Manga - Animefangirl!

I Became the Chef of the Dragon King

I Became the Chef of the Dragon King is a combination of colorful art, cute character and mascot designs, an inevitable romance and lots of delicious-looking food. It won’t rock your world or anything, but it’s harmless fluff that is great for passing the time. I just wish there were more chapters.

Summary (from Mangadex): Cheong Shim threw herself into the sea of Indangsu! What will happen when she wakes up in a lazy dragon’s dungeon? Meet many cute monsters while living a delicious, symbiotic life!

As you can see from the cover art, Cheong Shim has a very cutesy design, and a cute, super ditzy personality to match. The reason she threw herself into the sea is not to commit suicide but so her ailing father could receive 300 bags of rice and eventually receive healing from Buddha. From that alone you can see how naive she is.

But it’s not the annoying kind of naive. She doesn’t go overboard being all cheerful and Pollyanna. She seems a little down at times, she suffers setbacks, she doesn’t want to get eaten by the dragon, and she pushes back reasonably enough when the dragon makes illogical demands.

All this to say that the main appeal of I Became the Chef of the Dragon King is the charming main character. Yes, Cheong Shim is very much a Mary Sue, but in a manageable, believable way. She didn’t win the Dragon King over completely in a day, and even her food isn’t that wonderful. One of her dishes was so salty it was almost inedible. Just like the meatballs I had last night… =_=

So since she’s sweet and hardworking, but not completely perfect, it’s easy to root for Cheong Shim as she tries to make a peaceful life for herself in the dragon’s abode. That’s the main reason why I’m following the series.

Although the series will supposedly be about winning the Dragon King over with food, only 7 chapters are out so far (as of early May 2020). In those chapters, Cheong Shim has only made two dishes, so if you’re here for delicious food pics and recipes, you have a long wait ahead.

If you’re reading it for romance, you’re out of luck again. So far the (admittedly cute) Dragon King only finds her to be a somewhat intriguing annoyance. And he himself is a bit grumpy and whiny, so it’s hard to ship them together. Though I suppose one would be grumpy if a noisy squatter suddenly moved into your house.

All in all, I Became the Chef of the Dragon King has made a very promising start. I’m looking forward to seeing more tasty-looking meals once Cheong Shim gets a set of cooking tools together. I’d also like to see the cute mascots on the cover being introduced. And of course, mustn’t forget the romance! I’ll update this post when the series is complete/much further along. Until then!

Arranged Marriage With My Beloved Wife – Chinese romance manhuas are just too rapey!

Arranged Marriage with My Beloved Wife is NOT a good manhua. I thought it would be because it sounded a bit fluffy from the blurb, but boy was I wrong.

Blurb: She was forced to marry a crippled president for the sake of her family. Reluctant to accept the marriage at first, she kept a distance with her nominal husband. But his love and respect slowly unsealed her heart…

Why it’s so disappointing

Aight, the blurb didn’t lie. She was forced to marry him and he does treat her well and they do slowly fall in love. If that was all there was to it, I would be ecstatic. You know how rare it is to find a Chinese romance “in love with a CEO” manhua that doesn’t start with rape? Nigh impossible, that’s what. So impossible, in fact, that Arranged Marriage with My Beloved Wife isn’t one of those rare exceptions.

Indeed, the only reason why Lin Chulian has to marry Li Haonan is because her half-sister and scum fiance drug her and she ends up in his bed. So far so typical, now we know how she ended up there. But what’s HIS excuse? A woman just shows up unconscious in your bed and you don’t call the police or the doctor, instead you sleep with her? What was he even doing in her house in the first place?

The matter is never explained, so no matter how good Haonan is to her or how much they start to like each other, the issue is always there in my mind like an elephant in the room. “He’s a rapist, he’s a rapist, why isn’t she asking anything?” It’s even stranger because there were many ways to explain the incident to at least mitigate the rapeyness of it. E.g. He was very drunk and it was very dark (a.k.a. the Jacob excuse), or he was drugged with an aphrodisiac – another ridiculously common trope in Chinese manhua. It doesn’t make it any better, but at least it’s an excuse to make him seem like less of a monster.

