TachibanaChiharu's Topics (181)

This comic is the equivalent of eating icing straight from the container instead of baking a cake, putting the icing on it, and then eating the cake.

Also, it's funny the title is "blah blah blah ... my big brother's aiming for my virginity" when that shiat was gone in like the first two chapters.

Is this completed, or are there expected to be more side stories or whatnot? On English Lezhin, it hasn't updated for a few weeks and is still listed on their dailies (ongoing) series pages.

This exchange happens so many times that all I can do is laugh at it --

Furukawa: (unironically) Maki, I'm trying to get you to relax! [by groping you in inappropriate places]
Maki: *becomes intensely unrelaxed, struggles violently, and screams constantly*

I also like that there's actually somewhat of a plot in this trashy-fun comic. It's not as bad as I expected it to be given the completely ridiculous title.

I generally liked this one.

The drama resulting from Donga's & Chunho's pasts were the most interesting thing here. It was really interesting to see the cardinal direction gods depicted in another culture (than I usually read), and for the author this time to provide an explanation for how they ascend or are chosen, etc. The three-legged-crows thing at the end was silly but in a fun way, and I guess its an actual thing in east asian cultures (just looked it up).

Things that caused me to rate it 4 instead of 5 (long):
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I won't call these minor, but I was never bored when reading this story despite there being some writing problems, a zillion chapters, and no smut (outside of the side stories), so that shows how strong the narrative/writing was despite some of these problems.



Yohan's inconsistent characterization:

- Yohan is characterized at the beginning of the story as confident, smooth, playboy. Sure, it may've been something of an act, but he's had many years of experience behaving this way in front of strangers, so it should or must come naturally to him.

- When the romance with Yoonsung is going on, Yohan turns into an emotional trainwreck teenager. It doesn't really gel with his earlier characterization.

- Yohan's past doesn't quite fully support/explain his overly emotional behavior; it's like a venn diagram where the interlocking circles don't have nearly the overlap that they should to explain things.

- Yohan being a (partial) charlatan is the first thing we see of him at the beginning of the story. This seemed to be a setup for a character arc, like this was Yohan's primary character flaw that would change by the end of the story. But at the end, he just becomes a real, complete, and total charlatan instead. What???



Yohan's and Yoonsung's love story was tropey and dull:

- Yoonsung has most of the typical "top" aka "seme" attributes (minus the intense aggression and dangerous atmosphere). He's drawn manlier, he's taller, older (29 vs 33), more mature, he's rich, socially powerful, good-looking, smart, and capable at all sorts of things. I would prefer these attributes to be more evenly distributed between the two. Maybe make them compliment each other more? As it is, things feel very lopsided in Yoonsung's favor, which in turn requires the narrative to more fully explain why Yoonsung would like Yohan so much (but it never really does). See the next point.

- There doesn't really seem to be any explanation for why Yoonsung likes Yohan beyond proximity, the fact that Yohan enjoys his cooking, and for some reason that Yoonsung can only sleep when he's wrapped around Yohan (but no explanation for why Yohan in particular on this last one). People can come to like each other, sure, but I don't really FEEL it from Yoonsung's perspective (and I feel it's necessary to explain it, because: see previous point).

- Their romance had very little tension, so it was kind of boring. The only tension they had was Yohan being a tsundere, and running away and crying all the time like in a shoujo melodrama. This is a tiresome conflict element present in plenty of other stories, and given the great job done with Donga and Chunho, the author could've done a little better with these two as well.

- Honestly, it should be Yoonsung causing the drama/tension in their relationship due being a Christian, which would imply he should have prohibitions against a gay relationship. But for some reason, being Christian in this story simply means he can't acknowledge Chunho, but doesn't seem to influence his feelings on gay relationships, where he's early-on depicted as being a very open-minded individual with regards to LGBTQ+. It's weird that the author chose to include this element without really understanding how many (disclaimer: not all) modern Christians behave and what they believe.



Themes:

- Yoonsung's Christianity is used as plot contrivance to bludgeon Yoonsung into Yohan's life against his will at the beginning of the story, and then once its usefulness in doing that is over, it is completely forgotten. Normally this should affect Yoonsung's outlook for the entire story, and should be addressed again with respect to how his character changes over the course of the story, but this never happens.

- Yohan is rewarded for helping his friends on the scary journey to the underworld by getting all his missing powers back from Donga. He then has them for about an hour before they're taken away again for no good reason (see the next point). Normally, when a character receives a power-up or some other boon for things they do in the plot they get to keep them, yannow, because they earned them. It's weird that this is taken away from him again almost instantly.

- Yohan's sacrifice of his powers at the end did not tie back to any bad things he did or any faults he had. He was just randomly the one who had to be punished to add more drama to the story (and to justify the title?). Yoonsung's situation not only was NOT caused in any way by Yohan, but it wasn't even related to Yohan, and was merely an accident brought on inadvertently by Chunho (in essence, it was Chunho's fault). Normally, a sacrifice of this nature should be narratively linked to some behavior that must be atoned for or changed, usually in the person related to it (in this case, Chunho).

- Yohan's job was fortune telling or w/e, and losing his powers means he can't do that anymore without being an actual quack. Like, wasn't that his big flaw? Being somewhat of a liar charlatan? Buuuut, instead of him finding a legit job, or just living off of Yoonsung's chaebol money and job, he actually becomes a complete and total snake-oil-salesman when he continues doing his old job, only stepped up a notch, but without any spiritual powers at all now. What lesson is this teaching??? Double-down on your shady behavior after having one of your toys, that enabled you to be shady, taken away?



Miscellaneous:

- The smut chapters are overly censored. In most of the panels with censoring, it is nearly impossible to tell what's going on, much less which way is even up, or what is even in the picture.

- Didn't the Jade Emperor say that Hades is his brother? It feels like this comic went from 0 to 1000 with the smut chapters, when it was pretty wholesome during the main story, yet suddenly has smut incest in the side stories.

- It was weird that the title of this comic is "Prince Bari" when the exact name doesn't ever come up, and "Princess Baridegi" only shows up in the last like 8 chapters or w/e. I kept trying to figure out why it was called this when I was reading the earlier parts of the comic. I mean obviously it's referring to Yohan, who gave something up for the flower like the current Princess Baridegi did. Still, if this is going to be the title of the comic, I feel like it should interleaved more from the beginning, like having a prelude chapter about the flower, and who tends to it, in order to give it a more proper set-up. Maybe this is something that makes more sense in Korean, that I just don't have the context for. After googling: ok, this is a legend in Korean culture, so yeah, Korean readers will have more context for this to make more sense.

- Imma be honest here, the wedding side story chapters I felt to be really corny, to the point of being cringy, for me at least.

Well, this comic is complete at 60 chapters on Lezhin. I don't know if anyone's gonna bother to take it over because it's really just rehashed shoujo plots and tropes of yesteryear. This is basically an amalgam of every disney princess story. Unlikely coincidences happen all the time, everyone's a hot ikemen except the main character. The main character looks so much like a girl he may as well be one. He's a ridiculous foot and a half shorter than his love interest. And of course his love interest is the biggest catch in the land, the reclusive/secretive crown prince. Idk. Ymmv of course, but I just can't read childish stuff like this anymore, especially not 60 chapters worth of it.

Given the length of this story, I had high hopes I could make it to the end before starting it (surely, if this much of it was written, it must be good or at least decent...). Then I started reading it.... All the tropes, and all the BL-crazyworld stuff going on in the story tested my patience, but I persevered. But then, I hit the rampant victim-blaming going on in-and-around chapter 43, and that was it for me.

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Henry accidentally gets Jimmy drunk (he accidentally gave Jimmy the non-watered-down beer). Drunk-Jimmy runs off looking for Taylor. Mason intercepts him, and they get into an altercation, and Jimmy goes back to Mason's hotel room to treat Mason's wounds after pounding him in the face. Jimmy drinks a drink in the hotel room he doesn't think is alcoholic, but it was, and he passes out. Mason assaults him while he's passed-out, although it does NOT appear as though he raped him. Henry comes and retrieves Jimmy from the hotel room under BL-crazyworld circumstances*, and Mason explains to Henry the extent of what he did to Jimmy. Later, Mason confronts Taylor and brags about "sleeping" with Jimmy before Jimmy started dating Taylor, and Taylor just believes an obviously bad person using ambiguous phrasing. Then Taylor turns around and blames Jimmy for not being faithful or whatever. Later, Jimmy, distraught, talks to Henry about it, and Henry also blames Jimmy!

