So I bumped into a new series while going down the rabbit hole with no description. Cover art and title was interesting so I read a few.
Standard setup and back story. Might be interesting to see if anything unique stands out…
Then it kept jumping forward. The story progressed way too fast.
I realized it was a manhua.
I don’t know why but there’s always so much happening so fast it’s hard for me to digest it all that I end up dropping it.
What are your thoughts?
Other manhua I’ve dropped:
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Versatile Mage
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My Wife is a Demon Queen
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Monster Pet Evolution
I’ve completed the second one. It’s horrible. I’m ashamed at myself for reading it all the way. It’s not just manhua, but also manga and manhwa - they’re bad (at least the newer ones). If I had the chance to, I would go on a rant about all the three mediums of comic. Barring a few, I hate most of them. I no longer enjoy reading them - in fact, I’ve stopped reading for about three years, tried getting into it recently, and I’ve stopped again. It feels too forced, unnecessarily sexual, mentally draining, repetitive and bland.
I tend to find the best stuff when I go by author/artist/mangaka rather than genre.
When something is good, other works by the same people usually come with a lot of the same attention to the same things that made something good. Barring that, I look up the stuff that those creators say inspired them, etc.
Follow the chain of creation, rather than consumption. The latter is the path you’ll see most fans treading and so many consumers of art just want the same story told over and over. But talented creators will combine things and make deliberate changes to make something new, so when you find people like that, trace their paths to find the good stuff, and then trace that path, and so on.
There are only so many stories that make me feel satisfied.
This is one of the reasons I enjoy reading Solo Leveling. It’s not a groundbreaking story at all. But its a clean and short read.
I’ve started to get more into LNs since you get all the world building thats cut out in adaptations.
My Wife is a Demon Queen was interesting to me since the MC is sort of powerless, but with the power of creativity and drawing he’s strong. I like crafty sort of stuff with creation as a driving force. Legendary Mechanic is on my to do list.
Look into Overgeared. The LN is crazy long and its a slow build up but the author warns you that the MC is a piece of crap that evolves as the story goes on. It really started to get good about 200 chapters in. The story got picked up for Manwha adaptation. They did a decent job with it!
I have started to hate most of the stuff that I read. Power fantasy like tower-climbing/levelling-up and otome/villainess is something I detest very much. I admit that I’m guilty of consuming it, because curiosity - and rightfully, it has killed the cat in me time and again.
Apart from that, I hate over-repeated, unfunny jokes related to “accidental” sexual assault, and the cocky “smirk syndrome”. And don’t even get me started on special otome highlight panels - the hero/heroine can say the most ridiculous nonsense, and people won’t question it, cuz “muh fleur, glitter en shiz”. When it comes to adult category, they’re the worst, especially the “guilty pleasure” part of it - apparently, some people like it, but me, I’ve been traumatized.
I like reading stuff that makes me feel like I’m a speck on the universe. I also like reading good slice of life. Good, as in, not just pointless daily life time-lapse. Something similar to Hyouka, where the story is slow-paced.
Here’s a few of them that I enjoyed of the many I’ve read:
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Manga:
- Hyouka (I’ll probably read the light novel because this is so damn good)
- Ai Ren (very dark and traumatic, but hits the right spot of transcendental mysteriousness and cosmic horror)
- Attack on Titan (Spoilers only: I’ll start from the beginning sometimes later)
- Uzumaki (cosmic horror)
- Monster
- Samurai 8 (I like this, the theme is very similar to Asura’s Wrath)
- Code Geass
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Manhwa:
- Bastard (my number one manhwa favourite)
- Days of Hana (bitter-sweet romantic story)
- Tower of God (I’ve yet to resume - I stopped reading about three years ago, this isn’t what I consider as tower-climbing, more like tower-transcendence)
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Manhua (all the manhua I’ve read are absolutely shit, except for this one):
- Pan Long
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Light novels
- HakoMari series
- Kamisu Reina series
Right now, I’m considering moving to actual novels, from diverse international authors. Maybe a few in English, Hindi, French and possibly, my own mother tongue. I don’t really like the currrent enshittification of East Asian animation. Maybe I’ll read something like Inuyasha, Trigun, Blame, WorldEnd, Astra Lost in Space or Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash in the future.
If you liker bastard, give Swet Home a go, it’s from the same author and the vibe has a similar-ish eerines.
