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

[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!

[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;