#most popular bootleg

[allthedesiredusernamesaretaken]

... listen to music ...

[tiptapricot]

Mortal Kombat merch has me parched why is there so much fucking NOTHINGG

[moonsidesong]

cirno fumo in april........ so... cirno fumo... for Birthday:)

[gibbearish]

idk looks pretty clearly posted to me, kinda seems like you just. didnt read the rules and then broke them lmao

Today's sponsored post is to inform everyone that Reddit's r/Art community is run by pigs with no lives. At best, I was mildly annoying initially. They just slung mud. If this is what a community touts as its “best,” it's trash.

[derrypubliclibrary]

Definitely a musical to listen to more than once* (*a daily basis if possible) and I’ll definitely need to watch it if I can when we get home

YES whenever any inconvenience happens i listen to it fr like. OUGH

[professorspork]

friends i am FROTHING AT THE MOUTH over the Nov 1 2008 Wicked boot, Carmen Cusack's penultimate 1NT show with Katie Rose Clarke

it is far and away the best boot I've seen so far in the great chronological watch and just kEPT GETTING BETTER OVER TIME

like. Carmen really gets her teeth into Elphaba and lets her be a bitch when she needs to be

and she and Katie's Galinda are just such fascinating equal-and-opposite autistic4autistic

and Deedee Magno Hall's transition from Nice Nessa to Wicked Nessa is so tangible and legible and good

and Cliffton Hall's Fiyero actually gives thropple for once

and like. it's stellar throughout, and there are so many gay little moments (KATIE KISSES CARMEN'S SHOULDER IN ONE SHORT DAY WTF) but like

after "Wonderful" it just goes. the fuck. OFF.

and by "it" i mostly mean "Katie Rose Clarke"

please forgive me these gifs will not even remotely capture it but my words alone would not do this justice

first of all the REUNION HUG they just CANNOT BEAR TO END so they KEEP FINDING NEW WAYS TO TOUCH

but all good things must end, and when Elphaba and Fiyero leave Glinda is FURIOUS with them and SO HEARTBROKEN

but not as furious as she is with HERSELF. I have never seen an "I'm Not That Girl (Reprise)" that is so dripping with self-hatred and like you stupid bitch of course they left you, you should have known better energy

like PLEASE look at this UNHINGED SHIT katie is doing with her head and neck about "don't wish":

and then after that our big reward is one of the straight-up horniest ALAYM renditions i have EVER seen

and then the catfight

THIS CATFIGHT

gifs cannot capture Carmen's delivery of "wretched little farmgirl" but know it was so perfect I was screaming and clapping

and like. ok. throughout this performance Katie does this Obvious Regret thing where like, Glinda says things aloud and then visibly immediately hears how stupid it sounds and wishes to take it back and there's nothing she can do about it (changing her name to Glinda being the biggest example, but the delivery of "FINE GO, YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER" above is ALSO a great example)

and this fight escalates so quickly because she CANNOT stop making it WORSE

and she KNOWS

but can't QUIT IT

and then Carmen literally STOMPS THE GROUND on "by bubble"

and then delivers "someone like him could actually choose someone like me" in the platonic ideal way that acknowledges thropple, the indictment of Fiyero coming with her when Glinda didn't

and then

Katie ACTUALLY SLAPS HER

SO HARD HER HAT FALLS OFF

AND THEN PLEASE LOOK AT THE SLAP BACK

Katie's "lemme go I almost had her" is FERAL

and afterwards she is still SO MAD that she KICKS THE BROOM

EVEN HER "DO IT" IS MAD, she TURNS HER BACK ON HER

but then

then it's For Good and it starts to dawn on you that it's Carmen's second to last show because she LITERALLY cannot BEAR to look at Katie (who is crying) for most of the song because she knows she'll mcfreaking lose it if she does

but that's fine because when she actually DOES look at her she KISSES HER HAND

I AM DEAD

this boot has ended me. ENDED ME. @theseerasures and I finished watching it and IMMEDIATELY had to go back and watch the highlights again

like I didn't even have TIME to get into this Popular

anyway uh if you're looking for a bootleg that'll really fuckin hit the spot

i STRONGLY RECOMMEND this one

[violetwolfraven]

Wait wait wait remember that post about how Team Starkid/the Lang brothers are going to be comparable to Shakespeare 500 years from now and it was mostly played for laughs like yeah lol you’ll need a paragraph of footnotes to explain the zefron poster but like

I don’t think that’s actually far off from how Starkid’s place in theatre history might play out and here’s why. Just hear me out

Why is Shakespeare so popular today when he definitely wasn’t the only playwright from that era? When he’s not even the only playwright from that era from England that we have surviving works from?

