halfcactus

journal photos: food, jitd vocabulary

The vocab notes have been paying off as I go further in the show. \o/ But I've been too busy just trying to catch up with the episodes to keep at it. ^^;

Media

啞舍 Ya She: Modern-day supernatural donghua about an antique shop owner and a doctor whose fate is tied with his. Not really a fan of the way women were written here—to its credit there were a lot of female characters, but they lacked agency and I was especially annoyed with the subplot with the doctor's patient. Cases were pretty hit-or-miss; my favorite was the Tong Puppet episode. Overall, this was better as a buddy watch than a solo watch, especially with daisydiversions "translating" the dog over voice call. :P

Cheese in the Trap: Modern-day college enemies-to-lovers manhwa where the ML has done a host of truly unforgivable things to the FL, due to a lack of empathy, lack of interest in considering the ripple effects of his machinations, and his own disdain for the FL. He kind of spends the present timeline trying to make up for it, knowing he can't, and fearing he'd lose the FL now that she's entered his orbit and become his world. That the romance is on the unhealthy side makes it more interesting, as does its depiction of socio-economic differences (ML VS everyone else). But the personal conflicts are dragged out—this comic has a brand of wish fulfillment that has all the college drama hashed out over a series of public classroom showdowns and having the crowd pick a "side". IDK why these college students are so invested in each other's lives, to the point of getting involved in the drama?

The best parts were the family storyline—the FL struggles with the pressure of being the eldest daughter; when she changes and asserts her feelings, her family changes with her. I loved watching Inho being folded into that bubble. And I really liked that one of the story arcs was about a gay couple going through the roughest patch of their relationship because of financial stress.

xxxHolic movie:: Wrote about it here.

Fanworks roundup

Fanvid: "Wonderland" (xxxHolic | gen)

Fanvid: "Untouchable Face" (Justice in the Dark | Luo Weizhao x Pei Su)

Fanvid: "the unblooming flowers, the unreturning you" (Justice in the Dark | gen - character study about Pei Su and his grief for his mother)

Fanvid: "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" (Hikaru no Go/Qihun | gen - everyone x Go)

Swimming Lessons for a Mermaid

SUPER cute and wholesome (and complete!) modern-day youth + straight romance manhwa that's kind of like a reverse Little Mermaid AU? The MC is a mermaid who is unable to swim. Her doting older sisters trade their hair for a pair of legs so the MC can live on land with their human dad instead. In the present day, the MC lives a regular high school life but avoids emotional connections until a boy from the swim team discovers her secret and offers to teach her how to swim.

This is so charming and funny and effusively warm. The characters are all very normal people and their interactions with their families (especially among the humans) are laughably real. The manhwa makes it a point to build up multiple relationships and set up the dynamics in what eventually becomes a long-term reconfigured friend group. There's some drama towards the end but it's very low-stakes because it's not like the MC can drown. The ending is moving and emotionally satisfying (and not even centered on the leads!). There's a kind of "pair the spares" situation in the bonus chapters but they're as easily read as gen. It does hurt me that

spoilers

the comic-relief friend never finds out that the MC is a mermaid, in spite of the rest of the group already knowing. ;____; I'm sure that specific character is okay with being out of the loop since he's gone on the record about being okay with his friends keeping secrets, but the fact that they have to go out of their way to hide it from him hurts me. There's even a point where the MC suddenly disappears for months(?) and while everyone else has been assured that she's safe with her mermaid family, all he's told is that she's sick, which must be incredibly worrying!!!!

Anyway, this was a 9/10 read and a 100% match to my preferences.

Guiding the Eccentric Tyrant
Space + military danmei with omegaverse elements, except that instead of alpha and omega you get "espers" and "guides"... which I discovered is known as guideverse ahaha. Anyway I mostly checked this out for the translator's notes, which are intriguingly passionate, and made it to chapter 5... The MC is an F-class guide and the ML is, by the looks of it, an eccentric tyrant who likes bedazzling everything he owns (from his phone to his spaceship):


妃为九卿- 神医小娇妃 The Goddess of Healing
I noped out right after the first chapter because I was finding the dialogue annoying and the translated names distracting: 婉兒 was Waner which is at least reasonable, but 子然 was Zion, which was baffling. (I was reading the official Tapas translation.)

