2021 Yuletide 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>:


(Bonus optional: What are you thinking of requesting for this?)

EDIT:

Useful tips (Not required, but helps people if they want to engage with your fandom!):

- Mention what form of media the canon is. Is it a comic miniseries? Is it a twenty season tv show? Is it a book? Is it a twitter feed?
- Is it standalone or part of a series?
- It's best to make each fandom its own entry with its own title in the subject line! That makes it easier for people to find/see what you're promoting! Don't worry about 'spam', that is the entire point of this entry and you're using it exactly as intended.


For reference, last year's promo post!

Comments

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

[schadenfreudere]

FANDOM NAME: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Really fun demon culture/world building in a shounen series about an ordinary human boy getting adopted by a demon after his awful, awful parents carelessly sell his soul to get ahead.

But it's not all doom and gloom, his adopted grandfather spoils him more than he knows how to deal with, and thus, this hard-working, earnest boy who's been conditioned to never refuse a request and barely thinks of himself and his feelings is trying to navigate that. While also trying not to be discovered as a human in a school full of demons. The demon puns are amazing. The comedy is on point and it's not necessarily deep, but there's a lot of heart here. the adults are great and supportive and the kids are really cute.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT: Subbed and Dubbed on Crunchyroll

I Ship My Adversary x Me (我嗑了对家x我的cp) - PEPA (Web novel)

[valiantbarnes]

Fandom name: I Ship My Adversary x Me (我嗑了对家x我的cp) - PEPA (Web novel)

Summary: Despite a lack of interaction between actors Wei Yanzi and Gu Yiliang, fans have decided the pair secretly hate each other. The same day Wei Yanzi starts a new production, he stumbles across a part of the internet that - ships them? Conveniently, he and Gu Yiliang are about to work together for the first time! ...Perhaps less conveniently, Wei Yanzi starts to ship Niangzi as well.

(And by ‘perhaps less conveniently’ I mean: it works out well, this story is extremely light hearted and contains approximately 0 angst.)

A very sweet entertainment circle novel about a closeted gong x fudanshi shou.
And get overloaded with sugar everyday! <- is the summary given with the novel

What makes it great? This story is really funny! I absolutely cackle whenever I read it. It’s a comedy romance story with some commentary about fan culture. Neither main character puts much stock into fan opinions, truthfully (apart from when Wei Yanzi reads the 100+ page shipping manifesto and comes away like ‘Wow! Niangzi is real! ...Wait.’)

From memory… there might be a smidge of angst? But only of the yearning variety and nothing that isn’t cleared up fairly quickly. Some miscommunication trope but played through a very humorous lens. It is written in first person which I know turns a lot of people off (myself included, usually) but I’m really glad I gave ISMM a chance because this is honestly one of the most out right amusing and sweet novels I’ve read in a long time.

This story is 90-97% absolute fluff. If you’re having a bad day and need a pick me up? This is the novel for you!

Where can you find it? here https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-11051.html (where it's complete) and there's a translation available here https://blackbox-tl.com/novels/ismm/ where the translation is on chapter 40/47

Requesting: Will be requesting Wei Yanzi, Gu Yiliang and Little Chen (Who is Wei Yanzi's assistant and another amusing character.)

大唐女法医 | Miss Truth (TV)

[corvidology]

NOTE: If you're into Korean Pop, you may recognize Zhou Jie Qiong, who under the name Kyulkyung performed in I.O.I, Pristin and Pristin V and possibly some other groups.



There are lots of Cdramas with huge fandoms but I only seem to fall for the teeny tiny ones. This one has only one story posted at AO3 and it's only a drabble. I wrote it. *headdesk*

It comprises of 36 x 45 minute episodes and is available on youtube and Amazon Prime (included in subscription). It's also available on some iterations of Netflix and Dailymotion though you have to track down the individual episodes.

My favourite genre is mysteries, so I'm drawn to them in Cdramas as well.

Miss Truth centres around Ran Yan (Zhou Jie Qiong), a Tang Dynasty (yes, you read that right) forensic coroner. Disowned by her family in childhood as a jinx who brought about her mother's death (she grew up in a house in the yard of her parent's house), she was informally adopted by a coroner who taught her everything he knew. Her focus is on finding her mother's body so she can find clues to who murdered her. However, her family has decided it's now time to marry her off in a fashion appropriate to her family's station. Needless to say, she's against this idea.

That proposed marriage, however, is the 'B' plot. The 'A' plot is totally focused on solving a series of mysteries some of which link into a far bigger mystery although not all of them. The Ancient China forensic work is fascinating and the mysteries have a nice complexity to them without the writer cheating us out of the necessary clues. Also, there are various subplots of people up to no good.

Along the way she encounters Su Fu (Pei Zi Tian/Tim Pei), a shadowy assassin and Xiao Song (Li Cheng Bin/Toby Lee), a high ranking government official/detective both of whom have their own difficulties involving family, loyalty, obligations and position, just like Ran Yan does. I will say this show has period typical sexism but that those people are having to deal with Ran Yan.