WTF.

None of this is Jimmy's fault! Jimmy is the victim here 100%. Getting him drunk is definitely Henry's fault, and Mason's actions are all Mason's responsibility. This just crap. Crap people, crap behavior. I cannot believe Jimmy ends up with someone who blamed him for being assaulted. That's not a happy ending. I doubt Henry will even apologize for doing such a thing, but I'm not sticking around to find out.

Anyway, what someone does with their own body before they date you is none of your business really, Taylor. Stop acting like having sex with someone taints a person forever. Even if it were true that Mason had sex with Jimmy, 1) it wasn't Jimmy's fault and would be considered rape, 2) it was prior to Jimmy dating Taylor, so Taylor has no right to be bent about it even if sex occurred, and even if that sex had NOT been rape. Good grief, grow up!

Basically everyone around Jimmy is a bad, terrible person, and not any single one of them deserves his affection. I don't want to read a story about him ending up with one of these a-holes, and I don't want to read a story about him ending up a monk, so I guess I'm just gonna drop it here.

* How did Henry even know Jimmy was with Mason, other than the fact that Mason was gunning for Jimmy? DID Henry even know Mason was after Jimmy? I don't remember if Henry was ever told this on-screen by Mason. It's a pretty big assumption and leap-of-logic if he hadn't been. I'll give Henry a grudging pass for knowing which type of hotel room Mason would've rented, but also, Mason registering under an alias seems like a pointless BL-crazyworld complication, not that the front-desk chick would even be allowed to disclose his room number even if he hadn't done so.

Well, this was something.

The main couple was low-key toxic too. They quickly slipped into an uncomfortable codependency, and the Seung-chan was constantly trying to control Hye-sung's actions, saying things like, "don't go anywhere without telling me", etc, many many times. Red flagzzzzz. Hye-sung was a perfectly functional adult before Seung-chan came into his life; he's capable of doing things without Seung-chan's help or permission. Seung-chan was also a bit forceful with sex at times and then it just gets hand-waved during or after, even though Hye-sung didn't seem like he wanted it or consented to it at first. I don't know, but I wish the author had written them to actually be as sweet and fluffy as most people here seem to think they are (but aren't really).

That said, I really liked the art, and especially the character design of Seung-chan. It was different than most art I've seen in some way I can't quite put into words.

This comic will have a volume 3 released at some future date. Chapters 1-4 are already out for it, chapter 5 goes live on Feb 10th 2021. Assuming a typical pattern from previous volumes, we should have 6-7 chapters in total, and then a compiled volume sometime after that w/an extra chapter. My guess is sometime summer or later in 2021.

https://renta.papy.co.jp/renta/sc/frm/item/197837/

Lezhin is releasing an "All-Ages" edition of this?! How is this even possible?! Is there even a plot if you remove the smut? ╮(￣▽￣)╭

I just watched the live-action movie of this (on youtube, search for the english title plus "eng sub"), and I was really hoping I wouldn't have to say this, but the manga is so much better. I didn't want to be that person in the youtube comments complaining that "the book was way betttttttter!", so I came here instead to post my list of grievances since everyone here has read the manga...

In advance: I'm sorry this is so meandering; this is just venting. The manga is really great, please read it if you haven't. The movie is ok, but is hard to like if you've read the manga IMO.

(spoilers for the live-action movie)
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Overall. I don't know why they changed so many of the details of the story. The reason people love this story so much is that it's a very well-written story. The details don't need to be changed to such a degree for a screenplay like this, and it actively ruins some of the character dynamics when its done. Stories like this are carefully constructed, with setups/payoffs, since all they have is a character story to tell, and if you start removing and reworking things from early in the story, the later stuff that you do decide to keep from the source is not properly setup and/or comes out of nowhere and makes it feel shoved-in, like you missed a scene somewhere that properly set it up.

Now I don't mean things like Mitsuomi's dad's business being changed to a furniture-making business (although that does introduce a subtle complication that doing something like that is a skill you learn over a lifetime, and if Mitsuomi doesn't know anything about it now, it's probably too late for him to learn). Nor do I mean something like Mitsuomi working at jii-chan's farm, which he never did in the manga. Or Yamato picking Mitsuomi up from the train station at the beginning of the story, which he never did in the comic. These don't have to be bad changes, but if you do make them, you must make sure that what you replace it with does as much character- and plot-work as possible, and that you don't miss covering anything important from the source material that's been cut that's going to bite you in the butt later.

