2019 Fandom Promo!

[crantz]

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

Suggested form to use:

<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:
<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional)</b>:


For reference, last year's promo post!

This post on LJ

Comments

Ringu/The Ring

[sonofgodzilla]

FANDOM NAME: Ringu/The Ring

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Hey, have you heard that story about the cursed video tape, the one where, if you watch it, you get a phone call and then you die in seven days? Yeah, I thought you probably had, that story was everywhere in the late '90s, right? But then the internet happened and we didn't hear much of it anymore, we were too into scaring ourselves with stories of Candle Cove and hacked Pokémon carts, right? But, you know, you can still find those tapes, if you know the right people. Someone said that it got uploaded to the internet once and people were trading it around as some kind of experiment, but I don't believe that any more than I believe the curse was some kind of virus or that we're all living in a simulation or whatever kind of Roko's basilisk nonsense that was. I don't know. It's hard to know what to believe nowadays.

In the '60s or '70s, there was some kind of play in Japan and that's apparently where the story of the tape comes from. The play itself was based on that old French film, Eyes Without a Face, but the lead actress—well, there was some kind of scandal, they said she was the daughter of some spiritualist who killed a journalist in some experiment years ago, then they said that she was intersex, but, whatever, happened, she was never in anything again. It's kind of sad.

A couple of nights ago, you know, I had a strange dream. You were with me. In it we both looked the same, and when I looked around, I realised that everyone around was just like us, that we all were the same. I haven't been able to sleep right since then.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): In bookshops and on amazon. All of the books except for one of the new ones have been translated now (I think) and published by Vertical. The translation is often very dry so you might have better luck reading the comic adaptations from Dark Horse. And, of course, there's the films, of which Anchor released a Blu Ray box set this year. You can get that on amazon or anywhere, I'm sure, same with the American films. There's also a Korean version, which is pretty good, and, if you're super dedicated, a Dreamcast game! Enjoy!

[firegang]

FANDOM NAME: Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Karen Aijo, chipper girl and peppy theater kid, gets drawn into the world of Revues, metaphorical Fight Club that happens in her school's basement. Her classmates fight in the Revues in order to become the Top Star (and what the Top Star entails is spoiler central). At the same time, she grapples with her childhood friend Hikari re-arriving into her life and the fact that Hikari really doesn't want her to fight in these Revues.

Revue Starlight is a one season, twelve episode anime. It's self-contained, full of beautiful animation, and some damn catchy music. The show is like if Revolutionary Girl Utena got run through a theater club filter. There are allegorical plays. There is a literal giraffe. There are secret backstories. There is a slight metacommentary on the nature of theater and the role of the audience.

And there are a buttload of lesbians. One pair of lesbians has a dramatic train station confrontation. One lesbian essentially damns herself to benefit another lesbian. One lesbian is obsessed with another lesbian and expresses this by trying to brain her with a mace during one of the Revues. A different lesbian is also obsessed with another different lesbian and expresses this by being tsundere as hell and declaring that she's the only one allowed to beat said lesbian in combat. Each of the girls is fun, has a distinct personality, and occasionally has a 'surprise! she's secretly ruthless!' reveal, but I suspect whoops, all lesbians is a pretty solid selling point.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): Subs and dubs can be legally streamed through HiDive and VRV. Or, if you do a few googles, you can easily find a few other ways to obtain it.

[firegang]

FANDOM NAME: Confessions of Dorian Gray
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Confessions of Dorian Gray (or CODG) is an audio drama series, with episodes ranging from 7 minutes to 2 hours. The basic premise is: what if at the end of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian didn't die but instead spent the next 150ish years in various monsters of the week type scenarios, intersecting with different literary & historical figures, and getting himself caught up in myriad supernatural nonsense?