Xiao Song is on the left, Su Fu on the right.


Is Su Fu dark and mysterious? Well, yes and I'll admit, objectively, he's a total biscuit with cheekbones you could use to slice bread. Meanwhile, Xiao Song is attractive, if not totally biscuity, but he's incredibly smart and funny and trades one-liners and insults with Ran Yan ("Miss Truth") in a Beatrice & Benedick style.

The supporting cast is wonderful, featuring Bai Yi, Xiao Song’s right hand man (Wang Yi Zhe) and Sang Chen, a scholar who's managed to skilfully avoid becoming a government official, despite always coming first in the Imperial Examinations (Lan Bo).

Ships? I ship Xiao Song/Ran Yan, Su Fu/Ran and Xiao Song/Su Fu for the dodgy frenemy bit, heavy on the enemies. I do not ship Xiao Song/Ran Yan/Su Fu but I can easily see where that would be a possibility. :D I also ship Bai Yi/Sang Chen and possibly Bai Yi/Xiao Song all of which is very odd to me because I'm almost always an OTP shipper.

You can find the eng sub trailer at youtube here

.

Playing God (2021)

[bramblesandrambles]

FANDOM NAME: Playing God (2021)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is my extremely rare longshot fandom this year, and I don't know how many bites it will get, but it's a lot of fun and a quick view and has Alan Tudyk and Michael McKean in it. It has a million unhealthy relationship dynamics going on (and some healthy ones!) and a lot of fun ways to approach the material.

It's an independent film about orphaned twin conpeople, Rachel and Micha, who are forever getting by via stealing. A mark of Micha's catches up with them, and now they have to pull a big con to make back double the $100,000 Micha stole from this person. They decide to target a grieving millionaire named Ben, who has crumbled in the wake of the tragic death of his daughter. Ben is on a never-ending quest to find God, and the twins promise Ben they can personally introduce Him to him - for a price. The twins turn to their mentor, the recently-paroled from jail and now working at a skating rink Frank, to literally play God. As Rachel wavers on her commitment to the con after making an emotional connection with one of her marks, Micha harbors a secret - and they both rely on Frank to help them keep things together.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): It's available for rent on all platforms for $3.99/.

Camp Counselor Jason (Webcomic)

[bramblesandrambles]

FANDOM NAME: Camp Counselor Jason (Webcomic)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:



It's an adorable and yet touching and yet bloody AU created by DuckTales animator Janie Lee in which little Jason survives his death by drowning and instead of following the path of villainy grows up to become a camp counselor at Crystal Lake. He make the other counselors nervous, becomes a close friend of Carrie White's, protects Crystal Lake from Michael Meyers, and unwittingly helps others dodge the more homicidal urges of his (also still alive) mom, Pamela. It's somehow adorable moving at the same time, and manages to cross over a lot of my favorite horror properties under a single umbrella.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Webtoons, Junkmixart's Insta and Twitter and Tumblr.

MORAL OREL (TV 2005-2008)

[naturepart1]

FANDOM NAME: Moral Orel (TV 2005-2008)

WHAT IT IS: Prematurely cancelled Bush era stop-motion animated dark 'comedy' religious satire. With that mouthful out of the way the basic premise is: 12-year-old Orel Puppington is an extremely Protestant little boy living in the extremely Protestant fictional town of Moralton, Statesota, USA. The episode formula is that Orel gets advice from an adult or hears a sermon that he takes to heart but misinterprets to various wacky results. It does this for its first 2 seasons before becoming, uh, a Twin Peaks-esque surrealist drama about the generational cycle of abuse and the abject failure of the nuclear family. And trust me, I'm a film major, so I do NOT compare things to David Lynch lightly. Creator Dino Stamatopoulos originally pictured it as “a ‘Leave It to Beaver’-style 1950s family comedy that would star Iggy Pop”. 43 11-minute episodes.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: WHERE TO BEGIN because i have never been so hyperfixated on something in my life. I literally made a dreamwidth account to make this post
- first please just look at him. Ultimate Son Shaped

- in general the art is FANTASTIC, im a sucker for claymation personally and this show is a shining example of it. you ever seen a first person POV shot done in claymation?? watch moral orel and you will
- really good voice acting. scott adsit is the king of my everything. also if you are neurodivergent you WILL start saying 'wow' the exact way orel says it
- good sound design overall....is that a weird thing to say lol. the music is also very good!!
- on that point: if you like The Mountain Goats or if you've ever made a tacky tumblr post about the song No Children you NEED to watch moral orel and think about orel's shitty parents because that song is one of three of theirs used in the third season of the show. it also used music from a lot of other small/independent artists of the time!
- hands down the most nuanced religious satire i've ever seen. the only one i've seen to take shots at the idea of organized religion and correctly identify the problem as the "organized" part, not the "religion" part
- the third season tone shift should have cemented this as one of the greatest works of adult animation of all time in my humble opinion. goes from already pretty good (dark) comedy to EXTREMELY effective drama
- on that point: some of the most genuinely terrifying scenes i've ever seen. ONCE AGAIN scott adsit king of my everything in the season two finale
- *puts on film major hat* makes a really REALLY compelling comment on the nature of episodic tv and the 'reset' by tricking you into thinking its a show that 'resets' after every episode and then pulling that rug out from under you VERY violently. and the way that its signaled by orel drawing attention to the frame in this very subtle fourth wall break...chef's kiss
- not one, not two, but THREE compelling and fleshed out queer characters!!!
- since im making an appeal to fandom i'd like to humbly offer up orel's dad to my Fucked Up White Boy Enjoyers as the worst and most fascinating example of that i've seen recently
- in conclusion. its really good

