Carm's corner

This week (at least since Wednesday) was a holiday (thanks to the catholics), and though I intended to get some work done, the truth is I couldn’t… I watched some stuff, started reading, and tried to rest, but stressful things happened on Thursday (as usual, hahaha lolsob), and I really had to distract myself.

Currently reading

• The Scum Villain’s Self Saving System Vol. 1 (novel) - Chapter 1

Dropped/On Hold

• La transmigración de los cuerpos [The transmigration of bodies] (novel) - Chapter 1/5

Finished watching

• Kieta Hatsukoi (Japanese BL drama) - 10 episodes
  
• Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung (Korean drama) - 20 episodes (or 40, according to MDL)

Currently watching

• Winter Begonia (Chinese drama) - Weekly, weekends - 21/49 episodes
• Dakaichi: I'm Being Harassed By the Sexiest Man of the Year (BL anime) - No schedule - 9/13 episodes
  
• Top Form (Thai BL drama) - Thursdays - 6/11 episodes
  
• Perfect 10 Liners (Thai BL drama) - No schedule - 4/24 episodes
  
• El Secreto del Río (Mexican drama) - No schedule - 4/8 episodes

For now, I’m not sure if I’ll drop La Transmigración de los Cuerpos for good or if I’ll come back to it later… but I think one of the biggest issues was that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the main character. Though I’ve already talked about other reasons why I couldn’t connect with the story, so I won’t go into detail here anymore. 

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here or just thought about it, but I’m on a mission to watch BL series that are considered "must-watch," and this week I watched Kieta Hatsukoi (2021). I really enjoyed it. It was sweet, funny, and a little exasperating in the way only teen dramas can be. There were moments when I genuinely wanted to reach through the screen, grab Aoki or Ida by the shoulders, and shake them so they’d communicate better. But that’s kind of the point… part of being a teenager is feeling lost in many ways, especially if you’ve always thought you only liked girls, only to suddenly realize you have feelings for a boy. Or at least, that’s what I think, hahaha*. And yes, I’ll say it again: Japanese BLs are truly my favorites (I’ve been meaning to reflect more deeply on this, about my own temperament and my high levels of emotional repression, hahaha, but I don’t know, I always end up chickening out).

I also finished Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung. This week, I watched no fewer than eight hour-long episodes, but things kept happening, and as they say, the plot thickened. So I just couldn’t stop. I suffered, I laughed, but above all, I kept thinking about History as a narrative: about what we know of the past and why, and by whose decision. These aren’t new reflections for me, especially as someone who studied literature, but also as a person from a colonized country with a very complex history. But I’m getting off-topic. One thing I liked was that, yes, there’s romance, but the other events and secrets were what really held my attention. And not just that, but the different kinds of relationships between the characters: I’ve already mentioned the sibling dynamics (between Hae Ryung and Jae Kyung, as well as Yi Rim and Yi Jin), but also U Won’s relationship with his father, the friendship among the female historians, and the (reluctant) camaraderie that forms among all the historians (both female and male). In the end, the only thing that left me slightly unsatisfied was the time skip and how some things weren’t explained in detail… but if I had the mental energy, they’d be perfect opportunities to write fanfics. I was surprised to find only 51 fics on AO3… but oh well… In the end, I really, really loved this drama. I grew very attached to the characters and absolutely hated the Second State Councilor. Thanks to forestofglory  for the rec <3

Today, I wasn’t really planning to watch any episodes of Winter Begonia because I’m still thinking a lot about Rookie Historian, but in the end, I couldn’t resist and had to check in on my adoptive son Shang Xirui (and he didn’t disappoint, omg). I can’t believe it’s the first time I’ve seen the opening and ending credits (because earlier this week, I opened iQIYI in my browser and discovered there’s an option to disable them… and apparently, I’ve always had them turned off). I like the ending song, and the animation too.

I only watched one episode of Dakaichi, but it’s fine. Maybe I’ll finish it next weekend.

I watched this week’s episode of Top Form, and even though I’d seen this part in the anime and knew what was coming, it was just as stressful as before. And I kept thinking about how I wanted to watch the next episode… because in the anime, things get resolved, but in this case, I have to wait until Friday (or Thursday night, if work leaves me with enough energy… I hate when my job gets between me and my gay shows…).

At some point, I also watched an episode of Perfect 10 Liners because… well, don’t ask me why, hahaha (it is because I want to see JuniorMark as FaifaWine, that’s why).

Finally, I also watched the first episode of Pit Babe to see if this time it would really grab me or spark enough curiosity to keep watching until the end. And out of curiosity, I checked out the first episode of My Stubborn, just testing the waters… I won’t officially add them to my list until I’ve watched at least the second episode…

And that’s all.