July's manga / #Webtoon(264)

I don't like this webtoon because it's so nonsensical and inaccurate in terms of detective work. Also, it seems to contradict itself with the prologue. Apparently, the two main characters knew each other from police academy days and were close, but in the next chapter which takes place two years ago, before the incident that caused the blue haired man to be dead eyed and wheelchair bound, when they meet for the first time, they don't know each other. Which is it? You can't be both strangers and police academy rivals at the same time like that. Unless you're going to make both of them have amnesia about their police academy days, which is so lame. It's just basically full of bad tropes at this point. Anyway, I don't know if it's the translation, or if the original text is wrong, but OCD doesn't equate to germaphobe, because you can have one without the other, or both, but it seems the text is saying he's just a germaphobe with implied agoraphobia. He doesn't show any signs of OCD at all. I even doubt he's actually a germaphobe, because he just unnecessarily tore off a dirty business card which was thrown on the ground with his teeth, when he could just have used his fingers to do it like a normal person. Ugh. What was the author thinking? It's not even sexy to do that. And the police chief just outright lied and broke into the other guy's apartment with a hammer, which is classic breaking and entering. He should arrest himself. The so-called psychic detective isn't psychic at all, he's just using observation like a normal detective should be doing, and deducing things based on his knowledge. It's impossible to put a microphone in something as flimsy as a card without someone noticing there's something wrong with the card. The list goes on and on with why this webtoon is terrible. It's clear that the author just wanted to write BL with a detective theme but didn't bother doing research or putting thought into it for the execution. Like why do they have rose-gold handcuffs...? The art is the only reason I gave it a higher rating. Although it's not the best art I've seen, it's slightly above average for a webtoon. Both of the main characters piss me off, and they're extremely unlikeable.

Oh my god, this manhua is so funny. I love all the Chinese cultural references too, like the scholar placing ranks and the picture of the two of them in ideal fantasyland which was from Romance of the Red Chamber. That made me laugh so hard! I like how it doesn't take itself seriously, and it just runs with it. I only wish there were more chapters! The art is really good, and panelling is great. Really love this!

This is probably one of the better historical Chinese BLs, although I won't label it as such, since it hasn't obviously headed for that direction quite yet, but it's clear that there's an implication the two male main characters are going to be more than friends. But I'm not complaining, since the more obvious BLs which are focused in ancient China are basically awful except for the art. There's a strong mystery element going on as they try to solve the case of the murdered princess, but I find it hard to follow, personally. It may have to do with how quickly the clues are explained, and the line of logic isn't clearly illustrated in an easy to understand way. The art is alright, not the best, but it's easy to read through. There's too many Chinese names being thrown around so that's not too good. Hopefully, it will get better in terms of pacing.

This webtoon is so confusing, with Korean terms being thrown left and right without stop. It's already really difficult to follow the story, with the non-linear flow of events, since it goes from past to present to past without warning, and the lore is complicated and not explained clearly. It's a huge mess of a story, and very difficult to grasp what is happening. The art is so-so. I can tell it's stylized, but it's not my cup of tea. Maybe it will get better with more chapters.

Pretty mediocre BL, but it doesn't dive straight into shameless smut after the steamy opening scene, which is good. It allows some development of the characters at the very least. It's implausible that two CEOs would fall for some plain average-looking dude like the male lead though, since he has absolutely no stand out qualities. Art is decent.

It tries too hard to be funny, but it really isn't funny at all. The girl lead character is untalented and gullible, basically a poorly written character. There's no real plot as of this point, besides that she got married to a weak guy who died and she runs away. The art is alright though. After the random timeskip, this webtoon starts to make zero sense, and I can't even tell who the main characters are supposed to be. There's no plot at all.

