M/M Romance Reviews
Jan. 19th, 2024 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI am MASSIVELY behind on reviews so some of these are based on vague memories but lets go! I realised trying to remember which things I'd reviewed before was getting in the way of reviewing anything, so some may be doubles.
Live action TV: Our Flag Means Death S2
Live action movie: Semantic Error
Animated TV:
Cherry Magic
Heaven Official's Blessing S2
Manga:
Tsurumaki-sensei no Sakka Seikatsu
Haru Kakete, Uguisu (Warbler, Sing of Spring)
Books:
Evil as Humans
Married Thrice to A Salted Fish
After I married the disabled war god as my concubine
Paper Lover
A Simple Way To Give Money
Live action TV:
Our Flag Means Death S2: At once point Cam said "I had my issues with this season but that was really sweet and satisfying and tied up a bunch of loose ends. ...but there's two episodes left and season one ended on a cliffhanger. How about we stop here for a while and enjoy it before everything goes downhill." And it was THE RIGHT CALL, even if the very end of the final episode wasn't a cliffhanger per se. So yeah, the season had it's flaws, but I'm glad I watched it, and if you're interested in queer pirate comedy-drama definitely give the show a shot. Mainly there were some issues with pacing and sometimes frustrating choices about who got focus and whose arcs were dropped/cut short. Specifically it felt like the writers tried very hard to care more about non-male characters but their hearts weren't in it.
Live action movie:
Semantic Error: A cute Korean rom-com. An uptight rules obsessed computer science major, Sangwoo, gets into conflict with his impulsive extrovert fine arts major project partner, Jaeyong, after telling the professor that Jaeyong did no work on their joint assignment. This conflict quickly escalates to a rivalry fueled by repressed UST, before they become creative partners also still fueled by repressed UST. At first I was put off by what a jerk Jaeyong was being, especially when he deliberately disrupted the autistic coded Sangwoo's routine, but in the end decided these two weirdos were perfect for each other and made each other happy. It's sometimes a bit cliched with the red/blue personality clash, like a Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji modern Korea AU (if Wei Wuxian was a 6'3" top), but overall I enjoyed it. Don't let the M rating fool you there's just a few chaste kisses. Interestingly, noone explicitly comments on it being a m/m relationship, and Jaeyong has an openly bisexual female artist bff. There's a slight love triangle with a girl into Sangwoo, but I thought this was handled in a not-too-annoying way.
Animated TV:
Cherry Magic: An anime version of the manga about an awkward, virginal guy who gains telepathic powers on his 30th birthday, and discovers his cool, handsome male coworker has a secret crush on him. Only two episodes in so far but I'm liking it, it's similar to the live action version yet with enough differences in approach to not feel too stale. Fewer fakeout kisses so far, and hopefully less cutting away from actual kisses once it gets to that point.
Heaven Official's Blessing S2: I still can't accurately judge how good this is if you haven't read the book but I liked it! It ends on a pretty bittersweet ambiguous note (the end of Book 1 of 4 of the original novel).
Manga:
Tsurumaki-sensei no Sakka Seikatsu: An author gets together with an oni. Ok-ish.
Haru Kakete, Uguisu (Warbler, Sing of Spring): Romance between a delinquent teen boy and his ex-delinquent teacher. Ok, I found it a bit squicky but noone made me read teacher/student!
Books:
These are all Chinese danmei (m/m webnovels) and I'm starting to get a bit sick of the cliches of the genre, specifically the way that once the couple gets together the story usually ends up wallowing in power/revenge fantasy against one dimensional villains. I think all of these did that to some extent, if I got that far.
Evil as Humans: A supernatural buddy cop rom-com where the free-wheeling, cheerful supernatural cop tries to get his uptight partner to loosen up... and also hide the fact he's an immortal demon creature. I mostly really enjoyed this until the point they got together like 70 chapters in out of 246(!), when it became clear that the rest of the book was going to go in a direction I found annoying, and not just in the usual ways. I really liked the compassion for weirdos and creepy-cute xeno aspects, and the overall tone is moderately light, but there's a lot of gore, angst and bad things happening to children. There's a Weird Deaf Girl who gets to be a person in a way I mostly liked but the treatment of mental illness is Unfortunate.
These next two technically have disabled love interests and the treatment wasn't so terrible I stopped reading but both dudes get better and it's not exactly peak representation.
Married Thrice to A Salted Fish: a guy from Ancient China is in an arranged marriage with a sickly nobleman who, to the reader, is obviously a transmigrator from modern China. I found this incredibly funny and romantic until the moment they got together, when the couple decided to do something really shitty to a trans person and my interest stopped dead. The narrative wasn't aggressively transphobic it just put me off the characters too much.
After I married the disabled war god as my concubine: Oh man I don't remember this super clearly. A historian from modern China ends up as a minor prince in an arranged marriage with an enemy general who has been crippled and married off to him as a punishment. I think I overall enjoyed at least until the Annoying Part kicked in. But I didn't love it and I think some parts bothered me.
Paper Lover: Romance between a guy and the little man trapped inside a mysterious romance app that shows up on his phone. Very odd and silly and in the end not the kind of AI romance I was hoping for. But the poking at dating apps was sometimes pretty funny, the ship were cute enough, and I think I finished it.
A Simple Way To Give Money A contemporary romance about which I remember nothing, not even how much of it I read.
