Spoiler: last discourse post @Birdy: It's cool, I get where you're coming from here. My thinking is just... non-Japanese fans talking over Japanese fans about feminism and trans narratives and whatnot is a thing that happens annoying often in anime fandom, and I do not like it, especially as a non-Japanese person who is actively trying to be more involved in Japanese-speaking fandom (partially so I can understand the cultural nuances of the original media better!). So when anything starts looking like it's going in that direction my hackles go up a bit. I don't think that's what you were trying to do at all, but I felt like we were starting to veer into that territory and I wanted to point it out before it possibly snowballed into anything worse, if that makes sense. @Aondeug I did find some pages that talked about the history of the word, so I can look through tomorrow to see if there's anything interesting. But there are a few too many kanji I don't recognize for 2am reading /)_(\ @ Everyone: If you are interested in more discourse about Japanese fujoshi/BL fandom, you might try following Good_Haro on Twitter. They're a visual novel translator who's worked on several BL games, and is also pretty heavily into BL games and manga in general. Most of their content is just RTing fanart and other dumb fandom stuff, but they also sometimes talk about things like differences between English and Japanese fandom, trends in BL series, etc. They had some good thoughts on YOI discourse that I enjoyed reading. Also, y'know, lots of RTed fanart of dudes kissing. I was also very into Anne Rice as a teenager! Louis/Lestat was Good Shit. My main thing was Gundam Wing, though. And Weiss Kreuz because it was super super gay despite not actually being canon gay.
I still love Gundam Wing and I ship everybody (and possibly go harder with the f/f then the m/m). And the best part about the fandom being old is there's nobody left to give me any shit for it. :D And Weiss Kreuz is really, really gay, agreed. Also completely bonkers.
Yeah I am not sure Weiss Kreuz was actually good, because as I recall it didn't really make much sense. But I was mostly there for all the fic shipping the main four guys in every possible combination, so I didn't care that much :D; I don't even remember what ships I liked in Gundam Wing anymore. I read mostly Heero/Duo and Trowa/Quatre, I think? And Heero/Treize sometimes?
@devian Weiss Kreuz is amazing, which does not necessarily mean good! :D It makes no sense and nothing is ever explained. I have never met a fandom so dedicated to talking about how ridiculous the canon is. But the boys, they are so pretty. (I, of course, got very attached to Schuldig, because he is an evil redhead and there's nothing I like more than evil redheads.) @seed I need to reread Don Quixote now. Immediately.
Yeah I get that. Reading in general can be a bitch at obscene hours and when you're wrestling with unfamiliar kanji...Yeah. Anyway let's talk about Tori/Ganth. Which I will put under spoilers because of the fucking content. Yeap. Spoiler: you've been fucking warned These fucks come from the Kencyrath books which are my new favorite thing ever. That aside. Ganth is a remarkably unhappy man. His life has been shit ever since he was a little nervous Ganthling. Abused sexually by his brother, called a fucking liar by his dad in front of a bunch of other adults, bullied relentlessly at military college, and having to live with the fact that every last woman in his family was assassinated one night. Not a happy boy. Ganth ended up going more than a bit bonkers and he ran off into the hills slaughtering tons of his kinsmen in revenge and declaring love to lead to destruction. For this Ganth was fucking banished from his role as Highlord and sent packing with the rest of his people. Most assumed Ganth fucking died in the Ebonbane because I mean why wouldn't we assume that. But Ganth was not dead. Oh no. Ganth set up in a keep near the Barrier that separates Rathillien from Perimal Darkling. He lived here as an unhappy piece of shit for a bit when Gerridon, the man who betrayed the Kencyrath to their enemy Perimal Darkling in exchange for eternal life, came up with a problem. Namely his soul stealing sister was getting old and also kind of incredibly fucked by the generations of soul stealing. He needed a new one. So he did what any good brother would do and whored his sister consort out to Ganth. Ganth fell in love. Hard. For once in his stupid shitty life he seemed to be happy. He even had kids. Twins in fact. but then she left to go back to soul stealing for her shitty brother/husband This broke Ganth. More so than he already was broken and given that the man went out in a blaze of bloodsoaked glory screaming about the evils of love that's pretty fucking broken. Tori is Ganth's son. Jame his daughter. Jame got chased out when she was little because Ganth kissed her one day in a fit thinking that she was her mom. Horrified with himself Ganth did what all responsible fathers would do and decided that she needed to fucking die so he didn't turn into a weirdo asshole pervert rapist like his brother. Jame escaped. Leaving Tori with Ganth. Tori who looks almost exactly like his sister to the point where he had to grow a beard just so people would stop confusing him for her and vice versa. You may see the problem here. The other part of the probem is how Ganth raised his son. Which is to say with a great deal