Recent media
Apr. 6th, 2026 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
halfcactusRecently finished standalone things:
Sally Rooney, "Normal People"
Coming-of-age + romance litfic between two flavors of insufferable young adults. It was fine. Plus points for being very readable and getting me out of a slump. Minus points for Connell's PoV, which I found unconvincing, uncohesive, and undeserved, and brought to mind a movie I disliked for similar reasons, the animated Filipino movie Saving Sally, though this one wasn't as egregious.
Project Hail Mary (2026)
Very well-produced, though bleak. It's a really good movie for the green screen-fatigued—Rocky the alien is a physical puppet, and so lifelike it effectively distracts you from the quality of the writing. The movie itself is, at the end of the day, a male power fantasy, which would not have bothered me if it weren't so LONG; the last twenty to thirty minutes were altogether extraneous, repetitive, and un-suspended any disbelief I had in the power of friendship. It really suffers so much from having Rocky be sidekick-type character. (But to the credit of this movie, I did cry once lol)
Manhwa + manga
How to Ride the Hero's Coattails (manhwa)
A VERY promising transmigration + academy + tower/dungeon story with a FMC. It actually reminds me of the cnovel/cdrama/donghua How Dare You!? but so far it's very gen. The FL transmigrates as a a random no-name character in a tower novel. She decides that the path to survival is to put on a heroine-like personality (bubbly, naive, forgiving) and stick to the novel MC, an in-universe transmigrator (kind of like the 2FL in How Dare You) who happens to be her classmate. In his PoV, he's the only one with novel knowledge and so he assumes, with full confidence, that he's the one using her for his own gain and "developing" her as a hidden-gem character. He also assumes from her behavior that she's a new romanceable character, but in reality she's the one calling the shots and stealing all the romanceable girls from him. XD
Re-living My Life With a Boyfriend Who Doesn't Remember Me (manga)
Tropey sunshine girl x tsundere boy she-fell-first-he-fell-harder romcom, with fair amounts of angst and obvious HP influences: After tragically discovering her boyfriend's dead body, the FL finds herself transported back in time to < 2 years before his death. When she approaches him, it becomes apparent that he doesn't remember her at all or have an interest in befriending her. But of course, that won't stop her! She's determined to stop his death at all costs and content to stay by his side in any way possible.
The first chapters are mostly of her pursuing him and being continuously rebuffed, which isn't the most fun dynamic, but eventually the ML goes through a journey of discovery: that he has feelings for her, that his coldness has made her perceive him as someone she can't ask for help from, and that his competition is his own future / alternate-timeline self whom he develops an inferiority complex to. He decides to step up his game and set aside his pride, trying to get her to see him and love him as he is. On her part she falls in love with him twice but is still powered by too much trauma to rely on people.
There's also a neat little twist that
The Person I Loved Asked Me to Die in My Sister's Stead (manga)
I'm only 3 volumes in but the angst, it's beautiful. The setup is pretty banal: the kingdom needs a sacrifice to appease the mana tree from the otherworld. The FL's younger sister is chosen. The FL's crush begs the FL to go in her sister's place. Being a lovesick pushover, the FL agrees. When she is being sent to the otherworld, the sacred sword Sartis suddenly appears, declares she is his master, and follows her to the otherworld. Sacrifices are typically meant to be devoured by the tree, but the FL having a sacred sword and an aptitude for magic by her side, finds away to put it to sleep instead. She survives... for twenty more years. All alone, in a land full of monsters, not aging because of the concentration of magic. One day a portal opens and from the portal comes a man who is the spitting image of her first love. The young man turns out to be the son of her first love and her sister. He challenges her for the sword, and loses; he decides to become her apprentice instead, aiming to be good enough to win the sword by the time he has to return to the human world.
Through Lloyd (ML), Irene (FL) finds out that she's been framed as an evil witch who was exiled for stealing the sacred sword. There's a lot of emotional tension around Lloyd's presence in the otherworld—with him, Irene learns what it's like to be around people again. But the longer he stays the less likely she'll be hold on to her sanity when he leaves, having tasted human companionship again. Lloyd, on his part, is learning that while he thinks of himself as a monster he can't stand the idea of the FL thinking she's a monster. He's a walking existential crisis with a pair of avoidant parents hahaha.