Two main reasons:

1) Shakespeare’s work is (relatively) universally relatable. The characters do things that are so fundamentally human. They make jokes at their friends’ expense. They complain about being awkward in front of their crush. They have daddy issues. The plot lines of the plays aren’t too complicated. The dick jokes land whether you’re watching in 1611 or 2024, and they probably still will in 2637. Shakespeare’s works are timeless because he didn’t try to outsmart his audience. He wrote about things everyone could relate to rather than trying too hard to peacock his intellect in front of the nobility. This is not true of every playwright.

2) Shakespeare was really popular right around the time England started colonizing everything in sight. Copies of his work got shipped all around the world, translated into dozens of languages, performed probably thousands of times. Setting aside the moral implications of this, the important thing to note is that Shakespeare was about the most easily accessible English playwright during a time of rapid, intense globalization.

Meanwhile, Starkid:

1) Invests hard in meaningful, relatable character arcs instead of spectacle and expensive sets or costumes. Also, lowbrow, immature humor and dick jokes that make A Very Potter Sequel funny and enjoyable regardless of if you’ve ever seen any other Harry Potter media in your life.

2) Posts professional recordings of their musicals to YouTube FOR FREE, making their shows about the easiest, best quality musical theatre you can get pretty much anywhere in the world, regardless of if your area has an active theatre scene. Proshots from other companies are rare and usually not free. Bootlegs are all well and good, but even if the video quality is alright (and that’s a big if) the audio is usually garbage. Starkid has been posting the best quality free recordings they can afford since 2009, shortly after the birth of social media, another time of rapid, intense globalization.

In short, I’m not saying that theatre historians in 500 years won’t remember any our current Broadway faves, but I am saying that in my opinion, Team Starkid is probably going to be more accessible for the general public. If you’re a 26th century English teacher trying to teach your class about narrative structure in 21st century theatre, what are you going to show your students? A bootleg of Hadestown with blurry video and garbage audio? Or the professional recording of Twisted, parts of which they will probably even enjoy, because even long after no one remembers Disney’s Aladdin anymore, your class of 26th century 16-year-olds are still going to laugh at “No One Remembers Achmed.”

[cinnbar-bun]

Straw Hats- Reversed AU HCs

AU: In which YOU are the character of a very famous franchise, and they are regular people who are fans of your series.

Note: GN!Reader, crack, very unserious

Luffy

Thinks you’re neat! Super cool!

People think he doesn’t really “get” you and just likes you for your awesome powers and/or cool appearance, but he drops like an innocent yet profound tidbit about you that shows he really is thinking of you.

Honestly probably only has a bootleg figure of you courtesy of Ace. It’s goofy as hell but he adores it.

Maybe has one of those printed graphic tees.

Ace and Sabo joke about his love for you but then Luffy throws his slippers at them.

If he sees anything with you on it, he’s just gushing over it.

Loves finding funny comics with you online.

Zoro

Guy who likes you for your powers.

The same guy who is also a weeb in front of the mirror and tries to replicate your awesome moves.

Help his roommates caught him-

I think he’d get those compression shirts/shorts with you or a symbol of yours for when he works out.

Also the guy who’s working out to your voice like those ASMR videos so he can pretend you’re praising him and congratulating him.

Gets into fights with Sanji about who’s the bigger fan.

I don’t see Zoro as the type to “collect” things, but he’d probably have a keychain of you around his belt or something as a good luck charm.

Might even have an action and poseable figure of you like a Figma.

Nami

Likes you lots, but also recognizes your merch potential.

Works alongside Usopp to produce fan merch or zines for you to make money.

Has a unique piece of jewelry with your symbol/iconography to wear.

She’s not wearing “obvious” for merch, because she just isn’t about that.

Probably has a few very expensive figures of yours that are special edition or anniversary editions that she managed to get at a steep discount.

Reads a bit of fanfic but tends to mostly peruse fanart of you.

Tends to have multiple ships for you- she doesn’t really favor one over the other she just thinks they’re interesting.

Likes to do cosplays of your fits, though. She’s gotten very popular for her lovely cosplays. She tends to handmake most of her cosplays, but Usopp and Franky add to the amazing accessories.

Plays the gacha game for your series, and her amazing luck means she gets practically all your units easily.

Usopp

The artist of the group who has seen and had to do heinous things for a commission.

Unlike the others, he IS making a self insert and HE IS DOING ART AND COMICS WITH YOU AND HIM AS THE MAIN COUPLE!

Has made a name for himself of making doujins and art for you. His store has seen lots of purchases for his doujins.

Nami basically is his account manager and has made him raise commission prices many times in order to pay their rent and so he can realize how valued his work is.

He mostly just posts his work but does like answering questions from fans and posting about how awesome you looked in the new episode.

Always making art and stories from you.

Has done fanfiction for you but it’s mostly with his OC/SI and his artwork tends to be more well-known.

