2020 Yuletide Fandom Promo Post

[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

Simoun (anime)

[reconditarmonia]

FANDOM NAME: Simoun
WHAT IS IT?: 26-episode anime.



In the fictional setting of this series, all people are born female, and choose to become a man or woman when they come of age. Maidens who have not yet chosen their permanent sex are the only ones who are able to pilot the Simouns, ancient aircraft used to draw magical shapes in the sky as a form of prayer. A Simoun flies with two pilots who need to kiss to make it go.

The protagonists' country is embroiled in a war with its neighbors, and the power of the Simouns has been repurposed as a weapon. The anime focuses on a "choir" or squad of Simoun pilots, who have a lot of differing views about their positions (are they priestesses or soldiers?) and reasons for being there (family tradition, not wanting to choose a gender, proving themself, protect others, etc.)

Among the main characters are Neviril, the leader of the team and respected priestess, whose confidence and mental health are badly damaged when her girlfriend/flight partner dies in battle; Aer, a new recruit who thinks of this all more as battle than as prayer, doesn't want to choose a gender, and is determined to fly with Neviril because she's the best; and Paraietta, Neviril's childhood friend and right-hand woman who wants to protect and look after her.

Warning for some attempted sexual assault.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: I really like that, in the mold of so many of the best epic yuri and/or shoujo animes, Everything Is Beautiful And Then Shit Gets Real and that's actually a theme of the series, with the characters grappling with what their position as sibyllae (priestesses/pilots) means to them and to others. On my most recent rewatch, I found the focus on the characters' agency to determine what being sibyllae means, and who they are, to be really meaningful.

I like that the interpersonal stuff (and there are several canon f/f ships as well as non-canon femslashy dynamics, and also a ship that gets a bit of screentime with one of the pilots and a trans guy mechanic) doesn't feel like a tedious distraction from the main plot - it feeds into it. There are some really compelling one-to-one and also group dynamics.

And it's a military anime with a kickass soundtrack where the lesbians kiss to make the planes fly.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): It's probably still on Kissanime/Gogoanime or similar, but Ebay has DVDs of the entire series for about $20.