paratise's Topics (62)

fun fact: the thumbnail for this chapter is just that one panel of jigu crying with his face bright red. saw it on my twitter fyp tuesday and it was how i found out the hiatus ended. anyways WE HAVE HIT THE PROGRESS POINT!!!! it’s all uphill from here.shout out to jigu as always. bpd legend

I’M BEHIND BC WORK WAS BUSY LAST WEEK & I’VE BEEN SICK oh my god i have four chapters to review now. fake pittosporum commentary fan guy

god they’re so sweet. forever and always that really is just the first thing i have to say. they’re so sweet. they care about each other and about trying to figure out how to understand each other & understand their approach to their relationship so so much. odajima thanking god for getting to come here with yano… yano wanting to figure out how to express how much he loves odajima in words… god they’re so sweet.

ODAJIMA’S FEAR OF BUGS FROM CH6 ALSO LOLLLLL i know it’s played for a silly little moment but i also like how it is - as everything about his behaviour is - reminder that he’s just a teenager. seeing him freak out at a cicada like that shows he’s healed enough to be able to express himself and his fear and maybe it’s not that deep but to ME it is. also him talking to yano’s dad and feeling guilty for being thanked because to him his motives for helping out yano - from the notebook to getting him to come home - were selfish (and what he described in 2nd leaf as ‘gross’) only to be told that no matter his motives, he still helped someone. he really needed to hear that because even with all of the progress he’s made - and what progress he has - he’s still burdened by the idea of dragging yano down with his own selfish whims, from the day they became roommates to now.

also yano taking odajima firefly-viewing on a date to his family’s spot which was also his parents’ date spot and where his dad PROPOSED…. that’s so intimate. kids you’re only 16 you have a lot of time to go before then but please….. please vol5, 6, whatever timeskip volume where they’re still going strong as adults and get engaged in this spot. sensei please. Sensei

anyways the way yano talks about how he’s not sure if he made the right choice pursuing their high school but he’s still glad he did because he got to meet odajima. wanting to thank him for everything only for odajima to break down because he still feels so, so selfish when it’s normal for him to want to do things for his boyfriend because he wants to stay by his side, and yano telling him outright he’s not sure if he can because he’s not sure what he wants to do but he still wants odajima to know how much he cares about him!!! AND HIS BRINGING UP WHAT HE SAID IN 2ND LEAF…. he didn’t approach their relationship with halfhearted feelings and he MEANT it. and the exchange of first names and i love yous. aaaaaugh wehhhh wahhh sniffle. god they’re SOOO sweet i can’t wait for 4th leaf. how many leaves do pittosporum stems bear because i will keep clapping and cheering if we end up with 10 volumes or something at this rate i need these two to be happy forever

this gives the EN version some good time to catch up!!! if anyone’s curious about how it ended:


kyuho is fired from his internship one week before its completion because he refuses to use some falsified / doctored information his supervisor provided him. Yoongun, who’s been worried about him because he hasn’t seen him come home the past few days (after Kyuho’s multiple attempts to shut him down re: their relationship prior), he comes across Kyuho heading home from work early while crying and asks what happens. while initially refusing to tell him, Kyuho ends up breaking down, tells Yoongun what happened, and then says something his supervisor said to him (basically that he was tiring) reminded him of Yoongun once saying something similar and that it set him off, and that he didn’t think his personality was really that much of an issue until he had to face this. he then apologised for lashing out and tells Yoongun that they’re too different to work out and that they can never understand each other, which is where the season ends.

the novel ended so all i have left is the manhwa………… ball sunday now. im glad they kept his coming out the exact same as it was in the novel & didn’t cut out his specifically describing himself as bi yay no erasure ^-^ he really is such a great ML i love jungwoo & his grasp on his own feelings and approach towards everything

the fact he watched his lover from a past life grow up with the hope and desire for them to be together again someday is the issue here. this is a very inherently groomy / predatory scenario whether they’re blood related or not. he was there for this guy’s birth & all of his childhood milestones. he got upset seeing the reincarnated ex have a girlfriend when in high school while he was a grown ass man this entire time watching over him. reincarnation or no, This is the problem here in this case

these two literally make me feel like a proud parent watching their child walk down the aisle at their wedding or something uweh. the way odajima kept clinging on to the onigiri yano made him because he was so touched at yano having thought of him, yano finding out finally that odajima was the one who returned his notebook first year, his learning just how much odajima thinks of him and tries to support him not just because he loves him but also because as someone who’s struggled so much mentally he wants to make sure someone he loves doesn’t get stressed out the same way (esp after all the stress he put him under in vols 1/2). Wahhh uwahhh

yano’s family is so cute also… you can really tell how much all the kids take after their dad in expressiveness (& the twins in looks), while yano resembles his mom in everything but the face. they’re so sweet & close-knit i’m glad they welcomed odajima so warmly….

