1:30 - The Beast and The Swallow by Ariana Vivoni 7:40 - The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong 14:05 - Sparrows by Rose Betit 18:34 - Becoming Shameless by Eden Simchah 20:48 - Little Mushroom: Judgment Day by Shisi
Little Mushroom Judgement Day sounds like it could've been so good. Scifi and futuristic/post-apocalyptic storylines are my jam! I might try it anyway if my library has it. The danmei genre is a tricky thing. It's increasingly censored in China, with truly scary legal repercussions. So any homoeroticsm is deeply buried under cultural subtext and depending on the translation that doesn't always translate to western viewership.
i think you should try it!! i didn’t think it was boring personally and i think the second book is probably less boring to people who think the first one is
surprisingly I find that more refreshing than insta-love type in any other BL novels. Market is too saturated with the immediate gratification and banging in chapter 1, it leaves no room for development nor angst nor moments of tenderness. Me personally find the mood/vibe to be the main driving point of the book. That constant tension of keeping a secret, fear of being found out really grows on me XD
I've read Little Mushroom and other Danmei. It's a bit of an outlier when it comes to favourites in the space. Rachel mentioned Heaven Official's Blessing, and generally MXTX's novel series are winners, hence the reason they've been translated into different mediums including live action, manhua and donghua. I'd go with MXTX, especially Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/Mo Dao Zhu Shi. Thanks for giving danmei a shot Rachel!!
Ngl, if you do try out MDZS, for expectation-management and most-enjoyment it's probably better to approach it as a 2001-straight-girl-fanfic written for other straight girls, rather than a published book. The BL-aspect of it is very cliched, as well as the author in the novel and in 'interviews' glorifying and approving of abusive and manipulative actions in romantic relationships, failing to understand how any of that could be unhealthy. Which in turn takes out a lot of perceived depth from the characters (imo). It also deals rather poorly with kink, trauma, consent and mlm relationships in general. Straight girls will also proudly claim to read it for the sex scenes but tbh they're a little below even EL James' level. MDZS fandom commonly being know for sprouting homophobic and misogynistic BS that goes far beyond what's in any of MXTXs novels or has ever been said by MXTX is not the novels fault, but might be an indicator of the crowd attracted to it... (the adaptions, especially the live-action, also differ greatly from the source material at times, so for a 'pure' look at the novel I'd read it before looking at those...Different translations are still available online, as well as the chinese original)
@@fentina i have to agree on pretty much everything. the sex scenes are not good and there are certain moments with dubious consent or even no consent. i like that it's queer, i like the plot/the lore and the characters, but the romance is.... fine at best and terrible at most. tbh most of the romantic scenes i enjoyed were the more tender scenes, when it went sexual it was really uncomfortable. (also the love interest.... is kinda really boring? i know the fandom loves him but wwx is just the better character) while mxtx doesn't really say anything sexist, her books most definitely are. (spoilers ahead) all of the female cast dies and are used as plot devices and they can be good characters, some of them are, but they ALL die. it's crazy how a female writer completely fridges her own female characters. Even though i have a lot of criticism i still do like the series. some of the characters are genuinely great (excluding LWJ, obviously) and i even plan on getting the three physical books. rereading the book after 6 yeard gave me a whole new perspective on it, i found more flaws and things that bothered me but most of the fandom is comprised by young girls that love mdzs because it's BL. i think it could have been more than that and it's obviously shackled by BL tropes and cliches.
I get the issues had with the actual intimate scenes in the books. Thankful that Heaven Official's is kept pure in the main story (haven't read the extra chapters). I think the story, world building and intrigue is why people enjoy the books. Also I do think some things are lost I'm translation but no idea how much, wasn't too happy with the intimate scene portrayal but think it was done for laughs. All that being said I think its a bit over an oversimplification that cis women would only enjoy it. Agree that female characters don't really get a look in during these books. But regardless there is a lot to like and I am personally glad I discovered the books which have been a gateway to all things danmei.
