Return of the Flowery Mountain Sect
This is a standard reincarnation story with a male protagonist that practices martial arts, but also pretty interesting as what usually happens is MC is strong af and then fights a series of opponents while he gets stronger and stronger, getting the attention of very strong opponents and shit. The difference in this story, is the fact it actually has a heavy focus on restoring the sect MC is part of to it's former glory, which means it's not enough for him to just get stronger and beat people up, but the other people in the sect have to get stronger and overcome their own obstacles too. I like this aspect, although admittedly we don't get that much of it in the first season, but it's something MC is shown to think about a lot. Towards the end of season 1 the sect leader bows to MC and I burst into tears over it, even though it was just a bow. The author is good at getting you emotionally invested in the story and the characters. Everyone seems to have their flaws and I love every single one of them. The comedy is good, and I don't find it obnoxious, but that's a more subjective topic so take that into account. MC's OPness can seem out of place when juxtaposed to the failures of the supporting cast, but I don't find it quite enough to be too much of a problem for me. I can see however, how that could rub some readers the wrong way. There is one female character so far. She doesn't seem to be a love interest though, and she's not written to be really annoying either. She doesn't exhibit much of a personality as she kind of acts like those stoic emotionless emo boys, but I find it mysterious rather than annoying. She also doesn't fall for this oddly mature 10 year old, which is always a plus. ALSO she, as a martial arts warrior (not a seductress black widow), wears her clothing sensibly! She's not there for fanservice, ✧٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و✧ which is amazing. In fact we get no full on nude people, although the guys do get shirtless pretty often. That too doesn't seem to be done for fanservice, which is also kind of refreshing. Also, also no harem shenanigans, so that's great too. A good read and I do recommend giving this a go! Good stuff. ^_^
Bad Friend
This is the first historical korean yaoi manhua I've read where there's no rape involved with the plot. The bar is so low this is what constitutes high praise in stories like this. V_V I like the main couple, although the art can be iffy at times, and the seme hiding stuff is kind of played out but, that's par for the course in these kinds of stories. The way they got together was so natural, and them loving on each other is great. This is almost exactly the kind of story I've been wanting from this kind of setting for a long time. Wish more of these stories were like this rather than resorting to rape as some sort of plot device. Haon is understandably naive, Gon is understandably traumatized. It's a good story, not great mind, but absolutely serviceable with the avalanche of crap we otherwise get. The art is a small issue. Characters look good, and the sex is drawn fine, but the action, in this action manhua isn't quite there, and that's a shame. Still, I do recommend it, if only until we get better yaoi stories for historical settings.
The Undefeatable Swordsman
This started out great, and was pretty interesting with the action and the main characters. Plenty of interesting plot avenues and the like. Boy is born, gets sick, gets enchanted by a painting and loses his mind for a bit, then becomes strong and overcomes troubles with his family until he strikes out on his own. Then the girls come, and at first it was a love triangle, which was kind of annoying but fine, and didn't interfere that much with the plot. But then everyone confesses, he doesn't really give them an answer, and more girls appear and confess. And that's all women are; annoying as fuck villains, love interests, or his mom. Even when one girl is really strong, she's basically devoting her life to him, and in the end, despite the interesting plot, his growing harem annoys me, so I'll be dropping it here. If you like harems, but aren't bothered by lack of immediate romance, then by all means, give this a read, you'll love it!
