meganbmoore | Entries tagged with manhua

What are you currently reading
The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan. A fictional memoir of a schizophrenic queer woman named Imp. Not really my usual cup of tea, but I'm enjoying it, especially the unreliable narrator aspect, and how she uses allusions to fairy tales to express herself. It's the kind of book where, once I finish it, I imagine I'll sit down intending to say a lot and then not come up with anything more than "it was good."

What did you recently finish reading?

Didn't finish:

I read about 1/4 of the first volume of The Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, the graphic novel series that the movie Les Aventures d'Adele Blanc-Sec is based on. It was ok, I suppose, but I didn't care for the art, and Adele herself was in about 3 pages of what I read. I may have liked it more if I'd stuck with it throughout, but I couldn't work up the interest. Pity, because I really liked the movie.

I also bounced off of the anthology Queen Victoria's Book of Spells. I'll likely revisit it, but it very much started off on the wrong foot for me.

( spoiler for the first story and brief rant about the introduction )

Finished:

Peony Pavilion by Xia Da, a single-volume, full color manhua adapting various mythological Chinese poems and short stories. Some are illustrated prose and some are full adaptations. The artwork is stunning and I enjoyed reading it a lot, but i have to admit that the individual stories themselves didn't necessarily stick with me.

Melody Drifting in the Rain by Cang Yue and Lu Jing, another single volume manhua, this time about a prince who enters into a political marriage to gain her familiy's support for his brother during a civil war. Surprisingly enough, this isn't about a romance between the two, but instead focuses on the war and the machinations of their families. Entertaining, but it felt like it should have been longer. Though, like with Fantastic Tales, I suspect a lot of that feeling comes from the fact that I'm used to seeing the stories spread out over 30-40 42 minute TV episodes. (Though I don't get that same feeling from movies as often. Ah well.)

Last in the graphic novels is volumes 13-16 of Karuho Shiina's Kimi ni Todoke, a series that I've been enjoying a lot the last few months, despite having little to say about it. I'm glad that the conflict isn't relying as heavily on misunderstandings that are fairly easy to clear up, though I still sometimes want to reach in and shake people and tell them to just sit down at talk already. I'm also rather frustrated that that my favorite character is apparently being paired off with the only character in the series who I actually dislike.

( brief spoilers )

Wide Open by Deborah Crombie, a gothic novel about Hallie, a soldier serving in Afhanistan who is on a 10 day compassionate leave after her sister's (Dell) death. Arriving home in South Dakota, she learns that while her sister's death was officially ruled an accident, most people in town believe it was a suicide. Hallie, however, believes that her sister was murdered, and is resolved to find the truth in the limited time she has. Thanks to being technically dead at one point in Afghanistan, Hallie also sees ghosts, and her ghosts lead her to believe that Dell's death is connected to the disappearances of several other women over the last few years, and that the disappearances are supernatural in origin. Hallie appears to have PTSD, but it isn't directly dealt with within the narrative. With the exception of one scene, I enjoyed the book a lot.

( potentially triggering spoiler )

There's a sequel, apparently, though my library doesn't seem to have it yet, sadly.

What do you think you'll read next?

I have no idea. Really, I consider this question to be very cruel. HOW CAN I KNOW WHAT READING MOOD I'LL BE IN IN FIVE DAYS IF I'M NOT JUST CONTINUING WITH WHAT I WAS READING?

Uhm...I don't feel up to anything heavy or that might spring things on me, so probably a romance novel or two, and maybe one of the Kelley Armstrong books I still have from the library.

What are you currently reading
Haunted by Kelley Armstrong. The main character is Eve, the ghost of a half-demon dark witch, who is sent by the Fates to catch an immortal, body-hopping serial killer who has made other people sent after her either disappear or go completely mad. I'm really loving this one, and Eve is hilarious and snarky, but I don't have deep thoughts about the plot yet.

What did you recently finish reading?
I finished Kelley Armstrong's Industrial Magic and liked it a lot. My favorite part was when Paige and Cassandra, a vampire frenemy, are investigating a sserial killer and head to New Orleans to investigate some vampires who take the Anne Rice fad too seriously. I laughed from beginning to end of those chapters, especially when go to the head vampire's dark and gloomy mansion and Cassandra spends the whole time wishing vampires could die of mortification. I tried reading Bitten, the first book in the series, but couldn't get into it. Normally, I don't stick with a series if I can't get through the first book in it, but in this case, I unintentionally started with a book late in the serious and went through a couple others before I was able to get ahold of the first. It's also a shared world series that follows multiple narrators, instead of just one, which helps.

