#mostly in doujins or comics

[mezzomorendo]

What's their instinct in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn situation?

What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based on their hobbies / profession that they actually dislike / hate?

[ Weirdly Specific but Helpful Character Building Questions ]

What's their instinct in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn situation?

I think based on what we've seen, Zack tends to try and fawn. Which is honestly pretty fascinating. He tries to talk down Angeal, Genesis, even Sephiroth. I think if he's genuinely afraid - if he's scared and worried - he tries to talk himself out of it. He's trained himself to fight through the fear in most cases (fear of monsters, fear of death) but when it's something he can talk to, he will talk.

As a military guy, that sort of thing did take a while for him to train out. It's hard to change your instinct, and when your instinct is to try and talk to your enemy or appease them, that can get you killed on the battlefield.

What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based on their hobbies / profession that they actually dislike / hate?

So I almost started typing out the opposite to this question (something he's expected to hate but actually loves which is learning new things) but to answer this one, I think people expect him to be a complete and utter musclehead? Like, no brains, no nothing, just pure brawn. And I think that does a disservice to him. Like he enjoys working out and being in shape, but it's not everything about him. He squats as a stim, and he loves to run, but he does get annoyed that people assume that's all he enjoys.

He also is expected to love killing and violence, but he kinda doesn't? He loves the thrill of a fight, loves challenging himself, loves reaching new physical heights, but he doesn't actually enjoy the violence of it. Aerith's comment to him long ago really got to him, because he thought he enjoyed it. But when he thought about it, it was just the thrill of the challenge, not the bloodshed itself.

[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.

[rennebright]

TRANSLATION COMMISSIONS OPEN

Heya, been a while since I made a post about this, I'm Renne from the (mostly one-man) translation group Shuten Doujin Translations, or"SDTLs" for short, we specialize in translating adult manga/hent*i from Japanese to English, if you're curious about our works you can search "SDTLs" in the adult manga site of your preference, such as e-/exhent*i or nhent*i. (We're always open for commissions but I thought I should make a new post promoting them since the circumstances have changed since last time.)

While adult manga is our forte, it doesn't need to be specifically that, it can be short (sfw or otherwise) comics or scripts (though probably not something the length of a book) as well as just editing b/w manga (everything but single doujinshi/manga chapters have different fee rates, so please inquiry about specifics). Our translations are JP→ENG⇆SPA

If you're interested in commissioning us here's a breakdown of the main info:

$25 (USD) base fee + $6 every 200 translated words (+ $any extra editing, transparent text, heavy redraw, etc., up to a maximum of $25 [might require outsourcing]) x 1.08 bullshit p@ypal fee.

With that pricing, an average 20 page chapter with simple editing would be roughly $40~$55 depending on the word count.

Strictly forbidden content includes: /o/icon, sc@t, bestia/ity, and other similar extreme fetishes. (Note that even if it doesn't feature any of that we might refuse to work on it for other reasons.)

However, please take into account that:

Since the total cost is based on TRANSLATED WORDS I won't know the exact amount until the script is done, I can give a rough estimate but it can be wrong, if the difference is too big I'll let you know and we can reach an agreement.

Because of that, there's no upfront payment, an invoice will only be sent once the script is done and there's a 100% guarantee that I'll complete it once it's paid.

There is a queue and it's suceptible to the length of other commissions as well as personal events in my life, be patient but don't doubt messaging me to ask for updates if I take too long.

If you'd like to inquiry about commissioning something feel free to DM me on tumblr, join my discord server and post it in the appropiate channel (or send me a discord DM through there), or email me at shutendoujin★gmail.com (★→@).

Reblogs are appreciated and if you happen to ever have read anything from us let me know through DM/ask or in the tags, I always appreciate seeing people's opinions, thank you!

[gabriulio]

Short Sonic comic by manga/doujin group CLAMP from 1994

This short comic was featured in the anthology doujin "CLAMP in Wonderland 1994." This doujin is mostly known for the infamous short story where Kakyoin from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure lays an egg.

If you're in the Jojo fandom and always wondered why Sonic is on the cover of that doujin, this is why.

(Translation done by me)

[allgremlinart]

i did not know how to use the internet when atla first dropped, what doujins do i keep seeing you and other blogs keep referencing?? what did i miss…

ADsdhs yeah atla is getting up there in age as a fandom so... obviously over the years there have been numerous doujins/fan comics !! The ones I've talked about on here have mostly been ones I remember seeing as a tween in the 2010s, which was mostly jetko and various slash. I think it would be absolutely impossible to find and list all of the atla doujin that's ever existed, only because there are corners of the fandom that I simply do not visit regularly, and so I'm sure there's stuff I don't know of. HOWEVER !! Fuck it. I'll put together a list of the atla doujins/fan comics I DO know of....

2009 Jetko Doujin Anthology The link above is to a yaoi website and is only accessible through the Wayback Machine. The physical anthology was, at some point, available for purchase, but obviously not anymore. There were multiple artists and stories, but it was all centered around modern au jetko. A friend recently helped me finish a translation of one of the stories - by prolific 2000s/2010s jetko artist Avici1881 - in this anthology - you can find links to most of the full translated story here <3

Jetko Doujin by Avici1881, 愛之門 (The Gateway of Love) The artist originally posted this doujin to their Deviantart, but the translation is a little rough, and it's hard to read in the correct order. Tumblr user @/zaqscans created another version of the translation, which is easier to understand, and can be downloaded here. The story is kind of a riff on "The Cave Of Two Lovers," and it's great.

Zukka Doujin by Avici1881 Like the last one, this one is a spoof on "The Cave Of Two Lovers," although this one is much shorter and more goofy. The only place I've been able to find it is Avici's Deviantart. All of the pages are there, it just takes navigating Deviantart's terrible organizational layout to find them.

Astronaut AU Jetko Doujin by kyosa-europa Now I've never actually been able to find any scans or translations for this one, only what's been posted to the artist's Deviantart. It's an astronaut au. That's about all I've got for it.