For the most part, each episode is a stand-alone story. Series 3 is a full storyline, the Series 4 Christmas specials directly pick up where s3 left off, and Series 5 is call-backs to some previous characters, but Series 1, 2, and 4 are all comprised of stand-alone episodes. These episodes feature plotlines like the following:

- Dorian visits a dying Oscar Wilde and discovers that the wallpaper might be literally trying to kill him.
- Dorian gets a vampire boyfriend in the 1980s. Sadness ensues.
- Dorian and Sherlock Holmes team up to deal with an unexpected character from Dorian's past.
- Dorian grapples with a serial killer stalker who knows of his immortality.
- The bodyswap episode.
- Dorian fights a golem with Dorothy Parker!
- Dorian meets his doppelganger, decides to try domesticity, and blurs the lines of dubious consent something fierce.

CODG's version of Dorian Gray has immortality and a remarkably fast healing system, so there's a lot of fun gross noises as Dorian heals from things like falling off a building and getting his heart literally ripped out. This series features a lot of 'oh hey, it's that guy' type of British actors (Alexander Vlahos, Hugh Skinner, Sean Biggerstaff) as well as some Doctor Who/Big Finish regulars (Lalla Ward, Katy Manning, Miles Richardson). This series also features a lot of potential trigger warnings, such as body horror, dubious consent, drug use, and gore. Feel free to drop a comment or shoot me a PM if you're interested in the series and want to know more about specific actors or triggers.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): All episode can be found on Bigfinish.com. The prices range from free to $3 for a stand alone episode to around $15 for a full season. You do need a Big Finish account to download the episodes but if you're interested, poke around on coal for a little bit before making an account (wink wink nudge nudge).

John Everett Millais, "Trust Me"

[mme_hardy]

FANDOM NAME: "Trust Me"

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Well, just look at it. The guy is demanding to read the woman's letters. She's probably his much-younger wife, but she could be any other woman under his roof: sister, daughter, ward. In this milieu, he has the absolute right to read her letters, so there's a delicate tension here. Is he right? Are the letters somehow incriminating? Or is he wronging her? Or is she hiding them because they're, like, about a space alien. Or a vampire. Or a vampiric space alien.

Man, I love story paintings.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): Look up!

March Comes in Like A Lion

[barcode]

FANDOM NAME: March Comes in Like A Lion (３月のライオン)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It's nominally about shogi (Japanese chess), but really about FEELINGS? 



By the author of Honey and Clover, so every bit as heart-felt, charming, and relatable as you'd expect. 

So this shogi prodigy, Kiriyama Rei, has gone pro at a young age, mostly just so he can get away from home and support himself on his own. Professional shogi matches are brutal, his opponents are geniuses and all have their own reasons for wanting to win, and he doesn't even really know if he likes playing shogi (being a teenage boy he's never even really thought about it), it's just the only place he has in this world. 

That's probably why he's also trying to go to school at the same time, carve out a normal life, and finds himself imposing more and more on the wonderful, warm, Kawamoto family, spending time at their house and getting wrapped up in their lives and struggles. 



Every character has depth. Teachers, rivals, even animals have their own internal monologue (mostly about food). We'll be rooting for Kiriyama one match and then suddenly we're seeing the opponent's backstory like how he also raises racing pigeons... We delve into the backgrounds of many other professional shogi players this way (and what the hell is wrong with them all that led them to this insane career path). 

The pacing and storytelling is, dare I saw it, PERFECT? It's just so well put together, there is never downtime, just character development. 

Also, I don't know anything about shogi, and I still find the matches enjoyable and wish to see more.



WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: The manga can be acquired by normal manga means. The two-season anime follows the first 8 volumes (~83 chapters) of the manga extremely closely, is beautifully animated and voiced, and is available on Netflix. 

[ambyr]

FANDOM NAME: Charlotte Cushman and the White Marmorean Flock RPF

WAIT, "MARMOREAN"? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?: It means "resembling marble," and "the white marmorean flock" was Henry James's (not very complimentary) nickname for a group of female expatriate sculptors living in Rome in the mid-ninteenth century.

SO WHO'S CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, THEN?: Not a sculptor. Charlotte Cushman was a world-famous actress who was the social center for that group of liberated women. And by "social center" I mean "a lot of them lived with her and/or slept with her."