of abuse. Ganth is horrified of Shanir, the magical god-touched Kencyrs, and thus raised his boy to hate them too. He also did things like beat Tori brutally whenever he had dreams because Ganth was aware that his son could farsee because, lo and behold, Tori was a Shanir. Like Ganth. This beating thing and the dreams themselves have left Tori with a great fear of sleeping that affects him well into his 30s. Tori was constantly assaulted by insults about how weak he was and what a fucking coward he was and how he sucked and so on and so forth. Just constant yelling about how fucking atrocious he was. Tori being a nervous doormat dealt with this by either hiding from their father or just kind of nodding and going Yes Father because fighting just leads to more beatings and that just ain't fun. But then Tori had a dream that daddy was gonna die. And then Ganth found out he was leaving and was like "Hey boy. Drink to my health. I stuck some of my blood in the cup. DRINK IT YOU FUCKING PUSSY ASS BITCH." Because if he did he might be able to bloodbind Tori to himself, which would prevent Tori from leaving him or disobeying him ever, ever again. Whatever happened next Ganth ended up trapped in Tori's soul image and is able to do cool things like continue to verbally abuse him and occasionally possess him. It's not the greatest. Tori is reaching his breaking point with this shit and now occasionally yells at his father in his head to shut the fuck up and go away because you never did right by me so why should I by you? Did I mention that Tori looks almost exactly like his mother and also acts a lot like Ganth? Because that's a thing. Tori's also mortified by physical contact, has weird issues with sex, and just generally is a target of sexual abuse in the books (specifically by women that want to be his consort for political reasons). just ganth and his endless house of horrors so much potential for aus too
Hello yes I am here for my beloved Gundam Wing rarepair Duo/Wu Fei. Speaking of which, here's a legendary slice of early 2000s anime slash fandom: Freeport, a crime investigation drama that takes place after the GW show, on an anarchist space colony.
On a happier note there's Gorbel/Timmon. Which is basically a huge bear and his tiny twink. Gorbel's very fond of hunting, son of one of the worst fucking people on the planet, has an adorable tiny dog named Twizzle, and is overall actually a pretty nice guy. Timmon meanwhile is incredibly fucked up by his upbringing wherein he was basically told that he needed to be exactly like his father who was awesome and perfect and also he deserves to get all things just because he wants them. Because he needs to be like his dad who is awesome and perfect and deserves all the good things because he wants them. Needless to say Timmon's incredibly selfish and self centered and it takes someone fucking dying due to his being a shitlord to get him to really understand that, no, he's actually kind of a prick. He's been getting better though. and him and gorbel they just gotta do gay things gayly while i sit here and giggle in a corner
...so have you read Prince of Tennis, by any chance because that is also a fandom dedicated to talking about how ridiculous the canon is, and also it has I think over 100 male characters, and you used to be able to find fanfic for basically any possible combination of them and it was my very favorite fandom for like three years and I continue to ship everyone
I love tiny fandoms because there's less wank. There's also less content, but that's a trade I'm willing to make. I have not…yet. I have read some really pretty doujinshi for it, though. *adds to ever-growing list of must-reads* Speaking of tiny fandoms, I don't suppose anyone else happens to ship Count D/Leon from Petshop of Horrors? Because I ship it like burning.
Oops I instantly forgot all the specifics of SMT4 lol but... There is at least one version of Akira who is an insecure leader of a small enclave of demons and humans. He totally pretends to have everything under control and to be a strong/capable dude, but when he takes you out to various places for quest stuff it's obvious that he's pretty low in the social hierarchy and the other demons think very little of him. Of course being the MC Flynn is competent and makes short work of those demons. I want there to be some weird attraction/envy/mutual mistrust (but we're both screwed without each other's help) thing going on with them. Also xeno b/c heck yeh.
Prince of Tennis is hilarious. It's as if a perfectly sensible sports anime like Haikyuu got together with DragonBall Z, and that baby was obsessed with tennis to the exclusion of all else, including character development, plot structure, themes, pacing, or continuity. None of that matters. All is tennis. The theme is tennis. The overarching plot is tennis. The characters are tennis. The continuity is tennis.
Ace girl here; I think I may have that thing going on where I like porn better when I don't see myself in any of the participants.
I guess I could change the title, but I wanted the thread to be about that identity, and those that may have used the term to describe themselves in the past or present. It seems like quite a few people started with yaoi when that term was gaining momentum while they were discovering things about themselves, and we are also talking about ships from that time period? If people really want a title change, give me some suggestions.