Mooncake Festival Jetko Comic by kyosa-europa I think I've seen a Chinese version of this comic too, but I can only find this translated version posted to the artist's Deviantart (which works fine for me, obviously). It's very cute. I believe it is unfinished.

2024 Zukaang Doujin by Yishu (@/shange0211) Rejoice! Doujin from the 2020s! The tradition lives on! I have not personally read or purchased this one, but this artist's work is cute. It's the only one of these that I've compiled that you could actually buy, lol. I do not believe there are any translations of it.

Now obviously this doesn't scratch the surface when it comes to the amount of pairings in atla/tlok (I believe I remember a korralok doujin floating around somewhere at some point) but this is the span of what I've probably referenced on this blog.

[eleemosynecdoche]

Okay. Oil fire serious posting, huh? Now my friend @rlyehtaxidermist is a patient, forbearing soul, and I've been known to get a little hot under the collar at times. The language may get spicy. You have been warned.

Anyways, there are people apparently trying to do some kind of shipping war over this interpretation of Touhou 19 and of Sanae and Tsukasa. They level three basic charges- that there's no support for it, that it's a shallow sex ship, and that Tsukasa is obviously manipulating Sanae. Let's take it from the top.

1. No Evidence, Not Canon

Well, I could go and take screenshots and get the Japanese text and screenies of confirmed "sex isn't real in Touhou" people trying to puzzle out the parts of the Japanese text where Sanae and Tsukasa use very familiar language with each other. But I won't.

Why does it matter? Like, take it as a given that this is the case, that this ship is created from nothing. What would that mean? That people need to stop talking about it? Or restrict their posting about it to some kind of space for non-canon shipping? Is that reasonable?

Look, shipping characters on the basis of them being in adjacent stages has a history in Touhou. Some of them, like Parsee/Yuugi, got ZUN offering some support for it much later, through indirect means. Others, like Nitori/Hina, are kind of unpopular nowadays. People still make art and comics and doujin novels for those unpopular ships based on proximity. And why shouldn't they?

Some of my favorite doujin works- Ōkawa Bkub's "Charm" series, ALISON Airlines's drug-themed and mind-expanding works, Komaku Jūshoku's Ran-chama shorts- are far outside the boundaries of what ZUN produces. I think it's good that people take what ZUN puts down and run with it. I think that's a much healthier way to creatively engage with an artistic work you enjoy. It also gave us Higurashi When They Cry, Umineko When They Cry, Undertale and Deltarune, and other independent works where the influence isn't quite as obvious.

Anyways, all that freedom brings with it people being allowed to ship in ways you think aren't canonically supported, as part of being able to creatively reinterpret the work they're engaging with.

2. It's A Shallow Sex Ship!

Now let's be fucking clear here- what people are implying by this is pretty clearly "You're using this shipping to get off!"

Look. Do you really think that people are likely to be getting off to the idea of sex that's unglamorous and kinda mediocre, a bit awkward? If there is some kind of fetishist of that kind posting about SanaKasa, I'll buy them a drink to salute their extremely broad and abstract sexuality, which would be quite rare indeed.

I'm being mean. The more likely thought process here is that social assumptions around whether anyone would use direct and somewhat crude language about weird sex without being aroused at that moment or being some kind of perpetually-horny sex pervert are shaping how people react to seeing posts where a foxgirl's tail is used as a proxy for her having an erection.

So set that aside. I'm gonna talk about why the sex posts are meaningful to me personally.

I'm not an old hand of Touhou fandom, I came to it as a grown adult with the period between Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom and Hidden Star in Four Seasons as my entry point. But what I learned very quickly is that there's a lot of Touhou stuff, posting, art, comics, fanfics, where people offer up sexual content that I find deeply unappealing (mostly because it's dull, het, and not infrequently invokes sexual violence). And then, eventually, I realized that there was a kind of reaction to this state of affairs.

This was the sense that Touhou fandom was divided into bad sexual stuff and good desexualized stuff. And sexual stuff from a lesbian or WLW perspective was lumped in as part of the bad, with an assumption it was made for men too. And so if you wanted to enjoy the lesbian overtones of Touhou, the Touhous better not be having sex!

This is in turn correlated, I think, with the sense of Touhou as the whimsical side of the "cute girls having tea parties" media metaconcept. All of this ties really heavily into a broader social understanding of sexual desires between women, between nonbinary people, (or even between men much of the time) as intrinsically predatory and needing to be desexualized to be acceptable.

But Touhou isn't a series about cute girls doing cute things at tea parties in the text. In the games, it's a bunch of rude women threatening each other with violence in erudite ways, then engaging in elegant examples of that violence, and finally going drinking together. There's intrinsic sexual tension to all of that. It's people flirting with each other, showing off their stuff, and then getting to know each other at a bar.

Touhou's gotten more explicit about the sexual side of things. Tsukasa, who's drawn with what are instantly recognizable as sexually charged expressions, lidded eyes and insouciant gestures, whose outfit loosely resembles both short pajamas and a romper dress with the skirt cut away to show off the built-in bloomers, is a noteworthy chunk of that, and then she gets treated both in the fandom and in UDoaLG by powerful beast youkai as, essentially, a born slut.

But the sexual aspects have been there since Perfect Cherry Blossom at the latest. The implicit flirtatiousness, the women with extremely close relationships. So what talking about Tsukasa having bad sex and falling in love means to me is a couple of things- it's an acknowledgement that sex is going on. It's also a way to engage with Tsukasa as a character who's engaged in what is only barely subtextually survival sex work, and offer up the possibility of love in a very normal and unglamorous sense, for Tsukasa to be sexual and yet loved and fully worthy of love.

Making them both transfem or transfeminine-coded (i.e. Tsukasa probably didn't transition, but her penis is still effectively a trans woman's rather than that of a cis woman who shapeshifted in terms of how characters understand her position and body) is in turn an extension of that, of how trans women's bodies are fetishized (especially in sex work). And taking these bodies we, as a group of people, have, and treating them as sexual, but in a more naturalistic way yet playful way. And so for me it's just a matter of being truthful- this is describing the situation in terms of the world as I know it, within certain specific boundaries of Touhou I like to use.

