I read so much this month, my god.
Webtoons
My big two webcomic reads in April were “Taming the Tiger” and “I Got Pregnant With the Tyrant’s Child“.
“Taming the Tiger” is one in a long line of “mad noble” webtoons I’ve been reading for a hot minute. The noble in this is Ahn Geum-hoo who needs fresh animal blood for his brother’s medicine and he gets entangled with “Nobody” – later called “Beom” – a butcher who eagerly does his bidding. It’s steamy and I really love Beom who is basically The Ultimate Service Top. I want to brush his hair So Badly.
Then “I Got Pregnant With the Tyrant’s Child” legit caught me from an Instagram advertisement. I truly was not expecting marketing to work on me (lol) but I stayed up until around 4AM reading this webtoon. Elan, a royal knight, has a wild one-night stand with a man who uses magic to blur his face. As a result, she gets pregnant and realizes that uh… the baby daddy is the terrible and terrifying tyrant. Now, I will say that as thirsty as I am for Kylart the tyrant (lol), he’s genuinely terrible. Like he is the creepy stalker dude you wish you didn’t dream of. He is terrible and it takes him way too long to realize he’s wrong. Also the fact that he keeps trying to take her kids might be triggering for some people so… yes. But I love it, I actually like the development of the relationship, and I think Kylart is a babe.
If you’re into TikToks, I even made one about this series!
Books
I read a lot in April. Not because I had time, but because I was literally too anxious and stressed to do anything else. The main things to take from this month’s reading material are:
- As much as I love yakuza romances, I prefer something that’s high heat and high risk like Yakuza Lover as opposed to something softer/slower like the marriage of convenience story of Boss Wife
- Sakyo Aya did not disappoint with the first volume of her omegaverse series Scattering His Virgin Bloom. It is very aligned with the tropes… but I will say I don’t enjoy the attempted incest subplot (It’s the catalyst for the cliffhanger but it literally goes against many established genre conventions related to incest in omegaverse… it’s also not the main relationship. Don’t worry.)
- Spy x Family volume 7 went by way too fast. I will probably reread the whole series at some point since I get to go with my dad to some of his appointments and doctor’s offices are boring.
- Ima Koi volume one was a delight and I want the rest of it in my eyes. I also have a tiktok about it lol
- I made a new fandom friend who got me into Fire Punch (created by the same dude who did Chainsaw Man, I think). This is such a dark book, but I don’t think it felt gratuitous to me? It was all so brutal, but necessary? To me! We’ll see how the series goes. If you need trigger warnings uh… I will say this book has extremely disturbing aspects to it as this is a dystopia where things are very bad and society has devolved a lot.
- I went back and reread Alone in my King’s Harem, an old boys love manga from when I was a teenager. It’s just as beautiful as I remember it being! I miss Hoshino Lily’s work so much!!
- If you’ve missed my fanservice heavy return to anime and manga, I really enjoy fan service, cheesecake, and incomprehensible sex shenanigans. That’s why Interspecies Reviewers #1 and Interspecies Reviewers: Darkness #1 were actually high-key enjoyable reads for me. Are they problematic as hell across multiple avenues? Yes. Did I laugh super hard across these books? Oh my god yes.
- If you want cute BL with a hint of heat (I’m saying this even tho there’s a full sex scene in this book, maybe two): check out Yagi the Bookshop Goat because it’s cute hybrid fluff and I love it
- I read the latest Psy-Changeling Trinity books in one sitting over like 12 hours. Wolf Rain, Alpha Night, and Last Guard are great and I’m so hyped for the next one!
- The first volume of Abe-Kun’s Got Me Now is very cute! It’s got a pushy and bad-at-boundaries male lead, however so that might not work for people. For me, however? I love manga where the female lead gets lifted a lot.
- Under The Oak Tree vol 2 (the novel) makes me want more. It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and I’m stressed!! But next month I’m going to start the webtoon!! So!! 😀
- Amongst Our Weapons is the newest Rivers of London book and currently it’s my favorite. Please read it and come theorize with me.
- My main takeaway from Scum Villain vol 2? Binghe is so unhinged and I love him. That’s basically it. Loved to meet new characters and to have it reinforced that the student-teacher aspect of the relationship is the least of the wild shit going on in this series!
