Monday, May 12, 2025

January in Retrospect

Ahh, yes, I remember being completely obsessed with reading Demon Slayer at this point because I NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. God, I can't wait for the movies to come out, because the fight scenes are going to be AMAZING. And sad. So many tears. Then I had to go and read fanfics to both feel better about the ending and to get over the book hangover this series left me in lol.

I read: 

  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 16 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 17 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 18 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 19 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 20 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 21 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 22 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 23 by Koyoharu Gotouge 5 stars
  • Cannon Fodder’s Strategy Script is Reversed by Xian Su
  • After the Secrets of the Passerby Were Leaked, He Was Cherished by the Entire Family of Antagonists by 夕朝南歌
  • The Princess’s Inner Thoughts Were Overheard by Her Emperor Father by 红豆煮水


I watched: 

  • Tangled (2010)  [rewatched]
  • Let This Grieving Soul Retire (2024)
  • I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History (2024)

Saturday, May 10, 2025

New Anime and Movies This Winter That I'm Excited For!

The few winter anime that I watched were SO GOOD! Really need to finish watching SAKAMOTO DAYS and cross that one off of my list.

Anime: 

  • Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-
  • Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Season 3
  • SAKAMOTO DAYS
  • I May Be a Guild Receptionist, but I'll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time
  • Bogus Skill «Fruitmaster» ~About that time I became able to eat unlimited numbers of Skill Fruits (that kill you)~
  • I Have a Crush at Work
  • Honey Lemon Soda
  • I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons
  • ZENSHU
  • Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You
  • Link Click: Bridon Arc
  • Kaiju No. 8 Movie


Movie: 

  • Presence (Jan 24)
  • The Colors Within (Jan 24)
  • Love Hurts (Feb 7)
  • Captain America: Brave New World (Feb 14)
  • Cleaner (Feb 21)
  • In the Lost Lands (Feb 28)

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Mini Reviews: Bite Your Fingertips, Reborn To The Start Of The Apocalypse To Farm, & The Meaning of You

Title: Bite Your Fingertips
Author: 苏景闲
Chapters: 88 chapters
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

Chu Yu was good-looking and had a good family background. Despite being male and an irredeemable slacker, he was still elected as Jianing Private School’s school flower by an overwhelming number of votes.

The whole school knew that Chu Yu was on bad terms with the second year’s top student who’d won so many awards from various competitions that his hand had gone limp with exhaustion just from holding them. He was the cold, restrained, taciturn, and indifferent to anyone school grass, Lu Shi.

That was until one certain day after school, when someone saw Chu Yu amongst the trees behind the school building, pulling on the sleeves of the study god’s white shirt while speaking pitifully, “Lu Shi, give me a bite, I’ll be gentle.”

Lu Shi put his finger in Chu Yu’s mouth. “It doesn’t matter if it hurts a little.”

——

Chu Yu was frightened to discover that, overnight, he had awakened a strange bloodline that required him to suck a drop or two of blood everyday in order to survive. However, the blood of everyone was bitter and smelly, except…Lu Shi’s.

#The Heavens must be pitting me#

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

Chu Yu and Lu Shi kind of remind me of the boys in Lovely Allergen, except yandare and more codependent. And it works because Lu Shi doesn't hide his possessiveness and paranoia when he realizes his feelings and Chu Yu consents to being in this type of codependent relationship because he also wants it and needs it. Both are traumatic boys dealing with many problems, on top of this random turning into a vampire thing, and it was enjoyable seeing how they opened up to each other and watching their growth.

My main complaint is that there's no extras! I understand why the author left it at the end and didn't need to have extras, but I want to see their future! I want to see them be amazing as adults and what shenanigans their friends are still up to!


Title: Reborn To The Start Of The Apocalypse To Farm
Author: 暖荷
Chapters: 241 chapters 
Publication: 2017
Summary from Novel Updates:

As he woke up, Wei Xuan realized he returned to the day when the apocalypse had just begun. Wei Xuan, who had a second chance at life, immediately decided: not to go to a survivor base, and not to return to human society, instead, there is only one thing he wants to do now. Find the half-zombie Du Hang, and live with him in the city full of zombies, farming and living together until old age. Wei Xuan, who stayed in the zombie city after being reborn, unexpectedly found out that zombies are not as terrible as humans think…

3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I remember liking the auther's other book, The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse, so I wanted to give this book a shot. However, even for a slice of life zombie apocalypse book, it got pretty boring at times. Part of it was because the author over-explained and repeated a lot of content, so it got repetitive at times. I can understand why they did it for a serialized novel, but it was written out and explained for dummies many times and lost a lot of appeal for me because it became boring. 