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Let me start by introducing you to Charlotte Cushman (all links go to Wikipedia pages unless otherwise stated), born 1816. Her father died while she was in her early teens, and she became the primary financial support for her family. She tried opera, transitioned to theater at age 18, and struck gold with a debut role as Lady Macbeth. What she was most known for, though, was playing male roles ranging from Romeo (her younger sister starred opposite her as Juliet) to Hamlet. She was quite possibly the most well-known actress of her day.

She also had romantic relationships exclusively with women--relationships which were quite public, often overlapped, and tended toward the dramatic. (One of her partners, writer Matilda Hays, ended up essentially suing Cushman for alimony after a complicated love quadrangle involving sculptors Harriet Hosmer and Emma Stebbins. They settled out of court.)

The drama is fun, but what fascinates me most about Cushman and her social circle is that they were a social circle: that is, that they existed in a female-focused community and supported each other at their art. One of the people Cushman supported (and one of the four people I nominated) was Edmonia Lewis, who may or may not have been romantically into woman (if she was, she was a lot more discreet about it than anyone else in Cushman's circle) but was one of the very first women of color to achieve a reputation as a sculptor in the classical Western tradition.

TL;DR: Are you interested in women making art, living their best lives, saying fuck you to convention, and writing passionate romantic letters to each other? Then you might be interested in reading more about these women--and, maybe, writing me something about them.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: The Wikipedia articles above have lots of source links, but Cushman's memoir (edited and published by Emma Stebbins, link goes to free Archive.org version) is also a good place to start. There's also a couple biographical works that I haven't read: Sisterhood of Sculptors: American Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rome and When Romeo Was a Woman: Charlotte Cushman and Her Circle of Female Spectators. And I've found some academic articles with information of interest, including "The White, Marmorean Flock" (The New England Quarterly, 1959) and "Networking in Italy" (Women's Studies, 1988).

The Salton Sea -- The Best Neo-Noir (and Dark Comedy) You Never Saw

[devilc]

FANDOM NAME: The Salton Sea
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:
This movie has it all -- it's a great tale of revenge, it's got some great action scenes, it's deeply existential and asks some dark questions about the nature of self, the entire cast is "that guy", it's beautifully shot, and it's also pee-pants funny in several places.

It sounds like it should be an all over the place hot mess, but it's not, it's something of a cult classic (Beware, spoilers!)

And it's also a very sweet love story, and I don't mean our Main Character and his dead wife, I mean our MC and his relationship to Jimmy the Finn, who thinks he's the best person, ever, and they are like just a beer or three (or a few lines of crank and a little privacy) away from doing the bump and grind.

Or, if you want to go to the bad dirty wrong place, crooked cop Gus Morgan really has an unhealthy fixation with our MC, and oh, the places that could go.


WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): If your local library doesn't have it, it is avalible on Amazon, both as a DVD and as a download.

Here, the first hit is free

Taliessin through Logres - Charles Williams

[raspberryhunter]

FANDOM NAME: Taliessin through Logres - Charles Williams
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: If you are looking for a numinous but also honestly somewhat wacko mashup of Arthuriana and Christian theology, look no farther. Charles Williams, the Inkling no one has heard of, wrote highly symbolic and theological poetry about King Arthur and his court in which Byzantium represents the City of God/Empire of God. It's beautiful and complex and with a lot of big ideas as to what the function of poetry and poets are, what the function and meaning of kingship is, how the building of the kingdom of God can be flawed from the beginning, how salvation occurs even within these flawed contours.

(from "The Crowning of Arthur")
So, in Lancelot’s hand, she came through the glow,
into the king’s mind, who stood to look on his city:
the king made for the kingdom, or the kingdom made for the king?
Thwart drove his current against the current of Merlin:
in beleaguered Sophia they sang of the dolorous blow.

(from "Taliessin at Lancelot’s Mass")
Over the altar, flame of anatomized fire,
the High Prince stood, gyre in burning gyre;
day level before him, night massed behind;
the Table ascended; the glories intertwined.

In addition to all that, Williams is also just plain weird sometimes. For example, the Big Bad Evil, contrary to the Emperor and the City of God, is -- I am not making this up -- a headless octopus somewhere around the Pacific. There are also such great bits as a love poem to Bors' wife Elayne's thumbs. (It's a great love poem which I like a lot! But also Williams is obviously a bit weird!
O lady, your hand held the bread
and Christ the City spread in the extensor muscles of your thumbs.)

