romance Archives - Page 6 of 12

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.

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.

Knights of Sidonia quick anime and manga review

Still easing myself back into watching and blogging about anime regularly. Gundam 00 really did a number on me. From now on I will know better than to marathon a drama-heavy show, and if the fandom says to stay away from a movie I will consider their responses more carefully. Today, let’s talk about Knights of Sidonia. I watched both seasons of the anime and finished up by reading the manga, which was only 78 chapters long and thus a quick affair. The ending was… umm… Well, we’ll talk about that in a bit. First the summary:

Knights of Sidonia (シドニアの騎士) is a mecha manga series by Tsutomu Nihei. After destroying Earth many years ago, the alien race Gauna has been pursuing the remnants of humanity—which, having narrowly escaped, fled across the galaxy in a number of giant seed ships. In the year 3394, Nagate Tanikaze surfaces from his lifelong seclusion deep beneath the seed ship Sidonia in search of food on the upper levels, only to find himself dragged into events unfolding without his knowledge.
When the Gauna begin their assault on Sidonia, it’s up to Tanikaze to defend humanity’s last hope for survival, and defeat their alien foes.

What I liked about Knights of Sidonia

It’s short. You can marathon both seasons of the anime.
The enemies are truly threatening. Although Tanikaze starts out overpowered, he can’t keep up with the Gauna’s speed of adaptation so he’s almost always in danger. This isn’t one of those “Boring Invincible Hero” shows.
That said, Tanikaze is a pretty boring typical shonen hero who tries to save everyone all the time. But he’s a nice, earnest guy and easy to root for, which is more than I can say for many protagonists.
There’s plenty of action in every episode. Sometimes it gets a bit much.
The ending is happier than I would have expected, given the overwhelming odds they face.
It seems to be a love-hate kind of thing, but I rather like the CG art style. It’s different from the other stuff I’ve been watching.
She takes some getting used to, but Tsumugi-chan is kind of cute. Best girl ftw!

What I didn’t like about Knights of Sidonia

Some of the gauna are kind of gross.
Some of the scenes are kind of gross, like the living catheter (ick) and the romantic piss-drinking (double ick).
A little too much time is wasted on romantic hijinks halfway through the show/manga. It brings everything to a screeching halt to have girls fighting over the hero when the world is collapsing around them.
I don’t approve of certain relationships in the ending (to explain would be to spoil, but it is an abomination).
Some of the characters look a little too similar, which makes it hard to tell people apart at first.
Certain characters get away with murder, literally, and are quickly and easily forgiven. Like it’s not even an issue.

To watch or not to watch?

It’s probably faster to read the Knights of Sidonia manga, since it’s only 78 chapters. But the anime isn’t bad at all, plenty of action and tense moments and the body count of a small civil war. There are many unanswered questions at the end concerning the origins and intentions of the gauna and the history of the world, so this probably isn’t for anyone who likes complete closure. For anybody else, y

Alderamin on the Sky quick anime review

It took some time for me to get back into anime-watching after the disaster that was the Gundam 00 movie, but I made it back somehow. I’ve watched some other series before Alderamin on the Sky (Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin), but this is the most recent one I tried so I thought I’d dash off a few notes before I got too lazy. You have to ease yourself back into blogging with baby steps.

Blurb: The world is thrown into chaos when the Katjvarna empire takes arms against the Republic of Kioka. Our hero, Ikta, detests war but ultimately has no choice but to become a High Grade Military Officer to defend his land. No one could have ever imagined that this lazy womanizer would eventually become the hero everyone needed (from MAL).

What I liked about Alderamin on the Sky

The sprites were cute.
Unlike many anime about wars or invasions, named characters do die – and frequently too. Even though some of them were obviously created just so the show could kill them off to make us sad.
The show does a good job of showing the brutality and unfairness of war and the negative consequences of bad leadership.
Ikta comes up with some interesting strategies, 90% of which work because the opposing side is filled with dum-dums.
At the same time he’s not perfect. He can’t and doesn’t save everyone, and he doesn’t necessarily try when the cost would outweigh the benefit. He’s not the typical shounen hero, that’s for sure.
Ikta has the brains, but the other characters get plenty of moments to shine. Most of them can outfight him in a heartbeat, especially the main girl Yatorishino.
The show has a lot of bright and vivid colors so it’s fun to watch.
It’s only 13 episodes long and wraps up the arc it’s dealing with fairly well. Good for a Sunday afternoon marathon.

