Reviews - Animefangirl!

Overgeared webtoon review – Very standard power fantasy

Overgeared? More like overrated, am I right? I’ve seen people commenting about Grid / Greed all over the place even in the manga that has nothing to do with it. It was always a bit baffling because I read the original webtoon that got cancelled after about 20 chapters. It was nothing special. I tried to read the web novel, but between the so-so translation and Greed’s juvenile thought processes, I couldn’t get into it.

But eventually all the references piqued my interest again and I finally tried the new webtoon. Right when 87 chapters were out, so I got a nice good binge out of it. I learned a lot of Korean while I was at it too – not from Overgeared but because I forced myself to do one brief Memrise review or Anki review for every chapter of Overgeared I read.

Summary: Shin Youngwoo, Username: Grid. In the words best virtual reality game , bad luck always revolves around him. But he stumbled across a job during a quest, the strongest legendary job out of over 2 billion players!

Like I said, a standard power levelling fantasy. Weak loser with plenty of debt suddenly finds a wonderful job/artifact/whatever and becomes powerful. His whole family depends on him, his classmates and former bullies are green with envy, every hot girl in the game longs for his touch… You’ve seen it all before. If you haven’t, I have. And better done, to boot.

It’s a very common thing in Chinese cultivation series, though it usually involves finding an ancient treasure or realm. For Korean series, the whole gimmick about finding a hidden, powerful class was popularized by The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, and I don’t think it’s been done better since then. I’ve also enjoyed other series, usually involving time travel, about characters becoming overpowered in game worlds.

I have a special love for Emperor of Solo Play because it’s short and complete and the MC was so utterly self-destructive… then it caught up to him in the end XD! It was so silly that One Man Army mocked it by having the MC consciously take care of himself and his finances. Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed The World was okay-ish, except for the “romance” and some ridiculous shenanigans outside the game. It’s also complete and not that long if anyone is interested. Reincarnation Of The Strongest Sword God was interesting early on, but got so ridiculous with the power creep that the author wrote himself into a corner and had to drop the series.

Point I’m trying to make is, Overgeared has been done before. I honestly think it’s popular with people who haven’t read many of these kinds of series, so something like this is new and satisfying to them. The money-grubbing habits of Shin Youngwoo a.k.a. Greed are old hat to me, he’s not particularly good-looking or smart or witty to make it understandable why people are falling all over him. He just makes good weapons and is lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. That’s all it takes to make the ladies fall over themselves for him.

Buuut, I didn’t make this post to trash Overgeared, believe it or not. If power leveling fantasies are your thing – and honestly they are mine or I wouldn’t have read so many – then it’s a decent read. You still get the rags-to-riches experience you crave, and unlike many other heroes Shin Youngwoo does actually pick up a (virtual) wife if that’s what you’re interested in.

It’s just that compared to other series, the world is very narrow and poorly fleshed out. Shin Youngwoo has been based in the same two towns for 90% of the series’s length, so you don’t get the variety of locales and NPCs that you do in most RPG manhwa. He’s been hanging out with the same people, using the same weapons and artifacts (until recently), fighting the same small pool of enemies and the same overarching bad guys (church of Yatan). So it’s not bad, but it’s not impressive either given what other series in the RPG power leveling fantasy genre are capable of. He’s not even enjoying his money apart from buying a fancy car he almost never drives.

TL;DR Overgeared is overrated but not actually bad. You can do better, but you could do a lot worse than reading it if game world series are your thing. I’ll still be reading it as updates come out, but really it’s nothing special.

My Fiance is in Love with My Little Sister – Only if you like pointless tragedies!

The past two posts I’ve written have spoken about romances that go nowhere. But it can get worse – you can have a romance that goes nowhere repeatedly. That’s if you’re masochistic enough to read “My Fiance is in Love with My Little Sister” (婚約者は、私の妹に恋をする).

