I found this story via the Wish List as usual, and I haven’t read the original story so I don’t know the context. All I know is that there is a trans female character and her outfits look pretty great so far.
Also, I don’t think I took screenshots but in the first chapter, there is the classic ‘MC loses luggage, needs to get a set of gem outfits’ set up. So then MC just runs into a boutique yelling ‘Fashion Emergency’, and I’m half surprised the attendant didn’t just kick her out for making a ruckus while MC looked more like a loud tourist than before.
One thing that bothers me about the story is that, besides Valencia who is MC’s boss, there is one other female character working in the fashion company who has a speaking role - and it is a mean WOC. There is a female photographer but she only appears once and doesn’t add to the plot, just comments on MC’s and LI’s meetcute. The story has the gall of MC having a line like ‘so long for women supporting women’ when there are several choices (gem and free) about thinking of comebacks and ‘taking that b*tch down’.
Especially since gem choices are portrayed as ‘better choices’, hence it’s better to fight with a fellow female coworker.
Let me rephrase that completely: oh great, another romance story. Some romance stories on Episode are good, but what’s the point of them being featured if they’re gonna shorten the length from about 40 episodes to a measly 8 or 12?
Anyways, the original’s … interesting since it looks like it’s sorta a spin-off to another Astrid story Episode featured From the Outside/Not your Fangirl. The best friend character is the MC from that story, and the featured mentioned her husband’s ‘fan-cams’. I understand Episode then removing that connection in the featured, but IDK it still feels a little off - especially since she’s a huge part in Chapter 5.