But no, he was just randomly in her house, randomly did the deed, then decided to take responsibility… even though he’s powerful enough to wipe out the whole Lin family for tricking him. Which means they didn’t trick him and he was fully aware? Dammit Li Haonan, I’m trying to like you but you’re a rapist, dammit! It’s a shame because he’s much more decent and less abusive than some of the crazy MLs you find in other manhua. Except for, you know, the whole rapist thing. Which is really a deal breaker, seriously.

Looking on the bright side?

Okay, how about we look past that massive obstacle and focus on the rest of Arranged Marriage With My Beloved Wife? The art is pretty poor and cheaply drawn, but I’ve seen worse. The plot is junk, though. It’s yet another series where the main character has the IQ of a brick and keeps talking to and hanging out with people who clearly mean her harm.

How many times is she going to run over to her Dad’s house when she knows he clearly favors her sister? Why does she keep working with a clearly vengeful coworker who almost killed her? Why would she follow that obviously evil coworker to a hotel room without letting others know? The list of Lin Chunian’s stupidities are endless. Just when it seems like she’s starting to wise up, the manhua ends abruptly. That’s right, all that frustration and annoyance and then it ends before it gets good. =_=

The other good things about this manhua: As I said, the ML is decent apart from… you know. They have a good relationship without too much bickering or arguing. Misunderstandings are quickly resolved. At least one member of his family is decent. Li Haonan protects Lin Chulian all the time but backs off and lets her handle it when she insists. If only it wasn’t for… you know. *sigh*

Arranged Marriage with My Beloved Wife is licensed in English, so you can read it at Mangatoon, but I don’t recommend it. Not only because of the problems I’ve stated above, but also because although it says “Complete,” it’s not really complete. It just ends abruptly after 80 chapters with a bunch of unanswered questions. Unless there’s a season 2 announced, I wouldn’t waste my time. I’m really disappointed.

Peerless Alchemist (manhua review)

It’s been a while since I reviewed a Chinese manga, a.k.a manhua. When I first started this blog I hadn’t read much Korean or Chinese stuff, nor did I intend to. But I’m on an isekai kick lately and eventually I ran out of Japanese stuff to read. Not to mention most Japanese isekai manga only release once a month, which is torture to wait for. So I had no choice but to go foraging for other series. I found some good ones, too, which I will introduce on this blog as and when I get the time. Today: Peerless Alchemist.

Blurb: A nameless 24th century cultivator is thrown back in time after being struck by a missile. Yes, Truck-kun was busy so he sent a subordinate. She takes possession of the body of the late Ji Fengyan, a much bullied and mistreated young lady of the Ji family and goes on to become the head of Ji City. And to all those who used to mess with her, beware! There’s something different about this new Fengyan…

And by something different, I mean she is one tough cookie who is a ton of fun to read about. I’ve been reading a lot of isekais with female main characters and they’re usually very good, but the main characters tend to be soft-hearted little flowers who go about sparing enemies, trying to hide their powers and being flustered whenever a male character shows the least bit of interest.

None of that for our Ji Fengyan. She doesn’t go out looking for trouble, but if it comes knocking at her doorstep, whoo boy, get ready to see the fur fly. My favorite part is when an enemy threatens to spill her misdeeds to the emperor and she answers, “How can you tell him anything… if you’re dead?” And she wasn’t kidding either, though she did end up sparing them because they wisely struck a deal.

But it’s not just her ruthlessness that makes Peerless Alchemist such a good read. I don’t know about others, but I really enjoy the Superman/Clark Kent dynamic Fengyan has going on with the male lead Xiao Liu Huo. She picked him up from the side of the road and decided, hey, you’re mine now. And that was fine, but it turns out Xiao Liu Huo has another form… Hidden behind a very thin disguise that absolutely no one but the readers can see through!

It’s better explained in the novels where Xiao Liu Huo is a teenager who is even younger than her while his other persona, the State Master, is much older. But in the manhua, apart from different eye colors, a different face mark and a much larger physique, they’re practically identical. It’s hilarious seeing Fengyan going “Squee, Xiao Liu Huo!” one second and “That damn state master!” the next second without knowing the truth. 😀 She’s going to find out eventually but until then, it’s just too funny.

