"but then she saw the light" so that mean she's now...y'know... (≧∀≦)
i do not, can you explain please ?
She has become a rotten apple.
i still do not get it
For goodness sake- she's one of us now.
she is a fujoshi ?
yeah
sooo... we are rotten apples ?
That's why I've been looking gross lately
Haha. . .
Cuz rotten apples are gross. . .
I'll go now
(novel links are in the comment section of this topic! the review ended up being quite long lol)
the novel that this manhua is based on is one of my favourite danmei (bl) novels. the love i have for this novel is on par with Mo Dao Zu Shi, which says a lot given how much of an impact and success mdzs had in 2019. i guess the reason stems largely from the fact that i'm a sucker for historical fiction, especially war fiction, and war plays a major plot point in this story, in addition to the love between the mc & ml. i'll go ahead and list out some things that i absolutely love about the novel, with some warnings:
- historical/war fiction
- the romance btwn the mc & ml is akin to romeo & juliet
- with that being said, there is a lot of angst especially later on into the story, but also a lot of sweet & fluffy moments in between— and it's a happy ending!
- the comedy is off the charts
- xiao yu'an (mc) is proactive! he's not one of those dumb, perpetually weak mcs and he's got a positive, almost silly attitude that makes him likeable. honestly he's a cinnamon roll who's trying his best, please protect him. behind his smile he's got an angsty backstory though, so watch out for that
- yan he qing (ml) is one of the nicest, most realistic i've read— he's gentle, quiet, caring; doesn't force the mc and even looks out for him, plus he's sexy ;)
- mc & ml maintain a respectful & playful relationship throughout despite the odds of their backgrounds, though they do encounter a lot of misunderstandings which leads to angst, but it's all resolved eventually
- although this is a transmigration novel, there's NO System! (System; i.e., the invisible voice that guides the mc and adds/minus points that can affect the mc's survival rate) hence, the mc can do whatever he does— though all actions have consequences...
- there's a side gay couple and a lesbian couple ヾ(☆▽☆)
- in a lot of "harem" stories the author doesn't show us what happens to the ladies that don't end up becoming accepted into the ml's "harem" (bc the ml falls in love with mc so the harem never happens duh), but in this one, the author actually takes time to show us some of the happy endings of the harem ladies/men and i love that
- some characters that you might end up having a soft spot for might go crazy, get really hurt, or d-word in the future, so please beware of the angst— like i said, war plays a major plot point, and with war comes death
- i said i'm a sucker for historical fiction, but did i mention that i'm also a sucker for angst? seriously it can get really heartbreaking and tearjerking at times, but it all gets better, i promise. in my opinion, it's worth it.
!!! FLUFFY SPOILERS BELOW !!!
since i mentioned a lot of angst, here are some fluff scenes between mc & ml to reel you in:
- our oblivious mc keeps trying his best to pair ml up with the female leads but ml only has eyes for him
- ml has a HUGE thing for mc's smile. it's mentioned several times in the story that ml loves seeing mc smile; it's a sight ml wishes to etch into his memory forever
- at one point, mc calls ml "husband", and ml calls mc "wife" back indulgently
- ml falls in love first... mc is oblivious since he believes that ml will have a harem in the future
- at one point mc is taking care of the injured ml, but due to reasons mc is disguising himself as a girl. ml later finds out that mc has been taking care of him all along, and wants to stay with mc longer. but his wound is healing rapidly due to his protagonist halo. so what does ml do? he worsens his own wound! Σ( ￣□￣||)
- ml gifts mc a jade pendant that his mother had passed down to him while mc gifts ml a jade flute, because he knows that ml knows how to play it. in the "original" story, ml gifts the jade pendant to the first female lead as a sign of love, and plays the jade flute for his lovers. but here ml only wants mc to have the jade pendant and he only plays the flute for the mc— hence, symbolism of their love.
