MEIK0TO's manga / #drama(26)

I could go on a gigantic rant about how much I hate this story, but I’ll spare you the time. I hate the female lead. The story is dumb and included a whole lot of baseless romance. I got so much second-hand embarrassment and I was just skimming through the chapters without even reading the dialogue. Bullshit plot that I don’t care about. That’s all there is to it.

I like the idea of a person who isekai’d into the world they created instead of a normal isekai, it’s different and gives a unique twist to the story. However, the plot is dull and there are no real conflicts that happen. There are over 60 chapters and there’s little to no progress between the male lead and the female lead. Instead, the author decided to create another male lead in an attempt to make the story more interesting. The author piles on a bunch of little conflicts that ends up being resolved in no time whilst the female lead doesn’t even achieve anything from those conflicts. The art is so beautiful, but the story disappoints.

This is surprisingly exceptional. Although it has a typical plot of a Korean who ended up being a victim to Truck-kun, the main character still manages to serve her purpose as a villainess. In MC’s previous life, she was quite gullible and frankly.. an NPC, so I’m quite glad that she has isekai’d into her new villainess life, as Lady Deborah. The story is already predictable from the get-go: MC will get revenge on her enemies, start new businesses ideas that she stole from the novel, and then fall in love with one of the male leads. But, there are only 20 chapters, I look forward to what the author has in store. I was a bit surprised at the world-building system as there is magic-use among characters (Wizards, mages). It’s rather rudimentary. Like, you can turn energy into a sphere by measuring the circumference of a circle.. So in other words, the use of magic is built around Math. And Deborah happens to excel at Math, because she was an engineering major in her past life. You know, I applaud there being any world-building system at all, even if it’s a lazy one that the author created in two seconds. It’s annoying seeing everything turn up in Deborah’s favor. She IS a bitter villainess with many enemies yet somehow she is able to get everything she wants? It would’ve turned out more interesting if the heroine, Mia Binoche, got the pink diamond instead. I want to SEE Deborah struggling to stay alive and fighting for herself. “The Evil Villainess” is a very diluted term in the Shoujo community. The only one I consider an “Evil Villainess” is Medea from Your Throne. Cunning, powerful, and unmoving. Deborah certainly isn’t that. Whenever Deborah is meeting someone who is defying her, I want them to be scared for their life. Like truly afraid. It’s not enough for her to put up this cold and rude personality. Sometimes I hate isekai because of that, because you can’t make a strong villainess as they’ll just use their knowledge from the novel. It ends up being cliche and results in some dumb romance trope. I’m quite interested in Mia Binoche, the supposed reincarnation of a Saintess, but there seems to be more to her. I think Mia is going to become a problem for Deborah. You know, cause Heroine and Villainess don’t go well together. I tagged this as drama, so I hope the drama won’t disappoint. Lastly, I want to praise the art. It’s important to make intricate and individualistic characters. Deborah’s design is truly beautiful. Red eyes and lavender hair. Hopefully, the translations keep up with the consistency.

