Okay like I've always felt personally attacked by the name of this.

But I WISH I were personally attacked by the protagonist of this. I want to be another smooth kill for Su Luxia. Get it, that's her name. It's a homonym of smooth kill. HARHARHARHAR.

Where do I start.

The art is actually straight fire. If there's literally nothing you like about this, you can't say you dislike the art. I mean you can, but you're just objectively fucking incorrect. It's beautiful. Every single character, even one-off characters that don't appear in any other frame are just so carefully drawn it's absurd.

The story. I think if there's any real issue with the story, it's the way narrative exposition is done through some annoying possum piece of shit.

But the author is just so good. It's actually crazy. The meta-commentary on genres is just absurdly deft.

Story's split up into a bunch of self-contained arcs. Some of them are like 10/5. (the vampire one, the xianxia one, the 2 ancient china ones). Some of them are like 5/7 big meme (the writing one). Some of them are not exactly my cup of tea but the art just carries it so fucking hard and the protagonist's cold takes on human interactions are fantastic character work.

But like, that averages out to 5/5 for sure.

Idk man, i just want su luxia to step on me. With her incredibly large collection of heels. In all those beautiful minidresses she wears. I have the tendency to drool over girls like this due to severe emotional problems in my development, so she pushes all my buttons by existing. Uwu.

 

That is a hilariously overblown statement. The art's fine, but it's nowhere near the best that manga/manhwa are capable of. It's not shitty, but I wouldn't call it a super strong point either.

 

I read up to the end of the vampire arc.

I agree with Rep, the art is just okay. I mean, it’s nice and the outfits are especially pretty, but it’s not spectacular. The character designs could also be betters, since the male vampire and his human lover in the vampire arc have very similar designs to the emperor and his consort in first arc.

The characters are pretty one-dimensional. The villains are all 100% evil that all the “good” side characters hate, even when it doesn’t make much sense. Tension is a bit lacking other than seeing how the protagonist screws people over, since no one can stand up to her at all. The protagonist’s personality is fine, and her rodent companion is a good idea to get information to the reader without the protagonist talking to herself.

The premise is excellent, however, and one of the events in the first arc was particularly good.

Spoiler

More specially, the “paternity test” that the emperor uses on the consort’s child. The consort was relying on it, but was shocked when a false result came out as the child does belong to the emperor. But as the protagonist explains, that though the consort was redoing her own life, she still only knows the faulty traditions and folklore taught in Ancient China. As a modern woman, the protagonist knows the paternity test of the time doesn’t actually work, so the consort was undone by no fault of her own.

Unfortunately, the site the comic is hosted on doesn't always load all the panels. So it's very easy to miss the actual ends of the chapters because they didn't load. It's very frustrating, and it's the main reason I'm not continuing.

This is a good time waster, but from where I read up to, it doesn’t seem interested in being anything more than that.

3.5/5.

 

I lied, I read three more arcs.

Spoiler

Four / Dancer Arc.

Sorry, I don’t know what to title this arc. It’s okay. Another 100% evil female lead, while the male lead is just pathetic.

And, look… The fate the male and female “lead” (since female lead is an intruder) is kind of rape-y. She is married at knifepoint, and probably raped, with no way of getting out. The protagonist even visits her to offer her a way out, but she rejects it. Honestly, I’m not surprised, I wouldn’t trust the protagonist’s intentions either.

Interesting though that the female lead was offered a way out. I don’t recall the characters in the previous stories, or the two other arcs I read, getting that offer. Some characters are put down then ignored (and slapped back down when they stand up), but I’m wondering if the female lead being a transmigrator gives her different treatment. Of all the female rivals, she has zero redeeming qualities, but she’s not part of the TV series of this arc. She’s a “real person”.

Which makes it so much stupider that she’s written as cartoonishly evil, because that’d be a great statement for her personality to not be one-dimensional. But protagonist did seem to try to give her an exit, which is interesting. Otherwise, a pretty boring arc.

3/5.


Five / School Arc.

This is the second time this has occurred, in which the main villain of the arc has arranged another character to be raped. Is it common for the “lead” of a Korean work to do this, since all these scenarios are from a book/movie/whatever? It doesn’t seem reasonable, even for trashy romances. For a lead to be raped? Yes. For a lead to rape and then it be treated like it was consensual sex? Yes. For them to arrange a rape on a side character? No, sorry, it doesn’t make sense, unless these were bottom of the barrel self-published drivel. But then why choose these stories to show if they're so one-note?

Therefore, the only reason for it is so the lead is portrayed as 100% evil, thereby allowing the reader to not feel sympathy for them. It’s dumb, and a lousy way to use rape.

If I ignore that detail completely, it’s hard to overlook this arc to be about our immortal and adult protagonist screwing with a bunch of kids. The female lead fucked herself over, so whatever, but the protagonist deliberately ruined the male lead’s life. He’s a minor. He did do a very shitty thing, but he’s a kid, and for an adult to specifically target him like this is a bit gross.

The protagonist’s rant at the end regarding the writer’s of these works’ intention is pretty misguided. So what the protagonist is saying is that none of these characters chose how their lives would end up. So who is she to destroy or cause the suicides of all these “evil” characters? They didn’t choose to be like that, they weren’t given a character or any ability to grow up. What the protagonist is doing is cruel, and the only outcome for most of these stories is to make the protagonist feel better. It’s not like the host bodies get anything from this; they’re already dead and as the tears at the end of the first arc imply, the host body from that story didn’t want her love to die. Even if he was a douche.

2.5/5.



Six / Cultivation Arc.