Always does special drawings for your birthday and various holidays.

Plays the gacha and has bad luck so he has to whale for your unit. He insists he prefers just regular console or PC gaming instead of gacha.

Sanji

Number one fan, he WILL get into arguments about you and inject you into everything.

All your figures, all your merch, all of it in one specific room dedicated to you. Sanji even has a lifesize figure of you in a cool/cute pose he religiously cleans (and prays to ngl) every day because AINT NO WAY HIS LOVE IS GOING TO GET A SPECK OF DUST ON THEM!!

His work as a chef makes him busy, but he likes to wear small things of you like a brooch or something on his uniform to cheer him up through the day.

Makes videos cooking things you cooked or dishes you liked within the series.

He sometimes shows off his collection and Zoro calls him a loser and they get into fights in the comments.

Commissions art of you (probably Usopp) to hang up in the (Y/n) room.

I feel like he would do a persona/self-insert but also I feel like he’d be like no!!!! I cannot sully my beloved like that!!! So he focuses on just you.

Blocks people who are fans of you and does not like shipping anyone with you, hell no his mellorine is HIS!!!

Has done fanfic, mostly self-insert, and that’s pretty much all he reads. No ships.

Robin

“Oh, (Y/n)? Yes, they are an interesting character. I like them.”

[1 Million word count fic series, tagged: slow burn, character exploration, heavy angst, found family, Book 4 of 7]

“I just think they’re neat.”

Probably the mother fic writer for you and/or one of your ships.

Doesn’t socialize much online, just tends to post and scroll through the fics for you and answers comments under her fic.

Likes to support her fellow creators so she does look into the art and projects other fans have made.

Does try to create her own aesthetics for her blog and fics, but sometimes she just commissions Usopp to make her things for her fics to fit her vision.

Is really into unique and often abstract or “dark” art of you.

Yes you’re her favorite character, yes she will still make you suffer in her fics and art for the ~development~.

It’s a running gag with her peers where they ask her how she will torture them next.

She finds the Nendoroids of you are quite cute, so she bought one to go on her desk.

Franky

Franky likes making garage set figures of you.

He’s also a bit of a dork, so he will often make you pose with a super sentai outfit or large gundam robots (since they’re also a part of his crafting hobby).

Makes videos showing off the new figures he made of you.

He loves you cuz you’re his hero, you just amaze him!

Printed a photo of the art your creator did where you guys were all dressed like super heroes or something- suuuuppper up his alley and he loved seeing it.

He likes collecting the manga/comics for your series and keeps them on his personal shelf.

Franky also helps Nami/others with specific cosplay accessories. Franky is known for his craftsmanship, so he’s made plenty of cosplay gear for others that are above and beyond.

Him and Usopp have collabed to create the original figures of you that Franky adores.

Does those videos where he takes cheaper/smaller figures of you and adds to the base and design to make it more “epic”.

What the hell is “fanfiction”?

Brook

Goes by the username “Soul King” and uploads his covers of your franchise’s music.

He really loves you though so he’s often rocking your shirts while he’s recording the music.

He does a lot of different genres for your theme covers- jazz, heavy metal, lofi, piano, music box- he’s done em all.

Whenever he’s not recording covers of his music and does streams, he very proudly shows his figure of you and a poster he has hanging up on his wall.

Also plays the gacha game, has pretty good luck but never with your units.

“Wow! 5 Sugo-rares! Who are they- GOD DAMN IT IT’S JUST THE OTHERS!!! RATE UP IS A LIE!!!”

Brook is a menace though and I’m gonna keep that under wraps for various reasons.

Maybe in the future I might explain further.

Jinbei

Jinbei is classy, unlike many of the others here (we will not name names).

He’s more likely to “make” his own merchandise for you.

Handmade doll with a lovingly sewn kimono, for example.

Fancy tea set that is painted with your symbols but it’s so subtle and chic that some of his viewers don’t even realize it’s from some random franchise he likes.

He prides himself on his traditional and handmade crafts and you’re just an avenue to experiment with them.

He likes to design the kimonos and outfits with you in mind and the season. He shows the process of creating it in these calm and quiet BTS videos.

Really they are beautiful and the amount of love and skillmanship put into the work he does is fantastic, it’s awe inspiring.

Does not know what a fanfic, a gacha, or what a “fan edit” is. He’s an old man he’s got things to do, man.

[godhandler]

tired manager!Nanami x kpop idol!reader

He’s sick, absolutely sick of you. In all his underpaid overworked years as an idol manager, he’s never seen one as impossible as you. 

You’re the centre, lead singer, and the most popular member of your girl group ‘R0ck-Chic’. The princess of K-Pop. Ranked Top10 on Billboard and Melon, brand ambassador for Chanel. Photocards for $1500 retail. Face straight out of a manhwa, bubblegum-sweetheart personality, born a musical genius too!

