It feels too early for the author to "break the fourth wall" for this story. It's nice and all to let the spirits have their curiosity sated, but other than that this chapter served no purpose other than to let the protagonist know it's not exactly her story which easily could have been conveyed through future chapters.
It's become a "tell" rather than a "show" when you are writing the story, which isn't necessarily bad, but it makes the actual story seem like it's going to wrap up soon when the premise of the protagonist's goals have not been met yet (surviving, leaving the family, enjoying her new life, etc).
At this point, I'm enjoying the scanlation team over the actual series lol.
Am I the only one who thinks it suffers from a "monologue" syndrome of sorts? I love the slapstick humor, the memes, the art, the character cast, and the story, but every chapter until the latest chapter was literally just 3/4 of Melissa monologue. Any portion that wasn't Melissa's monologue was very short-lived.
Nothing ever progresses without the Melissa Monologue TM. For 50 chapters straight. To the point where I feel like it's getting stale. We finally get a peek into Yuri's mind to learn more about the cast without Melissa's internal thought bubbles 24/7 and we finally also get a peek into Nine's background. Things are looking up, hopefully it doesn't relapse back to Melissa's monologues.
Yes! It’s the reason why I left this to sit for a while until today. The art is freaking gorgeous, but whenever Melissa starts monologuing I scroll all the way down just to see how much of the chapter it will take, so I don’t get impatient thinking we’ll move on.
I love her character, I just think it’s the writing that makes it more tedious than it should be. One punch man said it well: “20 words or less!” We already know how shitty the male characters are, you don’t need like 8 pages worth of Melissa’s thoughts to tell us that when we’re already 30+ chapters in! (╯°Д °)╯╧╧
Hm I actually like her monologues? They break down and analyze a lot of the contradictions in those cliche villainess, heroine, otome plots. I appreciate and agree with all of her inner monologues which basically reflect all her thinking and morals and values. To me that coupled wih her actions presents her as a more grounded character. She has a good understanding of where everything stands and based on that can make decisions. Also considering the entire story is basically centered around calling to question the existance of all these characters and how theyre presented; I think it's nice that she really does call out all the fundamental flaws that exist (Which is basically everything from plot to characters lol. You have a narrative which is centered around a "good" heroine and the suposedly attractive male leads and yet their actions seem to say entirely otherwise).
Anyway TLDR: I think the story is basically a deconstruction? critique? of the stereotypical otome game plot so I think it's to be expected that theres a lot of dialogue and analysis lol
Agreed on this as well. The series itself is poking fun at other villainess plots with slapstick humor. She's been very clever and thinks through everything well which isn't bad, in fact I appreciate that over a naïve hasty protagonist, but it's just taking up the majority of every chapter.
My critique is that there's almost no "show," but rather, it's almost all "tell." The cast has been proven to be colorful/diverse because they do not fit the same persona the protagonist herself remembers. I just wish the author had allowed more interactions within this colorful cast without a Melissa monologue because not everything needs to be a one-sided analytical breakdown sometimes. It's feeling hard to enjoy the premise of the story when the tone of every panel is akin to like, sitting through a research seminar. Not to mention the series itself is victim to the very clichés it pokes fun at.
An example I'd like to compare it to is the Villainess Reverses The Hourglass series, where the protagonist is fighting for survival AND still has her monologues to showcase her thinking; however the author quickly incorporates the rest of the cast that gets fleshed out (shows interactions/dialogues from the antagonists and side characters excluding the protagonist entirely/partially). By no means is it the perfect writing, but you as the reader get to experience more from the different perspectives because of how the author utilizes the cast. Beware's cast is equally lovable and colorful, yet they're all treated like characters with zero presence because Melissa just takes up the majority of every panel every chapter.
TLDR: Yes the series pokes fun at villainess tropes in other stories, but the constant analyses are starting to feel like you're attending a lecture with a curriculum instead of enjoying a funny, sarcastic story. For example, instead of Melissa just monologuing about how the antagonists will react, the author could show the events playing out then have Melissa react and be like "well I was prepared for this," like when she introduced Nine as her personal butler to Jack.
This series was a mistake. We're 20 chapters in, and this entire drama is caused by a lack of communication AND miscommunication. Nobody has the balls to say anything. What is going on.
The author has it set up to be a literal circle where the story is going nowhere. It's not even a love square. It's no longer at a point where one person speaking up will clear everything up. All four of the leads need to sit down and talk else it's just drama evolving into more drama.
Protagonist is incredibly dumb for someone who has knowledge of the story and characters beforehand. You want to help your friends and yet you do nothing. Wonderful...
Alice is incredibly naïve for someone with prophetic dreams. Knows Nocton uses black magic, yet doesn't seek to protect herself properly even after she was hypnotized once.
Aaron has no balls. This man out here loving someone and doesn't have the guts to state it so he's torturing himself endlessly. I get that it's hard to confess, but it's getting to a point where it's becoming toxic. If the author set it up that way so Aaron self-destructs, then ok that's fine I guess. Otherwise, author built up this side character then is scrapping him for zero reason.
Nocton? I get that he has trust issues, but that...doesn't justify the fact that he's been not honest. He clearly knows that there's a misunderstanding and doesn't attempt to rectify it. A "cool and lone wolf" personality has an expiration date.
I really want to like this story, but there's just so little to distract myself with to ignore the horrible writing. Yes characters need a conflict to grow, yes communication is never easy but the author put in TIMESKIPS. The fact that the author put in timeskips and STILL DID NOT resolve anything is just poor writing. All that means is that the author is showing that this drama persisted over years and years and there was no progress. The author even continued the story-telling after the timeskip as nothing happened. Zilch. The characters literally wasted time for a few months here and there. Nothing changed. Nobody grew stronger, nobody grew a pair of balls, nobody got smarter. There's a huge lack of substance.
The story has been lackluster, harem is incredibly dumb here, and the protagonist is some wishy-washy-esque man chasing after his dream of red magic when he doesn't have the talent for it. Due to this and his meaningless behavior, he's facing a villain he created himself because he didn't have the heart to kill his enemies.
Literally what in the heck are we as readers are supposed to take away from this series? This may as well just be pure ecchi since nothing else seems to matter.
I remember that it was his ex teacher and the organization behind her that stopped Zeff though? They were the ones who thought it was a good idea to trap someone in their own mind for thousands of years without killing them. Like what do you expect to happen when you do that? Of course the guy would go crazy. And with all that time to think, of course he would think of ways to get revenge.
Vol 4. Chapter 32 has a bit too much dialogue for the author clearly ramping up Zeff's emotions. They made him have a flashback and a inner monologue to confront his past, yet he's posing like some hero taking down a demon lord instead of just slashing him. Furthermore, even after the association mage's arrival, can't remember her name since she's literally just plot fodder, he could have argued for an actual punishment since he was more disgusted towards Grain's personality/actions than the fact he was a mage. Too concentrated on the fact that Grain's a mage when it's his attitude that makes him horrible. Kinda just flew over their heads that even if you take away his magic, he's still gonna be an asshole.
Granted, Ein's evolution was not accounted for, but at the same time Zeff should have been able to move forward quickly.
One thing we both agree on is that the writing is terrible. Protagonist is setup to be someone with past knowledge and has clearly shown how he can act on such knowledge, yet his actions dictate that he is devolving mentally outside of the fact he's kinda oblivious to his harem's advances because he sees them as too young or some crap.
Story has been incredibly lackluster so far, using the standard trope of "lack of communication = more sex leading into drama" this whole time. Yet, whenever I come down to the comments, so many of you are just praising this like it's amazing.
Their relationship is growing to be toxic and it's becoming disappointing because the only driving factor keeping this story going now is because the seme is dumb. If you need to create a character to be dumb in order to spur on something, that already raises flags for the remainder of the storyboard.
I totally agree with you and I’m happy I’m not the only one with the same opinion
I fcking agree
i was thinking the same ┗( T﹏T )┛
omg yes same it’s so frustrating and it’s like why does it feel like this story isn’t going anywhere
Yeah I find it frustrating too. I want to like this series, but it's just so hard.
Glad to know I'm not the only one feeling a bit down about this. Author created a pretty wonderful setting that could have been incorporated more into the story other than just having the antagonist be like "oh he's a cat so he has different sexual needs than your human self" to the seme.
I also feel like it wouldn't have hurt if there was more world-building from the author's part too since we're still relatively early in the story.
This author's works are just so easy on the eyes. Art is very sharp and distinctive from others while the story is very down-to-earth and real. The story-telling has a simple charm to it that doesn't try to exaggerate the setting, but just focuses on the character interactions. No case of a "monologue" syndrome in the characters' thoughts, sex scenes weren't overly dramatized but rather tame and sweet, just enough detail was given to let the characters have a clear profile, and the way they communicated was fitting of their personalities.
I've read and reread this over ten times and I've yet to get sick of it. It's wholesome, but not in a "awwwh it's cute" way, rather a different sense of emotional satisfaction.
i don't think just liking this properly expresses how well-written and accurate i think this review is^^
Yasss Periodt sis(▰˘◡˘▰)
This was really cute in the beginning, but the fact that the main lead's primary love interest is some sort of stuck up asshat that takes advantage of him sexually is just disappointing. It feels like there's no real plot here anymore; it's just about who Jooin flirts or sleeps with next.
Cain doesn't seem completely pure either, but at this point Cain needs a chance.
I've been so tired of stories where one and/or both of the romantic leads was/were too shy, nervous, anxious, or just can't communicate and causes unnecessary drama. Just Jiwon being honest was a breath of fresh air and it seems like the author will take the route towards inner reflection for character development.
This was a good read. It was just so unusual for the genre, that it genuinely piqued my interest with each page. I wasn't sure if this was going to be tragic or not, because every character has scars that act as chains. It wasn't necessarily the happiest ending, but it was a decent, if not good, ending.
I felt like a lot was left out, like how the mother was doing, and how the pair's dynamic even works after they decide to stay together. It's love from the protagonist's end, but from Shinobu's end, it seems to be implied that he's still in the process of relearning his emotions so it's not necessarily love, but rather obligation?
Although this made me question some of my morals, I do not regret having picked this one up.
This went from being extremely pretty and promising to slowly losing interest because of how absolutely naïve and slow the MC is. The pacing is too fast, and all we've learned is that this is starting to either feel like a reverse harem or that the MC has no sense of caution (or both!).
She had a logical reaction to meeting strangers, but where did her bravado go from when she was criticizing the social classes. Being recognized by the royal family right after being warned of said royal family is way too suspicious.
Not sure how she's going to receive character development, but hopefully she can learn to use her magic to survive. Starting to get boring seeing how many authors make their female leads so pitifully dumb and/or unable to adapt well.
Sorry meant to upvote!