Manga Match 45 Romantic Marbling

Well, things have been going relatively well for me. I got into all the classes I wanted to take for this school term and I even got a position doing research. That's on the plus side. However, on the downside that means I'm facing the biggest workload I've ever had, which is pretty scary to think about. I'm going to do my best to make time for myself, ya know mental health and all that jazz, but no promises. No promises on the continuation of this blog consistently either. It's kind of a feelsbad, but what can you do?

{Spoilers}

This was the best shoujo manhwa I've read in a while. It was probably because all of the characters seemed so refreshing and a different blend than I've ever seen before that it gave me such a profound feeling. It had a lot of life lessons to give out about love and loving someone, in such great detail and with such conviction that it seems hard to believe that it was the creator's first time trying something like this. It was a thoroughly thought out story line with a story that I believe many people should read and learn for themselves.

The story follows a woman, Sooyeon, in her late 20s who has recently broken up with her long time boyfriend Jaejoon. The reason he broke up for her is a premise that is not often used in shoujo manga, probably because it just seems too much like cold, hard reality maybe lol; he broke up with her in order to go out with a rich girl who could pay off his debts and his sickly half-brother's(?) medical bills. And the really unique thing about Sooyeon is that she accepts him and his reasoning for leaving her. She accepts that this is the reality and that in his life, money is more important than she was. It's honestly a tough pill to swallow, but the way she was able to accept what he valued the most and was able to get over his selfishness shows how much of a heart of gold she has as well as her maturity.

However, in a drunken stupor filled with the sorrow of having broken up with Jaejoon she puts in a request for a "prince charming" that would supposedly change her life forever. From this service comes Joohwan, the picture-perfect prince charming she requested. He comes in to help mend the relationship between Sooyeon and Jaejoon, as Sooyeon is still mournful over their breakup, even though deep down inside she's accepted it. The story goes through twists and turns as Joohwan starts to fall for Sooyeon and her candid nature, and Jaejoon becomes jealous of Joohwan replacing him. This starts a love triangle of sorts, with Jaejoon regretting letting go of his first love, and Joohwan realizing that the love that he and Sooyeon share is something he never experienced before. In the past, Joohwan was scarred by his experiences with love because they were all based around money. When he was public about his status as a member of the elite, people fawned over him because of his money. When he hid the fact that he was rich, the girl he was in love with ended up marrying another rich man. This led to him having a twisted view of love and a deeply rooted doubt if he could ever find love himself in such a bleak situation. However, with Sooyeon he began to understand what it means to respect another person and to love them for who they are and not for their bank account. Honestly, my explanation is only sub-par at best. The complications and nuances between the relationships between the characters is too complex to really explain, but it's just the feeling I get from the series. It's so incredibly well thought out.

Something else that I found very charming about the whole series was the fact that everyone was willing to wait for the one they loved and for the both of them to become better people and find themselves in order to give the best they could in their relationships. Like Jaerak and the girl he liked. He told her that he would improve himself and he didn't even know if their love would become mutual in the future, but he had hope for it to. It's such a scary thing to have to wait for an undefined amount of time for someone to or not to return your love...where am I even going?

This was a terrible summary, I think my sanity is unraveling. There's just something inexplicably endearing and so profound about this manhwa that I think that everyone should read it. I think there's something to be learned. Although it is a bit of a dramatic situation, it's still full of a lot of good life lessons and how to maintain a mature relationship.

Jaerak and his love hngh so good

Such a cute couple actually, even though it started with impure intentions, it blossomed into something v cute

And then they became the cutest family hngh

Then the author's note is me. ATM my roommates and I are losing our minds o my

Manga Match 44 Migawari Hakushaku no Bouken

23 Sept 2018

Well, I've officially moved into my dorm for the year and the good part is that I'm not really homesick to the point of tears this time. The bad part is that there is no kitchen in this building. I took all of the luxuries from last year for granted and now I miss it :((((

{Spoilers}

Well this is another gender swap kind of manga that's set in this fantastical ~medieval(?)~ era (LOL it's hard to describe because I know little to nothing about what kind of era it's supposed to be set in). There's this girl Mireille who has to stand in as her twin brother inside the royal court and while she's there she encounters many interesting people. She takes part in many of the mysteries that unfold such as the secret plot to kill one of the princesses of a nearby kingdom and all of the plot twists that came along with it.

