- #1
I was originally drawn into this story by Baekya, he's very different than most idol novel MC's that tend to be either more upright or cynical. He's an adorable, scatter brained, air headed, Clumsy, cry baby peach. I originally found him extremely endearing, he was a breath of fresh air yk?
But he never changed or grew as a character and in terms of writing quality (not that I expect much from lightnovels) a stagnant MC for about 400 chapters isn't good... like at all. I got bored and sometimes even annoyed or frustrated by Baekya. For a supposed ADULT that survived the military it made no sense. If anything it was a plothole that I originally looked past cuz I thought he was cute.
My second biggest problem with this is the side cast. I have a rlly firm belief when reading anything the story needs to be one of 4 things for me to consider it to be good. This is in rank of how important I think these 4 things are,
1. Be extremely well written
2. Have a diverse and/or interesting cast that feels real (includes side characters)
3. Have a compelling enough MC that keeps you going
4. Be soo entertaining I can look past most things
Unfortunately this story has none of these things, at first I kept going cuz it was entertaining but it eventually started feeling repetitive. I started thinking stuff like, ik in the end this characters is either gonna fall in love with Baekya or help more people fall in love with Baekya so whats the point. The MC isn't that compelling, honestly his group members and any character other than Baekya tbh are so 2D its kinda crazy (and painfull at some point lowkey). I could describe thier entire personality and role in the story in like 10 words and that not a good thing, they're basically just popular tropes and thats it. Part of the reasons I like idol novels are the groups members but honestly the world revolves around Baekya soo much to the point its easy to forget some characters exist (His literal sister being one)
Don't get me wrong I have nothing against trope-y stories or cliches. Heck I love me a good cliche, tropes exist cuz they're good in the first place. Debut or die is one of my fav lightnovels of all time yet the entirety of Testar are troupes. But these troupes are expanded on, interact with eachother and sometimes change soo much u can't tell what the troupe they came from is, its part of the reason im soo attached to the characters. This doesn't do that, like at all
If you want a kind, emotional, Main Vocal MC that grows as a person and makes it through a cutthroat industry while still not losing his gentleness. That makes mistakes and learns from them, that has intresting and developed group memebers, a fantastic and supportive manager as well as characters that are non reoccuring/aren't part of the main cast yet are still fascinating (or just a less painful read in general) go read 'Grab the regressor by the collar' and if you came here looking for smth like debut or die go read 'Surviving the idol game'
Tbh this story is soo mediocre that it doesn't deserve such an extensive review. The reason it has one tho is cuz everyone set my expectations for it soo high that I don't want others to fall for societies lies. It's about a 3, it would've been a 4 if it didn't fall off towards the end. I honestly don't agree with the 2 star reviews at its start alone makes above a 2. A 4.4 is insane though, insane to the point I'm tempted to give it a 1 to lower its ranking but that's just me.
I'd give it 3.5 MAX! 3.6 if I'm in a good mood
Thx for attending my tedtalk
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