CONTENT WARNINGS: i don't recommend this to anybody who gets emotionally upset by fictional depictions in general because it touches on a lot of sensitive topics both in the context of comedy and the context of drama. it was a contemporary of south park and though its a LOT more tasteful imo consider that as a warning. What I will say though is that it has very heavy themes throughout of child abuse and alcoholism. season 3 episode 4 also is about sexual assault. if you want more in-depth episode by episode content warnings feel free to shoot me a message!! i think thats a feature of this site lmao

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): are we allowed to say pirating? because i pirated it pretty easily. i think its also on HBO Max and Hulu. theres also someone who's been uploading hd episodes to youtube recently so you can probably find them there too

Requiem of the Rose King

[nyanja14]

FANDOM NAME: Requiem of the Rose King (薔薇王の葬列 | Baraou no Souretsu)

So, this is a manga (soon to be anime too!) that basically asks "What if Richard III was intersex instead of hunchback and everyone was much queerer? And also everyone was pretty?"

It loosely adapts Shakespeare's plays Henry VI (Parts 1-3) and Richard III, adding slightly more fantasy elements, expanding on character motivations, and prioritizing emotional turmoil for both the characters and the audience. Basically, it's a fanfic of a fanfic (since Shakespeare was writing RPF lol.)

The manga is currently up to 15 volumes in Japan (and ending soon). The 14th volume of the English translation will be published in October. An anime is set to air early 2022.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This manga has got it all: epic historical fantasy, court intrigue, deliciously messy queer characters, the ghost of Joan of Arc, wonderfully villainous women, mistaken identity, loyalty kink, a cute albino boar, major character death, really unhealthy relationships, gender politics, dumb amnesia subplots, daddy issues AND mommy issues, all of my tears...

What I love most about it is how well the author makes me invest in the characters and care about them even though I know full well that this is a tragedy, and it's gonna end badly for 99% of the cast. Plus, she does a great job of taking what makes Shakespeare's plays so entertaining and translating it into a longer form that's way more accessible than the play's text is to modern audiences. You can tell she loves the plays a lot, but it isn't afraid to put her own twist on things. It really feels like you are reading a top-tier fanfic that is both a love letter to the original AND an improvement on it.

It's need to be said that this is a dark story, and the portrayal of queerness (among other things) is mega problematic. But that is also part of what I like about it. This Richard III is by far my favorite transmasculine character from any media because he is so RAW in a way that authors tend to shy away from depicting nowadays.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): The English manga is published in print and digitally by Viz Media; you can find it wherever books are sold. (Also, I'm sure illegal scanlations for the series exist online, but I've never looked for them.)

[lirazel]

FANDOM: She Who Became The Sun is a novel by Shelley Parker-Chan that was published this year. It's the first of a series (I think maybe just a duology?) but it's the best of both worlds because it has a satisfying arc of its own but also introduces all kinds of characters and themes I can't wait to explore further in future book(s).

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This book is an epic fantasy retelling of the fall of the Yuan dynasty and the founding of the Ming dynasty in 14th century China. It is, in essence, the origin story of the Hongwu Emperor...if the Hongwu Emperor was even more complicated than history suggests. That makes it sound kind of dry, but it’s a riveting read. It’s a story about people trapped by their circumstances and social positions fighting for agency in their own lives and the prices they pay to attain it. The characterization is brilliant, the plot is twisty, and the fantasy elements work well. It’s beautifully written, perfectly paced, and incredibly queer.

Like...really queer. Both of our mainest of main characters are gender non-conforming (one is a eunuch, the other...well, you'll see) and have super complicated relationships to the gender expectations of the world they live in. There's not a ton of romance in the book, but what is there is definitely not straight.

I don't know enough about 14th century China to know for certain that the rendering of the era is fantastic, but I suspect it is fantastic. This is a fantasy novel, but the fantastical elements are so well-blended into the historical stuff that I'm frankly impressed.

If you like Chinese historical dramas, epics focused on politics and war as experienced by well-drawn characters, or non-Western fantasy, you'll love this.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: bookstores and public libraries in Anglophone countries, presumably you can order it off the internet or buy an ebook if you're elsewhere?

[shadaras]

I've heard that it'll be a duology, yeah!

