This was such a fun treat! I saw this on TikTok and then looked at it a couple of times at the bookstore until I couldn’t resist anymore and gave in. I’m glad I did because I really did enjoy this and am looking forward to the next three volumes. I like a complete series and this one is done and just needs to be translated and published over here. This was the first danmei novel I’ve read, but I knew about some of the tropes so that did make it easier to follow.
The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish is a danmei isekai type series following Li Yu, who wakes up in the body of a carp and realizes that he is in the gay webnovel that he was just reading. Li Yu uses his knowledge of the book to try to fulfill the quest prompts that the system wants him to do. His main goal is to stop the mute prince, Mu Tianchi, from becoming an evil tyrant. He sets out to do this as Mu Tianchi’s pet fish, and the two of them are clearly headed for romance. The novel is a comedy and a take-off on the tropes of this genre, and I found it to be a lot of fun and very self-aware in an enjoyable way. It legitimately amused me.
I like it when the novel does not rely on a character being completely oblivious, and Mu Tianchi is smart enough to figure out what is going on in a manner that made sense to me. It didn’t feel like the author was trying to stretch things out to make the book longer, which is an issue I think can affect romance novels and webnovels like this. I thought that Mu Tianchi’s disability (being mute) seemed to be dealt with pretty well in the narrative. Although it keeps him from being the crown prince in this volume, and there are some people who look down on him, the majority of people around him respect him and are aware of how smart he is, and it’s clear that he’s probably going to end up as the emperor. I liked that he’s also very self-confident and doesn’t really care what others think of him. I also liked the way the relationship between the two main characters was progressing, and I am looking forward to seeing Li Yu noticing how much Mu Tianchi is already aware of. The only downside here is that I got through this in three days and now I will have to wait a while for these to come out one by one.
(Of course this would be the book I cannonball on haha — I’m proud that this is my 52nd review this year! More gay fish time travel romances for everyone!)
Warnings for: violence, violent death, trauma, assassination attempts, attempted poisoning, some ableism, sexual themes.