#can you tell i love honzuki/bookworm my blog theme in both mobile and pc is bookworm/honzuki for months now lol

[bbnibini]

apothecary diaries anon again! sorry for replying late, the past few days were busy. 😭

I ENCOURAGE READING THE MANGA, THERE ARE SO MANY GREAT EXPRESSIONS!! it's also great with mood whiplash scenes; one moment i can be fawning over how pretty the art is, the next i'm staring in awed silence at the dark parts of the story. like, the scene where maomao is at lihua/rifa's palace is AMAZING. (i totally get what you mean with manga too! i don't buy manga as much any more because digital tends to have better quality and is easier for me to read. plus, there's something about having a novel in my hands that doesn't compare to holding manga, if that makes sense?)

no problem; i'm glad to share the good news about the LN! i usually buy just the paperback and read that in bed because 1. comfy cosy vibes, and 2. easier on my eyes. (i also don't think it's weird; i've bought multiple copies of games over the years because i enjoy having access to it on different consoles (and enjoy modding them, in case of games on pc.))

agreed! the love triangle / having two people compete over a third person dynamic in isekai is just… awkward. especially in some manga/manhwa where it's obvious who the main couple is? it makes all the interactions so forced and usually leaves me either annoyed with the plot or the characters themselves (and not in the way the author probably intended). ngl, i am a lover of morally ambiguous male characters, but it's so weird how people condemn female characters for being rude, but the dudes all get 'oh, but he has ✨reasons✨' or grasp at straws to justify it. even when the women also have reasons or backstories to explain why they do what they do?

i also get annoyed when i see the female lead get bashed in comments for not being 'strong enough' when usually the FL has either been abused, traumatised, or just?? cries because they've been through so much??? it's like the FL can only be praised if they're going through their struggles the 'right' way, and emotions aren't allowed. like, no! give me all the characters and their responses; give me the characters who repress their feelings AND the characters who wear their hearts on their sleeves!

let women support women! 👏👏👏

unrelated to the above, i started ascendance of a bookworm! i was at chapter 13 and crying from lutz and myne's friendship + wanting otto's love and citizenship in a side story. then i read further and started crying for an entirely different reason and OW MY SOUL. currently up to chapter 26, i'm both proud of my kids and just want to hug them. (also, i love how they deal with myne having a weak body; i have issues with my own body, and it's nice to see it taken seriously and also not instantly cured via plot magic.)

hope sleep and work has been better for you!

Aaaaa sorry if this got buried in my notifs! I only saw this now after logging in to tumblr desktop!! YOU GET ME FR- 🤝I think it also has to do with its formatting?? Collecting manhwa is okay for me for certain series, but reading manga backwards is just really awkward. I can't get used to its physical formatting. Using the panels as reference for practicing art had been my goal buying manga and manhwa but I really just don't enjoy the drawing process. ;;v;; I think it also has to do with that lol. I love art but I get giddier and enjoy reading pretty words better!! I love reading in bed too but my optometrist scolded me for doing that cause it made my eyes really bad xD. I do still read in bed but not as much anymore cause of that ssh don't tell her /s

Right?? It's just so sad misogyny is still blatant in fiction. It's already happening irl and you can't even use fiction as escapism cause it's there too. :'( I like it when series write good characters. Ultimately for me, that's what how you can tell a writing is good; if they can separate that. That's why I love Apothecary Diaries; you fall in love with Maomao as a person. She's a great character who just happens to be a girl. You love her for who she is, and not because she's a woman, or the narrative tells you a bajillion times she is a "badass female protagonist so you should love her!!!" (which she is ofc but that's not the entirety of Maomao's personality. She's more than that!! And I love her for more than just that.) JgdghgjI I just love female friendships so much. I wish we have more in shoujo and series in general. I want platonic female friendships; sapphic relationships, all of them. I love women. Funny you mentioned that cause I wish people would stop seeing femininity as a weakness cause it's not!! It's really ironic seeing people say a female character is "strong" because she's physically strong and have masculine traits, but have no substance or character development beyond that. To strengthen my point above, a female character is a great character because she was a great character to begin with and does not depend on harmful stereotypes just so they can be written lazily as "female" (I hope I'm making sense).

I'm so happy you liked it! Bookworm is so well-written and incredibly detailed in worldbuilding, lore and character development it's almost intimidating! I love its realistic portrayal of human relationships and disability; of found family and loneliness. Its focus on the world and the people around it makes the characters a lot more...believable(?) Like you can feel that they have lives outside of their interactions with Myne. Myne is just a heartbeat of a human life trying to survive in the unfair caste system she is born in. assidfsf. Fr I feel like I'm Myne's parent; seeing her grow, seeing her achieve her dreams and be happy and live like a normal girl makes me cry. I really recommend reading the LN of part 2 especially the last volume. I bawled like a baby in one of the scenes. Her family is just so wholesome. ;;v;; Sorry for rambling. I love this series so much and I've been trying to hold back reading my backlog cause I know I would finish it in just a few days.

#can you tell i love honzuki/bookworm my blog theme in both mobile and pc is bookworm/honzuki for months now lol #ascendance of a bookworm #apothecary diaries #ask