Webnovel Review: Demon Wang’s Favorite Fei (鬼王的金牌宠妃)

Webnovel Review: Demon Wang’s Favorite Fei (鬼王的金牌宠妃)

Bringing you another completed webnovel, here I am. I think it would be a good start to the whole review spree that I am beginning again. I should actually start reading some novels geared towards males. I have literally read so many so-called female webnovels, I should give the male ones a try.

Anyway, this is another novel from volarenovels and I am thankful to them for translating stuff which are not your typical stories. I mean, all the C-webnovels still have same tropes but when you want something different, however slight, just go to volare.

So, this novel is about a transmigrator called Murong Qi Qi, who, at the beginning of the novel has already been in this historical world for five years. Her background story is similar to all other transmigration stories; original owner is legitimate wife’s child but born with weak constitution, bullied by her own family member, ousted from her own home, dies and she, from the modern world takes over. In modern world as well, she was killed by either an organization or her lover or someone who was unusually obsessed about her.

While many novels rely on the growth of the female lead’s power since the time she migrates and as the plot goes on, what’s different here is that the our female lead is already an OP (overpowered) girl. She has been in this world for five years, plenty of time to develop her skills. She has acquired enough experience to be one of the best in martial arts as well as the art of poisons in this world. And then the story starts.

So, Murong Qi Qi goes back home on account of her pre-arranged marriage, takes revenge for the previous owner of the body and serves justice to each and every family member and other bullies. Another way this novel is vastly different from similar novels is that they lose their purpose once the revenge gets over. This novel trumps that and continues in the second half where she marries the “Demon Wang” Feng Cang, her male counterpart.

Now this Demon Prince has his own background story. He’s as powerful as Qi Qi, so he complements her very well. But he has a poison in his body since birth. And he is infamous for having his previous eight wives die on the first night of wedding. Murong Qi Qi is also wed to the guy as a sacrificial lamb for her country. But ultimately, she falls in love with him and helps him cure and solve the mystery of his poison.

What I really like about this novel is that it’s short (206 chapters and 2 extras) and there is tons of character development for not just the two lead characters but the people important in their lives, including their servants and family members. And it’s a happy ending for people who deserve it in the story.

Murong Qi Qi is a no non-sense eye for an eye girl who values her relationships with even her servants of many years. She would move mountains for people dear to her and I relate a lot with her in that sense. Feng Cang, on the other hand, is the usual, oh most handsome guy who dotes on his wife like anything. When it comes to power, he does complement Qi Qi but the major role in devising strategies is played by Qi Qi herself. All in all, he just supports her from behind or executes her ideas when required, but does not really interfere with/ take over what she is doing. I really like how they have actually given importance to the female lead here.

There are definitely some loopholes. There is absolutely no connection of how the Demon Wang came to love Qi Qi so much, why he was really doting on her from the get go. Like fine, he was attracted to her headstrong personality but he wasn’t aware of her martial arts or medical skills or even her beauty. Which reminds me, this is another one of those novels where female lead’s beauty can make nations fall. I don’t know why Chinese people are so obsessed with making the girls fairest and prettiest, like normal girls exist, okay?

The translation is very high quality except the translator has added the meanings of certain Chinese terms right after their use in the chapter, which sometimes is annoying. Rest is great in terms of grammar and choice of words.

Conclusion: It’s not the best out there but in terms of plot and tying lose ends, I would actually give it 7/10. OP female and male MCs are too cliche but I like the stories of side characters which has been given good amount of importance. The names are sometimes confusing for English audience but those are unimportant characters to begin with, so it should be not too bad. I do recommend it for one time read.

Final feelings: (⌒▽⌒)♡

Read here: Demon Wang’s Favorite Fei free on volare

Personal front: I finally started a ko-fi page for the starters. So, if you guys enjoy reading my posts and would like to buy me a coffee, this is where you go: http://ko-fi.com/eastasianlover. Thank you in advance!

I’m thinking of revamping this website and would need funds to have some custom domain may be and more features to explore. I’m still learning how this thing actually works but yeah.

Apart from that, I might have to start working on weekends starting next week, so I’ll start preparing a buffer for my posts so that the schedule remains and posts go out on time. I was looking for more webnovels and I might have another one finishing soon, so I will be able to review it.

Anyway, anyone following any anime this season? I have not looked at the fall anime list yet, nor read any synopsis. And there is no on-going drama or anime that I am watching right now, except Black Clover of course. Any recommendations?

It’s also starting to get colder here in northeast US. The temperatures early morning today dropped below 5 deg C. Sad that winters are coming. Now I have blabbered too much and it’s time for me to take my leave. See you guys around!

