MC is an orphan who is followed by bad luck. He meets a mysterious fog-like creature who tells him it's due to bad karma energy and realizes that acting like another person can trick the bad karma. He embarks on the career of a child actor, acting in order to survive.

I really enjoy melancholy, gentle type MCs like this. This novel gives me Natsume Yuujinchou vibes - the MC had a bad childhood and doesn't seem to realize how bad he had it + there's a youkai companion. I also... more>> enjoyed the acting scenes - the descriptions of acting are great and the scenarios aren't boring. No romance so far 500 chapters in, which I appreciate. <<less

I want to cautious people about this novel.

The main themes are (in order of importance) :

1) Mental Health, self esteem issues etc.

... more>> 2) Bonds/ relationships/ healing

3) Acting

If you want to read something about acting, its dark side and boring side, this novel is probably not for you. At first the acting aspect was interesting, but as chapters went on the author started writing blocks of text with only acting scenes.

MC is a genius actor, so we don’t see him struggling, actively researching something about his character. It is somewhat described that he does work hard but never in detail.

His works never flop, directors and actors all are obsessed with him, the occasional problems he encounters get resolved very quickly by using his cheat youkai.

What made me nearly drop it was him suddenly being genius in everything. Singing, painting, script writing, directing, martial arts.

Like all those talents came too out of pocket a bit. He is good at vocalisations, so that means he would be as good as professional singer even without any training. Read a lot of scripts? He can write them themselves now!

Also, the biggest gimmick of the novel (which is the unfortunate factor/ unluck) becomes irrelevant pretty early on? It does pop up in the future, but only after I almost forgot about it. The unfortunate things that happen to him are also repetitive and way overboard.

Spoiler

there were two kidnappings and two flesh wounds and a literal middle schooler tried to kill him just because.

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MC is an interesting character but at the same time very weird. Most of the time he acts like a living bodhisattva, other times like a total psycho.

Side characters are somewhat bland but still have their own personalities. I think it would have been better if they didn’t unconditionally worship MC, but their interactions could be regarded as cute.

If you want to read about trauma, its long term effects on a child, while they gradually heal, find family and become successful, then this story is fine for a casual read.

If you want to read about acting there are better things. Or at least until chapter 150? It should be fine. <<less

This novel may seem to be similar to other entertainment stories but let me tell you it is absolutely not. The MC is very mature for his age in fact so mature he doesn’t even know that he is being hurt, he thinks its only natural for someone like him to be ignored, bullied. And liking acting or want to act is regarded as “selfish” for him.

This MC is very gut wrenching when I am reading a lot on his perspective and I almost questioned myself how can a kid... more>> be like this and the realization that maybe a lot of orphans in our world is similar to MC (not the misfortune factor) but his emotional traumas and how I wish that the traumas of those who are hurt is healing. I haven’t had the opportunity to read the whole novel yet but this novel made me emotional.

give this novel a try if you like realistic trauma and healing slowly and become successfully in life slowly <<less

The novel went somewhat counter to the expectations set by the premise, as the misfortune doesn't actually continue following the MC after becoming an actor but is warded off by the constant acting instead.

That said, the story still ends up being interesting, even though the misfortune ends up more as a backstory and a strong influence on the MC's character, without directly affecting the plot too much after the initial chapters.

The deep immersion and understanding for the characters he portrays stand in constant contrast to the lack of self-regard and... more>> understanding of his own emotions. While the MC is almost blissfully ignorant of it, the novel convincingly depicts some suppressed emotional trauma caused by his childhood, making the character seem much more realistic and human - despite his struggles to comprehend normal social relationships.

But not just the MC but even other characters can be multifaceted and have interesting backgrounds and interactions rather than being one-dimensional like in some other celebrity wish-fulfillment stories.

A point of criticism would be that he is needlessly good-looking and as it is usual in these novels, his projects never fail.

It would be entirely sufficient for him to be regularly handsome, but no, he has to have the face of a century. And the biggest obstacle he faces is overworking himself.

Despite those issues, it has been a very entertaining read up to this point. The translation quality is somewhat mediocre at times (regularly switched genders, occasional mix-ups between direct speech and internal monologue, wrong names, mistakes regarding perspective switches), but this review should primarily apply to the novel itself, which is why I'm still giving five stars. <<less

Emotion makes a story.

There's a ton of emotion and character building at play here and the progression of the story is super fun.

The main character is a genius at acting and so the progression is more on the lines of new experiences rather than overcoming challenges to becomes gradually better. In other stories this becomes very repetitive but because of the focus on emotion and character building it maintains entertainment throughout. Basically, a bit slice-of-lifey.

... more>> The acting scenes are interesting too.

Definitely worth a read among entertainment novels.

First 140ish chapters are great, some bad ones after that. <<less