This humongous nerd can have a loving, fulfilling relationship while not being good at sex and having to figure that out. This poor little kon kon can be loved without it being transactional, without having to try and become purified and sweet and "More tea, Miss Sanae?" Even bad girls (in several senses) can love and be loved. If you're gay enough with your cringe girlfriend, a miracle will happen.

All of this is of course my hyperprecise sexual fetish. Every last word of it.

3. All According To Tsukasa's Keikaku

"Tsukasa's just manipulating Sanae!"

Why is it important that Tsukasa be an undefeatable schemer and manipulator?

Let me put it this way. If Tsukasa can manipulate everyone equally well because everyone has weaknesses in their heart or whatever, that's blandly cynical. It makes her out to be some kind of overwhelming malevolence. If Tsukasa is really really good at manipulating powerful, perceptive, and forceful women, but completely unable to affect naive, slightly gullible, says exactly what she's thinking Sanae beyond marginally? That's funny! The one person that should be a cream puff to manipulate is beyond manipulation!

It's thematic! Someone who's open and honest and not trying to manipulate other people can't be manipulated in turn, because she's rejecting the game. It's relevant to Tsukasa's character! UDoaLG makes it clear that tube foxes are despised, that they're seen as weak and unable to fight like real women do. Tsukasa has to manipulate people because it's her only way to keep from being crushed, or so she thinks, because she's immersed in that reality.

Sanae isn't manipulatable, but also doesn't really try to crush her. Sanae offers a relationship between equals, even if they have different power levels.

It even plays into neurodivergence and mental illness- think of Tsukasa as someone unsure if she's manipulating people or not. Sanae being autistic and not manipulatable provides a reassurance that she's capable of doing better.

None of which means she's going to start being a saint or even a decent person, just that she's an awful person whose awfulness is hard to separate from her situation, but she can be in a better situation without having to become good first. She can stay malicious and kinda sucky and we know she's doing it on purpose now! We can say, "you are yucky disgusting, babygirl" and squeeze her into a Pringles tube without guilt. With minimal guilt.

Also, abilities are self-declared and Tsukasa's method of manipulating the other polycule members in Unconnected Marketeers mostly seemed to be encouraging them to do what they wanted to do already. Similarly, she can manipulate Aun in UDoaLG by playing on Aun's desire to be helpful and the dangers of the situation, but Aun also knows it's safe because her other body is back at the shrine. She's not, frankly, massively strong. In demonstrated "power levels" she's a step below Yachie "failgirl" Kicchou. Think about that.

Made it all the way to the end? Congratulations! Imagine a Touhou ending slide where I'm (whatever you think I look like) holding up Tsukasa and Sanae sock puppets.

[akatsuki-shin]

"So for Geto it's mostly that I don't like villains with a bigoted ideology and he's too incompetent to even fall in the "love to hate" category. Really, the worst thing a villain can be is incompetent and Geto in Vol 0 is barely better than your average disney villain. Doesn't help that he never gets pushback on his ideals. Gojo tells him in Premature Death that killing people is bad, but that's it. He spouts his bullshit about how genocide is totally necessary and Yuuta stands there like "idk you might be right, but you want to kill people I care about and that's the real crime here". Nobody really engages with his ideology except Yuki I guess, but that was before he became an antagonist. I could forgive that to a degree if he was at least a real threat, but he isn't.....You don't get any of that with Geto, he's not even fun to hate because he barely provides any pushback. He's a bad villain and I dislike him as a person as well. His descent into embracing the superiority of sorcerers and resolving to kill all non-sorcerers was well written, but I don't feel for him at all. Good riddance to the guy, I'm glad he's now dead both in body and mind."

I just found this post (kinda sad when read it), can I ask your thoughts, please?

Thanks so much for your JJK posts (especially about Getou and Gojo), love to read them....

When it came to Geto (and SatoSugu), I think the biggest difference between me and most other JJK fans is that I start from doujin, headcanons, and fan analysis about them before I started consuming the canon materials.

I have friends who are avid shippers of those two and regularly shared their contents. Plus, I got commissioned to write their fic, which required me to research their dynamics and canon details.

So you can say I went into JJK after already knowing full well what to expect, why this is like this, why that is like that. Perhaps this is the reason why I can feel so much about Geto because I already read everything there is to know about him, from his "golden days" with Gojo to his descend into villainy and his death.

Despite all my screaming and fangirling about JJK (and SatoSugu in particular), I actually have a lot of personal complaints about Jujutsu Kaisen itself as a whole, particularly from the story-telling aspect — which is why despite not agreeing with that post you saw, I can kind of understand where they are coming from.

To be honest, when I read the manga, I feel like the story-telling is rather all over the place. You have all of these flashbacks featuring this and that character, but as the story progresses, not all of these characters get the spotlight you think they will get after all of those focus they're getting in the flashback. And you end up not understanding "so wtf were those for?"

Even Gojo's high school flashbacks come abruptly out of the blue. You press that "next chapter" button and suddenly the flashback started out of nowhere.

So you can imagine my feeling when actually reading the manga. I was like "...huh? that's it? the doujin I read was more intense than that."

(in which case, I'm super thankful to the anime staff for including more contents and crumbs about SatoSugu's relationship)

Speaking from personal experience, there have been many times when I fall in love with a character not because of what I see in canon, but because the many interpretations and contents in the fandom through fanart, fan comic, headcanon, analysis, and fics.

Like with Choso, for example. I like him a normal amount but after seeing so many cute and funny fanarts of him being a bro-con to Yuji, he becomes one of the characters I love the most now because of how precious he is in those fanarts and comics.

When you're reading or watching something by yourself, there may be things you miss, things that you only start to pay attention to after you saw other people talking about it. Likewise, there may be things that you realize but other people don't.

For example, the foreshadowing in the anime where they always put Gojo and Shoko in the light and Geto in the shadows, hinting at his eventual descent into the dark path and separating him from his friends.

