Comics Collection Melissa N. Collection [2024-05-25] [Melissa N.]

[rebirth095]

Is K-pop supposed to be wrapping up soon or something? This really feels more like the victory lap right before the ending. Was really hoping to see the Idol part play out more. Obviously that's still possible, but it really feels like we're approaching an ending with a flashforward epilogue.

 

[Elaine.]

 

[misseva88]

Is K-pop supposed to be wrapping up soon or something? This really feels more like the victory lap right before the ending. Was really hoping to see the Idol part play out more. Obviously that's still possible, but it really feels like we're approaching an ending with a flashforward epilogue.

The physical change has just been completed, Melissa typically doesn't end after that. The main character usually struggles to embrace their new identity and the story typically doesn't end when they do.

K-Pop Idol kind of reminds me of a story Melissa wrote for sixpacksite.com called The Russian Girl. That story didn't end when the mentally male main character hits rock bottom when he's faced with his inevitable future as a woman when he's walked out of by his wife to be left with his "tormentor". That happened at about 60% of the story. Melissa told the story of that main character eventually embracing her female identity. That's essentially what all her stories are about, same with Aphrodite's Mirror.
Nick needs to embrace and find out living life as a cute girl is better than his previous life was. Until he does I doubt we're close to an ending for this story just yet.

 

[rebirth095]

The physical change has just been completed, Melissa typically doesn't end after that. The main character usually struggles to embrace their new identity and the story typically doesn't end when they do.

K-Pop Idol kind of reminds me of a story Melissa wrote for sixpacksite.com called The Russian Girl. That story didn't end when the mentally male main character hits rock bottom when he's faced with his inevitable future as a woman when he's walked out of by his wife to be left with his "tormentor". That happened at about 60% of the story. Melissa told the story of that main character eventually embracing her female identity. That's essentially what all her stories are about, same with Aphrodite's Mirror.
Nick needs to embrace and find out living life as a cute girl is better than his previous life was. Until he does I doubt we're close to an ending for this story just yet.

In my mind, I was comparing to Temporary Roommate and Journey Into the Unknown. In the former, the big "you have no hope of ever being a man again" basically occurs in the chapter that ends at 103/160, while Journey Into the Unknown does that at 164/227. That's around the 60-70% mark. Both of them then have the main character go on a date, have sex, and then flash forward with a time skip epilogue reflecting on the changes. That's what was going through my head when I was wondering aloud about the story wrapping up.

But it's certainly still possible. Kpop is quite a bit longer and could be even longer. Instead of by percentage, if we look at page count; Looking at the previous stories mentioned, we can say about 60 pages are "reserved" for the "I love sex with men" and "Epilogue". Given previous patterns, if we assume we're about the 60% mark, then the story will end closer to 900 pages. So that's around 310 pages of potential mental feminization.

To be honest, before this latest chapter, part of me was hoping we were still in the first 33%-50% of the story. I was wanting to see the mental part play out and how that integrated with the Idol stuff with a level of granularity. I'd loved to see mannerisms and behavior altered. Food, aesthetic, and other preferences be altered. Not to mention, the performances and outfits. Plus, I'd love to see multiple feminizations, where after this initial success, T-Panda helps fund more feminizations to fill out his lineup. That said, I get that asking for a longer story is a double edged sword. Especially for people that haven't been interested in this story, asking for this story to go to 1000 pages might be a bit much.

 

[misseva88]

In my mind, I was comparing to Temporary Roommate and Journey Into the Unknown. In the former, the big "you have no hope of ever being a man again" basically occurs in the chapter that ends at 103/160, while Journey Into the Unknown does that at 164/227. That's around the 60-70% mark. Both of them then have the main character go on a date, have sex, and then flash forward with a time skip epilogue reflecting on the changes. That's what was going through my head when I was wondering aloud about the story wrapping up.

But it's certainly still possible. Kpop is quite a bit longer and could be even longer. Instead of by percentage, if we look at page count; Looking at the previous stories mentioned, we can say about 60 pages are "reserved" for the "I love sex with men" and "Epilogue". Given previous patterns, if we assume we're about the 60% mark, then the story will end closer to 900 pages. So that's around 310 pages of potential mental feminization.