The Tale of Goldiluck, the Black Kitten


This is the first time I've encountered anything I thought of as a hidden gem, because this sure is a gem, and it's on Pocket Comics (which never seemed to offer anything that I'd enjoy unironically and isn’t on the other platforms... until now)... It's a sweet slice-of-life series set in the Joseon dynasty about a sad black kitten, a sickly scholar, and family. There are some magical elements, ie. the cat turning human every night and forest creatures helping him find his way home, but otherwise, it's pretty mundane and fatally adorable. If you're a pet owner, this might make you cry.

How to Get My Husband on My Side
Checked this out because the novel was written by Spice & Kitty, who wrote A Stepmother's Märchen, but unfortunately this did not hit the same—maybe because the central relationship is romance and the character writing revolves around it, or maybe because the artist/team for this one isn't as good at adapting a novel. I guess it's recommendable if you like arranged marriage with hurt/comfort (where the MC, a victim of physical abuse and a creepy incestuous brother, has developed an eating disorder and a knack for masking), but the fantastical aspects (magical creatures that the MC can bond with) just didn't work for me. And outside of the MC's journey of healing, none of the characters are interesting.

Raising My Fiancé with Money
There's a glut of generic romance-fantasies with vaguely European settings saturating the manhwa scene, and though this series doesn't stand out as particularly unique, it's still better than average. It's a contract dating story where the MC and ML are trying to break off their current engagements. The MC has just recovered from the brainfog of being in a VERY ill-advised relationship (to the point of distancing herself from her loving family), and now she wants her life back. She's incredibly lucky with money and has the enviable problem of being incapable of spending more than she earns. Meanwhile ML is a high-ranking but functionally powerless pushover with social anxiety. He hides behind his RBF and wartime reputation and learns, with the MC's help, how to socialize and say no to things.

This is one of those canons where I'm not really sold on the romance but I want them to get married anyway because the ML deserves to be adopted by the MC and her chaotically protective family. And everyone (except maybe the MC's dad, who's... built different) is memorably hot.

PS. This manhwa has no transmigration or regression.

A little annoyed because I've been reading WIPs that haven't even finished serializing the first season (at least for the English versions).

Divorcing the Emperor by Legendary Cat (story) and Hara (art)
Ongoing, < 30 chapters on Tapas.

The English title is so difficult to distinguish from other generic transmigration rofans, but the content is completely different. For one thing, there's no transmigration (or regression, for that matter). For another, it's an ensemble-cast adventure/comedy set in a fantasy world where the romance is secondary to the characters' shenanigans, and the style and pacing are very anime-like.

PLOT: The main character, Krisha, is the daughter of a soldier who grew up in a battlefield before they settled in a province outside the capital. One day she is informed that she is married to the emperor in an accident of paperwork with neither of them having met each other. Thus begins Krisha's quest to go to the capital to file for divorce—and in her travels she sees the true state of her country.

Krisha is: 1) very strong, and 2) the founding member of ANRA (The Archuke of the North Research Association), which leads to some very funny developments. AND she has a magical meat-eating horse called Creampuff.

The plot is moved by comedy, hijinks, and likeable characters, and a sort of reverse harem format, except so far only Archduke#1 has fallen in love with Krisha and even then he's been manipulating her for his own political/revenge motivations. Everyone is so eccentric and interesting it's actually hard to tell who the ML is (I'm going to guess the emperor, if only because the Krisha's trajectory seems to be her learning how to be empress), and Krisha herself is a force of nature who is the perfect balance of smart and dumb. There's enough genre awareness in the story to subvert some tropes (eg. slave auction / desert kingdom character trope) while parodying others magnificently.