The romance was also kind of hard to understand in the beginning because the ML was literally an unconscious zombie running on instincts. I get that Wei Xuan was also basing a lot of his feelings from his previous life with Du Hang, but it was still weird to see him falling for an unconscious guy for the first half of the book.


Title: The Meaning of You
Author: Tilda Kim, Yeyoung, & Lee Sorock
Chapters: 82
Publication: 2021
Summary from tapas:

Dayeon is… tired. She’s so tired that she’s been transported to a new world and she’s still too tired to do anything. But most of all, she’s tired of Emperor Mikhail’s near-constant attention! He’s just so perfect… always concerned about her well-being and shielding her from the church’s attempts to label her some kind of saint. And he keeps finding reasons to brush her hair behind her ear or stare dreamily into her eyes. How’s a girl supposed to sleep through all this endearingly loving attention?!

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

Dayeon was a super relatable example of how a burnout and depressed protagonist would actually react if they were suddenly transmigrated into a fantasy world with high expectations on themselves. That's why watching her slow growth throughout was wonderful. The art was cute, the characters (peanut gallery side characters were hilarious) were great, the main characters were realistically flawed, and romance was cute and funny. Highly recommend!

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Books I Want to Read This Month

Sherry and I had a manga exchange last week, so now I have two more series to read!

  1. Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten vol. 1 by Riddle Kamimura
  2. Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten vol. 2 by Riddle Kamimura
  3. Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten vol. 3 by Riddle Kamimura
  4. Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten vol. 4 by Riddle Kamimura
  5. Breakfast with my Two-Tailed Cat vol. 1 by Ai Shimizu
  6. Breakfast with my Two-Tailed Cat vol. 2 by Ai Shimizu
  7. Wotakoi Love Is Hard for Otaku vol. 1 by Fujita
  8. Wotakoi Love Is Hard for Otaku vol. 2 by Fujita
  9. Wotakoi Love Is Hard for Otaku vol. 3 by Fujita
  10. Wotakoi Love Is Hard for Otaku vol. 4 by Fujita
  11. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Chronicle Novel vol. 1 by Fujino Omori
  12. Bailin and Li Yun by Jayessart
  13. This is for the Women Who Don't Give a Fuck by Janne Robinson
  14. Please Don't Go Before I Get Better by Madisen Kuhn
  15. Heart Talk by Cleo Wade

Saturday, May 3, 2025

December in Retrospect

I don't remember what sparked it, but I suddenly had the need to know what was going to happen next in Demon Slayer and was too impatient to wait for the movies to come out. So I finally busted out my physical copies and started reading the series right before we headed over to DC to spend Christmas with Alec's family. I also packed a bunch of volumes and read them the week we were there. 

Also finally felt in the mood to watch movies while on the flight back from Japan from our honeymoon and on the way to way back from DC lol.

I read: 

  • Doomsday Boss Dressed as an Educated Youth by 冬半暖
  • The Cannon Fodder of the Natural Disaster Novel Sees the Barrage Behind the Scenes by 金彩 
  • I Draw Cards to be the Lord by lesliya 
  • I’ve Been Reincarnated as this Game’s Villainess, I’ll Train the Main Capture Target to be a Yandere by 黒井雛
  • After Being Abducted by the General by 望三山
  • My Roommate's Online Lover Is Me by  江姜姜
  • My Delicate Wife Became A Dominant Top by 桃气洛洛
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 1 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 2 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 3 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 4 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 5 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 6 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 7 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 8 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 9 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 10 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 11 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 12 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 13 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 14 by Koyoharu Gotouge
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 15 by Koyoharu Gotouge


I watched: 

  • The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
  • The Plot (2024)
  • Home Alone (1990)
  • The Wasp (2024)
  • Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii (2024)

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Weekly Haul 168

Went through some old pics and realized that I never posted about these books I bought back in September 2023! I don't know how I overlooked them! So here's a post almost 2 years later lol.


Cheeky Brat vol. 7 by Mitsubachi Miyuki
Spy x Family vol. 7, 9 by Tatsuya Endo

Solo Leveling vol. 1-6 by Dubu & Chugong

Monday, April 28, 2025

November in Retrospect

I started off the month reading some long webnovels and then ended up reading a lot of short stories towards the end of the month. That was because we were about to head off to our honeymoon during the week of Thanksgiving, and I had no attention span to focus on anything long-term lol.