To be honest, before this latest chapter, part of me was hoping we were still in the first 33%-50% of the story. I was wanting to see the mental part play out and how that integrated with the Idol stuff with a level of granularity. I'd loved to see mannerisms and behavior altered. Food, aesthetic, and other preferences be altered. Not to mention, the performances and outfits. Plus, I'd love to see multiple feminizations, where after this initial success, T-Panda helps fund more feminizations to fill out his lineup. That said, I get that asking for a longer story is a double edged sword. Especially for people that haven't been interested in this story, asking for this story to go to 1000 pages might be a bit much.

550 x 10/6 should a bit over 900 pages. Or still 366 pages left in the story. Obviously it's not an exact science, but like you point out Temporary Roommate is 160 pages long and that is a full story including the mental change. So Melissa has two times the number of pages left to tell the story to include what you're asking for.

The date can include a number of things to sell the reader on the culture change. But with the pacing so far I do get why you're worried it may not happen. I don't think Melissa is working very economically. For comparisons, I'm not sure if you've read CBlack's

You must be registered to see the links

. It's a comic that tells the story of a singer/song writer with dreams to make it as a professional musician but messes up his audition to a talent competition and then decides to have an other go dressed as a woman. I think it's a much tighter story and despite its 733 pages I'd argue it tells a bigger story.
With 366 pages it should be easy to depict mental struggle, introduce a male date, show reluctance and ultimately see it's possible to learn great fun to live life as a Korean pop idol on the arm of a man. But with the pacing we've seen so far it's doubtful that'll happen.

And of course the 60% figure is not exact science at all. Melissa may deviate on her past work and go much longer with this one. Her original unfinished K-Pop Idol story from deviantart appears to go longer after the physical transformation. We know she likes the K-Pop stuff so this may be a passion project she doesn't want to end any time soon. I'm not sure it'll be the best decision to do that, but here we are. We simply don't know.
I do think Melissa knows though. She knows how many chapters Aphrodite will have, so she appears to plan her stories well ahead. So it would surprise me if she doesn't already know where she wants K-Pop to go.

 

[rebirth095]

But with the pacing so far I do get why you're worried it may not happen. I don't think Melissa is working very economically.

I've mentioned this before, but it's the problem of "every page is one panel" manifesting itself. A 19 page part might cover an entire date. Or it could be 19 pages to just put on some clothes. Because each page is always only one panel, there's no real flexibility in compression/decompression of time.

I'll be honest: I had a double take when I first looked up the number of pages. Kpop has not felt like it's been over 500 pages, in that it doesn't really feel like a lot has happened in those 500+ pages (or at the very least, I can only point out a handful of milestones like: "gets dressed for the first time, gets put in chastity, has hearing plugged, has surgery done, taken outside to be humiliated").

I've no doubt the overall story has been outlined. That's partially where some of my frustrations with the pacing (for both this and Mirror) come from. If you know in advanced your major plot points, you can pace out the feminization in a way that's both narratively satisfying and suitably erotic.

With 366 pages it should be easy to depict mental struggle, introduce a male date, show reluctance and ultimately see it's possible to learn great fun to live life as a Korean pop idol on the arm of a man.

300+ pages can be plenty of pages for a writer to explore mental feminization. And I really hope we do get that. But stuff like this:



really feels like we're already past a meaningful struggle point. I'd love to be proven wrong, but to put it simply: the first time Nick is presented a cock to suck, do you think there's a high chance he turns it down/tries to resist? Or are we gonna get some "hesitant" thought bubbles before he deepthroats that sucker like his life depends on it? My gut says it'll be the latter.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing: I love a good sissy story as much as anyone where the MC is just a little sissy that just needs an excuse to bring out their inner girlslut. But to me, having a small amount of inner-thought hesitancy doesn't really satisfy what I'm looking for in the mental feminization part. I love seeing the progression and the actual change. I want to see the contrast and read through the scenes showing their masculinity eroding away. I love variations of that where the conditioning was happening over long enough that the way their body is reacting is betraying their attempts to resist. Or vice versa when the mind is so far gone that they're desperate for that cock, but they're limited by what their body can handle.

Writing that out made me remember

You must be registered to see the links

. And despite the protagonist in Dependency being a drug addict and "willingly" wearing women's lingerie basically from the start, the mental resistance feels more present than anything we've seen out of Nick, especially by page 531.

So I'm conflicted, where the point we're currently at, I'm not sure if it'll be more satisfying if the story embraced degeneracy and really made Nick into some kind of slut, or if we "retcon" out how much he's given up and have more progression through the mental stuff. Before this chapter and the last one came out, I would have said I'd prefer the slower progression (and generally as a concept, that's my preference). But these last few parts have been so quick to show how "beaten" Nick is mentally, I'm a bit at a loss as to what would feel most satisfying...

