Manga and Webtoon reviews
Jul. 25th, 2023 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrAnd now the manga and webtoon reviews! My memories for some of these are very vague, but I bolded the ones I remember I especially liked.
M/F
I'm Only A Stepmother, But My Daughter Is Just So Cute!
See you in my 19th life
M/M
Mitsuya Sensei no Keikakuteki na Edzuke
Stigmata
Ryouomoi Nante Joudan Janai!!
Double Section
Koori no Mamono no Monogatari
Tonari Ni
F/F
The Guy She Liked Wasn't A Guy At All
The Fed Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess
M/F
I'm Only A Stepmother, But My Daughter Is Just So Cute!: 'reborn as a villainess' set in a snow white inspired story where the reborn 'stepmother' is horrified by how the original stepmother treated her cute but sad princess stepdaughter, and sets about improving her life, which has knock on consequences. The love interest is her husband the king, who initially comes across as cold and aloof but is eventually revealed to be awkward and traumatised but ultimately decent and sweet. Not a very original setup, nor is it finished, but it's cute and I'm enjoying it.
See you in my 19th life: webtoon about an effectively immortal woman who remembers all her past lives. She reconnects with an 'older' guy she knew as a child in her previous life, since her 'young' death caused him significant trauma. I remember mostly liking this, it had fun with the messy feelings she has about all the people she's known over her long life, including those who are still alive but remember her previous self. But I vaguely recall that something about it didn't work for me.
Wotakoi: office romance about nerds. Very quickly becomes established relationship slice of life and I got bored, but seemed cute if you like that sort of thing.
M/M
Mitsuya Sensei no Keikakuteki na Edzuke: cute, light romance between a 30 something journalist and an older famous chef. Lots of food porn.
Stigmata - Seiken Sousa (part one, published as seinen gen) and Stigmata - Aikon (part two, published as BL): Interesting horror-romance between a police detective and a woobie psychic who experiences the injuries and thoughts of those who have recently died, allowing him to help solve murders. Lots of imagery of the psychic covered in blood, looking sad and pretty. More violence towards women than I liked but seemed to like the non-murderer female characters well enough. Very seventies cop show vibe, with the plot initially just being a lot of murder cases, but the eventual romance is sweet.
Ryouomoi Nante Joudan Janai!!: Cute, slight romance between two middle aged men who have had a long and sometimes rocky friendship.
Tonari Ni (By Basso, I vaguely recall there's another manga with this name by someone else): cute, gentle romance between a young man and the tired looking business man he sees on the train. They bond about being into horse racing.
Double Section: A short romance between two salesmen? I think this was cute enough but it didn't leave much of an impression.
Koori no Mamono no Monogatari: Very cheesy old school BL about an Innocent Young Man and an ice demon. It was okish.
Painter of the Night: webtoon set in Joseon era Korea about a rapey yandere asshole nobleman and the innocent woobie porn artist he kidnaps, not my thing at all but weirdly compelling for a while.
F/F
The Guy She Liked Wasn't A Guy At All: Can't remember if I already mentioned this! A very cute but slowly updating romance between a gyaru girl and the "cute guy at the music store" who turns out to be a quiet emo girl in her class.
The Fed Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess: very silly but fun isekai about a put-upon office worker who gets summoned as a familiar to the world of a game she was playing. She ends up using her office skills working for a teenage girl she knows will eventually become the villainess, and so tries to prevent the game plot from playing out to save the villainess, herself, and the original heroine (who is perfectly nice and shippy with them both) Sadly has not updated past 9 chapters in months, so the plot hasn't progressed super far, but it was fun! The age gap is significant but I found it pretty easy to ignore since the teen villainess looks and acts SO much older than the 20 something protagonist.
Hello Melancholic!: a cute highschool romance between a cheery girl and a depressed loner who join a band. I think I liked this but it didn't leave much of an impression.
I Love You So Much, I Hate You: yuri office hatesex romance manga which I really wanted to like but Did Not.
M/F
I'm Only A Stepmother, But My Daughter Is Just So Cute!
See you in my 19th life
M/M
Mitsuya Sensei no Keikakuteki na Edzuke
Stigmata
Ryouomoi Nante Joudan Janai!!
Double Section
Koori no Mamono no Monogatari
Tonari Ni
F/F
The Guy She Liked Wasn't A Guy At All
The Fed Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess
M/F
I'm Only A Stepmother, But My Daughter Is Just So Cute!: 'reborn as a villainess' set in a snow white inspired story where the reborn 'stepmother' is horrified by how the original stepmother treated her cute but sad princess stepdaughter, and sets about improving her life, which has knock on consequences. The love interest is her husband the king, who initially comes across as cold and aloof but is eventually revealed to be awkward and traumatised but ultimately decent and sweet. Not a very original setup, nor is it finished, but it's cute and I'm enjoying it.
