#scum villain is very funny and appealing to me

[lesbian-kyoru]

rip shi qingxuan you would’ve looooooved the kinky water prison in svsss

[bronanlynch]

once again I've watched more anime than done anything else this week but I promise I also have other stuff to talk abt

listening (podcast):

Great Gundam Project: almost done with their 0079 episodes and it's so funny to hear how confused and surprised they are that Newtypes don't get mentioned until the last 10 episodes. also, once again, hearing them talk about Char reminds me that I miss seeing Char on my television screen :/

Palisade: once again it was crazy good this week. shout out to fucked up dream sequences/visions of alternate futures, gotta genuinely be one of my favorite storytelling devices

listening (music): MakeDamnSure by Taking Back Sunday, which is going on my Partizan/Palisade playlist for Balence reasons

reading:

Imperial Uncle: got to more fun reveals that make the main relationship a lot tastier and more fun. still having a good time with this one

The Death I Gave Him: part of the appeal of this book for me (other than that I love Hamlet & Hamlet retellings) is the romance with the sentient lab AI. this should shock absolutely no one (at least no one who knows me as the Sokrates/Integrity guy lol) but I'm real into stuff that explores like, how intimacy works when you don't each have your own separate bodies

A Power Unbound: also started & finished something I've been looking forward to, A Power Unbound by Freya Marske, the third book in a romance/historical fantasy trilogy (different main characters for each) set mostly in Edwardian England. I've enjoyed the other books in the series, and I enjoyed this one too (though I think I prefer the other two for reasons that probably don't have to do with the actual quality of this book and have more to do with what I like & don't like in a main relationship, and actually it's a testament to how strong the writing was that the relationship worked for me anyway, because it did feel earned in terms of both characterization & themes, even though it's the sort of relationship dynamic that I tend to be hesitant about because I often see it done very badly in fanfic in ways that do a disservice to the personalities of both characters involved). anyway. my actual review is that I love fucked up magic houses and there are several of those in this book so shout out to that, and one of the main characters is extremely my type (short, angry, hates the aristocracy, etc)

watching:

I'm in Love with the Villainess: we're caught up now, and I do love class conflict even if I'm sure it's going to be incredibly simplistic and silly because that's the show this is (which I am fine with, to be clear, this is a romance anime based on lovingly parodying otome games, I am treating it with the same kind of seriousness that I would treat something like Scum Villain)

Bakeoff: I'm glad that this year they seem to be better about not putting way too much weight on the showstopper and sometimes deciding star baker based on other challenges like. finally some respect for people who do really well in the signature!!

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: I mean. I've been posting through it about this one so I don't think I have any new insights here just. man. I love it when a major character death is done really well. what a show (positive)

Gundam Seed: you may, at this point, be asking why Seed is our next Gundam after finishing ZZ, especially when every week I talk about pining for Char. the answer is because my roommate watched some of it a while ago and wanted to revisit it, and also because we're saving Char's Counterattack for when we get really desperate for Gundam that isn't Seed. anyway. Seed is fun so far!

the above description of Gundam Seed was written a few days ago when we first started but before we got to the info dump about what's up with Coordinators & Naturals so I'm editing this to say: oof. it really is like what if someone took all of the parts of the original Newtype stuff that I was most skeptical about, took out all of the metaphorical stuff from Zeta that redeemed the concept for me, and then explicitly added literal eugenics. don't like that!

the other thing about Seed is the misogyny which like. god. at least the misogyny in Zeta felt more interesting to think about. at least it felt like Tomino was saying things about gender even if I didn't always like it. this is just peak early 2000s misogyny where everyone including the writers hates women so much that every man comes across as incredibly gay because their relationships with other men are treated so much more seriously