Today’s song: Been a while since I listened to any songs but I really like OSTs from Doctor John which I might review in the future. Here is one (the video will have some spoilers):

Webnovel Reco: Rebirth of Malicious Empress of Military Lineage (重生之将门毒后)

Webnovel Reco: Rebirth of Malicious Empress of Military Lineage (重生之将门毒后)

Rebirth of Malicious Empress
Picture Credits: Novel Updates

Ahhhh!!! I finally broke the streak, didn’t I? Unfortunately, I hadn’t even decided on what novel to review and hadn’t started writing the post in advance. Damn last week was busy. I don’t have another completed novel in my library of webnovels (actually I have one but I am really hesitant to review it for now). So, today I will write about a novel which is almost ending and will be done by the end of the year if the translation pace keeps up.

Since we’re nearing the end for this particular novel, and spoilers do predict a happy ending, I will go ahead and review “Rebirth of Malicious Empress of Military Lineage” being translated by zazajunnie from ChubbyCheeks Translations.

Written by Qian Shan Cha Ke the novel runs for 230 chapters and some short stories. Currently 221 chapters have been translated. I started following the novel when only 150 or so chapters had been released. Wow, it has been some time. But there was no looking back. It’s hands down one of the best reincarnation stories I have read till now.

The novel is the story of a girl called Shen Miao whose whole family has been serving their country as prominent military generals. Both her parents and her brother lead their own armies and have brought many wins to the country. Shen Miao, being foolishly in love with the youngest prince of the country, chases after him, marries him and becomes empress of the nation only to destroy her family by her own hands, including her own children, the crown prince and princess. She is disposed off by her husband, the emperor and his favorite concubine and Shen Miao reincarnates into the body of her own 14 year old self, with all her memories intact from the past life.

She vows to take revenge on everyone who led to the demise of her family in her past life. Along the way, she ends up helping people who suffered the same fate as her own family. Son of another general of same status as her family in the same kingdom, Xie Jing Xing, starts taking interest in her and becomes the male lead of the novel.

Pretty cliche, right? Not really. There is a reason why I call this novel fantastic read. One, it’s short. Less than 300 chapters and a captivating plot? Sign me up! Since there are such few number of chapters, the novel is devoid of any fillers. Each and every step Shen Miao takes, leads to her resolving something from her past.

Two, a strong female lead. It is not a story where the female lead is sitting around being helped by her male lead behind the scenes. She does get help from him, knowingly or unknowingly but she devises her own schemes and execute them by her aides most of the time.

Three, it’s a fast paced story. It is not like the story drags on and on. Well, I did say there are no fillers. But also, once there is an end to some character, they are uprooted with the family, not to be mentioned again in most of the cases, unless they’re important characters. So, you don’t have to keep revisiting characters from previous arcs again and again.

Fourth, the translations are consistent. Well, it’s less than 15 chapters left, so it might not matter some 15 weeks from now. But zaza is really consistent with her pace, Mon and Thu are the set days but if she crosses a particular amount of donation for the week, she releases additional chapters on Fri and Sat.

Fifth, the novel actually explains the mechanism of rebirth. It’s not just like before dying she made a vow and heavens granted her wish and reincarnated her and that’s it. The author spends full 3-4 chapters on how Shen Miao came back to her 14 year self, what changed and what remained the same, which I really liked. The rebirth novels that I have read till now are so focused on revenge that they don’t delve deeper into this stuff at all. Here you really get to look into what happened in Shen Miao’s original timeline after she died, which is pretty cool.

The only caveat I would add is the translation itself. The translation, is not bad in any sense, but it’s kind of hard at first. You might even think if it’s just machine translation. Trust me I have read machine translated raws for this novel and they don not make sense at all. So, I really appreciate zaza to translate it how she’s doing it. To be honest though, the translations might not be for beginners though. There is a lot of paraphrasing and grammar is all over the place. So, just give it a try and see if you can get accustomed to it. Once you are, you won’t be able to stop, trust me.

Another thing I can say I didn’t find much intriguing is the second part of the novel. I cannot write about this thing without giving huge spoilers, but I am finding Shen Miao’s life after revenge a bit boring. It is just last 30 chapters or so, and I do want a closure. But I am just not feeling it right now. I’ll stick to it anyway because it’s near the end. BUT, this can also be one of the positive points. Usually in rebirth stories, once the revenge is over, the authors rush through the ending and finish the story in one chapter saying male and female lead lived happily after. Not here!

Also, one caution. It’s a fan translation, so it might be that in the future, zaza would need to take down her translations should the author demand so or if it’s picked up by any official translation websites like Qidian. But for now, enjoy at the link below.

Favorite Quote:

“Good people always blame themselves and bad people always blame others. But it is the bad people that live better off than the good people. If one can let one be happier a little, then what is there to be sad about being resentful of others?”