Enjoying this so much I'm not sure I'll have the willpower to let more chapters accumulate before continuing. ;___;

As the Heart Leads ny TILDA, CHT, Octopuschu
Ongoing, < 30 chapters on Tapas

Romance-fantasy where the MC was originally the granddaughter of a shaman in modern-day Korea, born with the ability to see spirits, preternaturally bad luck, and a poor affinity with water. She transmigrates into the body of a woman in a western fantasy world who drowns herself before her marriage to the king, an otherwise good-natured man who's driven to insomnia and fits of mania by the spirits that are attracted to him and his accumulation of negative karma. In spite of her commitment to avoid any entanglement with the supernatural at all costs, the MC takes to surreptitiously punching spirits, creating talismans and totems, and massaging the king's energy points to help him sleep.

So far not much is happening but I'm invested enough to subscribe to it, though I am as usual expecting the quality to drop after S1.


The One within the Villainess by Makiburo (story), Shiraume Nazuna(Art)
Ongoing fantranslation

Reverse revenge isekai with fantasy/adventure elements. Rather than being a transmigrator who takes over an otome game villainess's life, the MC is the original villainess who gets her body back after it's taken over by a well-meaning transmigrator. The transmigrator, Emi, is a modern-day Japanese girl who empathizes with the villains and wishes for the villainess's happiness, so she spends the MC's formative years improving the villainess's life and relationships while the MC is unable to do anything but watch until Emi detaches from the body.

The plot begins when the original protagonist—also possessed by a transmigrator—enters the story and completely undoes all the goodwill Emi has worked so hard to build. After the system turns on her, Emi breaks down and disappears from the body. Remi repossesses her body and vows to avenge Emi and pay her back for her kindness. Outwardly she uses Emi's gentle personality and moral compass to win people over and keep the memory of Emi alive, but inwardly she embraces her true villainess nature, only going through the motions of saving the world so the original protagonist is unable to progress in the game and is eventually cornered.

The story moves quite fast: there are only 26 full chapters out, but by chapter 7 Remi is already fighting a god for the sake of her lost love.


While it's technically not yuri, the vibes are very gay, and there's a lot of focus on how much Remi loves Emi. There is only ONE eligible ML (the demon king route), but that character and one-sided romance mostly exist to show that Remi will never be interested in anyone else because Emi is her entire world.


She regards the ML's confession as a confession to Emi and approves of him for sharing the same impeccable taste in women.



Cons: The villains—the original protagonist (or at least the transmigrator who takes her place) especially, but also the two other guys in her harem—are stereotypically a cartoonish level of evil AND stupid, and the manga seems to believe that it should keep layering on revelations of how bad these people are for the revenge to be satisfying. This unfortunately leads to a weird puritanical slant in the ~final showdown~ where the original protagonist is revealed to be a sexual deviant (in society standards) and all of high society basically watches revenge porn.

-

PS. Blind Go (Hikaru no Go fan event) is back this year! The AO3 collection is open for submissions, and submissions are due on May 4. I believe this year's event is open for all mediums (not just fic.)

Links: AO3 collection (open) / Bluesky / Tumblr

TV/Movies:

Ballerina

Link Click OVA (Bridon Arc)

I love that this is a prequel AND a sequel and I love alllll the Lu Guang feelings (especially in the first half of episode 1... and the OP...), but this series really has a gendered violence issue and I've never truly liked anything that came out after S1... They do have some truly emotionally charged bangers so I suspect that in spite of my grumbling I'll watch S3 as long as daisydiversions wants to watch it lol.

Plot-wise it feels like nothing really happened here, other than establishing some backstory with Cheng Xiaoshi's parents? I didn't care for any of the new characters.