@@nails7022 I feel like I need to respond to this bc A) cis=\=straight B) I have never said that only cis or straight women could enjoy this work HOWEVER yaoi is at large written by homophobic, fetishizing straight women for homophobic, fetishizing straight women. Hence the amount of harmful, homophobic, fetishizing tropes yaoi/yaoi fandoms are widely known for. And also why 'yaoi'/'danmei' is a seperate genre to "queer love stories". C) MDZS heavily features many of these homophobic, fetishizing tropes. It's fandom even more so. And neither the work itself or fandom at large handle them in a critical way. MDZS can still be enjoyed despite that. HOWEVER enjoying it FOR those tropes, WHILE adamantly refusing to acknowledge them or even romanticizing and normalizing them...would either require a somehow complete lack of knowledge of these common homophobic opinions (that have a real life impact) or quite possible hint at that someone ALSO having some homophobia and fetishizing queer men... (The reason I brought up 2001 mlm fanfic in this context is...that around that time mlm fandoms also tended to be more "female spaces", queer men often being excluded or somewhat hiding their identities, with works often being intentionally unrealistic and the homophobia being as much a result of the general education on queer issues and general mindset towards queer people as it was due to the misogyny the female readers and writers experienced... That doesn't mean 2001 fanfics are bad but it means you can very much tell the time they were written in. MXTX is also certainly not writing for queer representation or un-influenced by common misogynistic/homophobic views in that society)
Who else is only here for the danmei review 🙋♀️ The tricky thing with danmei is definitely the mistranslations. I've read all MXTX's fan translations and the 7seas's translation. I find the 7seas translation disappointing. I wish they had hired professionals, someone who's more of a seasoned writer to do the translations. Another tricky thing about the 7seas versions is that they broke these novels into multiple books. Danmeis are typically slow burn romances. So when the publishers split the novel into several books, you may have to go through several books of the series before something serious happens in the relationship. Lastly, Rachel, if you ever read another danmei, and you only want to check out the first book of the series, I recommend Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by MXTX. Although SVSSS is the least popular among MXTX's novels, i find that the pacing is better, the novel is wittier, and it's hilarious. All MXTX's other two novels tend to start slow and can be confusing until you're halfway into the novel.
About Little Mushroom, though I have not read it myself I am sure the main reason of the disconnection you had with the story is the translation. It reminds me of a situation with MXTX (a very popular danmei author) works, where people prefer the fan translations to the official ones because apparently there were mistranslations and a lot that did not make sense. So it could definitely be that case. Personally I would say to start with A thounsand autumns. My personal fav danmei author is Meatbun but her novels have dark themes and definitely a lot of content warnings so I would not recommend starting with her at all lmao. I am one of the very few people that dont rec MXTX for a start because personally her writting is not my style and I only like some of her characters (fav novel of hers is SVSSS). Tysm for the review!
two volumes i mean not the little “book two” thing that happens in the first volume the second volume is called little mushroom revelations and there is many xenogenics jn that one cause he runs away 🤭
YOU MENTIONED HEAVEN OFFICIALS BLESSING DJDNDHD HAVE YOU READ IT BECAUSE OH MY GOD IT’S BEAUTIFUL. I’d recommend any mxtx series, although is some of the books you do have maybe a problematic scene or two, but over all they are amazing and keep me alive🙏🙏🙏
Yes! Literally any of them! Just... maybe don't think too hard about most of the sexy bits... Honestly, I always find it so weird re-reading The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, because it simultaneously has very little concept of POV and does a lot of solving smaller plot puzzles by having the character know a bunch of stuff the reader couldn't even have guessed at, but somehow is also one of the best constructed, well fleshed out narratives and character studies I've ever read. When you go back to it, you find so many context clues and thematic plot laying that you didn't notice the first time (and there's a lot to notice the first time). All the characters feel distinct so that even when they have very similar reading names (to me anyway), it's usually pretty easy to know exactly who's talking or acting because it's something only they would do or say. The tragedy in it is that perfect "if any one person had done just one thing differently, it could all have been avoided, and yet none of them COULD have done anything differently" type, where you can mentally remove a piece and track all the falling dominoes of the plot. It does human and empathetic but still irredeemable and not sympathetic villains super well, too. You can see exactly how trapped they feel by their circumstances, why they do everything they do, and yet still absolutely condemn them for those actions. I've not finished Heaven Officials Blessing yet, but so far it does avoid a lot of the technical pitfalls of The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, while Scum Villain fell somewhere between the two and had a much more "just for fun" type plot that didn't feel as involved as the other two. Gotta say though, WWX/LWJ is one of my favourite ships ever, while I didn't really get into SQQ/LBH. Not got far enough to know where I stand with Heavan Officials Blessing's plot and ship yet, though.
@@katharineeavan9705 EXACTLY! And tgcf just gets better and better as you go! It’s similar to mdzs where you almost want to reread it right after finishing because of all the foreshadowing! Tgcf sometimes will have a detail you think is insignificant or something that feels a bit confusing, only to realize the significance it had later in the series! I definitely love that about mxtx’s work, none of the information you’re given ever really feels useless, because it always ends up connecting! I get you on the svsss being just more of a fun story! I love it with all my heart, but it’s definitely the least developed story wise (but that also has a lot to do with just the setting overall). But yeah, they’re all great.
@@Negative1_1 man, that feeling of reading what you thought was a silly little scene that was kind of amusing but nothing really happened and you didn't actually learn anything and you basically forget about it, only for some throw away observation, line of dialogue or character interaction from it to come back to you at just the right time for everything to fall into place around it... I look forward to more of them as soon as I can afford the rest of the Heaven Officials Blessing books
Like a lot of the comments have mentioned, MXTX has some of the best stories. Priest's stories are great too - Can Ci Pin (Imperfections) is a really great sci-fi futuristic Danmei. Danmei will always have a soft spot for me because of how dreadful the consequences for the authors are if they ever slip up and make the homoeroticism too obvious. Actually a lot of Asian LGBTQ+ stories (because despite the apparent 'acceptance' in the media, things aren't as nice in real life - just look at an Thai actor being bullied by his fellow castmates for being gay while filming and promoting a Thai gay series)are very precious too me, I will probably be a little bit lenient when judging them. I do acknowledge that a lot of them fall into the traps of cliche storylines, problematic and questionable scenes, romanticizing toxic love interests and relationships....or sometime treating R-word too lightly or using it just to further a plot without satisfying consequences for the R-pist or closure for the victim.
Don't know if they are stull widespread but afaik Danmei is largely contained to invite-only sites and sites that require you to fill out questions about earlier danmei works, so the stuff that gets officially picked up is really watered down and censored. IMO I don't really want to see Danmei works adapted in China because they'll just get censored into oblivion with the relationship degraded into subtext (yes I know that some shows lay it really thick with the subtext but I just don't like the beating around the bush they have to do because of the Chinese government)
i think i'll stick The Circus Infinite on my to-read list for the summer- would love some good ace rep! yay for a new book to enjoy! i'm curious about the Little Mushroom too, sounds like the kind of thing i'd enjoy reading when i can't sleep haha
I'm in the middle of reading Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official's Blessing and honestly they are my favourite kind of 'romance.' You get the fluff and character drama but there's also a really interesting political plot going on in Demonic Cultivation and a slowly unravelling mystery. Heaven Official's Blessing feels like a series of whacky hijinks with gods and ghosts that occassionally likes to rip your heart out in between making you laugh. Also fingers crossed for Clear and Muddy Loss of Love getting an official translation because the lesbians equivalent of danmei (baihe) is as usual, far less popular. Give me the savage revenge ladies!
@@breezy3392 It was really well structured! By contrast TGCF is a hot mess. An entertaining hot mess, but still. If only MXTX would be left alone by the censors long enough to get a definitive, nicely edited and restructured version out. But instead we've got the new versions with new content ONLY in Chinese, with all the kisses replaced with forehead touching and- Good grief. It's too much to untangle.
