Question: What fandoms are bringing you the most joy right now?

[krait]

kass gave me five questions to answer, and I'm finally getting around to them! Out of order, but answering them. :)

3. What fandoms are bringing you the most joy right now?

Icon very relevant. :D

This last month or so, I've been revisiting lots of old anime fandoms. Not sure why - just fell into it, I guess! So there's been much reviewing of nostalgic favourites (Weiss Kreuz, anyone? Tell me your favourite assassin!), and browsing fanfic, and in some cases lamenting the lack of fanfic.

Old series I've been into lately: Weiss Kreuz, Yami no Matsuei, Gundam Wing, Outlaw Star.

Newer series: Skullface Bookseller Honda-San, Princess Jellyfish.


It's interesting how some of my tastes have changed, as far as favourite characters or aspects of fic are concerned, while others haven't. Youji Kudou is the best kitty florist assassin, young!Krait and old!Krait both agree! I find I'm much more drawn to Youji/Aya fic than I used to be, though. (I've scanned all 14 pages of AO3 results.) I have more interest in the antagonists, too; I've found myself reading Crawford/Schuldig fic and especially enjoying fics set pre-canon (well, the original series canon) that explore their training and meeting.

In addition to rewatching Weiss Kreuz, I've picked up the Princess Jellyfish manga after enjoying the anime and am completely in love. More characters to love! I sometimes think of this series as 'Reverse Ouran,' given the tropes involved, but it's about half "uncanny mirroring" and half "no relation". (For reference, for my non-anime friends: Ouran High School Host Club features a female character crossdressing as male to participate in her school's "Host Club," an all-boys club. Princess Jellyfish features a male character crossdressing as female to hang out with a bunch of female geeks at their all-female boarding house.)

I introduced a friend to Outlaw Star, which is, uh, 90s shonen anime, with all that entails, but balances the gratuitous fanservice with pretty likeable heroes and several impressive female characters. Suzuku and Aisha - and Hilda, and even Melfina in the end - get to grow and complete their own quests as well as helping with Gene's. Also Jim remains adorable.



...Anyway!

Those have been some of the highlights of my recent fandom nostalgia trip, and now I really ought to make some rec posts for some of them! *adds it to the to-do list*

Comments

[tropicsbear]

omfg Weiss Kreuz and Yami no Matsuei dfkjghkdf I keep meaning to go on an older anime binge but I still haven't gotten around to it.

Also, I started Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san a few days ago and I love it! I felt so attacked at E01 with all the fujoshi lmaaao

[krait]

Please binge on them and then tell me all about it!! Reliving older fandoms is so great. :D But they're definitely more great when someone else is reliving it with you.

I'm starting the Yami no Matsuei manga, since I'd never read it. All this Old Animanga Fandom Nostalgia is making me want to reread Loveless next...

Honda-San! <3 I feel so attacked by every episode, from the doujin-seekers to the "please rethink wanting to work in a bookstore!" It's like he talked to my local B&N before writing each episode...

On a somewhat deeper note, it was really interesting to see some of the more behind-the-scenes stuff (like the censorship stuff, or why you can go to a bookstore and they have volumes 2, 3, 5, and 8 of a series, which always seems to happen to me with my latest obsession!)

[tropicsbear]

I will always love old fandoms. They might not always stand the test of time but you can never get rid of that nostalgic feeling when you go back to them.

I remember starting the Yami no Matsuei manga waaaay back and then dropping it because I was so mad that Tatsumi and Watari refused to be a thing lmaaaao. I really should give it a chance again.

No lie, Honda-san lowkey rekindled my childhood dream of working in a bookstore XD

[adrianners]

Outlaw Star! We were just rewatching a few episodes here, and it really held up nicely over 20 years! I mean, the fanservice is... what it is, but it's still such great fun.

I finally got a chance to pick up the final volume of Princess Jellyfish when I last made it to a Kinokuniya. I'm pretty happy with how it goes overall!

Also, hiiiiiii, it took me like .5 seconds to follow you back from your comment on the friend-a-thon. My Final Fantasy experiences are the GBA ports of the early games, X about twelve years ago, and XV just finished last month, but I have the PS4 release of XII and hope to play it soon! Some of your older entries mention looking for YOIfic, so if I might put my fandom proselytizer hat on and plug my bookmarks? Not sure what your preferences are re: fic, but I got tired pretty quickly of seeing the same dozen works recced over and over, so I've tried to focus on stuff that gets less attention and avoid the behemoths unless I really love them. I was in dead and/or tiny fandoms for so long that a story with 1-5k hits counting as "unpopular" blows my mind!

[krait]

Yay, someone who shares my opinion on Outlaw Star. :D The fanservice is... well, it is. But at least that's not all the female characters are there for, which not every fanservicey series can say.

I love the ending of the Princess Jellyfish manga!! (I don't own all the volumes yet, but I read it online before buying, so I know how it goes.) THAT TWIST. I LOVE IT.

I will definitely check out the YOI bookmarks! Really ought to make my own rec posts for YOI, too, now that I've done more reading in the fandom.

[adrianners]

I'll admit, I was kind of hoping for a different endgame for Kuragehime at first. But as things started getting, uh, presumptuous, I accepted it probably wasn't going to happen and also that I didn't want it under those circumstances anyway. The only thing I really didn't want was pushing Tsukimi into another standard romance after she'd made it clear she needed to grow on her own first, and that's why I loved the "Come on, it's the 21st century!" in the final narration.

[krait]

Now I'm curious what endgame you were hoping for... Tsukimi/Shuu?

I definitely loved the "it's the 21st century!" bit. :D

[adrianners]

Yeah, it was Tsukimi/Shuu, but I liked it in an "awkward nerds figure out how to emotions" sense, and it all too quickly turned into him putting her on a pedestal and not trying to really know her. So I was fine with it not going there in the end. Plus Kuranosuke kind of ended being the awkward nerd who learned how to emotions, so I got the arc, just not where I was looking for it!

[krait]

I see. Yeah, Kuro definitely ended up with that arc, which was good for him! Poor kid needed a chance to experience Real Emotions(TM) given what we see of his background experiences.

Edit: because now with KURA ICON!

[sinew]

it's amazing how things can change when you revisit things ;w;

princess jellyfish did have a super cute anime, the artwork from the manga looks really cute too

lmao outlaw star is about the only anime i know of where the hot springs ecchi ep is actually plot relevant and pushes forward the story as a whole :,) JIM WAS A GOOD BOY

edit: i forgot to mention i saw in an earlier thread this is your first time reading the ynm manga? later chapters from hana to yume have gotten kinda lost to time, then there were entire volumes that were redrawn, so i could hook you up if you need those! there's also theria.net for translations for things that got lost ;w;

[krait]

The manga is really cute! I should post some screencaps/photos or something.

Haha, the hot springs ep cracked me up! It was apparently banned on Toonami so I never saw it back in the day; but honestly I think the part I laughed hardest at was Aisha and her 'this isn't even hot' complaints at every spring.

I would love some help finding YnM chapters/volumes! Right now I'm borrowing copies from a friend, and she only has 1-3 (soon to be 1-6), so I'm definitely going to need to figure out where to go after that. Did not know that some volumes were redrawn, either; that's really interesting, and I wonder what was behind it?

[sinew]

dooooo iiiittttttt >:3c

yeah, unfortunately that made things a lil confusing when it originally aired on toonami ),: but she was so hilarious!

this one has old sakura crisis scans which wouldn't be as good of quality (in some aspects*) as the viz translation, but it's better than nothing if you'd like to get farther in past those volumes? ;w;

as far as i know everyone in the fandom has questioned that? since there was already one volume published, and then a lot of chapters after that? so it's actually put the series back from where it even was in the early 2000s ): it went on hiatus for a decade, and came back with the entire volume redrawn (which actually had massive sales in japan??? ppl were thirsty lmao) and then continued on redoing previously published chapters, and now it's seemed to have stagnated again orz

the reason for the original hiatus seems to have different answers depending on who you ask too? there were rumors matsushita ragequit for a while bc she wanted more raunchy content (for example, there is an infamous canon tentacle hentai scene) and the publishers were like "hey uh our magazine is aimed at teenage girls so can you not be so horny on main?" notably when it came off hiatus some panels that referenced this were no longer present, so that ones plausible. there's also another explanation that she broke her wrist and couldn't draw for a long time? it's been a weird and kinda mysterious sitch overall lol

i'm not sure how far you are in, and i'm assuming you've been reading viz, but uh..... in volume 2 they actually left out a major plot point by excluding one line lol. like it literally removes an underlying subplot for the rest of the series it.... was a super bad oops on their part

[krait]

for example, there is an infamous canon tentacle hentai scene

That is amazing and I need to find it immediately. :D (Okay, I probably shouldn't read it out of order.)

i'm not sure how far you are in, and i'm assuming you've been reading viz, but uh..... in volume 2 they actually left out a major plot point

Yep, these are Viz manga. That is a major oops, there! And I, uh, technically haven't started yet? Because I'm borrowing them, and I got sick so I didn't want to handle them while ill. On the mend now, though, and will probably get started tomorrow or Thursday. What was the missing line?!

[sinew]

lmao yeah it's.... something else. it was censored in the viz release lmao. there's another notorious scene of a student at a catholic school going down on someone and getting a cleaver to the head while jizz drips from his mouth... there's also a panel from a scene with muraki and hisoka where muraki's sucking a ghost cock... sex shit in the manga gets insanely graphic (when it's not content with very disturbing implications, such as tsuzuki having an incestuous relationship with his sister or muraki having been raped by his mom) for having been published in a magazine aimed at teenage girls so you're in for a wild-ass and possibly triggering ride? since this is like 13 volumes in comparison to a 12 ep anime the manga had more room to get super duper fucked up

lmao there are a few things that come off more like crack and filler that could go anywhere in the series and still make sense, but yeah it's probably better to read in order lol as much as i would absolutely love for you to get to kamakura bc it's my fave arc lmao

GODSPEED MINE FRIEND

i'm assuming since you watched the anime this wouldn't be a spoiler but i'm so sorry if it is? ;w;

the line was sagadalius directly referring to "hijiri" in tsuzuki's mindscape as enma further context on why this was such a big oops i guess? the line was in the anime, but since the anime skipped arcs it's not included that when one kills a demon that's a general in hell's hierarchy like sagadalius, the killer takes the general's place, and now tsuzuki's actually considered a general of hell complete with other demons wanting to claim that spot? so the removal of the line from the manga and the removal of that detail from the anime incidentally removed the subplot of the entire devil's trill arc being an assassination on enma's part to infiltrate hell, which then incidentally removed the subplot that his overall goal is possibly domination of all planes of existence. it's.... complicated lmao orz

[krait]

Half those things I have already encountered in fanfiction, though of course I couldn't confirm they were definitely canonical.