Nuer Hong

Comics:

MANGA:

Though I Am an Inept Villainess: Tale of the Butterfly-Rat Swap in the Maiden Court (ongoing)

Bodyswap court politics manga about a talented, good-natured, and universally beloved but chronically ill heroine who trades places with a reviled and spiteful villainess. It is surprisingly gen! There's one male character who seems like he could be the love interest, but the manga doesn't really give any indication that romance is in the horizon. Rather, it's focused on the women in the palace, framed in the PoVs of the protagonist and antagonist who learn more about each other's plights, and consequently, the systems and structures around them. I put it on hold at around 15 chapters in, but both the manga and the novel it's based on are still ongoing.

When I Became a Commoner, They Broke Off Our Engagement! (ongoing)

Another "trading places" manga, this time playing with the concept of changelings: A commoner and a noble are swapped at birth by the hand of a mischievous fairy, their circumstances to be revealed when they come of age. This takes a more thoughtful approach about class differences and social change than expected. Although I'm not sold on any of the relationships involving men (be it siblingly or romantic), it's really interesting to see two women connect with each other without ever interacting directly, and motivated to improve the lives of ordinary people through their shared perspectives.

MANHWA: I started a lot (and also dropped a lot) so I'll just limit this post to the ones I either finished or read at least one season of, with a note that some of these comics are much better than the titles make them sound. Of this list, I'd put The Fantasie of a Stepmother / A Stepmother's Märchen and Your Eternal Lies on top in terms of overall writing.

Being Loved for the First Time (ongoing)

Reincarnation + childcare manhwa where:

the MC is on her 100th life and on her first good reincarnation (she always has awful family circumstances and dies at 20 to save the world)

the MC's mom is ALIVE and not evil

the MC has a brother AND a sister

the dad has pink hair, and the mom and the MC have black hair and red eyes (usually it is the other way around, so this is a cute subversion)

Father, I Don't Want This Marriage

Miscommunication: The Manhwa.

True to its character-inclusive title, the FL's dad and the ML have an equal ratio of scenes, which is hilarious. This is part regression romcom (the ML, contractually dating the FL behind a different identity, is trying to convince the FL that the crown prince isn't that bad, actually!), part self-sacrificial tsundere father-daughter angst. Both parts are super tropey and the chapter endings are simply THE BEST and are in fact the reason why I keep reading.

The Fantasie of a Stepmother (also known as A Stepmother's Märchen) (ongoing)

I've only read S1 and I love it so much but where do I begin? The MC enters a non-sexual/non-romantic marriage as a prodigious teenager, groomed by her dying husband to become the acting matriarch until the eldest son comes of age. All of the kids act their age, initially resenting her but eventually forming different flavors of ride-or-die for her, and any woman who supports the MC does it through her own motivations and is liable to withdraw her support when their interests are no longer aligned.


In this manhwa: angst, family of convenience to family of choice, gorgeous art, competent MC, loyalty kink, fealty, complex women, politics

Flirting with the Villain's Dad

VERY CUTE (romcom / Bellecourt chapters) until it wasn't (plot). The main pairing was highly shippable and the FL kept accidentally calling the ML "dad" which I thought was fun! But to my disappointment, the comic completely neglected to develop the FL's other close relationships, and the plot was meh. And the politics made no! Sense! At! All! I would happily reread S1 though.

For Better or For Worse

Regency romance with isekai/regression elements and a tenuous stance about "fate". This was a nice little romance story focusing on the leads' romantic chemistry, but it falls off from the moment the ML realizes his feelings because characters start behaving in unrecognizably irrational ways. There's a weird Raeliana and the Duke-esque twist at the end that renders the plot completely nonsensical and undercuts all of its themes, which is a shame because it was otherwise very enjoyable! There's a cast of women with distinct, interesting personalities and protagonist energy, ie. cute tsundere remarried MiL, introvert BFF, and the "original" FL who in this version of the story is no longer in love with the ML now that she's in a healthier state of mind.

