Day 1/30 of analyzing my fav things abt sangyang until season 3 comes out
Today I’m analyzing the premise of Sangyang.
For starters, the actual premise google translated from the raws (which are better than the english one imo):
"Lau, someone is carving something into my back while I'm asleep." . . . The sole direct heir of the Zhou family, 'Xin,' who boasts unrivaled power, and his guardian 'Lau,' bound by a contract between him and the Zhou family.
One night in October, four friends gather to meet for the first time in five years for a birthday party for Xin.
After the party ends, Xin takes off his clothes and shows Lau his back...
"Lau, it's time to get to work now."
"Why do you talk like I have a choice? It's not 'just a matter of choice.' It's an order given by someone."
Someone with a mysterious tattoo tattooed on Xin's back, and the only person who can track that person—Lau.
The more the 'tattoo' incident is uncovered, the secrets of the Zhou family and those around him, as well as the past of Lau and Xin, are gradually revealed.
Will Lau be able to uncover the truth of the incident and save Xin?
A noir mystery presented by a talented up-and-coming cultivator writer, 'Sangyang'
And the English version:
"Someone's tattooing me in my sleep."
On the night of his birthday, Xin, the sole heir of the powerful Zhou family, reunites with Lau, his clan guardian, and confides in him about the mysterious tattoo forming on his back. Lau begrudgingly sets off to investigate this strange phenomenon, but what secrets will he uncover along the way?
I kinda like both versions, but the korean version sets up the audience with the expectation that we're going to uncover the characters' pasts A LOT. the english version is more succint, but also the korean version describes the story as "Read this story: When you want to see a brutal mutual unrequited love hell" which I think is hilarious, so I prefer the Korean version more.
Analysis:
Compared to many other manhwas, Sangyang is unique in terms of its place in culture alone. It’s a black and white manhwa (already rare) about Chinese characters in modern day China yet it’s written by a Korean author (extremely rare). I even found some rly xenophobic reviews of it from Korean readers just because the story is Chinese.
Furthermore, the story also presents itself in a way that is incredibly rare within its genre. It’s a bl, yet the mc doesn’t even realize he or the ml like each other, and the story only focuses on a few hints of romance. its honestly more similar to a shounen, than a romance. Yet, because of those few moments the story can only be labeled a BL on its original official site (R*di), whereas in its English translation it is labeled as a drama rather than a romance (which I personally find far more accurate, if either Lau or Xin were women would the story still have to be labeled as a romance in Korea?).
The actual premise of the story itself is unique as well. Honestly I struggle to recommend this manhwa to people because the premise is so difficult to explain. You could explain that its just about clan politics, but that leaves out the fact that we barely know much of the politics, and the story focuses almost entirely on the characters and their relationships with one another. A modern noir mystery, yet it blurs the lines between mystical and cold hard reality, leaving the reader entirely at a loss for which could be closer to the truth. The story barely even explains the premise at first, you're immediately thrown into this moody world, and i absolutely love it. The premise of this story is so difficult to describe but i genuinely think its one of the most well written stories ive ever read.
Other things of note: - the author is gyujik, they have a youtube channel which has the guitar song lau plays in ch 60 and a funny short w xin and lau posted. Other than that we don't know anything abt the author except that they're korean. - sangyang: the wanderer is actually just called sangyang in the raws. ngl i kinda hate the localization of the title, which i will get more into when i discuss the meaning of the name (day 29 btw), but the english title is essentially redundant, so i just prefer to call it 'sangyang'. - lau is tagged as the top and xin is tagged as the bottom despite there barely being any romance in the story much less even sex lmao. other tags (source: user @PuppyCorporation's comment): #ModernDrama #ChildhoodFriends #Reunion #Contract/MasterRelationship #Friendship #FirstLove #BattleRomance #KoreanBL #AffectionateTop #TsundereTop #BigTop #RegretfulTop #Rude/MeanTop #PureTop(sometimes considered virgin in BL) #CommitedTop #LovingTop #Top'sUnrequiredLove #BeautifulBottom #KindheartedBottom #RegretfulBottom #SoftOutsideStrongInsideBottom #PureGenuineBottom #UnrequitedBottomsLove #Wounded/Hurt_Bottom
Anyways I just rly love this story and I want to yap abt it until it returns in 1 month.