Fortunately all my squicks are weird things like 'food sex' and 'use of "baby" as a pet name' rather than, uh, ghost cocks? (I mean, incest is a squick for me with regard to shipping; but it's fine in a traumatic backstory kind of way.) And teen girls are some of the most hardcore people I know! Of course we want all the bizarre and messed-up smut. :D

Demons' hierarchy operating by Klingon promotion makes sense. Though I'd think in practice it would be very limited: If you don't claim your rank within 66 days this offer will expire! Act now to claim your benefits!! Given the whole Klingon-promotion thing, a rank you don't defend would surely be taken by somebody else as soon as they noticed. :D

Thanks for the spoiler! (And the warnings? Heh.)

Edit: missed the question at first, but yes, I've watched the anime!

[sinew]

lmao yeah i think in fic these aren't uncommon things to explore but matsushita just went hard from the get-go :,)

lmao at least it won't be an upsetting ride ;w; i don't know how else to describe it bc where there's supposed to be a dick it's just. white? :,) yeah tho, i think both are meant to be traumatic backstory sorta deals, so hopefully that won't be too troublesome? that's a fair assessment lmao

matsushita: i'm giving the girls what they want
her editor at hana to yume: okay but their parents are writing us angry letters so please try to stop being horny on main???

lmao like a wacky coupon except to use your coupon at checkout you gotta fight all the other ppl with the coupon

OH NO.......... i'm sorry.... orz

it's one of those things that since you're reading a particular version i thought the context would be more helpful ):

[krait]

i don't know how else to describe it bc where there's supposed to be a dick it's just. white?

Ahhh, the old Glowing Cones of Light! Wow, what a nostalgia trip, and speaking of 'old fan is old' there are probably a bunch of kids on Tumblr who don't even know that trope is a trope...

Hahahaha, that's probably exactly how that discussion went down!

editor: please try to stop being horny on main
natsushita: OK, but there's going to be 2x more cleavers-to-the-head kind of stuff.
editor: that's...
natsushita: teen girls want hot characters with porn and trauma! if you pornblock me, i'll just give them more trauma.


i'm sorry.... orz

No, I appreciate the spoiler! I am annoyed at the translators/editors for leaving it out, so now I don't have to miss it!

[sinew]

lmAO I HADN'T THOUGHT OF THAT....... there kids out here spoiled by hardcore uncensored porn and i feel like. like......

me, sitting on a rocking chair on my front porch and smacking my gums: [granny voice] back in MY day we had to download all our yaoi manga on irc channels and then the scan's weren't very good and we also had ghost cocks and we were GRATEFUL for that

THAT..... IS LITERALLY WHAT SHE DID THO... lmao oh man

matsushita: no more tentacle rape or rape in general? ok fine. i'll murder pokemon and babies
editor: ....come again?
matsushita: look if you won't let me keep this as a shoujo manga i'll have to make it a shounen manga. so here have graphically murdered pokemon equivalents and infanticide and also the makings for a war that's already involved kidnapping and implied genocide
editor: ...right. you sound super tired. so maybe you should take a break for about, oh.... how does over a decade sound?

ohhhhh good ;w; yeah keep an eye out for that it was... something incredible in a bad way lmao orz

[krait]

Haha, sometimes I feel like I should keep a rocking chair and cane handy for conversations with fandom younglings! In my day, we waited 15 minutes for a character shrine on Geocities to load, and we were GRATEFUL if they had ten images! You kids these days with your screencaps and HDTVS, you don't know how good you have it.

I admit, I kinda miss the weird trombone-through-a-sausage-grinder sound of dial-up internet connecting, on occasion. :D

matsushita: no more tentacle rape or rape in general? ok fine. i'll murder pokemon and babies
editor: ....come again?

Gotta give the audience what they want, right?? :D I mean, when I was a pre/teen girl, I was sooooo into survival narratives, Lurlene McDaniel's books, and Mercedes Lackey novels, so I feel like I know whereof I speak. :D We want ANGST and PORN, and we don't care which we get first! Matsushita has our number. :D

Also there can never be enough tentacle porn, especially with canon tentacles!

[sinew]

lmao oh man i feel exactly that way. dialup was so painful and the scans weren't very good quality either lmao. that sound was really iconic tho, i agree

"We want ANGST and PORN" THIS lmao she really did, clamp did too

to be fair it is few and far between to find a series that has this lmao