I think my experience with Geto and SatoSugu is exactly like this.

I already saw fanarts and doujins about his tragic fate. I already saw both his happy and sad days up until the moment of his death. I came into the canon material with a certain level of understanding and expectations about the character, so when he did something in canon, I was like "yeah, no wonder he did that, because previously he went through this and that."

And because of that, I am willing to look deeper into him, to analyze details about him. Because he is already that dear to me from the beginning, I don't have it in me to turn and hate him for what he did.

But of course, we are all different from one another, including when it comes to interpreting a story.

Maybe the person who posted that only consumed canon material, and maybe Geto as a character is simply not to their liking, who knows? I'm not going to say their opinion is wrong because mine isn't guaranteed to be right either. When expressing out review/opinion about a story or character, we can never discard our personal preference and bias, no matter how objective we try to be, and that's okay.

Each to their own. ^^

[lotusflowerbreakingthesurface]

Part 1 || Part 2

An incomplete list of those who have beautifully drawn PingXie regardless of time 🗓️

Please note that some may have quit the fandom, not active anymore, take a break, or indulge in multifandoms.

⚠️ Do not repost their artworks without permission. These artists have guidelines on the usage of their artworks. For more information, you can check their profiles/homepages since every artist has their own rules. Please respect them :)

Note: [*] The artists said themselves that they are PingXie Only; They are listed in no particular order; Weibo= 🧣 ; Taobao= 🍑

🧣: _丢兜 ・ Lof: 丢兜 [x] [x]

About them: One of DMBJ official artists; multifandom; like to draw chibi style, but the adult version is also awesome.

🧣: kagalin ・ Lof: kagalin [x] [x]

About them: One of DMBJ official artist from a long time ago; you may see their works in the official comic as bonus artworks; Tumblr acc is under the same name.

🧣: 微调家刘巴布 [x] [x]

About them: One of DMBJ official artist; also known as 刘巴布; he is still actively drawing DMBJ scenes in comic style for time to time; put here again to record.

🧣: 东帝沧阳 ・ 🧣: 广式乌冬沧 🆕・ Lof: 东帝沧阳 [x] [x]*

About them: PingXie Only; doesn't do PingXie as much as before; not only good at drawing but also good at writing fanfiction especially 🔞 fics.

🧣: MOONJ触月月

About them: Completely out of the fandom, but the PingXie fanart that he drew in 2011 is really famous, the one with them drenched in water while wearing a white shirt and in the middle of it, there is a word "十年".

🧣: 弥纯 ・ Lof: 白開水少尉 [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; also draws PingXie comic/doujin; no longer update on Lofter.

🧣: 知识怎么就不进脑子 ・ Lof: 风橙子 [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; also draws other characters in DMBJ.

🧣: _花怪_ ・ Lof: 花怪 ・ X: 花怪floter [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; like to draw monster-type fanarts.

🧣: CircusMayer ・ Lof: lazy ・ X: @Mayer1528 [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; quit the fandom; has Tumblr (under the same name as X), Pixiv, and Deviantart acc.

🧣: 被窝封印术_发动 [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; rarely update.

🧣: 橙花米酒 [x] [x]*

About them: PingXie Only; rarely update; also writing fanfictions.

🧣: POio影叶刀 ・ Lof: POio [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; there is no update for a long time.

🧣: _-Cat [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; their chibi style is popular; also drawing PingXie couple avatar.

🧣: 瓶邪过激派丨过激这俩字不会认吗 ・ Lof: 瓶邪过激派 [x] [x]*

About them: PingXie Only; mostly drafts or some jokes; rarely drawing, but I like the art style.

🧣: _打碟小狗 [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; sometimes update.

🧣: -Addsy- ・ Lof: Kangaroo [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; Weibo is for multifandom, go to Lofter for DMBJ.

🧣: -陌路未至- ・ Lof: 陌路未至 ・ X: @F_morich [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; rarely update.

🧣: 吟耳汤 ・ Lof: 🌙雨打吟耳汤 [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; drawing PingXie many years ago, may quit the fandom.

🧣: 不愿透露姓名的四重 [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; rarely update.

🧣: 一只江小白- ・ Lof: 一只江小白- [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; multifandoms.

🧣: 黒犬���鳥 ・ Lof: 黒犬牙鳥 [x] [x]*

About them: PingXie Only.

🧣: 可以给我产品做饭吗 [x] [x]*

About them: PingXie Only.

🧣: 绞杀自己 [x] [x]*

About them: PingXie Only; chibi style.

🧣: 籾山阿亚 ・ 籾山阿亚 Lof: [x] [x] ・ X: @michiru_0

About them: PingXie; didn't draw PingXie as much as before; the last time she drew it was about two years ago.

🧣: EcsRin ・ Lof: 杏眼收集列车 ・ X: @ecsrin_nirsce [x] [x]

About them: PingXie; no update for a long time.

🧣: 麻辣兔头粥 ・ Lof: 麻辣兔头粥 [x] [x]*

About them: PingXie Only.

Due to Tumblr's limitation, I have to split them. There are still many artists I haven't listed yet, maybe some other time when I feel like doing it again (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

[okiria]

*holds up mic 🎤* hey astoria!! this is super random but i just read your recent posts and it made me curious about something; are there any differences/interesting things about sougo's portrayal in jpn vs eng fandoms? or is about the same?

okay this got long (as per usual) BUT the TLDR is i think sougo is seen as a lot more of a pretty boy in the jpn fandom and a lot more of a "dom" in the eng fandom. it's probably either due to what archetypes we are more familiar with/connect him to, or just how fanon spreads in different languages!

okay so first funny story/disclaimer— during my time living abroad my friends kept trying to get me into ginta.ma and i didn't until i got back to the states. but now every time i say "god i wish i had a sougo figure :/" my bf says "should've gotten into it sooner :/"

so that being said i didn't really interact with the irl gint.ama jpn fandom, but i always think of this story my bf told me where he was shopping for hiji merch and a girl next to him audibly gasped and gently, tenderly picked up a sougo badge. she gets me. more on that later.