I was reminded a bit of Clannad with the fact that Mireille and her family own a bakery and yet she's such a terrible breadmaker similar to Nagisa's mom.

It's kind of hard to summarize something that had such a complex plot for only being 32 chapters, so if this summary ish thing doesn't make any sense please just don't mind it. In fact it was so complex that I don't even think I got some of the more nuanced mystery points. It's definitely a manga that you could reread and probably gain more insight on into everyone's hidden motives and such, especially the king's.

{Ahah I just woke up, maybe I should've picked a better time to write this}

Overall though it was a pretty interesting read. There was just enough mystery, and the normal amount of romantic misunderstandings for it to be shoujo, and a bit of comedy as well which made it enjoyable to read. If you're looking for something a bit more dimensional than your straight up shoujo, you should consider reading this one.

I just had to add this one because Fred is actually gold. It's hard to read him since he is always scheming and plotting things from multiple angles, so it's hard to tell if he was really scared of having to do a test of courage in the haunted house or if that was just an excuse for him to go on vacation or investigate other threats to the royal family.

When Richard is not only the main interest, but also the castle's hero.

Manga Match 43 Clear Up After Rain {Ame Nochi Hare}

Oof. Well I've come to be grateful that when I was working it kept me pretty busy because now, with nothing much to do, I've been pretty bored. Not that that's anything to complain about, I love relaxing, but it makes me anxious for the tumultuous times ahead with a heavy school load. I'm not the only one feeling the pressure as my younger sister is also finding the transition from summer relaxation into schoolwork mayhem to be overwhelming. It's a sobering feeling not really being able to help her, nor really understanding how I can help her. I'm grateful that the conventional teaching methods worked for me, but it also keeps me from being able to really sympathize with my sister.

{Spoilers}

Wow I didn't even know how to transition that so I didn't even try *dab*

I've been browsing some different subsets of anime and there's a pretty popular kind on switching bodies/genders. It started off with a manga recommendation to read Shishunki Bitter Change and then it got me into this manga that's already completed. Clear Up After Rain was a refreshing change to my usual formulaic shoujo reads. It was different in the sense that there was this mystery element of these five boys all changing into girls whenever it rained by a stroke of fate or maybe misfortune. But the mangaka really took it up a notch by adding in the element of not just romance, but the evolution of the boys into people that were sympathetic towards the problems girls had and were able to find romance to treasure through their fateful encounters as both boys and girls towards the people surrounding them. It was a bit stressful at times because it seemed to be only a matter of time until someone found out their secret, however by trusting in the secrecy of the bubbly chairman and the serious dorm head, the five of them were able to keep this gender-change phenomena a secret. Towards the halfway point in the story I couldn't help but feel distress as our five main boys weren't getting any closer to solving the mystery behind their gender change and this becoming an increasing problem in their relations with their love interests. However, it was discovered by Yuusuke that the only way to stop the phenomena was to confess your true feelings to the one you love. And this lead to the conclusion of a diverse group of love interests and their counterparts. For Yuusuke it was maturing enough to realize that love was the one thing he didn't want to have to compete with against his golden boy brother. He realized that the girl he loved was far more important than just a win and wanted to mature enough to truly and sincerely love her. Oof that was the feels. And then there was Madoka who for the majority of the story found his fiancee to be more of a sister than a true love interest. However through seeing her mature as well as the sympathy towards women that he gained through his time as a girl he was able to realize his feelings for her. Not only that, but he was also able to confront the reason why he stopped chasing calligraphy as his career and was pushed forward from his stagnant phase. And then the last and most complicated of the requited loves is Hazuki. As a boy he's fallen in love with a girl, Asumi, and as a girl Asumi's older brother, Takuma, has fallen in love with him. Not only that, but the girl who he loves has a classmate who also loves her, although unrequited. When Hazuki is confronted with wanting to confess his feelings for Asumi and having to answer Takuma's confession, he realizes that he can't answer Asumi's feelings while not having answered Takuma's confession. In the end he's able to successfully tell everyone what he means to tell them in earnest and is able to have a happily ever after with Asumi. And then we've got the two karate boys, Goro and Touma. Both of their loves were unrequited, with Goro falling in love with the girl who loved Asumi and Touma falling in love with Hazuki. They were both able to earnestly speak their true feelings to the ones they loved, a smack of reality to the face when the other three boys were able to live happily ever after. But I think in the end it ended up being a satisfactory ending.

