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These weeks chapters were so good I ended up binging them and even reading them while getting my hair done even though I always feel nervous about reading Japanese in public (social anxiety moment).
More Rambling
Okay I have really started feeling bad for Mia. At first it sounded like she was only interested in Shion because she considered him the only guy of appropriate status… but she actually really had a crush on him didn’t she? It’s bad enough having one-sided feelings for someone but for that same person to then imprison you for 2 years and then execute you… ouch. I didn’t get why she was so set on avoiding Shion and Tiona (? I can never remember her name) since I felt like the smart thing to do would be to get on their good side knowing they’ll be the future leaders of the revolution, but yeah I’d definitely do the same if I was Mia now. Like she keeps saying it’s to avoid the guillotine but I suspect it has more to do with the emotional pain. Poor Mia
It was funny to see that Shion actually seems to be falling for her in this timeline though. Wondering what others reading along think about it though. Honestly I hope they don’t actually end up together. Becoming friends would be fine but I just can’t like it as a ship considering his actions in the past life. And I don’t really like the second prince as a potential romantic interest either. I hope either someone else comes along (more likely) or Mia and Anne save the country and then run off to live a peaceful life in the woods together (yeah probably not happening).
Anyways looking forward to next week and Mia’s continued attempts to avoid going through her cringe high schooler phase— I mean avoid the guillotine.
While trying to sleep, I finished this week’s portion.
Thoughts
It’s nice to see some of the feelings from Shion, that they didn’t come across very well in the anime. In the anime it fell a bit like he was indifferent about getting turned down.
Also Mia luck again, with the horse sneeze, and ending up with a better charm appeal than the original make up / dress, and Mia not even noticing / thinking she’s drawing attention for the wrong reasons.
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I’m thinking she probably wants to go the unnoticed route. Doesn’t feel to me like it’s hatred towards them either.
I get the feeling she truly wanted to be friends with Rafina in her previous timeline, but the poor reputation and weird approach prevented her from having meaningful interactions that led to anything.
I don’t have any particular feelings towards any ship at this point, but a Yuri one wouldn’t be unwelcome (probably not happening either )
Next week will be done while in Japan, so we will see how it goes to me, or maybe I’ll cheat and do it during my 20h flights
Misc
I know way too well that feeling, while reading in an airplane, getting the side glances and stares to my book in Japanese on an European flight, being read by a definitely not Japanese person made me very uncomfortable
I realize that she might not want that, what’s with all the trauma and years of strong negative feelings and all, but “make friends with the ones that were your enemies in the previous timeline” is actually a fantastic plan to avoid ending up on the guillotine.
I guess she can actually be brave when it’s not against teens who later in life became her archenemies. Nice.
(She was described as timid/cowardly a lot earlier, and so far she only really stood her ground against female noble bullies who have a much lower standing than her and aren’t physically threatening.)
「あなたの弟さまに寄ってきたロクでもない女ですわ」
Nice!
Loved her during that whole exchange. Well done, Mia.
Mia, utterly predictably ruining the good impression she left on the reader.
Chapter 32
聖女か、策士か、小悪魔か？
Are… are those the only choices?
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Yeah. I feel like she might be thinking that even if she tries her best and behaves well, interacting with them in any way will put her on their radar and subsequently on her previous life’s route. That + trauma (although I’m not convinced that a crush on Shion plays a role here).
I’m not a fan of the love interests. I don’t quite have an idea on who would work well with a character like Mia, but both Shion and Abel feel… wrong.
I guess they are kids bow so things my change.
Mia ended up basically inviting Abel by herself, after everything they told us on how improper it is.
(Shion getting a bit hurt by rejection makes sense, but I don’t like how it’s already confirmed to be sort of romantic in narration “he accurately guessed that Shion’s feelings…”. He still didn’t talk to her properly)
Horse sneeze was horribly sad.
What a ridiculous even to “force” Mia to seem more modest.
But then I got distracted by how the event is presented as '“heavy make up is what we do” and then an immediate 180 of “all other ladies looked pale/sickly (suffocated by corsets)”. Author, did you forget what makeup can do?..
I think I’m calling it quits here. The book is just a too difficult for me and I’m not invested enough in the story to deal with it. I have enjoyed it so far but I’d rather spent my time on other books.
I did finish the first (furigana) book for bingo reasons
Congrats on a bingo square! I hope this doesn’t leave you on a cliffhanger!
Does this feel like a kind of book you’d like to check in again in half a year or whenever to gauge your progress? Or back to metaphorical shelf it is?
The difficulty went up when she got to the academy, right? I felt the increase of villainess trope vocab that I’m trying to casually consume for my extensive villainess genre spree.
Yes, I might pick it up again in the future! I have a lot of for ‘in the future when my Japanese is better’ books though, so whether I actually will pick Tearmoon up again is hard to say.
Yea a bit. I thought it was difficult from the start though, mostly due to the large amount of unknown vocabulary (which well, is usually the main problem for ‘hard’ books I guess).
Still I learned some words from the book so I’m glad I tried!
I wonder if I’ll ever have one of those. Tearmoon was my first ‘villainess’ book, and villainess part was fun!
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