I also finished the manhua Fantastic Tales, and it remained great fun throughout. As implied by the beginning, it was a pretty straight wuxia romantic adventure in manhua form, complete with poisons, tournaments, rebellions messed up family backgrounds, vengeance quests, amnesia, Super Special Swords, people gettin g sidetracked for random adventures on their quests, martial arts abilities that let you change your appearance and bone structure, etc., but with considerably more kissing than in wuxia tv series. I think it could have done with a couple more volumes because there was a bit too much going on to really be completely fleshed out in 5 volumes, but I'll take what I can get.

( mild spoilers )

What do you think you'll read next?

I've spent the last few days stressing about what to load onto my kindle during travel over the weekend. Most of the drive to and from family is through the Texas Hill Country, very little of which gets radio, cell phone signals, or wifi, so I need to have about 5 hours of reading material available to me before we set out. You'd think having kindle would make choosing easier, but no...

I will probably take Catherynne Valente's Six-Gun Snow White in case I forget to charge the thing, though. (Not that it's a "last choice backup" book or anything, I'm just planning to keep it light in terms of physical books to lug around.)

I'm going to try to start doing the weekly reading meme that's going around, and figured it was better to start on the wrong day than to begin an endless cycle of putting it off to the next week to start it on the right day.

What are you currently reading?

I'm reading Kelley Armstrong's Industrial Magic, which is part of her "Women of the Otherworld" series. I picked up Counterfeit Magic, which focuses on the same characters, at the library a while back, and am unfortunately going about it in the wrong order since I'm having to ILL some of them and they aren't exactly arriving in chronological order. I haven't read enough of it yet to have an opinion, but I'm liking it a lot so far.

I've also started reading a 5 volume wuxia romance manhua called Fantastic Tales by Li Huan. I've read the first volume, and so far Our Heroine has crashed a martial arts tournament, poisoned her Tall Dark And Humourless love interest via planting a kiss on him mid-duel, unpoisoned-him, attempted to assassinate the evil prime minister, been arrested, and escaped jail solo. Currently, she and Tall Dark And Humourless are standing on a rooftop, debating whether or not they should go back and rescue their companions. It's along the lines of "I don't really feel like it...they should be able to save themselves...maybe I should...?" (Said companions are intelligent enough to realize they shouldn't wait around for those two to decide how far on the dark side of the anti-hero scale they currently reside.) I expect to have a good deal of fun with this one.

What did you recently finish reading?

Beauty Under the Moon, a very short manhua (about 100 pages) by Misha about a struggling photography student who runs into (literally) a young man who performs women's roles in the Peking Opera, and they end up on the run from the goon of his evil senior, who is trying to get rid of him so he can win a competition. Lota of hijinks and running around and pretty opera costumes. Also, the Peking Opera apparently trains you to leap out a third story window while carrying another person, and somehow land on your feet. Nothing overly special, but fun.

I also just read Stolen the only full length novel of Kelley Armstrong's books that I've read, and the second in the series. I...am glad I read Counterfeit Magic first? Technically, I liked it, but I also found it triggering on every possible level, and couldn't help but think the main xcharacter, Elena, had a lot of internalized misogyny at times, and Armstrong is prone to describing her werewolf leads in superhumanly beautiful terms (a serious contrast to how people in the Paige-centric books seem to be deliberately "average-person-on-the-street attractive" and not superhot goods). I'm glad I rad all of it, but I'm not sure I would have if it weren't the book where Paige and Savannah are introduced.

I've also just caught up with all the volumes of Kami-sama Kiss that have been released in the US. The short version is "broke girl gets tricked into becoming the local land god, tangles in numerous ways with her waspish and uber-tsundere familiar, who used to be an evil fox yokai." There will be a long version later, but I like it a lot. I've also read a lot of Kimi ni Todoke and am watching the anime. I'm enjoying it, but still working out what I think about various things. I also shake my head at people who compare it to Wallflower, because being about high school students and the heroine's physically resembling each other (both get compared to Sadako from The Ring a lot) is literally all they have in common. (I mean, I knew they wouldn't be anything alike just based on reading a bit about KnT, but still.)

