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Aug 24, 2022
Overall: 9
I have some specific expectations jumping into this—being a dark show featuring depressed gay girls. And oh wow, it went for a completely different route from what I imagined, even when I had heard about it being dark and stuff. My attitude slowly went from loathing to adoring, and my rating somehow went from 6 to 9 lol. Just, when I could bear (pun not intended) the absurdity of the first few episodes it was so gripping I couldn’t stop watching till the end lol, with fairytale-like “story within story ” shits being my favorite, like in RevStar or Liz and The Blue Bird.
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Things only get better, trust me (or not, depends on your taste).
This show has Revenging for loved ones troupe, Possesiveness, Prejudice, Lust, Guilt, Maginalization of the Minority, Forgivesness and "Friendship" among some other things I couldn't pick up, and the most recurring theme is "Love". Imbued with absurd social construct that doesn't feel real, sometimes I felt like watching Kill la Kill but with Yuri Bear transformations and fairytale.
Here’s some main “reactions” I got from watching this from the first ep, if you wanna imagine the reaction you would have yourself:
—Kicking off with some serious stuff. Hmm, good.
—Oh my gah, what the HECK is this OP? I thought it was gonna at least be energetic cheerful 90s pop? What is this kinky singing? Hentai in disguise? Th-Threesome?! Oh dear, definitely cross off from the list of “anime recommendable to normies and your baby sister”. Oh dear, 17+, I forgot to look at the ratings. At this point I’m too ready to rate a mere 6 with only 1 ep in.
—Well I guess you have put in uh, too much, um, “symbolism” and metaphor shits; I literally can’t comprehend how the behavior of the characters is normal, how odd compared to real life. Why the heck are they doing that, weird, weird shit! Uh wait, exaggerations are everywhere in other anime as well, understandable, please go ahead.
—Are you sure this is not just to show off weird fetishes and fanservices, this is again, not hentai right? Um, ok, not Valkyrie Drive level yet, ok ok.
—I started to believe the creators have some lose screws in their head. My eyebrows got exhausted from constant frowning and raising it hurts.
—Why am I laughing? The characters are literally crying and dramatic music playing and why am I bursting out laughing every 5 minutes? Is it because the lines are too lame and weird and cringy and melodramatic they’re funny? My humor antenna tingled at such random at times.
—Oh, how odd, it’s actually getting more and more wholesome and heartwarming as it proceeds. OP is listenable now, but I’m still shook. Oh, and things ARE making sense now thanks god.
—Still laughing and grinning from ear to ear every 5 minutes.
—Beauty, Cool, Sexy desu wa.
Having heard of its reputation, I already buckled up and wore my helmet to defend myself from dark stuff. Thought it was going to leave me in a serious and somber mood similar to Meguca main series or HnK stuff with tragic stuff but NO: I finished it laughing hard as could be, celebrating, slapping my knees intermittently in satisfaction—now I can have my n-th pair of girls being Romeo and Juliet alternatives aka Our Love in A Society kind of story. Beautiful. Hilarious show. Based on my liking alone, solid high score. Pro critics and reviewers and bloggers had already have their fair share of symbolism analyses and other literature-class-like analyses, and I love these reviews, whether the show was just being, uh, allegorical and people are assigning more values than it intended to deliver. I’m dumb so I can just contribute my review about my appreciation and joy, while still nodding and naruhodo’ing as though listening to what my Literature teacher is passionately talking about. I’m happy that with this kind of show with theme and stuff where the creators went apeshits in their delivery and even though its messages can be understood through repetitions, some are more open to interpretation, which I like.
