Category: Reviews & Thoughts

Batch #18: Mystery BL

It’s been a while since I posted a batch. Or anything at all. It’s not been a lot of posts this year, but here is another one nonetheless and it’s not SVSSS, although I will post reviews of volumes 3 and 4 sooner rather than later.

Believe it or not, mystery and crime are honestly my fav genres, aside from historical fiction, so it’s probably odd I don’t write about more mystery titles. But I’m here to share my thoughts on a few of different flavours today!

These are all available on BiliBili because it’s currently my go-to for webcomics. I guess I’m mostly into manhua right now in terms of comics. Lol.

Psychomania
When Ming Shu is out shipping clothes there’s suddenly a hostage situation at the library. He hurries over to find a woman willing to exchange for the hostage and it’s his chance to apprehend the criminal. The case is straightforward and not for his unit to handle. They, instead, handle a different murder after Ming Shu and his roommate and childhood friend Xiao Yu’an stumble upon a corpse.

This is based on a novel, and I think it maybe covers just one arc? I haven’t actually read the novel so it’s hard to say. Either way, it seems to be finished because the end was strangely rushed and it didn’t feel like it was the end of the story, just an arc. What I do know is that it’s based on the sequel to another novel, and we get to see flashbacks to what happened in that one, I believe.

It wasn’t the greatest, but I found the mystery very interesting nonetheless and the art was generally good. And who can really say no to gay policemen?

Continue reading “Batch #18: Mystery BL” →

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System vol 2

This is part of my growing number of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu posts. If you want to find more, check out the author tag here.

Releasing three beautiful flowers had been a purely unthinking mistake. Shen Qingqiu had certainly never planned to fill in the gap left behind himself. He had that old feeling of having accidentally picked up the wrong script—it made him vaguely suspicious that that scam of a System was still around.

Three years passed with Shen Qingqiu living a perfectly peaceful life — when he wasn’t out travelling, he might have given his disciples some guidance, and now and then he needed his medicine as well. One day, though, he got a sudden quest and to his horror, it turned out this quest not only was demons feeding themselves, Luo Binghe has already returned from the Endless Abyss. Now he had to get away and quick! But things are never easy for Shen Qingqiu and even after changing his hardware, he didn’t get rid of that virus of a system haunting him.

Continue reading “The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System vol 2” →

The Missing Piece

Just want to say that this blog is surviving another year, as I just paid the annual costs a little while ago. My wallet hurts and the fact I also ordered more BL made it hurt even further. But worth it!

…I think?

I will also, probably, post reviews on any day of the week at any time starting today. My life has changed a lot over these past years, and I need to adjust my posting to that… even though it’s been difficult to admit, at the end of the day.

A faint smile appeared at the corners of Ji Mingxuan’s mouth. His voice was beyond gentle: “Shen Mo, did you call the wrong name?”

Shen Mo finally remembered what he was supposed to do. He approached Ji Mingxuan and held his hand. “Mingxuan.”

“Yes.” Ji Mingxuan leaned affectionately toward him, whispering, “Don’t forget our relations.”

“Lovers,” Shen Mo smoothly answered.

Fake lovers, he added in silence.

For the past three years Shen Mo has been in a fake relationship with Ji Mingxuan, to please Ji Mingxuan’s sister Ji An’an. But when she returns after three years abroad, so does her boyfriend — that is, Shen Mo’s ex-boyfriend — Zhou Yang. Shen Mo is reminded of his past, while confused by his contract lover Ji Mingxuan, and bothered by the ex he has since long let go of.

Continue reading “The Missing Piece” →

Batch #17: BL Webcomics

I know I’ve said the nest post was supposed to be The Living Waters, but I’ve been unwell and tired these past months, and haven’t had the energy to finish the review. It’s felt like a heavy weight on my shoulders, even, which doesn’t help when I need a nap every few hours to get by. So I wanted to do something easy, hence a batch post! The theme is BL webcomics that are adaptations of Chinese novels I’ve read. Or, you know, BL webcomics. AGAIN.

On a different note, I had a poll on Twitter about tags a while ago. I asked if I should add genre and/or age tags. Genre tags seemed to be a given, but age tags I was a bit hmm on. Since I’ve already had so many posts and I work on this site entirely on my own, I can’t do any major addition or changes like this in the tagging system after this, so I’ve decided to only add genre tags. Demographics and the like won’t be a tag. I apologise to anyone who anted them, but as usual, I’ll be writing its content is unsuitable for a younger audience.

Fake Slackers
The two school tyrants of the east and west building — whose exams score place first and second from the bottom, coincidentally meet for the first time in a street fight during summer break. When the second year begins, the students of class 2-3 are terrified out of their minds, because the violent tyrants are in the same class. Not only that… their seats end up being next to each other! They are surely going to fight! But appearances are not always as they seem…

I love the novel this has been adapted from. I’ve read Fake Slackers 3 or 4 times in a year, I think. So, you know, I really love this one. It’s currently on hiatus, which isn’t a problem for me because I’ve already read the story so much I know it pretty much by heart. But I could see how it would be frustrating to others, especially since it’s pretty much at the very beginning of the story. I think the art is really good and the way how the people in the app get chibi characters is so nice. The translation seems slightly iffy, though, with some variations in screen names and so on.

You can read Fake Slackers on BiliBili, and I’ll try to get a review of the novel up sooner or later.

Continue reading “Batch #17: BL Webcomics” →

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System Vol 1

This is part of my growing number of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu posts. If you want to find more, check out the author tag here.

Also, I’m sorry for the lack of update, my health hasn’t been very good at all and I’ve been busy with working on stuff. But I’m happy to announce that, believe it or not, I tied third for an award as a queer author of youth (YA/NA) fiction.

“Dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel!”

After cursing out the novel Proud Immortal Demon Way and its author with his last breath, Shen Yuan woke up in an unfamiliar place. Having promised himself not to ask anything stupid if he ever transmigrated, he’s quick to adapt… and realises to his horror he’s the villain with the most miserable end in the very novel he cursed out, and with an annoying system telling him to improve the novel to boot. Can he improve the story, fill plot holes and not kill himself in the process?

Continue reading “The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System Vol 1” →

Madou Soshi Season 1 Episode 6

Note: This is part of my growing number of posts of works and adaptations of works by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Because of the release of the novels Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official’s Blessing, all reviews related to Mo Xiang Tong Xiu can be found under the author’s tag. Madou Soshi is the Japanese title, and this is about the Japanese audio drama with Japanese names.

SPOILER WARNING! If you have yet to read Mo Dao Zu Shi (novel or manhua), watch the animated adaptation or read my previous posts, this post may contain spoilers of past episodes. I suggest checking out the Madou Soshi tag for summaries of past episodes.

To think you wouldn’t tell me about such a good place to heal the wounds. Geez! AH! So cold!

I came here to cultivate, not to heal my—. Don’t play in the water!

But it’s cold! Brrrr! Way too cold!

Don’t swim!

I just want to get to where you are; it seems warmer over there.

Ran Gishin (CV: Toshiyuki Morikawa) brought Gi Musen (CV: Tatsuhisa Suzuki) and Kou Chou (CV: Hikaru Midorikawa) with them to exterminate water ghouls, though Ran Bouki (CV: Satoshi Hino) questions it. Are these people really capable of handling such a dangerous task?

Continue reading “Madou Soshi Season 1 Episode 6” →

Drunks

This consists of two short stories. The titular story, Drunks, is about a man who is dragged out to drink. When he’s on his way home, he meets a woman who bites him. He wakes up the next, thinking it was a dream, but turns out he really came across a vampire.

The second is titled Tick Tock, and relationship between a woman who had been asleep in cryostasis for over a century and the descendent of her brother.

Continue reading “Drunks” →

Batch #16: Webcomics

This is the second of two BiliBili Comics focused batches, meaning it’s the continuation from last week. With this batch, I’ve covered all the genres they’ve listed. You can read some basic stuff about BiliBili Comics in my Reading Platforms Master Post.

If you’re interested in a similar batch, let me know what platform(s), and I’ll dig into it very happily. Free options are easier, but not necessary, though, more importantly, I prefer something not yet listed on the apps in the Master Post, so I can expand it.

The Martial Emperor’s Life After Seclusion
Ling Ge comes from a different world, and though he never had a master, his martial arts abilities quickly grew and became amazing. However, he went into seclusion 10 years ago after defeating invaders of Eastern China. Now he’s been lured out by a girl who wanted to join a sect, and, to protect her, he joined as well, pretending not to be as strong as he truly is. But before long, it seems trouble is knocking on his door, and by dealing with that, he ended up inviting more.

I have to admit I had no positive expectations on this because it’s a harem manhua, but I was not only pretty pleasantly surprised — I enjoy that he’s canonically a feminine-looking guy. It annoys me that the girls have determined that he’s a pervert, even though he’s far from bad in any way, and I swear, those girls are far more perverted than he is. Far from a favourite series, but I like it.

Continue reading “Batch #16: Webcomics” →

Batch #15: Webcomics

I promised another batch a while ago. This isn’t a BL batch, but rather a batch of some comics on BiliBili Comics, the international site for BiliBili, and is the first out of two. For these batches, I tried to pick titles to cover every genre they have listed. Since they seem to have some a tag system, though, I can’t guarantee that if one looks through all genres one by one, there will be at least one I’ve reviewed. I used the tags when I found something to check the genre off, out of convenience.

Worth noting is that BiliBili, instead of hunting down scanlations to have the removed and make the groups stop, contacting them about their translations, and I hear they compensated the groups for them (and pay those who continue while working for them). This is not the first time a publisher has picked up a fan translation, but it’s novel to see it at a larger scale, as with BiliBili Comics. Some of these may be a bit of varying quality, from the looks of it with some name variations. Another note is that they’re all free.

I’ve added BiliBili Comics to my Reading Platform Master Post, but I only have access to the site, so if anyone can fill me in the information I don’t have, that would be great!

My Young Lady is a NEET
Gu Yuan is hired to prepare Li Su for her marriage with Han Qingyang to connect the family businesses. But he is shocked to find out that the young lady lives in a pigsty and won’t even enter the sun. Now he has to transform this NEET to a prim and proper, but it seems like an impossible task.

At first this story is just comedy and missing a bit of the romance in romcom, but that comes later. I had no expectations and I’m glad, because it’s a pretty funny series. I enjoy they characters’ development as individuals too and that might be the main reason I like it. The comedy is just a great bonus, and the romance is pretty sweet too.

Continue reading “Batch #15: Webcomics” →

Heaven Official’s Blessing

If you don’t know how to continue living, then live for me. If you don’t know what meaning there is continuing to live, then for now, please use me as your reason to live, and treat me as your pillar to support you in life.

Xie Lian was once upon a time the noble Crown Prince of Xian Le, a country that disappeared 800 years ago. He was born under a lucky star, yet after ascending to godhood at a young age, everything seemed to go entirely against him. After 800 years, Xie Lian ascends a third time, but he has no worshippers nor merits, and he goes to the mortal realm, where he meets a knowledgeable youth in red…

Continue reading “Heaven Official’s Blessing” →