romantic comedy Archives

Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe? (Korean romance webtoon I want to like but don’t)

Ever read a series that you know is good, objectively speaking, but for various minor reasons you don’t like it as much as others do? That’s Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe for me. On the face of it, the heroine Dylan is funny and likeable, the nominal male lead Cedric is… not completely terrible, but still detestable. Yeah okay, only three sentences in and I’m beginning to realize why I don’t like the series. But first the usual summary:

Summary:

Our heroine Dylan finds herself reincarnated as the villainess in a novel she read before. The twist this time is that her little sister is doomed to be cannon fodder who dies in childbirth after marrying the male lead Cedric. In her determination to keep her sister and Cedric apart, Dylan somehow ends up marrying him herself… Hilarity may or may not ensue depending on your sense of humor.

Whether you like Is it a Fortune or is it a Woe will all depend on what you find funny. If you like seeing the female lead subtly and snidely mocked and disrespected a lot of the time, this is the series for you. Personally it made me angry and uncomfortable much of the time. The problem is that Dylan doesn’t want her sister to marry Cedric, but she doesn’t want to marry him either. He only wants to marry her because of some family promise to her grandfather.

So the first 20 or so chapters are all about the creepy old Grandpa manipulating and emotionally blackmailing first Cedric then Dylan into marriage. All because the creepy Grandpa wanted to marry Dylan’s Grandma but was rebuffed. Forced marriage by proxy, so creepy.

But Cedric isn’t any better. Screw what Dylan or any woman wants, as long as Grandpa is happy, right? On the face of it, he treats Dylan with a certain amount of respect, but in actual fact he’s always gently sneering at her, teasing her, mocking her simple rustic ways. Almost every chapter has him laughing or smiling at her, quite apart from all the sarcastic comments he directs her way because he thinks she’s too simple to get it.

And it’s not just him. A large amount of “humor” and “heart-warming-ness” in this series comes from looking down on Dylan. Other summaries make it sound like everyone in the Duchy comes to love Dylan, but honestly it’s more of the love one has for a clumsy, loveable Labrador puppy than for a human being one respects. Even her nominally supportive mother-in-law is on her side mostly because of her simplicity and naivete.

In a recent chapter, Cedric’s cousin Cecilia made the express trip to Dylan’s house just to mock and be rude to her, knowing she could get into it. The past ten chapters or more (34-44 as of writing) are all devoted to helping Dylan shape up a bit so she isn’t utterly disgraced when she goes to a banquet which is more or less being organized with the specific purpose of embarrassing her. The poor girl can’t catch a break.

The one saving grace was supposed to be the cheerful, indomitable nature of Dylan herself. Unfortunately, as the chapters progress, she is becoming more and more neurotic and anxious about measuring up and pleasing those around her. You’d think if Cedric really cared about her and her standing in society, he would have waited for her to get the necessary training before marrying her and bringing her into his house. But of course he doesn’t really care about her, or about anything except himself and pleasing his Grandpa, so why am I surprised?

So after all I’ve written, the reader will naturally ask, “Why are you still reading, then?” Good question. The short answer is that I’m not reading it regularly. Every once in a while it pops up in front of me, I read it, then I remember why I don’t like it. Hope springs eternal that the series might improve. Most likely though, it will “improve” by making Dylan a perfect lady who somehow inexplicably falls in love with the sneering Cedric and he with her, and I honestly don’t want to see that. So… yeah.

I don’t hate Is it a Fortune or Is it a Woe, and I like Dylan and feel sorry for her but… I’ll probably drop this one and catch it again when it’s finally all over. There are better male leads and less pitiful heroines out there.

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.

In Another World with my Smartphone review – Oddly watchable

I might go beyond “oddly watchable” and term it “strangely enjoyable” actually. In Another World With My Smartphone (Isekai wa Smartphone to tomo ni) is a “hero in another world” show that plays the trope 100% by the book. The hero is smart, popular, rich, powerful and manages to solve everyone’s problems almost instantly without breaking a sweat.

Normally I would post a blurb from Wiki or something, but it’s even easier this time. When the show opens, Mochizuki Touya has been accidentally killed by “God.” As compensation “God” reincarnates him in a magical world with superpowered stats in every way imaginable. Plus he has his smartphone with Internet (but no e-mail) and mapping functions, which he eventually finds ways to use in increasingly broken ways. For example he can use the camera + magic to look through walls, he can use the map + magic to hit every enemy in an area and so on.