Summary (from novelupdates)

Aah, again? My fiancé was gazing intently at my charming younger sister. When I saw the blaze that lit up in those cold eyes, I was assaulted by deja vu. My fiancé had been in love with my younger sister even in the last life. There was nothing I could do but watch. And, by some karma, I was someone who kept returning to that exact moment.

Right, so, it’s exactly what it says in the title and in the blurb. There’s this lady… and it’s been a long time since I read it so I don’t remember any of their names. Guess I’ll google it. Okay, the lady is Ilya, and nobody can be bothered to mention her fiancé or her sister’s name, so I’ll call them F and S.

Basically Ilya has been reliving her life over and over again from the point where F meets S and falls in love with her. The sad (?) thing is that, despite knowing that F will inevitably fall in love with S, Ilya can’t help loving him or wanting to be his wife. In her early lives, she kicks up a fuss, turns into a villainess and gets dumped/executed/something messed up like that.

In subsequent lives, she tries different things like pretending she doesn’t know about the relationship – but sis dies somehow and everyone thinks she did it. In another life, she attempts to flee the marriage, but gets sold into prostitution and dies an ugly death. After another, she goes mad upon losing her child. In still another… I forget, but either way her attempts to escape from this loop of losing her fiancé to her sister end in failure.

Eventually, after several loops, a mysterious man/crow (Karasu?) shows up. And heavy hints are dropped that her fiancé, at least, is being controlled somehow. In one loop there are several occasions where he feels one way, very fond of Ilya, but is physically unable to say so or act lovingly. It’s like something takes over him and prevents him from doing what he wants. In a sense, he’s a victim of the loop as well. But who set up the endless time loop? Why? How long will it go on? Why is Ilya forced to fall in love with F and F with S?

Welp, don’t think you’re ever going to find out, because My Fiance is in Love with my Little Sister just goes around in circles for ages without ever addressing the key questions. Most likely the author hasn’t a clue so s/he is just buying time while figuring something out. I forget around which chapter finally made me drop it, but eventually the author got tired of Ilya’s story and started writing some nonsensical gibberish about the crow… I think? Either way, there’s only so much glurge and tragedy a person can wade through before they get tired and start wanting either a conclusion or an explanation.

I checked the details on novelupdates and the web novel is still running at 55 chapters with no updates since February 2021. So… you just want a repeated tragedy of Ilya, F and S, and someone getting killed somehow, welp, go ahead. Just don’t expect satisfaction from it. It’s just weepy romantic tragedy. Ilsa simply can’t move on from F, F simply can’t move on from S, so it’s not even one of those “I’ll be happy in my next life!” or “I’ll live a slow life in the countryside!” deals. There’s zero satisfaction or lasting joy to be found in My Fiance is in Love with my Little Sister, so prepare yourself.

Ginger and the Cursed Prince – Another romance webtoon that goes nowhere (spoilers)

Last time on this blog, we talked about False Confession, a webtoon that spends 45 chapters circling around back to chapter 1. Ginger and the Cursed Prince is another in the same vein of long drawn-out romance series that you spend months reading only to realize that almost nothing has happened.

Summary (from Tappytoon): For hopeless romantic Ginger Torte, getting engaged to the man of her dreams is a fairy tale come true. It isn’t long before she realizes the gut-wrenching truth — her fiancé has been seduced by her rival! The heartbroken Ginger finds solace in a new book that recounts the tale of a young woman and a cursed prince… But to her horror, the protagonist turns out to be none other than her beautiful nemesis, Lerazie!

As reality unfolds according to the book, both ladies fall in love with the handsome prince at first sight. Ginger vows to steal both the spotlight and the prince’s heart! But, does this story harbor a sinister secret?

So far, what is listed in the summary is what is happening in the book… but nothing beyond that! In other words, you could read the summary and stop there, and you wouldn’t have missed anything by not reading Ginger and the Cursed Prince (known in fan translation as “Virtues of the Villainess”).