I feel like MXTX's work is a better introduction to danmei! they're usually people's First Danmei Books TM for a reason but even so, yeah, the fact it's translated will cause some differences in writing style that might stand out weird to you if you're not used to it!
i saw this title and i was like "oh no" LOL! i've read quite a few danmei novels and i have to say a lot of them are very slow burn and they quite literally just run around and do stuff and have adventures haha. i actually bought little mushroom but i haven't read it yet so i can't speak for that one. i do know there's a second book though maybe that would further explain things? the danmei novel i like the most is sha po lang and its a military/wartime setting. :)
Just failed my final so this video was a very very welcome surprise to see. Thank you for lifting my spirits :^) EDIT: thanks for the kind messages! Makes me feel a bit better :))
Just here to join in with everyone saying Mo Dao Zhu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is a great danmei. It's a very compelling story with a well-developed cast, and the romance is equal parts sweet and sad., but with a happy ending.
Completely understand that Little Mushroom isn't for everyone. It's a long game sort of story and more atmospheric and anxious than actiony. I loved it - but it's an odd one, and I get it. :)
I started Danmei three years ago with the Fan Translation of Grandmasters of Demonic Cultivation and MXTX other works opened a whole new world to me. I actually didn’t know there were Chinese novels that were being translated I’m happy to say that Chinese anime novels and comics are getting more mainstream. However those two years was a learning curve because I had to get use to a whole ass new set of cultural stuff 😂 I would constantly get confused from how things and people were addressed and religion.
Note when I started the fan translation that was the only way to read MXTX works without knowing Chinese at the time there was no English official translations. I have since brought merchandise etc and buying the books soon 😊 so I can reread them all again ❤.
I have never paused one of your videos to immediately go find a book until now, just based on your description of The Circus Infinite. Even just your description resonates so much with me that I had a Run-Don't-Walk reaction. Thank you so much for the review!
I think the problem you had with the Mushroom boy one was indeed the shift in languages. For instance if one reads the book “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” which I did in highschool because I became enthralled with the video game series Dynasty warriors. It helped to have been exposed to media that further expanded on characters, and gave them voices and color. I doubt at such a young age that I would have been able to enjoy the books and get through them at all. I think that people who want their works translated into other languages should find translators who are writers themselves to actually work on translations WITH writers, because there are just languages that have words for feelings that other languages don’t. The nuance dies. You get situations like in the Bible how: A man shall not lie with a man for it is an abomination. Where asshats turn it into anti LGBTQIA rhetoric, where it should be: “Men should not lie with BOYS” Or “Men should not lie with YOUTHS” It was supposed to be a law against pedo bears… imagine what the Catholic Church would be if the translation was correct? 😅 Sorry for the long rant. I’m a nerd. 🥺👉🏻👈🏻
Thank you. With that random verse, you allowed me to heal a part of my inner child, for whom, it made no sense, how god didnt take a STRONG stance against (c)sa. I will never become a christian again but it feels good to know, how translation was misused for propaganda.
