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I watched the donghua first, unaware that the manhua was the original source material. I rushed over here after finishing the donghua to read the rest of the story.

In my opinion, the manhua is much better than the donghua. I hate to sound like one of those "the manga is better" type people but it's too true for this one.

The art in this manhua is extremely consistent and beautiful. It's fully in color (!!) but I think this is how all manhua is.

Story 8/10
The story is very basic. The emperor, Xiao Jinyun, and the empress, Xu Yu, who hate each other at the ... beginning of the story, switch bodies after falling into a lake due to the magic in a voodoo doll and the yin energy in the water or something. It's all very obscure. Anyway, their souls have switched and they must take on the duty of the other until they are able to switch back. Jinyun has to go take care of the Imperial Herem while Xu Yu has to take care of duties as the emperor. They learn how difficult each other's lives are and, as a result, grow a lot closer. The Imperial Harem is full of many women who are quite evil and will take every chance to try and plot against Xu Yu (who is currently Jinyun) and get her in trouble. It's just dramatic scene after dramatic scene and although I can understand this is to push the idea that they trust each other through thick and thin, it gets kind of tiring after the 5th time it happens. It's so dramatic that Xu Yu could drop a cloth and get exiled, no questions asked. Maybe this is how ancient China was but I highly doubt it was to such an extent.

Art 9/10
Like I mentioned earlier, the art is very nice. Both the cover arts and the manhua art look fabulous, especially in comparison to the donghua (*cough cough*) but honestly it's nothing too special in comparison to other manhua or webcomics. However, the consistency of it all is very nice and the art felt very fitting for a manhua (not over the top or lacking).

Character 9/10
In general, there are no characters that downright pissed me off, however, as I mentioned before, some of them are very unrealistic, but this could be more of a plot issue than the characters themselves. I like how dynamic a lot of the characters are throughout the series. It really shows how they are shaped by the events of the story for the better.

Enjoyment 10/10
Despite all the technical flaws, I still very much enjoyed this manhua. It just has a charm to it and has created such loveable characters and relationships beyond just the main couple. I found myself accidentally more invested in some of the side characters than the main ones. This is a very typical rom-com story so there were romantic parts that melted my heart and funny parts that genuinely did make me laugh for a good moment.

Overall 8/10
I really enjoyed Liang Bu Yi. I was so sad after I finished the entire thing in one go. It's truly such a beautiful love story about trust and making the effort to understand the other person. There's a saying (that I'll probably quote wrong) about how all couples should switch places with each other and experience life in their shoes to truly understand them, and in turn, it brings them so much closer. I think this ends up being the main theme of Liang Bu Yi and I think the story is able to portray this theme very romantically.

Finding a good Chinese romance story is quite rare and I have seen too many that are completely awful. This manhua is a gem. Considering it is also set in ancient China, the setting is also very beautiful and unique if you're someone who hasn't really been exposed to much Chinese historical fiction. All in all, I really enjoyed this and it will definitely be ingrained in my mind as one of my favorites.

I will just state the main point: this anime is good. It’s VERY good. It’s so good that it stuck on my mind long after I watched it and persuaded me enough to write this review. I recommend everyone to at least give it a try.

The title and cover art are very misleading. You would think that it’s a perverted, harem, comedy anime. I thought that at first, but it is none of these things. This anime is deep, dramatic, and supernatural.

The premise is on the concept of Adolescence/Puberty Syndrome–a syndrome in which adolescents will experience weird occurrences in their pre-teen to teen years. The ... symptoms develop in the form of obscure occurrences that defy human logic--this is where the supernatural element comes in. They are terrifying real-life nightmares without any blood or gore that directly link to the fears and insecurities of the individual, forcing the characters to face their fears.

The main character is a boy named Sakuta who, again and again, becomes entangled with individuals that are suffering from Adolescence syndrome and works to help bring things back to normal.

The characters are such a big part of why this anime is so great. The characterization and development of relationships are very realistic for the most part.
The main characters and couple casually flirt among themselves without the cliché exaggerated freakouts over the mention of touching hands. This is such a small part of the anime but it meant so much to me.
Also, for once, I enjoyed the personality of a male protagonist. Sakuta is calm, not self-absorbed, pretending to be stupid, or overly flustered. He is brave and rational. He stands up for his friends, stands up for himself, and won’t let anyone close to him take any sh*t from others. He does this all while staying very loyal to one girl throughout the entire season despite many other girls wanting his attention (he jokes about it or sternly rejects them). I’ve seen others depict him as “emotionless” or “empty” but I don’t feel this is the case at all. He is just a person who had previously been through so much that it’s hard for him to react with a lot of emotion (which is a very realistic trauma response). There are still moments in which he does react largely, in really emotional parts. The audience feels for Sakuta in these moments since it’s so rare to see him break from his stoic demeanor.

I could gush on and on about why I love this anime, but I think it’s better to end it here and let people see it for themselves. If the overused phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” could be used for any anime, it would be this one.

I enjoyed (almost) every second of watching Horimiya. It was so entertaining and I laughed so much. It was a nice distraction from the fact that I'm sick w/ covid atm TT BUT it gets a 9 because there are a lot of plot issues/issues in general. The first and second half of the season feel like two different animes. It was so cute and wonderful at the beginning but I got more and more disappointed as the season went on.


*Spoilers from this point onward!*


Miyamura's lip piercing does not make an appearance after episode 1?? They just dulled him down the more the season went ... on and made him appear more and more like a super generic anime male protagonist. His appearance at the very beginning of the show was *different*. He looked cool and interesting, not to mention it's literally his fashion style. Apparently, characters will lose their fashion sense in the name of being dynamic characters. He starts wearing his piercings less and less and he's always in his school clothes from a certain point onward. Additionally, the mid-season haircut was not necessary at all. Why did he suddenly change his appearance just because people were making comments? WHY did it have to be a haircut? He could have tied his hair back like he does after school, stopped wearing his glasses, and looked cool.

As for what I was saying about the huge change up mid-season, once Hori and Miyamura get together, the story is no longer about them. They become side characters in their own anime which felt confusing?? It wasn't even done well if the point was to expand to other characters. There are so many confessions and confusing love triangles. It all felt shallow and not fleshed out at all. We only get a briefing of each character's story because there are so many characters the show wants to introduce at the same time.

In the beginning, this anime had SO MUCH potential. So much. The initial pique of interest is what made me keep watching past the first episode, but it somehow fell to rock bottom. In the end, it was still a cute lighthearted watch. I would have even considered giving it a 10 if the end didn't make me so upset.

(Apologies if this doesn't make too much sense as a review or if there are mistakes. This was meant to be a little note in tags for myself but I found I had a lot more to say.. I will edit when I'm no longer sick :))