The handsome prince is cursed to be able to read the minds of anyone whose eyes he looks into. The story revolves around Ginger discovering that Lerazie has a special necklace that can block the prince’s abilities. Then it’s all about Ginger scheming to get the necklace, trying to get close to the prince, amusing him with her silly/perverted thoughts when she thinks he can’t read her mind, and round and round they go.

In 44 chapters, Ginger has failed to get the necklace twice, had way too many “he can’t read my mind” scenes and bantering skits with the prince and strongly considered date raping him with very strong wine. She is not a bright character – in fact, she is extremely stupid. Her ineptness at hiding her feelings, scheming effectively or doing anything correctly might endear her to readers… or make her the stupidest, most annoying heroine you have ever read about. To me, she’s meh. An idiot, but not a lovable one.

The other characters are not as bad, but they’re not very charming or worth following either. The Prince/King has far too much leisure time to be believable. He’s also too quick to fall for a drooling fool like Ginger when there have to be better choices available. Let’s face it, Ginger would make a horrible queen. It’s hard to root for the romance between an idle prince and an IQ-challenged love interest, so it’s hard to root for the whole series.

If we had to summarize whatever progress had occurred since the start of Ginger and the Cursed Prince, it would be that first the prince barely knew Ginger existed, now he’s somewhat fond of her. Lerazie didn’t know her necklace had a special effect, then thanks to Ginger’s bungling she does and she’s actively aiming for the prince too.

And the second male lead Hamel claims to love Lerazie, but seemingly confessed to Ginger just now. But it doesn’t matter because the second male lead never ever wins in Korean webtoons. I’ve seen it happen very rarely in one or two long-running Japanese shoujo manga (Peach Girl comes to mind) but in Korean romance? Forget it! So the whole Hamel Bray side plot is a massive waste of time.

Actually I’ll cut it short here and say that the whole of Ginger and the Cursed Prince is a waste of time. Especially in a day and age where Tappytoon and other companies are churning out romance webtoons that are funnier and more focused with more likeable characters. I’m going to put this particular series on the shelf until I hear that it’s complete, then give it one big binge. Hopefully the eventual pay off will be worth the wait, but I’m not holding my breath.

False Confession – Promising series that went nowhere

False Confession (잘못된 고백), now sadly(?) on hiatus, is a romance manhwa that promised much from the start but didn’t go anywhere except hiatus in 45 chapters. I honestly feel like I wasted my time reading the whole of Season 1, but maybe Season 2 will finally have the story/awkward romance we were all expecting when we picked it up.

Summary (from the Tappytoon official site)
“I think I’ve fallen for you.” With a single drunken confession, Renesha’s plans to live a comfortable and uneventful life were shattered. Somehow she confessed her love to the wrong man: the Grim Reaper of the Battlefield, Duke Cavert Willard! It’s the worst thing to happen to her since she woke up in this fantasy universe and discovered her divine powers.

In the midst of a war with a neighboring country, Renesha must balance her duties as a healer with her feelings for two alluring knights. When romance blooms on the battlefield, who will be victorious in the battle for Renee’s heart?

I don’t dislike this manhwa trope of accidentally confessing to the wrong person, usually a very scary person. It would be horrible and awkward in real life, but that’s what fiction is for, right? And it usually makes for a sweet and fluffy romance with a huge gap between the guy/girl’s perceived tough image and actual thoughts and actions. I like it.

BUT! We didn’t get any of that in False Confession. The problem is the way the series is structured. It starts with Renesha falsely confessing to Cavert in chapter one. Then it goes on a veeeery extended flashback covering the next 35-36 chapters, showing how they went to war, Renesha fell in love with another guy, they won the war and then she got drunk and confessed.

If they had done all that without the “spoiler” of chapter one, then it would be okay to sit through the whole thing and see how she messes up her love life by confessing to the Duke instead of the Prince she had a crush on. But as it is, 35+ chapters are waaaaaay too many to sit through when you just want to see the confession and the aftermath.