What do you think you’ll read next?

The rest of Fantastic Tales, and either another Kelley Armstrong (since I can't renew a lot of them) or Catherynne Valente's Six-Gun Snow White.

This short, single-volume manhua is based on what I understand is a very popular Chinese play. The play is 21 acts in 5 parts, though I’m nor familiar enough with Chinese theatre to know just how that translates in terms of length. I suspect, though, that it’s much more story than can be properly covered in roughly 120 pages with a lot of focus on how the art is OMG PRETTY! And the art is very OMG PRETTY!

Chen Yuqing is a scholar who has been wandering China aimlessly since a romantic disappointment five years ago. During his travels, he learns about a beautiful girl all the local men are fascinated by. The girl, Pianpian, is the minister’s daughter and is staying at the same temple as Chen with her mother, and they meet and quickly fall in love, assisted by her maid, but are hindered by a mountain bandit in love with Pianpian, as well as her fiancé, who has a past with Chen. There’s also the fact that her mother doesn’t exactly consider a wandering scholar a suitable match for her daughter.

The book is enjoyable and the characters likable, but it’s far too short for the characters, story, or romance to really develop. It mostly made me curious about the full version, which I understand has way more hijinks and a bunch of illicit running around.

At last! A manhua I like that isn’t impossible to find and by a defunct publisher!! Well, I like Four Constables, too, but it reads bother quickly and stilted to me, and I freely confess that I’m mainly interested in one aspect of it.

Cai-Sheng is a fox spirit, but unlike other fox spirits, who must wait 500 years to be able to take on a male of female form and require assistance to be able to take on a human form, she was born with a human form and will be able to take on a male form after only two hundred years, and is the daughter of a divine fox and a nine-hundred-year-old nice-tailed fox. Taken and raised by a clan of fox spirits who were once ordinary fox spirits who want her to father their children once she can take on a male form so that their clan can survive, Cai-Sheng isn’t allowed to interact with anyone outside of her clan.

One day, however, she sneaks away and meets two human children, Duo Xi and Xiao-Que, who become her only friends. When the two are injured protecting her, her sister (in the context of the two having the same master, not biological) Hui-Nyang marks them where they were injured so that Cai-Sheng will be able to find them after they’ve reincarnated and repay her debt. Two hundred years later, Cai-Sheng meets Duo Xi, now a third-rate exorcist named Yun-Shi, defeat a demon who has cursed Xiao-Hui, now Su Ping, the sheltered daughter of a judge. Realizing that Yun-Shi has a crush on Ping, Cai-Sheng decides to repay her debt by match making them, not realizing that the sheltered Ping fell for her male form when she rescued her.

It has the makings of a decently-original complication for a triangle, but doesn’t quite seem to be going that way, and while the tone is rather light so far, there are indications that the main plot surrounding Cai-Sheng’s nature and origins, not to mention the fox clan are rather dark. It’s also steeped in mythology and folklore, and I absolutely adore the fashions.

Roxanne is the nerdy, shy class cleanliness rep who has a crush on the apparently personality-free class bad boy, Logan. When she’s looking at wedding dresses and daydreaming, some bullies from her class harass her, they cause the jar of nail polish remover she just bought to break. The liquid splashes a scroll that’s sealing a minor deity, Baphalon, inside, and breaks the seal. In return for freeing him, Baphalon offers to help her win Logan’s love. He’ll set up a series of magical tests-during which she’s transformed into a beautiful magical girl- and for each test she wins, Logan will like her more, but if she loses, he’ll hate her. If she does well enough on the tests, he’ll love her absolutely and rush into her arms.

The first volume is boring and stereotypical, with only the creepy free will robbing aspect of Roxanne’s curse to make it stand out. The second volume moves most of the action to the heavens, which has potential for more interesting stuff, but it’s never followed up on. What is followed up on, sadly, is the manipulation of feelings and lack of free will in the first volume. By the end, none of the three leads seem to have any say in their fate or feelings or the outcome.

I seem to be in the same position with manhua that I was with manhwa a few years ago, which is that I want to like it, especially given how much of it-both shounen and shoujo (I don’t know the proper term)-is wuxia. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much of it coming out in English, that I can find at least, and most of what I have found isn’t that impressive.

