A Piece of Fiction That Stayed in Your Mind — Positively or Negatively

Hi! Here you can share any fictional work that stayed with you — whether it’s an anime, manga, drama, movie, book, or anything else. I might not remember every detail perfectly, but I’ll start with a positive and a negative example of my own.

Positive: Kurohime (Manga)

There was a manga—Kurohime—where the heroine was someone who rebelled against the gods or something. For some reason, her body was cursed and she turned into a little Girl. The ending was really dumb, but that one chapter stayed with me to this day.

They were somehow in the underworld, and to escape, you had to row across the River Styx to the other side in a boat. The problem was, the boat could only carry one person and had to be rowed by the person in it. If two people got in, it would sink. If you touched the river, your skin would peel off, leaving only a skeleton, and you would die instantly. There was also a ferryman spirit who refused to tell the MC his name because he hated humans or something.

He explained everything to them in detail. After a hard battle, just before the heroine lost consciousness, she smiled and said, “I’m glad you at least can be saved. I’m glad I met you.” The MC smiled back. Then she passed out. He picked her up, laid her in the boat. The ferryman was confused and said, “Boy, did you forget that you have to row the boat yourself? She’s unconscious and can’t row.” He ignored the ferryman, pushed the boat off the shore, and jumped into the water.

The ferryman became more and more agitated and said, “This is impossible! You’ll never be able to push the boat all the way to the other side! You’ll die before that!” In the end, he managed to push the boat to the other shore, where an ally was waiting and pulled the girl out and saved her. Before the MC died, the ferryman told him his name. They have shown his body was nothing but bones at that point. In the end, he was revived, but the manga's ending was so dumb I didn’t like it. Still, that one chapter touched me so deeply that it’s still my favorite chapter to this day. When the heroine woke up afterward, she wasn’t happy to be alive—she was devastated.

Negative: Bring it on Ghost (Kdrama/Thai Lakorn)

It can really feel like betrayal. Another ending that made me angry: the drama Bring It On, Ghost. I loved the FL so much. The ML hated that he could see ghosts. It also had that enemies to lovers trope, and the fact that she was a ghost didn’t bother me. It was also very well written and how everything was connected – that ML’s father gave something to the FL before he died, and that the evil spirit hurt her because of that, to get to the object before killing ML’s father. I normally don’t like side characters, but I loved ML’s uncle, and the two guys from the club were also good, even though they were often just there for comic relief.

It should have been a 10 out of 10 – everything was perfect, everything fit. But after ML saved FL, protected her from the evil ghost at the risk of his life, and also made sure she woke up from the coma...

He went all the way. He talked to her mother and sister, he didn’t care that people thought he was crazy because he said he could see ghosts and all, or more – he still did it for her even though it hurt his reputation. Her mother wanted to turn off the machines, and ML kissed her and she woke up.

After waking up, she didn’t remember ML – that happened before the final fight I mentioned earlier. FL shows ML zero affection and runs after the doctor, who is the murderer, like a dog in heat, just because he’s so handsome. Of course, at that point she didn’t know that he was the reason she was in a coma – but still.
FL’s mother hated ML even though her daughter would be dead without him, and she wanted to set her daughter up with the doctor because he’s a doctor and looks good. At that point you think: “Okay, it can’t get any worse” – but life’s a bitch.

After ML saved her again and defeated the ghost in the final fight, which she didn’t take part in, and she got her memory back... In the series her character was older than his – in real life the actor was much older than her, but that didn’t bother me. What bothered me was: even though she was older than him and had her memory back and knew what ML had done for her, she listened to her mother telling her to leave ML and come back with her. She showed zero resistance and just said: “Yes, Mother.”

Even though there was a time skip and they got together after years and were in college – that ruined everything for me. The ending wasn’t romantic either, more like comedy.

 kardasx:

My positive: Suzumiya Haruhi story - anime and light novels. 

