Kpop Appreciation: NCT, Treasure, Chancellor, Super Junior, aespa

NCT 2020 had a comeback with two new members, and their album has a lot of bops! In addition to their title song, "Make a Wish (Birthday Song)", which is super catchy, I really liked NCT U's song, "Misfit". 

This song has all of NCT's rappers, which made me realize how many rappers the group had in total lol. The song had a throwback vibe of early 2000 rap (I think), which I liked. I was also just so happy to see WayV members included because there's hardly any intersection between NCT and WayV since their in different countries.

I also really liked NCT U's "From Home", which had a Boyz II Men vibe. This song had a lot of NCT's main vocals and lead vocals in it, and it's so nice hearing their unique voices.  

The song is sung in four different languages with some of the Chinese and Japanese members there, and they say "thank you" in multiple languages! Like yes! Take advantage of your multilingual members! And give Yuta more lines in general! That boy has such a beautiful voice! 

Treasure has a new song called "Mmm" out! They're really been working hard this year. They've had a comeback every month, and this is their third comeback. This song is very different from their past title tracks. It's slower but sexier, which is hard to take seriously because I know that at least a third of them are still minors lol. But this time, they focused more on their choreography, which makes sense since they'll be using this song for the year end award shows in the following month.

Also, can we talk about Yoshi??? He looks so good! This is definitely his best look yet. And Asahi really looks like the protagonist in an anime lol. Mashi with short hair was a surprise. He looks less cute and more mature but still adorable lol. They all slimmed down again and look a lot more mature without the baby fat. But Doyoung has a headband again, so all is good in the world lol.

Chancellor made a remix of his song Automatic, which featured 4 artists. "Automic Remix", however, was ambitious enough to include over 20 popular KRnb singers on the track! I originally wondered why the song was 16 minutes long, but after I saw the artist list, I understood why lol. And I actually recognized at least a third of the artists like Jay Park, Lee Hi, Bibi, Jamie, Bumkey, and Hoody. It was a pleasant surprise to realize that I actually listened so many KRnb artists, and now I have a lot of other artists to look into because of this song.

Check it out! I'm sure you recognize at least one person in this remix lol.

Super Junior has a new song out called "The Melody". Compared to their typical hard hitting title songs, this song is softer and more sentimental. It reminds me of their softer B-side songs like "It's You". With lyrics like "We met with nothing in common / On the night we sang about eternity, not just about a moment / Do you remember the passionate voice? / This song only you and I know / The melody of the time that was our beginning", it makes me feel nostalgic as a longtime fan of Super Junior. 

The video is full of clips of them throughout their career from practice rooms to concerts to their every day lives. It's so heartwarming and wistful. I love it. Also, the whistling part is super catchy. If I knew how to whistle, I would whistle that part all of the time lol.

SM's just debuted their new girl group, aespa. SM was really ambitious with this group, which marked their first foray into AR and SM Culture Universe (SMCU). Apparently the girls all have matching AR alternate identities called ae's as shown in their music video below, and I think all SM Artists will have eventually one, too. SMCU is similar to Marvel's Cinematic Universe in that most of SM's recent artists will interconnect somehow in their music videos and future content. This was already shown as Easter eggs in some of SM's music videos. For example, the flowers in the train scene was shown in another group's recent music video.

Anyway, I'm really digging aespa's debut song, "Black Mamba." It's powerful and catchy! I'm glad they didn't debut with a cutesy song, since I'm not a huge fan of that type of music. Plus, there's only four members, so it shouldn't be hard to get into this group.

MIni Reviews: I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 1 & I'm No Match For Him

Title: I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 1

Author: Morita Kisetsu
Pages: 224 
Publication: 2016
Summary from Goodreads:

After living a painful life as an office worker, Azusa ended her short life by dying from overworking. So when she found herself reincarnated as an undying, unaging witch in a new world, she vows to spend her days stress free and as pleasantly as possible. She ekes out a living by hunting down the easiest targets - the slimes! But after centuries of doing this simple job, she's ended up with insane powers...how will she maintain her low key life now?!

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

This is a feel good, fluffy, slice of life novel, and for good reason! Azuza ended up dying from overworking and reincarnated as a witch in a new world. She decided to learn from her past mistake and made sure to live a more relaxing, fulfilling life from now on. It's just that she suddenly became famous, and with fame came a lot of problems and people. Luckily, she still sticks to her priorities and makes sure to not overwork herself or anyone else who comes into her life.

