Waiting for the next update of a series is frustrating but temporary. Reading an abysmal Machine Translation (MTL) version of a series is permanent. Unfortunately, every time I give in to MTL, I regret it. Later, when I get to re-read the good parts in proper translation, I keep thinking to myself, “Why did I read that?” At first, it might satisfy your curiosity but it takes away so much from reading the good parts in proper translation. The wait for new chapters is temporary, whereas the disappointment of a butchered story can last for a long time. It’s better to be impatient and excited than impatient and disappointed. My policy these days is to either wait however long it takes or drop the series if I find the wait too unbearable.
But does anyone actually finish long novels MTL and feel satisfied? I’d really like to hear from someone who did manage it. From what I’ve gathered from friends who tried it, they either got bored and gave up or managed to read only a small portion and had a very vague understanding of the rest of the story. It’s an idea that sounds great in theory but in practice just doesn’t cut it. “Downloading” the entire thing sounds amazing but actually reading it all? Ugh. Maybe we’re just so obsessed with the idea of completing something that we’ve forgotten that the actual reading experience is supposed to be enjoyable.
Unorganized as it is, this is how I do things. My bookmark page has over 15 different manhwa sites all neatly organized in folders. When searching for a specific series I normally open 3-4 of the sites in different tabs and compare the following: image quality, ad size (with ad blocker enabled of course), and how user friendly the site is to read. It adds about a minute to finding a series but 9 times out of 10 I’ll find a better version of the manhwa than what I would have found by clicking the first result in a Google search. I do this because it is basically digital window shopping for the best way to read a series. The “best” site to read a series can change from series to series, and even within a series from chapter to chapter, depending on how up to date the best mirror is.
I think the biggest part of this comic is that the obstacles to their success actually feel real. They’re not fighting against an obvious, cartoonish villain who wants to close down all restaurants, for example. Rather, they’re fighting against underfunding and a poor location and prejudice against young female chefs and their own personal demons, including failures of the past. So their victories are small, highly personal, and thus incredibly satisfying. Getting a full house on a Friday night, completing a new recipe just right, getting a nod of respect from that infamous food critic—these are the climactic moments of the comic, the moments of greatest drama in the story of a would-be restaurateur, and that drama derives from the struggles of small business and of growing up that we can all relate to. This is not a story of superheroes. It’s a story of normal people trying to do something wonderful in the face of real obstacles, and that is the comic’s greatest strength.