Still have to admit this kind of anime is still quite niche that even when I marked it with the "recommended" tag lol; the look on the faces of the ones just started out in anime seeing this randomly for the first time must be priceless. Lol “tomodachi”, pfffff.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 25, 2022
(What's wrong with this human, giving out 10s like it's nothing? Nah, who cares, I won't lie about my instinct, I love it, I give it a 10 and a review for promotion, alrighty)
Ah, yes, our religion, Yuri! So what do we got here, Harem? You mean NTR? Polyamory stuff? Ordinary scumbag who somehow got all the girls? I've never that into Harem, so There's No Way I Can Enjoy This LN Right? Right, because of that reason I put off reading it quite a while. It was just because the manga had good art that I picked it up, now I end up here,
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4 novel volumes all read. So I can like it. And even rated a 10. Wow. Somehow my first bias against harem doesn't apply here. My broken novel taste buds say yes with the humor and the angsty teenager stuff. Now here comes the spoilers, sorry not sorry, because I knew all that before reading and it was just fine.
Story:
We have the synopsis, but anyway here’s most of the story up until now in one sentence: Gloomy girl hides herself under the normie mask, discovered others' different sides and closes their bond, and when girls confessed she ran away cuz "What is love?/Baby don't hate me" and "I hate myself" and "I don't deserve it". Vol 4 update: Got to bathe with each of all four girls, and is two-timing with both parties' consent. Idk why, but everytime I think the MC's action was over the top and too dumb, after some thought I took them as "natural enough" anyway. I just want to see the MC develop, and it was quite amusing watching her grow. I know this is Harem yet I still hope she decides to have one gf only in the end, who I hope is the blondie. Yet again, with Teren, who knows what weird turn the story will take. This story keeps me engaged and curious, awaiting for an answer for the perpetual the question everyone asks of a harem MC: "Why do they like her, really?", believing the author can answer it nicely without half-assing, "because she's kind".
Now we have the 2 characters on the 1st volume cover (if I add more of the group it’d be too long aight):
- Introducing our pathetic depressed game-addict scum Renako, who is like any pathetic depressed game-addict scum MC ever, on her way to become a ordinary mass-produced normie. Trying to hide her gloomy side entering high school, she luckily joined a group of five, the Quintet, with the other four being absolute beauties. Getting pursued by Mai The Super Darling, her self-deprecating side resurfaces and she insist on being "just best friends" for fear of being discovered the bad sides, having to deal with uncertainty and jealousy and all that. She’s basically confused about the line between friendship and love, but somehow dared to go against the “social norm” and just date two people she “loves” at the same time (outrageous, I know. And pretty fucking dumb if you ask me). Despite this being a Romcom, her thoughts are too pessimistic sometimes it got on my gloom side too, and Idk, I'm a pathetic loser and when I see relatable pathetic loser stuff, I like. Gotta have my heart strings be tucked. Her honesty and kindness to her friends, well, ended up making them fall for her, like any other harem stuff. But really, I can't hate this development and the MC, cuz, I've adopted this baby? And I hope she can mature? This may be the reason I feel that is different from the harem I’ve read at least: This story’s focus is not on how others were saved by the MC and changed with the MC being the holy savior, but rather than how the ones she encouraged come back to help her change herself. This type of generic, self-concious MC might be the tool for self-insert for readers like any other, but to me it’s more than that. Renako being realistic may be because of the thoughts common in pessimistic teenageres, but she also has quite an interesting personality. I sure like this character. Her retorting the dumbness of others and being dumb herself is hilarious. And really, poor her. She just wanted to make real friends, and without much time to deepen her bonds with Mai and actually TALK TO EACH OTHER PROPERLY ABOUT HOW THEY FEEL AND THINK (well, cut this crap already, manga, anime, novel, any fictions ever, make them fucking COMMUNICATE, we're human beings), she was dragged into this whole intense love and marriage proposal from Mai. And she didn't know a single crap about love and sexuality. Real, real pitiable.
-Dazzling as the sun, here comes the Super Darling Ouzuka Mai, who has quite the blatant lust for our ordinary MC. You expect it, the flawless and confident one that conceals her weak sides for external expectations. This one is too gigachad for goodness sake, like she is too nice, letting her best friend's borrow Renako as a girlfriend for 2 weeks, and encourage another friend to confess to the person she loves? What the hell is she, tryna be a saint? She's outwardly confident that she will got the girl, when her girlfriend is dating another girlfriend though? I feel bad on her behalf. Some finds her actions exaggerated and unrealistic, but the author also explained her behaviors later on. This is another thing I like about it as a SoL (hmm? SoL?), when the main characters have their own arc so that we get to understand them better. And this girl admits her absurdity and dumbness and can totally roast herself so it doesn't completely make her unhuman-like but rather, dare I say, realistic.