(My friend also tells me I have to put in this line:
loomed the gruesome great buttocks of Augustus his love
I swear he didn't mean it the way it sounds. Though, hm. But that ship may be for another time and a more historical fandom.)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): It is out of copyright in Canada! Link to Taliessin through Logres poetry.. Additionally, The Arthurian Torso is an omnibus containing (a) Charles Williams' description of Arthuriana (honestly, you can skip this if you already know about medieval Arthurian texts) and (b) C.S. Lewis explaining the poetry. Part (b) is probably important to read at least parts of if you want to have any idea what's going on :) In fact it might actually make sense to read this first before reading the poetry.

Unfortunately The Region of the Summer Stars (the sequel) does not appear to be out of copyright yet, but most of the major poems are in Taliessin through Logres.

(My print copy of Arthurian Torso also has Taliessin through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, but the online version appears to have split it up.)

[doranwen]

FANDOM NAME: Earth Girl Trilogy - Janet Edwards

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

- Archaeology! and some Space! and possibly Aliens! All in the same set of books! (But mostly futuristic archaeology)

- YA trilogy, easy to read

- talented, somewhat impulsive, strong-willed female protagonist

- intriguing secondary characters that you'll want to know more about

- a YA set of books that is more utopian than dystopian (if you're tired of depressing stories about the future, this is the trilogy for you!), but there are still social problems to overcome

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): The author's website gives some possibilities for purchasing them. They can be obtained as both physical and ebooks at various places.

[eglantiere]

FANDOM NAME Fuck Them All - Mylene Farmer (Music Video):

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Are you looking for a great five minutes fandom?

It's a beautiful, unsettling music video with a catchy theme that's rife with either f/f or f&f or just general identity porn potential. Who are those two women, the redhead in the cage and the redhead with the sword? How are they connected? Are they the same person? Sisters? Friends? Lovers? What is it exactly that happens - with the cage, and with the crows, and with the sword - and can it happen differently, or better, or worse, or at all?

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: right here!

[the_wavesinger]

FANDOM NAME: The Shoes of the Fisherman - Morris West

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Religion, politics, and slashy subtext!

It's a novel about a new Pope (who is an outsider to the Vatican administration, and was only recently appointed a Cardinal in absentia) being appointed.

The writing is pretty great, and the author has done his research and knows what he's doing, so the Vatican politics are very well-written and interesting. You don't need to know very much about Vatican politics or Catholicism to get what's going on, IMO.

While the characters are surrounded by petty people and while they do not-very-nice things, they're also very idealistic people, so 'Vatican and world politics in the early 1960s' is not as depressing as it sounds, and the overall tone is very hopeful from beginning to end despite the angst and despair.

The Pope himself--Kiril--is very human, and he's been through a lot, and he's a very fun character because he's very wry and self-aware. The 'ordinary' characters are also wonderful and angst all over the place. The characters struggle with their faith a lot, and all of them (even the Pope) do or have done awful things at some point in their lives, but the narrative presents them very sympathetically, partly because the main PoV character is Kiril, and he's a very compassionate person.

There's also a lot of slashy subtext between the Pope and his former torturer, as well as the Pope and a priest who's looking to get his book approved by a Vatican review board (and the subtext becomes outright text at points), and there's a lot of iddy loyalty kink if that's your thing. Considering that it's a book about the Vatican written in the 1960s, I was surprised by how frankly and non-judgmentally homosexuality was discussed, even in the case of a married man having an affair with a politician's (IIRC) son.

(Fair warning, though: it's progressive for its time, very progressive, but some of the attitudes are still very dated, especially wrt misogny. It's also obviously very religion-heavy.)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): Available in Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon. Also available from Barnes & Noble, probably at many other bookstores, and possibly at your library. Also available for free online at Open Library.

