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In the future, an MMO has been released that you play in your dreams, with full sensory detail. Feng Lan, the first player ever to log in, is given a "wish" as a prize. She wishes to play as a male character - something that the game doesn't ordinarily allow, avatars being based on the player's real-life appearance. The GM who helps her through character creation is so intrigued by the results of this experiment that she "turns up the sexiness by 30%!"
Feng Lan finds that her new character is being pursued by every woman in the game, as well as a handsome elf man using the handle Guilastes. She also discovers that she is an exceptionally good swordsman/woman, meaning that everyone who isn't interested in her sexually wants to defeat her or join her guild. Pratfalls and filthy jokes follow.
Feng Lan is that shounen manga character who, lazy and cowardly most of the time, achieves "true strength" when her emotions are stirred. I appreciate seeing a female character like this, even if she does spend most of her time as a man. But there's no rhyme or reason to when she's actually going to care about something: Is she going to nobly intercede on her former enemy's behalf? Yes! Is she going to lie to a guy mourning for his lost love, to get his hair thingie for a quest? Also yes, apparently!
You know, I don't ask much of my stupid comedies, but I would like for the protagonist to limit herself to one (1) personality. Unless it is specifically stated that she's got several.
This manhua is apparently an adaptation of a novel, and I can't even imagine how that novel must read. Even in episodic form, which I think is generally more forgiving of poor plotting, it's is a mess. Storylines begin and end with no warning, and events built up as important are skipped over and quickly explained in flashback later. There's a kind of train wreck quality to it - what idea will the story dive into, get sick of, and abandon this time?! At one point Feng Lan starts a band - it'd never even been mentioned before that she could sing. The band storyline replaced an unfinished story about the first AI to achieve self-awareness. And the AI didn't even get to join the band! He has been gypped.
Also, the AI in question is Rurouni Kenshin. No, I mean, that's actually his name. I haven't been able to come up with an explanation for this. AIs gaining self-awareness are not really a context in which you expect to see Rurouni Kenshin referenced.AIs achieving irritating English adaptations, maybe.
(In more explicable pop culture reference, the game is called "Second Life," and everyone calls Prince "the Blood Elf." There's a joke about raiding Undercity at one point.)
There's been little exploration of what it means to Feng Lan that her video game life, more emotionally fulfilling to her than her real life, is spent as a man. Sometimes the manhua seems to forget that her real life exists. I suspect that things will change at least slightly when her romance plotline is brought into reality, but that hasn't happened yet. I'll say this for it: though there's way too much homophobic humor, it has yet to do anything sexist enough to make me stop reading, which is a major feat for a genderbending story. Is Taiwan just better at this? Because I feel the same way about the excellent Divine Melody, also a Taiwanese manhua about a girl who turns into a guy.
Recommended only if you are irrationally fond of genderbending, trainwrecks, or the idea of Rurouni Kenshin as a self-aware AI.
Feng Lan finds that her new character is being pursued by every woman in the game, as well as a handsome elf man using the handle Guilastes. She also discovers that she is an exceptionally good swordsman/woman, meaning that everyone who isn't interested in her sexually wants to defeat her or join her guild. Pratfalls and filthy jokes follow.
Feng Lan is that shounen manga character who, lazy and cowardly most of the time, achieves "true strength" when her emotions are stirred. I appreciate seeing a female character like this, even if she does spend most of her time as a man. But there's no rhyme or reason to when she's actually going to care about something: Is she going to nobly intercede on her former enemy's behalf? Yes! Is she going to lie to a guy mourning for his lost love, to get his hair thingie for a quest? Also yes, apparently!
You know, I don't ask much of my stupid comedies, but I would like for the protagonist to limit herself to one (1) personality. Unless it is specifically stated that she's got several.
This manhua is apparently an adaptation of a novel, and I can't even imagine how that novel must read. Even in episodic form, which I think is generally more forgiving of poor plotting, it's is a mess. Storylines begin and end with no warning, and events built up as important are skipped over and quickly explained in flashback later. There's a kind of train wreck quality to it - what idea will the story dive into, get sick of, and abandon this time?! At one point Feng Lan starts a band - it'd never even been mentioned before that she could sing. The band storyline replaced an unfinished story about the first AI to achieve self-awareness. And the AI didn't even get to join the band! He has been gypped.
Also, the AI in question is Rurouni Kenshin. No, I mean, that's actually his name. I haven't been able to come up with an explanation for this. AIs gaining self-awareness are not really a context in which you expect to see Rurouni Kenshin referenced.
(In more explicable pop culture reference, the game is called "Second Life," and everyone calls Prince "the Blood Elf." There's a joke about raiding Undercity at one point.)
There's been little exploration of what it means to Feng Lan that her video game life, more emotionally fulfilling to her than her real life, is spent as a man. Sometimes the manhua seems to forget that her real life exists. I suspect that things will change at least slightly when her romance plotline is brought into reality, but that hasn't happened yet. I'll say this for it: though there's way too much homophobic humor, it has yet to do anything sexist enough to make me stop reading, which is a major feat for a genderbending story. Is Taiwan just better at this? Because I feel the same way about the excellent Divine Melody, also a Taiwanese manhua about a girl who turns into a guy.
Recommended only if you are irrationally fond of genderbending, trainwrecks, or the idea of Rurouni Kenshin as a self-aware AI.