You sit through many, many chapters of Renesha squealing in terror because she’s scared of the duke, complaining about the tough march, gushing and blushing over the prince, and it’s all kind of meh because you know where it’s leading. You know they’re going to come back safe from the war, you know she’s going to get with the Duke, so why all the time wasting?

Plus, Renesha is really annoying. She’s acting all scared and cautious around the Duke when he hasn’t done a single thing to hurt her or anyone she knows. He’s been a little rude, but very supportive and even saved her life in battle. But no, he’s somehow the object of sheer terror. I’m not saying she has to fall in love with him because of that, but why is her fear of him played up multiple times in the series when it’s completely unfounded? It’s annoying.

Nevertheless, despite the slow progression and Renee’s paranoia, I still sat through week after week of minor update after minor update. Then finally, finally, we got to see the false confession and the aftermath… uh, not really. Just when it seemed the whole war arc was over and normal life was about to begin again, the series went on hiatus! 8 months ago! Yipes!

Rumor has it that False Confession will resume between January and June 2021, but we’re already halfway into that period with no resumption in sight. Apart from That Girl’s Damn Wild or whatever it was called, most of the romance manhwa I read that went on hiatus did come back eventually. At the same time, an 8-month hiatus is unusually long, so I’m a little worried.

After all, all the negative comments I’ve made are coming from a place of disappointed expectation. The series is pretty promising though it has yet to deliver. I like the art, I really like both of the male leads though I prefer Cavert. Fans may rage about the uselessness of Renesha in battle, but I thought her struggles, paralysis and depression were pretty normal for a teen from a peace-loving country. It’s weird when normal kids from Korea/Japan/China suddenly become master strategists and gods of war in isekai. I was also looking forward to seeing the power struggles and political intrigue that would revolve around Renee’s healing powers and relationships.

So despite the letdown that was season 1 of False Confession, I’m still hopeful for the next season. Let’s hope I won’t have to write another negative post about it when it finally comes out. See you then!

Update: False Confession is back! In Korean raws and in (mediocre) fan translations, at least! As of June 30th, chapters 46 and 47 are out, and it seem the author is determined to destroy any feeling of “Second Lead Syndrome” in the readers. Not that I ever felt any – Cavert all the way! But no spoilers here. Wait for the official translation, catch up and let’s discussion this again at the end of Season 2!

Sweet Wife in My Arms (Chinese webnovel) – Gave up at chapter 270 (spoilers)

I don’t remember when it was, but I know I promised myself not to start any webnovel with a ridiculous number of chapters. I told myself I would always check first and not start something that was bound to get tedious and stupid. But time passes, people grow old, we forget our promises and then… we end up reading long-winded dreck like Sweet Wife in My Arms.

Summary: For his sake, she was willing to abandon her career as the best actress and be his wife. With her own network, money and unscrupulous methods, she helped him rise to the top of the world. He, on the other hand, held another woman in his embrace and kicked her away with no mercy. It turned out that all he ever wanted was her rare blood type, her six-month-old child’s cord blood. It was her life…

When she opened her eyes again, she returned to her 20-year-old self. Time repeated and her life rewound. In this life, she would live well. [source: Webnovel]

Now, to be absolutely fair to Sweet Wife in My Arms, the first 250 chapters are a decent and enjoyable read. The female lead Yan Huan is definitely a Mary Sue with perfect acting skills, the most beautiful face ever, amazing wire-fu skills, etc. but that is normal for this kind of series and she’s not obnoxious about it. And unlike many trashy series of this sort, she does not fall back in love with the guy who killed her because it was all a big misunderstanding or something.

In the same way, the male lead Lu Yi is your general icy cold super powerful guy who doesn’t like women at all but somehow there’s something special about the heroine… etc etc. You know the drill if you’ve read even one Chinese romance web novel. Lu Yi is miles and away better than most other CEO/Prince MLs. He’s not rapey, not physically or mentally abusive, not over-the-top protective and doesn’t try to force his way into her life. If anything, she’s the one who starts clinging to him even when he has a girlfriend.