[staygame]

FANDOM NAME: Love or Hate

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Love or Hate is a Korean webtoon written by Youngha and illustrated by Bakdam. The series follows Lee Haesoo, a cynical writer, and Choi Joowon, a famous actor, who met as teenagers when their parents got remarried. They initially do not get along as stepbrothers, but soon begin a sexual relationship that continues after their parents divorce. Things get even more complicated when Haesoo meets a mysterious photographer, K. If you like enemies to lovers who are also still enemies, codependent relationships, and beautiful art, give it a try.

(Content notes: Frequent explicit sexual scenes, an ongoing sexual relationship between former stepbrothers that began as teenage stepbrothers, a somewhat dubious sex scene in Chapter 19....honestly some of the other scenes may be considered a little dubious considering the way Joowon and Haesoo interact with each other. Just a heads up!)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): The series is available for purchase on Lezhin in English up to Chapter 44 (at present) and up to Chapter 48 in Korean. (The series is also available on Mangago and probably some other ripped websites.)

鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer

[grayswandir]

FANDOM NAME: 鹿鼎記 / The Duke of Mount Deer (TVB, 1984)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

Well, Andy Lau and Tony Leung, for one thing. :D

If you're into Asian cinema, you probably know them as two of Hong Kong's top film stars. You may or may not also know that they both started out on TVB in the early 80's, doing slightly ridiculous low-budget dramas with flimsy props and dubious period costumes. The Duke of Mount Deer is a particularly shiny gem.

    

The premise: Two boys meet one day on the grounds of the palace court at Beijing, circa 1650 or so, and become wrestling buddies. Both of them are hiding their real identities. One is actually the young emperor of China, while the other is a mischievous trickster kid who grew up in a brothel and is now being used as a spy... by rebels who want to overthrow the empire.

Most of the story takes place after they've more-or-less cleared up who they really are, as their friendship (or whatever kind of -ship it may be) gets increasingly complicated by politics. Meanwhile there's other crazy stuff going on all over the place (assassins, secret books, buried treasure, a kung-fu nun)... but everything always seems to circle back to drive the conflict between the maturing emperor, who is trying to hold his kingdom together, and his problematic fave Wai Siu-bou, who would rather be getting up to hijinks somewhere.

  
 

(One thing to note just as fair warning: Wai Siu-bou has a lot of trivial character flaws, but also some serious ones, like his tendency to treat women as mere possessions or prizes with no personal agency. What's worse, the show itself seems totally non-critical of his behavior. Possibly a deal-breaker for some, so just letting you know!)

After I first watched this series, I wrote up a ridiculously thorough screenshot-illustrated recap, which is naturally full of spoilers but might be worth a glance if you're wondering whether the show is something you'd be interested to see. :)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?:

Well, if you happen to understand Cantonese or can read traditional Chinese subtitles, the whole series is available on TVB's official YouTube channel, here. It's 40 episodes long, and each episode is about 40 minutes.

For English subtitles, try this link. Or, if that doesn't work, message me. :)

For a Mandarin dub or different subtitle options, or if you'd simply like a hard copy, you can also find the series on eBay, in various DVD box sets that are probably all bootlegged.

The Renegade X series

[rodo]

FANDOM NAME: The Renegade X series by Chelsea M. Campbell

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: So first off, the general premise of the series is a little flimsy: there are people with superpowers in the world, and superheroes get a H on their thumb when they turn sixteen, while villains get a V, due to some weird science shenanigans. Anyway:

The main character of the series is Damien Locke. Damien is about to turn sixteen and has his life all planned out: he's going to go to villain school and follow in the footsteps of his evil scientist mom and cool villain grandpa. At least that's the plan, until he turns sixteen and instead of a V an R appears on his thumb. And so instead, Damien finds out his dad is the superhero he and his best friend/ex-girlfriend love to mock on TV, his mom makes him stay with said dad and his family (including a very annoying sister that's barely any younger than he is and a step-mom who killed the grandfather of the ex he still has feelings for) to have more time for her evil schemes, he makes a new friend in school who really probably should aim for a career in evil science but wants to be a hero instead, and to top it all off, his dad is super sure that Damien has inherited his power (flight), even though Damien is so afraid of heights he has trouble going up the stairs.

