somnia's manga / #isekai(91)

Very interesting to say the least. Our FL is the childhood friend of a spoiled princess who was destined to die young due to her illness. A person so breathtaking, when she died and a look-alike appeared, she became the center of attention for all the men who used to admire the original tragic beauty. That look-alike is the main character in an otome game FL played before she got reincarnated that is. See where this is going? The set-up is appealing but honestly I just love FL herself so much. She has such a sincere attitude about her and you can tell the author thought for more than 5 minutes about all the relationship dynamics. There's not much going on plot-wise though, right now it seems to center completely around the characters and their emotions and relationships, but I'm not even mad despite how plot thirsty I usually am. I want more chapters. Sadly the story lost it's appeal, at least for me. Maybe I'll revisit this when it's closer to the finish line. Either way, at the moment I just do not want to keep up because all the love interests are either a piece of work or of shit - none of them truly respects FL and her wishes.

So far it's a cute time waster, the plot is waiting in line patiently. Ngl, it took me a few chapters to get over how bothered I am with the whole mature child spiel, but that's more of a me-thing after reading too many isekai manwha where the story starts off with a toddler MC. I do appreciate that MC and the duke have serious bonding moments and also banter with each other, their relationship feels more tight knit than it would have otherwise imo. Also nice that the duke isn't overly obsessive of his kid- I like his personality as a whole- Well, he obviously does have a huge weak spot for MC, but instead of monopolizing her, he wants her to make friends, be confident, experience a peaceful childhood and just accepts whatever weird traits she has.. like an actual parent.

I love torturing myself, so I'm very very hooked on this manga right now. From the title you'd think it's gonna be easy-going, but maaan, the anxiety, the risks and the actual severity of Haru's situation is made crystal clear. Honestly, imo it feels wrong to call this smut. Sure, there's lot of tiddy and all, but man there was no point in the story where I felt horny. I want to say that the feeling these prostitutes have towards sex (it being just part of a job and a day to day thing that happens) also carries through to the readers, at least that's how I felt. Anyhow, the angst is keeping you on your toes, the characters are all interesting enough and make you wonder what they might be up to or how they'll be in the future, the twist to the typical medival isekai story is refreshing for isekai trash like me, and plot seems to be slowly taking the stage. So, to summarize: 11/10, nice.

Reinelle is reincarnated as a crow, yet she still finds herself meeting a main love interest of the otome game she used to play. Honestly this one's good. It's more of a light read, but it also has more serious moments to hype and cry along to. Lore-wise it's also holding up well. The only thing I was gonna complain about is this cliche anxiety of Reinelle. You know this moment when the FL feels like she "stole" the ML, or feels their relationship is in danger bc of the incoming original FL. Now, I'm glad that was dealt with nicely here. She brought up here and there, but her life was moving along and didn't have to take up chapters of dialogue. Thank god. Speaking of og FL (Spoiler) I love that they made her into a bestie rather than some, idk, evil demon witch sent in as a spy or what have you. It's cute. Kinda sneaky how now that Reinelle and her future hubby are solid cannon, the author introduces a new type of possessed character with her own romance in sight. Me likey.

I don't like this at all tbh. It's not entirely trash, don't get me wrong... but especially the first chapters are confusing and FL is very dislikable and inconsistent. The vibe of the story over all is confusing me. To start, this is more on the lighthearted, funny side... but even saying that feels wrong because it randomly switches from being borderline caricature-like and ridiculous, to serious, and dark/deep within one chapter. The way this is being pulled off just makes the scenes bite at each other in the end. There are also these logical errors, like how the first few chapters have MC acting like she knows little about this world when her backstory tells that she must've lived within this world for quite some time already. From the 18 or so chapters I read it was never specified either. To put it short: Exposition which all characters should already know of, is still being discussed in real time (Take the very first chapter, with how MC didn't have a clue about the og MLs' shitty and undesirable traits and FL's disinterest, although she must've been following her around for some time now). Some of the jokes are also SO overused, I'm sick of the scenes where nothing happens besides MC being showered in riches and money from her sugar mommy and daddy. Talking about inconsistency, a great word to describe this whole wanhwa so far btw, MC is all over the place. At first, she is clearly portrayed as a dumb good for nothing, who has no shame in being a useless parasite and leeches off of her friends' wealth... But when the plot calls for it she just makes a 180 turn and characters describe her as eloquent and charming all of the sudden. It's so jarring if you add the sudden atmosphere shifts. I couldn't stand whenever she talked to whatever character, and the dialogue suddenly went into this borderline poetic and vague direction. "Flowers can think too", my ass. Whatever they're saying is so on the nose, why the hell can't it just be a normal conversation? Or even better, include more than just try-hard Mary Sue "she has it so good haha"-comedy and dunk on these serious plot-heavy scenes. So much time is wasted with vain jokes where MC is doing stupid faces at being given so much, so why not make this entire thing a waste of time that's actually entertaining? By the way, the whole thing about being awkward around men and shiny with women is also more of a plot device than anything. For whatever reason it all just randomly appears and disappears as the story progression needs it. I have more to complain about, but I'm afraid I'll never finish this TED talk if I had it my way. To put it short: It's a bad and inconsistent take on "Beware of the Villainess!" - If you thought this had potential then you'll have a feast with this wanhwa for sure.

Plot in a nutshell: FL was abused by her family both in her first life and now in her 2nd life as a minor side villain of a fantasy "biography"/novel. She was killed by her own husband for poisoning his sister. But now she is set on gaining everyone's favor, or at least her hubby's, to hopefully not be framed for anything and get away from her abusive family for good. Kind of spoiler, literally just me ranting: I love this so much, but I lowkey hurt from the angst that we got going on sometimes. At first it felt random for Ruby to be yeeted away by monsters so randomly, but in hindsight it was needed stress-relief for the readers. It wasn't that out of no-where too, since Ruby seems to have some kinda connection to monsters. Gotta praise the author too, it would've been very easy to find Ruby's insecurities annoying were it not for the amazing writing. I never doubted Ruby and never will, I feel.

First you think the premise is good. Like, FL is the daughter of a villainess hated by a lot of people and has to live with that reputation. Ofc, she has memories of her past life, where she read the novel which tells the story of the main power couple and their kids. With these kind of stories you normally look forward to a lot of salt being given out, but honestly it's just FL being a punching bag for a few chapters and then turning into a sensitive flower that refuses to the least bit of brutality or revenge. By the time I was at chapter 17/18, I was rolling my eyes because it started to reek of basic Mary Sue who refuses to recall any other details (or interesting personality traits) from their past life, besides the plot of this one shitty novel she reincarnated into. There are some cute moments here and there, but honestly it doesn't stand out from any other of the dozen basic I-was-reborn-into-xyz-stories. Characters that exist can be categorized as followed: 1. Bullies who hate FL's mom and therefor FL. 2. good people (mainly her family rn) who support her. And 3. the important people from the novel she read which are on either side of the spectrum.... and the only reason why they get their own category is because they have a backstory unlike everything else. BTW, the unreasonable violence from strangers is just not explained, like why FL's mother was hated by literally everyone and stuff. Magic also just happens, no system, no nothing. It's just chain thing magic circle summon here, hypnosis mind spell there, fuck it, figure it out yourself and goodnight. Maybe these will get explained later, but this is basic stuff that typically requires an explanation or some form of attention right away to give readers a deeper understanding of the world and the story. Honestly, the whole villain mother thing just feels like an excuse to make FL an uwu abused woke baby archetype. You'll be satisfied by this if you just want to project yourself onto an FL who was off bad and then spoiled to death by her loving adoptive family.