I'm very excited to see She Who Became The Sun in Yuletide! :D

[rabidsamfan]

Fandom: The New Avengers (tv)
Category: TV Shows
Comments: After the original Avengers went off the air, an effort was made to bring John Steed back to the small screen in 1976 and 1977. This time he had two companions, Purdey, played by the beautiful Joanna Lumley, and Mike Gambit, played by Gareth Hunt. The show was a little more serious than its predecessor, but that didn't stop it from having evil masterminds, killer robots, and Rodents of Unusual Size running around the sewers of London. For witty repartee, seventies fashion, spies, and adventures (despite a couple of unfortunate cases of CharlieChanChinese) this is definitely the place to go.

There's an episode guide here: https://sharetv.com/shows/the_new_avengers_uk/episodes/307474
It's not streaming right now, and most of the DVD sets are ridiculous, but this one for region two isn't too bad. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Avengers-Collectors-Edition-Region/dp/B000HEVTKE/

[serephemeral]

FANDOM NAME: Top 5 Rat Movies I Made Up - JP Brammer (specifically, Legends of the Great Below and Gym Rat)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: On December 4, 2020, author, advice columnist (¡Hola Papi!, and prolific Twitter user JP Brammer wrote a newsletter that ranked 5 films about rats. These films were entirely constructs of his imagination and do not exist in the world. The newsletter provides plot details and critique of each film.

There's Ratz, "a film that set out to be a fun, tongue-in-cheek critique on how we market products to young girls but got tampered with along the way. It’s Bratz, but instead of humans the girls are rats." And ¡Ándele!, a "gritty, live action Speedy Gonzales movie nobody wanted." And Rat Girl, "a movie about a girl living in New York City and she has a long rat tail...a dimly lit slice-of-life movie about a millennial girl living a relatively normal life in Brooklyn." These are all genius and hilarious, but I've specifically nominated the final two films in the collection: Legends of the Great Below and Gym Rat.

Legends of the Great Below is a fake rat movie that sounds charming and delightful and I'm angry it doesn't exist. It features rats living below a real-world metropolis ("the above place"), and living fantastical, sword-wielding lives at that. There's an awesome girl rat who wants to become a knight like her dad, and family drama, and at least one awesome British rat played by a "powerhouse like Ian McKellen or Ewan McGregor." It's a film about letting go of narratives that hold us back and finding our own truth. It has a mead hall. And "the coloring book slaps." It's a film that I very much wish existed in real life.

Gym Rat is...oh god how do I even describe this? A heartwarming bro comedy about an insecure rat named Jim who sees a flyer for a human gym and thinks that getting shredded will solve his problems. He forges a relationship with Vinny from Jersey Shore, who agrees to train him, but then they become actual friends...and maybe more?! HOMOEROTIC BRO TENSION...IN A FAKE RAT MOVIE...BETWEEN A RAT NAMED JIM AND VINNY FROM JERSEY SHORE. Is this not a thing of beauty?

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Top 5 Rat Movies I Made Up.

[wolffyluna]

Oh my goodness this is s cool and so my thing. Thank you for recommending this, I'm definitely going to consider requesting it.

She Creature (2001)

[derwent_f]

FANDOM NAME: She Creature (2001 TV Movie)

NOTES: Aside from the title, it has no other connection with the 1956 movie.

WHAT IT IS: Lily Shaw pretends to be a mermaid at her husband's travelling carnival. When they stumble into an actual mermaid, her husband steals her from her owner, an old gentleman. The two take the mermaid and sail to America, convinced that this will be their big break ... Except that the old man wasn't lying when he warned them about how dangerous the mermaid is.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: The femslash! The mermaid is canonically obsessed with Lily, and there's a delicious enemies-to-allies(and more!) dynamic to their relationship. The mermaid lore itself is ripe for worldbuilding, given their supernatural abilities and culture.

Spoilery CW: female infertility, consent issues due to one partner being possessed, gore

Request: I nominated 4 characters: Lily Shaw, Lily Shaw's Daughter, Mermaid, and Worldbuilding. I'm planning on requesting Any, opting in to Lily/Mermaid shipping. For Worldbuilding, mostly about the mermaids and people's encounters with them.

Stellar Firma (Podcast)

[laughsindistortion]

FANDOM NAME: Stellar Firma

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: SF is notorious for being difficult to describe, but to put it simply its an improv comedy podcast produced by Rusty Quill and set in a cyberpunk future in which planet design consultant Trexel KGK Geistman and his unlucky clone assistant David 7 are assigned planet commissions sent in from clients (audience members) which they have to come up with unique designs for... Unfortunately Trexel is chronically late, drunk, rife with emotional problems, distractable, and incompetent, and usually leaves them both about 20 minutes to bang something out before the deadline. And if they don't meet the deadline or fail to impress their line manager, Harto Piltz , Trexel will be punished and David will be "recycled" (meaning killed dead). Also an all-powerful ai named I.M.O.G.E.N. will shoot them if they step out of line. And David was literally born yesterday. Good luck!~

Stellar firma is full of dark comedy, queer characters, banter, an intense hatred of capitalism, terrible people, and total nonsense. (Also David 7 is a he/they nonbinary which endlessly delights me.) Its 76 episodes long spanning abt 18-30 min long. Theres also an album (Cabernet Night At The Cosmic Lounge). There are fanmade transcripts available on the fandom wiki through a link on each episode page (https://stellar-firma.fandom.com)

Here's some out of context clips! - https://youtu.be/iik-YMLe2tk

Trigger Warnings generally include emotional abuse, alcohol abuse, past child abuse, and some violence here and there.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: the Rusty Quill website, basically all podcast websites, and youtube.

