February media log + recents

[halfcactus]

February media

Kill the Villainess (complete)

Dark fantasy isekai where the MC has absolutely no reason to stay in the novel she gets transported in: the patriarchy rears trash men, the palace politics poison anyone who sticks around, and the only relationships that matter are the ones that have been formed in spite of that. A lot of prices and witchery—there's actually this one really heartbreaking part where the price of reversing a segment of time is to be the only one who remembers the crime that has been erased. I would not reread this but the endings are earned and satisfying.

Villains are Destined to Die (ongoing)
Another otome isekai where the tropes are played straight: the MC transmigrates into an otome game's secret hard mode. She plays the villain's route, which is set before the events of the main game with her affection levels nerfed and imminent death lurking behind any wrong dialogue choice. The MC's PoV is very cynical, her behavior intensely calculating and manipulative and stressful. The route with the slave from a fallen enemy state was very difficult to read... Mostly following this for the angst.

I Failed to Oust the Villain!
Dark fantasy romance + revenge story where the FL and ML are both abuse survivors—FL is emotionally dead, ML is a murderous yandere, and both are morally gray. The isekai/regression storyline is very ?????

But I shipped the MC's adoptive dads:


The Villainess Turns the Hourglass (complete)

Revenge story where the MC actually has a long revenge arc and does evil things

Because the MC is from the future, you kind of feel bad for the sister who's like fourteen when the MC goes back in time (though at that age she already tries to assassinate the MC)

This has my favorite mother/daughter relationship in manhwa where they're both scrappy, petty, and doing their best to survive. The mother is not a very good mother but she always has her daughter's back and makes it a point to say that she's never regretted having her.

I quite liked the epilogue where the MC is still haunted by the memory of her sister but it gets too long with the kidfic + weird escalation to ~God's plan~

Mother's Contract Marriage (ongoing)

Regression + contract marriage romance-fantasy from the PoV of the daughter (the mother is the one who goes back in time and marries the king), which makes the plot move faster

The mother was a deadbeat alcoholic in the original timeline and her "redemption" arc proceeds in a non-linear fashion where she still commits missteps even with the best intentions

Great art!

The Villainess Flips the Script! (ongoing)

Ongoing, but it looks like the story is wrapping up soon? (I'm waiting for the latest season to finish before catching up)

Not sure how I feel about the MC but it's interesting to have her as the PoV character when the real protagonist is the son. Their interactions are so fun too!

I skipped all the plot at the beginning and regretted it because this actually turned out to be good lol

The ML is hilarious

Interesting dynamic where the MC is (allegedly) the transmigrator and

spoiler

the child character is the regressor

and each of them are trying to achieve a common goal, but sometimes end up working against each other


Becoming the Dark Hero's Daughter (hiatus bc of artist's health issues)
Childcare manhwa with novel transmigration elements and Sherlock Holmes inspiration. The setting is a dark fantasy novel where the main character catches criminals so he can suck out their life force. The child character actually acts her age and is canonically very cute. She has some memories of being a cancer patient in a previous life, which is gutting, but mentally she is still nine. She remembers novel storylines in fragments and in real time as her adopted father is pursuing a case, so she doesn't have all the information and needs to make her own deductions, which makes her feel like a YA protagonist.

Surviving Romance (complete)

Already wrote about it here.


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Recent media:

The Baengri Clan's Unwanted Granddaughter: Transmigration/regression/fix-it shoujo with a martial arts setting. Enjoying this a lot! And it's nice to read a wuxia/wulin story from Korea and understand what's going on because the concepts are familiar enough and the characters are kids. 😂 It's one of the ones where I want the childhood arc to last forever because everyone is so cute and charming.

Nezha 2: Hoping that the international digital release has reworked subs because the theatrical ones were not ideal... sometimes even going into "WTF" territory. 🙈 I spent most of the runtime anticipating west sea auntie's scenes and while she did not disappoint, I could have used more of her. There were only seven of us in the cinema when I watched; the other six came with their families, and the jokes were a hit with the kids and this one adult man who took his phone out to take videos so often I wanted to tell him that camrips are up on the internet. 😂

The Substance: A very pointed movie about patriarchal + Hollywood beauty standards and its effects on women, and how the pursuit of beauty and anti-aging is an addiction. I covered my eyes for most of the body horror, and completely checked out for the entire third act which was nothing but violence and body horror... Overall, great visual storytelling, Kubrick-esque art direction, feelings of liminal space, and pop culture impact... but I was too weak for it, and 2 hours and 20 minutes felt too long to make a point.

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale: DNF after 5 episodes. It just feels weird to watch a very shoujo anime tackle slavery (in this case, of fairies). It tries, but its foundations are still too silly and saccharine to have any bite. Kinda wish this category of manga/manhwa dies out.

Comments

[dhampyresa]

it gets too long with the kidfic
Sometimes I feel like the epilogues last longer than the main stories.