Cnovels: This is Ridiculous / The Wrong Way to a Demon Sect Leader

[thispatternismine]

I finished This is Ridiculous/How Dare You?! & loved it. I especially like the extras, where they Highlight for spoilers! *have an ending where they do go back to the modern world, but it happens long after the story has concluded, with the characters they've transmigrated into dying of natural causes after living a life together, a censorship-friendly ending for the drama to follow (even though they seem to have relaxed on that front lately) without making everything that happened seem meaningless*. Can't wait for the drama.

I gave The Wrong Way to a Demon Sect Leader a go, but unfortunately it proved a disappointment. It was very short (82 chapters plus 47 extras, with the epub I was reading coming in at around 200 pages), which is absolutely enough for writing a satisfying story if the author keeps the story tight & has a knack for characterisation even with minimalist prose. But the author here couldn't pick a struggle. The first part was funny while being light on plot (no time for that between the humour), & the rest tried to add a plot, which mean no time for jokes, & the plot itself had no foundation so it was just... stuff happens I guess. And none of the characters felt interesting because the characterisation was so bare bones, which left the couple with no chemistry & not feeling like a couple (they just... sort of got together at the end? I guess?). I finished the main story, but couldn't get too far into the extras. The translation that's actually good only did the main story, & the translation that covered the story + extras is... less good. It didn't feel worth pushing through as the extras seemed to be wanting to deal with loose ends, but the plot was so much nothing that I couldn't bring myself to care ('hey this character has gone mysteriously missing!' Uh you mean the random side character that had one line of dialogue in the main story? okay) enough to push through.