It's a quick and cute read if you want a relaxing slice of life book to break up all of the dramatic novels you read recently like I did lol. I just need to pick up the second book soon lol.

Title: I'm No Match For Him
Author: Toribun 
Chapters: 60 chapters
Publication: 2016
Summary from Goodreads:

"Do you really understand what kind of place an all boy school is?" To scare this teacher away I pushed him down on the infirmary bed, but... how did I end up under him!?

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

The beginning was a little too extreme (who does that to a teacher just because he didn't get a reaction he wanted?), but it got better after that. 

This is a teacher x student relationship. If that's not your thing, don't read it. If you remember that this is just fiction, it's a pretty good read. 

The webtoon really shows Kasuki's growth as a person. He's impulsive and rude and doesn't like teachers at first, but through repeated interactions with Kenji, he starts opening up and becoming honest. They're actually pretty bad at communicating in the beginning, so it was nice to see how they slowly got better at talking to each other and apologizing for not listening and such. 

Kenji doesn't really have much character growth, but I think it's because he's an easy going, go with the flow type of guy, so he not much bothers him except for when he accidentally hurts Kasuki's feelings. However, there are lots of incidents that shows just how serious he is about his relationship with Kasuki. Overall, this webtoon is a nice mix of fluff, romance, and smut lol.

Weekly Haul 131

The first pic is all of my recent Kickstarters that arrived, and the second pic are all of my birthday presents. Can't wait to read everything! :)

Iyanu: Child of Wonder vol. 1 by Roye Okupe & Godwin Akpan

The Oloris Chapter 1 by Roye Okupe

Little Champions of Justice by Shirin Taherzadeh & Alyssa de Asis

Mouse Books Season 3

Darkwater: Voices From Within the Viel by W.E.B du Bois

Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal

A Man & His Cat vol. 1 by Umi Sakurai

A Man & His Cat vol. 2 by Umi Sakurai

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Mini Reviews: Really, Really Miss You; The Icy Hero is Yearning for Love; The Bride Was a Boy

Title: Really, Really Miss You
Author: Mo Bao Fei Bao
Chapters: 53 chapters + epilogue
Publication: 2013
Summary from Novel Updates:

Our male and female lead are in the online entertainment circle, he on the dubbing side and she on the music cover side. The circle is one where physical appearance is generally anonymous and you are known by your online handle and your voice. Gu Sheng, a relatively unknown online singer who goes by the handle Sheng Sheng Man and who specializes in cover songs of ancient-style music, is a huge fan of Qiang Qing Ci, a very famous and well-loved CV (character voice) artist (i.e. dubber, voiceover artist). It was like, love at first listen.

One morning, she was chatting with a friend in her online “room” when his voice suddenly appeared in her headset, describing to her in detail how to prepare a food dish she had been talking about. This began their online chats about food. Gu Sheng can scarcely believe that she is talking to her idol, and he seems to be trying to progress the relationship further.

2.5 STARS - I LIKED IT ENOUGH

MY REVIEW: 

When I read this book, I didn't know that this was written by the same author as Honey Stewed Squid, which I read earlier this year. It wasn't until I made that connection that I realized how similar the main characters were. They both are popular in their own niche areas, are shy, and get easily embarrassed. However, the main difference between them is that while Tong Nian chases her guy in Honey Stewed Squid, Gu Sheng is the one chased in this book. That's why if you like Honey Stewed Squid, you'll probably like this book.

Even though I understand her feelings, I still didn't really like how shy and passive Gu Sheng was with her idol. Like, it really took everyone around her to tease and push her to spend time with Qiang Qing Ci because she would be immobilized with embarrassment every time. 

However, I liked how all of their friends tease them about their relationship throughout the book because it was pretty amusing and realistic. 

I tried to read Easily Set Aflame a while ago but got bored of it after a while because I was tired of how passive and embarrassed the female lead was. I think this is a common theme with most of the author's books, which is why after reading one or two of her books is enough for me. However, if you like any of her books, you'll probably like this one as well.

