ArtemisFowl's manga / #meh(88)

Eh...I don't know about this one. It's kind of funny but stupid. We'll see where it goes... ~ from reading chapter 1 It's pretty stupid...I just keep rolling my eyes at the whole premise (but, moreover, the execution). I don't like their relationship. Oh my god, I just want to bang my head against the wall. I kept reading chapter 4 after I clicked it (without reading all the other chapters before it), and there are just so many things the mc keeps doing after he realizes the romantic lead is from a different culture (literally from a different species, but it amounts to the same thing here). It's so cringggeeee uggggghhhhhh. Ngl I'm not going to continue to read unless I hear about some hotttt sex scene coming my way and then I'm all for those three pages (then capisce) (And honestly I probably won't read it anyway, since the material they're showing here is not my type of thing).

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

In this particular manga, the main character and his rival, aka Mr. Student Council President, end up together after a bizarre set of circumstances has him roped into pulling a prank on the Student Council President (leaving a confession note on his table) and the Student Council President catching him in the act and kissing him as a result. The very odd thing about this one is that there is a much darker element than exists on the surface -- indeed, the student council president set up the entire thing, so that the main character would end up confessing to him (by blackmailing his friend to bet him to do that). When the main character finds out it's a lie, he ends up going along with it for the egoistic reason of trying to 'bring him down.' The student council president is more than a little shady and a whole lot of bad. ~Chapter 13

-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

Just kidding. I was all excited for this, but the ex-friend is a sleaze bag. Talk about gross, and violating personal boundaries. ~Chapter 1

What a Douchebag -- man, other guy you'd be better off dating someone else. Not a person who would just leave like that. Things look like they're going to be different this time, but still...that dude is a douchebag... (He seems to have a normal mindset of certain situations, like he knows he's in the wrong rationally, but still...) ~Chapter 6

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

Seems a little rapey...hmmm I'm not sure about this one. I didn't like the weird humiliation scene in the first 2 chapters... A boy works at a hotel as a temp, only to be in the employ of his favorite singer, who moonlights as a street artist when he's not busy CEOing. ~Chapter 2

A guy in love with his high school classmate asks him to sleep together. Thus starts the beginning of a sex-friends relationship, with the guy with feelings constantly second-guessing and unsure of the relationship that he has with the guy he is in love with but is not in love with him. Points for having an HEA, but I don't like the thesis of this manga and others like it, which reads: devotion and insecurity and reaction can get you someone you "want." No, because that's also the logic that stalkers use. ~Chapter 6