anyway, a character like sougo is interesting bc i feel like every person has their own interpretation of his traits, but this is what i've gathered from what i have interacted with online and through doujins/fan comics (gross generalization ahead):

i think often in the eng fandom he is portrayed a lot more with his "do-s side", and i think a lot of interpretations i come across have him as pretty mean/aggressive (obviously he has his moments, but they're usually just mischievous and opportunistic (and 90% of the time directed at hiji)). in short, he's mostly written like this:

from what i've consumed from the jpn fandom, he's depicted a lot more as his "flat" self. i feel like what's more exaggerated is the "uncaring" attitude. (i wonder if it's because that's what his speaking style conveys, but that exaggeration is lost to an english audience?) i see him written more like this:

and obviously both interpretations are rooted in canon! that's why i was able to have screenshots of both attitudes he shows! but it's interesting with a character like sougo seeing what aspects people choose to focus on :) ofc this is, as i said, a generalization, and based on my limited personal experience with both sides of the fandom, but it's what i see most popular in those languages!

i brought up that example earlier of the other sougo fan who tenderly picked up the badge because i feel like a lot of sougo fans over here aren't as interested in those "gentle" aspects of him. all x readers i have found have been people who desire him for his do-s/dom traits (which is fine if that's what they're interested in!), but i'd say more sougo fans in the jpn fandom find him cute/moe.

(i think it's also interesting that sougo was written to be the bishounen/androgynous character, but i don't hear much about him being a "pretty boy" in the eng fandom. this is an interesting case since usually EA men are feminized in western fandoms, and in this case it's the opposite, but i won't get into that (i just wrote about it for my graduate thesis so i have thoughts on it LOL))

[lalunameli]

More YuriPe Merch 🥰🥰🥰

A lovely haul of YuriPe goodness arrived today from mostly from Suruga-ya, and a little from Mercari and Seiemon Shop.

I took a chance on these lovely charms from Wonder Festival (there was no picture on the site) but they were very reasonably priced for how good the quality is! I'll probably wear them as pendants on a necklace.

Finally got my hands on the World Collectible Figures, but for the Luna one, opted for the no cape version.

Interestingly Origa is translated as "Olga" here. I'm still on the fence for deciding how to romanize her name, as there is no consistency. Olga is usually written as 「オルガ」 in kana, where as Yuri's mother's name is 「オリガ」 which would be closer to Oliga if decide to use an "l". For now I'll stick to "Origa" in homage to the Russian singer of the same name who was popular in Japan. She was an Olga, but was known professionally as "Origa".

I also picked up a couple of doujins and Katsura Masakazu's Design Works 2 artbook. This is the artbook that has Katsura's stand alone comic "#03 Good luck and bad luck alternate like the strands of a rope (福は斜える縄の如し)" featuring Yuri.

I adore this panel with pouty Yuri so much. Those lips...omg... 🫶🏻😍

And this blanket I draped over the new "Yuri Annex" to my previous shrines, that has this adorable Rascal Yuri and Virgil.

This is the rest of the stuff I was planning to display. Some duplicates (like the DXF figure and the Summer Resort Heroes Acrylic Stand).

Here are updated pictures of the rest of my YuriPe shrines.

[deathdesu]

Ask meme!

tagged by @marshvlovestv ! Happy to respond :D

Last song you listened to: Sabotage by Circus-P feat. Len Kagamine

Last movie you watched: The Crow

Currently watching: 80s anime "A Little Princess Sara", I'm In Love With The Villainess, Dead Mount Death Play, and (rewatching) LOST

Other things I've watched this year: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Chainsaw Man

Currently reading: CSM Buddy Stories

Currently listening to: Playlist I'm assembling of mostly original songs featuring Asterian, who is an English bass SynthV (it's like Vocaloid but a different platform) as well as a few others related to him (in particular, I've been reccing Collared by Vane ft. Synth V Saros up and down)

Currently working on: Other than some self indulgent roleplay I've mostly been spending too much time playing video games with my roomies and friends to have much free time left to get started on creative projects I've wanted to do but procrastinated on. However, if a genie were to free me from the shackles of capitalism, I would like to use that time to run an x reader fic/headcanon/request blog for no particular fandom but I would list my blorbos, draw some comics / doujin for my fandoms, make some fan otome games for canons that are definitely not otome, run some one-shot death game based online roleplays, and learn how to run a Savage Worlds campaign! I hope I can manage to do at least one of these next year, haha.

Current obsession: Yoshikage Kira & Makima are the current character obsessions as well as their respective fandoms in general (However I am not caught up with part 2 of the CSM manga.) I'm also playing Twisted Wonderland and Project Sekai enough to be semi-obsessed. Of course my forever fandoms remain Zero Escape, TWEWY and Mystic Messenger.

Tag if you want to: @jelimore @smol-grey-tea @brodyliciousbooty

only if you feel like it though!

[gurggggleburgle]

Hi allow me to give another unhinged headcannon about pidw meta if it existed.

Ahem* if there were any gay✌ 'ships'✌ in the PIDW fandom they would be ugly bastard doujins in a similar vain of those few breath of the wild or SAO doujin ect where Bingge my boy gets topped among many other things (if you know you know) or people would 'ship' (saying ship feels wrong but it's the closest available word i have. the nature of fandoms for things like what PIDW would be irl doesn't really ship in the manner that tumblr users tend to think. It's more like they have abstracted an extra step away from the source material and the characters are exceedingly there to exist as dolls. We do this in our everyday fandom interacts but I notice in these spaces it never really feels like a connection to the character beyond vague surface traits and tends to focus more on physical body types and character archetypes. But with this in mind when it comes to shipping it means nobody is using Luo Binghe as a character just as a surrogate for themselves with the waifu they've chosen that week.) Mobei-Jun because he's the only actual male in the series with any credible screen time and even then it's like one of them gets turned into a girl or drawn overly feminine and girly because the primary straight cis male audience of a book like this isn't ready to ask that question about themselves yet. That or its futa stuff with a preestablished wife but there is a fair chance he's still topping.