Conclusion: Recommend for those who like Girls Love who doesn’t mind he Harem elements and can bear the dumbness of the characters’ actions. Yeah yeah, I know this kind of story doesn’t suit everyone and can even be offensive with how it didn’t went smoothly for the main couple and instead turned out like…above mentioned, also, Harem and Main being Girl Magnet for no reason. These make a lot of people drop it just reading a few chapters, and some loathe it to their bone. I just happen to like the cast, the art, and the character development here. If I were the Bungaku Shoujo, this series tastes like a very juicy hamburger. Junk food, but flavorful and delicious, man.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 18, 2022
Overall: 8
I can see there was quite some investment to make this anime, the quality is quite good.
Story: 7
Good for an original anime, with a blend of sports and SoL elements.
Art: 9
I really don't have any complaints about the animations; maybe I'm a bit lenient in this aspect. At least it suits my personal taste and I can't point out what's unpleasing.
Characters: 8
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Likable ones. Good.
Enjoyment: 9
Pretty nice, I enjoyed it, the animation was good, especially the matches, they’re entertaining. It’s like a typical sports show, but not boring. Well, and like many sports shows, somehow the last boss opponents would conveniently have a mental issue and not perform their best. Personally I don’t really a fan of that type, it decreases the fulfilment a lil bit. It reminds me of how Hanesaki in Hanebado beat Mashiko, who also coincidentally has some flashback over surpassing their brother. Or how Joe in Megalobox beat a Yuri who just underwent a torturous operation. Just to say, because I also think it’s inevitable setting for the underdogs to win. Overall 7 out of 10, but I add 1 point cuz, yeah, my soft spot for SoL of growing teens/adults coming out if their shells in life and, of course, Badminton matches (damn I love seeing my fav sports in the spot light). If you expect something groundbreaking, or profound, deep stuff, maybe set your expectations lower. Expect it to be more of a Slice of Life, there’re heartwarming moments between the characters, and not a complex plot. If you can dig this kind light-hearted and “friendship” type of anime, then you can reserve it for a chill weekend.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 19, 2022
I don't know how to review it. The top reviews did very well summarizing it all. Excuse my horrible taste, but this is my favorite manga. Laugh as much as you like. I'm not that good of a badminton player, I don't know how to rate all the technical aspects, especially strategy stuff. I just love it. In fact, this manga got me into badminton. I like the story. I like the characters. I like the art. I like the action. I like shipping Yuika and Connie whenever possible. Damn enjoyable for me. The manga addresses a perennial argument: "Is genius born or made?". I
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adopted the growth mindset due to reading this manga in a dreadful and pessimistic time as a teenager, so I just friggin grateful for the author for that alone. 本当にありがとう、濱田さん.
Therefore, even if I know that nothing is perfect, that this manga indeed has holes and flaws everywhere, it've held such a special place in my heart for years. This maybe the first time I've given something a 10/10.
To end this, I hate the anime adaptation. Keep liking the anime as you want, but as for me, I despise it. I found it butchered the manga hard (at least, according to me). It takes everything I like from the manga and destroy them. And throwing a bunch of unnecessary drama. Characters become "quite" hatable and overly-dramatic and psychopatic and "not so bright" and everything. These either makes some fan love the anime (ah ok, the animation is not THAT bad, the shuttlecock sounds ok, I guess) or deters the watcher away with some distasteful comments ("the mom is worst parent"; or "Ayano psycho", or "musclebrain Nagisa"). I'm terribly sorry anime studio, you broke your back working on the anime, it is your brainchild, it took you sweat and blood and patience, and I admire your effort, but now I kind of hate your child, and I'm so sorry. You manage to make an anime the one I hate the most from the series I like the most, so good job to that.
I rarely make strong opinions on the internet, but the Hanebado anime manages to make me snap. Amazingly done.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 17, 2022
-Disclaimer?