Yeon Lok Heun
I like this story, but I also really don't like it. It has one off supernatural stories where the protagonist goes and solves a mystery behind murders and what not. I love that sort of stuff. It's my jam! There's sex between the main couple in this. Not graphic, but the reader is not left to wondering what's going on. Also it is consensual, which is nice. But... the romance... ugh. It's frustrating for a variety of reasons. It's love at first sight (kind of) which I'm sure many would find fine, but I don't like it because it's well.. sudden. Unfortunately the romance trope is will-they-wont-they, which is the source of most of my frustration. Mc is a girl pretending to be a boy and for some reason, can't tell the other party (ML) about it. I don't know why. I wonder if I missed the explanation at some point somehow, or if it's just something mc can't get herself to do for no other reason than it's been too long and the lie is too big now? I dunno. But the angst is weird because of it. The love interest tends to run into mc as a woman when she's just been poisoned most of the time. Because of this, during these encounters she can't seem to say anything about who she is and why she can't be with him. It would be nice if she did explain why she can't be with him properly, cause I don't really understand it either. Anyway, the art is good, the action is nice, though sometimes hard to follow. The same with the story, sometimes it feels like panels are missing or bits of story have been skipped. Other times you get a chapter or two of gibberish masquerading as a translation. The words used are english, but you can't understand shit. For the most part, the chapters are legible. At least up until chapter 80, because that's about where I got up to in the story. Sadly, I don't want to read anymore because of the romance, but the one off supernatural crime stories are fun, and remind me a bit of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. It's a shame, because there are a lot of good elements. I really would have preferred the main couple getting close as emperor and general, rather than one night seeing mc as woman and just falling to her feet like a puppet with it's strings cut. Gives it more some obsessive stalker vibes, though that could just be me. Mc at least, up to this point has had some moments where she's been attracted to the other party before they spend their first night together, so it doesn't bother me as much. Anyway, not a bad story, particularly for those who like will-they-wont they romance tropes and drama form gender secrets. MC disguising themselves as a man in this is certainly way more believable than most c-drama's since it's due to some sort magic and not just a girl wearing a man's clothes with their hair up. If the summary piques your interest I encourage you to give this story a read.
Eleceed
I can see why this is popular. A boy with super speed and a love of cats, meets an injured stray cat one night. He takes him home to treat his wounds and discovers it's actually an extremely powerful ability user (man) who transformed into a cat to escape his pursuers. The two bond, and soon form a student/mentor relationship, which eventually takes our little cinnamon roll of a speedster on a path to fight a bunch of people and become the strongest. Barring his master. It's very shounen-y and while I do love it, I feel there's not enough character exploration and bonding. Except between master and disciple, plenty of cute moments there. The other supporting cast on the other hand... how do I explain this? They have their moments, but they are few and are quickly over, and frankly I want more. The action is fun and creative enough, although there are some small hiccups that are just... weird. He can use his power for 5 seconds? Really? Cause it sure as shit don't look that way at all, they last waaay longer than that, it's just not possible. At some point they say he can use it for 6 seconds, but there's no fucking way those fights only lasted that long. I seriously don't get it. Still it's a small thing that's easy to ignore, because you do end up quite drawn into the story and action. I did at least. The art's alright, though everyone looks feminine. Also all properly buff people are evil. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ It's a shame, but oh well. There's a bit of lack of diversity in character design that thankfully gets better later on in the story. At the beginning especially everyone just seemed to have the same hair cut or they looked like palette swaps of other characters. The palette swap thing is still the same, but it's an easy thing to forgive. Now, the translation is below average for pretty much all of the chapters. Bad grammar, missing words, extra letters that shouldn't be there and were obvious typos. That sort of thing. The names kept changing too, cause why would translation groups bother with consistency. Now, this isn't to say the translation is word salad, for it is legible and you can understand what's happening. It just may require a little more effort than stuff done by now-a-days Asura-scans for example, but definitely not the word salad shit I've seen killing interest in other series. So far, no outright romance, though there's a few potentials I suppose. I don't think any ages are ever specified (other than, "he's your age!") and I was under the impression one potential love interest was waaaay older than him, but apparently