Secrets of the Silent Witch

Oooh look, it's not an isekai!

Yes, I added Secrets of the Silent Witch to my watch list and I am, sadly, caught up through episode 7 (somehow, I didn't notice it was still ongoing). 

Monica Everett is 16 with the requisite tragic backstory (it appears she was a cheerful, precocious child until she witnessed her father being burnt alive at the stake, all because his research into life-saving stuff/magic was misunderstood). She is intelligent and the first (and only) to master casting without chanting--which she did mainly because she is now painfully, cripplingly shy in front of people and can hardly speak in front of anyone without throwing up or fainting. Though she's now one of the revered 7 Sages, she lives the life of a recluse, though she pops up in emergencies to defeat dragons and whatnot.

That is, until another of the 7 Sages makes her go undercover to protect the second prince, who at first isn't sure if she's infiltrated his school to assassinate him or what.

But she slowly but surely wins over the Student Council (especially including the prince and his most loyal lapdog, Lord Ashley). I have no idea at this point if this will have any romance in it or not, but I would not at all mind if it goes the way of the silver haired tsundere instead of the blonde prince. 

She's also making friends for probably the first time in her life (poor dad was killed when she looked to be about 5? and it seems she was perhaps raised after that by an uncle who hated her). 

I wasn't sure about it at first because I don't love characters who have no backbone, but she's believable and is trying her best. I'm curious to see how it goes.

Dear Otome Shutting Down

Ah, I saw the notice that the Dear Otome app is shutting down this coming October. I haven't actually played any of them (Ninja Shadow, Love Tangle, Guard Me Sherlock, Lost Alice, Blood & Roses, Wizardess Heart, etc) in ages and ages (probably 2019?), but there was a period I'd spent a lot of time on them. I can't say any of them were particularly well written...in fact, some were atrocious. But they all had a bit of charm. Out of them, I'd say probably the Ninja Shadow one was the one I was least annoyed by. Still, it makes me a bit nostalgic and sad. 

A little bit of Zen in your life

It's been a bit of a rough time lately. Do I want to go into why? No, not really. I'll just leave it at that. So I decided to play my comfort game: Mystic Messenger. I hadn't done a full play through in quite a long time because, honestly, I need sleep. But the husband was gone to Madeira, I'm literally losing hair from some stressful situations, and I needed something. 

So I'm doing a Zen play through. Even though he's the first recommended route and a lot of people think 707 is the proper "canon" route, he's my favourite. He's been my phone lock screen for, eh, years. He probably shouldn't be the one I turn to for comfort...I mean, after all, if you just take it skin deep, he seems like a complete narcissist. But I've always felt like there was more to him than that and, no matter who's route you're in, he's always there supporting you. He always loves you.

I came across this Tumblr post today that goes into why there are some people who think Zen is the "true" route and, I gotta say, I really like this take. It also makes me sad, but I get it. Zen doesn't love the MC -- he loves YOU. That's some 4th wall breaking stuff and maybe is why the April Fool's DLC has always made me sad too. He's stuck somewhere and me, yeah, I'm stuck somewhere too.

I know it's just pixels and programming and, heck, it isn't even AI as how old is Mystic Messenger now? Holy cow, 2016. Just looked. Nine years ago. I've been playing it since 2018, though it's been awhile since I finished all the good routes. Eh, I can't even do the bad endings, at least not on purpose. I'll never be a completionist. Yoosung and all his Rika talk annoys the shit out of me but I still can't be mean to the poor boy.

Anyway. Not really sure where I was going with this. I guess I just needed to vent. And save that one Tumblr post because, hey, I get it. I do hope that Cheritz continue to keep the game out there even though they don't really update much of anything any more. I still prefer it over the Ssum (I only lasted about a month or so playing that one) and I will very much miss Zen when someday all that's left are the CGs and the app is shut down.

Hmmm. Maybe Zen is why Felix from Stray Kids is my fav KPop artist. He reminds me of him somehow. Except in interviews he seems the opposite -- not a narcissist at all; super sweet.

Edit: Eh, dammit. And I'm through the Party and husband is due back tomorrow so I really can't justify starting another route. I did enjoy visiting Zen again though. And he's inspired me to write something. It's for me -- not something I anticipate sending to an agent or editor, so I'm posting it on Wattpad.

Miss Night and Day

I'm not sure why, but Tastefully Yours hadn't tempted me back to watch another episode (maybe because the male lead seems like such a selfish jerk and I feel like if she knew what he was planning, she wouldn't forgive him? I dunno). I decided to try one that had interested me a while back: Miss Night and Day, as it seemed like it had humour, romance, and some drama. And it has some actors my age.