I know opinions are subjective, yet I feel terribly sorry for such a rating just because it's so widely loved I might offend others. So my review tends to contain a lot of unnecessary “It seems”, “personally”, etc. Anyway, since I know people will still be loving it, I’m glad there’s nothing that will mar their love for the manga with someone who doesn't like it writing a complaint. Right, every fandom is like that. I doubt anyone will actually read this, aNywAy. It doesn’t spoil much.
-Overall: 5
Ok, for starters, I will tell ya about my feelings before and after reading it, since I rate
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everything based on my feelings (MAL recommends not writing about feelings cuz people don't care, but I don't care, MAL). I read all 97 chapters in an afternoon. The thought constantly going on in my mind was: “When’s the good part?” The praises got me kinda hyped too. In my imagination, it would be super edgy, thought-provoking, eye-opening, “educational” and emotional; it would tackle issues never mentioned before, or deal with social problems in a creative way, sth, my thought was like that. Reading the last line of chapter 97, I couldn’t help but blurted out: “Wait, hol’ up, that’s ALL? Is this the same Chainsaw Man the masses are reading?” I felt my heart dropped to my stomach: tis' the feeling of utter disappointment.
-Story: 2.
Now’s my thought when I read. One word for that: Confusion. The plot is unfathomable to me. The premise is kind of promising, yet it’s developed in a weird way (at least for me). So there was devils, and the mains go kill devils because they're dangerous. And some other human devil hunters want to kill the MC. That's all I can remember, my memories is bad, so I can't blame the author huh.
I just cannot understand the point of all that the author did, the reason he wrote the plot as it is. There needn't be reasons for shits in this world, I know, but, just, damn, it just bares no effects to me as a reader. I was like “yeah yeah me too I love hugs too but damn do you need an entire series for THIS LINE? Dude, I can give you free hugs, you don’t need to go this far” as I read the last panel. I continuously ask the author in my head: “What do ya mean by this? What are you trying to say?” I can TRY to squeeze out some messages the author wants to say, but that would feel forced for me. Sheese, the development of anything went way too far from my expectation. It was like going bungee jumping for dopamine only to get yourself dropped gradually and meet the ground so softly. Like going downtown from my house with so many turns I went back to my neighbors’ house (not exactly my house, but yeah). Like solving a tied knot by chopping it with an axe. Someone said the world building is weak, idk, just the threat caused by the devils is like, single-handedly carried by that damn gun devil. The citizens seem to be just fine normally; except for the times they happen to witness the devil hunter and the devil fighting. And then here come the gun devil who killed over a million lives in 5 minutes. It confused me so damn hard when I straight out hated the plot, I was not too bored reading it with the good art, and it was fairly memorable that I remember every important event, just not what the character intentions. Wowzers, good job author, you fack my brain so damn hard. I like being lectured by an author with his world values and moral lessons, so this manga does not satify that part of my need.
-Characters: 3; Art: 8
Not last and not least, the characters. One more time, another bunch of confusion for me. It gave me a hard time sympathizing with the characters. Not in their behaviors, they are understandable, but their Circumstances. I asked myself: What's the human's objective? What's dear to them that they must protect? How would they change?
Um, and this is what I found out about them, or at least what I still remember on the time writing the review:
-Denji, the orphan with chainsaw, wants to live. And he wants his waifu. At first he only want to survive and gain boobies but then he makes friends and experience loss of friends and he go fight the evil and save the world!
-Power, I can't remember; she's childish, she eats, she's quite strong, she's not human, she's rude. And she becomes someone resembling Denji's sister, and then she saved him.
-Aki, gritty man, gotta-revenge-for-my-family man, serious man. And what about him again. Ah yes, he's the brother figure in this newly found family where the three of them live together.