Ginger and the Cursed Prince

Non-isekai fantasy-romance where the FL receives a book that foretells her future as the antagonist, and the ML is a mindreader who's endeared by the FL's stupidity. IDK, it works! But the secondhand embarrassment is kind of strong in the first few chapters... Still, it's a self-contained story with no transmigration OR regression, which is a plus for me. XD

I Married the Male Lead's Dad (ongoing)

Interesting case of bait-and-switch: Gets you with the trashy transmigration romance premise and animated prologue, but S1 ends with a genre shift that reveals that it's all just an artifice. I dropped it after S1 because I didn't feel invested enough in the characters, but the "real" story has the potential to push my buttons with messy reincarnation drama.

I'm Unmarried with a Time-Limited Lover (ongoing)

Contract dating with reincarnation elements and a talking sword. The FL is a self-made businesswoman who can foresee misfortunes through touch, while the ML is the world's unluckiest human being, knowing no joy, doomed to die early, and just trying to tick off his bucket list. Following this for now because I like how the ML's character design makes him feel like a more unique flavor of black-hair-red-eyed protagonist (his eyes, for instance, are a different shade of red).

My In-Laws Are Obsessed with Me (ongoing)

I'm not sure I love this, but the art is great and I really like it when webtoons get to take their time telling the story (...as long as I'm in the position to binge instead of waiting for weekly chapters). S1 was a nice slow burn where the regression storyline folds into the plot in interesting ways and is bound to the magical worldbuilding and mystery. You have to get to the end of the season to see what it does with the tropes, and I think it spins an interesting story out of them, I just can’t talk about the good parts without spoiling. ^^; The supernatural elements (regression, magical poison, the MC's multiple actual DEATHS) are considered factors for the FL's worsening cramps too, which was nice to see in fiction! Planning to continue this for sure.

The Perks of Being a Villainess (ongoing)

Isekai rofan that's quite focused on the leads' business partnership. The FL wins the ML over with her competence and capitalistic villainy (eg. tax evasion and predatory subscription schemes) and everyone else with her innovations and math genius (as math is an integral part of magic). SO far, it's a relaxing take on "business genius" protagonists, with identity porn comedy as the ML has dual identities as noble and overworked information broker.

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine (ongoing)

Plot: Korea is suffering a transmigration epidemic, and the MC is the first to avail of the transmigration insurance package...

S1 was fun, up to a point. S2 was mostly skippable until the last few chapters where tutorial mode ends, the regular difficulty is restored, and the time loop plot starts moving forward. Will probably pick up S3 if I'm still into manhwa when it ends! IDK how long this canon is supposed to be.

Your Eternal Lies

Pseudo-historical post-war romance about two people who exist at opposite ends of state propaganda--the decorated war hero, and the infamous witch from his hometown. The parallels are beautiful, each finding solace in the other’s image as renowned savior and notorious survivor in the time before they met. It does start out a bit rocky with the veterans' inflated sense of self-importance and confusing flashbacks in the earlier parts, but once it gets going it proceeds beautifully and reaches an ending that feels satisfying because prices have been paid. The FL is a lying liar who lies and is very consistent about putting herself first for an endgame known only to herself, and the ML is a bundle of unaddressed trauma and self-deceptions.

In this manhwa: domestic abuse, social critique, PTSD, witches, propaganda, and found family

With thanks to past!me for taking the time to jot notes on my journal. Otherwise I would have no way of differentiating my 4894664 otome isekai webtoons.
( journal photos )

Books

Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (tr. Anita Barrows, Joanna Macy)
Rita Dove, "Playlist for the Apocalypse"

Movies

Wicked (2024)
Look Back (2024)

Comics

Komomo Confiserie

Short shoujo manga about a pampered heiress who is forced to find a job and learn to live on her own while her family is sorting out a financial crisis. The MC is a vibrant and confident protagonist who embraces the chance to grow as a person, handles conflicts (and bullying) gracefully, and breaks out into professional renditions of Lacrimosa when anyone in her life is in need of comfort. The ML is sweet but sort of just there to help her attain her independence. The best parts are in the middle which highlight my favorite shoujo friendship dynamic: the spunky FL and her loud, tsundere best friend.