And that's just the start. The series has a host of really compelling characters and interesting family relationships, all the while exploring a society where heroes and villains and superpowers are the norm.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Amazon would probably be your best bet, since except for book one, the series is self-published.

[carpe_noctem]

FANDOM NAME: Spacelords

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Do you like badass yet morally ambiguous people shooting each other in space? Does an immortal metalhead mercenary that sold his soul to someone that might or might not be the devil sound appealing to you? How about a bratty hacker with questionable fashion choices that gets manhandled by basically half the cast?

If you answered "yes" to those questions, then Spacelords is the canon for you!

Spacelords is a f2p brawler/shooter that follows the "Raiders of the Broken Planet", a group put together by the alien Harec in order to fight back against the human invasion of his planet. Unfortunately for him, he can't really be picky in his situation, so he's left with a crew made up by basically the worst their corner of the universe has to offer — from people openly hostile to him that are only in it for the chance to kill as much as possible, to former members of the invading force that he basically had to kidnap and subsequently blackmail.

Worse yet, the humans' arrival awakened a dark force that was sealed for thousands of years, and now it wants revenge...

The game's cast is easily its strongest point, and I want to bring your attention to Lycus and Schneider in particular, who have a hardcore rivalry going on because Schneider once stole Lycus' favorite mixtape and threw it away. Which obviously means that they're 100% the best ship in the game (seriously, though, Lycus once cockblocked himself by being too busy thinking about Schneider. It was great.)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): The game is free and available for steam, PS4 and Xbox. However, I have also compiled some relevant info here — basically, it's almost everything pertaining to the characters of Lycus and Schneider (sans some weapon/emote descriptions), including the game's cutscenes, so it should be enough to familiarize yourself with the lore!

Trash of the Count's Family

[qikiqtarjuaq]

FANDOM NAME: Trash of the Count's Family | 백작가의 망나니가 되었다 - 유려한

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: This is a gen novel, featuring a Korean man who gets transported into a fantasy novel as a minor character (Cale) who gets beat up in the first chapter of the book. He starts with a small goal of not getting beaten up. Which then led to him planning for the upcoming war so he and his family could stay safe, and in his quest to retire a rich slacker, he accidentally ends up gathering a team of friends & heroes who go around saving the world.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

• Adorable baby dragon (and two kitten shapeshifters) who spend all their time roasting Cale for being a weakling


• Everyone misunderstanding Cale, thinking he's being modest, or being silently stoic and self-sacrificial, while his inner monologue is all about trying to find the easiest task for himself and having others do the heavy lifting. He's constantly trying to tell people "No, I'm not interested in your secrets" which unfortunately causes people to trust him more and embroil him into more plots. He is a good guy at heart, though, which is why once he finds out about something, he'll still strive to do the right thing even if it means not being lazy.


• Crown Prince Alberu's friendship with Cale is probably the most hilarious in the book. Alberu was written to be a kind of quest-giver NPC, so he's very skilled at sitting in the back while making others do all the legwork for him. He immediately sees a kindred soul in Cale, and dislikes him immensely for it. So many of their interactions are mind games trying to throw hot potato tasks at each other, it's great. They do eventually warm up to each other and become genuine friends. (And I ship it a lot.)


• Grumpy ancient dragon who got dragged into this mess and spends his time figuratively yelling at clouds sighing fondly about kids these days

Caveat: Translation and book is a WIP, and at 300+ chapters of 2-3k words per chapter, it's a lot of words. But it's a light, addictive read and a very heart-warming adventure!

WHERE CAN I FIND IT? Wuxia World (English Translation with daily updates - requires a free account to read more than 50 chapters a day)

Eternal Love

[mnemehoshiko]

Fandom Name: Eternal Love

Quick Synopsis: A xianxia drama, so expect lots of fantasy, magic, immortals, demons, spiritual cultivation and martial arts. The story focuses on Bai Qian and follows her throughout several stages of her life over tens of thousands of years as she fights epic battles, falls in love (multiple times), suffers, and triumphs. The plot is fairly complex and hard to explain fully without spoiling everything, so I won’t spell it out in full detail, but the primary focus is her romantic plot, with a bonus secondary romantic plot between two additional characters that is also quite excellent.