Day 1/30 of analyzing my fav things abt sangyang until season 3 comes out
Today I’m analyzing the premise of Sangyang.
For starters, the actual premise google translated from the raws (which are better than the english one imo):
"Lau, someone is carving something into my back while I'm asleep."
.
.
.
The sole direct heir of the Zhou family, 'Xin,' who boasts unrivaled power, and his guardian 'Lau,' bound by a contract between him and the Zhou family.
One night in October, four friends gather to meet for the first time in five years for a birthday party for Xin.
After the party ends, Xin takes off his clothes and shows Lau his back...
"Lau, it's time to get to work now."
"Why do you talk like I have a choice? It's not 'just a matter of choice.' It's an order given by someone."
Someone with a mysterious tattoo tattooed on Xin's back, and the only person who can track that person—Lau.
The more the 'tattoo' incident is uncovered, the secrets of the Zhou family and those around him, as well as the past of Lau and Xin, are gradually revealed.
Will Lau be able to uncover the truth of the incident and save Xin?
A noir mystery presented by a talented up-and-coming cultivator writer, 'Sangyang'
And the English version:
"Someone's tattooing me in my sleep."
On the night of his birthday, Xin, the sole heir of the powerful Zhou family, reunites with Lau, his clan guardian, and confides in him about the mysterious tattoo forming on his back. Lau begrudgingly sets off to investigate this strange phenomenon, but what secrets will he uncover along the way?
I kinda like both versions, but the korean version sets up the audience with the expectation that we're going to uncover the characters' pasts A LOT. the english version is more succint, but also the korean version describes the story as "Read this story: When
you want to see a brutal mutual unrequited love hell" which I think is hilarious, so I prefer the Korean version more.
Analysis:
Compared to many other manhwas, Sangyang is unique in terms of its place in culture alone. It’s a black and white manhwa (already rare) about Chinese characters in modern day China yet it’s written by a Korean author (extremely rare). I even found some rly xenophobic reviews of it from Korean readers just because the story is Chinese.
Furthermore, the story also presents itself in a way that is incredibly rare within its genre. It’s a bl, yet the mc doesn’t even realize he or the ml like each other, and the story only focuses on a few hints of romance. its honestly more similar to a shounen, than a romance. Yet, because of those few moments the story can only be labeled a BL on its original official site (R*di), whereas in its English translation it is labeled as a drama rather than a romance (which I personally find far more accurate, if either Lau or Xin were women would the story still have to be labeled as a romance in Korea?).
The actual premise of the story itself is unique as well. Honestly I struggle to recommend this manhwa to people because the premise is so difficult to explain. You could explain that its just about clan politics, but that leaves out the fact that we barely know much of the politics, and the story focuses almost entirely on the characters and their relationships with one another. A modern noir mystery, yet it blurs the lines between mystical and cold hard reality, leaving the reader entirely at a loss for which could be closer to the truth. The story barely even explains the premise at first, you're immediately thrown into this moody world, and i absolutely love it. The premise of this story is so difficult to describe but i genuinely think its one of the most well written stories ive ever read.
Other things of note:
- the author is gyujik, they have a youtube channel which has the guitar song lau plays in ch 60 and a funny short w xin and lau posted. Other than that we don't know anything abt the author except that they're korean.
- sangyang: the wanderer is actually just called sangyang in the raws. ngl i kinda hate the localization of the title, which i will get more into when i discuss the meaning of the name (day 29 btw), but the english title is essentially redundant, so i just prefer to call it 'sangyang'.
- lau is tagged as the top and xin is tagged as the bottom despite there barely being any romance in the story much less even sex lmao. other tags (source: user @PuppyCorporation's comment):
#ModernDrama #ChildhoodFriends #Reunion #Contract/MasterRelationship #Friendship #FirstLove #BattleRomance #KoreanBL #AffectionateTop #TsundereTop #BigTop #RegretfulTop #Rude/MeanTop #PureTop(sometimes considered virgin in BL) #CommitedTop #LovingTop #Top'sUnrequiredLove #BeautifulBottom #KindheartedBottom #RegretfulBottom #SoftOutsideStrongInsideBottom #PureGenuineBottom #UnrequitedBottomsLove #Wounded/Hurt_Bottom
Anyways I just rly love this story and I want to yap abt it until it returns in 1 month.