Das Geheimnis der Druiden | The Mystery of the Druids (Video Game)

[rasrowthechaos]

FANDOM NAME: Das Geheimnis der Druiden | The Mystery of the Druids (Video Game)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Basically, it's an old-school point-and-click adventure game, and it isn't good, which is exactly what makes it awesome. Nonsensical plot featuring a morally ambiguous protagonist (who literally poisons a beggar to steal his last pennies and stabs his loyal companion to save the world)? Check. Moon logic puzzles that you can't beat without a guide (otherwise good luck restarting the whole section because you have accidentally softlocked yourself)? Check. Cheesy dialogue with unironically good voice acting? Check.

Intense rivalry between two British detectives who are trying to outsmart each other with a snappy line? While one of them is literally floating above his seat? Oh dear Lord check!



So yeah, it's a bit trash, but at least it's hilarious. Sometimes even intentionally.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: The best part is that you don't even have to play the game to enjoy it. It has already been played by MandaloreGaming, and he made a comprehensive review that perfectly summarizes the whole stuff. I can't recommend this enough, it's even better than the actual game.

And, if you're truly interested in playing it, you can easily find it on Steam and GOG. Word of note: the GOG version is much more stable than the Steam one.

Love Nikki (Video Game)

[varanu]

FANDOM NAME:奇迹暖暖 | Miracle Nikki | Love Nikki (Video Game)
WHERE CAN I FIND IT: Apple Store or Google Play store, look for "Love Nikki Dress UP Queen"
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

This is a dress-up paperdoll game with the most RIDICULOUS premise. You play as Nikki, an ordinary girl who has been spirited away to Miraland, a world where wars and physical violence have been replaced with FASHION BATTLES. But something dark lurks at the heart of Miraland, and violence may not be as far away as everyone thinks... As a budding stylist, Nikki makes friends, travels through Miraland, and gets caught up in absolutely absurd political intrigues that the game itself takes 100% seriously, and eventually convinces you to take seriously as well.

(Reader, I cried. Over a dress-up game. While picking my outfit. The storytelling is much better than it has any right to be.)

Disclaimer: Love Nikki is technically a gacha game. The gacha components are very gently pasted on, I play for free and I've gotten 100% of the plot and 95% of the gameplay (the other 5% is PvP ranking events), but if you're susceptible to gacha you may still want to avoid this one.

2 very different book fandoms!

[katherine_tag]

I'm going to copy pasta my promo post from last year because both of these fandoms deserve more love.

FANDOM NAME: To the Hilt - Dick Francis
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Dick Francis was a master mystery writer, and this one is no exception. He was a jockey previously, and all of his books have horses in them, sometimes tangentially to the murder and sometimes key clues. This one concerns Alexander Kinloch, a reclusive artist that gets embroiled in a dangerous plot as he tries to save his ailing stepfather's bankrupt brewery. Along the way he enlists the help of a private detective with a penchant for disguises and they have some serious 'onscreen' chemistry.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: This was published in 1996, so you're pretty likely to find a mass market paperback in a used bookstore (if you're going to bookstores these days). A new copy is nine bucks on bookshop.org. Otherwise, there is a kindle version, or you can try your local library (of the four libraries I have cards for, all four have paper copies, one has the ebook, and one has the audiobook).

There are less than 10 stories on AO3 for this, two of them by yours truly. Help a girl out!

FANDOM NAME: HENCH - Natalie Zina Walschotts
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Not only is this an evisceration of the gig economy, it is a serious exploration of the cost of heroism. With superheros (and supervillains). And it's FUN. The main character is eminently relatable, all the characters have depth and humanity, and I really enjoyed all the worldbuilding. This is a fun sandbox to play in, folks.

tldr: Kind of like "The Boys" (Amazon show), if the characters were actually, you know, likeable.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: This was published last year, and the paperback is out now ($16 at bookshop.org). Two of my libraries have paper copies, three have ebooks, and two have audiobook versions as well. Get a library card and put a hold on this book ASAP!

This one is even tinier on AO3 - only three stories, and yes, you guessed it, two of them are by your girl right here. It would be super fun to nominate worldbuilding for this one, I think. I had already decided on my three fandoms, but I'm sorely tempted to switch one out for this book.

Re: 2 very different book fandoms!

[amphipodgirl]

Oooh, To the Hilt is one of my favorite Dick Francis novels (a longish list of course). And I hear you on being the one to write most of the fic in a fandom you've nominated -- I've written 1 of 2, 3 of 5, and 1 of 4 for the fandoms I've nominated.