The fun of In Another World with my Smartphone comes from seeing just how much more broken Touya can get. Especially since he can use any spell in the world just by hearing about it – and can use it better and faster and longer than whoever he learned it from. It’s even more interesting once he starts to combine and stack various abilities.

And probably the best part is how he uses the simplest spells, especially Slip and Aports, when you would expect him to burst out something flashy. It’s like “I don’t even have to get serious any more.” Every week it’s like “Okay, what overwhelming challenge is Touya going to trivialize this week and how?”

As I mentioned back in my Konosuba review, the isekai genre became so common that focus turned to subversions of the idea. When it comes to anime adaptations now, it’s rare to find the trope being played straight without some kind of twist.

That’s nice and all, but what are the original lovers of the genre to do? What about those fans who want to see a hapless everyday dude get all the girls and kill all the enemies and have everyone fawn over him for no reason at all? Who thinks of their needs? So I think a show like In Another World with my Smartphone is important once in a while to remind anime watchers of what they’re missing/not missing depending on what side of the fence they’re on.

For my part I enjoyed this show a lot more than I thought I would. The complete lack of tension and threat made for a very easy watch. Around the same time I started In Another World with my Smartphone, I also tried the first episodes of Made in Abyss and Children of the Whales. I thought both animes were excellent, but heavy and stressful. You have to be ready to go in deep with shows like that. Meanwhile Smartphone is like popcorn, light meaningless fluff. You pop one into your mouth and then another and before you know it’s all gone. Simple stuff.

Not that it doesn’t have its flaws. The worst part is the growing cast of girls – though again this is what genre fans watch the show for. The girls are all generic, forgettable cute girls who immediately fall for Touya and are eternally in awe of his battle prowess. But they’re not above bossing him around either.

It’s all stuff you’ve seen in a million anime series before. You don’t need to watch this show just to get that fix. IMO every second wasted on the antics of these girls and their petty jealousies should have been spent showcasing the further superhuman antics of Touya-sama.

Furthermore, more girls invariably means more opportunities for fanservice. The show can’t decide whether to make Touya a pervert or not so sometimes he’s leering at naked bodies, sometimes he’s anxiously averting his gaze. But while he can look away, the viewer is still forced to watch stuff like a random groping of a randomly introduced character, a very boring and pointless beach episode and a supposed-to-be sexy encounter with some poor misused slimes. We won’t even get into the amount of innuendo, which admittedly isn’t as bad as it could have been.

On the plus side, at least the issue of who Touya will end up with is resolved by the end of the show, which is more than I can say for 90% of all animes, harem or otherwise.

Overall I would rate In Another World with my Smartphone a 6/10. It gets top marks for lightness and easy-of-watchability, a term I just made up but will probably use more often because it’s something I look out for in anime. It also gets high marks for the happy atmosphere and bright visuals. More high marks for the otaku wish fulfillment factor, and I suppose the girls are all cute if that’s your kind of thing. It gets a big fat zero for just about everything else though. If you want an overpowered fantasy protagonist with a harem, this is your show. If not, stay far away.

Watched Gamers! episodes 1-6

Gamers! is one of those shows where you think about dropping it after every episode, but you decide to watch one more before dropping it, then one more, then one more… I’m already up to episode 6.

Plot summary from Wikipedia: Keita Amano is a lonesome boy who enjoys playing video games but lacks any friends. One day, he is approached by the beautiful Karen Tendou about joining the school’s Gaming Club, but Keita ultimately rejects her offer as he is not into competitive gaming. This rejection sets off a trigger of events in the lives of Keita and his fellow students in matters of both video games and romance.

The anime title isn’t really all that accurate. It’s about people who all tend to like games to a certain extent, but the real point of the show is wacky romantic hijinks where A likes B who likes C who likes him back but thinks B really likes D who does like B but also likes A, and round and round and round it goes.

It’s almost hilarious how many unlikely misunderstandings Gamers can fit into one episode, with people walking in on the most unlikely situations or hearing only part of a conversation and getting completely the wrong idea, and on and on and on. If you like romantic triangles and love decahedrons, Gamers is definitely the show for you.

If you like games, on the other hand… I was drawn to Gamers because I saw a screenshot of a parody of Granblue Fantasy that Keita and his friend like to play. I thought it would be that kind of show where you’re always catching references and parodies to popular video games. And there’s an element of that, but it more or less disappears after the first two episodes in favor for romantic misunderstanding after romantic misunderstanding. The show is called Gamers, not Games, I guess.

