Manga Monday: The Apothecary Diaries

Stitch

Title: The Apothecary Diaries

Creator: Natsu Hyūga (original novels), Itsuki Nanao (adaptation), Nekokurage (art/illustrations)

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: palace intrigue, historical fiction, (very early) romance, casefic/mysteries, medical drama, NO romance

Status: Ongoing (11 volumes, Japanese; 8 volumes, English)

Published By: Square Enix

LINK

Official Summary:

Maomao, a young woman trained in the art of herbal medicine, is forced to work as a lowly servant in the inner palace. Though she yearns for life outside its perfumed halls, she isn’t long for a life of drudgery! Using her wits to break a “curse” afflicting the imperial heirs, Maomao attracts the attentions of the handsome eunuch Jinshi and is promoted to attendant food taster. But Jinshi has other plans for the erstwhile apothecary, and soon Maomao is back to brewing potions and solving mysteries?

Read More »

F&Familia

Stitch

The concept of “family” in the Fast and Furious series is one of the best things about the series – if not the best thing. Dominic Toretto views family the way that fandom and fantasy heroes view family. He collects people who are deeply loyal to him and go along with his wild ideas, even though they can confront him and call him out at times. It doesn’t hurt that half of the members of la familia are people who Dom has had some kind of antagonistic relationship with at first… starting from day one with Brian O’Conner (literally) being on his case in the first film before becoming an integral part of his life.

Read More »

Talking To Talk – Malicious Interpretations

Stitch2 Comments

I put my podcast on hiatus mode with my host because a) money and b) I live underneath what sounds like every single Titan in Attack on Titan and so recording is frequently interrupted by those heavy-stepping heffalumps. But I wanted to still have a medium to convey sincere feelings through audio and when I didn’t feel like coloring on-camera and so… Talking to talk. Everything and nothing.

Unfortunately, no transcript at the time because I’m pinching pennies and currently can’t afford to pay for one when I’m all budgeted out for the Fic Friday transcripts. But in this I cover:

Read More »

[Fic Friday] Office Conduct (The Un-Feminist Guide to Screwing Your Career)

Stitch

“Friends don’t let friends work with Naoya Zenin.”

Title: Office Conduct (The Un-Feminist Guide to Screwing Your Career)

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Naoya Zenin/Reader

Fandom: Jujutsu Kaisen

Author: HangsangBangtan

LINK

Summary:

Career-focused, ambitious, and hard working, you have done everything you reasonably could to do better for yourself. You find yourself in a difficult place, and you try desperately to fly under the radar, but there’s only so long that you can hide.

Transcript:

Read More »

Life As A Symbol

Stitch

I’ll talk more about this in detail – as in a proper essay, not an off the cuff blog post – one day, but it is weird being a public figure of any kind and a symbol before you’re a person. 

For starters, everything I say has weight… but it’s not usually the weight I attribute to it or intend? If I say I like something, there are people who assume it must be an incredible and insightful piece of media that gives amazing moral messages. (It’s not. It’s usually a villainess webtoon with at least one siscon and at least two yanderes)

Read More »

I Heart MJ

Stitch

I have been on a Spider-Man kick these past few days — and yes, that means I’m working on multiple somethings about Across the Spider Verse — and I’m now rewatching Spider-Man No Way Home while I do my work for the day. This movie put me through so much when the niecelings and I watched it together, and I’m still here going through it but…

One thing that I really love? Zendaya’s MJ. She is so nieceling-coded at all times, but especially in this movie. She is a baby. Her eyebrows are excellent. Her wit and sense of curiousity? Wonderful. I adore her. I also just… really appreciate her getting more to do in the narrative.

Anyway, I always forget to add it to my list of Top Marvel Movies because Spider-Man films really… don’t feel like MCU movies even though they so clearly are but… No Way Home is actually in my top ten of MCU films. Even though it made me cry the first time I watched it and it’s going to make me cry this time.

You’d buy anything, huh…

Stitch

Fundamentally, at the most basic level, if your response to that Telegram screenshot of “Anonymous Sudan” claiming credit for DDOS’ing AO3 because of “smuts” and “LGBTQ+ content” was to immediately express anti-Muslim spree and malign an entire country just so you could pretend to be even more oppressed than you usually think you are… You’re a bad person. 

Objectively.

Definitively. 

(And in before “well I didn’t see that happen so it didn’t”….

I’m not even on twitter anymore and I saw it. I saw it in TikToks. Not (just) TikToks comprised of tweets but people making quippy racist videos they then quickly backpedaled on. The AO3 Status twitter had to call it out so you know they saw it.

You’re just wilfully ignorant and determined to pretend fandom isn’t a racist shithole where racism is okay as long as it’s sexy and/or in defense of the fandom status quo. You are also a bad person, person who rushes to dismiss other people talking about racism!)

A Rogue Regency AU Arrives

Stitch

I was reading a Jujutsu Kaisen story that happened to be a Regency AU with a remarriage concept and it’s a good story. Great, even.

But it made me think about how fandom really resists (or runs away from) doing research when something easier is at hand?