Title: The Icy Hero is Yearning for Love
Author: Momose Wasabi
Chapters: 13 chapters + 7 extras
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

The tavern owner’s son, Ilya, often experienced the same dream. A dream in which he played in the village orphanage with his childhood friend, a boy whose appearance resembled an angel’s. A dream where he made soap with olives and soup with leftover vegetables. But the moment Ilya laid eyes on the picture of the “Icy Hero,” he realized that those dreams weren’t dreams at all; rather those were the memories of his past life. Most importantly, that “Icy Hero,” Riley, wasn’t angelic anymore?!

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I started reading this book because I was looking for a short book to read so that I could finish it quickly and not be distracted reading it during the work week, so I didn't have much expectations when I started reading it. Plus, it's been a while since I read a Japanese novel, so I knew the writing style would be different from the Chinese novels I've read lately.

The writing style really fit the book's tone. It's mainly from Ilya's POV, which was pure and sincere. It made the angst even more painful. I wasn't expecting the angst (the summary did not prepare me!), but it gave the characters more dimension and really emphasized the long lasting impact of consequences and guilt.

Overall, I highly recommend this book if you're looking for something quick but impactful.

Title: The Bride Was a Boy
Author: Chii
Pages: 158
Publication: 2018
Summary from Goodreads:

The heartwarming transgender love story, based on true events!

Drawn in the style of diary comics with an upbeat, adorable flair, this is a charming tale about Chii, a woman assigned male at birth. Her story starts with her childhood and follows the ups and downs of exploring her sexuality, gender, and transition--as well as falling in love with a man who’s head over heels for her. Now they want to get married, so Chii’s about to embark on a new adventure: becoming a bride! 

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was a really cute, autobiographical book about a trans girl's life story from her childhood to her marriage. The art style is really cute, Chii's really cute, her husband's cute...everyone's cute! It was so fluffy and soft and informational that I was just very happy that she was happy by the time I finished the book.

I think life is already hard as it is; you already know that being trans (or any gender identity or sexuality different from cis het) is difficult. Instead of focusing on those negative points, Chii chose to focus on her self love and love from her family and husband to show that even though it's tough figuring things out and being different from society, you also have a place in it surrounded with people who love you just like any other person on Earth.

In between every chapter, she goes over a lot of informational, educational content like the harmful effects of certain diagnostic terms, sexual reassignment surgery, and how certain laws prevent people from getting married or a surgery.

All in all, it's a very cute, informational book. I highly recommend it!

SEPT: Home Alone, Going Away Lunch, Cleaning Off My Desk, Visit the Parents, Dentist Visit, Work Stress

September flew by. It was a busy month for me at work, which is probably why I don't remember much about the month lol.

I was actually home alone for Labor Day weekend since Shelle and Kyle went to their friend's jointed bachelor/bachelorette party at the beach that weekend. It's been a while since I was home by myself, and I quickly realized how quiet the house can get, so I started playing music everywhere lol. 

I watched #Alive, the new Korean zombie movie on Netflix, which was so good. While most zombie movies are set up with a large environment traveling across large areas, #Alive does that opposite and is set in the main character's apartment where he stays home in isolation. I definitely recommend you watch it, especially because it really showed the anxiety, restlessness, and fear you felt when you first started quarantining at home. 

I also started and almost finished watching Go Ahead, a Cdrama about found families and the people who try to use family as an excuse to be terrible people. I saw a couple of funny gifsets of the show on Tumblr and was interested once I recognized the two male leads. Then, I found the show with official subs on YouTube and figured it was time to watch it. I think I spent the majority of that Saturday marathoning the show lol. It's just so good, and you really feel for all of the characters. Li Jian Jian's dad is the absolute best and deserves the world. Meanwhile, Ling Xiao's mom is the most selfish, manipulative woman I've ever seen, and I wished she got a worse ending because she deserved it. Anyway, I highly recommend it lol.

Two weeks after Brian announced that he was leaving our team at work, Kait also announced that she was leaving. :( I mean, I don't blame her. She wasn't sure if she was going to be converted to full-time since we still had a hiring freeze, and another company reached out and recruited her. Ironically, it's down the street from our office, so we can still get lunch and see each other. But we had a going away lunch for her at Cinco's since there's outside seating. It was good to see the team since it's been over 6 months since we've all seen each other in person lol. It still sucked that Kait was leaving because that just left Anita and me in our instructional design team, which meant more responsibilities. 