Lee Mi-Jin is in her late 20's and has been trying for 8 years to pass the civil service exam and get a job. She's put off everything else and worked hard, but she's got no luck. Then she gets taken in by a scammer (if it's too good to be true...). She's plucky but desperate. She winds up meeting a prosecutor (Gye Ji-Ung, played by Choi Jin-Hyuk who I've seen in some other things where he wasn't the main lead) who helps her out. 

But then things take a magical turn when a mystical cat (?) curses her (?) -- while wishing she could be someone else as she falls into a well after it. By day, she looks like a 50 something year old woman (the actress is 3 years older than me, thankfully) and she only looks like herself at night. That first day is traumatic as her parents think she's an intruder and she has no idea what's going on. 

Anyway, things happen and she winds up getting a job as a senior intern at the prosecutor's office. There's also her best friend (who is the first person to believe her when she sees the transformation for herself) who is a Beauty YouTuber/Streamer and a possibly disgraced but still worshipped Kpop Idol (who seems to be a decent guy and is likely to be the secondary male lead who probably gets paired with the best friend, if I had to guess) completing his military service as a civil servant in the office too.

And...there's the random serial killer who, it appears, killed the prosecutor's mother years ago and possibly had something to do with the disappearance of Mi-Jin's aunt (who's name and ID she's using as her 50 year old self). I swear, if you only watched Kdramas, you'd think there's an awful lot of serial killers out there and they all operate for large spans of time...

Anyway, I'm enjoying the disconnect between the 50 year old acting like an energetic 28 year old. I enjoy that actress anyway. And Jung Young-Joo and Jung Suk-Yong are her parents --- how many times have they played the parents in shows I've watched? I've lost count. But I like them, though they are generally always over the top (they are also 2 years older than me).

I've seen 3 episodes so far and it is moving along at a decent pace and I'm enjoying it. Will update later. I think the serial killer stuff will wear a bit thin, but it'll be okay.

Edit: I'm now around 10 episodes in. The romance between the leads is definitely slow burn and full of misunderstandings, though I didn't anticipate the Second Lead Syndrome that I'm seeing. Ko Won (the Kpop Idol guy) is actually very sweet and loyal and I honestly wouldn't have minded at all if the romance went that direction, though Mi-Jin, when she met him first as her "old" self" obviously feels kinda more maternal towards him? Maybe because her friend has been crushing on him for so long, how they met, and she'd already started to fall for Mr. Prosecutor. By the time Ko Won figures out what's going on (showing that *he's* paying attention, even if no one else does), the ship has already sailed. But I do actually very much like his character. He's done a lot for her and seems like such a sweet kid. But he does seem like a kid. Anyway, still enjoying the show, more than anything else I've tried in a while.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

I was underwhelmed a bit by Witch Watch so I picked up another new one: The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady. It's an isekai.

It is not, however, exactly how it is billed: "Noblewoman Euphyllia loses her title as heir to the throne. Silly Princess Anisphia secretly plots to restore Euphyllia's honor."

Euphyllia is, indeed, a noblewoman who was on track to become the next queen -- by marrying the Prince (who's name starts with A, though I've forgotten what it was, but you can just think of him as "Asshole"). She is the Genius Young Lady of the title. The Prince cancels their betrothal in a very public setting, pushing her aside for another Baron's daughter and claiming that she bullied the other girl (who's name I also have no idea what it is). It's obviously either fabricated or the machinations of someone. 

Anisphia or Anis is, also, indeed a princess. She renounced her claim to the throne because she has no magic. She's the isekai'd one and regains her memories at the magical age of 5, when it usually seems to manifest. She is an inventor and is working on "magicology" -- harnessing spirit stones that hold magic to make magical inventions so that potentially anyone could use magic. She's not really silly, though she is highly energetic and unorthodox.

When the Prince rejects Euphie, Anis immediately takes over and whisks her away and asks the King to "give" Euphie to her -- for an assistant. Though she apparently also has a crush. Not sure yet if the Yuri stuff here will be fully developed, but it is strongly suggested.

Interestingly, they are spending a fair bit of time on Euphie's transition from Queen to Be to Anis' assistant. I'm finding it interesting and engaging so far. Kinda glad that Anis isn't just "silly".  Will update once I've watched more.