What Makes It Great: Do you like Older Woman/Younger Man dynamics? This will feed you. Do you like Older Man/Younger Woman dynamics? This will also feed you.

The romance(s) are central to the plot and are taken extremely seriously (while still having lots of light and playful hilarious moments). They both go through so much development with lots of angst (for those who love that), but ultimately end on a happy note (for those who need that).

It’s got very rich and sprawling fantasy/mythological worldbuilding that lets both canon and fic writers play around with quite a lot of freedom and exciting avenues to explore.

It also features: take charge women, stoic men experiencing several soft emotions, single dad house husband, courtly intrigue, and beautiful disasters.

Bonus: Pokemon. Don’t ask. It will become clear within the first few episodes.

Where you can find it: Netflix, YouTube, and Viki (in increasing order of how good the subtitles are, according to general consensus)

Backstage Pass (Visual Novel)

[mnemehoshiko]

FANDOM NAME: Backstage Pass by sakevisual

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Do you like visual novels? Do you like stat builders? DO YOU LIKE FULLY VOICED VISUAL NOVELS? Do you like imagining you're a talented up and coming makeup artist in the entertainment industry? (do you like blond British men) IF ANY OF THESE HOLD TRUE, YOU SHOULD TRY BACKSTAGE PASS. But for real though, I love this game. I love the growth of Sian Goodin from an awkward girl with an anxiety disorder from Hawaii to a confident young woman who's invested in her career and can also find love along the way.
(I'm...also starving for Sian Goodin/John Brandon content. Like please. My crops are dying.)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: The game is available via STEAM but it costs money. ALTERNATIVELY, there are LETS PLAY on youtube!

The Poppy War - R. F. Kuang

[mnemehoshiko]

FANDOM NAME: The Poppy War

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Do you like non-Euro based grimdark fantasy? Do you like obviously extensively researched yet never tedious non-Euro based historical fantasy? DO YOU LIKE INTERROGATIONS INTO THE IMPACTS OF
- Colonialism
- Shadism
- Classism
- Imperialism
- Politics
on society during war? WITH BONUS SYMBOLISM??? Do you want to see the path of good intentions that creates a monster? DO YOU WANT TO SEE ALL OF THIS WITH A FEMALE PROTAGONIST??
Alternatively, do you like suffering and going "oh baby no" whilst reading a book?
If so, YOU SHOULD PICK THE POPPY WAR!!!!!
More specifically, pick up The Poppy War so I have more people to cry over my children with. Particularly, Fang Runin (i.e. Rin) and Yin Nezha as they are probably going to destroy each other.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?</>: YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE/LIBRARY/WHERE EVER YOU ACQUIRE BOOKS/EBOOKS

On a Sunbeam (Graphic Novel/Webcomic)

[shadaras]

Fandom, as per ao3: On a Sunbeam (Graphic Novel)

What it's about:
Mia just graduated high school and can't find a job, so she joins a salvage/repair crew that's basically a family and learns about these people and the job. In the past, we learn about her time at boarding school, focusing on her best friend (and girlfriend!), a strange girl named Grace Hill. These two storylines come together as Mia wonders what happened to Grace and asks her new family to help her find out. It's a story about found family, love, and exploring strange and beautiful places in a science fantasy universe.

Where you can find it: It's freely available as a webcomic! However, it's also a graphic novel published by First Second that was shortlisted for the graphic story Hugo this year, if you prefer paper copies.

Why it's great:
- Literally everyone in the story is a woman or nonbinary and this isn't commented on at all.
- BEAUTIFUL art
- There are really cool games in-universe? A team game where you fly around collecting orbs, and an RPG.
- All the spaceships look like fish. It's rad.
- Weird fantasy stuff IN SPACE!
- Found family! Queer relationships!
- Very cool worldbuilding about Weird Space!

Elsewhere University: A 15-minute webcomic fandom

[calenlily]

FANDOM NAME: Elsewhere University

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Do you like weird faerie shit? Do you like weird college shit? Do you like modern folklore? Then you’ll love Elsewhere University!

