Ron Does Stuff

So, while most of the contents of this blog is on things that I’ve watched, I’ve really spent most of my ancient, ancient life running a book blog. A book blog that disappeared into the ether because I forgot to download the files that my service provider gave me when I decided to pull the plug on the web host because I had become #Funemployed and could no longer afford it.

Anyway, new year, new me (that is actually a return to old me) right? I’ve set a goal of reading 12 books this year — a far cry from when I used to read a book a week — and hopefully I get to actually complete!

The first book I finished is the anthology Kilig. Let’s dive into it!

For transparency, a number of the creators involved in Kilig are people I know from the #romanceclass community. Kilig is a collaboration between RomanceClass Books and Komiket and features 14 stories that are meant to make the readers feel kilig, and most of the stories in the collection really deliver on that.

The ones that really stood out to me the most are Hench Dulin’s “Tuesday Mornings”, Celestine Trinidad and Liza S. De la Cruz’ “Doctor Congeniality”, Yugen and Zee Dino’s “Against the Current”, and “One True Plant” by Carla de Guzman and Liza S. De la Cruz.

For instance, I really like the art of “Against the Current” and how it utilized these characters from Filipino mythology to tell a story about fighting for what you believe in, especially when it comes to queer love in a country like the Philippines. “Doctor Congeniality” also got me with its art style, the way a lot of story was told so efficiently in the number of pages allotted to it, and the fact that I could clearly recognize that that hospital is UST Hospital you can’t fool me!

“One True Plant” also had gorgeous artwork and a cute story told well. Hench Dulin’s “Tuesday Mornings” also stood out to me because the artwork was black and white after two stories that had vibrant colors, and it featured queer characters whose body type isn’t what some people would call “ideal”.

Most of the other stories also brought that requisite amount of kilig as well, but there were two that I wasn’t as into, but for entirely different seasons.

One of those stories was “Stan by Me”, purely for reasons that have nothing to do with the story or art. As I think I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I am old and decrepit, and the size of the font in the physical book was just way too small for me to read. I couldn’t really form a full opinion on the story since I couldn’t read most of it because I am old. BUT, I liked what I could understand generally as a story of a pair who manage to resolve a misunderstanding years down the line.

I really liked the artwork for “Egg Drop Sunday”, but I honestly felt like the story was lacking a middle section? It wasn’t really explained why the male lead changed his mind further down the line so the story wasn’t as compelling as it could have been? I feel like if this had just been a meet-cute story it would have worked out really well!

All those little stumbling blocks aside, I really liked this collaboration from #romanceclass and Komiket and I can’t wait to dive into their other collaboration, which involves making new illustrated editions of previously published #romanceclass books.