Media Reviews February 2020
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Female General, Eldest Princess, The Queen and the Tailor, Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating, I ship my Adversary and Me, A Good Day to Be a Dog, Lovely Complex
Gonna divide by relationship type this time since it seems more useful.
Not focussed on romance:
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: A mismatched group of highschoolers in detention get sucked into the characters of a cheesy action video-game, and have to learn to embrace their strengths and work together to finish the game and get home. A simple story told entertainingly, and while not especially feminist or queer handles the "Teen girl finds herself in the body of Jack Black, flirts with cute boys" plot better than you might expect. Had some subtextual Race Issues (it's set in an Exotic Jungle, the black character has to learn to be less arrogant etc) and isn't deep or anything, but I had fun.
That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime: Dude wish fulfilment portal fantasy/isekai anime. A Japanese businessman dies and is reborn as a little slime in a fantasy world, and manages to level up and use his smarts and experience as a middle manager to save the day and become universally loved (including by various hot girls) etc. I watched it because I got non-binary vibes from the main character, who still IDs as a dude but seems happy enough with his new genderless physical form, including a female voice actor and human form based on a woman. But it's still what it is, and I enjoyed a few episodes before it got too much for me.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Kids cartoon set post-apocalypse, where a girl raised in underground bunker accidentally ends up on the surface and encounters the surreal animals and tough human society that have formed over the hundreds of years since society collapsed. Was pretty fun and other people like it but unfortunately this kind of setting tends not to work for me. Apparently handles it's queer character(s) well.
f/f:
Female General, Eldest Princess: a translated Chinese Wuxia f/f romance between a crossdressing soldier and a scheming princess. It's a bit serious for me, I lost momentum before they even meet. But they are both delightfully ruthless, messed-up woobies and a lot of other people really enjoy it.
m/m:
Joou to Shitateya/The Queen and the Tailor: a BL m/m manga about a somewhat bratty businessman and a quietly melancholy older tailor. Nothing groundbreaking, but cute, and it was interesting having an older, more experienced uke.
Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating: Chinese romcom m/m novel. A college student's cousin has her heart broken by a guy in her MMO, so he decides to catfish the guy...without realising that the guy is innocent, and that they're at the same college. Amusing and romantic identity porn shenanigans ensue. I was worried this would be too gender essentialist or heteronormative but it's been mostly ok, and there's even a background f/f gamer couple who get treated ok (who I do suspect may not both be real women, but at least the other characters are cool about it). The MMO setting lets the author have fun with ridiculous fantasy tropes and the main couple are pretty cute. Not fully translated but being translated at a moderate rate.
I ship my Adversary and Me: very silly Chinese romcom m/m novel. The media decide two actors are rivals, and the younger less famous one falls down a rabbit hole of fannish speculation. He ends up fannish about the RPF ship, enjoying the frission between what he knows are entirely innocent interactions and how cutely shippy it reads to shippers. And then Shenanigans Ensue. The translation is kinda slow and janky but it's so fluffy I don't mind waiting between updates, they're both very sweet guys and there's not much conflict.
f/m:
A Good Day to Be a Dog: I already recced this Korean m/f rom-com webtoon about a woman cursed to turn into a dog at midnight and her dog-phobic coworker but it's since finished, and I still rec it.
Lovely Complex: a fun rom-com highschool anime about a tall girl and short boy who have matching interests and loud, energetic personalities. But they're determined to date someone taller/shorter respectively because Gender Roles, so they compete to see who can do so first. It's about 10 years old but only just got onto Crunchyroll, I haven't finished the anime but remember enjoying the manga many years ago. It has a lot of good natured energetic humour and endearing characters, and pokes at gender roles a little.
This entry was originally posted at https://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/778608.html. There are
comments.
Gonna divide by relationship type this time since it seems more useful.
Not focussed on romance:
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: A mismatched group of highschoolers in detention get sucked into the characters of a cheesy action video-game, and have to learn to embrace their strengths and work together to finish the game and get home. A simple story told entertainingly, and while not especially feminist or queer handles the "Teen girl finds herself in the body of Jack Black, flirts with cute boys" plot better than you might expect. Had some subtextual Race Issues (it's set in an Exotic Jungle, the black character has to learn to be less arrogant etc) and isn't deep or anything, but I had fun.
That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime: Dude wish fulfilment portal fantasy/isekai anime. A Japanese businessman dies and is reborn as a little slime in a fantasy world, and manages to level up and use his smarts and experience as a middle manager to save the day and become universally loved (including by various hot girls) etc. I watched it because I got non-binary vibes from the main character, who still IDs as a dude but seems happy enough with his new genderless physical form, including a female voice actor and human form based on a woman. But it's still what it is, and I enjoyed a few episodes before it got too much for me.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Kids cartoon set post-apocalypse, where a girl raised in underground bunker accidentally ends up on the surface and encounters the surreal animals and tough human society that have formed over the hundreds of years since society collapsed. Was pretty fun and other people like it but unfortunately this kind of setting tends not to work for me. Apparently handles it's queer character(s) well.
f/f:
Female General, Eldest Princess: a translated Chinese Wuxia f/f romance between a crossdressing soldier and a scheming princess. It's a bit serious for me, I lost momentum before they even meet. But they are both delightfully ruthless, messed-up woobies and a lot of other people really enjoy it.
m/m:
Joou to Shitateya/The Queen and the Tailor: a BL m/m manga about a somewhat bratty businessman and a quietly melancholy older tailor. Nothing groundbreaking, but cute, and it was interesting having an older, more experienced uke.
Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating: Chinese romcom m/m novel. A college student's cousin has her heart broken by a guy in her MMO, so he decides to catfish the guy...without realising that the guy is innocent, and that they're at the same college. Amusing and romantic identity porn shenanigans ensue. I was worried this would be too gender essentialist or heteronormative but it's been mostly ok, and there's even a background f/f gamer couple who get treated ok (who I do suspect may not both be real women, but at least the other characters are cool about it). The MMO setting lets the author have fun with ridiculous fantasy tropes and the main couple are pretty cute. Not fully translated but being translated at a moderate rate.
I ship my Adversary and Me: very silly Chinese romcom m/m novel. The media decide two actors are rivals, and the younger less famous one falls down a rabbit hole of fannish speculation. He ends up fannish about the RPF ship, enjoying the frission between what he knows are entirely innocent interactions and how cutely shippy it reads to shippers. And then Shenanigans Ensue. The translation is kinda slow and janky but it's so fluffy I don't mind waiting between updates, they're both very sweet guys and there's not much conflict.
f/m:
A Good Day to Be a Dog: I already recced this Korean m/f rom-com webtoon about a woman cursed to turn into a dog at midnight and her dog-phobic coworker but it's since finished, and I still rec it.
Lovely Complex: a fun rom-com highschool anime about a tall girl and short boy who have matching interests and loud, energetic personalities. But they're determined to date someone taller/shorter respectively because Gender Roles, so they compete to see who can do so first. It's about 10 years old but only just got onto Crunchyroll, I haven't finished the anime but remember enjoying the manga many years ago. It has a lot of good natured energetic humour and endearing characters, and pokes at gender roles a little.
This entry was originally posted at https://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/778608.html. There are
comments.