[nonesensed]

FANDOM NAME: The Books of Ambha - Tasha Suri

WHAT IS IT?: A fantasy duology with a setting inspired by Indian history and mythology.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: What I love most about these two books (Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash) are the characters. They're both underdog stories, and I immediately ended up rooting for the main characters. But as if that wasn't enough, Tasha Suri is really good at writing villains you love to hate! I couldn't wait for them to get what was coming to them.

My second favorite thing about this book is the world it's set in. The magic, the mythology, the social challenges the characters face - you're told just enough about it to follow what's going on, without it grinding the story to a halt.

Thirdly, the romantic sub-plots (m/f) are such a big part of the overarching plot that sub-plot really isn't a fitting term, though I wouldn't categorize these books as romance novels either (nothing wrong with romance novels, just don't want to mislead anyone!) Basically, you both get a "smash the magical xenophobic patriarchy" plot and a romance plot in one serving :)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: In most bookshops and libraries. Goodreads link.

[seal_nonnie]

FANDOM NAME: Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart
WHAT IS IT: 3 300-400 ish page books. (There's also a prequel and sequel to the trilogy, but my requests will be focusing on Mysterious Benedict Society, Perilous Journey, and Prisoner's Dilemma
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Four smart kids must work together to save the world!
The main four are all different types of smart, and they have realistic flaws, interpersonal skills, and risk assesment abilities for kids their age. It's also well established why the only choice for stopping Curtain is the kids. The main four protagonists are Reynie, an orphan who is good with puzzles and languages; Sticky, a runaway with an eidetic memory; Constance, the most stubborn of the four; and Kate, who ran away from an orphanage to join the circus. She's the most physically adept of the four, carrying a number of useful objects in a bright red bucket attached to her belt, and also has some deeply buried abandonment issues.
The main adult characters are also a lot of fun. You have Mr Benedict (which the titular society is named for), who recruits the main four; he's narcoleptic and occasionally falls asleep laughing at his own jokes. There's also his two adoptive daugters who he met during previous attempts to recruit a team, Number Two (who rarely sleeps and looks a bit like a pencil) and Rhonda (who looks young enough to pass as a teenager), and his ally Milligan (a master of disguise who, in the first book, suffers from amnesia).
There's some really nice puzzles and plays on words in the book, and the books have a nice sense of peril to them.
Found family! The four start off the book alone, but they don't end that way.

[seal_nonnie]

FANDOM NAME: Mysterious Benedict Society - TV
WHAT IS IT: Disney+ adaptation of the first Mysterious Benedict Society novel, consisting of 8 hour-long episodes
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: There's a bigger emphasis on the adults (including Miss Perumal, Reynie's tutor/future adoptive mother, who has a much larger presence in the plot) in the show compared to the book; I particularly liked Rhonda and Number Two's relationship. Benedict and Curtain's backstory has been changed slightly, and the show uses this change to good effect for some angst.
Martina Crowe character arc! Martina's a minor antagonist in the books, but she's a bit more fleshed out in the show, and even comes to the rescue at the end! I also really enjoyed the character dynamic she and Kate had, which brings us to our final point:
Kate/Martina shippiness - there's a big emphasis on Martina trusting Kate/viewing her as her only friend. Also tetherball, which is surprisingly homoerotic.

[evil_plotbunny]

FANDOM NAME: Bluey (Cartoon)



WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: The show centers around Bluey, a six-year-old Blue Heeler, her family and friends set in an AU Queensland, AU, populated by dogs who mostly act like people. Dad's an archaeologist who mostly works from home, Mum works airport security. There's a rich cast of characters including extended family, teachers, schoolmates and long-suffering next door neighbors. The adults are snarky, creative, and not always right (and sometimes they're the ones learning a lesson from their kids). The whole show is a love letter to the imagination and ordinary joys of childhood. It will make you laugh, cry and more often than not
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Yes, it's a preschool show, but it's the sort of preschool show with an active reddit channel, featuring multiple posts per week asking "am I strange if I like this preschool show despite being a teenager/an adult/not having small children?"

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional):
Official Bluey Page
Offical Youtube Channel
It's on ABC in Australia, Disney+ & Disney Jr. in the US and various other channels in other countries.

Zombillenium (Bande Dessinée)

[carpe_noctem]

FANDOM NAME: Zombillenium (Bande Dessinée)
MEDIUM: Comic
LENGHT:: 5 volumes (4 currently released in english + 1 in french)
WHAT IS IT?: A critique of capitalism which uses monsters to portray class struggles, but also directly tackles things like unionization and the speculative nature of the stock market. Though the director of the eponymous park, Francis, had the best intentions when opening the park and intended it to be a place where monsters could live without being persecuted, the need of money to keep it running eventually lead to the involvement of both human and demonic investors — with the humans demanding profit and the devil demanding souls, it quickly became an exploitative workplace where workers choose between either being stuck in a terrible job for all eternity or being sent to hell.