But that’s just on camera.  

“Prissy bitch.”

Nanami keeps his thoughts to himself. He’s doubling as a bodyguard-cum-manager for your M-Net Music Show, watching you yell at your hairstylist backstage. She accidentally burned a piece of your hair extensions off, but hey, it was a fucking accident! The poor lady is nearly in tears at your cruel words. No one really likes working with you, not your staff, not the other members of your group, because underneath the Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation is a secret none of your massive fanbase knows: You’re a cunt. 

“Nanami-san!” At least you’re still calling him with honorifics, even though he’s cringing thinking about what harsh command your majesty shall bark at him. “God, Nanami-san, where the fuck are you? When’s our show going to begin? Can’t get on stage in time, can’t get my makeup done on time-” You cast an evil look at the makeup-artist, who promptly bursts into tears too. “- I’m surrounded by useless trashcans!”

Miwa, the leader of R0ck-Chic, hesitantly tries to calm you down. “Ah, yn, it’s ok, they’re setting up the stage right now so–”

“– I believe it’s prudent to look at the other groups’ rehearsals and analyse the competition, miss.” Nanami steps in. He really hates his job, having to babysit the most spoilt celeb on the planet. When he speaks, he means it to everyone around you. “Let’s all use this time to the fullest, yes?” 

(Later on he’d go and apologise to the people you brought to tears. Not that he’s under any obligation to do so, he’s simply a gentleman like that. And maybe he cares about your reputation.)

You grumble, taking the ice-chips that Nanami offers you. It’s hard to be angry with diet-abiding ice-chips in your mouth. “Don’t need to ‘analyse’ any stupid competition. R0ck-Chic has me, and I’m the best.” 

The fucking audacity, Nanami cringes. And she’s not even wrong. That’s the worst part. 

You kill it on stage that night. Broadcasted live, the TV ratings spike immediately when you come on screen, bootleg solo fancams flooding Twitter and your ending fairy goes viral. The photocard prices jump up to $2000. 

There’ll be stalkers tonight following the car. I’ll have to drive through the offside path. Nanami took all the security measures that any manager worth their salt would.

Only he didn’t account for how crazy your stalkers would get tonight in particular. Even the offside has large unmarked SUVs, waiting to trail your car to a standstill. Sasaengs.

You’re in your sweatpants, performance makeup off, texting away inside the car that Nanami is driving right now, clearly no idea of how much danger you’re in. A fan would simply take your autograph and leave happily. Sasaengs, especially ones of this calibre, would stab you. At least she’s not screaming. Yet. 

He’s very correct. Because the moment that he tells you that you’ll have to stay in the dance studio tonight (can’t risk leaking the group dorm location to the stalkers), screaming is exactly what you do. 

“You promised I’d go home!” You stamp your feet on the ground, chuck your phone at him, throwing a proper fit. “I’m sick of you stupid fuckers ruining everything! Everyone is dogshit here!” The regular migraine that comes after dinner-time drives nails into Nanani’s temple. “Nanami-san, you dumb fucking gasbag! I’m tired! I-WANT-TO-GO-HOME!”

“SO-DO-I!”

Both you and Nanami are shocked silent. No one has ever talked back to you since you became famous, and you became famous at the age of 5. It’s weird. It’s interesting. 

Poor Nanami-san now has to deal with all the drama you cause as well as this new problem: you might be growing a teeny weeny crush on him.  

Bonus: you have to buy a new phone. stop throwing phones. 

masterlist

a/n: I have insomnia and a bad cold. no one has suffered like me.

[hamletthedane]

Hello, would you be able to explain why wicked bootlegs are called slime tutorials? It's very clever but I'm curious as to the origin. Thank u!

Ha! I actually can, though you could probably guess the answer:

So back around ~2016, Universal was in pretty serious talks to make a Wicked movie, as they were a little jealous of the Les Mis movie’s popularity in 2012 and Menzel’s resurgence of popularity after Frozen. As part of this, they got really aggressive about copyright and began blasting the best Wicked bootlegs off the internet left and right. They apparently even sent C/D takedown letters to people who ran bootleg blogs listing the recordings they had for trade.

Around that same time, the genre of ASMR “how to make slime” tutorials was starting to get really popular on YouTube. There were approximately 8 million of them being posted every day by anybody with a camera. So people who filmed broadway performances began uploading them under names like “Wickedly Cool Green Slime Tutorial - O/B/C Full” and “Pink Slime and Green Slime Tutorial - SJB/AA” , or even “As Long As You’re Slime - Aaron Tveit” to bury them in a sea of uploads and avoid their removal.

Fans did this for a variety of different broadway performances - the term DEFINITELY wasn’t exclusive to Wicked, by any means. I’m actually pretty sure the term was first used for the Hamilton OBC performances that circulated back then, since those were still hush-hush.

However, Wicked performances in particular are among the most highly sought-after in the bootleg community (mostly bc each set of actresses creates a pretty different viewing experience, and there’s tons of weird lore). Plus Universal’s aggressive takedowns were making them harder and harder to find on the open web.

Thus, the term “slime tutorial” (or “slimes”) is commonly used for all musical recordings, but it became very highly associated with Wicked performances in particular!

[conkreetmonkey]

Splatoon 3 is wild because imagine if you were living in Japan due to a recent economic and cultural boom, and suddenly a space shuttle with a mutant house-sized T-rex riding it suddenly burst from the center of Mt. Fuji and disappeared into space without explanation, and all you ever find out about what the fuck that was about is that Zuckerburg mysteriously disappeared the same day and was never seen again, but still "officially" ran Meta through an open secret Queen-Elizabeth-being-in-good-health gaslighting campaign, and everybody kind of suspected he may have been connected but never figured out anything conclusive.

Also the T-rex is now orbiting the earth in the fetal position like the guy from Jojo, and there are rumors of a substance that, if touched, turns you into a half-dinosaur monster. Nobody understands any of this but Meta employees just keep going to work and pretending Zuck still exists. The same 12 prerecorded voicelines constantly squak from the PA system.

Oddly, the statue in front of Meta HQ of a T-rex eating a human changes overnight into one of a giant human eating a tiny T-rex. Nobody noticed the switch, despite the statue being in a constantly bustling area. It happened shortly after the shuttle incident.

Jack Black's tiny clone, Lil' Jack, now wears a headset at all times and has been acting really shady since the incident. Also they're both hyperintelligent, immortal velociraptors found in an ancient cryogenic chamber who spend their days judging college football and eating the legally harvested flesh of hillbillies. Lil' Jack is probably plotting to kill Big Jack, but Big Jack doesn't seem to care, growing fat and lazy, sleeping on public benches in a bed of throw pillows. Also, he's very open about the fact that, as a velociraptor, humans look delicious, but he hasn't actually eaten anybody aside from the aforementioned hillbillies because he's civil.

Everyone is just expected to move on with their lives after this. This is normal to you.

The local art school was recently attacked by giant sea serpents, which were actually hideously bioengineered hillbillies, fulfilling a biblical doomsday prophecy, and they were driven back by Meta's army of minimum wage, part time child soldiers armed with warcrimey jury-rigged weaponry. The sea serpents had giant frying pans grafted into their mouths, which launched primitive tactical nukes made by filling garbage bags with their explosive blood. They still exist, and occasionally defend their comrades, but spend most of their time in the deep sea.

The local homeless emo twink everyone's attracted to is a closet millionaire who sells bootleg clothing in exchange for live rats, which he messily devours behind closed doors. He's also 8 feet tall and British and only has one eye.

North Korean refugees now flood the western world, after a greasy 14 year old hipster, under the guidance of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, beat Kim Jong Un in a mech battle, and the EDM remix of the Japanese national anthem they performed caused like half the soldiers to immediately realize North Korea sucks ass and defect. One of these individuals, 7 foot tall hypergenius, becomes a newscaster alongside a nepo baby rapper with dwarfism who likes to eat entire jars of mayo, and also they're a popular band. Also also, they may or may not be gay. Almost the entire population is gay, so this isn't a huge deal.

The new local newscasters are a famous Japanese lion tamer, an Indian girl with a bloodline trait allowing her to control snakes, and a Brazillian man the size of a smart car who exclusively communicates via grunts.

Gods, souls and zombies are objectively real, and you're effectively immortal because real-life respawning was invented a while ago. It works like a Keurig, but with mucus instead of coffee. Submersion in water kills you.

A good deal of the population is a hivemind. They pretend to be individuals for no reason.

Almost all men are now femboys.

Despite all this, you still have to go to work at 9 tomorrow.

[getfuckedblr]

this is the one. the most popular fic in the harry potter fandom. the fic that got me into fanfiction. the fic that i sobbed to for months after reading it.

i tried to bind this three separate times over the last two years and bro the first two sucked ASS. it was legit the very first fic i tried to typeset which is like, not the greatest thing to start off with LMAO. it looked funky, i hadn’t fixed any of the spacing, my footers didn’t match the text font or size. it was very much a baby binding.

the second one was my first time using a cricut and there is a very steep learning curve w the cricut, especially in creating designs that aren’t too complex or too plain. i tried to copy one of the popular printable book jackets and omg i spent weeks modifying my designs and printing and reprinting on my cricut and it looked like trash when i was done.

so finally, we have come to this.

i got really into quartos during the winter and was like omg the editing process for this would be so much more manageable if i broke it down into years! so then i did lol. it allowed me to customize each chapter into sections so i could add the chapter title to the footers, and break down graphics into separate years so i didn’t have 100 pages in one canva file. it was just a lot easier to feel accomplished having broken it down bc this fic is a MONSTER.

every chapter heading is the same - just the swirl. i gilded all the chapter titles using toner reactive foil and my laminator (she broke in the middle of this project. i ended up having to buy another laminator, and about 3 packs of foil from icraft. this is my most expensive fic binding to date🫠). i included the songs ms.kingbean put at the top of every chapter, and the bootleg tapes and christmas special.

i am seriously so proud of how this turned out, and can’t believe it’s actually done. sorry this is super long, but this really was a labor of love. they’re not perfect, i’m still really bad at measuring and cutting straight lines, but i’m satisfied. really satisfied.

[hickeygender]

enjoying 2012 les mis is like. yes i love parts of it. yes aspects of it are absolutely sinful and straight up bad. the acting is terrific. the singing is dogshit (please give jackman a glass of water) except when it verges on angelic (redmayne, barks, and seyfried). the casting is iconic (blagden served cunt for his .2 seconds of screentime and barks is legendary). who let tom hooper direct this (it was mackintosh (derogatory)). why did they cut parts of the songs only to ADD an entire new number. would i recommend watching it? absolutely. should it be your first exposure to les mis? absolutely NOT. was it mine? you know it babes! is it the most well known/popular/easiest version to find? again, yes, but i'm begging you on hands and knees to watch it live or find a bootleg or the 25th anniversary concert or ANYTHING else as an introduction or i promise that the version of the musical that burns itself into your memory will include ugly singing (i speak from experience)

[chocolate-gore]

Here’s a thought:

"The Mother Gooseberry Hour" is very probably lost media and an urban legend in the Outlast universe, with many people actively debating whether or not it actually existed, or if it is merely creepy pasta bait.

[this is a long one]

Because "The Mother Gooseberry Hour" ran locally and only during the early 50’s [1951 until 1955] there are probably only a select few people remembering it who are also - as of the main series time setting of 2013 - OLD and maybe even dementia ridden. That not only counts for the adults of the time, but the children too, if you consider that the last time it aired was in 1955. Assuming the oldest child watching would be 12 at MOST, the audience members would approximately be between 60 and 70 in 2013. And they certainly would not discuss their hazy memories of a strange TV show they watched on the internet, but instead relay these memories to their own children and grandchildren, who would at first dismiss it because…they never heard of it. Maybe the interest of SOME is peaked, but it’s so obscure that they can’t find anything about it. But then some come to discuss the topic online, only to find that they meet other descendants of people who have ALSO been told about "That strange Dental Goose Show".

Why would I assume the show is lost media though? Phyllis crimes were well documented in contemporary media after all? Well, her crimes may have been, but not THE SHOW.

I do not think that actual tapings would have been preserved because of 1, the reputation of Phyllis herself and the late show’s tone, and 2, not even the moon landing’s broadcast was entirely preserved due to a practice where TV broadcasters would repurpose old tape and record over them to save money. Storage of film was also not ideal with the materials being highly flammable. I’d even go as far as to assume that the earliest broadcasts of "The Mother Gooseberry Hour" didn’t even exist anymore, while the show was still on the air, because of that practice. If you’ve stuck your nose into the lost media rabbit hole, you may know about the whole Doctor Who debacle, which is very similar. There would have been no interest in preserving a niche, localised tv programme for children back in the day. The ONLY way that ANY tapings could still survive until 2013 would be through Murkoff. I would bet that they would have been the only ones with an interest to acquire tapings of such a show, you know, for archival and research purposes on Phyllis’ life and psyche. MAYBE the Philadelphia PD would have them in their archives but like…that’s a stretch. Who knows.

Anyways, so some may argue that "But there is Doctor Futterman merch in the Trial environments though?" Well yes, but I think that this was simply done to immerse Phyllis into the idea that she is still a successful TV show host. The merch [and all the Dr Futterman brand sex toys btw] is not real merch from the outside world, it’s just props like everything else in Sinyala. Yes, the show was popular, but it was also - again - localised to Philadelphia. If there WAS merchandise, it would have been limited in number, and limited in distribution because…why would you want a plushie of a character from a show you’ve never heard of? In that case, merch would have been obscure too, and dismissed as bootleg Disney plushies.