 

[misseva88]

I've mentioned this before, but it's the problem of "every page is one panel" manifesting itself. A 19 page part might cover an entire date. Or it could be 19 pages to just put on some clothes. Because each page is always only one panel, there's no real flexibility in compression/decompression of time.

I'll be honest: I had a double take when I first looked up the number of pages. Kpop has not felt like it's been over 500 pages, in that it doesn't really feel like a lot has happened in those 500+ pages (or at the very least, I can only point out a handful of milestones like: "gets dressed for the first time, gets put in chastity, has hearing plugged, has surgery done, taken outside to be humiliated").

I've no doubt the overall story has been outlined. That's partially where some of my frustrations with the pacing (for both this and Mirror) come from. If you know in advanced your major plot points, you can pace out the feminization in a way that's both narratively satisfying and suitably erotic.

I feel Melissa is telling short stories on an epic story scale. That's why the pacing feels so off for her longer stories. She started off as a storyteller with text and some low level pictures on her deviantart page. She later grew into a storyteller with 3d computer generated pictures. Girls' Night Out I believe is her first story with such art. But it's still very much a text story.

She hasn't abandoned those roots of hers. Writing a comic is a very different thing than writing a text based story. She does approach the story slightly different from her previous work, I think she's trying to write her stories more like a film. And I think that doesn't really work. Monetarily with the way Patreon works I think she does get the reward. If she were to write more text-based with illustrations we'd probably get 5 pages a week and that wouldn't captivate a large enough audience for her to truly divest her storytelling to such a model.

So I'm conflicted, where the point we're currently at, I'm not sure if it'll be more satisfying if the story embraced degeneracy and really made Nick into some kind of slut, or if we "retcon" out how much he's given up and have more progression through the mental stuff. Before this chapter and the last one came out, I would have said I'd prefer the slower progression (and generally as a concept, that's my preference). But these last few parts have been so quick to show how "beaten" Nick is mentally, I'm a bit at a loss as to what would feel most satisfying...

From what I see it took a long time for people to warm up to K-Pop Idol. I wonder if Melissa noticed a lacklustre audience and therefore she rushes it to the ending. If it were a hot story with people loving it on boards like this, she gave herself the possibility of having a spinoff sequel with the other transformations you've asked for. But she's been here before and just scroll back: there are a lot of crickets after a K-Pop Idol update. It's a shame, but let's not mince words here.
If your initial feeling was right and she's rushing Idol to the finish she may start a new one. But that's not based on much more than reading tealeaves, so what do I know really.

 

[LadyBoyJay]

From what I see it took a long time for people to warm up to K-Pop Idol. I wonder if Melissa noticed a lacklustre audience and therefore she rushes it to the ending. If it were a hot story with people loving it on boards like this, she gave herself the possibility of having a spinoff sequel with the other transformations you've asked for. But she's been here before and just scroll back: there are a lot of crickets after a K-Pop Idol update. It's a shame, but let's not mince words here.
If your initial feeling was right and she's rushing Idol to the finish she may start a new one. But that's not based on much more than reading tealeaves, so what do I know really.

Personally, I'm only looking at the recent updates for A K-Pop Idol just to see the beautiful renders. Melissa is a great artist. The story itself is just not for people like me. I don't view feminization as some form of punishment that is worth committing suicide over (image #546). Quite the opposite point of view for me.

The original idea was great and full of potential. However, now it kind of just feels like any other generic sissy domination story. A villain without a cause, feminization only because the story requires it, a forced love interest (presumably some dude named T-Panda ), etc. It also lacks the passionate writing that I enjoy. I enjoy when a writer's passion can be felt through the story. I love feeling emotionally connected to a story. This just doesn't have that feeling. At least not to me. Just my perspective. Feel free to disagree. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[rebirth095]

This just doesn't have that feeling. At least not to me. Just my perspective. Feel free to disagree. Different strokes for different folks.

I think it comes off as if it's missing something because it's paced the same as Mirror, but doesn't have the mystery to keep the reader engaged. I've not been satisfied by where the answers seem to be going, but at least that story invited the reader to speculate.