The comic itself follows Gretchen, a witch and an intern at the park whose sole objective is that of making it close and saving the souls of everyone who ever signed theirs away, including her mother.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: It has gorgeous vector art, the characters are flawed but endearing enough that you care about what happens to them, and it has plenty of hilarious moments between the drama and social commentary.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: The comic’s english release is currently available online via https://www.comixology.com/Zombillenium/comics-series/10432 , and there are hardcover versions available through retailers like amazon.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF REQUESTING?: Jaggar/Francis. In vol. 3, Jaggar is sent to the park in order to improve the way it runs (basically, make sure it sends more souls down to hell). While Francis represents a well-meaning boss who finds himself forced to participate in a system that he knows is ultimately bad because he sees it as a necessary evil, Jaggar represents ruthless capitalism devoid of any moral compass except the aim of coming out on top. The way they’re opposites is even reflected in their designs!

Japanese Local Hero City Mascots

[spikedcoffee]

FANDOM NAME: Japanese Local Hero City Mascots
MEDIUM: Live action
LENGHT:: 30min~4 hours (for the particular characters I'm planning to nominate. There are dozen of LHs in Japan so you can spend a considerable amount of time just getting familiar with them all.)
WHAT IS IT?: Local Heroes are essentially Japanese mascots meant to promote places and activities (for example ‘come visit Fukuoka’ or ‘don’t forget to brush your teeth after every meal’), which they do through stage shows, photo ops, talks, etc. Some develop very intricate backstories and relationships with each other, basically becoming brands of their own.

Shuraomaru is an immortal wandering ninja who became a monster as a result of trying to become powerful enough to strike down evil and while he yearns for human warmth, he finds it easier to just push people away, and nowadays he mostly spends his time selling his services to the highest bidder. Tiefedorf is a former god who now serves the King of Darkness and seeks to revive him by making humans give in to the their dark side and join the Black Forest, and his elegant demeanor hides a brutal nature as he tries to rid the world of the remaining gods and their chosen warriors.

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Hot people in gorgeous costumes, obscure Japanese pop culture and tokusatsu meet to form a canon that's far better than its initial concept might lead you to believe. Also, lots and lots of homoerotism.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: In Shuraomaru and Tiefedorf’s case, all of their important stage shows have been translated. The one where they appear together explains enough to be watched on its own, while the rest serve to explain their backgrounds and relationship with their respective heroes.

Required viewing: Stage show featuring Shuraomaru and Tiefedorf together
Extra content: https://lvlh-hub.dreamwidth.org/

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF REQUESTING?: Shuraomaru/Tiefedorf. Because of the short format of stage shows, a lot of ideas presented go unexplored in detail, and I would absolutely love to read any and all of them. Basically, we know they spend time together even when we don't get to see it, so what do they do?

Barbie: Star Light Adventure (2016)

[lady_ragnell]

FANDOM NAME: Barbie: Star Light Adventure (2016)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: For a toy tie-in movie, there is so much to love in it! It's a science fantasy story where the stars are slowly dying and there's a mission, sponsored by a king, to fix them. The chosen team trains, goes through highs and lows, and general does as one would expect. But wait!

There is some gorgeous setting and creature design (other than the merchandise tie-in creatures, I can only apologize for those):


The team is sweet and bonds quickly, and their training and bonding sequences are pretty fun. There's a pilot, some telepathic twins who control gravity, Barbie herself, who hoverboards and has some singing-related telekinesis, and Sal-lee, a competitive hoverboarder who is tough on the outside and much less so on the inside:


Sal-lee starts out treating Barbie like a competitor, though Barbie is a fan of her hoverboarding skills, but they bond quickly and then it is all about the mutual respect and late-night conversations:



Also, the king who leads the mission is a fun antagonist, and I am still finalizing my character nominations aside from Barbie and Sal-lee, but it may well be King Constantine and his robot boyfriend assistant, Artemis:


If you like team adventures, brightly-colored optimistic sci fi with cool setting design, plots without real villains even if they have antagonists, plot-relevant music, or any of the things pictured above, consider giving this movie a try!

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): It's available most places streaming movies are, and if you search for it on YouTube, at least in the States, there's a playlist of it split into pieces.

Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up with a Mythical Sorceress!

[penguinzero]

FANDOM NAME: Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up with a Mythical Sorceress!
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Feminist power fantasy where sexist jerks and patriarchal power structures are overcome with courage, mutual support, and fireballs.

Some background: in 2018, a major scandal rocked Japan's medical schools. First the prestigious Tokyo Medical University, and then numerous others, were found to have been altering female applicants' exam scores for over a decade, to make them less likely to be admitted. They justified this with sexist excuses like 'boys tend to be late bloomers' and 'women are just going to leave the profession to get married anyway, so better to train men who'll commit to their career.' Numerous applicants who'd been rejected over the year sued for compensation, and women who'd been rejected in recent years were hastily admitted.

Light novel author Ameko Kaeruda saw this, and was outraged -- and decided to write a fictional story about a world where something more could be done.



In the kingdom of Pajan, a powerful mage named Tanya Artemiciov has just gotten the crushing news that her adventuring party, led by a childhood friend of hers, is firing her. The ostensible reason? It's a pretty dangerous job for a girl, and anyway, isn't she about the right age to be getting married and settling down now? (The real reason turns out to be that her childhood friend wants to bring in a younger, more scantily-clad mage he thinks he can score with.)