Shen Miao

Conclusion: It is a meticulous story of revenge done right, one step at a time. And I highly recommend it.

Final feelings: ♡( ◡‿◡ )

Read here: Rebirth of Malicious Empress at ChubbyCheeks

Personal Front: I am so sorry for missing the Saturday posting day this week to my readers. It’s just that I have a new project at my work and I have to learn a lot of stuff which I already don’t know. That’s been taking up quite a bit of my time. Also, apartment hunting. I hope I can finally move out of my current apartment after 3 years of staying here.

Anyway, I have got something to advertise a bit. There is this company trying to put out an event where you predict the rankings of the current seasonal anime series and if you score top points, you win free prizes. I have won twice and am getting the stuff I won pretty soon (I hope at least). So, you guys can participate as well. I will do a separate post with pictures as and when I get the free merchandise. Here is the link if you want to participate: Crystal Ball from BlockPunk

This is the same company which I mentioned in my last post, stating that I got to talk to their founders and all. Try your luck out! Good luck!!

Today’s Song: Let’s go with ever popular BlackPink’s recent comeback

Anime Reco: Chouyaku Hyakkuninisshu Uta Koi (超訳百人一首 うた恋い)

Anime Reco: Chouyaku Hyakkuninisshu Uta Koi (超訳百人一首 うた恋い)

Oh God! I started this post in 2014. Can you imagine? It’s a five year old post basically. Never got to complete it!

I am pretty sure it’s just another anime which never found the fame it deserves. Why? Of course because it’s a slice of life anime. Like I seriously don’t understand why that whole genre is so underappreciated. Please someone, solve this mystery for me.

Anyway, who wants a Japanese history lesson? Chouyaku Hyakkuninisshu Uta Koi, also called as Uta Koi, is a fun spin on the famous Japanese Hundred Poems (Hyakunin Ishhu) which are used for the famous Japanese card game Karuta. If you don’t recognize the name of the game, think the anime Chihayafuru.

Uta Koi 5
Is what Fujiwara no Teika said

And do you know who this anime features? The different poets of some of these 100 poems and the one who created the anthology – Fujiwara no Teika. Fujiwara no Teika tells the stories behind the poems, who wrote them, in what context and how.

Interestingly, they have chosen only the love poems for the anime (uta koi). But the hilarious take on these stories, especially our narrator Fujiwara no Teika makes the anime very lighthearted. Now that I am writing the review, I feel like watching it again. It might give me a new perspective on the anime and brush up my memory a bit, before I finish this review. Be right back.

All right, I am back after the first marathon of 2019. It was nice to refresh my memory of the anime. So, yeah. I love its OSTs. The opening and ending sounded so nice after so long. Passionate, Fiery, Historical.

Some people might be put off by the animation. It is inconsistent, the characters have very thick outer lines and when the characters walk, you can see that it’s the pattern of their clothes that moves rather than the character itself perhaps. So, people who have grown up watching the advanced development in current animation scenario, might not appreciate it that much.

But if you can overlook that part, this anime has much to offer. Apart from history lessons and the comedy, there are of course small heart breaking and lovely romance stories. Not to mention the wallpaper worthy backgrounds.

Gotta write a poem now!

I personally dig historical stuff, so I am going to totally recommend this anime to anyone and everyone. But I still reckon that this anime might be more for a seasoned anime watcher rather than newbies although I watched it in my 2nd year of anime watching and have had it in my hard drive since then.

Conclusion: I give this anime 11/10 just for the sounds and the comic history. I wish all my history lessons were this hilarious. Highly recommended for my readers. I actually picked up the translated version of the Pillow Book in my undergrad after I finished watching this anime. But that could just be me.

Final feelings: Σ>―(〃°ω°〃)♡→

Watch here: Watch Uta Koi on CrunchyRoll for free

Personal Front: This week I celebrated my birthday and I had my two friends drive to Pittsburgh from far far away. These are the two friends whom I have given a shout out many times before on my blog. But I especially want to thank them this time. I can’t express anymore how much I love and cherish them. Words fall short when I want to tell them that. I just wish all the happiness in the world for my two buddies. ❤

Apart from that, I and my roommates went to an expensive restaurant to celebrate my birthday. The food was amazing though. Overall, this week had been full of fun and sleepless nights lol. I am using this weekend to finally complete my sleep so that I can recharge myself.

I also bade farewell to a lovely junior of mine yesterday. She’s shifting to California and was the last person I knew from my department. Seems like all my personal connections from my department at CMU are gone far away now. How I wish I could leave the city too. But I am actually very excited for the work I am doing currently. So, all is well. 😀

Today’s song: What to do, what to do, what to do indeed? An anime club friend of mine got me addicted to this LOONA’s newly released song. I got goosebumps the first time I saw the MV. Here it is: