#but it's a small fandom to begin with

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

I don't know why but lately I feel like I almost always gravitate towards wildly unpopular ships for some reason

Fukimei caught on for a while and that was nice. But before vampire AU there was very little of it, and nowadays it's hard to find.

Then again... I nearly stopped liking mobely altogether when it got popular because I felt everyone was writing it so wildly out of character, so maybe I'm considering the wrong angle... do I just have unusual interpretations?

Or is it Hi3's fandom in particular that annoys me and I just dislike whatever twitter likes???

[lynaferns]

There are two types of DCA artists evolution:

-Nose got bigger over time.

-Nose got smaller over time (almost disappearing sometimes)

-(third option) there was never a nose.

[sillysleepy1]

they mean everything to me.

[mizu-melon]

A part of me hopes that Burning Spice ends up being canonically non-binary so it shows the whole "debate" over their gender was completely pointless.

[justalittlelilac]

Me: yeah, I'm just bummed because there's not a huge amount of content for Our Life out there.

My girlfriend: Well, then that just means you'll have to make some.

Me (stuttering): well...no...that's not...but like...I...

[kunahalt]

"Haven't I given enough?"

Happy Halloween in advance guys!!

[sylver-drawer]

The Writing of Pandora Hearts and its Depiction of Human Ego or an essay I wrote for class because I love PH so much (mainly spoiler free except for a small tangent on Lottie’s character)

When you think about aspects of the Shonen Demographic, what tends to come to mind? Usually it’s something along the lines of fluid yet repetitive action, a lovable cast of characters who get down but quickly move on, and a protagonist who can handle anything. But when you ask a fan of renowned and well-liked shonen such as Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan or Hiromu Arakawa’s Full-Metal Alchemist, what’s most reminiscent is how the characters are written and their depth. That’s why when anyone asks me what shonen I’d recommend, I always immediately recommend Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts. Jun Mochizuki is a master at her craft, be it with her beautiful watercolor illustrations, the fantastical and fairytale-like world building, or what I associate with her most—how bitterly human she writes her characters and how it hits the reader. The way Pandora Hearts’ ornate writing twists from this alice-in-wonderland inspired gothic adventure, to a story about the beautiful yet ugly depths of human will and ego, genuinely makes me believe that it deserves one of the top places in the Shonen Demographic.

It’s a relatively standard set up. Pandora Hearts follows a young boy by the name of Oz Vesalius on the brink of his fifteenth birthday. During his coming of age ceremony a sinister group called the Baskervilles condemns him for his sin of living, and casts him into the Abyss—a hellish nightmare dimension resembling a broken toy box filled with grotesque monsters called ‘Chains’. With the help via contract of an amnesiac girl who calls herself Alice, her identity being the chain “Bloody-Rabbit” that strangely takes an alternative human form, he escapes the Abyss only to find himself ten years in the future. The first few chapters set up our boyish protagonist’s temperament and desire, as well as the dangers he will encounter with sprinkles of what the world of Pandora Hearts is like. I relate this to the beginning of Attack on Titan, introducing Eren and his friends’ personalities and values before getting thrust into the harsh reality of their apocalyptic world.

The story begins in a cliche, yet familiar way. It starts off relatively light and almost whimsical as it makes you think it’ll follow the monster(chains)-of-the-week format; Oz seeking out the Baskervilles for the reason of his ‘sin’, and Alice seeking out her fragmented memories. Preceding the Shonen Demographic, kids grow up with something like Pokémon or Digimon where there’s a new ‘monster’ to ‘defeat’ quickly each week. It’s a way to progress the story for the very young child viewer in a fun and easy way, even if they miss an episode or two. The main purpose of presenting the idea of this familiarity, is to rope the reader into a false sense of security.

This format is abandoned just as quickly as it was proposed as the story gets more convoluted, pulling the reader in. All the characters seem to be hiding something, the enemies are closer than you think, and at some point you genuinely question yourself if they’re truly the enemies here. You begin to realize that despite all the secrets everyone has—no one actually knows anything. The protagonists, their comrades, and even their enemies; everyone is in the dark in regards to the truth of the catalyst event a hundred years prior, The Tragedy of Sablier, except for the main villain of the story. The fact that the reader is on the same level of knowledge the vast majority of characters are on allows the reader to empathize with them almost as actual comrades, instead of seeing them as simply characters in a story.

Usually in shonen, the reader is given scenes of the antagonist’s side so that the reader has information the protagonists do not, such as displayed in Full-Metal Alchemist where the reader is exposed to multiple scenes of the Homunculi and their plans before Ed and Al are. Shonen villains tend to be bastards after all, pure and irredeemable evil in support of an evil system. This is meant to build a sense of foreboding for the reader, as well as anticipation for how the main characters deal with this danger. It’s because of this storytelling method that separates the readers from the characters, driving almost a wedge between them. Readers' thoughts go from, “I wonder why this happened” (solving a ‘mystery’ in the moment alongside the characters), to “I wonder how the characters will deal with this” (an event the reader already knows will happen soon).

Particularly what sets Pandora Hearts apart from this, is that Jun Mochizuki allows us to empathize with the villains due to their similar level of ignorance as the heroes. We are shown scenes of the villains, but not so much that we gain any major insider plot knowledge. Rather, the most important insider information the reader receives are the bonds between the villains almost paralleling the bonds between the hero cast we’ve already fallen for. Charlotte, who is somewhat one of the Baskervilles’ ringleaders, presents herself uniquely. She is very devote to the Baskervilles’ cause of obeying their leader, and kills and torments without a second thought. Yet, Lottie is as desperate for answers as Oz’s crew. You can see it on her face, where she contemplates as she stands beside her fellow Baskervilles whom she loves like family, “Is what we’re doing truly right?”. It is a very subtle writing strategy, one that acclimates the reader to feel for and humanize the ‘inhuman’ enemy, gradually building up to Pandora Hearts’ crescendo.

This intricately planned writing Jun Mochizuki has drip fed the reader pays off during the story’s climax. By the time the truth is revealed to all, the reader is left in an array of chaos alongside the cast, questioning everything. One of these, being the protagonist himself. Everything we associate with our dear hero, Oz; his classic young yet burdened hero demeanor with a high moral compass, his complicated emotionally charged relationship with his estranged family, his immortalized friendships with Alice and his childhood friend Gilbert that feel as if they could stick through everything—at some point, all of those threads that make up ‘Oz Vessalius’ fall apart. His connection to the antagonist and how it affects the story and narrative still shakes me to the core to this very day, and you’re left wondering what exactly is left and where we can go from here. Everything Oz knows, everything we the reader knows about him and the cast we’ve come to love, suddenly becomes false. You can’t help but feel played, yet when you read back desperately to validate your feelings, there’s the cruel realization that you were never lied to. All the signs were there in your face and it was you, the reader’s, choice to misinterpret them. It’s difficult to manipulate the reader using the reader’s own assumptions and prejudice, and yet Jun Mochizuki has done it in Pandora Hearts.

How Pandora Hearts takes everything the reader knows and destroys it is such a transformative experience that transcends the expectation of a normal shonen. The layers in which Jun Mochizuki had written are so deep, that the characters' roles we tend to reduce to tropes and generalizations have so much meaning to them. Oz, our heroic protagonist, maybe isn’t the strong willed boy he’s supposed to be; and maybe the Baskervilles, despite the atrocities they’ve committed, maybe aren’t wishing for world destruction. Our lovable cast of characters are hypocrites, sometimes betraying themselves or people they’ve sworn to, and reasons we expect to be grandiose turn out to be simple selfish, raw human desires. Those that selflessly fight for ‘love’ are simply fighting for self preservation, and those that do everything for their ‘ego’ crumble so easily in face of their love. Pandora Hearts is just like other shonen, but also not. There’s action, characters who get down but sometimes need time to move on, and a protagonist who tries his best to handle anything. Most of all, they’re all so painfully human, and I think that’s what is at the heart of shonen. Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts’ intricately written story, with its raw portrayals of the human will as well as the world crashing twists and cast you can’t help but love, is exactly what the shonen demographic deserves.

[awesamforehead]

Is it weird to grieve over all the writers and artists we have lost over this?

[waywardsou2]

Shout out to all the people who love the same small franchises as me.

Our life: Beginnings and Always

Nowhere Boys

Grojband

Master of One

A Curse of Salt

Wonderstruck

[cricketnationrise]

EPISODE NUMBER/TITLE: 1 / Can You Hear Me Now?  SEASON: 1  SHOW TITLE: Game Changer  LENGTH: 32m 28s (thirty-two minutes and twenty-eight seconds) PROJECTED AIR DATE: September 4th, 2023CAST: Keladry Mindelan, Merric Hollyrose, Owen Jesslaw, Neal Queenscove

or

The Tortall/Game Changer AU that precisely 2 people asked for. One of them was me.

Written as a gift for @dragonsthough101 as part of @fandomtrumpshate 2023.

[averlym]

HI I DIDNT KNOW YOU WERE INTO ADAMANDI HOLY SHIT. Can’t believe so few people know about this masterpiece of a musical

:OOOOO hai i agree it is criminally (haha yknow bc there are crimes..) underrated!! and really brilliant!!! discovered it literally midway through the week and akdfjgsjhdsjhjgdf

have a doodle of the saints :3

[tricksterlatte]

Re: the debate going on again about if Persona should focus more on adult characters, I think it's interesting because i don't have a firm stance either way. There are some plotlines that I think would hit harder if the characters were adults, or plotlines I would pursue more thoroughly if they were. For example, I think the Phantom Thieves as college students would have been amazing, but I don't know how Joker's criminal record would work with that unless he's a dropout, or if you removed the school game mechanic, which is so vital to modern Persona games?

On the other hand, I also think teen/young adult protags hit for such a wide audience because they are struggles the target audience has either already experienced or currently is. It's funny, because I think any character worth their salt will resonate regardless of age or other demographics. I'm no longer a child, but I still want to protect Maiko in P3 due to her retable familial struggle and her inability to understand due to her age, or Zenkichi's division between what is right by the law and what's right in his heart. I don't need a debilitating illness to sympathize or relate to Chidori, an outcast who finds solace in art and the only people who understand her pain.

it's a very nuanced conversation and I just don't see a right or wrong answer, the same way I feel about most anime nowadays. I think a more diverse party in general would be a dream come true (not just for age and gender either, I think it would be amazing to have someone who isn't just Asian or white, or more explicitly LGBT+ characters)! I just wanted to make a long post because the discussion is fascinating and enlightening, and 6, if they did an older cast, wouldn't be the first game to have playable adults either. What are your guys' thoughts?

[hamsamwich23]

Please send me asks about how the revamped lore is going btw please please please I need to scream about it to people

[justalittlelilac]

I JUST GOT HERE WTH

All jokes aside, I hope everything is resolved 🙏

[exictedoflife]

Hello guys! Here is my other account. It is called @indiefandomlover .

[amethystina]

A New Dawn (Begins With Us)

Fandom/Pairing: Black Knight - 5-8/Yoon Sa Wol

Length: 10 chapters (~90 000 words)

Rating/Warnings: M / Canon-Typical Violence, Injuries, Grief, PTSD, Angst

Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Pining, Slow Burn, Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Healing, Idiots In Love, Happy Ending, Sexual Content

Summary: Even as the world begins to recover — a new, equal society slowly taking shape — not everyone is able to look to the future. Is there even a future for someone whose purpose is so tied to the past? Whose only goal has finally been achieved? Whose very existence is now obsolete?

What happens to the freedom fighter after the battle is won?

5-8 doesn't have the answers, and nor does he know where to find them. He doesn't even know if he should try. Perhaps some things are just better left in the past — including himself.

Sa Wol doesn't have the answers, either, but at least he's willing to start searching for them.

GO HERE TO READ