- #1
- Truly excellent world building: from the very start, the author had eluded to the 3 realms and the limits of power that anyone can obtain (omikami), and THAT WAS IT. No surprises, "oh yeah theres this random higher realm that exists with random enemies". The true antagonist was always waiting in Takamagahara which is known from the very beginning with the nights getting longer.
- Mystery: truly world done. Every volume reveals a new piece to the mystery until the last piece comes together in volume 17. From the sun fading away, the death of tsukuyomi, senior sister and a massive scheme spanning thousands of years, every volume brings new revelations and additions to the story that make it that much more interesting
- No reptition (kinda) : typical xianxia novels: MC powers up, gets thrown into a higher realm where everyone else is stronger, same sh*t happens, repeat. DSM: Lily powers up, goes to a higher realm on her own terms to achieve a purpose, DIFFERENT sh*t HAPPENS.
- Character development and strong purpose: from the very beginning, Lily's goal is to become strong enough so that nobody can harm her and the one's she loves. This is of course achieved at the end of volume 17 (which is where the strory should've ended). Lily and all her companions actually change as the story progresses. Rei, Ayaka and Nanako especially turn from somewhat frivolous characters that like to tease Lily into people with firm resolve and true love for her. Rei herself literally went to the underworld to save Lily (not that she needed saving lmao).
- Distinct characters and good antagonists: every single character in this novel is distinct and interesting, especially Lily's growth as a person. I especially liked how well written the antagonists were. They truly felt like real people, with their own goals, value, and loved ones. I especially liked how there were many men with actual backstories and personality. Especially some of them that were honest in their pursuits of Lily instead of acting like a s*x crazed dog, although they did end up getting turned down in the end.
- I also especially liked how there was a really good explanation to how Lily was so special and powerful. Instead of in the random xianxia novels where the MC is just randomly talented and receiving random inheritances or whatever it is, the path Lily took to power was always predestined, in a way. Spoilers at the bottom.
- YURIIIII & GOOD GENDER BENDER: literally, I love yuri, best thing God has blessed our wretched souls with. So much say gex later on. This novel actually did gender bender right, here's why:
LILY WAS NEVER MALE IN THE FIRST PLACE HAHA. Don't want to spoil her true identity although you all may have guessed it already, but the body she resides in was always her own, and her soul was always female, it was just temporarily molded into a cute shouta for certain reasons. A good gender bended is no gender bender at all. Lily also marries all the love interests at the end of volume 17, best scene ever, made me want to cry. Lots of yuri s*x scenes later on, pretty sure it was in volume 12 where Lily loses her v*rginity to Senior Sister, and Lily wanted to have her first time with Senior Sister, the author decided that since that happened, Lily could go do it with all the other love interests as well. Whenever Rei and Shimizu (i think that was her name) pushed Lily down, she no longer had a reason to refuse.
[collapse]Not so great things about this novel:- Sexualization of the women, Lily especially (not that I really minded) : like I understand its for her development of the pathway of charm but like come on (totally not a lie, I totally didn't like it). Understandably people didn't really like it (I personally loved it haha).
- The way women are treated: but seriously come on, the story/environment is set in Shogun period of Japan, how did you expect women to be treated, with equality and respect??? Something that doesn't even happen today in the 21st century? I find it vexing when other people complain about this when it fits in pretty well with the setting and serves for satisfying face slapping.
- Also felt like some of the girls were in constant danger of getting r*ped (fair enough due to the setting) but the author knowing that what they're writing is FICTION, and that they could write their novel however they pleased, decided that none of that angsty stuff would happen regardless of how "realistic" it would be. Just a small gripe, the author must've realized this as well and I this as well and I think it was after Haihime's arc that the angsty feeling disappeared.
- I'M STILL MAD VOLUME 18 & 19 EXISTS. Luckily they were very short, in terms of word count they would barely classify as a single volume. Luckily though y'all English readers won't have to worry about it for years to come.
As many of you have guessed, Lily's true identity is Tsukuyomi. And obviously senior sister is Amaterasu. In Japanese lore, Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were twins, however Amaterasu was male. Obviously, the author did a little switcheroo and since they are female twins, they also look identical (at least in the physical sense). Now, how was Lily turned into a shota you ask? It would be a very long and complicated story so I'm gonna keep it short. Basically, in the 3 realms, there are (very few) Omikami who hold the power of the word itself. Before Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were born, Izanami and Izanagi (their parents) held the entire power of the word split between the 2. One day, another on of their children (don't remember who, as technically all the gods are their children) tried to steal that power by betraying and ambushing Izanami and Izanagi. Ok I don't exactly remember exactly how it happened but it ended with Izanami ruling the underworld, Tsukuyomi ruling the "land of the night" which is separate from the 3 realms and the place where people go after dying in the underworld. Amaterasu ruling heaven aka Takamagara, and Susanoo ruling the human realm's oceans. The oceans are very large btw which is still considerable power. It was described that Takamagahara and Yomi (underworld) was millions of times larger than the land of the mortal realm, however the mortal realm is the same size of Takamagahara. So almost the entire mortal realm is just ocean. Obviously susanoo didn't like ruling over basically nothing, so he decided to try defeat Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu. Basically some stuff happened and Tsukuyomi was banished out of the 3 realms into the primal chaos, in which she drifted for 1000 years purely in her soul state to modern day Earth where she lived for 20 years (ish) as a boy. As her soul was a woman, the boys looks turns out to be a cute shota (lmao). Obviously, when Amaterasu found out that Tsukuyomi was banished, she left her body in the Heavenly Palace under a heavy protective spell and left the 3 realms in her soul form to find Lily. Over the 1000 years, Susanoo used all his efforts to try break the protection on Amaterasu's body, hence explaining why the Sun was fading, whilst after finding Tsukuyomi, they teleport back to the 3 realms (in a process that I'm not gonna explain, however it was explained very well in the novel surprisingly). Amaterasu ends up using all her soul power to do this, while Lily wakes up having no idea what's going on and under the misconception that she "stole" Senior Sister's body.
Btw Lily and senior sister aka Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were in fact married before, but they could only meet during solar eclipses or whatever they were called. Kinda sad, but this was resolved at the end of volume 17 when Lily takes the power of the entire 3 realms for herself, becoming a being that transcends the 3 realms and truly becoming untouchable. Amaterasu still holds the power of the concept of the sun, but they are no longer forced to be apart.
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