ArtemisFowl's manga / #dropped(38)

Started out kind of interesting, but then it was kind of meh. I like the idea of the main character not being the love interest of the story (though he does end up getting his own romance).

Has some potential. Uke is kind of lame, but also has some interesting qualities. Seme is lame in a different way and definitely super likes the uke. Update: definitely now goes in the classic yaoi dynamic of ‘seme is a dick to the uke to his face, but “wuvs” him in reality and brags about uke to others’ and ‘uke claims to hate/have no interest in seme but clearly wants to be with him to the point of desperation.’ Saving grace: the action is hot.

The seme’s personality is all over the place.

I liked this manga to some degree, but I had some major issues with it. Juha attempting to rape Seheon, as well as Juha breaking Doyoon’s ankle, was mostly glossed over. The author was kind of like, “oh, he had reasons for doing all this stuff.” But...he’s such a sociopath! He tried to create psychological trauma within the central characters, and they don’t seem to care. (Also, Doyoon is going to end up with him...?) Also, I felt that Seheon was treated as a more cutesy character after he got together with Taeyi. His honesty and his logic didn’t really shine in the ways it had when he was trying to get to know Taeyi. As for the manga’s good points: I felt the jazz theme was both interesting and on point. It showed the depth of emotions the characters felt within that moment. I really feel that the author knew what they were doing with the theme. (Note: chapter 40, page 40)

The couple was meh, but I really liked the way the author handled the relationship between Mikuni and his friend from high school. I liked how they talked about it and both acknowledged what had happened while still moving on.

Model Illiyan is an exclusive contractor for a man named James Taylor -- a photographer and married man who happens to be swirling around with strange rumors about his contracted model and himself. The brunt of this gossip is taken on by Illiyan, who has to bear the shame of being "a homewrecker" or a "succubus" in some ways, and he meets another man at Taylor's wedding anniversary -- whose name is Kyle Hackman. Kyle Hackman was, along with Illiyan, invited to Taylor's party by Taylor's wife -- who hates Illiyan and likes Hackman. Although Illiyan has been rumored to sleep with men, he is straight, but finds something interesting in Hackman, which leads to...at first sex, then romance. This is me trying to explain what is happening at midnight, but anyways, read it. At least (the very least) the sex is hot. ~Chapter 24

A guy takes pity on another guy and ends up in a relationship with him. ~Chapter 5.1

-Chapter 75 -- Bite me *rolls eyes* Look, I liked the relationships between the seven of them, but there comes a point where all of the lying and the cheating and the hiding, for it to be revealed and exposed and the APPARENTLY (apparently the key word here) resolved, but only to realize that everyone would be doing the exact same thing all of the time DESPITE this "resolution" pisses me off. I know not everything is solved in one day, but they seemed to have a resolution of their problems, only for them to fall back into old patterns and it's making me want to bang my head against a wall. Also, as much as it makes fun of the tropes of the web novel genre (which I appreciate, I really do), it really took a sudden turn into stereotype land itself when Eun-Ho is going on and on about how he luuuurves the main character (as though it's realistic that this guy would have only had one attraction to one person -- and I'm not saying this from a hot guy perspective, I'm saying this from a human perspective -- while in middle school with a bunch of other people around), and he's going on the same way that a character in a shojou harem would. Which this is. Except that it revolves around the ML's sidekick best friend, who happens to be the main character of the story we are reading. It had a lot of potential, but sadly I'm disappointed in the execution of the overall story. *End rant* Whew, glad I got that off my chest. Anyways, there are good things about this manga that I liked. I liked her character growth, and the way that she would interact with them as people -- in terms of the dynamics of her friendship with them, which I already touched on. I liked her reactions to things, which were usually very funny. I like that her friendship with Ban Yeoryeong had depth -- that they didn't just have a friendship because of convenience, but there was more to it than that. However, it did irk me that she kept viewing them as characters -- even though she knows they are comic book characters, that doesn't mean that the present reality she's working in doesn't exist. Most of us accept our reality as real -- if we didn't, and thought we were trapped in the matrix where people still interacted with us the same way they did back in our conception of reality, we should still treat the thing in front of us as important and real. Dan-il did not do that, and that is obviously very disheartening. It makes sense that she's trying to reconcile it in some ways, but she has to realize these are people, no matter whether they are comic book people or not. They are, in real time, interacting with her, and that is what matters. I wouldn't say that she's a 'strong female protagonist' -- only that she doesn't 'fall' for the guys she's with (which she totally would have if she felt like this were 'real life' -- it's pretty clear in the way she interacts with them and the fact that she generally stops herself from falling for them by say 'oh, right, they're comic book characters' -- and end scene.) She's not particularly girly and she has a sense of humor. However, she is constantly comparing herself to her friends, and she doesn't feel like she adds up. It makes sense that she has some insecurities, but to this degree, I wouldn't say that she is 'strong' because she doesn't really try to deal with them. She just goes along with whatever. I don't dislike her exactly, but I wouldn't say she's strong. ~Chapter 76