June Media Log

[halfcactus]

Books

Hai Yan, "Nirvana in Fire" (vol.1)
Very slow start, mostly exposition. Highlights: MCS's theatrical moments, Xie Yu's intro, Yujin's scenes. This volume starts with the announcement of the tournament for Nihuang's hand in marriage, and by the end of the volume the tournament hasn't ended...

Read this volume in Chinese, and have switched to English for vol2 because I've been, ahem, distracted.


Keigo Higashino, "The Murder in Kairoutei"
Read the Chinese translation. Thoughts about both the novel and the issues with translating it to Chinese here.

TV

Spy X Family
Got artbaited into starting the anime and was sorely let down. IMO the heteronormativity comes off a lot worse when the setup is found family and the pacing is very slice-of-life. I'm especially dissatisfied with the way Yor is written because it doesn't feel like she has any specific thoughts or emotions? She's more preoccupied with belonging, and not in an interesting way.

The manga pacing is a lot more enjoyable and has some fun shenanigans (I loved the over-the-top tennis arc haha) but the sexism gets worse, unfortunately. Recent chapters have more Yor focus, but she still feels so empty and un-written as a character, and out-of-place among the trio because she has no real relationship or thoughts about either of them. And it's not that I'm not familiar with shounen-typical sexism (no matter how "competent" the FL is, the ML is always better), it's just that I feel it betrays its premise.

I might finish the anime season because it's animated really well and I do think it's pretty fun, but I'm going to be salty about it. XD


The Murder in Kairoutei (cdrama)
A Keigo Higashino adaptation that was filmed in 2020 and mysteriously put on hold for 2 years.

I think the first 4 eps are watchable if you like romance, but the show is just... bad. Literally NONE of the storylines OR characters are compelling. On the whole, it was also just so badly edited it's almost a feat. I think its biggest crime is setting up the FL, Jiang Yuanxing (played by Deng Jiajia), to be a hypercompetent corporate woman and then making her be EXTREMELY INCOMPETENT AND UNPROFESSIONAL throughout the show. FROM EPISODE 1.

I personally believe that some of it was... calculated incompetence? And I do wonder if they erased her storyline during the editing process, because motivations were clearly hinted at, just not acted on.

They also stacked all the major novel storylines on the ML's side (Cheng Cheng, played by Zhang Xincheng--we do not question his name), which is super annoying when they did the FL so dirty.

My one silver lining for this is that I'm really enjoying the extra content! I have a thread here. Deng Jiajia and Zhang Xincheng are so cute together? They both bring such good energies to the interviews, with a surprising amount of intimacy and comfiness with each other. DJJ is particularly charming and personable and her reactions are so cute.

Links

PV for the Yoruneko anime!!!: I'm a huge fan of kyuryuZ's comics about hanging out with their cat at night, and I'm SO excited and delighted to see them animated.