I'm not sure if she was inspired by Haruhi, but my favorite character in Yamada-kun and the 7 Witches reminds me of her in a way.

https://myanimelist.net/character/62437/Miyabi_Itou

My favorite character in Haruhi was this girl: 

https://myanimelist.net/character/253/Mikuru_Asahina

Positive:

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, a danmei web novel.

Shen Yuan, a devoted novel reader got mad over the novel ending (the hero killed himself and destroyed the world because he's and got electrocuted before transmigrated into the novel as the main villain, Shen Qing Qiu.

In the novel, Shen Qing Qiu was the scum master of the hero in the novel, Liu Bing He. Envying Liu Bing He's talent and good luck in life and love, he took Liu Bing He as a disciple just to bully and teach him the wrong way of cultivation. After being pushed into the demon's world, Liu Bing He will appear a few years later for revenge to every single person who's wronging him, while expanding his harem while on it. At the end of the novel Shen Qing Qiu supposedly only had his body and head without any limbs because he's the main villain in Liu Bing He's eyes.

To avoid getting the same ending as the novel's main villain, Shen Yuan tried to become a good master, but as the system had to make sure the novel's plot wouldn't change, it deduct point and can cause sudden death if he got minus point (could also give him the nightmare of being the human stick) if Shen Yuan's getting OOC. So he could only secretly helping Liu Bing He bit by bit like releasing the sharp leaves to chase away the bully, or protecting Liu Bing He from the demon's poisonous thorn (think of Huang Rong's poisonous thorny jacket that indirectly killed Yang Kang while he tried to harm her).

It all went well, he could enjoy the fame as a sect leader, could eat Liu Bing He's home-cooking for every meal and getting admiration from his disciples, he could also make some friends, who supposed to ber his enemies in the novel, in passing. That, only until he had to push Liu Bing He into the demon's world during all sects' competition.  Trying to avoid having the same fate the original received after Liu Bing He's back, Shen Yuan secretly made a body from a plant with the help of the author who also accidentally enter the novel as one of the sect's leader. Unexpectedly Liu Bing He's back before the plant ready to use.

After getting back, Liu Bing He entered another sect, his late mother's sect under his mother's master. It fuel the previous rumor about the master harmed his disciple during all sects' competition 3 years ago.
This Liu Bing He, after coming back becoming strange like having multiple personalities; sometimes he chased and hurt Shen Yuan but sometimes he acted like a victim, the other time he acted like a masochist happily getting wounded.

Long story short, after it was revealed that Liu Bing He was actually half-demon and he's being condemned, Shen Yuan 'self-destroyed himself and died' to save Liu Bing He and enter the other body made from plant.

Jump into a few years later, Shen Yuan woke up in his new body and being catch by Liu Bing He's subordinate to become a bad energy receiver. After some times, Liu Bing He finally realized that Shen Yuan was now alive because of a dream and he then detained Shen Yuan but in the process losing Shen Yuan's previous body.

Another long story short, after some times Shen Yuan's soul being pulled onto his previous body by Liu Bing He's demonic father. And another long story short, in the final battle it was revealed that Liu Bing He was the main conductor of many incident involving demon-immortal-human and not his father though his father had some involvement. And his late mother's master also took part in several incident that harmed Shen Yuan so he was made into a human stick.

In fact, Liu Bing He was deranged, he love Shen Yuan and wanted to monopolize him, he hated his father for giving him demon blood, he felt like no one love him, no one treated him as number one, he's blindly jealous to everyone including a cleaner Shen Yuan talked to in the past. But then Shen Yuan sacrificed himself and giving his body to Liu Bing He and in passing giving him explanation about many things especially about his mother's love. Then Liu Bing He going back to his previous personality, a silly and naive male lead. He also let some masters and disciples from different divisions roasted and bullied him before Shen Yuan appeared and protected him. Silly ML! Well, it's a happy ending.

Negative:

Beyond Evil (Korean)

10 blurred fingers being arranged on a table at the ending of episode 2.

Kingdom (Korean)

A few minutes in, a zombie being depicated by the man sitting on a horse in which that zombie's head flying high to the sky before falling  into the ground.