First, sorry. This intro will be super long. Keep reading to know why. Or just skip down, if you don’t want to.
I had a poll a while ago on my Twitter about a BL webtoon batch because I was in a BL mood. It took me a while, but I finally got around to read enough to actually make a batch. I know not everyone who reads my blog is interested in same-sex romance, so I while I do want to feature more of this (like GL) and perhaps more LGBTQ+ fiction in general, I don’t want to spam people who definitely don’t like it.
That said, I plan on making another BL webtoon batch soon. As an early apology for that, I’ve added a Toomics VIP membership review at the end.
And now I’d like to make this (not at all) tiny announcement: I have actually started to write BL romance. No, I’m kidding. I’m actually (technically speaking) writing a straight romance, but that’s not the point.
Those who follow me on Twitter might already know, but I launched a web novel almost 2 weeks ago – the Wednesday after my last post. I chose to share it in this batch because, well… People let me know way back when Mini was going to be born that they wanted updates on my life. It’s not about Mini, but it’ll likely affect my blogging anyway. The other reason is that it’s LGBTQ+ themed, so it’s not that far off. The (technically straight) romance isn’t the point, but it’s in there. Also, there are definitely not straight romances in there. Like a BL couple I ship. And a headcanon couple which is totally not happening in the story.
I’m letting you know partly to market (let’s face it, it ends up being marketing the moment I mention it, even if it’s lousy marketing) and mostly because I might choose to change my blogging schedule – either the content I plan on writing about or the frequency (or both).
I also have made a poll which I’d love you to vote on. It’s both on the home page (to the left on PC, but if you use a phone it’s below the posts), and here:
Let me know your thoughts about the matter, folks!
I hope you’ll continue to support me though, and this blog is my baby so I won’t give it up. And I have no plans on getting any nicer just because I’m a kinda published creative writer now. I’m as critical of shitty stuff as I’ve always been because I’ve always been a creative writer too.
Now, please enjoy this batch. And I want to remind you about the Toomics review at the end. Let me know if you have any other services (or themes/genres) you’d like me to review. If you know me before the end of the month I can review any titles on Toomics (that are not 18+). And as always, free stuff is linked to, while paid stuff I can’t profit from is not. I’m such a bitch. But all can be found on Toomics anyway.
The Chart of Priest (by Gob)
Edward is a bishop living in the countryside where he helps people and he is very well-liked. One day he is taken to a house outside the town and he meets Cliff – the hero who defeated the demon king… And died.
I really enjoy a good fantasy romance title, regardless of the gender of the MCs. The Chart of the Priest has a really good story and is free to read on Toomics (if becoming a member, which is free). I definitely enjoy reading it. I hate waiting a week for a new chapter so I wait a few weeks to get myself a batch to read and fawn over the cute couple as I learn more about each of them, and the society they live in.
I also have to say the art is absolutely gorgeous and it’s an extremely well-paced piece of art. I know I don’t really go into detail on these posts, but I just really feel a need to praise the art in particular. It’s extremely beautiful. Like so beautiful. I’d pick it up at the store just for the art-pretty. After I made sure it wasn’t porn, at least.
Yes, I sometimes am very biased towards art. Usually not. But most of the time art is the only thing I actually see before I pick up a story because I don’t read summaries or reviews. I pick something because “it feels right”. It could be the weight of a book, the art, the title, the amount of text at the back of a book… But I intuitively pick what I read (and watch) rather than research. I make a lot of regrettable decisions that way, but at least that means interesting reviews… But I digress.
You can read it here and I honestly recommend you do.
Introduction to Marriage (by Dumbo)
The photography major Wynn Jung and the fashion major Eli Lee got paired in their Introduction to Marriage class due to random selection. They are now supposed to be a couple, but how will that go?
Premise? Awesome! Execution? Eh… I don’t know. The pacing is weird because of the conversations and while it starts really good it just kind of gets cut super short and it’s like they just randomly fell in love. I don’t know, people. I want to like it, but I also don’t want to like it. It would have been so much better if it had been longer.
Please Draw Me, Love! (by SIMYA)
Aiden is a huge fan of Angel Pon, a writer who handles every genre. Now he has gotten the opportunity to work with Angel Pon as the illustrator. But it turns out Angel Pon is the neighbour who gives him sweets every once in a while. He’s absolutely delighted to meet his idol! And shocked when it turns out the work will be BL…
This one is actually pretty funny, but omg there are like no women in this work. It’s one thing when a work has just male important cast, but you still see female mob characters or the like. It’s another when there are essentially no existing female characters. Not the best work, but so far a pretty good read. Regrettably forgettable though in the batch. Or maybe that’s a good thing compared to some of these titles.
Wild City (by Koon)
Jimmy is a werewolf and is not welcome anywhere, except in Wild City where he works as a mailman. He really loves Taylor, a handsome and extremely popular doctor. Taylor cares for him back, but his fear of society is holding Taylor back…
This is pretty good. But I feel like the turns in it are a bit too quick. Something needs to happen all the time! Apparently. I’d prefer if it took it down a few notches to be more like a wave, but it’s more just a straight line. The art is pretty good but at times it looks like the characters have an invisible barrier around them so they can’t touch. And why the hell does Jimmy have two sets of ears? Like wtf is that about?