As for the three of them: I feel "protective" towards Denji, a dumb teenager that I can relate to somewhat. Power, a monster girl teaming up with him, is also dumb, and I feel a sense of pity to her, idk why. About Aki, the serious one, I just can't sympathize with his revenge reason. I tried so hard to imagine being in his situation (family killed before his eyes), yet I couldn't get myself to feel angry and revengeful for him. Yes, they say he's determined, he's tough (survive so long when others have died out, he goes out of his way to reduce his own longevity and stuff), but really, what, and did he prepare for the revenge? Can't get myself to admire him; he just doesn't exude any strong virtues or charms to be admired. While the art looks quite cool, no scene particularly sticks with me, and at no scene did I look at one of the trio and think, "damn, this person is such a badass".
Ok, let me ask you, the one reading this and had read the manga, did you cry reading it? Maybe yes, so tell me when, exactly? When X died, or Y died? For me, I didn’t, even though I'm quite sensitive and shit. One character dropped dead and I was just: “Hey author, why do you make this character dead? What’s the reason? To develop the story, how? Ah I know, for THAT, huh. Ok, maybe that works somehow.” I just feel a bit sad, like “poor thing, I don’t want you to die, but anyway”. Nothing went sentimental as heck for me like when I read the mangas I like. The characters, except for the protagonist, seem so distant, so shallowly known about, it feels like a colleague you see the faces of but never talked to. Or maybe I'm just a sentimental whiny child who is too used to romance and cannot handle the "hardcore gore and action" in this manga. I just can't explore enough of the characters from what the author gave. To be more extreme, the characters may not feel like sentient beings anymore. As someone said before, I was completlely desensitized by the author rampant killing of any characters he feels like killing (or introducing, it really doesn't matter anymore, they'll be treated as mere roles, or comedic sidekicks or whatever). And therefore, I can't ducking hate the villain for killing people, not because I like the villain, it's just I don't even care if they died. It’s confusing to me that I don't admire or adore any character here. But I have to admit Makima and Reze are quite high in temperature. The art looks good, quite a recognizable style, quite like it.
-Makes me doubt my humanity
However, in the end, the thing that confuses me the most is still why people love it so much that I doubt the humanity in me for not liking it, even though I know opinions are subjective. It feels like they have never read something with blood and boobs and swear words before and rate it 10*, tho I know it's not the case, many seasoned readers like it too like, wut? But then I calm down a little, seeing some lower-rating reviews hold the same view with me. C'mon, don't treat it as if it's the most ground-breaking manga ever, since it's actually more cliched than average to me. It's ironic for me that a "SoL" manga like "Gakkou Gurashi" (a manga I like) is much more bloody, terrifying, heart-breaking and impactful than this one. I don't even want compare this to a magical girl show like PMMM (sob). Or a normal horror manga (I don't read horror tho). Maybe I shouldn't compare different genres like that. For ones that are more familiar to gore and horror stuff, I think they would find this is quite chill and calm. But like, I can't complain, since my taste seems quite bad, and I have this bad habit of giving out 10s rampantly for any series I like. People tastes are just different, and the reason I'm that shocked was because I've never read something so widely recommended to feel this disappointed. It was just my me being naive for thinking if a manga have high ratings, I'll love it.
-Enjoyment: 7
Normally, I come into a seinen manga to get some “advice”. I want to know what the author has to show, to see perspectives of the one who has experiences in life and wants to tell the world about it. It’s totally the reverse here lol. The manga feels so young, so childlike, so naive, so eager in an alien way to me, that I want to pat the author on the head like a father does to his son when he shows him something he draws, to tell him “You did a good job, my boy, you try your best huh” even though he don’t exactly like the picture. It’s like the manga makes me utter my view (say, expressing my confusion here) instead of hearing the author's view. I don’t exactly hate this manga, I can totally reread it for recreation (but, I'm not that eager to reread in the near future). This is such a weird experience, and I can tell that I am not a fan, but somehow I don’t mind reading it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 8, 2021
*This anime review is actually written to convince you to read "Adachi and Shimamura". Spoiler of the original plot (its ending, yeah), so consider not reading
A common reason I cannot rate any of the GLs animes I've watched an 8, not because I hate this genre (opposite actually, I'm a big fan), but because they're adaptations that fall short of my expectations, or to put it another way, I like the original too much that the animes disappoint me.