The reason I’ve been feeling like dropping it from the start is that a romance show lives and dies by its characters. If you like them, you’re solid. If not… TBH they’re all really annoying, especially Keita’s everyday otaku shtick and Karen’s lovestruck teen gimmick. I’ve been sick of them from the start.

What keeps me coming back, however, is the way the show keeps throwing out curveballs when you expect them to go straight. I fully expected lonely Keita to jump at the chance to make friends via the gaming club, but he turned them down. For fully understandable reasons, but it was a surprise nevertheless. Then when Chiaki and Keita finally met, I was certain they would end up as an item, but they ended up hating each other – or claiming to, anyway. And then at the end of episode 6…. @___@

In short, Gamers is full of surprises so I won’t drop it no matter how much the characters piss me off. I’m looking forward to seeing how the show changes based on the events of episode 6. Please don’t reset to the status quo, please don’t reset to the status quo… I will post a final review when the show is done.

200 pounds beauty (Korean movie) review, contains ending spoilers

It’s been almost 3 months since I started working on Talk to Me in Korean! Remember? So how am I doing? You’ll have to wait till the 20th to find out! In the meantime it doesn’t do to just study in a vacuum so I’ve been watching a few dramas and TV programs here and there to keep my hand in. All subtitled, of course, at least for now.

200 Pounds Beauty (미녀는 괴로워) is a Korean comedy/romance movie about an overweight woman named Hanna with a beautiful voice who is the real voice behind a K-Pop superstar. When she overhears her crush and manager making fun of her at a party, she goes underground, gets a ton of plastic surgery and reemerges as “Jenny”, ready to take the music world by storm!

…We wish. The movie I would have liked to watch is one where Hanna reinvents herself either so she can start a new life away from those who insulted and put her down or so she can get revenge on them. This movie features neither. Hanna just gets surgery because she doesn’t want to be ugly any more (although despite a hideously fake fat suit and bad teeth she was actually rather cute).

She doesn’t have any drive or motivation or purpose so she just walks right back into the same situation she walked out of. Instead of confronting the people who belittled her, she tries her hardest to please them. Instead of boldly being herself as Hanna, she comes up with a lame background story as Jenny – the only thing lamer than her cover story is the brains of the music industry people who never bothered to check it.

But 200 Pounds Beauty isn’t a story you watch for its cleverness. I at least was watching to see whether Hanna would ever get together with her crush Sang-Jun. Yes, the same crush whose cruel insults drove her to desperation. That guy. Does she? …Probably? It’s left ambiguous at the end. What’s also ambiguous is how Sang-Jun really felt about Hanna all along. There were strong hints that he actually liked her, overweight and all, and only put her down to please his protege (the lip syncer Hanna was really singing for). Now that Hanna = Jenny, the viewer will never know for sure whether Sang-Jun liked her for who he was, or just liked her voice, or if he’s now only attracted to the beautiful Jenny.

On Hanna’s part she doesn’t seem to have forgiven him for his cruelty to Hanna, and while she still seems to like him, it’s clear that something has cooled in their relationship. Plus as a successful singer in her own right now, she has far more options and a far busier schedule to deal with than just being Mrs. Sang-Jun. Whether they will end up together at some point or not is left up to your imagination. I like to hope they won’t. He doesn’t deserve her and she has a lot of issues to work out any way.

As for the message of the film concerning plastic surgery, what the characters say and what the movie actually promotes are two different things. Hanna/Jenny eventually gives a tearful speech about how she thought surgery would make her life better but it didn’t… except it totally did. Before she was broke, fat, made fun of, lonely, afterwards she is beautiful, slim, dressed in the latest and hottest fashion with thousands of adoring insta-fans, a growing music career and a very handsome not-quite-boyfriend. It’s clear she got all this by completely changing her image.

In the end the main character spends 5 minutes saying “Plastic surgery won’t solve your problems” while the movie spends 90 minutes saying the opposite. Who are we supposed to believe? You can draw your own conclusions, but it’s telling that even after Hanna’s heartfelt “confession,” the movie closes with her best friend sitting in front of Hanna’s plastic surgeon (now rich and famous) and begging for a procedure as well. As I said, draw your own conclusions but the meaning is obvious.

Despite the wackness of the message and the fruitlessness of the romance, I did quite enjoy 200 Pounds Beauty. I’m not quite sure why, but I suppose it had some charm to it. Rags to riches plots are a timeless classic for a reason and I wanted to see how things would work out between Hanna and pretty boy. If you’re not the type to take movies too seriously and you don’t have body image issues, it’s worth a watch. Preferably with a buddy so you can roll your eyes together when things get a bit ridiculous.