It was just the right amount of romance, suspense, drama, and mystery to keep me intrigued and reading more. It was a well thought out piece and I'd really recommend reading it. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into when I started reading it and it was a bit confusing and slow to start off with, however I couldn't help but root for these pure boys and their romance.

I was so happy at this point. It was the turning point after which all of the love stories came to a conclusion and all the boys switched back to normal.

Hngh they're so cute as girls

*secretly sad that ToumaxHazuki never sailed*

Anime ATM 87 Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha

Yikes, so I'm out here with a viral throat infection that I don't even know how I got and I'm leaving back for college in 4 days wow I'm just loving life right now. Also this is as good a time to remind y'all that are out living in dorms or going to school with hekkin people to go and get your flu shot. You'll thank me later when all those other suckers are sick as heck and you're thriving.

{Spoilers}

So for some reason I had a tab for this anime open on my phone. I literally have no idea how I came across this anime, like actually no clue because my memory is so bad. It's got a little bit of a Fugiken Mononokean vibe to it with the portrayal of the celestial plain and how the gods are pretty relatable and human-like (a quality that I've seen in a lot of shows with kami in them, maybe it's just a portrayal of how they are in religious texts? I'm not too sure, but in any case it's a common thing) and it's also got a little bit of Kamisama Kiss, partially because of the fox character with the clumsy shy girl and also just that feel to it.

In terms of the actual quality of the anime, it wasn't the best in terms of plot. It was basically this average girl named Inari (lol I just keep thinking about the sushi inari every time) who was watched over by the fox goddess(?) named Uka. One day Inari saves a fox that turns out to be a familiar for Uka-sama and to repay Inari's kindness Uka gives her one wish. Inari's dumb and makes a bad, impulsive wish which ends up in Uka having to give Inari some of her divine power in order to right the wrong. Giving Inari this divine power comes with a lot of complications as every time Inari uses it to transform into someone else it makes Uka weaker to the point of almost disappearing. Overall it was just about Inari not knowing she was hurting Uka and Uka not wanting to live without Inari knowing her and becoming too attached to humans in general. They both had to learn their lesson the hard way with Uka almost disappearing in the end. Obviously everything had to end with a happily ever after, so that's what ended up happening and that in and of itself made it a quite boring watch. It's like you already knew almost what was going to happen. In the 10 episodes, nothing really spectacular happened. I mean, Inari found her love in Tanbabashi and Inari's friends were pretty cool, but it wasn't anything spectacular.

Although, I do have to say that I loved Sumizome's loyalty to her friends and her gap moe

Of all of the things I noticed about the anime, was I actually really liked the ambiance in some scenes. The golden light, the autumn leaves, and the soothing background music was very transporting. However, that was probably one of the only things that I found appealing and note-worthy of the anime--was the ambiance and sceneries.

Overall, I can't say anything about this anime was spectacular. I wouldn't say there's any particular reason you should watch this anime besides for the ambiance and maybe if you're looking for a kami-sama kinda anime with cute girls and a questionably chuuni older brother. 

Oh, and this is Kon. This is my favorite character in the anime. Although I'm not quite sure why there's a leaf on the tip of its tail?