- (what happens to those gifts will break your heart but also eventually mend them)
- a matchmaker points out that mc has a thing for ml
- when ml confesses, mc panics and asks ml "what kind of love is it? the brotherly kind of love or the romantic kind of love?" and ml pins mc down, then proceed to say just what kind of love it is— by going into explicit detail how he wants to "do" the mc
⁄(⁄ ⁄·⁄ω⁄·⁄ ⁄)⁄
- i can't really elaborate this without giving out important spoilers, so i'll just say this: mc & ml shop for wedding clothes at one point. mc promises to "do it" with ml after they have a wedding, and ml rushes the wedding clothes preparations to just one day (meaning he wants to get married asap so they can do it XD)
- mc (since he came from the modern world), teaches ml "i love you" (in english)— it's their secret phrase of love
!!! end spoilers !!!
NOVEL LINKS
total of 210 chapters + 25 extras
english translations (ongoing, as of 20th Jan 2020): https://blackbox-tl.com/novels/hsav/
mtl/machine translation (completed, tho the translation can get pretty bad & confusing): https://www.mtlnovel.com/how-to-survive-as-a-villain/
read in chinese: https://m.shubl.com/book/book_detail/100087513
I swear, this story is like a combination of MDZS and Scum Villian (๑•ㅂ•)و✧ And this is now my fave novel <33 Ahhhh i cant wait to read it <3 thank you for this info! If only I can read chinese...
Btw I have a question... since its BL and they got married.... did they do ‘it’ ? I mean did the author wrote the ‘it’? ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
yes they do! (≧∀≦) it's funny because they kept making plans to do it but don't get to go all the way thanks to the mc's poor health at some point. i also gotta warn u that something super angsty happens before they get the chance to actually do it...
ah wait soz i could've worded that better... i meant that when they first do it, they don't go all the way at first due to the mc's poor health. but when they finally do it (after major angst), they go all the way (▰˘◡˘▰)
Ahh that angst will surely break my kokoro :’) dont tell me, is it misunderstandings? Gosh I wish I can understand chinese. It will take so long for eng trans for be completed
T-They did it!! Ack I wanna read that part lmao. Their relationship is just so adorable and my love for them is the same as WangXian (looking forward to the fluffs and papapa lolololol)
yes :"(( misunderstandings, leading to major character death... well, i'll stop there. but if you have read and could handle "The Husky and his White Cat Shizun" (2ha for short), this is a piece of cake ^^ maybe u could try mtl? i have a twitter friend who's reading it by mtl, and they google translated the mtl parts that don't make sense. just be careful of the character names, apparently they get translated into smtg weird haha.
or in the meantime if you enjoyed MDZS, i'll recommend "Heaven Official's Blessing" (TGCF), if you haven't read it! it's by the same author and (currently) her latest work. the author's writing improved and in my opinion tgcf was better that mdzs (in terms of plot execution, development & writing style), and though there is no papapa, it's perfect without it ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~ it's also fully translated :"D
...
*dies of cuteness*
i was surprised by how much i loved this. funny, because i tried getting into this at least twice— probably sometime in 2018, but it just didn't click. mostly because i couldn't tolerate the weird, twisted vibes from the sunbae back then. the early chapters also made me assumed the baker, goong ha, had some stalking tendencies. (SPOILER: he doesn't). fast-forward to 2020, i found this in my "want to read" list and decided to give it a try again, and realised that i still wanted to know their backstories and ending despite feeling like every character in this webtoon needed to see a therapist asap. read through it all in one seating— it's pretty solid!
i saw a lot of comments shitting on the side couples— back then and even now... but tbh after reading this i like the side couples more than the main one, LOL. especially you jin (pretty guy) & jin moran (grey-haired dude). i had a lot of sympathy towards you jin bc of what he's been through and i really just want him to find happiness like the main couple. (and you jin's flity, shameless attitude reminded me so much of wei wuxian from mo dao zu shi; it's an amazing novel if you've yet to check it out!). you jin's arc with moran was a delight to read! ofc finding out that moran is a seke made it even cuter, i mean he just looks so delicious, can't blame you jin ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
onto the lesbian couple: that was a surprise, but i loved them! you don't see lesbian couples in a gay webtoon often and they were a breath of fresh air. in general i really liked goong ha's sister, how her character can be viewed as a villain by their shitty-ass father, by goong ha and probably by the rest of the world, but at the same time it's simply a role she had to adopt to survive in her family, to get what she wants because no one ever stopped to bother giving her what she wanted. honestly my favourite moment in this webtoon was when her girlfriend told her she didn't need to be a villain for her— because while the rest of the world may think that goong ha's sister is a villain, the person whom she truly loves and cares for doesn't, and i think, that alone is enough.