Live action TV: Our Flag Means Death S2
Live action movie: Semantic Error
Animated TV:
Cherry Magic
Heaven Official's Blessing S2
Manga:
Tsurumaki-sensei no Sakka Seikatsu
Haru Kakete, Uguisu (Warbler, Sing of Spring)
Books:
Evil as Humans
Married Thrice to A Salted Fish
After I married the disabled war god as my concubine
Paper Lover
A Simple Way To Give Money
Live action TV:
Our Flag Means Death S2: At once point Cam said "I had my issues with this season but that was really sweet and satisfying and tied up a bunch of loose ends. ...but there's two episodes left and season one ended on a cliffhanger. How about we stop here for a while and enjoy it before everything goes downhill." And it was THE RIGHT CALL, even if the very end of the final episode wasn't a cliffhanger per se. So yeah, the season had it's flaws, but I'm glad I watched it, and if you're interested in queer pirate comedy-drama definitely give the show a shot. Mainly there were some issues with pacing and sometimes frustrating choices about who got focus and whose arcs were dropped/cut short. Specifically it felt like the writers tried very hard to care more about non-male characters but their hearts weren't in it.
Live action movie:
Semantic Error: A cute Korean rom-com. An uptight rules obsessed computer science major, Sangwoo, gets into conflict with his impulsive extrovert fine arts major project partner, Jaeyong, after telling the professor that Jaeyong did no work on their joint assignment. This conflict quickly escalates to a rivalry fueled by repressed UST, before they become creative partners also still fueled by repressed UST. At first I was put off by what a jerk Jaeyong was being, especially when he deliberately disrupted the autistic coded Sangwoo's routine, but in the end decided these two weirdos were perfect for each other and made each other happy. It's sometimes a bit cliched with the red/blue personality clash, like a Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji modern Korea AU (if Wei Wuxian was a 6'3" top), but overall I enjoyed it. Don't let the M rating fool you there's just a few chaste kisses. Interestingly, noone explicitly comments on it being a m/m relationship, and Jaeyong has an openly bisexual female artist bff. There's a slight love triangle with a girl into Sangwoo, but I thought this was handled in a not-too-annoying way.
Animated TV:
Cherry Magic: An anime version of the manga about an awkward, virginal guy who gains telepathic powers on his 30th birthday, and discovers his cool, handsome male coworker has a secret crush on him. Only two episodes in so far but I'm liking it, it's similar to the live action version yet with enough differences in approach to not feel too stale. Fewer fakeout kisses so far, and hopefully less cutting away from actual kisses once it gets to that point.
Heaven Official's Blessing S2: I still can't accurately judge how good this is if you haven't read the book but I liked it! It ends on a pretty bittersweet ambiguous note (the end of Book 1 of 4 of the original novel).
Manga:
Tsurumaki-sensei no Sakka Seikatsu: An author gets together with an oni. Ok-ish.
Haru Kakete, Uguisu (Warbler, Sing of Spring): Romance between a delinquent teen boy and his ex-delinquent teacher. Ok, I found it a bit squicky but noone made me read teacher/student!
Books:
These are all Chinese danmei (m/m webnovels) and I'm starting to get a bit sick of the cliches of the genre, specifically the way that once the couple gets together the story usually ends up wallowing in power/revenge fantasy against one dimensional villains. I think all of these did that to some extent, if I got that far.
Evil as Humans: A supernatural buddy cop rom-com where the free-wheeling, cheerful supernatural cop tries to get his uptight partner to loosen up... and also hide the fact he's an immortal demon creature. I mostly really enjoyed this until the point they got together like 70 chapters in out of 246(!), when it became clear that the rest of the book was going to go in a direction I found annoying, and not just in the usual ways. I really liked the compassion for weirdos and creepy-cute xeno aspects, and the overall tone is moderately light, but there's a lot of gore, angst and bad things happening to children. There's a Weird Deaf Girl who gets to be a person in a way I mostly liked but the treatment of mental illness is Unfortunate.
These next two technically have disabled love interests and the treatment wasn't so terrible I stopped reading but both dudes get better and it's not exactly peak representation.
Married Thrice to A Salted Fish: a guy from Ancient China is in an arranged marriage with a sickly nobleman who, to the reader, is obviously a transmigrator from modern China. I found this incredibly funny and romantic until the moment they got together, when the couple decided to do something really shitty to a trans person and my interest stopped dead. The narrative wasn't aggressively transphobic it just put me off the characters too much.
After I married the disabled war god as my concubine: Oh man I don't remember this super clearly. A historian from modern China ends up as a minor prince in an arranged marriage with an enemy general who has been crippled and married off to him as a punishment. I think I overall enjoyed at least until the Annoying Part kicked in. But I didn't love it and I think some parts bothered me.
Paper Lover: Romance between a guy and the little man trapped inside a mysterious romance app that shows up on his phone. Very odd and silly and in the end not the kind of AI romance I was hoping for. But the poking at dating apps was sometimes pretty funny, the ship were cute enough, and I think I finished it.
A Simple Way To Give Money A contemporary romance about which I remember nothing, not even how much of it I read.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-19 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-19 07:18 am (UTC)Yes! See my recent post! The writing of which helped me come across more things to watch myself, so, thanks :)
no subject
Date: 2024-01-19 03:44 pm (UTC)*Takes my stylish flatcap hat off out of respect*
Also I really really need to catch up with HOB/TGCF
no subject
Date: 2024-01-20 02:16 am (UTC)Thank you! Reviewing is one of those things I sometimes find really tiring but then at other times my brain gets into Review Mode. If you don't have a review mode I can see it being way less fun.
While I was watching TGCF S2 I was thinking about how you'd said you found the non-linearity a bit confusing, and there's definitely some of that (also, a lot of characters have two names, even I still have moments of "Oh god which one is that again"). I am happy to give a little cheat sheet about the relevant characters and countries while trying to avoid too many spoilers, since the actual situation isn't that complicated the show just likes revealing it in subtle hints out of order.