Reviews

I was thinking somewhat that this blog must be boring to the average internet user, I mean what does reading about my writing woes influence you? So I thought what am I good at and I realised complaining. So I'm gonna start doing reviews!! Huzzah!

The review i'm going to do is "The History of the West Wing":


Now I admit I bought this for the pretty pretty artwork, searching for a desktop one day I came across Guo Guo's work and sought out this book. I managed to get it for a bargain price on Amazon of around £1 not including shipping.

Now for those of you who know little of the East Asia this story may seem a little taunt to you, as it's based off a play. The person at Tiamat's reviews says this manga would have been better if it had been placed over several volumes but I know that that would be impossible, there just wouldn't be enough story. It's the same as european fairytales, you have the sterotypical characters who revolve around cultural norms. There's not much to discuss.

First off we have the interinant main character, a young man who is not girly enough for my tastes haha, who left his family and is travelling. He hasn't passed the exams to become liable for the civil service exams (a big deal in asia back then) so being a member of the class of literati he's sort of the equivalent of a unemployed person in our society.

He mets the main female character Pianpian, a renown beauty (of course) who men line up to catch a glimpse of at a temple (women weren't really allowed to leave the house, the only place that they were allowed to go with their galpals were temples and even this was heavily debated. Being a Buddhist was a bad thing for a woman back then, as... actually I won't go into a long spiel about this haha)
They meet in the ground of the temple then with the help of her fiesty maid (whom I liked :D) they met again later that night, much sexual symbolism later, Pianpain is obviously in love and doesn't want to marry the guy who has been set up for her.

Of course there's problems in the way of their romance. Since the travelling guy hasn't passed the exams their parents don't want them to get together, of course the guy is all "if I pass with a 1st then I can have her" (of course this is Gary Stu territory, it was almost nigh impossible to get a 1st back then, only a small percentage ever got the highest honours and many men spent their lives in misery unable to pass even the regional tests. You need to be versed in Mandarin and... actually I won't go into this XD) and they readily agree.

Also in a Pride and Predjucie sort of twist, turns out the guy Pianpian is engaged to is some drunken braggart who the guy knew before because he was dating his sister who is portrayed as a villain (I however loved her! I always love these sort of bitchy women "you bought me flowers, pffft... get down on your knees and beg for my love")
So the guy warns them, goes off and passes his exams with a first. However his old girlfriend arrives and tries to pin everything on the guy but the family aren't fooled and everyone lives happily ever after!

It's a typical sort of ye olde story, with blank characters fitting into moulds (but then again I haven't read the play but I know me some Chinese opera) however I didn't dislike it. It was worth it just for the guy's pouty ex-girlfriend :D and for Guo Guo's beautiful art (though I didn't really like the guy's depiction). There was one picture with I think the bitchy ex-girlfriend, putting on her make-up provocatively which I might use as a template for a scene with Angelique some time :P.

So there you go, I didn't dislike it but I didn't love it either :D