Anyways, SO:

Early 2010’s in the OL universe. Creepypasta culture is alive and well, and Miles, Lynn, Blake, Waylon & Lisa being media literate adults because of their professions have at least heard of the story of "That strange Dental Goose Show". Neither of them is from Pensilvania though, so they only know of if through online accounts. For shits & giggles [assuming the all of them were friends pre canon, a headcanon which I fuck with HARD] they one evening get together and - with the power of god and journalism on their side - they come across an obituary of a Dentist, one Dr. A. Futterman, through which they come across old articles reporting on Phyllis’ Futterman’s arrest that mention her being the host of a show that seems rather a lot like "That strange Dental Goose Show". What is weird though, is that after her commitment to Holmesburg…the paper trail on Phyllis Futterman just…stops: No Obituary, no patient files mention her after 1956, the only hint of what has become of her is when she is being mentioned offhandedly in a correspondence document about patient transfer in 1956. It’s never mentioned where she got transferred. Who is the man who visited her in December of that year, shortly before her alleged transfer? Why is that man’s name redacted? What did they talk about?

Instant Intrigue.

Miles and Lynn are SO tempted to look more into the Holmesburg lead, while Blake and Waylon are hung up about that show. Because Blake found something…strange. Most people who remember "That strange Dental Goose Show" are from the Pensilvania area. That’s what connects all accounts and is consistent accords the board. Maybe the descendants of those who remember moved to a different state, but the "rememberers" themselves were ALL Philadelphia residents…except…there are accounts from people that sound fabricated at first glance, but then Blake and Waylon find more that are eerily similar, and feel entirely earnest:

Accounts of relatives or friends from people who all died under strange circumstances. People who lived distinctly OUTSIDE Philadelphia. People who don’t remember the show, but the "Mother Gooseberry" character. Except in these versions she is a nightmarish murderer who hunted them down with a drill inside her hand puppet. Her face mangled and decaying, her breathing laboured and heavy with each heavy step. Engaged in strange conversation with her goose puppet, as if it was a real person. An effigy of someone. They described their incredibly hazy memories of her like…a dream, a distant memory. But it’s consistent every time.

Waylon thinks they’re totally fake, and Lynn agrees but…Blake disagrees. See, the "rememberers" relayed accounts almost PERFECTLY describe how she looked after the Holmesburg experiments, instead of how the "rememberers" of the show described what she looked like on air. And the former group - again - were never in Philadelphia, not to mention anywhere near Holmesburg prison.

And…all the "rememberers" who recalled that monstrous version…are dead now. Having passed on in a year that is weirdly consistent every time: 1973. Miles has a suspicion. It’s something he researched just recently. He scrolls through pages and pages of links until he finds the article he remembers containing exactly that year too: In an article about the closure of Mount Massive Hospital he rediscovers it: It’s the year of the official discontinuation of MKUltra.

Either this is a STUPIDLY elaborate ARG…or something is wrong here…VERY wrong…

[pipposting]

One of the few pieces of Pip merchandise in existence is the Fun4All Pip plush, released in 1998. This plush is notorious for being one of the most expensive and sought after pieces of South Park Merchandise, at one point selling for close to, if not over $1000 on second hand markets.

The exorbitant price of the plush is likely due to the discrepancy between Pip’s popularity when the plush was released and his current popularity, meaning a low supply but a high demand. This eventually caused a bootleg version of the plush to appear in 2023, 25 years after its release.

This, along with a Youtooz plush of Pip also released in 2023, has caused the price of the plush to go down somewhat.

[sunniedesi]

All Future Diary Merch (Part 1)

~~A comprehensive list

Despite being a cult classic anime and manga, finding official Future Diary merchandise feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. That is, incredibly difficult to come by in a sea of redbubble and bootlegs. This is partly due to its age, but also because most merchandising is both Japanese-exclusive and released in limited quantities. For this reason, it’s quite difficult to gauge just how much merch has been created and how much of it is still available to us few fans still active to this day. So, for the sake of curation, here’s a comprehensive list of all officially licensed Future Diary merch (that we know of at least).

A little disclaimer before we begin: this list is subject to change, as I’m always making new discoveries whenever I look deeper into this rabbit hole. If anyone knows of more merchandise that isn’t included in this list, please let me know so I can update it. On the other hand, this post is going to be very dense and likely feature multiple parts due to Tumblr's photo limit, so I'll keep my descriptions very brief. If there's any relevant information related to a product, I'll link it and call it a day. (so be prepared to see a lot of links to some of my previous posts here). 

