- #1
Honestly I was super excited about this story based on the synopsis, but unfortunately literally everything else makes it fall flat.Maybe some of it is owed to the translation, which many people have already discussed, but fundamentally it's bad writing on the author's part. Paragraph structure is messy, intent is convoluted, characters are shallow, FULL of filler. Plot and relationships are slow burn but not in a way that feels meaningful; rather, it just feels like so much unnecessary filler to bump word count without contributing to story.In addition, all characters feel shallow. Author tries to give MC dimension, but it falls flat and just feels like a spineless coward teenager full of cringe although he's supposed to be someone with a complex backstory, trauma and struggles, and conflicting intentions. Rather than a complex character with deep contradictions, we get a one-dimensional embarrassing old man that acts like a teenager. Side characters are not much better in that they all just feel like trying to be complex but actually all ego and not very interesting.In terms of romance, the author introduced heteronormality and had MC kinda care about leading people on, but also s*upid and swayed so easily at the same time.I'm really sad, I really wanted this to be a truly enjoyable story but unfortunately just about everything falls flat. But it is lacking enough that I feel no pressure to keep reading, so maybe I will even keep up with new chapters lmao. Sigh, I read up to here hoping it'd get better but not seeing much improvement... translation improves slightly from the beginning, but the story is just as bland.