?

Omegaverse, also known as ABO, firstly was known as subgenre of speculative erotic fiction and originally a subgenre of erotic slash fan fiction. The genre describes a dominant hierarchy where Alpha=dominant, Beta=neutral and Omega=submissive, focusing on wolf or canid-like behaviors of humans, such as rutting, heat cycles and pheromonal attraction between A and O, breeding etc. Omegaverse is a world of 6 sexes: female and male A, female and male B and, of course, female and male O. The gland of O and A is located on their neck and emits pheromones that for A can be used to supporess and for O are used to attrackt. 

With time, since Omegaverse is proven to be a free to explore genre for anyone, it was established as a separate genre and grew rapidly on the market within last 7 years (my own judgement from the number of released during this time commercial and non-commercial works). Of course the genre itself existed for far-far longer and it's hard to pinpoint who was the first one to introduce it into fiction.

Since we're mostly BL blog here, I will be taking note on mostly slash fiction/comics. With time slash fiction and comics started to take place in different eras, such as modern, ancient, interstellar or primal. Initially due to the genre itself being based on canid-like hierarchy the characters described in it had werewolfe attributes, so what we see today might describe worlds of humans, human/human-like animal world or pure animal world.

While I personally concentrate on three Asian markets - Chinese, Japanese and Korean - I was introduced to this genre for the first time around 2013 in Japanese manga and witnessed how this genre due to high demand grew rapidly from several series in magazines to publishers starting a separate ABO magazines, specifically for this genre (e.g. B-Boy Omegaverse, from 2016). Japanese market mostly explores Moderm World Omegaverse, quite often concentrating on the aspect of slash/erotica rather than storyline or ABO world exploration. It's hard for me to pick up some remarkable works, since they all mainly explore and portray only one thing - porn. There's an abundant number of works with dominance and submission of A/O pairings, with rare exceptions of uneven pairs like A/B or B/O and even less works that point out Omega oppression in such hierarchy. But this is the only thing that this market usually explores - relationships. Later Japanese market slowly introduced Omegaverse with human/animal relationships. But, actually, it would be wrong to say plain animals, but they're human-like animals to be precise, walking and speaking like himans, partially having human bodies, but also bearing animal attributes, such as fur, ears, heads, tails, claws etc.

My personal opinion on Japanese Omegaverse manga market: It's shallow. The strucutre of Omegaverse they use is the classic structure of hierarchy, mating, bonding, marking, pheromone attraction and also due to it being a modern world the use of inhibitors (in pill/shot form). It often times glorifies very toxic relationships and, although ABO should be about characters who are driven by their animalistic characteristic, I see it as another excuse to write slash/eroitca without substantial storyline. Many works just explore relationships between people, the only extra is that Omega can give birth to children, but actually it doesn't explore any other aspects of Omegaverse world itself, giving the stories of Japanese mangas I've seen a very shallow meaning. They could be same just modern world BL works without the ABO and it'd be the same. Japanese market also suffers from the limited-space phenomen that directly affects the quility of Omegaverse and other BL works. Due to fixed numbers of pages per chapter and high risk of failure to step outside of troupes or not wanting to take a riskier route, many of the works in Japanese manga are pretty simple and hardly bound to overused cliche troupes. Thus, unfortunately, the works on Japanese market are destined to be repetitive, reminding basic yaoi, but with ABO features. Amen.

As for Korean market..tbh I haven't seen a single story of ABO genre produced by a Korean author (I'm sure there are, but the question is that I haven't read any), not that I truly follow the market now.. because let's be honest, they already produce enough SM-type, toxic relationships and abuse type of works. I personally find it the worst stories I've read in my life.

On the other continent Chinese BL market uses ABO as to refer to this genre and often time binds it with Interstellar World, combining two - Omegaverse and Zergs - where ABO human six sexes are actually evolved people in a far future due to scarce population after Zergs' universal dominance over other species and human annihilation. There are also many modern or ancient stories, but they're second in number. Modern stories usually use simply mpreg, without ABO settings, where only certain males can get pregnant and society isn't divided into six sexes. The greatness of interstellar stories opens the path to many universe explorations, power struggles and sci-fi galore that is very interesting from the reader's point of view. And the open door to imagination keeps this genre self-refreshing.

*Zergs are bug-like aggressive species, maybe they appeared earlier than that, but I believe they start their path from Star Troopers (by that I mean the book written back in 1959, which was used as a base for same-title movie).

Due to censorship that exists on Chinese market, which I personally find a great thing, ABO worlds of Chinese BL thus are concentrating on storylines and relationships over explicit content.

ABO world of Chinese works also mostly are based on the classical hierarchy structure, but due to unlimited space of digital writing the worlds described in novels are more detailed and complex. Despite the often usedtroupes where Alphas are scarce in numbers, but they occupy the top positions and Omegas are at the bottom as the weakest existances due to their physique being frail. This start introduced a path for many works to take on topics exploring unequal human rights, power struggles etc. 

Along with six sexes, ABO interstellar worlds introduce different physical and mental powers (from F grade to S grade, as the highest, above that is only 2S, 3S or even 4S, depending on the story), both these factors also influence the future development, physical problems and deviations for characters. Thus introducing variaty of possibilies that the story can take and making it more interesting. For example, the physically frail Omega can have strong spiritual powers that may be used as a body condition or on the contrary use the spiritually strong Omegas as mecha workers, which can be handled only by people with strong spiritual powers. Omegas can be kind and stay at home or they can lead an army to fight etc. This is just one of a hundred possibilites how these attributes could be used in a story.

As I mentioned the ABO interstelar worlds take the human six sexes route with widely used physical attributes, such as that the gland of Omegas is located on their neck, but this is a gland among others, its' destruction won't lead to death, but infertility. Omega's death is always linked to Alpha, either marked Omega can die because their Alpha left them and doesn't mark them during estrus or their Alpha is dead etc. One of very few works that took ABO to another level was an Arc in 学神在手，天下我有, where the gland of Omega and Alpha isn't only the source of their pheromone, but also source of their life and having problems with the gland or having it completely removed is the same as slow death. Which I found a good twist on already established genre.

But Chinese authors didn't stop there, they actually expanded the mpreg subgenre and ABO became only a part of it. Expansion covered novels about Gers, babies conceived after dual cultivation in xianxia (or cultivation genre) as well as pregnancy with spirits (often ghosts). I don't know where the word 'Ger' originated from, I met it in Chinese BL novels for the first time. Unlike ABO, Gers are feminine and beautiful males that can give birth to children, usually Gers are set into ancient China settings where Gers are more like daughters that can be married off. The attributes of Gers are: feminine and beautiful complexion, sindoor or a circular mark from pale pink to blood-red color that represent Ger's fertility, from low to high respectively. Such settings also often explore the unequalness between Gers and men, but unlike Omegas they don't enter estrus, they're just compitable for male x male. These topics are only a part of the stories that may expand to many other subgenres and locating in basic cities, imperial palaces etc. Gers can be the center of the stories, as well as just a part of it.

My personal opinion on Chinese ABO BL novels: They are the most interesting works I've read throughout the years, unlike many comics that simply use ABO to draw slash stories, novels expand the worlds to something bigger and actually become true great stories by themselves where ABO is only an aspect of it. Surprisingly the limitations because of censorship, that simply don't allow pornographic content, served as a stepping stone to exploration of vaster universes and more complex worlds and characters.

As a conclusion I can only say that this genre (including mpreg in general) can actually be pretty interesting and continue to be such, if you're not repulsive to this subject. I personally am not and what I find interesting is how although this type of world has a rigid structure, but it actually makes it interesting to witness how characters will exist in this frame or they will instead break it. The difference is in approach and the vastness of possibilities that digital writing holds. The only pity is that with such as Japanese market, ABO serves only as a slash story ground, that is narrow-minded and many works don't differ from others and if there's no change in approach these works will continue to resemble each other and will never grow. Although novels can suffer from it too, but they managed to introduce a more vast world and much more interesting settings.

[Topic] Currently ongoing reading

    The list of novels that I'm currently following, which I don't rate, but find promising:

• The male partner just wants to be a tool man [entertainment] / 男配只想做工具人[娱乐圈] Very light-hearted and humorous novel. Basically it's wearing a book where MC tries to be a tool man before the protagonist arrives, but of course things don't follow the route right away. MC has a strong personality and doesn't accept any bullshit. MC and ML although start as one-night standers actually quickly develop good humorous relationship of an old couple in love, not realizing it. I find this one so far as very light-hearted and easy read to ease your mind and enjoy the fun.
• The return of White Moonlight / 豪门白月光归来 Starts with MC waking up without prior 4 years of memories due to head trauma, but realizes that his temperament actually changed from previous sensibility. News of his family leave him shocked. Their strained relationship with his once good family due to his own father deciding to acknowlede illegitimate kid that grew up outside that actually caused MC's mother drowning into depression and later her death. But no one from his family actually took his side, only his cousine that cared for his disappearance for 4 years. The only person who rushes to him as a support is the one to whom belong the lost memories. MC acts very real when he's angry with his family, he is also resolute and strong doing his own thing and not wanting to indulge his family into trampling him.
• He blew A after wearing cannon fodder 0 / 穿成炮灰O后他A爆了 MC wears into Omega, he was once a genius mechanic creating a bunch of wonderful mecha, but he was disabled and could never realize his dream of driving it. Now he wears into a healthy body, but with low mental and physical strength. He firstly dissolves the marriage contract with his fiance to rush to his dream. The ex-fiance thinks that MC does everything for him, but actually doesn't even realize that person's remperament changed so much. MC is really in love with mecha and to stay in school and prove himself he works hard to realize his aspirations with his own power. ML is not the ex-fiance, but the current top A.
• I have entire world with god of knowledge in my hand / 学神在手，天下我有 The only novel I can rate already 5/5 no matter how it ends, this one from the author of FOD, surprisingly, since I don't like FOD, but this novel is super exciting :D MC is a super devilish queenly personality, it's always a pleasure to see him arrange things. I also keep a spoiler thread on NU for this novel, because surprisingly it wasn't picked up yet (and it's already nearing 500 chapters). It's really different, has a lot of new ideas on plot twists and world-building, their ABO approach also made me think of writing a note on ABO and Omegaverse pros and cons and ability to be interesting.

    Basically, these four are my main to follow daily. Except the last one they all started right before New Year, so they are all fresh from the oven. Partially it's really hard to follow something on-going, since you have to wait for a daily update wondering if releases will be as steady. During this time I found some authors who unfortunately either went on hiatus or sealed their pen. Which is such a pity.