In the end, I think I prefer wuxia in movies/TV series form than in comic form. Which, for me, is strange, as I almost always prefer the printed version. Though part of it may just be that the translation reads awkwardly. I suspect it may be a case of a too-literal translation. OTOH, I think there’s another Four Constables series coming out soon, and I’ll likely end up reading it, too.

Still, despite the awkward translation, this is a pretty fun wuxia/detective series with pretty spiffy art. I’m particularly fond of the design for Bloody Phoenix. It also plays around a bit with some interesting psychoses. Though, because I am easy and predictable when it comes to wuxia, my main interest remained in the storyline of Emotionless and Yan.

( spoilers )

Now I want to watch a wuxia. Has the subbed TaiSeng version of the new Legend of the Condor Heroes been released yet?

Aside from Adventures in Laundry, I spent most of today clearing out the reading backlog of some manga scanslations I'd DLed to see if I wanted to check them out. I'll save any, you know moderately intelligent commentary for when I do have the ones I'll be checking out in hand, but for now.

The "HELL NO!"

Real Fake Princess: Wuxia-ish series about a chinese princess who was raised by a retainer of the royal family and is returned to her proper life when they started looking for her, only to fall under the suspicion of a handsome noble who thought it was a trick. Heroine is ok, if a bit generically spunky, hero was a hateful cretin with control issues. I had him pegged as redeemable up until he pinned her to a bed, waved scissors in her face, and told her that if she didn't cut her hair, he'd have her foster brother stabbed through the heart with the scissors. Maybe if he died and she met a nice, sweet boy...

The "maybe later"

Muhyo and Rouji's Bureau of Psychic Investigations: A strange, morbid little wizard/lawyer and his more upbeat assistant who investigate supernatural cases. I like a lot in this genre and most of the series take a bit to take off for me, so I'll probably check it out eventually(like, after I meet someone who likes it) but for now, it's just a little too odd for me.

The "MORE PLEASE!"

Chikyuu Misaki: EEE!! CUTE CUTE AND MORE CUTE!! But not in a sickening way. Basically: girl and widowed father move into her grandfather's home after she inherits it, and in the local lake, she finds a cute little lake monster who turns into a mute little boy when he kisses someone, and she decides to take him in. There's also her deal with her father having a new girlfriend, kidnappers, a kendo(I think) girl, a femme fatale, and Wolverine's long lost twin.

Gintama: Aliens! Samurai! Shinsengumi! Basically, aliens took over Japan a while back and put the samurai out of business. Our Hero, Gintoki, is a former samurai and rebel who now takes up odd jobs. Along the way he acquires a sidekick who's name I didn't bother to remember who is the son of a samurai, and Kagura, a petite alien girl who's seemingly indestructible and eats nonstop, and later his old rebel buddies try to recruit him, and the Shinsengumi shows up and havoc ensues. I am in love with everything about the book but the sidekick. He will no doubt grow on me, but right now, I want him to be gagged. Also, it is entirely possible that Gintoki and Samurai Deeper Kyo's Hotaru were separated at birth. They're both stupid and spacey and smart in the same ways, and I think it's because they're busy sharing a single brain between them.

Vision of the Other Side (Manga) - Vision of the Other Side Volume 1 door Lin, Yu-Chin

Vision of the Other Side is a manhua set in 8^th century China when the Tang and Li kingdoms are at war. On the brink of ruin, the Emperor of Tang's council pressures him to enter into a treaty with Li by offering up his youngest(and only pretty) daughter, Nan-Fan as a bride to Nurhun, the second prince of Li. Nurhun is known as the "Battle Demon"(period and fantasy asian stories really love to give their heroes monickers like that, don't they?) and all of Tang views him as an evil beast who theie precious princess is being sacrificed to, even though no one has ever actually met the man.

The day before the wedding, Nan-Fan sneaks out of the palace with her brother, Yong-Jing, and Ling-Fei, a royal consort(naturally, they're in love but can't do anything about it.) Nan-Fan sneaks away from her escorts and meets Nurhun, who's dressed as a common, who rescues her from being trampled by a carriage and steals a kiss as payment(and gets bitten for it.) Both, of course, are absolutely clueless about who the other really is. That night, Yuan Yu-Yu, the leader of a dancing troupe who also moonlights as a thief, is caught trying to steal by Nan-Fan, who agrees to let her go if she'll help Nan-Fan escape before the wedding. Yuan Yu-Yu disguises her as a dancing girl the next day and Nur-Hun, recognizing her as the girl from the market but not as his bride, has his underling help them escape,thinking they're trying to escape the attentions of the Emperor of Tang, who's known to be a lech.