I read: 

  • I Deliver Candy To Men [QT] by NA
  • The Rich Female Supporting Role Just Wants to Learn by 寒花一梦
  • After Fleeing With Space, I Won by Lying Down by 橘橘橘橘子
  • Dressed as a Bad Female Partner in the Hard-to-Find Mandarin Ducks by Candy Powder
  • Sweeping Natural Disasters, All the People Escaped, I Have Hundreds of Millions by 一条尾巴长
  • The Timid Cub Transmigrated As The Cannon Fodder Gong by 妖侩
  • It’s Hard To Pretend To Be A Straight Guy by 取個名好難
  • My Sister Set Me Up With Someone by 一顆小橘子
  • After Becoming the Master, I Ended up With My Disciple by 柚子幼稚
  • My Roommate Always Seems to Bully Me by 恰個大肘子
  • I’m a Villainess, but My Fiancé is too Eccentric so I Can’t Shine by りったん
  • When The School Girl Got Bound to The Love System by 十六月西瓜


I watched: 

  • Bibliophile Princess (2022)
  • The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (2022)
  • Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Friday, April 25, 2025

Webnovel Review: The Supporting Male Character Just Wants to Be a Tool Man by 林盎司

Title: The Supporting Male Character Just Wants to Be a Tool Man
Author: 林盎司
Chapters: 213 chapters + 59 extras
Publication: 2021
Summary from Novel Updates:

Shen QingShu, 22, died in an accident. His biggest regret before his death was that he’d been single all his life. He obviously wasn’t a monk, but he’d never eaten meat.

Then, when he opened his eyes, he saw a handsome, self-assured man standing before him. The handsome man parted his thin lips slightly and asked, “Wanna have a one-night stand?”

Shen QingShu didn’t hesitate at all. “Let’s do it! Twice!”

The next morning, Shen QingShu woke up aching all over. Only then did he discover he’d transmigrated into a book. The handsome guy beside him who’d gone two rounds with him was the protagonist gong, Han Cheng, the second son of the Han Group.

And the original owner of this body was just a disliked, death-seeking cannon fodder.

Shen QingShu: …Well, this is f*cking awkward.

But Shen QingShu didn’t panic. Anyway, he was just a cannon fodder. He figured they’d part in a few days

He knew he was a tool man, a character who only existed to develop the plot.

-Half a year later-

Shen QingShu looked at the man next to him and wondered: It’s been more than six months. Why hasn’t he left already?

Until the day he saw the protagonist shou and Han Cheng meet by accident.

Tool man Shen QingShu immediately felt the call of duty. Eyes shining, he prepared to push the plot forward.

“Don’t come looking for me in the future.” Shen QingShu was extremely self-aware.

Han Cheng was shocked. “Why? Do you have feelings for someone else? Who is it?”

Shen QingShu: … Darling, this reaction isn’t quite right.

“I don’t accept this,” Han Cheng said, furious. “One day as husband and wife means a hundred days of grace. Can you even calculate how much grace we have?”

Shen QingShu: … No, wait, what are you talking about? It’s not like I’m your wife. I’m just a tool man, and it’s time for me to go offline!

However, Shen QingShu found that not only did the protagonist gong refuse to let him go offline, he was going to make him his bride!

Shen QingShu: I’m crying.

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

The comedy was top tier! I laughed so hard whenever Shen QingShu, Han Cheng, or their family and friends became Oscar level actors deep in the act just to piss people off! All of their enemies vomited buckets of blood with every interaction lol. 

While I loved how fleshed out and lovable Shen QingShu and Han Cheng were (the best couple ever, the greenest flags I've read to date), I also loved how the author wrote her villains so detestably. In a lot of novels, you have 2D villains who are just meant to push the love interests along; their reasons for revenge are generically shallow. You're meant to hate them just because they're the villain and have plans to hurt the protagonist or their love interest. 

Here, we have villains who are so self-absorbed, so delusional, so VICTIMIZED that they constantly think they deserve the best with no regards of how this would hurt others because they're the only ones that matter. That's why it is SO REFRESHING when Shen QingShu and gang stage these dogblood skits just to put them in their place and reflect how delusional they are! 

Also didn't expect to tear up a few times. How dare you cut onions near me when I'm having a good time reading about Shen QingShu and Han Cheng's super oblivious love for each other! Their hilarious teasing and care for each other in the name of being car friends was so cute and funny. Shen QingShu was so clear headed and strong and was always willing to do what he thought would make Han Cheng happiest. He was so soft but so strong at his core. And Han Cheng was always distressed for him because of this reason. Instead, he was even more gentle towards Shen QingShu. Once they got together for real, it was dog food every day because they were so obviously smitten with each other, which was so fluffy and hilarious.

The parallelism and satire throughout the book was also great. I loved all of the family interactions with Hang Cheng's family. They were great and hilarious together. Finally, an example of healthy family dynamics, especially for a rich family with two potential heirs. Compared to Shen QingShu's family when he transmigrated over, what a breath of fresh air.

Overall, this was a great, hilarious novel. I just wished that the comedy was a little stronger during the second half of the book like how the first half was.