What I didn’t like about Alderamin on the Sky

The “hero” is a lazy, complaining womanizer. He hits on everything in a skirt and it’s neither cute nor funny.
The hero and his army are forgiven for all kinds of crimes mostly because he just happened to be childhood pals with the leader of the other side. And she of course is madly in love with him so genocide is totally forgivable when you’re in love.
His counterpart on the other side who was supposed to be the smartest strategist on the opposite side turned out to be a disappointment.
The setting shows some promise but the world, religion and culture of the countries are not explored in depth at all. An antagonistic country just shows up 10 episodes in when we had no idea that they even existed before.
The ending is pretty much “Please read the light novel to find out what happens next, okay?”

Summary

Alderamin on the Sky is a quick watch and a fairly good show that should please lovers of action anime and romance shows alike. The lack of a conclusive ending and the unpleasantness of the main character are the show’s main drawbacks. I still think it’s worth a watch. I enjoyed it for what it was worth and would probably watch a second season if they made one. But at the same time I’m not interested enough to follow up with the light novel so… yeah. That’s it for me.

Hyouka anime – dropped after 5 episodes but it’s decent

Hyouka is one of the recommendations I got from AnimeSuki when I asked for recent, decent and complete shows. I still haven’t worked through the entire list. I use it as a fallback when I can’t think of anything to watch at all, which happens less and less often as my backlog keeps growing.

Blurb: At the request of his older sister, student Hōtarō Oreki joins Kamiyama High School’s Classic Literature Club to stop it from being abolished, joined by fellow members Eru Chitanda, Satoshi Fukube and Mayaka Ibara. They begin to solve various mysteries, both to help with their club and at Eru’s requests.

I watched four episodes and read summaries of the fifth and that was enough for me. But it’s not that Hyouka is a bad show or anything. For one thing the art is gorgeous and extremely detailed. That’s the one thing even the fiercest haters of the show will agree on. For another thing the laidback slice of life mood of the show is very relaxing. I’ve been watching a lot of action-packed fantasy stuff lately, so the 100% reality-based Hyouka was a nice change.

Despite the high-school romance setting, it is also refreshingly free of the usual melodramatic love triangle do-they-don’t-they time wasting you often get in shows like that. And lastly, it’s nice to have a mystery show that doesn’t involve murders or other gory crimes. The “mysteries” solved in the first five episodes were relatively banal but sometimes it’s nice to have a whodunnit without the blood splatters.

Having said all that, Hyouka just wasn’t compelling enough to get me to watch the whole show. Oreki is your typical “bored with everything” anime genius with a voice like a 40-year old man. His friend Satoshi is an insufferably perky know-it-all. Mutual friend Ibara is just kind of there when she’s not being caustic. Chitanda is the most annoying of all. Whether you like the show or not will depend on how much you can stomach her pushiness and endless nosiness.

But I’ve watched many a show with an even less appealing cast. The real reason why I dropped Hyouka is that five episodes were enough. It’s enough, I get it. They like each other and they hang out and they solve minor mysteries. Okay, that’s fine. It’s fine for 5 episodes but do I really want to watch another 18 or 19 episodes on the same theme?Not really. I’ve seen what it has to offer, it’s decent enough but there’s nothing that makes me want to watch any more. The mysteries aren’t that gripping, the characters aren’t that likeable, the art is beautiful but not interesting enough to stare at all day.

In the end I used Hyouka as a kind of palate cleanser between more active and more involving shows. If you like slice of life, light-hearted mysteries or high school romance you might enjoy it. Even if you don’t, it’s a nice change to try a few episodes just to get a different experience. Whether it’s good enough to watch the whole thing or not depends on you.