So far I quite like this. It's both standard shojo and standard wuxia romance, and both Nan-Fan and Nurhun are likable, and the plotline itself is the kind of thing I usually go for the most. Most importantly, though, Nurhun reminds me quite a bit of Shuri from Basara, though that's actually the one thing that makes me leery. While that type of character (that is, a protagonist who is largely defined not only by walking the very fine line of hero and villain who chose that path willingly and the only excuse offered is that it's what life gave him and he chose not to be a victim) can often be pulled off to a much lesser degree with supporting characters, when it's a lead character, though, the series will usually say that they're nice or misunderstood underneath. The only times I've really seen the character fully pulled off as a main character is Shuri, and, though he's typically an antagonist in the series, Anotsu in Blade of the Immortal(I suppose some would say he's a supporting character, too, but as he's pretty much the most important person to the series after Rin and Manji, I tend to think of him as a lead character despite his tendency to disappear) Still, I hold out hope that Nurhun won't have any excuses made for him and it'll stay good.

Incidentally, both vierran45 and I get a series kick out of the publisher's name: DramaQueen.

I also read the latest volume of Wallflower. Actually, it's a good thing I forgot to take this out of the car when I grabbed it from the apt. office the other day when it came. The book I was planning to read today I didn't make it more than 2 chapters into and the backup book, while better(rather enjoyable, actually), has enough "first time author" hitches that I can't binge through the whole thing. I also brought the manga A Kiss For My Prince, but...well, it's looked promising flipping through it and skimming a couple chapters, but was rather dull reading, and the heroine annoyed me. Fortunately, I had Zelda to help occupy me before I remembered I had this in the car. Also, while I can't handle the entirety of most of the movies the guys like in one sitting, I can find them amusing in out of context 5-10 minute increments.

Wallflower isn't as crack-tastic now as the earlier volumes were, but it's still much better than the bulk of high school shojo series out there, and never ceases too amuse. I have to wonder(and I may have forgotten between the last volume and now...I DO remember Ranmaru pretty much having a breakdown in Vol 11) how on earth Ranmaru managed to get the others dressed like that...I don't see Takenaga or Kyohei ever agreeing to a month of that. Takanaga and Noi's "retreat" was fun, but the best part of that was Sunako's sea diving. Of course, the best part of the whole book was Kyohei and Sunako working in the video store...how the others evert thought THAT would work out well is beyond me.

Also, the problem with making a big order in a big sale is that, unless you're absolutely one of the first people to place the order, it takes FOREVER to get out...my order I placed a week and a half ago still hasn't shipped, which likely means I won't get all of it. But then, I figure I wouldn't get everything when I ordered. I'll just be happy when some of it gets here.

Also, would it KILL Amazon to send out reminders or bills or something when it's time for Amazon Prime to be renewed? It'd be really nice to know when I'm going to have a relatively large amount of money taken out of my account...

Incidentally, both vierran45 and I get a series kick out of the publisher's name: DramaQueen.

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meganbmoore

July 2020

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Page Summary

Weekly Wednesday Reading meme
Weekly Wednesday Reading meme
Weekly Reading Wednesday (except that it's Friday)
manhua: The History of the West Wing
manhua: Divine Melody Vol 1
manhua: Magic Lover's Tower Vol 1-2 (complete)
manhua: Four Constables Vol 3-5 (end)
spot manga reviews
spot manga reviews
manga: Vision of the Other Side Vol 1, Wallflower Vol 12, a bit of randomness
manga: Vision of the Other Side Vol 1, Wallflower Vol 12, a bit of randomness

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Of Swords and Parasols

I'm a damsel. I'm in distress. I can handle it.

Entries tagged with manhua

Weekly Wednesday Reading meme

Weekly Wednesday Reading meme

Weekly Reading Wednesday (except that it's Friday)

manhua: The History of the West Wing

manhua: Divine Melody Vol 1

manhua: Magic Lover's Tower Vol 1-2 (complete)

manhua: Four Constables Vol 3-5 (end)

spot manga reviews