*And IIIIIIIIIIIII-i-IIIIIIIIII will always loveeeeeee youuuuuuuuuuu-uuuuuuu* (that's from me to you, Rachel) It's funny cuz your review is spot on for Little Mushroom, everything you said was in the book is in fact in the book. And it's part of why I do love it so much, but I understand completely how and why it's not for you. Because of your review, I think you would however like and/or love MXTX books (Scum Villain's Self-Saving System probably more than the other 2 series, though you also might enjoy Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, unsure about Heaven Official's Blessing). I loved the book maybe more because I really didn't know what to expect much, didn't super well remembered the synopsis except the fact it was about a mushroom. So I was there to go were it went, and since it wasn't my first danmei either, I wasn't expecting super high stakes in the relationship in the first book. I fell in love with the 2 main characters, and loved the little situations where this human-mushroom is just like "I don't understand this very basic human thing, but I will do my best". The robotic style was ok for me as well, as to me it supported the more stoic state emotion-wise of the characters, as they are hyper focus on their goal and not so much on everything else around them (and having complex emotions is a learning process for a mushroom). I think what you're looking for might be in the second book, but still unsure as I'm waiting for it to be delivered in April. I won't commission it for you to read it tho, I don't want to bore you with another 400 pages XD I'm still happy someone with an online reach read it and talked about it :)
I'm a big fan of the author Shisi, and she absolutely does not write in a robotic style- perhaps the translation gave off that feeling? Little Mushroom prose is definitely straightforward (Nothing wrong with that- MXTX's prose is also plain and straightforward), but not robotic in the slightest, and she knows how to create subtle tender emotions and overall melancholic tone. In the fantasy/cultivation novels she's written, her prose is very poetic and beautiful, in my opinion even more so than Meatbun's and MXTX's.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the makeup as always! I love how you recognize a book simply isn't for you without trashing it to hell. It's why I love your channel so much! Much love and respect to you!
Little Mushroom is my favorite. It's just so heartwrenching, and we are looking at last days of humanity through eyes of someone inhuman. Our MC is a mushroom and he becomes more humanlike the more he spends time with different humans, but he is still not a human, so his thought process is different. Also romance is very slow burn. They are literally enemies at the beginning. If Lu Feng knew what our MC was, he would kill him. They slowly bond.
Circus Infinite is going on my maybe list. Little Mushroom makes me want weird sci-fi cottagecore vibes. Translated works are so hit or miss though. I've had good luck with light novels (Japanese middle grade-to-YA novels) in the past but you've gotta have a good original work AND a good translator to even have a chance.
i cant believe you are reviewing one of my all time fav, this feels like a fever dream, haha and i agree that the first book feels super slow, i read all of the series in two days on a certain website while it was not yet officially translated and printed out so that might be why it went on faster for me, it felt like a light read
As everyone has said MXTX is a good intro to danmei. I’d argue it definitely prepared me for when I went outside of Grandmaster to find things to read in the genre. I have Little Mushroom at home and I think the biggest barrier may be that it’s released in more than one book. Danmei can be really long and it kind of slows things down and breaks things up on not a good way if you’re reading the published physical copies.
Adding another voice to the suggestion for one of MXTX's series if you ever want to give Danmei another try. They're very centred in character and plot with pretty strong ensembles, and this perfect balance of personal and universal stakes for the main characters that aren't always compatible and really drive the plot along. I'm not massively into Danmei myself, but I got into MXTX through The Untamed and The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is still one of my all time favourite stories, with Wei Wuxian Being one of my all time favourite characters. It is worth bearing in mind the context they come from, though, as there are some pretty problematic elements that I've seen repeated in a LOT of Chinese media I've seen.
jsyk, monotonous/flat writing in translated chinese works is a very common complaint because its extremely difficult to translate chinese into english- its a very complicated language with a lot of subtext that can't be translated, and a lot of words even that can't be accurately translated. i didn't read this specific story, but i've read many other translated chinese novels, and they seem to have very flat styles no matter the author. i realized it's due to translation. you need a REALLY good translator to get half of the emotions across the languages, and unfortunately large companies who are mass-translating these books to make money don't care that much.
I think most author just use MTL, machine translation with google translate for first pass and then use a real person to edit and smooth. This basically double washes the original work and something always gets lost in two layer translation. Primarily there's no enough chinese-english translators and hiring a good one might not be in the budget for a new author that is in a genre pretty much viewed as taboo in China by government and civilians alike. Hopefully some of these works get more community and voluntary support so they can be more properly translated. We also lack context in whatever allegory, metaphor they used so we really need someone that understands both cultures to make comparable translations.