- Do you like cute office ladies? Doughnuts under a crescent moon has got you covered. I am rooting for these darling ladies.
- Fire in His Fingertips is straight up porn. My god. I like… didn’t expect it to be as explicit as it is (like uncensored everything) but I’m here for it and I love it.
Music
I didn’t listen to as much music as I wanted to this month because I had to make sure I could hear if my dad or mom needed me or if my dad was trying to wander around without his cane. But what I listeed to was good .
First, BTS’ J-Hope posted an IG story of Lee Suho’s Monika and I think the cover is the thing that drew me in because it’s so jarring and beautiful at once. I enjoyed it immensely! Then I loved Lizzo’s latest release About Damn Time! It’s exactly what I needed to shake off some of my stresses!
Of course, I watched Permission to Dance on Stage Las Vegas Day 4 because who am I? Someone who misses digital concerts? I think not! (This is a lie/joke because I definitely missed some non-BTS concerts before… argh.),. It was a great concert experience and I loved seeing how lively the guys were! This is the end of PTD but we’ve got more BTS coming to us soon from a June comeback!! I’m hoping for the sort of album that changes how we view music and challenges everything we know about BTS as fans! Fingers crossed for something huge and featured artists that are unexpected and incredible!
Music wise, I did close out the month with two BTS collabs. First was Jimin’s collab with Ha Sung Woon for the OST for the drama Our Blues. I love OSTs so this sort of ballad, very romantic and slow, is perfect for me. And I love how Jimin and Sung Woon’s voices blend together across the track. Play this song whenever you’re feeling romantic. Trust me.
Then there’s “That That” produced by and featuring Suga from BTS. Legends working together, that’s what I’m getting from this. I loved the yee haw agenda, Suga being “tricked” into performing and increasing his role bit by bit (joking with Psy of course), the rap feature (so good!!) and the dramatic fight scene.
TV Shows
Some good TV happened for me this month… but also the first two seasons of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (so so racist wow) and the Grammys (annoying because BTS actually should’ve won, in my opinion). But let’s focus on the good!
Spy x Family was perfect. The series just started airing in Japan so we’re four episodes in to the series! I hope this is going to be a multi-season anime with 16+ episodes a season, but we’ll see. If you love tropes like found family and marriage of convenience, then you’ll love this because it comes with comedic elements and a spy narrative.
I also finally finished Business Proposal so unless Hwang In-Youp’s upcoming drama really snags my attention, this is probably going to remain my favorite drama of 2022. It’s got delicious tropes used well and two different couples I love!! What a good show!! Also almost all of the stress is unrealistic so I found it easy to watch.
Movies
How the only movies I watched in April were both three-hour beasts, is beyond me! Drive My Car was fine. I don’t actually like Murakami’s work very much (women kind of… aren’t people in a lot of his stories) but this was a very beautiful movie. Very lovely to look at even as I was grinding my teeth over the plot and how slow the pacing was. It is very artistic.
For The Batman, I have so many more positive feelings because I really love Batman? I have my review up on Patreon but I think like… the most important thoughts I had about this film were: “wow he’s actually really emo” and “is he… a foot taller than her”. Brain go brr but over the most ridiculous things.
Misc
I forgot to cancel my preorder of the latest Lego Star Wars game so I got hit with a charge I couldn’t really account for… but I’ve never returned anything to Amazon before and I wasn’t going to start with a game I had wanted…It’s a cute game and I’m making myself play it because again, not returning it, but wow there’s actually too much to do?
Anyway, what did y’all do in April? What caught your eye or kept you busy?
Stitch's Media Mix 
I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once. Great movie with Michelle Yeoh navigating the multiverse. Also enjoying Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight, an interesting Marvel series about a man with Disassociative Identity Disorder who is also a superhero.
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My ability to intake anything at this moment is like negative twelve, but I old school order comics from Amalgam in Philly, so I get paper comics once a month, and I really adore the current runs of Superman (John) and Aquaman (Jackson), and there’s a run of Batgirls with Cass and Steph right now, and a Robins-focused limited run. Also, the recent limited run of Echo was pretty sweet, and I’m enjoying the current Ms. Marvel. Oh, and a few of the threads of Batman Urban Legends. There’s one basically starring Ace, and like, hi.
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