After reading MDZS and being really into it, I was planning on reading TCGF next. I actually intended to NOT read SVSSS at all. ...Needless to say, I did quite poorly at that. I ended up being really bored and tired one day in either August or September 2023, so I thought to myself "ok. what's something i can consume right now that i won't care too much about". I figured SVSSS would be a good time killer for a bit, as it seemed entertaining, but not like something I'd get too invested in. Obviously I was very wrong about the last point there.

My very first interaction with SVSSS, as I remember it, was seeing some ad for an SVSSS webtoon or something manyyy years ago and going "...that seems weird. i'm not reading that.". ...Which is funny, because I don't think there IS an SVSSS comic of any sort. It's been long enough that I'm probably conflating the memory somewhat, but I am regardless 100% sure I saw the title somewhere online, thought it seemed really strange, and decided not to pick it up. Young me thought it would be about, like, some shitty guy sabotaging people around him to avoid the consequences of his eeevil actions, or fucking something. And also that there'd be toxic yaoi. I only got the second part right!

My more recent hesitations were almost entirely based on the fact that it is teacher/student. I was expecting to be fairly uncomfy about it, and maybe read it for the plot and ignore the romance at best. So I was quite surprised to discover that I... didn't actually mind it?! It was done very well imo. The age gap is minimal (left partially up to interpretation; it's unlikely, but entirely possible, that the teacher ends up being the younger of the two), they spend years apart before getting together, the 'teacher' in the relationship experiences no romantic feelings until the other is fully an adult (and this is also only after they've reunited), they're both 20+ and in positions of relatively equal power by the time they get together.

I primarily read a fantranslation someone had reuploaded somewhere, although I was able to read book 3 of the official translation. Although the fantranslation was pretty rough, especially in some spots, there were definitely aspects I think I prefer about it. ...Primarily I think the amount of Chinese internet slang that the official translation cut out was super lame. I do understand not wanting to put as many translator's notes, but most of it wasn't substituted with equivalent English internet phrases (as we don't HAVE equivalents, in many cases), and I really feel that the amount of modern phrases and slang used was such an important part of the comedy... I don't hold this against the translator though. That's likely more on Seven Seas than it is on Faelicy.