Witch Watch

So...this one sounded interesting and I sort of like it, but am also having reservations. Witch Watch features a young witch returning back after time away studying and she takes her former childhood friend (?) as her familiar, as he's an oni. What she doesn't know, but the dude and her mom and the guy's dad know, is that there's a prophecy that she's going to have some doom befall her in the next year and this is possibly the only way to combat it. 

I do like Morihito Otogi, the ogre guy. He's deadpan, loyal, responsible, hard working, a bit lonely. The set up is okay, though the whole forced proximity living together without parental supervision is overdone (and given that they KNOW something bad is supposed to happen, seems kinda dumb -- the mom is back trying to get more power to prophesize some more and the dad is away in a foreign country for business).

But the witch girl, Nico, is painfully clueless, irresponsible, and mostly annoying. And in episode 3 they just introduced another childhood friend to be jealous of ogre boy. And she's got delusions of love but Moi boy is just trying to keep her in one piece. I'm sure they are an endgame couple, but so far I honestly want him to just do his duty and then be shut of her. The glimpses into their childhood show her to have been pretty much just as bad before. 

So...I dunno. I'll give it a couple more but if she doesn't gain at least half a clue, I may have to drop it. I think she's supposed to be endearing, but I'm old and she's just annoying.

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai

Just finished the second (and final) season of  Aharen-san wa Hakarenai (aka Aharen-san is Indecipherable) and thought I'd already written about it, but apparently I haven't.

It's a charming little rom-com about two poker-faced, slightly awkward people. There's the super tall Raido and the itty-bitty Aharen, who barely speaks above a whisper. What makes it stand out, perhaps, as that's a common enough thing (Komi Can't Communicate, etc. etc.) is the wild flights of fantasy that Raido comes up with. He's got a bizarre imagination.

I don't actually want to re-hash it all as I'm feel very blech today as I fell on the treadmill and messed myself up and have taken cocodamol. That's actually why I finished it today when I should be working. Let's just say that it was a nice watch, very comforting, a bit bizarre, and definitely full of charm.

Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Hmmmmmm maybe? Not sure the bizarro jokes would land as well a second time, but maybe.

Betrothed to My Sister's Ex

Even though Betrothed to My Sister's Ex isn't fully released, I decided to dive in. Following in the footsteps of many other Cinderella-esque takes, Marie is the younger daughter (not stepdaughter) of an impoverished baron. Her older sister, Anastasia, is the "beautiful" blonde one while she's supposed to be the "ugly" redhead and she's relegated to cleaning and tattered rags.

On Marie's birthday, she thinks she'll get a chance to celebrate but it turns out it's just a party to promote her sister to potential marriage prospects. She flees into the gardens and has a chance encounter with a charming and rich Count who's origins are from another land (that gets generally looked down upon as they are more swarthy skinned, etc, etc. racism, hello). He is immediately smitten but not imagining that the girl he met could possibly be the birthday girl, he sends a letter of proposal for Anastasia.

Here's one thing that I think was refreshing -- the parents are absolutely horrid BUT Anastasia (the perfect, blonde older sister) is actually very nice. There's a brief scene where you see her talking about her dreams with Marie; she would really love to open a tailoring shop in the capital and she's kind to her sister. 

Anyway -- Anastasia is supposedly packed off to go marry the Count...but suffers a carriage accident on the way. I am 99% sure that she's not actually dead and just ran off and staged it because she wants to follow her own dreams.

The evil parents send off Marie as a substitute, assuming the Count will just take her for "one night of comfort" and then send her back where she can be a drudge again. Seriously, they are terrible. 

So, Marie arrives and the Count is in a horrible funk because he thinks the woman he fell in love with is dead...but then the Maid Mio (who is the one with all the brains in this show) immediately figures out that he basically made a grave error in assuming Marie was the older sister. So he's now overjoyed but of course poor Marie who has no self worth at all has taken all of the things her parents did to her to heart and thinks she's worthless. She can't even begin to comprehend that he actually does want to marry her.

I've watched the 4 released episodes so far and I'm enjoying it though it's not surprising at all. The two main characters are both sweetly charming. She's (very) slowly gaining some confidence. Mio is great. The two bitchy maids got sacked (courtesy Mio) and I look forward to seeing Marie's glow up. If I were a betting person, the biggest conflict is likely to be that the sister's deception is discovered and Marie will try to give up the Count because of it, but will finally realise that it's her he has loved all along. Or the horrid parents will try some ploy to gain prestige.