Kpop has been weird because for how long this story has been so far, it's not really taken advantage of that additional length. The transformation hasn't been more gradual or detailed. And unlike Mirror, there's no real mystery. Which is fine: not every story should be a mystery. But there hasn't really been much else to really latch on to. The racial/cultural tf has been pretty underserved, so if that's your fetish, there hasn't been much to get excited about. Nick really didn't look good throughout the progression, and pretty suddenly has become attractive. And if you're into sissification, there's not really been any humiliation or degradation until this last chapter.

So I'm a bit at a loss as to what I'm wanting out of the rest of the story. Maybe a shift to something like the OTTII stories, with the race and bimbofication? Need for Speed, but with more outfits and Idol stuff?

 

[LadyBoyJay]

I think it comes off as if it's missing something because it's paced the same as Mirror, but doesn't have the mystery to keep the reader engaged. I've not been satisfied by where the answers seem to be going, but at least that story invited the reader to speculate.

Passionate storytelling is a difficult thing to define from a reader's perspective. You can feel whether passion is present or whether it is missing. One of the only measurable things is the attention to small details. The little things will really stand out because the writer has so many ideas that they are trying to cram as many into every scene as possible. The text will either be on the heavy side or it will be condensed yet rich with detail. Passionate stories don't have filler scenes and filler text. It shouldn't feel like a story that was commissioned by someone else. It should feel like a story that the writer just had to tell and share with the world.

Kpop has been weird because for how long this story has been so far, it's not really taken advantage of that additional length. The transformation hasn't been more gradual or detailed. And unlike Mirror, there's no real mystery. Which is fine: not every story should be a mystery. But there hasn't really been much else to really latch on to. The racial/cultural tf has been pretty underserved, so if that's your fetish, there hasn't been much to get excited about. Nick really didn't look good throughout the progression, and pretty suddenly has become attractive. And if you're into sissification, there's not really been any humiliation or degradation until this last chapter.

I agree that the racial/cultural transformation has been very underdeveloped. It should really be half the focus of the story. I don't know much about South Korean culture. This story could have been quite educational for me, but I don't feel like I've learned much other than the -uni auntie stuff. When it is mentioned by Minji, it feels weird because she can't really mock being Korean without mocking herself. Kind of like when Minji mocks Nick for being feminine. That limits her ability to be a cruel villain without sounding silly and hypocritical. Personally, I didn't mind Nick's pre-op look. The new look is better but I still wouldn't have turned down a roll in the hay with pre-op Nick.

As far as humiliation/degradation/downgrading goes, I'm a big fan of that stuff. The website

You must be registered to see the links

is a great source for it.

You must be registered to see the links

is one of my favorite writers. The key to doing that type of stuff is that a writer needs to establish the good traits that a character has in their life before they are taken away. A handsome body, a great sex life, a high paying job, etc. That didn't happen with A K-Pop Idol. Nick didn't have much to lose, which is why it would have made more sense to go with a happier upgrade story rather than a downgrade story. Same with fetishes like NTR/cuckolding/cheating/etc. Minji didn't get enough development to feel like a girlfriend. Losing her as a love interest, didn't really hurt like it should have because she was underdeveloped. Her betrayal is kind of meh because we never got to a point where we truly cared about her. As a fan of really dark stories that involve getting permanently turned into animals or inanimate objects, I can say that a main character getting utterly betrayed by a real love interest is something that gives readers an actual emotional response. Minji's betrayal did not.

So I'm a bit at a loss as to what I'm wanting out of the rest of the story. Maybe a shift to something like the OTTII stories, with the race and bimbofication? Need for Speed, but with more outfits and Idol stuff?

I don't know either what I would suggest for the rest of this story. I think the last missed opportunity was on image #510.

If this scene...

... had been more like this scene from a comic called

You must be registered to see the links

..

... I would have gotten back into being interested in the story. Even if the plot stayed rather silly, at least the story would have felt sexier and more enjoyable. Evil Minji would have seemed more believable. She would have felt like she had more of a purpose to be a villain. It would have felt like she was at least getting some enjoyment out of her hard work, rather than just doing everything to get Nick ready to be put on a silver platter and handed over to T-Panda. Which is really just a cheap writing trick to keep fans from hating on T-Panda. So when Nick is forced into a relationship with that dude, it can be falsely presented as consensual because Minji was the villain, not T-Panda.

 

[akk07]

Aphrodite's Mirror (Chapter 23 part 3) out, if anyone has it, kindly please add it up in the thread.