Records of the Mystic Gardens - Reviews

This is a gem of a manhua comic, with both a healthy plot, intricate worldbuilding, and characters that you can somewhat empathize with(I'll get into it later). But the absolute reason why you need to read this is solely for the amazing translation done for 158 out of the 187 chapters the comic has. It is a rarity for chinese comics to have good english translation due to the complexity found in the inherent translation from chinese to english, the influx of chapters normally spewed out during the running publication of a manhua, leading to a very apparent threat of competition between translation groups, and the small team they have which is evident as they only have one ongoing comic that they're translating at this moment that I will definitely take a look at later. 

Now the group of translators the manhua was under was called NotARealScans(ironic, but I like it). Anyways back to the actual review. The plot of the manhua was very strong and it leaves an effect for me personally on the cultivation genre, the ideas normally etched in the genre is what leads you to be blindsided by the larger development later on. But this comic also suffer from the same downfall found in the japanes comic Soul Eater. The ending after the climax is limp as shit(bad euphemism?) it pales compared to the development found in the other parts of the story, that just blends so well with the fascinatingly rushed, but yet appealing artstyle shown throughout the whole story. I'd like to think it was used to fit in with the same feeling a rug being pulled under the main character, however it was probably due to the ease of drawing the hectic fight scenes, or also the time constraints the author might have been under. But anyways it fits with the story like peanut butter and jelly.

Okay now to the bad part, the character arcs found in the comic are good and it does take the reader for a turn, but holy shit am I so fucking tired of these female characters with each, EACH of their breasts being a good 1 and 1/4 the size of their head. Jesus Christ... I mean I get it, it brings the money in in merchandising but I personally, and statistical other people probably want this to not be a recurrent part of all manhuas, manhwas, and mangas in general. In short, the horniness found in this comic is like the other manhuas out there. But that's not all, the characters' personalities, goals, and ideas are emphasized really well, and it is thought out and implemented in later parts of the story. But those first 30~40ish chapters are somewhat painful to go through. But you can't expect the author to be superman, because during those chapters you can really see their focus on the plot twist found there, and ngl, it was good.  

Anyways DO NOT take my review to heart but treat it as another person's perspective, my personal perspective might be cloudied by inaccurate vital information such as the release time between each chapter, the inner workings of the manhua and translation industry, and even the speculation I had on the artstyle to name a few. HOWEVER THIS ONE SINGLE THING I CANNOT BACK DOWN FROM, AND THAT IT IS NOT NORMAL TO DESIGN EACH BREAST 1 AND A QUARTER THE SIZE OF THE HEAD THE CHARACTER THEY ARE ON!!!

TLDR(Too Long Didn't Read): Translation team is the GOAT and a massive carry for the manhua in my personal opinion, but the plot has some parts that I enjoy as well.

Mc getting charm controlled fused my brain. Its ch 154 now, and he still has not removed and killed that bitch. Naah not for me. Art is interesting, kind of like the anime katanagatari. So there is that. But the story is frustating as hell with the MC under a bitch's control.

I Loved it. 

A unique story with Amazing art. The World bulding Is crazy. You find yourself immersed in it quite easily. A gem that you don't Always find. 

Read it. It's really good. Definitly worth your Time. 

A really new approach to cultivation, many describe manhua in that way and then when you read it you are left with complete disappointment, it was just more of the same. This one is, really different. I won't get much into it because I don't understand it well enough yet, but lets just say that while there are cultivation realms, that's just one of the aspects of cultivation, the MC for example has weak cultivation but is decently strong in the beginning. Then there are the mystic gardens which the best analogy I can make is that they are manifestations of their "sea of consciousness".
The world in itself is also interesting, the first image you get is not all there is to it, I won't spoil it. And the author slowly introduces concepts and builds the world in (so far) a coherent way. Even the characters can't be talen at face value, be it the MC or the FL.
Main flaws might be the art which is not the standard and is thus not for everyone, the pace which is a bit unstable because there are ocasional info dumps or lots of text among the action.

Overall, I want to read more, it's too soon to tell, but so far the world interesting describes it pretty well.