Content note: Underage rape backstory, which is handled pretty well imo. Spoilers.
The husband was raped by his first wife when he was a sickly teenager they thought might die, to guarantee the succession. He is deeply traumatised and initially very uncomfortable with any sort of touching but slowly works through it over the course of the story. Once the protagonist finds out what happened she's really sympathetic but then assumes he'd be horrified if she ever expressed interest. So it's used as a reason for mutual pining, but still one of the few halfway decent portrayals of a male (or any!) rape victim I've seen in this sort of story.See you in my 19th life: webtoon about an effectively immortal woman who remembers all her past lives. She reconnects with an 'older' guy she knew as a child in her previous life, since her 'young' death caused him significant trauma. I remember mostly liking this, it had fun with the messy feelings she has about all the people she's known over her long life, including those who are still alive but remember her previous self. But I vaguely recall that something about it didn't work for me.
Wotakoi: office romance about nerds. Very quickly becomes established relationship slice of life and I got bored, but seemed cute if you like that sort of thing.
M/M
Mitsuya Sensei no Keikakuteki na Edzuke: cute, light romance between a 30 something journalist and an older famous chef. Lots of food porn.
Stigmata - Seiken Sousa (part one, published as seinen gen) and Stigmata - Aikon (part two, published as BL): Interesting horror-romance between a police detective and a woobie psychic who experiences the injuries and thoughts of those who have recently died, allowing him to help solve murders. Lots of imagery of the psychic covered in blood, looking sad and pretty. More violence towards women than I liked but seemed to like the non-murderer female characters well enough. Very seventies cop show vibe, with the plot initially just being a lot of murder cases, but the eventual romance is sweet.
Ryouomoi Nante Joudan Janai!!: Cute, slight romance between two middle aged men who have had a long and sometimes rocky friendship.
Tonari Ni (By Basso, I vaguely recall there's another manga with this name by someone else): cute, gentle romance between a young man and the tired looking business man he sees on the train. They bond about being into horse racing.
Double Section: A short romance between two salesmen? I think this was cute enough but it didn't leave much of an impression.
Koori no Mamono no Monogatari: Very cheesy old school BL about an Innocent Young Man and an ice demon. It was okish.
Painter of the Night: webtoon set in Joseon era Korea about a rapey yandere asshole nobleman and the innocent woobie porn artist he kidnaps, not my thing at all but weirdly compelling for a while.
F/F
The Guy She Liked Wasn't A Guy At All: Can't remember if I already mentioned this! A very cute but slowly updating romance between a gyaru girl and the "cute guy at the music store" who turns out to be a quiet emo girl in her class.
The Fed Up Office Lady Wants to Serve the Villainess: very silly but fun isekai about a put-upon office worker who gets summoned as a familiar to the world of a game she was playing. She ends up using her office skills working for a teenage girl she knows will eventually become the villainess, and so tries to prevent the game plot from playing out to save the villainess, herself, and the original heroine (who is perfectly nice and shippy with them both) Sadly has not updated past 9 chapters in months, so the plot hasn't progressed super far, but it was fun! The age gap is significant but I found it pretty easy to ignore since the teen villainess looks and acts SO much older than the 20 something protagonist.
Hello Melancholic!: a cute highschool romance between a cheery girl and a depressed loner who join a band. I think I liked this but it didn't leave much of an impression.
I Love You So Much, I Hate You: yuri office hatesex romance manga which I really wanted to like but Did Not.
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Date: 2023-07-25 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-07-25 06:52 am (UTC)Isn't it?? I am very happy to have introduced another person to it :)
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Date: 2023-07-25 10:32 am (UTC)God Painter of the Night is SO rapey and honestly gets like, SO repetitive. I kind of found it interesting at first and then like, it just kind of keeps recycling the same kind of plot and gets (imho) quite boring, but I really liked elements of the art style, which felt very decadent and sensual. I see screenshots a lot from it in like... translation groups, and I've had a few 'oh that was from THIS manwha' a few times.
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Date: 2023-07-31 01:40 pm (UTC)Yeah the Painter of the Night art had a cool quality to it, which I guess helped it's popularity.
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Date: 2023-07-26 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-07-31 01:32 pm (UTC)I hope you enjoy it!
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Date: 2023-08-02 04:34 am (UTC)