179 | various manga, and two light novels who titles are too long for this subject line

[straightforwardly]

► anonimanga has been so bad for my productivity as of late—not so much because of the time I actually spend on there, but because people keep mentioning things that sound relevant to my interests or remind me of things that I’d been meaning to check out and then whoops there go a few more hours.

Namely, my manga-to-read list has expanded by something like 4-5 titles. Of those, I’ve now read all the translated chapters of Six Half (which was fun, but not anything particularly noteable), and the first five chapters of Last Game, which is h i l a r i o u s. Especially that moment in chapter five where, after 10 years of knowing one another / ~5 years of friendship, the male lead asks the female lead to call him by his given name… and her response is, “What was your name again?” DYING. It’s so good. He’s so arrogant, and she’s just perfectly designed to deflate his ego without her realizing it. It’s so good. ♥ I confess that I have no idea how the plot is supposed to last 56 chapters, but I’m willing to be taken along for the ride. The main characters are fantastic.

► I’ve also now started reading light novels because of anonimanga? Two of them, in particular. The discussion about Common Sense of A Duke’s Daughter really intrigued me. It’s...not very well written, to put it lightly, but it’s very iddy, if your id encompases such things as “character finds themself in a position of power and uses that power to build social services and win over their enemies while doing so”, which. Mine does, apparently. It was pretty slow to catch my attention at first, but I was determined to at least reach the economic bits mentioned in the above thread. And then the kingdom-building started, and I got won over. ♥ On the character interaction side of things, I especially loved seeing Berne realizing that his sister is competent and skilled. Also, is it me, or are Iris and Tanya incredibly shippy? There’s some major loyalty kink going on there, at least on Tanya’s side.

► I also got reminded of The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love, which I first heard about through FFA, and decided to check it out. This one I’ve been reading a bit more slowly, usually on my phone right before I go to sleep. As of right now, I’m a little less than halfway through the currently translated chapters. My feelings on this one are a bit more ambiguous. I found Du Ze (the “reader” of the title) off-putting in the opening chapters, and his moments of homophobia (e.g., thinking a slash doujinshi can “make” people gay, telling Xiu [the “protagonist” of the title] that men “don’t do that sort of thing together”) are rather nauseating)—honestly, if those moments weren’t infrequent, and if I didn’t know that this was actually a m/m LN, I probably would have dropped it long ago. As it is, it’s souring a story that I’m otherwise enjoying.

I’m also not too crazy about he looks at the female characters—as potential “harem members” for Xiu—but I do like how the story itself seems to be trying to deconstruct the standard harem plot of the story he’s in (for those who might not be familiar with this one—it’s one of those “reader falls into the world of his favorite book” type of stories), and how it’s taken the time to develop the female characters into more fully-realized characters within the constraints of their tropes. I mean, they’re minor side-characters, and so far none of them have stuck around in the plot for very long, so there’s not a lot of attention being paid to them, but still.

For instance—Violet and Alice were, in the original version of “Mixed Blood” (the novel the protagonist fell into), a trope I find particularly nauseating—lesbian twin sisters whose love for one another are clearly meant to be titillating before they’re ultimately “straightened” by the protagonist. But, instead, Xiu has no interest in them, and there’s this very sweet bonding moment between him and Violet, where her telling him about her feelings for Alice—which the narrative seems to be endorsing as something genuine and real, not just for another person’s pleasure—helps him realize his own feeling for Du Ze, and they leave the encounter with a measure of respect for one another.

Yeah. It’s a thin line that it’s treading, between stock tropes and developing the characters within those tropes, but I think it’s doing it pretty well.

That conversation also led to this really iddy scene, where Xiu takes advantage of a moment where Du Ze can’t hear him to speak his feelings outloud.

Amidst the steam, the expression on Xiu’s face was ambiguous: “I thought about this for a long time.”

This person is important – why is this person important?

“If caring is the same as liking.”

This person is different.

“If wanting to control something is liking.”

The man must stay with him all the time.

“If wanting to monopolize something is liking.”

This man is his.

“Well, Du Ze,” he smiled and said to his utterly silent and only audience. “I like you.”

— Chapter 26: Soak in the hot springs, talk about life

I love male yanderes. *_* And he just gets better as the story goes on. ♥_♥ Xiu is definitely a large part of why I’m reading this; he’s so great. I just wish Du Ze didn’t bother me so much—especially since there are seeds of a genuinely great character in there. A silly and excitable person who is so socially awkward that he can’t show his feelings on his face or talk much about what he thinks/feels, leading to people thinking he’s a stoic, serious, mysterious person?? Sign me up! But then... =/

Finally, Dan’s second appearance (when they were trying to hatch the phoenix egg) seriously gave me Garfield the Deals Warlock* vibes. His wanting to trade what they needed for a vial of Xiu’s blood definitely strengthened that impression, but it was really his sudden appearance + the “do you want to make a deal/transaction with me?” kind of talk that brought the comparison to mind initially. ...I don’t think Garfield is secretly a god, though.

*From The Adventure Zone.