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

[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!