Regency AUs are everywhere in fandom because… they are everywhere in Romancelandia and so the first thing many people thinks of when putting together a historical romance for their favorite character is… a Bridgerton style romance in a culturally fuzzy world.

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] Lout of Count’s Family

Stitch

Title: Lout of Count’s Family

Author/Story: Byeol Narae (adaptation) and Yu Ryeo Han (original novel)

Artist:  PAN4

Rating: All Ages

Genre: isekai/transmigration, fantasy, found family, strong male lead, NO romance

Hosted On: TappyToon

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

Kim Roksu has one life motto: “Let’s not get beat up.” But after dozing off somewhere midway through the novel “Birth of a Hero,” he wakes up as Cale Henituse – one of the minor villains in the novel who gets the beating of a lifetime from soon-to-be hero Choi Han. Only time will tell how much longer he has before that dreadful encounter. Can Kim Roksu change the course of this story so he can enjoy a long and lavish life free of the soon-to-be hero?

My Thoughts:

TikTok has been really good for getting me into new series… and really bad for my budget.

Read More »

Who Holds The Assholes Accountable, I Wonder

Stitch5 Comments

Several weeks later, it remains horrifying that Dreamwidth co-creator Denise/@rahaeli (bluesky and Twitter)/synecdochic on Dreamwidth chose to unmask as an unhinged racist anti of… me.

To this day she continues to slander me based on the words of five to fifteen POC Too that she can’t provide any links to in public, even moving it to BlueSky and other platforms where even less people will see me dealing with this harassment and defend me.

Read More »

Manga Monday: An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess

Stitch

Title: An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess

Creator: Shiki (author) + Natume Hasumi (illustrator)

Demographic: Shojo

Themes: villainess, romance, fantasy, comedy

Status: Completed + Fully Translated to English

Published By: Alpha Manga

LINK: Kindle (3 Volumes) + Full series on Alpha Manga

Official Summary:

Because Prince Cecil is extraordinarily intelligent, life is boring for him. His days are without much excitement, but he becomes engaged to Bertia, the daughter of a marquis. The first thing she says to him when they first meet is quite baffling. She claims she is the “villainous heroine” in the story of his life!! According to Bertia, she has memories of her previous life. In a certain “romance game” she played in her life before, she played the character of the “villainess.” Her purpose in her new life is to become an exemplary villainess and ruin the prince’s engagement. In order to achieve this goal, Bertia does one outrageous thing after another and brings chaos and confusion into his life. A unique “love” story with a twist!!

Read More »

Speeding Away From Fast X

Stitch

Fast X isn’t worth the $25 USD it currently costs to buy it on most sites.

This is so painful to write as a diehard fan who’s seen every movie at least twenty times, owns them all on Blu-ray, and will one day write the Letty/Dom criminal romcom prequel we all deserve but I must say it… that movie is ass.

Read More »

[Webtoon Wednesday] How to Win My Husband Over

Stitch

Title: How to Win My Husband Over

Author/Story: Spice&Kitty

Artist: Siru

Rating: Mature

Genre: transmigration/isekai, romance, drama, abuse recovery, villainess, romantic historical fantasy

Hosted On: Tapas

Official Link(s): English

Official Summary:

I thought I’d finally escaped my hellish life when I died in an airplane crash, but I fell into another nightmare when I awoke as Rudbeckia de Borgia, a minor villain from a historical novel destined to die at the hands of her husband, Iske van Omerta. Surviving with the dysfunctional Borgia family is hard enough, but now I have to marry the man who will kill me! Still, it’s okay, I just have to convince Iske, his family, and all his countrymen that I’m completely harmless! How hard can that be?

Read More »

At Critique

Stitch

I don’t think I am or should be above critique. I’m at critique, craving those rare moments where someone will sit down and send a long meaty email for me to chew on as I rewrite… And knowing how how rare it is.

I’m not getting critique so much as harassment people then claim is critique as if there’s anything I can learn from unintelligent racists spending years lying about me…

Take the reaction to the woobification article. People called me racist, said I hated abuse survivors, said I had internalized homophobia and didn’t understand queer coded villains. Those aren’t criticisms and they’re not true in the slightest. They also hold no basis in what I actually wrote. Few critical (negative) engagements with my work actually address my work?

Read More »

Manga Monday: This Vampire Won’t Give Up!

Stitch1 Comment

Title: This Vampire Won’t Give Up!

Creator: Madoka Kitaji

Demographic: Josei

Themes: contemporary romance, supernatural, (light) smut, workplace romance, vampires, werewolves, fluff

Status: 5 Volumes Fully Translated/Published

Published By: Kodansha

LINK:KODANSHA

Official Summary:

Minami has awful luck with men—she falls for their looks only to find that they’re the worst of the worst. So when she finds out that her next work assignment involves a good-looking, rude-off-the-bat man, she feels just fine about kissing any feelings for him goodbye…that is, until she finds out he’s the son of the author of her favorite childhood picture book series, Bride of the Vampire. But the rude son soon changes his tune, and Minami doesn’t have long before she discovers the secret his gorgeous lips hide…

Read More »