Basically what I'm saying is if there are any Shen Qingqui and Bingge things that would exist they'd be like... Dead dove do not eat. Either some shen jiu shouting some phrases that only exist in hentai related to dicky wicky and being objects of sex (again if you know ya know). Or you may get the rarest of all a dark introspection sfw one that likely was written by one of the 2 existing hardcore female fans.

This my long winded way of saying while i enjoy the jokes in fanfic that Shen Yuan has read PIDW fanfic and knows there is BL shippers it would be even funnier for him to complain about the fact that anyone writes Bingge getting topped content at all (there is a favorite he's not admitting it). Or that people ship Mobei-Jun and Bingge. As that's ridiculous and doesn't make sense. They're just BROS bro. God don't make it gay.

Or, and I do think this is the funniest one, nobody is writing deep introspective fanfic or making comics about Bingge's emotional needs and is focused on the sex. Man is mad the mostly cis heterosexual (and probably incel laden) audience is too busy focused on the porn to think of the protagonists emotional needs. Or even just art of this broken man.

All of them losers focused solely on them tiddies while Shen Yuan is over here asking the real questions. The fanbase is busy making content meant to cater to their specific wants and fetishes with one guy in particular who just shows up all the time asking for such a niche thing. Enough that it's almost a meme. And they are all clowning on the guy who's claiming to hate the novel and asks them to take the book seriously.

also there is no way he would not review all of the fan content he stumbled on in great anti fashion. And getting a positive-ish comment from cucumber is actually considered by fandom a mark of shame. I just don't think the internet could resist clowning on this man further by not treating a cucumber approved work as a meme joke of shame.

[rennebright]

TRANSLATION COMMISSIONS OPEN, donations welcome as well! (reblogs appreciated)

I'm Renne, from Shuten Doujin Translations (SDTLs for short), you can easily find us by searching "SDTLs" in most of your favorite adult manga sites, such as e-/exhentai and nhentai, there's a high likelyhood (depending on your interests) there's something we've worked on that you've read and I'm glad if that's the case.

While we specialize mostly on adult manga, our translations are not limited to it, it can be short comics or scripts (though probably not something the length of a book). And another thing is our translations are also not limited to japanese-to-english, but english to spanish and viceversa as well. If there's anything you'd like to commision be mindful of the fees and content we won't accept:

$25USD base fee + $6 every 200 translated words (+ $any extra editing, transparent text, heavy redraw, etc., up to a maximum of $25 [might be exceptions])

As the total is based on the script any estimate I give before working on it might be off-mark, there's no upfront payment, an invoice will be made once the script is done with the final price, and once that's paid you'll receive an update of when I'll be done. Know that once it's paid I'll 100% finish it, you have my word and a perfect record to back that up.

Outright forbidden content is: /o/icon, sc@t, bestia/ity, and other similar extreme fetishes. (Note that even if it has no such content we might refuse to work on it for other reasons.)

If you'd like to inquiry about commissioning something feel free to DM me on tumblr, join my discord server and post it in the appropiate channel (or send me a discord DM through there), or email me at shutendoujin★gmail.com (★→@).

If you'd like to just donate: https://paypal.me/shutendoujintl or shutendoujin★gmail.com (★→@) on paypal will do just fine.

Or simply reblogging/signal boosting helps greatly, thanks!

[allthefujoshiunite]

"Why do you enjoy more of writing fanfics or making doujins from non-canon mlm pairings than canon mlm pairings"? This is what my little sister asked me last year. I know she did not mean anything negative about this, cause after said this she asked me to make for her mini comics of satosugu & kenhina (yes, I read JJK & HQ because of her).

I've read BL manga/ manhwa for almost 20 years, and most fanfics and doujins that I made are mostly from shounen series. I never think about it too much until my sister asked that. I just became curious about that question, too... What do you think about this? Sorry if I'm rambling too much.

You're not rambling at all, this is a great question!

The very first possibility that comes to mind is, canon pairings are already presented to us in a romantic setting. This is obviously not to mean that they are set in stone; there are so many fics on canon couples reimagined in different settings, or simply in their canon context. But it's possible that we view it as complete; their story is told, we enjoyed it and moved on. However, characters in non-romantic relationships leave so much to the imagination! You can interpret their dynamic however you like, it can be 180° to another person's interpretation and you'd both be valid. I think it's similar to playing with the OG Lego's; you have the building blocks and you're free to wander off to any destination you like.

As someone who dabbled both in fanfiction and literary fiction (and as a fan, obviously) I find it much easier to come up with ideas, themes, in general, inspiration when fanfiction is involved. The characters are already established, the dynamic is established and I already have an emotional connection to the canon story. You don't have to introduce a whole character into a story, because the reader already has an idea when you use Kageyama as your character. This also eases me into fanfiction more so than original works because, as I have said, I already have a prior connection.

There's also the fact that even when a media is not focused on romance, as we most frequently see in shounen and sports anime, the male characters are presented in a "bestest bros in the universe" so that it will appeal to fujin fans. And it works wonders :D

This is all I can think of! You've been creating fanworks for much longer than I do and I'd really like to hear your opinion on this. Please send me another ask/message! See you around ~

[stifledlaughterao3]

Genuinely Something Else: Comiket & comic-related events reflection

I recently attended Comiket 102 in August 2023, and had tons of thoughts on it. I've been attending comic-related cons for years - indie cons, zinefests, anime cons, you name it. I'm a huge fan of doujinshi, specifically fandom doujinshi (mostly shippy stuff, although I love a good platonic / gen focused doujin!), so my main goals at Comiket were to find those, as well as find small, personal works by amateur creators that were more autobiographical in style. Since I have Japanese language skills, I figured this would not be overly difficult to do.

Because of how much I love these genres of work, I've gone to some big conventions, including the Angoulême International Comics Festival ('Angoulême' for short) and Otakon in DC. 