Alright. I wanted to see what all of the hype was about. And first of all, I’m sorely disappointed. In fact, I bet the reason why that nobody thinks badly of this Manhua, is simply due to the reason that the list of cons is too big to bother with writing a bad review on it. Or perhaps the amount of bile slung at anyone who dares to criticize it. With a word count of 720k how could anyone even begin to list all the bad things about this Manhua? Even someone like me who has written innumerable paragraphs of complaints has trouble even thinking of where to start.. First of all, this Manhua is just eye-candy. Don’t even bother to read it if you want a story that makes sense. Read the novel, it only has..244 chapters. That’s what I did, and halfway through the third book I thought, “I could’ve spent all this time reading Dostoevsky!” Oh.. can the heavenly officials save the TGCF novel from its pacing issues? The author herself, MXTX, made it clear that she never intended to write more than 36k words. Yet somehow we ended up here. Before TGCF, I faithfully believed that book size is not an indicator of quality. The book meanders from chapter to chapter. The constant info dumps don’t contribute to the world building at all, instead it dilutes the impact of all the information we’re being given. Always hearing about the backstories of other people, ghosts, gods, heavenly officials, demons.. etcetera etcetera. The world building is simply flat and I expected it. When creating a story with time skips and constant flashbacks. The writer must always remember that the world within their story is ever changing. And MTXT dug her own grave by making a time span of 800 years, to which she must fill with interesting events whilst all the while making sure the story isn’t dragging out. MXTX failed to do that. Nothing feels purposeful because of it, and details end up being forgotten. TGCF cannot show, it can only tell. And what’s really the worst is that important plot points are often in the middle of unnecessary information. It makes the story unsatisfying to read, and I often find myself skimming the pages. The entire third book needs to return to its draft and manuscript stage to be rewritten. And it hurts me to say something like that to an established writer. The first book was alright. The Ghost Bride and wedding scene was very, very boring to me. And it was a miracle that I even managed to get through it. But the Ban Yue arc made a good enough impression on me, so I spontaneously downloaded the second book. The second book is my favorite out of the three that I read. The Gambler’s den scene was good, and I found the flashbacks to be enjoyable even. Then came the third book. Let’s talk about the characters; Xie Lian is self-sacrificing to an unbelievable degree and doesn't really make mistakes that significantly hurt anyone other than himself. He's bad at cooking and... that's about it. Honestly, you could argue that he doesn't make mistakes at all; he just gets punished for being a good person. Hua Cheng is all-knowing, all-powerful, and literally only has one weakness: calligraphy. He's also been completely devoted to Xie Lian for centuries. Phrases like “HuaLian invented love” are false by the way. No worries, I fell for it too. We don’t even see Hua Cheng and Xie Lian falling in love with each other. The whole thing is just really awkward because Hua Cheng is already madly in love with XL and that’s that. Nobody sees an issue with that? I know why HC is so devoted to XL. But don’t even get me started on the 10,000 statues that HC built of XL, that’s just straight up creepy. Besides the fact that HC literally stalked XL but that doesn’t matter because he’s the all powerful & ruthless ghost king. I find Xie Lian to be very bland despite how much time we spend in his perspective. He’s kind and selfless, I suppose. Hua Cheng is a douchebag to everyone except Xie Lian. What annoys me the most is that when everyone is warning XL of HC’s red flags, XL is just like “Huh? What? Where? How?”.. Qi Rong is a character that was probably created to make HC look like a good person. But I can defend that QR’s vicious energy brings a life to him that the revered ghost king HC could never emulate with all of his purported power. At some point, Qi Rong started insulting XL and I was amused because once I got past all of his cursing, he.. was actually making a lot of sense to me..? Like I was agreeing with him! Yes, Xie Lian is a hypocrite! Thank you for stating it explicitly, Qi Rong! I have many things to say. But I don’t believe that I have the right to say them.. nevertheless, I did enjoy HuaLians relationship and parts of the story itself. The Black Water arc, the Ban Yue arc, and the Gambler’s den scene were all entertaining. Although the rest of it was a blur. TGCF’s plot is convoluted, poorly executed, and extremely lengthy. However, author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu writes beautifully in the meat of the story. Whilst reading, I even wished that I could read Mandarin because I heard that she writes very poetically. Tian Guan Ci Fu is flawed, and although I criticized the world building, I still think that it is an immersive story and I would recommend it to readers.. if they have a very specific description closely resembling TGCF.. I am afraid that TGCF is my least favorite story from MXTX’s work.

I hate the composition. The panels are squeezed together and it feels messy and even makes it a little difficult to read the text. I guess the short chapters help a little bit with that issue. Yet that is also a problem. I get frustrated because it takes forever to update and once it does update, the chapter is like 10 panels. I like the dynamic that the female lead & male lead has. Yamane is kind of a pushover but she isn’t overbearing and I enjoy seeing her being flustered. Taguchi is very handsome.. with piercings. Black haired male leads have no substance, but with piercings.. he’s my type. I’d only recommend reading once it’s been completed.

You know, I gave this manga a chance because the concept of people connecting through music is very precious to me. But this misses the mark by miles. First of all, did you think the readers would ignore the pedophilia? Yuusuke is only in high school while Haruki is an adult and yet they’re spending nights together. Fucking disgusting. I’m not blaming Yuusuke because he’s only a minor, and he’s being taken advantage of by Haruki who is CLEARLY using him for his body. I really hate types of characters like Haruki. Just die. But I’m not defending Yuusuke 100%. He fucking KNOWS that he’s not a serious partner to Haruki and yet he still clings to her. Why? Are you stupid, Yuusuke? Get used to being love bombed. On top of that, none of the main characters are likable. Out of everyone, I only like Erina and Dai-san. Maki is a fucking pushover and I cringe so hard whenever she blushes over Yuusuke. Oh don’t even get me started on Yuusuke with his tsundere act or something. I get he has some trauma from a girl dumping him but his backstory his dumb in retrospect. Oh I have defend Maki somewhat because when Haruki said “Are you one of Yuusuke’s fangirls? You like him, don’t you? You’re just chasing after a facade after seeing his handsome face.” Something like that. Are you.. deaf? Maki LITERALLY said that she was Yuusuke’s classmate that was supporting his band. You’re the one chasing after a facade. Oh, it’s already so predictable, Haruki-san. Yuusuke will leave you for Maki, and all of a sudden you’re desperate for Yuusuke’s attention even though you rejected him so many times. Ugh, I hope your music career perishes, Haruki.