I guess I'll swap over to talking about the characters here.

I did like Mitsuomi's actor, and I didn't initially think I would from looking at pics of him online. But he was fine in this movie. However Mitsuomi's character in the movie was portrayed as a conceited snobby layabout, which wasn't right at all. In the manga, he came home from Tokyo because he was disillusioned. He was someone who had a firm grasp of right and wrong, who spoke his mind, and frequently got in trouble for it, but he never looked down on people. But in the movie he basically wrinkles his nose at helping out on jii-chan's farm. And he immediately corrects his dad after walking in from Tokyo, saying, "well ackshully, I resigned," which destroys that whole subplot from the manga and makes him seem like a snot. In the comic he had already been working in his dad's shop for 6 months and knew all the ins and outs of the job before asking him about taking it over; the movie made him walk in from Tokyo with no clue how to do any of of the work and immediately propose that he be the one to take it over, which was just argggghhhh... It makes him look so bad, when he wasn't like that in the comic. Also, a minor point, but Movie Mitsuomi also didn't really do his dry bickering nearly as much as in the comic, and that was one of his more endearing traits. It was present here and there, but not nearly enough, esp with his parents, etc.

And I hate to say this, but early-on Yamato came across in the movie like he was mentally retarded rather than endearing and nice and sweet. There are ways to portray someone hiding behind a smile, but this wasn't it. Some of problems were from how his actor portrayed the part, but some of the problems were from how the story was pointlessly rewritten. All of the early endearing scenes of him from the manga were cut from the movie and were replaced by him being annoying instead all the while grinning like an idiot. Also, all the scenes of him correcting Mitsuomi in the hot-house were so irritating. I mean, Mitsuomi deserved to be corrected, but it was done in an annoying way by Yamato instead of a likeable way. I also hated the way he said Mitsuomi's name; it grated on my nerves throughout the whole movie and he said it soooooo many times. I don't know why his character was written/rewritten this way, but I do think Yamato's portrayal was the biggest factor that turned me off from the movie.

Also, one of the biggest issues with respect to Yamato was that the movie never really conveyed Yamato coming to like Mitsuomi. They were just shoved into the scenes together, but that doesn't mean they like each other. Heck, as far into the movie as when jii-chan was hurt and Ueda came over to help at the hot-house, you got the sense that Yamato was annoyed with Mitsuomi rather than liking him, and this was after the initial kiss! I mean I get that Mitsuomi was having a moment and messing up his work, but you would think that someone who like-likes him would 1) notice he was upset, and 2) be sympathetic and help him, rather than shooing him off somewhere else because he didn't want to deal with it. What in the what even happened here?

Speaking of Ueda, they changed Yamato's friend's name from Harada to Ueda for the movie (whyyyyyy?), and his character was completely different. He no longer seemed kinda cool or had that straight-guy big-dick energy from the comic. His character in the movie was just snivelly. And all of the movie's early plot stuff felt really forced with Ueda's character, like "do you wanna know his secret??", and the "he has a girlfriend", etc. These things didn't happen naturally as a result of characters being in the scene together for grounded reasons and conversing normally; they were just shoved into the movie in clunky ways to get the work of the plot done so that they could move on to the next scene. And Ueda wasn't even in enough scenes with them together to have seen any kind of longing expression on Mitsuomi's face to presume that he knows Mitsuomi like-likes Yamato, to even bother saying the things he does about Yamato's secret, or gf, or whatever. Just, arrrrrrgh!

Why did they shove in some dialogue about jii-chan wanting to see the faces of his grandchildren when in the comic jii-chan never pressured Yamato about this at all? It disgusted me because this sort of thing is normally used to show a lack of consideration of the character in question, and jii-chan was always shown in the comic to be intensely sensitive to Yamato's fragility over being abandoned.