Furthermore, the plot isn’t bad. It has the generic “super talented actress” gimmick romance web novels use when they’re not using “super talented doctor” instead. I like this gimmick better because we get to read about the various cheesy, campy movies and series. Yan Huan takes part in. Which the audience laps up, but they sound sooooo bad. Like this one called “Divorced” about a woman whose husband cheats so she finds another man who doesn’t cheat, happily ever after, after all a woman can’t be happy without clinging to some rich man, haha… And somehow it grosses 600 million yuan and makes her a millionaire, lol.

But that’s the thing about the series early on – it doesn’t take itself very seriously. Despite Yan Huan’s sad past and Lu Yi’s coldness, it’s not a mopey or depressing story. It has its dramatic moments, frustrating ones, funny ones, cute ones. It’s no masterpiece, but it was interesting enough to pass the time. To slowly see Yan Huan overcoming her unfounded fear of Lu Yi, Lu Yi learning to stand up for himself a little, Lu Yi bonding with her cat Little Bean, Yan Huan winning him over with her food, etc. Very cute stuff.

So where did it go wrong with Sweet Wife in My Arms? Around chapter 265, when Yan Huan did something very stupid. I mean she had done stupid things before like meeting a ‘director’ in an apartment alone, but this was extra stupid. Here she remembered that a mudslide occurred in her past life, and Lu Yi was trapped in it. Instead of telling him about it, she decided she would look crazy if she did. So what she did was… she borrowed his car… and went there… and almost got caught in the same landslide.

In other words, instead of potentially avoiding millions of dollars in damage, injury, lives and work hours lost, she wanted to play “little rescue heroine” by showing up with food. Look, I get it, in a NORMAL situation, she might sound crazy for saying she had a dream or premonition about a mudslide. But Lu Yi is the kind of guy who absolutely can and would investigate the area if she so much as hinted at it. He told her as much, whatever she needs him for, he’s willing to do it. There was no need to risk his life, her life, many other people’s lives, just so she wouldn’t look crazy.

But see, that incident in itself wasn’t the dealbreaker for Sweet Wife in My Arms. The problem is that the mudslide broke my immersion, so to speak. I sat up and thought, “This is really dumb. Do I really want to read much more of this?” And THEN, only then, did I check the chapter count. Aieeee, 707 chapters translated to date. Over 2500 chapters in Chinese!! Two thousand five hundred! 2500!! I was only 10% of the way through and I was already shaking my head.

So at that point, I thought, eh, I can’t do this. Let me just read spoilers and see their happy ending and then I’m done. But the spoilers for Sweet Wife in my Arms are hooorrible. The series is craaaap!

Highlights include:

Yan Huan still tangling with Lu Qin, Su Muran and other idiots she dealt with in her past life when a sensible person would move halfway round the world to get away from them,
Lu Yi getting amnesia and getting cuddly with another woman,
Switched identities, the usual miscarriages, triplets…
All kinds of shenanigans revolving around Yan Huan’s extra special blood,
Obligatory Yan Huan in a coma scene, and
Yan Huan going through not one, not two, not three but FOUR rebirth sagas before getting her happy ending

And that’s just the spoilers from the thread. I’m sure there were even more ups and downs, especially revolving around annoying side characters like the gluttonous, uncaring manager Yi Ling and her inevitable romance with Lu Yi’s best buddy Lei Qingyi. To be honest, if the series was, say, 400-500 chapters long, I would have stuck it out regardless of the stupidity of the mudslide incident. But 2500 of this and more? Nope, I’m out. Time is precious in 2021. Gotta read better web novels before COVID clobbers us all.

TL;DR – Sweet Wife in My Arms has a passable premise and very likeable main characters. However it goes on waaaay too long and involves waaaaay too much drama. Unless you have nothing better to do with your time, I advise you to read shorter, more compact and more sensibly plotted series.