An Incompetent Woman Wants to be a Villainess (ongoing)

Proxy bride story where the FL is very Pure and Cute and Doing Her Best to act like her wicked half-sister whose place she's taking. No one is fooled, but she tries so hard they just go along with it and praise her villainy. Super cute and fluffy.

Like Wind on a Dry Branch (ongoing)
Saving My Sweetheart (a.k.a. A Way to Protect the Lovable You)
The Tyrant's Only Perfumer
廚廚動人 U Kill, I Cook (a.k.a. Kitchen Goddess and Assassin)

Villainess in Love

A good hurt/comfort fantasy canon where the FL, Yunifer, is mature and comfortable with her sexuality, and the ML's trauma is taken seriously. The first chapter timeskips the whole part where Yunifer's just transmigrated and is trying to avoid the main characters, instead landing us straight into a drunken and ill-advised one-night stand with the ML. The manhwa left a lot of loose ends which I hope are tied well in the original novel, but this was otherwise a solid romance fantasy with a less boilerplate setting and some worldbuilding of its own. The ship dynamic is cool and mature older FL x codependent yandere puppy ML, which does not feel as romantic on Yunifer's end since she's also trying to help him be more well-adjusted, but it's appropriately sweet. And there's a beautiful gigantic bird character who always steals the show whenever she's onscreen.

The Villainess is Retiring (ongoing; not sure I'll continue when S3 comes out)

Transmigration with strings attached, with the MC as a reluctant/inadvertent hero. The MC just wants to retire in the mountains but when she summons a demon to light up some unburnable wood, she gets cast into the role of magical problem-solving and leadership. S1 was pretty great (somewhat comparable to Lout of the Count's Family, from what little I've read of it), but in S2 the character writing takes a step back and the power imbalance between the MC and her devoted demon servant felt starkly worse. PS. The outfits for this webtoon are so nonsensical.

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion

Isekai with a price. This is an enjoyable self-contained romance-fantasy with fake dating and mystery elements, though some of the episodes in the latter half fall into the "plot in service of romantic moments" category, something I wouldn't have minded if they let the hurt/comfort potential marinate a little.

The MC has a strong sense of personality, her own set of pecularities, and is unafraid of getting her hands dirty. The transmigration plot is a puzzle that's meant to be solved and resolved, with the MC having to come clean about who she is and where she came from, which is probably what made the romance more believable for me. Probably not that memorable in the long run, but it was an 8/10 binge with some interesting twists for me.

TV

Link Click cdrama

Mostly enjoyable for the songs and the opera troupe case and the scene in the end which shows the gang with their donghua looks! Bold of them to save that for after the Worst Story Arc I've Ever Seen in a Cdrama (a.k.a the MRA case). The last case was kind of okay but, like most of the cases, overly long. I ended up enjoying the siscon because at least it felt so bizarre it gave the story some flavor and it was amusing to see the actor leaning into it. XD The boys' dynamic was actually pretty good (I loved the conflict), but Qiao Ling was, sad to say, paper-thin and awful.

I'll Be the Matriarch in This Life also known as I Shall Master This Family (webtoon)

Webtoon based on the novel by Kim Roah, in which the FL goes back in time to rewrite her family's history, using her knowledge of future events to set herself up to become the next heir and exact vengeance on the Empress's family that ruined her. Along the way, she earns the respect and loyalty of various family members and employees/artisans/misc. NPCs, and wins the undying love of the Second Prince who has the same vengeance goals. The retcon begins when the FL is seven, and it takes around one hundred chapters for the timeskip to her eighteenth birthday, so for a lot of it she is this insufferably genius child that is doted on by her father (who is a talented fashion designer), her grandfather (the patriarch), her twin cousins, and her hypercompetent aunt.