Also,as a general recommendation that I’m reading and enjoying right now:
Black knight: kinda decent vibe to it. I reincarnated as a legendary surgeon: yes, I know, isekai bs, but the story progresses in an organic way for now and the MC is likeable. The return of the crazy demon: it might not be up your alley but the entire pretext is that the MC is actually kinda crazy so I do enjoy binging 5-6 chapters from time to time.
I’ve read both Sweet Home and Shotgun Boy. It wasn’t as fun as Bastard. But it was a nice read.
Honestly, I want to read something that gives me the joy and fear of unknown. For example, when I talk about fantasy, I want to enjoy an unknown world that I might be somewhat familiar with. I will gladly accept the good and bad side of a world, as long as it is neither glorified or vilified. I want a main character that does not deviate from their moral responsibility. I don’t want to read cartoon-ish heroism or villainy. I want a world that isn’t black and white, where the conflict between two groups is complex.
I don’t want a fantasy that bends to fan service. I despise evil stuff, but if such things exists in this fantasy, I expect societal problems to affect the main character as well. I don’t want to read the story of the hypocrite power-fantasy MC who has a twisted sense of justice normalized by the mangaka. Honestly, I don’t find comics to be fun anymore. Maybe there’s a small subset of books out there out there that is for me. One reason why I like comics like AiRen and Shakugun no Shana is because it has this concept of “joy” in “despair”. Too bad I won’t be able to read SnS because apparently, they never translated the book to English.
Hard for me to make a recommendation besides overgeared for a LN. Non standard story. Its a leveling crafting series about a MC playing an VRMMO. The twist is he’s a horrible gamer and self centered. But because he plays inefficiently it ends up helping in the long run.
He also solves his issues fairly quickly but keeps playing as a career gamer. Ends up socializing through the game and becoming a better person. The character development is fantastic.
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It’s not only you. There’s too much text in Manhua in general. Not saying Manga/Manhwa aren’t guilty of this but I have seen this occur in Manhua more. The MCs don’t stop yapping whatever the fuck about power system and what not. It’s like they don’t understand how to write without having their characters talk in multiple paragraphs. I guess this is why Chinese Novels have thousands of chapters. I have less Manhua in my library compared to other two. I probably read them since I was too bored to find something good
I’m reading Isekai, Tower-Climbing, Gates etc trashy comics because it’s mindless fun and easy to read not the opposite.
Yeah I didn’t even mention the word dumps…
If I wanted to read a novel I’d be on a LN damnit.
You get tired fast. I use a tablet to read and if I gotta zoom in every other page to read the loredumps that’s annoying.
Not to mention topic hopping and blasting through content. I’d prefer if they pick an event/topic and flesh it out.
Instead it’s something like: (my actual recap of this demon cage)
I’m sick.
Can’t afford surgery. Only have 30k
New game to make millions?? Cost 30k. Buy…
Play. Oh! Body feels good. Use martial arts. Win big. Get strong.
New person. Make friend. Buy my loot. Good.
New mission! Succeeded! That was hard. Crazy detective story with crocodile boss. I kicked its ass. (Seriously. Dude goes on a mission and it gets like 3 or 4 panels…)
Sell loot. Same guy. New mission! Escort. Party with same friend! Ok go! RICH PRINCESS!!
Etc…
Only manhwa I recently read was What Happens Inside the Dungeon and though it has rough start, Reva’s art improves a lot and it does a bait switch halfway where it turns out that the dirty jokes and gags also come with plot.
The stupid jokes never stop but the characters get fleshed out and there’s some actual stakes. I enjoyed it.
I do read The Gamer on occasion but mostly to see how it keeps upping the complexity of the plot while giving the reader less and less of the characters, and somehow it just keeps going. I do not consider it good or worth recommending.
Solo Leveling’s manhwa Adaptation is also quite good IMO.
The Breaker is fantastic, but its manhwa in name only. Korean, yes, but the author basically draws it 100% like a manga.
I read the gamer on occasion as well. It’s tolerable and does provide some context. It does have the occasional info dump with gets old fast. I tend to skip the history bits.
I’ve read the breaker 1 and 2. Fantastic series. This one is korean not Chinese though.
Yeah I only just learned the differences between manhua and manhwa when I looked it up after commenting to make sure I got it right.
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