#dao mo

Fan art I did of this manhua I've been reading for the last couple of weeks! This manhua has been living rent free in my mind and I cannot stop thinking about these silly goofy lil characters <33

It's a comedy-centric manhua, but it has its serious moments and times where its sincerity really punches me in the gut <:)

I loove the dynamic between the main siblings, Li Mo and Dao Mo.

Dao Mo is a relatively impassive person and gives off a cool-looking vibe at first glance, but that impression shatters as shenanigans happen, with him adapting to urban life after having lived in the mountains for 10 years and embarrassing Li Mo along the way. And as comedy comics are, he tends to dispel moments that are too serious with humor (also maybe as a defense mechanism when he feels genuinely moved by something)

Li Mo is a springy girl whose normal life crumbled as soon "that guy" came into her life. She does a lot of things with earnestness and vigor. She contrasts her brother a lot, very obviously pointing towards the yin and yang principle, and they make for a very entertaining duo. Though, as much as they goof around with slapstick humor, Li Mo really underestimates just how much Dao Mo cares about her.

Dao Mo repeatedly puts himself in harm's way to protect Li Mo and does a lot to give her a normal life, like damn, the boy tries so hard and fails when she starts seeing spirits. Li Mo began to acknowledge him as her brother slowly, and she starts fighting back the danger surrounding her as the series progresses. At the climax, she makes a major decision that changed everything, all with the single thought of "I want to be like him, I want to FIGHT." and BOI, the feeling I FELT WHEN I READ THAT CHAPTER WAS CATHARTIC

It might be simple, but god damn I love it when series build a mutual respect for both sides of the party, when they both acknowledge that they would do anything to protect the other from danger AND I LOVE THAT AUGH

They made it clear that Li Mo can stand on almost equal ground to her brother, she can defend herself physically, but when it comes to spirits, she can't dispose of them easily like Dao Mo can with his taoism skills. Also sidenote I love how badass all the women are in this story, like (points at dorks) DAMN THEYRE SO COOL I WANNA BE LIKE THEM

LATER DOWN THE LINE, WE GET A BIT MORE BACKSTORY AND THAT MADE MY HEART HURT WITH HOW EARNEST IT WAS ;O; Seeing the ending of that arc filled me with a sense of completion, we see just how much the characters' relationship has developed compared to the start.

Though, as much as I enjoyed this manhua and have reread it at least 3 times in the last two weeks, I do have some things that dragged me down while reading it. I think I got "combat-fatigued" from all the fight scenes in the story. Like, maybe because it was my first time reading it and I just really wanted the plot to happen faster bc I wanted to know what happened next and I binged it in a day, but I just skimmed through it quickly and was quite bummed when a lot of the chapter numbers (nearly half iirc) was focused on the combat, and the big baddies getting bigger and bigger-

Next was the typos in the translation. I could ignore some of them bc my brain just, autocorrects the dialogue ig, but sometimes it kills my immersion in the story.