This work did border to NSFA, but it’s off-screen/non-graphic sexy stuff so on a scale from slightly uncomfortable (1) to 50 Shades of NSFA (10), it’s around 3-4 on the discomfort level. Just putting it out there in case someone else is uncomfortable with sexy stuff (or specifically sexy stuff between men, or men and male werewolves).
We Only Held Hands (by Nam Eunkyung)
What if you could make children just by sleeping with held hands? And it was randomly decided who would carry the child? That sounds so ridiculous! But to Terry Ki it’s not ridiculous, because on his 20th birthday that’s the ability he got. Not only that, but he saved a stranger from an attempted suicide and both were unconscious with their hands held. What should Terry do now? Now he might be pregnant with another man’s baby!
The premise of this is so ridiculous it’s funny. But I mean, how else would two males have children? The alternative doesn’t seem very safe for Anny, so I’m okay with this. Anyway, despite the ridiculous premise, it’s surprisingly deep. Terry deals with blaming Mike for this unwanted baby while Mike doesn’t at all get what he has done to be hated so, and the two have to deal with that while Mike’s ex is being a total butthole. It does leave me with a “Isn’t this pretty much accidental rape though?” kind of feeling, which I don’t appreciate. Maybe I’m too sensitive about stuff like this? Though, to be fair, I’ve read something far more terrible with actual accidental rape. The discomfort aside, I liked the first season. Season 2 seems like it might be inconsistent with season 1…
This is marked as Yaoi on anime-planet, but idk about that. There was like one kinda uncomfortable scene that I remember, but it wasn’t explicit or anything, so idk? Wild City above is marked shounen ai, but it had more sexy scenes? It’s maybe a 2 on the discomfort level simply because of the yaoi tag.
EXTRA REVIEW
Toomics VIP Membership
So all of these are available on Toomics, which is a free service by itself. It’s originally Korean, if I got it right, but has a global site. It has both apps and a website, and at least the Android App is family safe. The website has that Family Safe on by default, but it can be turned off. If so, the site shows you which titles are 18+ and which aren’t. (Yeah, I checked. It’s pretty visible too, so little to no risk of accidentally getting porn when you wanted fluff.)
You can log in with an email or social media. Being a Line user, I chose to use Line, but I could have logged in with Google (my second option) or Facebook (my third option), or just created an account through email. The free membership means two things: You can favourite titles, check recently read and rate chapters/episodes; but you can also read member-only chapters. The Chart of Priest is member-only (except the three newest chapters) for instance.
A VIP membership is essentially a subscription, like Crunchyroll. The upside is that it’s all you can read while you have it, but the downside is that you lose access if you stop paying. I’m pretty sure that includes what you’ve already read even if it’s no longer marked VIP. I like re-reading stuff, so to me not having it is a downside, usually. But you also don’t pay like 10 dollars for 5 minutes of reading.
I got the 1 month non-recurring VIP membership and that is 12 USD for this batch. Oof. My wallet hurts. Hence I’ll make the most of it and READ EVERYTHING. (Thankfully I got some donations for my birthday last month, so it was covered.) I can’t find the price of the recurring subs, but I know you can get a 3-month sub, and I think there’s 12-month sub. Pretty standard.
The downside is that if you’re multilingual, you can’t get a VIP membership that spans over several languages. So you have to choose a language. I only know English well enough to review content, so the choice was easy, but if you, for instance, know English and Spanish and don’t have a preference… Good luck.
So, is it worth it? Depends. Do you like Korean webcomics (PPL IT’S NOT ANIME STORIES OR ANIME YOU READ *cough* I might have look at the Facebook reviews…) and want to read a lot of them? Then yes. It’s about a tankoubon a month and you can read more than that (both good and… not so good), but I don’t think getting a recurring option is worth it. Maybe get the 3-month option once or so, read like your life depends on it to find the best ones, and then get a new sub to catch up after a few months, and maybe look at the new ones. So as a sub… Too expensive.
The app and website are a thousand times better than Crunchyroll Manga though. I mean, you can fav stuff for fuck sake. Just that is a billion times better than CR. And it’s clear which day things are being posted. But you could just as well go with Line’s free webtoon app/website to fav stuff you read and so keep track on them. But Toomics seems to be just a tad better in terms of the interface and its’ clear what I last read in the story on both website and app. Webtoon isn’t as good with that. But still… It’s really on the pricy side.
So… eh… Recommended for occasional use? Too pricy for a monthly sub for sure.
That was it for today! I hope you enjoy this surprisingly long batch with some extra spice (lollol). Again, let me know before the month ends if there’s a comics on Toomics you want to see a review of. I’ll gladly read any shit (both good and bad) for you as long as it’s not 18+.
What would you like to see a review of next? Let me know in a comment!
And don’t forget to vote on the current poll on the home page!
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