With all that fluff out of the way, let’s dive in:

~ Magazine Goodies

Magazines often feature little goodies and gifts (or at least they did back in the early 2000’s), and Shonen Ace wasn’t an exception to this. According to Future Diary’s official guidebook, there were three special FD gifts included in different editions of Shonen Ace:

A supplementary manga cover (from the February 2011 issue of Shonen Ace)

A Yuno phone pouch (from the Spring 2008 issue of Ace Assault)

A comic box (from the June 2011 issue of Shonen Ace)

~ Raffle Goodies

Besides these magazine goodies, Shonen Ace also did many fairs where they would sell volumes of their popular series and raffle limited edition products. These raffles were advertised in the obis of the first four Future Diary volumes, which is where most of my product images actually come from. Once again, according to the guidebook, these products were:

An mp3 player + earphones (from Kadokawa’s Spring Comic fair 2006, featured in volume 1) I believe only 10 units exist of this piece, though I could be wrong. The ad for the raffle said that of the 300 participants, 140 would also receive a metal strap (a.k.a phone charm), though we have no pictures of what that looks like (source). 

A jacket/windbreaker (from a raffle featured in volume 2). Sadly, no more information is available for this product.

A wall clock (from Kadokawa’s Spring Comic fair 2007, featured in volume 3). I also believe only 10 units exist of this piece.

The complete crossover of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory x Future Diary (also from the 2007 Spring Comic fair). Of the people who weren’t lucky enough to receive the wall clock, 190 received the crossover instead. 

The meditating Yuno t-shirt (from Kadokawa’s 13th anniversary fair, featured in volume 4). Only 50 units exist of this piece. Of the people who weren’t lucky enough to receive the shirt, 200 received a signed, colored copy of the artwork from the shirt.

~ Kadokawa Extras

Besides raffles and magazine goodies, Kadokawa has made other miscellaneous products featuring Future Diary for special events:

A fan from the Kadokawa Manga Festival - Summer 2009, which happened to feature Yuno.

A Christmas Yuno x Yukki bookmark from the Kadokawa Manga Festival - Winter 2009. 

A Yuno Keychain sold for Shonen Ace’s 25th anniversary.

Sakae Esuno’s crossover illustration for Kadokawa’s 30th anniversary.

~ Books

Besides the manga releases, there are other Future Diary related books, such as:

Fragments, the guidebook.

Future Diary's ecchi parody: Mosaic Keshi.

The original Future Diary sample booklet, which included just the first chapter of the manga.

The two light novels.

Bonus: despite never receiving a standalone release, I’ll mention it here: the Tantei Akechi x Future Diary crossover story.

Extra bonus: there are two clear files that were given as bonus gifts for purchasing some of the manga volumes (I don’t know where else to place this so here they are).

~ DVD/Blu-ray Bundles

The limited edition sets of each localization of Future Diary include plenty of interesting bonuses worth diving into. I’d like to note that I might be missing some information here as the contents of these bundles are a little tricky to research, though.

The complete Japanese Blu-Ray box included the following bonuses: a 16-page booklet, pilot episode, the MurMur Corner specials, the promotional TV commercials and videos, audio cast commentary for every episode, box sleeve and disk sleeves with original designs, and the CD soundtrack.

The Japanese Blu-Ray/ DVD had individual volumes (9 to be exact) which were also accompanied by limited edition bundles. These bundles included similar bonuses: an 8-page booklet, video specials and commercials, cast commentaries for their respective episodes, a box/ disk sleeve, and one of two character trading cards.

Volume 1 of the Blu-Ray/ DVD also included a mouse pad with an original design for its limited edition, while volume 6, 7 and 8 included one of the three Radio CDs for their limited edition sets. (source).

Bonus: if you bought the Volume 1 Limited Edition set from HMV, you would receive a poster of Yuno in an HMV uniform. There's also a Tsubaki version, though I'm not sure what volume that's for. If you bought it on Amazon, you would receive a special sticker set.

The German Collector’s Limited Edition: comes with the box, booklet (same one as the Japanese), memory cards of all the diary owners, pins of Yuno and Yukki and an embroidered patch with the name of the show. (Note: the French Limited Edition also contained the same booklet).

The Collector’s Limited Edition Set (UK): included a 28-page artwork booklet.

SelectaVision Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition of Future Diary: comes with the CD box, complete series and extras (total of four disks), soundtrack CD, a small container with Tsubaki’s face, 9 large postcards of the manga covers, a doble-sided poster, sticker set, trading card set, a replica of Yukki’s beanie, and a 40-page booklet. What else can I say, ole 💃

Side note: I’m disappointed that the LATAM version never had a physical release. Not only did we miss out on similar bundles, but the dub is now incredibly difficult to find since it wasn't moved over when Funimation passed to Crunchyroll. The castilian dub is also surprisingly good in comparison, which is something I don’t normally say (castilian dubs don’t have a track record of being very good, sorry).

Lastly, the US Limited Edition Box included three extras: a filler box and two Valentine's-Day-themed postcards.

That's it for part 1. Tune in next time for more merch insanity!

PS: for some reason every time I try editing my drafts for this they get posted. I had to delete the first version of this because Tumblr's playing tricks on me. So now you're getting this post earlier than expected xd.