Comiket was genuinely something else.

What you 'do' at these comic events

At Comiket, which does stand for Comic Market, it is definitely a place where you go to purchase items in a 'market' setting - there isn't any aspect of socializing, and as far as I can tell, if there were events, they were in the minority and mostly seemed to be held in the South Hall where the vendors were. I also feel that you can get a lot more chatty at American cons, but that may be due to the general cultural differences between Japan and America. Even though I was a foreigner, I still didn't observe many people chatting and sticking around a specific booth the way I have observed in other countries. It was also so crowded and busy that if you spent too much time at a booth, it was difficult for the artist to help anyone else out as there was literally not enough room to stand next to you as you browsed to be helped. 

At most American fandom-related cons, the same artists are there throughout the con (2-4 days. usually). At Comiket 102 it was held Saturday and Sunday, and there was a complete overhaul from day 1 to day 2 of who was selling their work. I am used to the purchasing technique where you see something you may want to buy, do a loop of the artist's alley to see if something else grabs your attention/money more, and if you decide to go for that first item, you loop back and purchase it. At Comiket this is ill advised as the conference center is enormous and doing so is exhausting, especially if you were to do this going from the East Hall to the West Hall. If you see something you like, you either purchase it immediately, or assume you will never see it again.

The scale of Comiket was just overwhelming. At Angoulême, held in Angoulême, France, the entire small town is turned into a festival for comics, averaging 200,000 people (pre-COVID). Comiket has ranged in the numbers but it was estimated to have more than this at Comiket 102 (the one I attended). At Angoulême it was far more spread out across four to five venues, so I did not feel the same sense of crowding I felt at Comiket, even though the conference halls were large. I could chat away with vendors at Angoulême easily and didn't feel like I was stopping them from getting sales as there was plenty of room for a chatter and a browser at the table. At Angoulême, the entire town became the festival but you could still slip away for a breather. (I found, much like in the rest of France, I could easily hang out in a semi-abandoned cathedral for a while as I pored over my purchases.) 

(The shops participating in the comics festival in Angoulême, as it took over the whole town (2016))

At the average anime/fandom/gaming cons I go to, which range from 10,000-40,000 attendees, the scale is just significantly smaller than the aforementioned larger events, and the artists (usually) attend both days, meaning you can get to know an artist if you stick around enough and they want to connect and chat. I didn't feel like that was as permissible at Comiket, as you were blocking sales since they were only there for that one day, and had a lot less time to sell their stock. (Not that it stopped some booths from selling out by noon!) 

Day 1 of Comiket 102 I spent most of my time in the 'fandom' areas of the East hall, and noticed that, unlike American and European artist alleys, the Comiket artist tables generally stuck to one fandom, or perhaps 2-3 if they were really out there. In American or European artist alleys, you could see up to a dozen or so different fandoms based on what the artist felt like selling, mixed in with original works. In some cons, such as Otakon in Washington, DC, you are required to have a certain percentage of original works (see the 50/50 rule), which would not fly at Comiket, as fandom ("parody") and original works are on separate days. This rule with Otakon is, to my best guess, due to IP and copyright law fear, where fanart definitely walks a thin line and often just gets away with being sold at these sort of conventions due to the low chance of Nintendo actually suing a con vendor who made $40 off of Zelda themed keychains, although I have heard the horror stories from Western copyright holders such as Disney and Paramount. There are many commentaries on 'parody' works in Japan and how they are tacitly allowed by (most) IP holders, which creates a wholly different creator & IP holder environment.  

The lack of fandom diversity per table at Comiket's 'parody' section is likely due to how the tables are grouped by genre- for example, all of the Genshin Impact tables were in a specific area, all of the Bocchi the Rock tables were together, etc. There were a few outliers here and there in regards to this (erotic doujinshi were sometimes sold with various characters, but even they stuck to the 'genre' where they were at - video game, Vtuber, anime, etc). 

Comiket having the day 2 books that were travelogs, how-to booklets (I saw one explaining how to use Excel with a cute anime girl, for example), food and photo based zines, etc, reminded me a lot more of a casual zine fest in America. These were truly made out of a deep and narrow interest in a particular topic; I bought a zine that was photos of signposts near a rural train station in Hokkaido, and then a small travelog of this person's experience in that small town, including the food he ate. He had several others in this series. 

Many of the zines/booklets/doujinshi I saw at the second day of Comiket were as if people printed out their blog posts and formatted them and then printed them, that sort of travelog/diary feeling. There were also of course many erotic doujinshi and fandom based doujinshi both days, although the first day had more fandoms I was interested in. The range of art quality and styles was refreshing to see - it really felt like anyone could apply and give it a shot to be at Comiket (although I heard the 'circle' (artist/group) applications are bureaucratically harrowing, so there's that barrier to entry.) 

I could best compare Day 2 of the East Hall of Comiket to SPX (Small Press Expo) in Bethesda, MD, which is a small comics event held for 2 days in the DC area. It usually has 3,000 or so people. I have both been an attendee and tabled at it, and of all the events I have been to, SPX is the one to make the most niche, bizarre works, and then chat with people about them (or anything else, really). They make the table aisles far enough away that you can both stand at a table with someone moving through the aisle behind you, and the very connected “we’re all weird here” sort of mentality makes conversation flow. I’ve had extended talks with people when I tabled for a small indie comics press who just noticed something I was wearing or recognized one of our artists or authors. Even though they didn't always purchase something, I got a lot out of the interaction. Even though the social aspects of SPX still didn’t quite apply over to Comiket Day 2, the “make what you love, you beloved weirdo” feeling was persistent as I went up and down the aisles of the food/travelog/explanation doujinshi. 

While obviously people in the other sections of Comiket were making what they loved too, there was something different about someone selling a doujinshi made about their travelog in Berlin or a book on the sake that had come out in the Chiba area and their takes on it as a sake master. I was able to chat with the artists for the aforementioned works, no doubt due to the nicheness of their products their booths were not overflowing with people. My gain, I suppose!