Little Mushroom was completely different for me since I've only read from MXTX and Meatbun. I didn't have a problem with the simplicity because we were learning things with An Zhe, but the world felt like someone took inspiration from Jeff Goldblum's The Fly and that had me on edge. It's a decent read if someone wants to try a different genre.
2ha was... uh, difficult? I got as far as halfway through the last book wherein the tone of the assault seemed to shift to something that was supposed to be um, enjoyable? That and the premise I was sold about it being a redemption story was kind of a lie/misdirection on the part of the author. So I dropped it and part of me still regrets it because it's _so well crafted_ and paced! The slow reveal of different perspectives and new contexts to old events. The visual language. The weirdness of the world.
Translated books are hard sometimes. I almost gave up on one recently because the prose were so clunky. But if the storyline is good I’ll usually stick it out.
Thanks for recommendation for The circus infinite, there isn't a lot ace rep out there and I love when hear of some!! Also really love how you mention that sex dosent have to be ultimate part in romantic relationship. I feel like media always shows or tell us, ohh they had sex, must be true love!
I mean this in a really super positive way but The Circus Infinite sounds like a Mass Effect fanfiction with the gravity powers (biotics), the pleasure moon (Omega anyone?), and the mob boss that runs the place (Aria?). Again, I mean that in a good way cause those are all things I like so I guess that's going on my tbr. :D
See I got Las Vegas in space from that (well not the gravity powers, lol). Circus, casinos, mob bosses...the text even states explicitly, "What happens on Persephone 9 stays on Persephone 9"
I overall enjoyed Circus Infinite, but there were some minor--very minor--things that most people would just breeze by but really strongly impacted my reading experience. The whole Cirque du Soleil in !Space Vegas...eh. Some people really like stuff like that, but to me it was just part of the whole World Building Lite thing going on (each alien species being a monoculture; giving the middle finger to biology...eh) Like the story world was painted in broad, made-for-TV strokes, so the writer didn't have to waste too much time thinking about it. That said, I agree with what you said about the characters and queer rep; it never felt like a Wikipedia excerpt (unlike a different book I read about the same time) and not only am I looking forward to reading the author's next book, I would recommend this one to readers whose sci-fi experience is more informed by TV and movies. This is the first time I've read a book you've reviewed before you reviewed it! My TBR list is informed by your reviews!
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official's Blessing are great danmei by MXTX. I've heard other people recommend Husky & His white Cat Shizun, but I haven't personally read it myself. I'd recommend those other two though. I'm a picky reader and have thoroughly enjoyed the stories and characters.
Erha it's fine but annoys me the over explanations and the books are so long and sometimes there is nothing happen. Most of time I feel like floating in ocean.
If you want a good Danmei novel, please read Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by MXTX. The main character is basically Voldemort as an impish chaos gremlin, which is so much fun to read. Great relationships - family, freiendship, and romantic - all throughout the book.
@@ReadswithRachel Lol, which part caught you? The darklord impish chaos gremlin? It also has the romance (with a bit of its own mystery) riding the political and mystery plots. MXTX balanced and blended them all so well.
@ReadswithRachel You will love Wei Wuxian. He is a chaos incarnate character who somehow often manages to be simultaneously the most rational person in the room and a complete clown. And you also believe him when he's being threatening. The opening does a great job of making you wonder how this guy has the reputation that he has. And it all makes sense as the story unfolds.
'Tales of Norden' kind of sounds funny to my ears because Norden is just 'the Nordic Countries' in the Nordic Countries. (It just translates to 'The North'/Nordics.) The cover for that one has cute colours though.
I think a part of the reason why you thought the characters in the Little mushroom were flat , it’s because the differences caused by translation，I have read both the Chinese and English versions of this book，It is undeniable that the English version did not reflect the vividness of the characters in the Chinese version. So if possible, I hope you could read the Chinese version someday and you will get a different view on this book(of course it’s impossible). But I still want to correct your misunderstanding on this book, also I agreed a part of your opinion on this book.