i loved that dong baek is doing a good job moving on with his life after what jin kyo did to him. ngl although i spent half the time hating jin kyo for what he did i also felt kinda sorry and i'm curious about his childhood life and what led him to be so deprived of love that turned him into the manipulative, twisted person he's become. i mean normal humans don't keep asking "do you love me?" over and over again like some mad man. not to mention his poor wife who never got screentime at all, not even a single panel— i wonder if she knows what he's really like.
anyway i'm glad everyone found happiness (or, at the very least, moved on) after the shit they've all been through. would've given this a full 5 stars if it didn't feel kinda incomplete, mostly on jin kyo's part.
y'all acting like he hasn't been killing humans and demons alike for a hundred years, what made you think he'd spare a damn cat ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
I'm sorry bro, but people can't really measure up to a cat that just saved people's lives
bro it's not that serious so it doesn't matter
I love wasting my time ;)
'Twas a joke, my dude, and it just went woosh
I guess I just don't have the 20/20 vision then ╮(￣▽￣)╭
you're good. let's stay in 2019 together!
That's... just not how vision works... Like, I thought we had a thing here. It was special, full of timeless jokes. And look at what you've done, ruined it. We're back to stage one, woosh.
I am terribly sorry, would you like me to go back in time and fix my mistake? But I am already in the past, how will I make it back? Can you, who is oh so smart, enlighten me?
I'm just joking with you, pulling your leg, and you have the audacity to call me dumb? I'm lightening the mood, and you write this nonsense? After I jokingly complimented a cat?
I find this incredibly hilarious right now. I mean, now you're just resorting to cursing, but please, continue.
Oh sweetie, it's so sad and amusing to see you trying to insult me. So I'm going to continue to laugh at your futile efforts and continue to goad you. Go on, friend, please, bless me with your terrible grammar and toddler insults.
can you stop camping under my topic with unrelated chatter, it's annoying especially you @ blood bonk. get a life, stop being so butthurt over harmless jokes
hm? last i recall i'm not the one spamming emojis and resorting to name-calling people who don't sit well with me. how old are you, five? take your own advice; why don't you stfu under my topic before telling others to stfu
Lol, your vocabulary is so limited. Last I checked, "sweetheart" was along my lines, sweetheart. What? So I disappear for a few days. That won't stop me from laughing at you when you can't even tag who you're trying to argue with.
Aw, you poor thing, you must be failing English then. Sorry, but say hello to McDonald's lol. You've even pulled yourself into another page of replies on someone else's comment, which shouldn't even be a thing unless you're discussing rape in the comment sections of those gay manga I see you're reading.
i was calling you out, hypocrite. muting this, you ain't worth my time
Dude you were literally getting butthurt over ppl's jokes and felt the need to weigh in everyone's comment lol. Calm down ╮(￣▽￣)╭
Oh? You're a guy? Interesting. They say male brains mature slower than females, and you, you cussing little pig, are a prime example (〜￣ ▽￣)〜
Like, child, take a break. I've given you ten days to come up with a good response, so I hope you have something at least a little better than your meaningless swearing and inaccurate "statements."
i didn't see a problem with the latest chapter. first of all, this is literally a manga centred around humanoid animals. sure they look human but they have animal characteristics, which already suggests beastiality. the fact that you chose to read something like this means that you should know well the implications behind these humanoid animals and what you're subjecting yourself to— as in, no matter how human they look, they're still animals. it's probably easier on the eyes and your moral conscience if they have sex in human form but at the end of the day you can't deny they're animals.
it's normal to be weirded out especially since dude just turned into a full frontal wolf and beastiality happened but to complain that it's too graphic?? the art literally showed NOTHING lmao not even a dick or any form of penetration whatsoever, the whole "mating" part was implied and if you choose to focus on the wolf's dick (or lack thereof) it sounds like a you problem. clearly the author wanted to show us the bond and love that kaede and ren share (see: kaede's flashbacks of the two of them together), that the bond was strong enough for kaede to want to save ren, instead of some beastiality shit.
i'm just saying: you chose to read this, so own up to it instead of complaining about it being too graphic when it's not.
for the record i'm not into beastiality and am not trying to defend nor support it; i just think it's unreasonable for readers to draw the line at a decent story that has implied sex with a wolf (whom the rabbit is married to) only to turn around and tolerate weirder, graphic porn between humans/humanoid animals with shitty plot.
THIS
EXACTLY! I was confused why people commented on the penetration scene (duck yall it's not sex) when it wasn't fetishized at all??? In fact I found it touching. Bestiality is all means wrong but they're animals here and wasn't even for the sake of pleasure but it was to savehis life. You guys are just sexualizing it when not even a lighsaber dick was seen and that says something
as someone who's read the novel and gone through everything there's currently in the manhua, audio drama, donghua (anime) and live adaptation, my advice still is: read the novel! it's the original for a reason, and i say that because it stays true to the story, hence you don't have to worry about missing any juicy details. also, the translation is really good for a chinese novel and the worldbuilding and character depth are A++!
with that being said, the donghua and live action are definitely worth checking out too— it's still counted as a loose adaptation, but the visuals are stunning and it sets a good-pace for something that's been adapted from a written work. i'd recommend non-chinese speakers who find it hard to memorise the names to maybe check out either one of these first, so that you can familiarise yourself with the characters. i first came across what there was available of the manhua earlier this year and after reading it, dove straight into the novel (but then again i understand chinese so maybe it was easier for me?) i think it differs for everyone, so read it at your own pace! :")
mdzs isn't your typical story with black and white heroes and villains— hell i mean the main character, wei wuxian is considered a villain by most in the cultivation world, but rather it's a story that delves into the choices that make a person deemed a hero/villain, and the relationships forged, broken, and mended along the way. i mean it when i say it's a whole package— action, romance, mystery, adventure, comedy, pining idiots, relatable characters and a good amount of angst. every action, every path taken in the story is plot to a bigger picture.
10000/10. enjoy the ride ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~
you can read the eng translation of the novel here: https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation/
yes, the novel is great!!
ive read the novel.. and MDZS is the only novel that makes me laugh, emotional, a little scary feeling and give me a big SECONDHAND EMBARRASMENT (*´艸`*) in a single chapter (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ
I really can't agree the live action is even worth watching.
they add some much bullshit to the story that didn't need it and built in such a lazy ass peace =_= if you need visual that badly then the anime is a better choice then the live action drama.
I understand you. It happens when I read a book and go see the movie! I get disappointend. And you right about anime! It's wonderfull.
ahh well everyone has their opinion so i understand if it wasn't to your standards
╥﹏╥
but before bashing it, hear me out? in my opinion it's honestly really well done for a chinese bl novel adaptation— i'd go as far as to say it can be considered the future of chinese bl dramas. if you look at every other chiness bl drama, most of them are even worse. the untamed did add some unnecessary stuff, esp towards the ending, but it's arguably the most successful one to-date (the amount of views surpassed Guardian by Priest, another popular bl drama that I'd really recommend).
honestly you'd be surprised at how much chinese live action bl dramas change their storylines to the point where novel readers can't recognise the original story aside from the characters bearing the same names...
with that being said, so many bl adaptations have failed because of China's huge censorship— take "Addicted", for example, the bl drama that caused china to ban bl content on web dramas and go as far as to separate the two male actors who were just doing their jobs by stating that they're never allowed to be seen on-screen together ever again.
most chinese bl dramas will add a female lead, explicitly state that the core m/m relationship is just brotherhood, and casting are sometimes done so badly bc the actors chosen either do not look the part or do not know how to portray the chemistry between two men— and then it's even more awkward.
the untamed did a pretty good job in all those aspects— casting Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, who are idols (all in one package: good looking, can act, can sing and can portray the necessary chemistry), no prominent female leads, did their best to put in wangxian scenes whilst avoiding censorship, and mostly stayed true to the story. the unnecessary things might've helped first time viewers who's never read the novel to understand some things because there are a lot of things that a live action can't convey easily when it's adapted from a novel. if you noticed, the novel has a lot of flashbacks & talking, which is rather slow and unnecessary to be fully translated into a live action. also i believe some things were changed (i.e. wen qing's involvement in cloud recesses) to speed up things and introduce characters early on.
i said the visuals are nice because well, they are! certains scenes may look awkward but keep in mind this is a web drama, and they only have so little production costs compared to actual tv dramas. filming and production took 3 years, and so many things in the sets are intricately designed and made, i.e. lotus pier's gorgeous set! clothing may have disappointed me at first but if you look closely the details are pretty good! (except 3zun's curtain-like clothes, who allowed that Σ( ￣□￣||))
hope this widens your perspective of it a bit; the cast and production team worked really hard on it, and they did their best (๑•ㅂ•)و✧
maybe that's why I don't even start with live-action BL drama most of the time from that reason alone, they just kill the plot. cause china have bullshit laws. which I admit, I still don't get what they have against the homosexual community and show it on screen.
but well whatever I guess ╮(￣▽￣)╭
I'm actually not surprised at all, they did it here too by adding some girl to learn with Wei in the past and Wei meet with her all the time. what didn't make sense at all cause in the novel Wei said the girls and the guys live separately from each other to avoid doing "dirty" things or some crap like that. can't remember XD
and look I get that they need to change a few things, cause there is a lot of explaining in the novel. but if they going to change it, at least they could have done it in a more creative way, I guess? I don't know how to put it into words. what I have is the anime, and compare it to the live-action, even without the fighting scenes it was really amazing!! the metaphors in there were brilliant if you think about it. and it's not like the anime didn't change/remove a lot from the novel - first epi Wei use the apple right away with no help from any girl. but I will argue that it helped the plot move forward better, while in the live-action the peace felt off to me, from the start and until I just give up on it in epi 5.
things happen so randomly which very little time to breath, while the anime felt much more real and slow to me than the live-action. which again is sad for me cause I really wanted to give this a chance.
so maybe you right it better compare to other live-action's out there, that I didn't watch much. but I still can't like it, even if it better from worse live-actions. I just stay with the anime for the visuals.
bit of an explanation if this is the first time you've encountered these "future chapters": chinese authors commonly do this for special days, i.e. new years, birthdays, valentine's
to some people who's been unsatisfied: can y'all stop your complaints about the pace of the story?? first y'all complain about the slow pace, then when the author releases special chapters that show you a glimpse of their couple life, y'all complain about the disjoints; what's going to make you satisfied? this isn't the only manhwa that's slow-paced or jumping around events— take 19 days, for example. also, it's clearly said in the first chapter that they might overcome a lot of hardships, and endgame will be lihuan/yuyang— hence djun isn't spoiling anything by releasing these future chapters bc it's already been confirmed.
most of us here can keep up with the events of the story. just bc the protagonists aren't actively finding ways to dry hump e/o doesn't mean it's not a story worth reading. you're here to read about lihuan & yuyang's story, not yaoi. here u are.
anyway yangyang's such a sweet bf and the best future son-in-law uwu
Oh, so it’s some kind of trend ?
I found it cute and truly refreshing, please don’t be upset : look at the ratings, i’m sure most people love the story like you do (i know i do) :D
9,7 after 80 chapters is a nicer focus, don’t you think ? ;)
Thanks for the explanation too !
I NEED MORE OF GYUGYU they were so funny and hot