Though truth be told, I think the State Master is better looking… And even Fengyan agreed, until he made an unwarranted pass at her… Chapter 54, nevar forget!

You might be wondering if there’s much of a story behind Peerless Alchemist beyond Ji Fengyan beating up the haters and being lovey-dovey with Xiao Liu Huo. For the first 70 chapters, that’s pretty much it. She moves from beating one dumb enemy to the next without a break in the middle. No real story, no rhyme or rhythm. It’s only now after 70 chapters that things are starting to move, in the form of a relic known as the Destroyer Armor left to Fengyan by “her” late father.

Everyone wants to get their hands on it. It’s the Empire’s trump card against the evil demons, and yet… Why does Xiao Liu Huo make her promise never to use it? Why is he determined to get the Armor off her? Why are all the bodies of past destroyers missing? The latest raw chapters have Fengyan going to the Imperial Academy for Destroyers, so maybe we will finally get some answers there.

Wait, the latest raw chapters? Yes, the latest raw chapters. I like the series so much that I started reading the raws online. I’m up to chapter 80 now. With my intermediate Cantonese skills, the Japanese kanji I recognize and the little Mandarin I learned back in college, I can get the gist of most chapters. Ideally I would do some hardcore Mandarin studying and be able to read the original novel by the end of the year, but I like the manhua so much better because the art is great. Reading the manhua is good practice too, because the pictures make things easy to follow.

This isn’t the last I’ll be posting of Peerless Alchemist, not while we still have at least another 200 chapters to go (the original novel is over 1200 chapters long). In the meantime, go check it out. You’ll like it if you enjoy: Powerful main characters who aren’t afraid to show it, great art and good-looking guys, bad guys who get what they deserve, a romance where characters don’t hide their feelings. Apart from that, it’s not that different from other xianxia manhua out there, so if you’re sick of the same old formula… well, try it anyway!

I read Ascendance of a Bookworm manga up to chapter 31

I’m still reading many different isekai manga. It sucks that so many of them are in very early stages, sometimes only 3 or 4 chapters are out. Usually there’s a light novel or web novel behind them, but I can’t be bothered to track those down for most series. Ascendance of a Bookworm / Honzuki no gekokujou is one of the few exceptions where I read the scanlation up to chapter 12 and then read the raws all the way up to chapter 31, the latest available right now.

Summary: Urano, a bookworm who had finally found a job as a librarian at a university, was sadly killed shortly after graduating from college. She was reborn as Main, the daughter of a soldier in a world where the literacy rate is low and books were scarce. No matter how much she wanted to read, there were no books around. What is a bookworm to do without any books? Make them, of course. Her goal is to become a librarian! So that she may once again live surrounded by books, she must start by making them herself. [from novelupdates]

What’s so good about Ascendance of a Bookworm

Although it’s an isekai fantasy series like a hundred others currently running, it’s low fantasy with a bigger focus on slice of life and everyday survival. Main lives a life far removed from castles, demons, goddesses, stat level ups, just a little kid trying to get by in the world.
It has one of the few protagonists who is not hopelessly overpowered right from the start. In fact Main is totally weak and prone to illness.
Main is not super-intelligent either, just blessed with a lot of book knowledge. In particular she doesn’t know much about business and would be swindled regularly if it wasn’t for adults looking out for her.
No harem, no huge crowd of adoring fans lapping up his every move. A few people know just how amazing she is, but the majority of people including her own family see her as an ordinary, rather weird girl. She does have the obligatory good-but-not-too-competent isekai companion though.
You read a lot of manga where the heroine/hero can make a lot of stuff just because they saw it on TV once, but Main doesn’t have it that easy.
The art is excellent and the little children are drawn suitably adorable. The food looks great too. I know there’s a web novel, but the manga is so cute and clear and easy to follow that I have zero desire to try the WN.
The pace is relatively slow and there’s no real story so there’s plenty of time for world-building. You get to know a lot about how the city is run, how society is organized, how people relate to each other, etc. It’s very down to earth and interesting if you like to get immersed in fantasy worlds.
I learned a lot about making paper from scratch by reading it. That should come in handy if I ever go to another world, right?