Joy Ride

I was curious to see this one because of the Asian-American thing going on in it (a whole exploration of not feeling "white" enough or "Chinese" enough) even though you could tell from the trailer that it was going to be quite over the top raunchy. That's not really my thing. Anyway, Joy Ride. 

So. Yes. It was actually even rauncier and more debauched than I thought it was going to be. However, it also had a lot of heart and exploration of family and friendship and of feeling lost and out of place. Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Once was kinda enough. I thought, for me personally, that the over the top stuff made plot sense only about half the time and the rest was more for shock value. But it had a lot of heart.

Anyway, a brief summary. An adoptee from China grows up in middle America, with a best friend who was the only other Asian girl in town. Oh, yeah, I felt that one except I was the ONLY Asian in town for half of high school. To combat the feelings of "less than" and the "ching chong" jokes, she over excels in everything (again, yeah, I feel that). Her friend, meanwhile, is more artistic and truly does not GaF.

Years later, over-achiever is a lawyer being sent to China to close some deal. What kind? Who knows. Just know that it's a bunch of white dudes sending her over. Her best friend is going with (she actually speaks Chinese) and they also meet up with the over-achiever's best friend from Uni who is now a Chinese drama actress and the eccentric cousin of hometown best friend, who is called Deadeye. 

Hm. Honestly, Deadeye is the only one I really got the name of. The rest are kind of archetypes. 

Nothing goes to plan. The deal is gonna fall through because she "doesn't know her family" and they go on a trip to try and locate birth mom. They run into a white girl drug dealer and wind up out of their heads and kicked off a train, passport-less (but at least not in jail). They meet up with a basketball team. Have so much crazy sex stuff happen that they take out half the team. Um, yeah. Meet up with some family of best friend girl, who makes uptight girl feel welcome for the first time and accepting of her Chinese-ness...but then they discover that her birth mom was actually a Korean...so then a crazy-ass sidetrip to Seoul (sans passports) and a really kind weird subplot about an unfortunate devil/oni tattoo and the actress girl's Jesus-loving boyfriend, and then lawyer girl gets fired, they have the big falling out where they all still love each other, yadda yadda. 

It's a feel-good movie with heart but too much shmexy and gross stuff, but overall I enjoyed it.

Tastefully Yours

So, I have finally picked up a new Kdrama...or, at least, I've watched enough of it to justify writing a post. Tastefully Yours has Kang Ha-Neul as jerky chaebol Han Beom-Woo who is competing with his (even more) jerky brother for control of a food empire. They both want to be the heir apparent and their (really really jerky) mother is dangling the carrot in front of them.

The brother, in fact, gets him ousted from his directorship and, desperate to get a three star rating and into his mother's good graces, he finds himself way off in some podunk town with a very talented chef (who's restaurant is kinda going under): Mo Yeon-Joo ( played by Go Min-Si). I'd weirdly wanted to try something with her in it because I've seen all these clips of her in another new show (something about a woman who dies and goes to heaven?) where she's a human cat. It makes more sense than that, but there it is.

Anyway, they are like oil and water but will, of course, find their way to true love. I've seen 4 episodes now, I think, and overall I am enjoying it. He's a true ass to start with and, honestly, hasn't really redeemed himself yet. It's kinda startling as the last thing I watched him in he was such a green flag (When the Camellia Blooms).  

It doesn't feel like this one is going to have any surprises, but that's okay.

Natsume's Book of Friends

A long, long time ago I watched an episode of Natsume's Book of Friends. Years and years ago. I don't know why I stopped...maybe I was saving it to watch with little dude? 

At any rate, I recently started it over again. I'm just about 6 episodes in, but I am enjoying it. Natsume the orphan can see yokai which has made him, similarly to all other characters in every other show who can see them, a bit of an outcast. They chase him, many thinking he is Reiko, his grandmother, who also had the gift. 

She's long gone now, but she left behind the Book of Friends, which has the names of all the yokai that she "defeated". Natsume has, by default, inherited it. And now, the yokai that come across him are of two kinds--those that want to take the book from him to have power over the yokai named within or those who want to get their names back.

Some are nice. Some aren't. A dodgy fellow that seems quite powerful and takes the shape of a cat extracts a promise from Natsume to protect him in exchange for inheriting the book once he dies. He's a bit self serving and I don't trust him (think Moggett), but there you go.

Each episode mostly focuses on a particular spirit, but there's also Natsume slowly interacting with other people. I don't think there's going to be any romance in this one, but that's okay. Maybe more of a found family kind of thing? The episodes are almost all bittersweet so far, so I feel like I have to watch them in small doses. Will post more after I'm farther along.