Elsewhere University is a webcomic about a university on top of a faerie hill, where the walls of reality are thin and belief shapes reality.

Want to pick up a fandom quickly? The entirety of the official canon is two comics of less than 10 pages each, Elsewhere University and Elsewhere University - Groundskeeping’s Addendum.

Want a rabbit hole you can fall down for days? The artist has officially declared it an open universe, and there’s a whole Tumblr full of asks and submitted stories, fortunes and prophecies and bits of community-created lore, and as much or as little of it as you want can be considered canon.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): In above links

So Weird

[tigerlily]

FANDOM NAME: So Weird

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: So Weird is a late nineties to early 2000s Disney show focused on a young girl looking into the supernatural while traveling with her mom the rock singer and the rest of her family. She has a website where people can send her things. It's a bit like The X-Files, with Fiona as the believer and the rest varying along a continuum of skepticism. There's even a sad family backstory, with her father having died before the events of the series. It's a children's series, spooky not that scary, with warm, adorable characters you care about. The third and last season replaces Fiona with another girl, Annie, as the actress left the show, but the only character in the tagset is Fiona.

If you like a bit of the turn of the century era feel, this is reminiscent of The X-Files (as mentioned above) and early Buffy. It's got heartwarming relationships and weird things things happening. It's also one long road trip, so you get to see different places in the United States.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip

[tigerlily]

FANDOM NAME: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a high fantasy book, starring a sorceress who can talk to legendary animals and has a whole menagerie in her mountain home. Sybel lives in isolation with the animals, wanting to call a particular beast whose name she cannot find, until one day the struggles of the human kingdoms below land her with a baby she fosters, and she gets dragged into human politics in a way that tests her very spirit. Sybel is the only character in the tagset. She's a white-haired lady, doesn't tend to display emotions, and she mostly wants to just keep pursuing her sorcerous interests.

If you like very lovely prose, isolated female characters, and gorgeous fantasy world, you might really enjoy this book. McKillip's books always have this, well, fantastic feel with the writing, and I love her characters.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): The book has been published several times, and you may be able to find a paperback, audiobook, or ebook version in your library or a store. It appears to be available for the Kindle, the Nook, and on the Kobo app.

Romeo x Juliet

[tigerlily]

FANDOM NAME: Romeo x Juliet

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Romeo x Juliet is the story of the two warring families, the Capulets and Montagues...in the sky! Verona is a floating city and there are pegasi, or dragonhorses. In this anime, the Capulets were taken out by the Montagues except for Juliet, who now lives disguised as a boy...who is also the Red Whirlwind, a vigilante who fights for the people against Montague oppression! She sneaks off to a ball to accompany her friend and meets Romeo, right before she finds out she's the last Capulet heir and must lead their allies in a fight against the Montagues. The characters in the tagset are Juliet and her cousin Tybalt, who in the anime has underworld connections and really has a personal grudge to settle with the Montagues.

If you like pseudohistorical fantasy and anime, with tragic drama and blatant but sweet romance, you might like this! There's also a mix of little Shakespeare references here and there, including Juliet knowing the playwright. I like both the Japanese and the English dub; if you watch the English one, the speech tries to sound a bit theatrical, so check it out if you think that might appeal to you!

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): It was released by Funimation, and can be bought as DVDs or viewed on Funimation's site or app if you are subscribed to their service.

W.I.T.C.H. (Cartoon)

[tigerlily]

FANDOM NAME: W.I.T.C.H. (Cartoon)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Based on the comic of the same name, but with a different take on the story, this show is about five ordinary girls becoming magical guardians with elemental powers and who look like fairies with striped tights. The initial story arc has them fighting an evil prince and his minions, who are searching for the lost princess and rightful ruler so as to drain her powers. The only character in the tagset is Cornelia Hale, the guardian of earth. She's proud and stubborn but very devoted to those she loves, like her best friend Elyon, the lost princess.

If you like magical girl adventures interspersed with some school stuff, or like one of them and don't mind the other, give this a shot! The stories are fun and the friendships are nice. The second season was run by Greg Weisman, that guy known for the Gargoyles show, if that tempts you.