Our company also recently announced that in preparation for whenever we come back to the offices, we'd need to sign up to clean off our desks so that there's nothing but the essentials on the top of our desks. This is so that it'd be easier for the cleaners to clean our desks every week. We had to sign up for a specific date and time for our floors to make sure that we're maintaining social distancing, so our team signed up for a Thursday morning and afternoon so that we could see each other for lunch that day.

Ebony and I signed up for the morning session, so we met up with Erin there and cleaned off our desks while I attended a call on my phone lol. I also cleaned out my snack drawer, which had a lot of expired snacks and even a drink. -__-" We met up with Zach for Bezoria's at the mall because we all missed it since we've been working from home. Jack and Anita ended up not coming because they weren't feeling so good, but it was still good to catch up and eat familiar food that we didn't have to cook! 

That weekend, we went down to visit the parents. Mom cooked up a feast as usual, and dad told us the funny story about how he ate an early dinner at five with mom the other week. He did some yard work afterwards and when he tried to go to bed later, he stayed awake until two because he was so hungry, so he made ramen and finally went to bed lol. That Saturday, mom made hotpot and we ate it early around five as well, so we joked about saving the soup and leftovers for 2AM like dad lol. Surprisingly, around midnight, we were still full, but you know, you can't say no to mom's cooking... so we ended up heating up the leftovers and putting a packet of ramen noodles in it after all. It was delicious. :D

The following Monday, I went to an oral surgery to get a wisdom teeth removal consultation because I've been putting it off long enough and my teeth were starting to hurt on and off more consistently lately. I had an x-ray done, and they said that they were going to need to take out all four teeth, and I was just like, take it out all at once. Why suffer two times when I can suffer once lmao. So I scheduled the surgery to take place in two weeks in October. 

Post surgery me has to say that I just want to eat spicy food! Food doesn't taste the same when it's not spicy! Also, my lower jaw just aches all the time randomly. It's so weird.

Anyway, work got busy ever since Brian and Kait left. They both specialized in two different fields: Brian in video editing and Kait in LMS administration. Now that they're both gone, Anita and I need to do both, and it's so much. I've got an endless list of videos I need to edit and upload onto our LMS. 

It doesn't help that I've been slacking off on the AVO series because everything else was urgent before it, but then Irene said that Carlos wanted weekly video updates from me to review the content, so I was stressed. Like, for one reason, the video recordings are 8+ hours long. Just trying to edit and render a video was causing my laptop to lag hardcore. The other reason was that I needed to pull a video out of my ass asap to show them that I did something. Dude, I got so stressed that my eye was twitching for a few days. It was not a fun time. 

Anyway, I'm trying to allocate my time better so that I can get all of these videos published, but man, I hope we can hire someone already! There's too much to do, and I don't like this constant guilt I feel for not finishing all of my work even though I've been pulling overtime.

Lol the first half of September was nice and fun, and then the second half kicked my ass. I guess that's just how life is.

Webnovel Review: Fake Slackers by Mu Gua Huang

Title: Fake Slackers

Author: Mu Gua Huang

Chapters: 112 chapters + 3 extras

Publication: 2018

Summary from Novel Updates:

After class placement were decided, the school’s two infamous ‘problem youth’ not only shared the same class, but the same desk.

They’re clearly good at studies, but pretend to be slackers. Fakers from head to toe who just keep walking farther down the path of their performance.

Hear on the grapevine about the two big brothers who always fight over the last place in class.

Basically, this is a serious comedy. About the little matters of growing up.

5 STARS - I LOVED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was a hilarious read. First of all, the premise! Two super geniuses (and also known as the school tyrants) are actually fighting for last place in their school and are seriously concerned that their boyfriend's not gonna pass high school with their abysmal grades. He Zhao's 0 point essay made him notorious throughout their grade lmao.

He Zhao was half of the entertainment himself. His shamelessness, friendly attitude, and perpetual smile made him likable and easy to get along with. He easily gets roped into any hijinks their class came up with and always dragged Old Xie along with him. And his over confidence either made you want to laugh or cry lmao. Whether he was showing off at sports or boasting about making at least a 20 on the exam, he certainly knew how to get your attention lol. Also, his terrible aesthetics and attempts at romance really killed me. However, I really liked his duality. When he wasn't smiling, when he was truly angry, you really saw the overbearing aura of a school tyrant and remembered that this guy wasn't someone you should mess with.