I’m getting a bit tired of the female leads/rivals always being screwed over. This time was especially egregious, because she wasn’t evil, she was just stupid and oblivious. Her fate was very harsh, being turned into a dissolute old woman, especially since she was manipulated by the male lead, who kept her from learning.

The morality over the demon lord was also a bit iffy. It’s an interesting question: what do you do when one of your friends is an active murderer? Especially for a fantasy genre where it’s assumed people are killed all the time, and the friend in question is non-human. The protagonist was harsh on the female lead for forgiving the demon lord and actively ignoring his actions because he was nice to her.

That’s a fine view to have, but it feels hypocritical. If I recall right, the protagonist killed people in the vampire arc (though they were vampires), and in other arcs either forced people to suicide or ruined their lives to the point they might as well be dead.

This gets more complicated, because this arc ends with the protagonist having to withdraw as the male lead goes nuts and figures out it’s a fictional world. He gets away with everything, and with his powers, it’s implied he’ll be able to leave his world and follow the protagonist. This is a guy who arranged so many previous events that caused the deaths and injuries of countless people. Yet the protagonist’s response to this development is vague interest on whether he’ll be able to follow her. None of the anger that the female lead got, even though at the time the protagonist judged her, the female lead hadn’t yet gotten people killed.

I suppose I’m annoyed on the female lead’s behalf.

The development of the male lead was different, and suggests he’ll become an antagonist, but his personality was kind of boring. And his character design… it’s very true to cultivation, but man, is he dull to look at.

4/5, for the effort.

Ugh, every character in this comic is unsympathetic. Only the hosts are treated like real people, but they’re always dead.

It’s not up to me to tell this comic what it should be, but I feel like it could be exploring the morality of these situations and the protagonist’s actions a lot more. But I guess that’s not the point. As the arcs are all trashy romance/drama stories, the comic is just a revenge tale with an interesting premise.

It is exactly as two-bit as the things it destroys.

 

That's a fair criticism, tbh.

Spoiler

And I won't shatter your dantian for it, Senior Sister Vira.

Maybe I'm just blinded by how much I like the protagonist.

 

I'll read trashy manga/manhwa, and I've watched a metric fucktonne of anime, but rarely do I come away with it feeling like I've gained something. They're like the literary version of McDonald's--tastes good, but has zero nutritional value. And can someone explain to me why every translator for these novels/manga/manhwa lacks even a remote grasp of the concept of localization? Doesn't it seem weird for someone speaking English to say "Yes, Esteemed Father"?

It's obviously some sort of rough translation, but why not just say "Yes, father?" Most English speakers would instantly recognize the tone of respect, especially when the character speaking is drawn with such a severe expression. There are a lot of awkward Chinese(I think it's Chinese, anyway) phrases that seem to be translated faithfully for some reason. Is it like a badge of honor to understand the weird-ass idioms in Xianxia? Even the title instantly gives the impression of a poor translation, if not a downright lazy one.

Even putting those aside though, the translation... isn't good. Lines like "This is my last gift of kindness to you guys" are awkward, but then there are ones like "My host does not know what is gentleness at all!" which is just egregiously bad.

I'm honestly not sure how it's possible to call something that seems like it was written by google translate good, but I'm assuming from the nods to the meta commentary the author is doing something clever on some level. Unfortunately, the few chapters I read were about as insufferably bad as any other Xianxia novel I've tried to pick up. Every single character reads like a two dimensional caricature of a person.

I suppose it's entirely possible my gripes would vanish if I were introduced to a well-translated version, but as it is I can't really understand recommending this for the library. Maybe if there were a section of the site devoted to poorly translated literature, but to put this alongside the genuinely well written fiction in the library is a disservice in my eyes.

Anyway, I don't feel right rating since it obviously isn't my cup of tea and I couldn't stomach more than a few chapters.

Edit: I actually just read the discussion on this same topic in the SSS-Class Suicide Hunter thread. Awkward.

I guess there's something to be said about training out your ability to notice shitty translations in favor of barebones storytelling, but I stand by my statement this kind of thing should have its own section since it's simply incomparable to a story written in its native language.

 

So, reading up to the Cultivation arc.

Most arcs were unsatisfying, complete caricatures, or full of hypocrisy, so I won't talk about them much as there really isn't much to say other than they're bad.

The vampire arc stands out, if only because it received especially high praise, and I don't see why. It's a particularly egregious example of hypocrisy, terrible trope-y characters and contradictions on the arc's setup and resolution. It's not better than any of the others, nor does it do literally anything with the gothic monster theme beyond dress the host in a cute goth outfit here and there. Hell, the movie star arc was more entertaining.

The high school arc was an even worse mess. So many contradicting things. Absurdly over the top things, like students stabbing each other and attacking each other, the host being absolutely worse than the people she preaches against (and holy shit does she preach a lot of shit) but also the author beating their own dick over how meta they are by in-universe recognizing that these characters aren't at fault, they're just badly written characters. Which is hilarious, considering they're mocking their own work. This was mentioned by someone else before, as was the fact that these are kids. Obviously, you can't have a series of anime/manga deconstructions without the high school representations, but the fact that these are children must factor in.

The Cultivation arc surprised me in that it was the first genuinely not shitty script. The host did her job, while still not being the literal only person allowed to succeed. The male lead of the world actually achieves his objective, and incidentally becomes the first and only multi-dimensional character that isn't pure caricature. Intentional, maybe, but spinning it as a deconstruction of the shittier parts of these genres doesn't make this work any less shitty for including them.
The cultivation arc was actually reasonable, played out relatively well and was entertaining, with a decent twist, and the hint of an overall plot.

It's too little and too late to make this anything beyond fetish-baiting trash, but there's a glimmer of what this could have been there.