(One of the pass-through areas to get between halls.)

Cosplay

Cosplay also differed at Comiket from my experience at similar American events, because you had to sign up beforehand to cosplay and change at the center (you cannot show up in cosplay), and you cannot be on the merch hall floors in cosplay - you can only be in cosplay at the specifically structured pavilion. (Exception - vendors could cosplay in the main halls.). It meant a lot less spontaneous cosplay connections of 'I love your cosplay!'  'Thank you! [Insert follow up comment if the person felt up for that]", etc. 

I've had many conversations with con-goers at Western anime/fandom/gaming cons based on their cosplay but given that at Comiket it was usually vendors I say in cosplay (who, as I mentioned before, I didn't feel I should/could chat with), I ended up only briefly complimenting the cosplays I liked before purchasing my item or moving along. 

It should also be noted that the ‘cosplay photos’ doujinshi section of Comiket is huge, and obviously the vendors selling photos of themselves in cosplay often were in cosplay behind the table. I also suspect that due to the cosplay books being sold on Day 2, the cosplay participants in the cosplay hall dropped significantly in number on that day. I don’t have the numbers to back that up, however. 

(Side note: I was also pleasantly surprised to see the sort of ‘soft gravure’ doujinshi in the cosplay section. One book I regret not getting was of a thirty-forty-ish year old woman in soft sweaters drinking a hot beverage while walking or sitting around a cozy fall urban park setting. I cannot imagine I would find that even at the most niche of American zine events I’ve been to.) 

Closing thoughts

I wish I knew someone that knows Comiket well that would be willing to answer some questions I have, as there were many genres and conventions of books I didn't understand. When I talked to the vendors at Comiket, my Japanese just wasn't nuanced enough to get into the subculture and sociological aspects of my questions. I also didn't want to bother the vendors too much, as I didn't want to block them from possible other purchases by taking up table space. I am definitely making do with limited information, even with my research prior to the event. 

Overall, to call Comiket a "con" would be inaccurate- it is primarily for purchasing items, where as a 'con'/'convention' feels more like a gathering of people to engage, whether it indeed be at the artist alley, at panels, at cosplay meetups, and the spontaneous interactions in the halls. I feel that, at Comiket, it's difficult for the attendees to get to know each other and make connections but I absolutely can see where vendors would gain familiarity and friendships with other sellers, especially if they attend year after year. Also, this is all with the huge caveat- I am a foreigner with middling Japanese proficiency! It is far more likely that I missed out on this spontaneous attendee connection due to this very large elephant in the room that was my language proficiency. I spoke to several vendors in areas where it was slower and made some connections but not nearly the depth I did when I was in America or France. 

I would love to attend Comiket again (perhaps the winter one, as waiting in line for 3 hours in the blazing sun was an experience in Suffering (™).) Next time I'll be a little more prepared and do my research on which vendors will be where so I can hit up their booths first and then leisurely browse after. And hey, maybe my Japanese will be better then, and I'll be able to understand a little more of what the hell was going on!

[anjumstar]

Anjum’s bkdk recs #17

More shounen ai recs! As always, this list isn’t sfw, because the hosting website has irl p*rn ads on it, so proceed with caution and minors dni.

Legend

hyperlinked title by author

genre warning(s): where relevant Summary/review

💚🧡 = faves

Alphabetical order by author

21. The heart next to mine by Abaraya

angst Lovely art on this one. Bakugou is hit with a memory loss quirk and forgets Deku. I thought this one was pretty mild when I was working on it, but our readers thought it was super angsty! Lmk which camp you fall into.

22. A declaration of courtship by Aiko (Roroka)

humor, romance Look, the typesetting needs work and the translation is incomplete, but it’s adorable. Chibi fantasy bkdk where they speak different languages, so Baku’s just trying to show his insta-love through action. It’s silly, but that’s the fun of it!

23. Scarlet Crocus by aroe

romance A short doujin by a beloved artist. It’s not text-heavy; just a lovely portrait of Baku’s devotion for Deku with, uh, a slightly unclear plot, haha. But it’s cute, takes five minutes to read, and we love aroe, so win win win. Easiest dj I’ve ever worked on 😊

24. New Life by I@BOX 💚🧡

slice of life, romance Both Bakugou and Deku are being told that, professionally, they should get married, and neither of them have an interest, so they decide to marry each other. Deku’s sure it’s a marriage of convenience, but Bakugou thinks it’s something more.

25. Kanraku Destiny by I@BOX

drama, romance, humor (bakudeku, alpha!Baku, omega!deku) warnings: omegaverse, suggestive (but fade-to-black sex scenes, no genitalia), liiittle dubconny moments Deku hates being an omega and has Baku bite him in middle school so he can be unencumbered as a hero. Neither are prepared for the consequences of being pairs and rediscover each other after UA.

26. Starting line with you by kinomukumamani

fantasy, friendship It’s only slightly shippy, but it tells a really focused story. The fantasy AU works so well in djs and this is no exception. We get a good focus on Baku and his and Deku’s characterizations are spot on.

27. Call Your Name by lapin

fluff Nice details about why Deku continued calling Baku Kacchan through their bad phase and then flash forwarding to bkdk as adults, in love ❤️

28. Necessary for Life by Nae 💚🧡

general, romance I love the characterization in this one! Baku and Deku are both spunky and a bit silly. The romance is light, but hopeful and I was so pleasantly surprised by this doujin.

29. The Sense of You and Me (Deku’s Favorite Days) by Redsho

general, fantasy Two comics! One with HS!Kacchan babysitting toddler!Deku, and a silly Halloween one.

30. Steampunk AU Christmas by yazaki

general, sci-fi Just a simple story of bkdk working together!

✨ Bonus! - Todoroki ✨

Foggy Pancake by Sakurai

general, fluff Not bkdk, but a cute story where Shouto gets de-aged and sent to live with his family for the day. Enji mostly steers clear, but Natsuo and Fuyumi try to give Shouto a day of being a kid that he never got as a child. Very soft.

more recs can be found here 💚🧡