New Year, New Fandom

[marsdragon]

Or, the post-Yuletide fandom promo post.

Now that the hustle and bustle of Yuletide is over with, maybe you're looking for some new fandoms. Or you want to sell people on fandoms they might not have had time to get to during the season. That's what this post is for. Basically, it's another fandom promo post.

So why use this one? After all, we already had a fandom promo post back in September. My concept was that this would be for fandoms that didn't get into the first one. Maybe you got into it after signups - or even because of Yuletide. Maybe you didn't think anyone would want to get into that 80-hour RPG, five-season series, or doorstopper novel with Yuletide bearing down on them. Or maybe you just plain forgot. Well, here's your second chance!

Or if you just want to remind everyone about your awesome canon, that's cool too.

The suggested format is basically the same as the regular promo post:

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

For a bonus, you might consider adding what exchanges you're planning request/offer it in the coming year.

Comments

[primeideal]

FANDOM NAME: Remembrance of Things Past / Three-Body Problem, book trilogy by Cixin Liu. (The first novel in the trilogy is called "The Three-Body Problem," and in the original Chinese that's the name that a lot of fandom uses.)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Phenomenal sense of scale--really zooming in and out to show you how small humans might be in the larger universe, but also, how humanity can endure and create a legacy despite that. The trilogy starts with the brutality of the Cultural Revolution and ends millions of years after the end of the solar system as we know it. Along the way there are scenes like the siege of Constantinople, an ant crawling on a tombstone, fictionalized versions of historical Earth scientists in a video game simulation, etc.

A few caveats/anti-recs. Content warning wise, there's a lot of large-scale death and destruction, as you can imagine, as well as murder of some important characters. Many cases of suicidal ideation. Also, Liu can be kind of weird about gender. Not in the sense that women are flat characters: some of the main, well-written and complex characters, with believable strengths and weaknesses, are women! However, there are a couple places where the characters espouse thoughts like "men are brave and manly and ruthless, women need to be emotional and have mothering nurturing influences or they'll turn out bad at womanhood," in a way that feels kind of weird and unnecessary. I think the books are fantastic despite these issues, but caveat lector.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): The English translations should be pretty widely available, it's also in Chinese, and probably other translations too.

A couple other related recs:

"The Circle" (short story that appears in some anthologies) is an edited version of one of the chapters from the first novel in a way that works as a standalone. This might give you a good feel for whether you like Liu's version of omniscient narrator/hard SF themes, without the commitment of a doorstopper.

"Ball Lightning" is a standalone novel, but it's in the same continuity as the trilogy, set early-2000s. (Apparently in the originals the plot of "The Dark Forest," the second novel in RoEP, references it more directly, but this subplot didn't make it to the translation.) I enjoy it, with the gender-related caveats above.

"The Redemption of Time" is a follow-up to the trilogy, originally fanfiction but then got semi-canonized by the publishers. I don't think it's quite on the same level, but if you finish "Death's End" wanting a lot more about the character Yun Tianming and what he was up to when off-screen, there is a semi-official canon!

audiobook

[xmarksthespotwhereistand]

There is also a pretty good audiobook version available.

[natsinator]

FANDOM NAME: Legend of the Galactic Heroes

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: LoGH has basically everything I've ever wanted in an anime: a huge cast of compelling characters, a really engaging and cohesive plot, and some interesting things to say about like history and human nature. It gave me an unshakeable case of brain worms when I watched it for the first time. Its main draw for fic fandom is probably its major "as close to being on screen canonically gay as you could plausibly get in a science fiction anime made in the early 90s" couple, but it's also worth watching because it's one of the best animes ever made :p Even if you don't typically like military space opera, if you like media about Guys Who Have Problems, you will probably enjoy LoGH.

To give it a comp title in english language media-- it's somewhat similar to Dune

LoGH is a very small but very engaged fandom, as well (mainly active on twitter), and everyone I've met in it has been super nice. There's tons of really high quality artists for it, though the fic scene is a little slower, it's been gaining some traction over the past couple years.


WHERE CAN I FIND IT: LoGH is many pieces of media all covering essentially the same story, originally written as a series of 10 novels by Tanaka Yoshiki. All have been translated into English and can be found fairly easily at most online booksellers.

the most famous adaptation is the early 90s anime series, which had 3 movies, 110 OVA episodes, and a 50 episode prequel spinoff series. all of these can legally be watched on Hidive, but are not difficult to find elsewhere.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These is a modern adaptation of the same novels and is currently on its third season (airing in march iirc)

there are also two manga adaptations, but I believe only one of them has been translated into English.