odajima remembering the moment where yano first caught his eye in their first year… the scene where yano was fretting about his family’s expenses….. worrying about him because of that…. they both care about how they approach each other so much (too much even) they’re so sweet. ╥﹏╥ uwah.

i am crying screaming throwing up etc i am shaking in a way one would expect of a trembling chihuahua and not a person PITTOSPORUM!!!!!!!!! i own all 4 volumes physically in jpn technically but i haven’t opened them i dont want to open them im so glad to have this in english finally so i can read this i’m so glad to see the continuation & see yano and odajima try to navigate through the start of their relationship. i am wishing them nothing but the best…. my kids………. wah…..

fun fact! despite the story apparently releasing in 2022, it can’t take place in 2022 specifically due to the october calendar on Egg Sandwich’s desk. this story takes place probably in 2023 using my deductive ability to figure out what year something takes place in based on how october lines up (2023 is the latest year with october 28th falling on a Saturday lol)

for an actual review of the story…. i understand why people are referencing guildmate because the ML does look a bit like Jigu, but the overall plots & character personalities are ultimately so different i think it’s an unfair criticism to make bc all they really have in common is being about gaming. i DO think this story is really rushed (like many others are saying), though, so i agree with that — personally i think gaming stories are ones that you can’t really DO super short versions of. because you’re introducing an entire extra setting to establish, you need to do more than go “here’s this game! everyone loves it!” to make it truly part of the setting, and you need more time than this story was either willing or able to give to establish that.

like for example… the lack of combat that gets mentioned in the one chapter where Barley Butler (i don’t remember their actual names but i do remember the handles) gets invited to join a raid. the way one person explains it as “no, there’s no actual monsters or combat, it’s just pretend!”…. honestly, it doesn’t sound very engaging! it sounds very boring PRETENDING to act out combat instead of the game actually implementing it! this game sounds like there’s nothing to it but dressing up and RPing with the occasional minigame, and like… that’s fine, but it feels like as a full game this would really lose its appeal way too soon for it to even have enough of a widespread audience to have maintained global servers. “the players help shape the world!” it claims, but there are no real examples of them actually doing enough in this game for that to be the case. are there no quests? nothing to keep you engaged if you keep to yourself? what’s the game like. what’s the setting about. how do players shape things. are there skills at all? i want to know more. this is the one case where i think a guild mate comparison is warranted because illusion goes into quite a bit of depth about its mechanics & this is what i Personally think gaming stories kind of require to establish an engaging story. Relatedly this topic is making me mourn Maplestory 2

tldr it’s rushed but i think it hits extra hard in its rushing bc this is technically a gaming BL and i don’t think you can really DO gaming stories without having enough chapters or exposition to flesh the world out enough to make it interesting. which to me this story does not do! yeah, the relationship is cute or whatever, but it and the setting are unfortunately very bland and very quickly-paced so it’s cute in a very generic sort of way that doesn’t come with any lasting appeal because it moved too quickly to create really any proper attachment to the setting or the characters.

A couple of comments have mentioned this already, but Guildmate is going on a month-long hiatus after CH77!

The artist’s reasoning is for wanting to reorganise due to other scheduled work (they also added a shush / secret emoji after this so here’s how Love Games adaptation can still win or something idk) as well as needing to rest and recuperate due to health issues.

Once the next chapter is out in EN… see you all in a month! (●'◡'●)ﾉ If anyone wants to check out the available novels for this universe in the meantime, it can be found by:

1. Looking up the series (either Virtual Strangers / Guildmate or Love Games) on Novelupdates
2. Look to see who the translator or host for the series is, it’s listed next to each chapter
3. Google (series name) (translator / host name)
4. There you are!

Many translators request direct links not be shared publicly, & Guildmate has already needed rehosting due to the site it was on going down. So try to use this method, esp since you can use this to search up any novel you’d like to read in EN using it instead of needing a direct link! Have a good month, everyone!