not? Still, at ch 249 it's yet to be addressed so who knows if it ever will, or if anything even comes of it. MC does eventually start developing a crush, though it's not really addressed, to the point where one isn't even sure if he's noticed this development himself. I do hate the "what am I feeling right now?" trope with a fiery passion, but so far it's not outright done that. All in all, I do recommend reading this, it's pretty addictive and I absolutely love our pure cinnamon roll main character. He is best boy. The other characters can be pretty fun too. Although there are a couple shit-heels that for some reason are termed "good guys" despite having absolutely no redemption arc to speak of. Make no mistake, mc ain't one of those morally ambiguous types. He's a good boy. I honestly don't know why he's so forgiving of the shit they did. So like I said, I recommend it, but it ain't perfect. Nothing really ever is, but it's not difficult to see the imperfections in this. ALSO! (almost forgot) WARNING: ANIMAL ABUSE in some chapters. Particularly cats, and no, I don't mean battle animals fight and protect their owners, I mean actual ANIMAL ABUSE. Also a lot of emotional and physical abuse. As in domestic abuse. Also torture. These rich kids are so fucked up, the poor things. Everyone needs sooo much therapy, and no-one gets any. TT^TT Then again, as is common in most shounen series, they're fine. Even though horrendously traumatic things have happened and happen to characters, they're fine. I hate that, but it is what it is. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I Can See Your Death
Yeonhwajeon
This is the story of a girl who in order to take care of her sisters, dresses as a man (I don't really know how it's convincing, but sure) to peddle candy by day and steal from the rich to give to the poor by night. There's no mention of her father, but her mother was killed some time ago, and our MC is trying hard to find the culprit and get revenge. During her investigation she meets a number of people including the male lead and the second male lead. She ends up investigating drug trade. The romance is there, but thankfully doesn't get in the way of the mystery plot, although the quasi love triangle annoys me. The story is interesting and the characters are engaging. The translation seems good, and the art is fantastic, though it does not help with MC's disguise when trying to look like a man. I honestly just don't get how anyone (ESPECIALLY OTHER WOMEN) could ever mistake her for a man. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Her disguise is essentially men's clothes + hat. Like this is C-drama levels of bad.
Tougen Anki
Eh... I want to like this, I do, but the beginning was kind of rushed... hell everything seems kind of rushed, so the character development and growth doesn't hit like it should. Emotional beats are also weak because of this. The art is good and pleasing, but also bad in that everyone looks the same age. There's children - teens - and middle aged men. All women look like they could be any age and are just there for fan service. You got the shy one with self esteem issues, and then you got the wild one who's confident, but also a massive tsundere. Girl's aren't super skinny, which is something I've not seen before in a shounen manga, but yeah, they have no character. To be fair the boys don't seem to have much character either. Anyway, getting back to the art, the teachers look like they're all teens. There's no difference between a dude in his 20s and high school kids. They are all as tall, all as developed, all with the same face. In conclusion: I didn't like it, and I don't particularly recommend it to anyone else. Unless you liked demon slayer! If you liked demon slayer, this should be right up your alley!
My Blissful Marriage
I'm sure this gets really fluffy in the future, but I can't help with how it raised my hackles. I watched this on netflix and then came to read the manga to see if the portrayal is different but it's the same. People (at the beginning) seem to immediately think she's perfect for ML, hell HE thinks she's not like other girls. And yeah.. cause she's an abuse victim who's had all her self worth stamped out of her. Also the fact that ML decided to receive a new potential fiance by "basically ignoring her", and then accusing her of trying to poison him for no reason. Like the story tells you how he's put up with other noble fiances and implyed they've been spoiled, but honestly with that kind of reception, it doesn't come off as a dude who's just tired of trying to find a suitable fiance, but as an incel getting spurned by girls raised with self worth and not having time for his bullshit. Which gives further creepy vibes to this whole, "Oh! Miyo's perfect! She keeps her gaze low, is extremely obedient, doesn't get angry at being treated badly, and is constantly on full alert in case she does something wrong and is kicked out" thing. Yeah, I'm probably getting way too worked up over this, but it really feels to me, that this story was (accidentally?) framed badly, which doesn't look good for how well the story's plot was thought out. Miyo's obvious PTSD doesn't come off to these people as concerning but "interesting" and "curious", which further solidifies this as a "Oooh! She's not like other girls!" trope, now with added abuse riddled backstory! =D Nope, NOPE, can't stand how this makes me feel, gonna give this a miss.
Actually, I was the Real One