What’s not so good about Ascendance of a Bookworm

It’s ridiculous how few people are suspicions of Main’s true identity once she starts making paper. It’s an extremely convoluted process requiring very specialized tools and materials and yet she knows all of them and all the right proportions? At only 6-7 years old? No one gets suspicious and starts fishing around when a kid that young starts going in and out of various workshops under Benno’s guidance, ordering this strange item and that? The world is a little too idealistic. The adults are a little too conveniently dense.
The world-building gets a bit too much sometimes. Half of the chapters are devoted to long treatises on how the city works, politics work, business work, etc. It’s interesting at first but later on it gets in the way of plot progression.
There’s a long slowdown between Main being diagnosed with consumption and any further advancement being made in her treatment. Then another long break before a more permanent solution (joining the church) comes along. Some of that time is taken up by the paper-making process, but there’s still a lot of dead time spent on stuff. I know it’s a slice of life kind of show but it gets a bit tiring anyway.

TL;DR

Ascendance of the Bookworm is good and I want more!

Tian Jiang Xian Shu Nan manga review (spoilers)

Tian Jiang Xian Shu Nan (天降贤淑男) is a manhua title I randomly picked up to read when I was looking for completed series to read. I haven’t read too many manhua (and TBH if it’s a Chinese comic then I would rather read a wuxia title) but it was complete and I was bored so I gave it a try. The title Tian Jiang Xian Shu Nan literally means “Goddess of Mercy” according to Google Translate. Yeah… that doesn’t help but thanks anyway.

Story: It’s the story of a love triangle between tomboy martial artist Su Jia Ao, her ultra-submissive fiance Ji Chun Qing and wild guy Xiao Yao Jing. You see, Su Jia Ao is from a tribe where women are expected to be rough and tough while the men passively obey. Having been brought up in the city, Su prefers macho bad boys like Xiao Yao Jing. And yet there’s something about that Ji Chun Qing…

…and that something is an almost-stalkerish level of persistence. Talk about Dogged Nice Guys. From start to finish it’s never clear what he sees in Su Jia Ao besides tradition demanding that he marry her, but that doesn’t stop him from hanging in there anyway. In the real world the police would have to get involved, but in Tian Jiang Xian Shu Nan it’s almost funny after a while.

This could have been a good, funny love triangle series. Could have been, and almost was. I read up to chapter 95 out of 129, skipped to 120 and read to the end. Even that required me to force myself at several points.

The problem? Su Jia Ao herself. A love triangle series only works as long as the feelings of the key players are clear to the audience but not clear to the persons concerned. There should be room for doubt if not wholesale denseness. If Girl likes Boy A but isn’t sure how he feels about her and Boy B likes her but isn’t sure how she feels, that can work. But when the feelings of all parties are clear and Girl likes A but keeps stringing B along and pulling him back whenever he tries to pull away… Su Jia Ao, die in a fire.

What happens is that Su has a huge and obvious crush on Xiao – and he likes her back – and she knows it – and they’ve even dated and almost kissed. But Ji Chun Qing and her family keep putting pressure on her. That’s hard for a teen to deal with, so I was sympathetic up to that point.

Then Su got the chance to break the engagement with Ji off cleanly, no hard feelings. But noooo, for the sake of her pride she decided to fight for Chun Qing’s hand. And she won. That means she likes him, right? Nnnnot quite. When Xiao’s parents arrange a fiancee for him, Su goes crazy and does everything in her power to interrupt that deal as well. Then right after that Chun Qing gets kidnapped. And of course she runs after him again. I’d had enough of her fickleness by then and skipped to the end to find out which guy she ends up with… But I won’t tell you to avoid spoilers.

The good thing about Tian Jiang Xian Shu Nan is that it’s short, colorful and action-packed with pretty nice character designs and a likeable cast. Yes, even Su when she’s not being a horrible two-timer. The bad side is how frustrating it is to see a main character cruelly toying with people’s emotions. She’s a prime dog in a manger – doesn’t want him, but doesn’t want to see him date someone else. What do you want? Luckily the situation doesn’t drag on too long before the series ends so it’s worth the read if you’re looking for something short, light and romantic – for a given definition of romantic.