Sally Rooney, "Normal People"
Coming-of-age + romance litfic between two flavors of insufferable young adults. It was fine. Plus points for being very readable and getting me out of a slump. Minus points for Connell's PoV, which I found unconvincing, uncohesive, and undeserved, and brought to mind a movie I disliked for similar reasons, the animated Filipino movie Saving Sally, though this one wasn't as egregious.
Project Hail Mary (2026)
Very well-produced, though bleak. It's a really good movie for the green screen-fatigued—Rocky the alien is a physical puppet, and so lifelike it effectively distracts you from the quality of the writing. The movie itself is, at the end of the day, a male power fantasy, which would not have bothered me if it weren't so LONG; the last twenty to thirty minutes were altogether extraneous, repetitive, and un-suspended any disbelief I had in the power of friendship. It really suffers so much from having Rocky be sidekick-type character. (But to the credit of this movie, I did cry once lol)
Manhwa + manga
How to Ride the Hero's Coattails (manhwa)
A VERY promising transmigration + academy + tower/dungeon story with a FMC. It actually reminds me of the cnovel/cdrama/donghua How Dare You!? but so far it's very gen. The FL transmigrates as a a random no-name character in a tower novel. She decides that the path to survival is to put on a heroine-like personality (bubbly, naive, forgiving) and stick to the novel MC, an in-universe transmigrator (kind of like the 2FL in How Dare You) who happens to be her classmate. In his PoV, he's the only one with novel knowledge and so he assumes, with full confidence, that he's the one using her for his own gain and "developing" her as a hidden-gem character. He also assumes from her behavior that she's a new romanceable character, but in reality she's the one calling the shots and stealing all the romanceable girls from him. XD
Re-living My Life With a Boyfriend Who Doesn't Remember Me (manga)
Tropey sunshine girl x tsundere boy she-fell-first-he-fell-harder romcom, with fair amounts of angst and obvious HP influences: After tragically discovering her boyfriend's dead body, the FL finds herself transported back in time to < 2 years before his death. When she approaches him, it becomes apparent that he doesn't remember her at all or have an interest in befriending her. But of course, that won't stop her! She's determined to stop his death at all costs and content to stay by his side in any way possible.
The first chapters are mostly of her pursuing him and being continuously rebuffed, which isn't the most fun dynamic, but eventually the ML goes through a journey of discovery: that he has feelings for her, that his coldness has made her perceive him as someone she can't ask for help from, and that his competition is his own future / alternate-timeline self whom he develops an inferiority complex to. He decides to step up his game and set aside his pride, trying to get her to see him and love him as he is. On her part she falls in love with him twice but is still powered by too much trauma to rely on people.
There's also a neat little twist that
spoilers
this is actually their third timeline. In the first timeline, the FL dies. In the second timeline (the one that the FL remembers), the ML remembers and dies to prevent the FL's death. The present timeline is the third, the FL remembering and trying to prevent the ML's death.The Person I Loved Asked Me to Die in My Sister's Stead (manga)
I'm only 3 volumes in but the angst, it's beautiful. The setup is pretty banal: the kingdom needs a sacrifice to appease the mana tree from the otherworld. The FL's younger sister is chosen. The FL's crush begs the FL to go in her sister's place. Being a lovesick pushover, the FL agrees. When she is being sent to the otherworld, the sacred sword Sartis suddenly appears, declares she is his master, and follows her to the otherworld. Sacrifices are typically meant to be devoured by the tree, but the FL having a sacred sword and an aptitude for magic by her side, finds away to put it to sleep instead. She survives... for twenty more years. All alone, in a land full of monsters, not aging because of the concentration of magic. One day a portal opens and from the portal comes a man who is the spitting image of her first love. The young man turns out to be the son of her first love and her sister. He challenges her for the sword, and loses; he decides to become her apprentice instead, aiming to be good enough to win the sword by the time he has to return to the human world.
Through Lloyd (ML), Irene (FL) finds out that she's been framed as an evil witch who was exiled for stealing the sacred sword. There's a lot of emotional tension around Lloyd's presence in the otherworld—with him, Irene learns what it's like to be around people again. But the longer he stays the less likely she'll be hold on to her sanity when he leaves, having tasted human companionship again. Lloyd, on his part, is learning that while he thinks of himself as a monster he can't stand the idea of the FL thinking she's a monster. He's a walking existential crisis with a pair of avoidant parents hahaha.
Tags:
