chibifukurou

In your own space, create your own fandom challenge.

In the Comments, respond with a self rec to something you made in 2024..

Some suggestions: A craft project, recipe, or fanwork.

Talk about what challenged and excited you when making it.
What inspired you to start?
And if you finished what made you feel like it was worth continuing to the point of completion?

Create a Rec Countdown.

5 Cute Girls Do Cute Things Series to Watch! (Focusing on some less well known series)

1. Bofuri I don't want to Get Hurt So I'll Max Out my Defense - With a setup similar to the very well know Sword Art Online but made much cracky/absurd this is a fairly popular series in Japan. And for good reason. Despite playing up crack in every area, the animation and action scenes are top notch. Boss fights keep tensions high in universe even though the characters are only dying "in game" without the die in real life twist some series use to ramp up the tension.
It does a good job giving each of the main staff their own breathing space to grow and have character arcs, though the main focus remains more heavily on the main two: Maple the titular character who is in her first full immersion VR game and makes it everybody elses problem with her VERY out of the box solutions. And Sally, her best friend, who is a record holding VR gamer who covers for any weakpoints left by Maple's chaos with sheer skill and force of will. (I absolutely ship, but true to the CGDCT format there are no major romance plots)

2. School!Live - One of the only Horror CGDCT's I know of. Zombie imagery abounds though is kept less gruesome than you would find in a more action themed show. In the anime, the focus is ok the main four girls and their dog. POV changes from episode to episode letting you get a feel for the different ways the characters handle their dangerous situation. Even at their most stressed and snappish the kindness and care they show each other is remarkable. As a horror and cute thing fan I loved the juxtaposition. Since the anime is short, only covering the first 20ish manga chapters I immediately had to go find the manga and tore through the then 12 volumes in days. While the cast grows and shrinks over the course of the manga the kindness remains and the ending was kept non-actiony enough to match the series' more gentle pacing.

3. Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear - A newer series, that just got its second season run in 2024 this is a fun take on the reborn into my favorite media trope that's big right now. Only the lead, Yuma, not only finds herself transported into a fantasy world. She is also given a magical bear suit to help her survive. The bear suit offers nearly unparalleled power with one caveat. Every power must be 'Bear Themed'. Not all the bear puns translate to the dub but the absurdity is definitely kept.

Despite her absurd situation Yumas love of challenge and deep sense of fairness carry the story in a satisfying way. As she collects a series of little sister characters and rescues various towns completely by accident in an attempt to keep her "sisters" from being sad, this is a series that never forgets to have fun or slow down for a nice friends moment focused on emotional fulfillment despite its 1 town saved per 1-3 episode pace.

Honorable Mentions
Laid Back Camp
One of the Big Names in CGDCT titles. But if you aren't familiar with the genre laid back/yuru camp is a great place to start! I'm not going to do a full breakdown because e ery listical for CGDCT will have one but I promise you won't be disappointed.

Saki
One of the longest running kinda CGDGT mangas. Its gotten a few anime series subbed in English. But as an Ecchi series it's got an understandably limited audience. This one started as a more traditional girl sports rival story. Very girl friendship heavy plot and girl heavy cast with Ecchi visuals drawn not around romantic situations but gaming ones. Over its 19 year run it's transitioned more into the budding CGDCT genre, writing off any male leads and coming up with some amusing byplay backend like ability for women to have girl children without men to explain the now 99% female class. Additionally playing into the absurdist flandarization of the original Ecchi tropes one characters Bob's grow from book to book to the point of humorous absurdity.

Remaining non-romantic and female lead. Down to its focus on the rivalry vs team dynamics of mahjong, the manga has kept it's easy to read, sports anime style. in an impressive way. Particularly compared to a lot of other 20 year run mangas. Between its Eechi and Absurdist focus definitely not fir everyone but a fun ride.

In your own space, talk about one of your fandom firsts. This could be your first fandom, your first fandom friend, the first fanwork you created, the first fanwork you interacted with...

My first long fic was a Nabari No Ou Anime/Doc Who fixit. A Fairy, A Doctor, and a Big Blue Box
At 16k it is still one of my longer fics. I wrote it in just under two weeks just after I finished the anime and had a good scream about the character death in the ending.(Love Nabari No Ou, but half the characters die, and it's a study on the creators feelings on they hidden transness and associated Suicidal Ideation. Through the lense of two characters with fantasy illnesses that will shorten their lives. So I don't recommend it for most folks. Creator has sense come out and found community and has made a number of series with healthier relations to ask of this.)

I'd been a Doc Who fan for years but it had reached critical mass as a series where it now got jammed into random marathons to fill up broadcasting time on the Scyfy channel even in the US.

So it made sense that I'd merge the two. Even though I universe timeline changes are a pretty big no no for Doc Who.

I don't remember doing too much plotting. Mostly just the habit that has stretched forward into many other fics of playing mental movies of different scenes as I worked on the yard. The fic would eventually move to Ao3 as LJ imploded. A long with a few other of my 2009-2010 long fics. The only real proof of those first years of writing. As shorter prompt and comment fics are on a dozen LJ comms slowly breaking down into the background static of the internet

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for a beloved character, relationship or fandom.

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom!
Anime is going through its isekai phase right now. Which can make it hard to differentiate which ones you should try. I've got a few a love but My Next Life as a Villainess is unique in that it is queer. It is rare to see a harem style otome show where you have half women and half men as love interests. With pretty heavy flagging towards a F/F ending. (And a very oblivious but can be read as aro lead)

Humorously reborn as an 8 year old future Villainess in an Otome game she didn't get to finish, Catarina becomes obsessed with avoiding her "Doom Flags". That's a fairly common premise. Her hilarious failures and constant adoptions of every future POV character and even some adults are less so. From accidentally using one of the future love interests lines while cheering up a friend. And ending up as a love interest instead. To trying to end a rivalry in a tree climbing competition. To an obsession with growing vegetables to 'help her survive after the bad ending'. There is always some cracky happening going on where the viewer can see what's actually going on. But also gets a front row seat to her logical deductions based on the original game she played.

Despite such a strong allegiance to the main character, the series does a good job fully fleshing out not only the romantic leads but the other regularly appearing secondary characters. Giving us cut aways into their POV on the events and interactions between them and other characters the lead barely meets.

Plot wise it skews a little light. A good chunk of the first season takes place before the original Otome game started. We get more plot events as we move into the school arc and the characters start planning for their future lives. But plot arcs are still only a few episodes long and will be bookended by filler episodes. As a person who likes lower stakes character focused stories and filler episodes that isn't a drawback to me, but if you like things fast moving with high stakes you may be bored to tears.

The queerness. So as mentioned she accidentally wins the love of one of her characters original romantic rivals, Mary Hunt. Bold and Brash Mary makes various efforts to get Catarina to run away with her. She's also up for thruplehood with her original fiance who is also interested in Catarina. Marie Stewart, the original MC fron the game is more gentle abd soft-spoken, her acts of love are much quieter but are also much more effective. Catarina plays out a lot of the romantic lead tropes with her and they plan to go together into their adult life. Even though Catarina's imagined perfect life is for the whole gang to stay together as a friend polycule.

Currently available to stream on Crunchyroll, both seasons that are out add up to about 8 hours of watch time. So its a fast and fun watch if this sounds interesting and you want to give it a try!

Challenge #6

Share your favourite piece of original canon.

Sooooooo looks at my Ao3 which has an average of 2-3 fics per fandom and my partially written 250 fandoms prompt list. I don't really do 'favorites'

I do types/styles of media and put them in piles based on what I'm feeling like and how many focus spoons I've got. Some canons I enjoy but they take so much focus for such an extended time I consider them more an experience than a canon I'm gonna live inside fandom style. And some that are enjoyable but not engaging enough for my brain to hook onto. My sweet spot are generally a little bit challenging to interface with the first time. But comfortable enough on second watch to let my brain pick out little details to hook into and enjoy once I know what emotions are coming next.

Anyway here is a rundown of three of my regularly rewatched stylized in a way I enjoy, but not necessarily good movies I wouldn't usually have reason to talk about.:

Five Feet Apart (2019 Movie) - I specify movie here because I didn't make it far into the book. The book steps right into my least favorite chronically ill MC trope page 1

Style wise the movie hits ALL my soft spots. It's part silent movie, where while sections are recorded with a music backing where you can see conversations happening and time passing but relationships are shown heavily in body language without stopping to explain every single thing. Bolstered by a soundtrack that uses topical vocal backed found music A lot of the relationships are shown through videos, text convos, and facetime. Which feels very realistic both to current life and people who have limited mobility and need medical help. While the MCs are undoubtably the focus the side characters are all shown having their own lives, relationships, and motivations. And while the MCs do stupid shit to move the plot it's kept in character instead of just whatever would be the 'most dramatique'.

The movie isn't shy about talking about sickness, insurance, survivors guilt, and fears and how that effects your willingness to take risks. You don't usually see a movie that shows multiple medical treatment, the monotany of all the constant treatments needed to keep your head above water. And how sometimes you walk the edge of living life by not treating everything you can. While still being a fast moving non medical drama.

It's billed as a teenage love story ala John Green, but I'd say it's more of a summer camp coming off age archetype. Where you have a first summer romance that will definitely effect your life but it's in what you learn about yourself and what you need in a partner, but you aren't each other's 'one true love' even if first loves often feel that way. Which has it's benefits in keeping things moving and fun despite the darker parts but comes with drawbacks.
TW: Multiple main side character deaths, Suicidal ideation

Drawbacks including spoilers ( Read more... )

If You Were the Last (2023 Movie) - Sound track is not as enjoyable outside of the setting, but plays with the same silent movie emotional beat montages set to music way of moving the plot forward.

Outside of the montages though, it is definitely MUCH more stylized. Closer to a recorded stage play than a movie. This is acknowledged in setting and set against a period that uses traditional movie recording/acting to highlight the difference.

I admittedly am MUCH more enamored with the stylized parts. Where the character in universe located on a space ship, but the setting is straight after a 50s earth ship style house with the control deck involving a desk chair and painted on buttons, media stored on 8 track cartridges. A comedically large greenhouse, chicken and a goat who wander the whole place, and a vinyl star gazing bubble.

The MCs make lampshade jokes about the Martian and how the cost of rescuing them is unrealistic. Both regularly use an clearly fake anatomical skeleton who in universe is their dead crewmate as a confidant. Hold dance nights, making band T-shirts and murals from scavenged supplies. And have their own projects, most notably an attempt at a pot pant/berry hybrid and hydraulic drill dildos.

Then they hit the third act, making it back to earth from where they were stranded and get snapped back into a more 'realistic' movie style straight out of any of a dozen astronaut movies. Heartfelt reconnections with loved ones, trying to put people at ease when talking about their trauma. Explaining why dildos and pot have scientific merit to Nasa. Hiding things from the press.

It's not nearly as fun as the first parts but does an amazing job highlighting how being immersed in society is its own kind of trapped. Different but not dissimilar to the way they were trapped on the ship making their own reality.

The ending is faster than I'd like but does a good job paying off both halves of this narrative

TW: infidelity, off screen side character death and animal death of one of the farm animals on the ship.

Drawbacks including spoilers ( Read more... )

Americal Ultra (2015 Movie) - Oh look another Soundtrack/Montage heavy movie, who would have guessed? This soundtrack is definitely the most movie specific, I'd say only about half the songs are able to carry emotional beats outside of the movie itself, but they go HARD on the frenetic pacing and more modern sounds you don't see in most movies trying for in universe realism.

It has Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as leads because they were both going through the period in their career where they were trying to break out of their clean teen romance lead pigeonhole. But didn't have the reputations to pull major movies yet.

Which means the acting is exceptionally solid for the genre and the distributer absolutely didn't know how to advertise the movie at all.

Trailers: This is a stoner action comedy romance!

Actual movie: Survive the night spatterpunk interspersed with a solid non comedy romance.

The montages in this one are less emotional beats than the previous two. And more heavily stylized splatterpunk fights set to music. From a fight set in a grocery store using household items, to a police station playing with one way glass and prison bars, to an underground blacklight gym, these are not at all trying to sell realism.

Which makes them more jarring when set against a surprising well acted series of romantic flashback showing a not particularly healthy but loving relationship between the leads. Giving emotional weight to the conversations and truths that are revealed over the course of the night.

As someone who likes splatterpunk movies and fucked up but trying romantic relationships, I really really enjoyed both parts. But think I still would have struggled to enjoy the movie if it haf a less solid cast or editor. But all the actors carry the emotional and action beats with an equally deft hand. And the Editor did an amazing job not only pacing the action montages but juxtaposing them so that the plot gets a chance to slow down and let the characters breath and deal with the emotional fallout before ramping up again.

Absolutely worse social commentary than Fury Road and I'm not saying watch this if you liked that one, but a very similar type of pacing and musical usage.

TW: Flashing lights, blood/gore, brainwashing, poorly handled mentally ill characters, stereotypes

Drawbacks including spoilers ( Read more... )

Challenge #4

In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

Primary goal fot the year is to start reccing again.

Tuesday: Media Recs
Thursday: Fanfic/Fan Media Recs

I used to work and then help run Epic-Recs on LJ. We didn't survive the fandom migration but it's felt good to try and ger back into that swing as I prep recs for the coming weeks

Challenge #2

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

So I've always been a sci-fi and animation nut. Got to see a few episode of Outlaw Star as bitty, but mostly snuck up early to watch episodes of Beyblade (my favorite) and other parts of the 4kids era.

I mostly ended up with live action shows like SG1, Xena, and Charmed on reruns after that until I fell headfirst into the Toonami afternoon slot. And G Gundam obsession. I also watched some of the bigger stuff luke Dragon Ball and Naruto but they didn't scratch the same itch.

Then I got hurt and started having cripling migraines that messed with my sleep schedule and found the late night anime hours. And notably Trigun. But sadly never got to see the ending. Trying to find series recaps in the early 00s wasn't really a thing. But my attempts lead me to a long Trigun Season 2 fanfic. And as a bookish kid who had newly moved to an area with a barely functional library, I fell quickly to the siren song of so much free reading material.

I've dabbled in various parts of fandom since then, from fanscans, to Deviant art fanart making, to helping run rec communities, to various periods of writing fanfic. Mostly small fandoms and some years where I don't write for anything but Yuletide.

But have kept reading or listening to fanfics thoroughout.