I was having such bad déjà bu but I realized it’s just the same makeup look from the last video😅 I swear even some of the comments are the same as the last video so when I was reading them trying to figure it out it just confused me more😂 Whoops, now I can enjoy this NEW video😆
Ahh I cant believe you just posted this video I've been readng danmei for a few years now here and there. I strongly recommend Global examination!! It's a similar genre to little mushroom bu..t it's really good. If the synopsis doesn't interest you enough I'll seriously consider commissioning you lol Some others you might consider reading: Kaleidoscope of death, Sha qing and lighthearted high school romance Fake slakers :)
For Danmei: I recommend MXTX's work, Thousand Autumns, or Sha Po Lang by Priest. Well anything with Priest's name is damn good. I can appreciate it on a world, lore, and character building level. Meanwhile MXTX is stronger at character imho and not the other two areas.
Jesus and John Wayne is a revealing book. So much about the current state of Christianity in America and its relationship with politics makes sense after reading it. Enjoy it!
I'm sure there are better danmei out there, but I'm having the same experience with Little Mushroom you did, with some extra baggage on the side. So disappointing, but at this point, if people are screaming about how good a danmei is I think I should actively avoid whatever they're recommending :/ It's the most monotonously written work, as you've said, and as someone with a longtime interest in science, actively painful to read at times when the author tries to talk about biology, because they sound bored and ignorant about science at best, and willfully wrong about genetics in a really yikes way at worst. Usually, when an SF author writes their craft, you get a sense of their nerdy wonder for the parts of science they find cool (e.g. physical mechanics of sand dunes, and earthworms, in Frank Herbert's case), even if the idea might not work irl? Here it's like listening to a bored fourteen year old read an inaccurate book about fungi written for eight year olds. And the only part they perk up for is when said book on fungi posits that humans are 'genetically superior' to fungi because they have hands, or something. This metaphor is getting away from me, but you get the point. Hearing the way Shisi wrote about a black man in the opening, comparing him to a giant black ant 'creature' that got slaughtered earlier, followed by killing said character off after he abruptly becomes a monster, definitely was sending alarm bells. Especially after half the anime community ate up Terraformars, with its evil black roach people with freaking cornrows. This is like reading Lovecraft talk about a black man's arms as 'forelegs'. Foreigner-coded people are rapey, unrepentant monsters while pure, milky white An Zhe is the height of delicate Chinese grace, and I'm like... how is nobody picking up on this? Overall, just really stinky, eugenics-y vibes on top of being boring as sin, but in that way that seems to be invisible, or at least not talked about, in danmei spaces. Not the worst one ever, by far, just sort of icky. Oh, and to talk about something else vaguely related, have you read 'The Things', by Peter Watts? It's a The Thing spinoff story that shows the titular shapeshifting alien's genuinely interesting, non-human perspective on their encounters with humans, portraying their increasing disillusionment and bitterness as their understanding grows and... I just have to say, Shisi could never.
Hey, so I'm watching the video and I am going to watch it all the way through, but I just wanted to comment on my discomfort with the thumbnail juxtaposed with the title of this series. In the thumbnail, you only displayed Little Mushroom and used the caption "I read danmei", but paired that with a title like "what the frick did I just read?". Like, when I saw that my heart sank. Though I'm sure it wasn't intentional, it gives off the impression that your opinion of the genre based on this book was disparaging. A lot of Asian media is seen in the west as "bizarre" and "abnormal" in a way that frames western media as "normal" and "standard", and this framing sort of feeds into that. I don't think that any harm was meant here, but please consider changing the title, thumbnail, or both to be more representative of the video as a whole. I know from your other videos that you want to do right by marginalized communities, so please don't take this as a personal attack. Just wanted to point it out because it made me and the friend I showed it to deeply uncomfortable.
'Asians' in Asia where danmei is a widely popular genre are not a marginal group... And a book channel thumbnail saying 'what the frick did I read' is not an ethnic attack.
About the Chinese novel please don't expose the author because it lead them to jail. It happens to one of the author she was warn to be in prison over a promo art