Too much time was spent on the dad/furniture-making scenes, when it was not the primary plot of the story. More of this should've been cut, and that time used to build up Mitsuomi's/Yamato's relationship better instead. Like in the comic, these scenes should've been put into scenes of Mitsuomi on his way to dealing with something Yamato-related, rather than being scenes all on their own. Mitsuomi's valiant speech to his dad fell flat for me because the movie never showed Mitsuomi trying to do anything related to the business before that, when ostensibly Mitsuomi should've been sneaking in at night and trying to do a few things on his own. This was partially ruined by the movie making Mitsuomi go work at jii-chan's farm instead of working in his dad's business like he did in the manga, which would've allowed this subplot to progress more naturally as bits and pieces, and still get a proper build-up. This is what I mean by watching what you cut/change early-on, and making sure you're covering all your bases when you do cut/change things. :/

Also why shove bad romance tropes into a well-written story that weren't there in the original? Tropes are generally things you would cut from an adaptation, not add. When Mitsuomi trips and falls in the hot-house and Yamato catches him, I just rolled my eyes. When the girl is introduced to help jii-chan after his accident and Mitsuomi gets upset and runs away, it was so frustrating to watch. The awkward bath scene seemed almost pandering. This sort of stuff is a waste of time. Everything in the comic was much more natural and not stupid like this; why change it to make it stupid??

Now, I don't normally watch jdramas, so maybe this is a more general problem of how jdramas are made, but this director didn't seem to know how to visually convey emotions of characters without the aid of forced dialogue, especially those who are in turmoil. Comics have a lot of inner monologue/rumination in them, but you can't do that in a movie, and have the challenge of having to figure out how to convey these things visually instead. And there is a cinematic language for doing this that wasn't used at all here. There could've been scenes filmed from Yamato's perspective of him wistfully watching Mitsuomi thru a hot-house window as Mitsuomi's heading home. Or only showing half of Yamato's face while he bites his lip while we get a flashback to the initial kiss. Or have Mitsuomi catch Yamato staring, and then Yamato awkwardly plays it off. Sneaking glances is so easy to do and it was never used for some reason during the build-up phase. Certainly put in a montage of them driving around doing deliveries and horsing around in the truck, and actually having fun with each other; more scenes of them driving around were sorely needed to properly set up the seat-switching scene later, and a montage like this would've fit right in with all the nice atmospheric soundtrack pieces already in the movie.

The scene at the hospital of Yamato "breaking down" after jii-chan's fall was a stand-out badly set up and filmed scene. It was really awkward and very uncomfortable to watch because it felt like acting rather than a natural emotional scene. It wasn't filmed properly at all -- like, first show Yamato's hand shaking in jii-chan's room while Yamato is smiling and chatting, with underwater-sounding/obscured dialogue coming from Yamato so that the focus is on the hand (from Mitsuomi's perspective). Then cast Yamato in shadow as he exits the room with the top of his face cut off while he swallows hard and brightly says he'll visit jii-chan tomorrow (have his voice break on the last syllable, but him play it off), meanwhile Mitsuomi is still cast in the light of the room behind him, looking at him with worry. Then, in the truck, have Yamato start the car but not put it in gear. Have the silence become awkward as Mitsuomi realizes Yamato's about to have a moment. Anyway, this is just one example of a better way to have built up to this moment or conveyed Yamato's distress without a forced-sounding monologue.

Also, I'd like to add that when jii-chan hurts himself, so much more could've been done with this scene as well to convey Yamato's distress. Have Mitsuomi rushing around in the background competently taking charge of the situation rather than standing there like he's confused. Have a shot of Yamato hovering over jii-chan, frozen like a deer in headlights, with a look of terror on this face, and have the sound of Mitsuomi's 911 call in the background fade out into obscurity to only clearly hear Yamato's rapidly-increasing heartbeat fading in. Why was this scene so badly filmed?

Well, I guess it's time to stop. I can't really find it in me to rail about all 98 minutes of the movie. I guess the fact that this movie got made is better than it not getting made. I couldn't really connect with it, but it wasn't a bad movie by itself. And we really do need more movies depicting relationships like this done in a serious and considerate way. The music was good, certainly. The park scene was well-done and properly emotional. The scene of Mitsuomi yelling at his boss was great.

However, I'm still salty I never got to see the scene I was waiting for of Yamato climbing in to Mitsuomi's house through the porch/window (whatever you call it) and having Mitsuomi tell him to use the front door next time. That was like one of their classic "them" moments from the comic. :(

Ah whatever. The manga is still around, and it's great, and so is the sequel. If you haven't read it, go do it now!