I binged 160 chapters only to find out that this is still ongoing (oops). It's a very light and easy read with "yay! feminism" energy and a romance that's secondary to the main plot, and a series of politics and business arcs that, although repetitive, are the right amount of substantial without being too complicated for my brain. There's definitely not a lot of depth in the characters; people are very black-and-white, so any person who is in the FL's side is good (and will never betray her), and anyone against her is evil. The tension and emotional honesty peak when her father finally falls ill, as predicted, and the FL is an anxious mess. In contrast, the aunt's divorce storyline lacks the punch it deserves, falling into dramatic tropes instead of taking the opportunity to flesh out these other characters that are otherwise so important to the FL.

See You in My 19th Life also known as Please Take Care of Me in This Life As Well (webtoon)

Reincarnation romance webtoon based on the novel by Lee Hye, which also had a kdrama adaptation last year. The FL has the ability to remember her previous lives, leaving her jaded and unable to form attachments until she meets the ML in her latest incarnation. Things happen, the ML is super traumatized, and then we get to a timeskip to the FL drawing on all her experience from her previous lives to pursue the ML with shameless single-mindedness.

In typical me fashion, I would have preferred this to be a shorter canon. It started out really strong, with beautiful and heart-aching slice-of-life. Even after the timeskip the FL and ML have pretty good chemistry as adults. But the murder mystery/conspiracy and wild car chase plots dragged—the murder mystery especially.

That said, I really liked how the [maximum trauma event] that the ML survives is more than just emotional damage. He develops PTSD with episodes that are impossible to predict, and a hearing disability that not only affects his daily life in visible ways but also gives him anxiety of further hearing loss.

Our Times (2015 movie)

I found this an excellent nostalgia piece, set in the 90s and drawing storylines from 2000s dramas. Felt a lot like a Hanadan/Meteor Garden remake but with 2015 sensibilities. The cameos were very on-the-nose and by the time you get to the end it stops being its own thing and becomes 2000s RPF. XD It got me raring to rewatch a bunch of movies, which I wonder will withstand the test of time?

A Sign of Affection (manga)

Haven't finished this yet, but this is a fluffy romance canon centered around the FL's life of navigating university and working towards her life goals as a deaf person who communicates with sign language. I don't really care for the ML (he has this really bonkers idea about purity, especially at the beginning where he correlates it with the FL's deafness), but as far as MLs go he's probably one of the less bland ones. There's not much momentum but tons of fluff, and also an anime adaptation that came out just this year.

According to the mangakas, they did a lot of research and consult with someone from the deaf community to shape the FL's experiences and also draw the hand movements. I'm really interested in the FL's journey—she's presently still in the process of breaking out of her bubble and I'd love to see her meet people from different regions.

Ghost Trick
I'm around halfway through! It's a really good game to pick up when I'm anxious and need a little reset—I can just jump right in without trying to remember the plot (which is now thickening) or what I'm supposed to be doing. Except now I'm kinda stuck lol.


priest, "橋頭樓上"
24/32 chapters done. \o/ At this point I think I could just keep reading instead of stopping at 2 chapters / week... but alas, life. I've been remiss in taking vocab notes too, and as a result, my journal/planner is once again empty and making me sad.


接骨木花, "陰間沒有珍奶嗎？" (Google Books link)

I was reading what I thought was a sample on Google Books, but idk, maybe it's the whole thing after all? This is a YA novel(??) about two boys separated by death and bonded by bubble tea (which is very Taiwanese of it ahaha) and mutual pining, so I've been calling it the "boba boyfriends book" in my head. It's actually really easy to read!!! Google Books isn't letting me read with a pop-up dictionary, but I've been managing surprisingly fine with the context, the radicals, and the very plain writing style. For the first time I feel almost literate!!! A feeling that will be replaced by despair when I go back to reading Bridge Tower. XD

This is also my first time reading any kind of TW lit, so it was a lot of fun for me, reading a "different" kind of writing. I learned that 機車 is scooter and that the traditional from of 庙 is 廟. Idk if I'll continue but it seems quite short?