somnia's manga / #meh(4)

I felt the need to reread this so my vague, badly written review could be cleaned up. But man, there isn't anything much you can say about this story besides that it's stale and horribly dry. Whoever did this storyboard did not know how to give emotional scenes depth, nor how to create enjoyable/intruiging banter and drama. Especially MC's trauma in the beginning and the death of 80% of her family. Just glossed over that in a few panels - and goodbye psycho sister, never see you again in the next dozens of chapters... MC's horribly passive, too. Normally the "I just want retirement"-characters should be comic relief (which she is sometimes, but it still falls flat bc of awkward set-ups), or at least have additional motivations, but MC is just a weak twig getting blown along with the wind. And when she does something it's some weird short-term goal, that just feels like it wastes panels. Yea, it brags her along into deeper plot, but the issue is that she and the readers are getting dragged with little to no sense of where we're headed. Homegirl wasted a whole chapter just trying to find info about the demon king. Dumbass persued him for 3 years and knows nothing, panels are wasted on her searching fruitlessly, just to end up asking some dude she knows in the end.. What the f*+#?? The pace of the story and the setup of scenes just keeps being like that. It gets even more frustrating when interesting worldbuilding bits and info gets glossed over constantly to give this sh*t the time of day. The dialogue is a pain to read through. They say so much, but you get so little out of it. None of the conversations have any spice or personality within them. It's a shame. In the first chapter we got some dope looking dudes, but nah scratch that, generic noble and royal anime templates it is. Most characters are so muted down and lowkey, both physically and emotionally. I feel like the art in this reflects the essense of this manhwa well. Theoretically it's pleasant to look at, and there are no mistakes in anatomy or what have you. But the longer you look, the flatter it feels. There is no real sense for detail or atmosphere, it just does the bare minimum.

So far it's not a bad read. The world building mentioned so far has been interesting. But honestly, I'm so annoyed by FL's overplayed insecurities. I liked her character, but her personal drama over being a temporary replacement, or what have you, is just so unreasonable (as well as useless) when you take the situation she is in into account. I hate when authors do this kind of shit. It seems out of character for FL too, imo. Also also, there's a bunch of scenes where FL- and even ML- just cook alone while listing the recipe. After some time it felt so random and out of left field, it's as if the author forgot their cooking notes on the story board and ran with it. Yea no nvm, after the first beginning bit it looses me. The story doesn't know what it wants.

First you think the premise is good. Like, FL is the daughter of a villainess hated by a lot of people and has to live with that reputation. Ofc, she has memories of her past life, where she read the novel which tells the story of the main power couple and their kids. With these kind of stories you normally look forward to a lot of salt being given out, but honestly it's just FL being a punching bag for a few chapters and then turning into a sensitive flower that refuses to the least bit of brutality or revenge. By the time I was at chapter 17/18, I was rolling my eyes because it started to reek of basic Mary Sue who refuses to recall any other details (or interesting personality traits) from their past life, besides the plot of this one shitty novel she reincarnated into. There are some cute moments here and there, but honestly it doesn't stand out from any other of the dozen basic I-was-reborn-into-xyz-stories. Characters that exist can be categorized as followed: 1. Bullies who hate FL's mom and therefor FL. 2. good people (mainly her family rn) who support her. And 3. the important people from the novel she read which are on either side of the spectrum.... and the only reason why they get their own category is because they have a backstory unlike everything else. BTW, the unreasonable violence from strangers is just not explained, like why FL's mother was hated by literally everyone and stuff. Magic also just happens, no system, no nothing. It's just chain thing magic circle summon here, hypnosis mind spell there, fuck it, figure it out yourself and goodnight. Maybe these will get explained later, but this is basic stuff that typically requires an explanation or some form of attention right away to give readers a deeper understanding of the world and the story. Honestly, the whole villain mother thing just feels like an excuse to make FL an uwu abused woke baby archetype. You'll be satisfied by this if you just want to project yourself onto an FL who was off bad and then spoiled to death by her loving adoptive family.