Meanwhile, Yu Xie looks cold and indifferent and radiates lone wolf vibes. He doesn't care about other people and is hot tempered and uses his fists to solve his problems. He treats words like gold but is A+ at provoking people lol. However, he slowly realizes through his interactions with his classmates that he's slowly changed, and you see that he's actually soft. Even though he has a cold demeanor and people assume he won't help out, he's secretly a tsundere and will tell you he won't do something but then immediately do it lol. Also, he's a tease, a straightforward tease that's always leaving He Zhao surprised lmao.

The romance was a great natural progression from enemies to deskmates to friends to lovers. There's no unnecessary drama, no random love rivals, and no waffling around. It's just two guys slowly realizing their feelings and acting on it. They gradual learn how to date at school, and their classmates slowly catch on because they're really not subtle lol. There's a bunch of ambiguous misunderstandings along the way, so their classmates already thought that they were dating already lmao.

Their classmates make up half of the atmosphere. They have so many antics and all have distinct personalities that rub off of each other and make every interaction either full of shame or hilarity. Like, one guy's nickname is Know-It-All because he's notorious for snooping outside of the faculty lounge for gossip that even the teachers know him lol. I love that after they get over their fears of the school tyrants in their class, they stand united against all odds whether they're against teachers or sports competitions. 

Also, shoutout to Old San for being the real MVP. I loved how he accepted his students for who they are and genuinely worried about them and their mentalities as they went through exams and became third years. He's always capturing small candid moments of his class, and it's so sweet and heartfelt.

I really liked the whole vibe of the book. The writing is succinct like Yu Xie, but the dialogue and tone is full of hilarity and shamelessness like Ye Zhao. Unlike a lot of books I read recently where it was more passive and full of explanations and thinking, Fake Slackers was active, full of cursing, fighting, and straightforward action. The writing and the characters makes you keep on reading until late into the night. Anyway, this is a definite recommendation if you like rom coms or yaoi or slice of life.

If you want a hilarious, more visual (spoilerish) review, I highly recommend you check out @hz_xy's READ FAKE SLACKERS presentation because it is 100% accurate and funny lol.

Books I Want to Read This Month

Ah, another month where I mainly read webnovels lol. I'll try to do better this month!

1. Wayward Kindred Anthology edited by Allison O'Toole
2. Nima by Ross Tran
3. Smash It! by Francina Simone
4. The Way of the House Husband vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono
5. The Way of the House Husband vol. 2 by Kousuke Oono
6. Demon Slayer vol. 1 by Koyoharu Gotouge
7. Demon Slayer vol. 2 by Koyoharu Gotouge
8. I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level vol. 2 by Kisetsu Morita & Beniso
9. I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level vol. 3 by Kisetsu Morita & Beniso
10. So You've Been Publicly Shame by Jon Ronson
11. Tamiko and the Two Janitors by Forthright 
12. Someone Else to Love by Susan Polis Shutz
13. The Rain in Portugal by Billy Collins
14. Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav
15. The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune

October in Retrospect

I'm kind of surprised that I didn't really watch anything this month except for one movie. I guess it's because I spent most of my free time reading MTL novels lol. There's a lot of anime series that's recently completed, so I should start watching those...

I read: 

• Reborn With an Old Enemy on the Day of Our Marriage by 林知落
• I Rely on Kisses to Clear Survival Games by 啾咪啾咪兔
• The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by Mò Xiāng Tóngxiù
• Villain's Sister and The Male Lead by Xiao Berry
• A Wealthy Daughter Became Ocean Creatures' Favorite by Gu Wuhen
• Hamster Dressed as Villains by Brain Flowers
• Nine Tails by Kali
• Very Happy by Yue Xia Die Ying
• Teddy Bear no Wakarekata by Torino Rakuda
• I Have the Aura of Overbearing President by Jiang Yue Nian Nian
• Little Sweetheart by Wu Ying Wu Zhong
• I Am Not Fit to Be the Male Lead’s First Love by 赵史觉
• Back to Before I Married the Tyrant by 秋后问盏
• Acting Spoiled In His Indifferent Arms by 春风榴火
• Guide To Raising the Sick Villain by 小孩爱吃糖
• The Cannon Fodder and Villain’s Happy Ending by 临天
• The Yandere Came During the Night by Feng Liu Shu Dai
• The Rich Woman Is No Longer Acting by 桃花引

I watched: 

• Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016)