ArtemisFowl's manga / #had potential(40)

A guy works at a bakery, only to find that his pastry chef boss is a complete weirdo and falls for him. Had potential, but ultimately fell short due to ugly power dynamics. ~Chapter

I don't like how much hatred this dude has for this other dude. It's honestly creepy. Just because you don't like some rich people doesn't mean all rich people are horrible (which is true for other labels too). Dude's got it all except for the fact that his body is suuuuuper sensitive. He ends up trying to take out his *ahem*...frustrations... by going to the gym, only to bump into the pervert who keeps touching his body in later chapters. Thus sex galore ensues. *Reading chapter 8 for the heck of sex* Why can't he just end up with the colleague, not this douchebag loser *cries loudly*. Gah, the world is criminally unfair to manga ukes who deserve much better.

Summary: Hot guy at a convenience grocery store falls in love with his coworker. Told from the perspective of the coworker, it shows how they slowly fall in love. There are some interesting aspects of the manga, as the uke struggles with wanting to be where the seme is but is not sure that he can convince himself to (as he is straight, and (trying/wanting/wishing he was) going out with a man). As for the rest of it, it was pretty typical :oI

Look who set the room on fire... dang, I miss these kinds of sex scenes. Intense as heck but still healthy. I'm here for it. However, I do have to say that they are steering into veeerrry tropey misunderstandings -- 'ah god, I'm obsessed with him/am a sex addict/have a problem so I can't tell - said partner - about it. Better to keep it to myself (and then, inevitably, cause so many problems down the line).' It's not to say that I think this manga will get dramatic *fingers crossed* but I think this manga can do better than go down its current path. ~ Chapter 2 Ugh!!! This manga got dramatic, and I'm not in the mood for it. I can't even finish chapter four [spoiler*]. I'm done. Byeeee. *SPOILER: The seme starts to force his partner in chapter 4, and I'm not willing to go there. Just nope, nope, nope.

This one didn't have as much depth as the Double Fake manga, but it had some cute moments. However, it could have been so much more than it was -- the build up felt cheesy, the characters were contrived, and the villain could have been explored with so much more depth. There was a lack of nuance in the way that the author handled the situation -- instead, s/he just pushed the main couple to be together and the bad guy to have his way to stir some drama. (The manga should have looked seriously at what that forced business with that tattoo was -- basically akin to rape, as it involved power dynamics.) It sort of tried to take a look at it, but failed to in a serious manner. I think a more nuanced author (like the author who is writing Beauty and the West Chamber) could have captured that element fully. ~Chapter 6

Rape in chapter 11.

-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

Good concept, poor execution. *cries in corner quietly* Restaurateur meets host club host every night after his (host's) job -- he and his cohorts are the only ones who go to the restaurant. Restaurateur thinks he's trashy, only to change his mind when he hears his life's philosophy and the actions that back up those words... ~Chapter 2

Watch out for this one...*heart heart heart* Main character is a bodyguard, decides to sub in for his friends, gets roped into asking the charge (who's a superstar singer) to sign an album for his sister, hears demeaning comments made by this guy and his crew in English (which they don't think he understands), only for him to reply in perfect English at the awkward expense of that crew. And that, my friends, is where chapter 1 ends. Edit: They could have written Eddie's reaction with so much more nuance, it's a travesty of a good plot arc. And how does this guy not know that Eddie (his client) has a stalker??? That's part of the job description, to know what the situation for the client is, why they have a bodyguard if they are specifically asking for a bodyguard in the first place. Not all blasé, like this comic makes the job duties of a bodyguard seem. ~Chapter 4