trashmanga

[ttto]

blotthis  and i have been talking about the lovely genre of trashmanga: stories that aren't good, exactly, but that's their virtue. they don't need you to spend emotional energy on them. quoting sophieblot, "i dont feel strongly about this media. im just reading it." their very good post is here

here are some faves:

omniscient reader's viewpoint

guy-gets-sucked-into-a-novel manhwa! except the "novel" was so unpopular, only the manhwa protag has read it. now, the protag of the manhwa is not the protagonist of the novel—the real protag is some fever-dream mashup of every reincarnating protagonist trope. this book!protag has gone full nihilist ("might as well die and do it all again")

this pretty normal setup is supported by a genuinely good (stupid) sense of humor, and by the fact that instead of, like, saving book!protag's heart or anything, manhwa!protag antagonizes him at every turn. BUT keeps putting book!protag in the position of being unable to kill manhwa!protag, which pisses him off even more. ah, love.

ultimately, a story about two boyfriends who absolutely cannot stand each other. a sort of fruit soju of a comic, it goes down very easy

kuro

this is the only recommendation on this list that is actually good. a young girl lives alone with her cute black cat, who has the normal number of teeth and eyes. it starts as a 1-page-format, cats-are-cute story, but quickly gets into a sort of dark fairytale narrative. i really adore the art (and steal its motifs often).

slime datta ken

classic isekai. an urban planner gets reincarnated (as a slime! it's in the title) and builds a fantasy society with his videogame stat-based skills and love of urban and environmental policy. extremely dumb. palatable.

i'm really not the demon god's lackey

an academic folklorist with a terrible personality makes a deal with a devil to be able to read all the books he wants. he gets sent to an ever-changing bookstore in a fantasy city. there's a whole eldrich dark fantasy conflict playing out between werewolves and dark magicians and stuff! he doesn't notice.

his goal is: use skillful selling methods (petty and self-defeating confidence scams) and deep psychology (facile pop-psych out of self-help books) to charm customers, sell books and win favors. and then at the end of the day, tell himself how good of a person he is.

this works out well for everyone, because his stupid pop-psych is juuuust flimsy enough to be interpreted as deep insights into the secret, ghastly nature of the universe! he gets a reputation as some masterful hermit, which in turn reinforces his dedication to doing horrible pop-psych on everyone who comes through his door. everyone here is unbelievably stupid. i'm so charmed.

eventually the demon comes back around and is like, at this point you don't even gotta pay me, you're doing just fine with this (serving my dark needs) (it is implied).

the downside is that i don't care about the non-bookstore magical conflict bits at all, and they go on way too long. and it's fundamentally a one-joke manhua, but gosh does that joke work for me.

peerless dad (later called father unrivaled)

imagine a martial arts manhwa. good job you've got this whole story down!

the protag is a recently-widowed mercenary who needs to provide for his three adorable kids.  his former master has imparted to him two things: first, the (extremely wise) advice "don't you FUCKING get involved with the world of real martial artists, they'll mop the floor with you" and secondly the ability to take an entire beating without dying.

so, he finds the cushiest job possible: gate guard at a martial arts school. certainly he will never get sucked in to the world of martial artists.

the story is a totally ordinary, competent wuxia drama. EXCEPT every plot beat is bookended by the protag thinking "i'm doing it... for my kids. because i'm a Dad." there are demonic cults with beautiful masters, wuxia medicine, qi-based combat. the kids are cute. i liked it.


the villainess reverses the hourglass

it's a straightforward and mean revenge story. a classic villainess (high society, adopted, garish taste, cruel to everyone) is getting killed for her various crimes. at the moment of her death, her sister tells her that the villainess' whole horrible life has been authored by the sister. the villainess gets to reincarnate in order to enact a long and meticulous revenge.

as you read, you slowly understand: people are cruel for stupid and pedestrian reasons. and cruelty is so often brought on by environment, or is reflexive, or is a mechanism of exercising some form of control when you're powerless.

and this manhwa does not give a shit about that. it keeps going with absolutely no reflection on anything. the protagonist, with her time-loop knowledge, is able to orchestrate far crueler acts to people who really haven't done anything yet, loop-wise. what the reader is supposed to think about this is basically irrelevant. there is no moral, no dig-two-gravesesness, no introspection on the kinds of self-inflicted harm that being the protag of a revenge story might do to someone. it's a revenge story, so it goes and does the thing. forever.

i found this oddly moving. certainly it's full of some kind of feeling. it's a favorite of mine. i would not call it "fun" or "good." just full of something

kumo desu ga, nanika?

a girl gets reincarnated as a spider and goes on a little video game spiderventure to level up. it's fine, it's cute. the protag is charming and has a million cute spiderexpressions. this is the least annoying live-life-as-a-videogame manga i feel

sakurada reset (hard to find the other chapters...)

cute manga about a bunch of very anime teens with trivial psychic powers. it's all about combining their powers in interesting ways to solve highschool-level crimes

nobunaga no chef

a skilled chef gets sent back in time to nobunaga, who appreciates his mysterious cooking! it's pretty similar to the other nobunaga one. more serious in tone, but no less silly in concept