("Brief" review of the original work:
In the case of "Adachi and Shimamura", I love the novel. It is quite a slow-burnt and gentle series. The two
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main characters give off a chill, wholesome vibe. The selling point of this novel, in my opinion, is the way the author delved deep into the psychological realm, the chains of thought of the characters, to deepen our understanding of the character, which ultimately made me come to sympathize with them and like them. The comedic timing of Iruma is priceless; this series sent me rolling on the floor for quite some times. Up until recently, in the latest volume 10, most conflicts have been resolved, and (spoiler) they ended up being together (end of spoiler. Anyway, what other outcome do you expect). The story is not chronological, with some time skips and alternate universe stuff. Yes, that damn alien Yashiro is annoying at first, I feel that reading some first couple of chapters, but after that not so much, I can assure you when her existence actually feels romantic and meaningful later on. The character development is solid, feels natural for me.
And the illustrations from Non (who were also the illustratior of Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!) add to the enjoyment too. Look at my profile pic, that’s Shimamura. (Cute). There're alongside tons of sugar in form of words and picture that can make me get a Type 2 diabetes. Never bored with CGDCT.
Shimamura is depicted as an airhead on the outside, with realistic and pessimistic contemplation going round in her head. She, once a carefree and energetic child, is now a person who find social interaction bothersome, wanting to keep a distance from others and trying to conceal her true thoughts. She realized Adachi definitely have special feelings for her from very early. For those who says she doesn't know, no, she's just pretending not to, very clearly so. This girl Shima throughout the LN is very ambiguous and hesitant to label her feelings, she's the embodiment of "quite, maybe, somewhat, to some extent, in some way, not particular, you can say that way, I guess, etc etc", sheesh. It's only until the recent chapter does she become more assertive and not beating around the bush or showing apathy. Though does not feel the same feelings and have no idea how and why people love (yet), she truly care for Adachi as her friend.
Adachi is quite the opposite, her emotions are written right on her face for Shimamura to read and joke about, always act like a social freak (at first), acts awkwardly as a love-sick person and utterly conscious of her action. Behind that awkward girl is an "unnormal" family. She has no father, and her mother just kind of gave up caring for her emotionally since she was a child. Though she does dream of “various stuffs” about Shimamura, the story do not focus on those thoughts but rather her efforts to become Shimamura most important one. Yeah, I gotta admit she's way too clingy and jealous most of the time, but it's not like Shima and Ada herself aren't aware of that. This issue along with communication ones are addressed later into the story, well, you can totally read forward.)
Now finally talk about the anime.
The art: 7. Ok. But not quite my type. Just feel very frilly and unremarkable, so to me it's kinda off. A very different feel from the LN. I like the LN and manga better in this aspect. I like to imagine this anime is done by KyoAni, then the art and story will fit perfectly. But for KyoAni to adapt something like this, it's only in my dreams.
Voice acting: 7. Ok, they did quite nice, but I don't think Itou-san is the best for Shimamura of all the female VA they can think of. Like, I seriously cannot get Tsurumaki Kokoro out of my head watching any characters voiced by her. I imagine Shimamura to have a slow and laid-back speaking demeanor with a low and husky tone, considering how much of an air-head and a sleeper she is.
Music: 5. Average, OP and ED do not have any impression on me. Feel like watching a third-rate 2000s anime. Oh no, I feel like everything of this anime is third-rate though.
Story: 2. Oh boi, I think this is where they land a knockout on me. Too fast paced but not as interesting as half of the LN, what do I even expect from a 12-ep show. Adachi lines and fantasies are sometimes too cringy I have to facepalm. Shimamura DOES do the thinking part but I feel like it was done half-hearted (all the inner thoughts of both of them are actually). After all, much thinking and little doing style of the origianl story doesn't really suit an anime; so it's inevitable it'd turn out like this when not carefully handled. The story of the side characters are just some fan-service here and it is even more interesting than the main one. But in general, it's really a pain seeing my beloved story being "butchered".
God, is the anime really that bad or just because I set the standard too high? Don’t know. It is still high in someone’s list. Lemme just go and continue with the next chap of LN.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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