What I'm planning to offer for it: I am a fairly regular producer of LoGH fic, and I am most definitely going to be offering it for Yuletide next year, and there's a LoGH-specific secret santa event that I'll also be participating in. I'm not super familiar with other exchanges, but if I see one that would be a good fit, I'll try to offer there :)

[marsdragon]

FANDOM NAME: Ashita no Joe/Tomorrow's Joe (/Rocky Joe/Champion Joe/Success Joe)

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:

BOXING WILL DESTROY YOU

Ashita no Joe is one of anime's great masterpieces. It started as a manga from Ikki Kajiwara and Tetsuya Chiba that inspired a generation of young Japanese people. Then it got partially adapted as an anime by Mushi Productions under the directorship of Osamu Dezaki, and then the rest was adapted as a second series from TMS Entertainment, also directed by Osamu Dezaki. Through it all, it's the story of Joe Yabuki and his struggle to become a great boxer/actual adult.

Joe starts off a down-and-out young man in postwar Japan, a vagrant and a drifter with nothing to his name but a strong punch. A washed-up drunk of a boxing instructor, Danpe, sees him punch out a yakuza and decides then and there he's going to turn Joe into a boxing champion...if Joe wants to or not.

Well, to put it bluntly, Joe is more into it because Danpe promised to feed him. Then he punches out some more yakuza, runs a bunch of scams, gets into fights with the cops, and eventually gets sent to prison where he meets actual professional boxer Toru Rikiishi, the first person to knock Joe out with one punch. And that's where Joe's life changes, because he can no longer ignore boxing or Rikiishi. What follows is a sweeping story of Joe trying to find a path when the system is against him, and also where he's kind of against himself.

Ashita no Joe is, in a lot of ways, the origin of fighting anime, back when they were still sports anime. The angry outcast hero, the superior rival, the homoerotic rivalry, the rotating cast of other fighters, most of that gets laid down in Ashita no Joe. But even if you don't like what fighting anime turned into, Joe is a great story about a young man on the outside of good society fighting to find his place. It's incredibly stylish, it sounds great, and all the characters are fantastic. It's 126 episodes and they're all worth watching. I can't think of another anime where I can say that. Ashita no Joe is amazing. Please watch it.

Oh and there's lots of shipping potential. Joe and Rikiishi lay down the fundamentals of the shonen fight rivalry so if you even slightly like rivalships, you'll like this. Megalobox was based on Ashita no Joe and while it's not a substitute, if you liked Megalobox you'll probably love this.

One warning: there are two spoilers that are "Darth Vader is Luke's father" level, so if you don't know them and want to be unspoiled just...don't look up any information on the internet. And don't forget, BOXING WILL DESTROY YOU

WHERE CAN I FIND IT: The first series is only available through fansubs (Saizen-HnG) and is where you'll usually find your anime fansubs. The second series was temporarily on Crunchyroll, but has since been taken down and is archived (HorribleSubs) where you'll usually find your anime fansubs.

The first movie is available on Blu-Ray through Discotek and streaming through RetroCrush (as Tomorrow's Joe). The second movie is coming out on Blu-Ray from Discotek sometime this year. But really, watch the series. Both of them.

The Girls I've Been - Tess Sharpe

[reflectedeve]

FANDOM NAME: The Girls I’ve Been - Tess Sharpe

WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Nora O’Malley is, to all appearances, a relatively normal teenage girl. She lives in a small California town with her much older sister Lee Ann, has recently started dating a cute girl named Iris who loves vintage fashion and true crime, and is struggling with some friction with her best friend and ex-boyfriend, Wes, who wishes she wouldn’t keep things from him. However. When the three of them get caught up in a bank robbery/hostage situation gone wrong … let’s just say that things might have gone a bit differently for a normal teenage girl.

Nora O’Malley has only existed, technically, for about five years. Before that … there was a grifter and her daughter, the perfect accessory who changed identities to suit each con they pulled on the criminal men her mother targeted. That is, until she fell for one of them.

Fortunately, her older sister, a private eye and prior survivor of her mother’s lifestyle, had been working for years to get her out - and once she succeeded, with a little help from (and manipulation of) the FBI, the pair went into hiding and became Nora and Lee Ann O’Malley. It might be a little late to be quite normal, but they could at least be family in a way they’d never been with their mom. (And if Lee Ann had to use, betray, and abandon Marjorie North, the FBI agent she fell in love with mid-con, well, it was a price she’d been willing to pay.)

Now, Nora just has to get herself, her girlfriend, and her best friend out of a volatile situation alive … fortunately, she has a few unusual tricks up her sleeve.

It’s a tense, enjoyable YA thriller themes around identity, relative morality, surviving abuse, and found family/building a life for yourself out of the ashes of the one you've left. And of course, canon wlw. Content warnings for child abuse, gaslighting, and grooming - including mentions of CSA.

And if you’d like to see my requests for the tragic love story of “Lee Ann” and Marjorie, and/or an expansion on the intense, complicated bond between the sisters and the way they make a life together after their respective traumatic histories, not to mention barely knowing each other … well, you can see those here! ;)

WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Bookstores, libraries and e-book sellers of all kinds! The book came out in 2021, so it’s pretty easy to find. There's a good audiobook version, too.