I dislike this webtoon because the female lead is so weak and passive. She's to blame for accepting this terrible job, despite getting warned about how awful it is. And then she whines about it all the time, when honestly, her job isn't that big of a deal, since her assignment can protect himself far better than she can protect him. She's so useless and not professional at all. I can see why her employer dislikes her, although it doesn't excuse him from acting like a total asshole. He's too cold and abusive, going so far as to strangle her and push her into a pool for no reason, as well as smashing her phone instead of turning it off like a normal person. This webtoon is promoting unhealthy relationships instead of showing how to productively approach them and fix them, and it's sure going to romanticize it too, judging from the cover, although it hasn't gone that route yet in the actual story. I don't think it's a good idea to tell people that bad men are cool or attractive. Also, why is he completely Caucasian-looking, if he's supposed to be mixed Arab? He should have more Arabic features since those traits are dominant and Caucasian traits are recessive, that's basic genetics. If anything, he should not be able to have fair skin, blond hair, or blue eyes, but he happens to have all three of these, what the heck? It would make more sense if it turned out he was adopted or something instead. I am not a fan of how the art looks. The author chose to color all the Arab people a weird shade of orange, and it's really off-putting. I also don't like how the author tells the story in a weird non-linear fashion, with a lot of constant flashbacks without any context, which makes it very disjointed.

Trash BL. It has lots of boring smut in nearly every chapter, with weak plot and character development, if any even exist. I can't even suspend my disbelief at the fact that the male CEO was able to whore his way to the top magically as if all other CEOs of big companies were gay, because they're not, at least in the real world. He's not even beautiful nor handsome, so I can't even pretend that straight guys would fall for him. And honestly, sleeping with the top people to make deals is a ridiculous practice, since you don't just do good business like that. Also, there's no freaking way that he hasn't been found out by someone over the past couple of years that he's been doing this. There's paparazzi and random people that can put two and two together. In real life, people have been completely destroyed with a single incident, much less this guy who's basically sleeping with everyone left and right several times a day. Then the author decides to bring him down in the end with a sex scandal. Really? Like no one ever blackmailed this CEO before? Hard to believe. The male lead who's trying to get revenge and claw his way up is completely unsympathetic as a character, and I didn't care whether he lost or won his fight. He won, if you just want to know the end, by releasing the details of the CEO's sexual history and drug use to his business partners... How uncreative, and anyone could have done so. Even the secretary character could do it easily, if he had hated his boss. There's nothing memorable about any of the characters at all, and all their motivations are so flat and boring. Art is not my cup of tea at all, it's far too rough and not aesthetically pleasing to look at. Skip!

Sigh, an unoriginal and bland villainess isekai with zero villainy. The female lead is a complete idiot who inexplicably, everyone loves for no reason, except for maybe the female professor. I have no idea why everyone is in love with her, because she's shown no remarkable traits or personal qualities that would justify why two royal princes are heads over heels for her. She's oblivious to it all, despite the author repeatedly reminding us that she's the top student of the year, blah. It's not even remotely possible that she can be the top student because she never does any schoolwork from what I've seen, and she's never attended classes, and she's only a freaking freshman who just started going to school, like what the hell. If you're going to make it believable, maybe you should have her be a sophomore at least. Or not call her the top student, because she's so obviously stupid. Also, why the hell does everyone call her by her full name? It's the like author is constantly patting themselves on the back for coming up with the gem of a name that is Louise Sweeney. No one else is addressed by their full name like she is. She even calls herself by her full name. It's disconcerting. I also think it's weird that the author made her a flower expert, because her family is known for growing flowers, but how can she be engaged to the crown prince if her family is from such a mundane and unaristocratic business? You can't expect me to believe that flower growing is highly respected profession in this world with no build-up about it. I'm sure the crown prince has his fair share of available maidens with nobler backgrounds. And then they try to have you believe that the original heroine is from a poor aristocratic family, but her lineage is much more pure and powerful than that of the female lead. Please. You can't have it both ways. It sort of feels like the author got mixed up with the details and tried to sort it out, but the damage had already been done. The art is completely average and doesn't warrant any additional comments about, because the panelling is also crap.

The priest is kidnapped by one of his followers, who turns out to be in some weird religious sex cult, where they all rape the poor priest for a strange ceremony that is not made clear what it's for. I appreciate the uncensoring, but some of it looks lazy and sloppily done, unfortunately. So far, it hasn't really stood out in terms of storytelling or art, so it's in the bargain BL bin for now. This doesn't impress me currently at the moment. I think it's supposed to be dark, but it has failed to meet my expectations.