Infuriated, Tanya goes out to a nearby wasteland to blow off steam with some fireballs, and ends up accidentally releasing an ancient sorceress of immense power, Laplace, who's been imprisoned there for centuries. Laplace, amused and impressed by Tanya's power, takes her under her wing -- and starts helping her expand her powers, learn the truth about the sexist propaganda she's been swallowing all her life (as it turns out, women exposing more skin does not increase their magical power), and helps her found her own adventuring party, Lilium. Together, they'll get back at the sexist jerk who kicked Tanya out, dismantle the unfair mage academy examination system that discriminates against women, win the national adventurers' tournament, topple the misogynistic wizard who rules the country from the shadows, and be there to support and aid all kinds of women in need, including each other.

The story is unabashedly all about the frustrating feeling of being in a world that's skewed against you from all directions -- and the fantasy of being able to overturn the systems oppressing you with a fireball or by making the old men in charge terrified of you. And also the fantasy of being able to be there to support the other women and girls being ground down by the system, and have them there to support you. The women of the story are all different, but all sympathetic, from Tanya and Laplace, to the healer they recruit who's running from a traumatic past, to the country's figurehead princess, to a young girl determined to get into mage school despite her impoverished background, to even Tanya's replacement in her old party (who initially buys in to the whole idea that adventuring's just a way to snag a man, but eventually comes around to having her own goals and pride in herself).

There are also distinct romantic hints between Tanya and Laplace (mostly from Laplace's side, but with indicators that Tanya's not uninterested), but they're not the core of the story -- you can write a wonderful romantic tale about them getting together, or just leave them as friends and partners who are working together to smash the patriarchy and be there for each other as they do.

It's also a perfect excuse to vent against any sexist part of the world that bugs you (goodness knows there's no shortage of those), from something personal and individual all the way up to the big scandals. Corporations that foster a culture of sexual harassment, bans on women's health procedures, transphobia, guys who talk over women -- you name it, you could probably find a way to make a version of it in Pajan and have our heroines take it down.

It's a story that's unabashedly political, amusingly straightforward, emotionally honest, and all about empowerment, both physical and emotional. It's entirely cheesy and amusingly awesome all at once.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): J-Novel Club has links to places to purchase both digital and physical versions.

Deadly Class

[gala_apples]

FANDOM NAME: Deadly Class
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: First, a quick plot summary. Set in the 1980's, a homeless, believed to be serial killer teenager gets invited to attend a school for assassins. The boarding school has two factions, those who are the next in line to head gangs or are government aligned, and the 'rats', teens handpicked for their circumstances. Marcus, the main character, did NOT actually kill a few hundred people, but surely any bed is better than another lonely night on the streets?

-If you're into aesthetic, the main characters are various flavours of punk, emo, and goth. Music, fashion, and belief systems of the MCs are all centred around 1980's counter culture.
-If you're into multi or poly shipping, there's a love triangle easily solved with poly, an actual threesome, and essentially any character could be shipped with any other character(s).
-If you're into found families, lemme repeat that Marcus joins a murder boarding school because he's LONELY. This show has bonding road trips, covering up murders, group revenge, and multiple instances of saving each other's lives.
-If you're into animation, most episodes have a cartoon scene that delves into the angsty back story of different characters.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional): The show is one season. In Canada it streams on Crave, I think it's on Amazon Prime for Americans, not sure where to find it in Europe. (ETA: it appears to be on Youtube for rent?) There are also comics, but I don't know how in line with the show they are, and I'm definitely nomming the show specifically.

And if you're more of a visual person, here's a trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktVKG1mTmGk

Re: Deadly Class

[(Anonymous)]

this looks great! and oh my gosh, is that Lana Condor? thanks for sharing!

Letterkenny

[gala_apples]

FANDOM NAME: Letterkenny
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: As the opening screen of each episode says, there are 5000 people letterkenny, these are their problems. The town has some basic cliques; the farmers, the skids (drug users) and hockey players, and a lot of the show is about how these different sets of main characters interact. One of my favourite things about this show is how each group has their own very distinct dialects. Here’s a great takedown by two of the hicks to two hockey players.

https://youtu.be/9rSBmOgpcDE

Similarly, the show is great at running bits, and wordplay.

https://youtu.be/qAdTZcGeEQg

One of the really cool things about this show is the sexual diversity. There’s a swinger couple, a hypersexual pansexual bartender, a gay preacher, and at least one queer character in each clique. A scene that made the rounds on Tumblr of the two main hockey guys making friends with two gay guys (who appear multiple times in later seasons)

https://youtu.be/uG2blKU8O5k

As much as I love Wayne and Daryl, (who I also ship) I’ll be nomming Reilly, Jonesy, and Katy. I love the early season canon poly, and despite the later breakup, can see the trio working their shit out in any of the seasons.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): In Canada it’s on Crave, I’m fairly certain it’s on Hulu in the US.