at this point you might be asking what I actually like about this show since I've been complaining for several paragraphs and the answer is I love it when childhood friends end up on the opposite sides of a war. also, a lot of Seed feels like it's trying very hard to Be A Gundam Show (for better or worse tbh, I can feel myself being marketed to, I can practically hear Bandai being like, hey remember how cool it is when a blue-and-white mobile suit fights a pinkish-red mobile suit, don't you want to buy some models), and I am not immune to classic Gundam shit like "oops these kids are involved in a war now because the military was developing a top-secret superweapon right next to where they live" and "your lives are at risk and/or you might get arrested for trying to protect your friends because the higher-ups are incompetent/selfish/do not care about you." I am also not immune to squads of edgy anime boys, or giant robots that each have their own special weapon/power, or whatever the fuck Le Creuset's got going on. I love him. I still miss Char and he's not quite filling that void but I do love him

playing:

another session of my Blades in the Dark campaign, based on the image below (from here). the crew was asked to get the sea serpent to go away and leave ships alone, and absolutely no one was surprised that the secret actual mission was to protect the sea serpent (a baby one) from the coast guard who were going to try to make it leave but more violently because we're playing Blades like it's a game about befriending creatures (see also: Missy is currently trying to resocialize a former fighting goat and Xiao Yun collects extremely fucked up birds)

Ace Attorney 5: not very far into the trial but man. sorry for falling for the trilogy nostalgia but I love to have Edgeworth as a prosecutor, I love the energy that he and Phoenix have, I'm such a sucker for defense attorney & prosecutor working together to find the truth and also they're in love

making: vaguely spanakopita-inspired stuffed pastry wreath. we made it once before and put too much extra vegetable in that released too much water while it was baking so the dough just straight up did not cook. we did it better this time! the dough is actually baked! (it's store-bought crescent rolls, we did not make the dough). anyway. there's spinach and mushroom and herbed goat cheese in there, and it's tasty

drinking: the grocery store had peppermint bark creme liqueur, and it's pretty good in hot chocolate

writing: continued to pick away at a zine fic, figured out what I want to write for my Nirvana in Fire exchange fic, and also did a little bit more on the Integrity fic that I've been working on. it has been a minute since I've written an action scene huh

The Principality knows how to contain divines, to leash them, to defang them and bend their powers to its will. And Integrity is an old divine, and never among the most awe-inspiring. Integrity is a small, quiet thing, precise and intimate and not suited for flashy displays of power like many of its fellows. But it is a divine nonetheless, and when it fights, it brings death. Orbit-and-Integrity steps into the corridor where the Princept fled. Orbit bares their remaining teeth, blood pooling in their mouth and seeping through the seams that begin to open in Integrity’s armor where it no longer has the focus to keep them closed.

[waitineedaname]

3, 5, 20, 30 for questions? :)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

ohhh SUCH a hard question. I feel like this year, I challenged myself to write things I wouldn't normally write, so I have two answers to this question. I am terrified of HTML and find it extremely difficult to use, but I challenged myself to write something in reddit format, and it was a ton of work!! so I'm very proud of how you go inactive for a few months, and everyone decides you’re a missing person turned out. plus I just think it's really funny. the other thing I wrote that was a new challenge was smut! I haven't written smut since I was a teenager, which is embarrassing in its own right, but svsss is such a horny series on its own, so it gave me the courage to write smut for the first time in years! check out Business Incentives for moshang and The Strap™

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

self-written dreams has made me fucking insane. I posted this fic in September, what the fuck do you mean it's got more hits than any other fic I've ever written. what do you mean it has nearly double the kudos of my second most kudos'd fic and more than twice the bookmarks of my second most bookmarked fic. it's also my third most commented on fic and my second most subscribed fic, despite being a oneshot. what the fuck guys. thank you scum villain fandom for being so insanely supportive!

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

we're now on third most reread fic lol probably Business Incentives again. I am just a humble lesbian <3

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

definitely how receptive the svsss fandom is!! svsss is a story that's inherently wrapped up in the relationship between writers and readers, and I think there's something about how it's a story about storytelling that particularly appeals to writers, which in turn creates a fandom that's super supportive of fan writers, because most of the fandom are writers themselves! I've been in fandoms where you have to beg for comments, but the svsss fandom has always surprised me by leaving frequent comments and bookmarks and reblogs, not to mention fanart! getting art for my own fic ideas always makes me explode with joy, and just in general, I'm constantly seeing fanart for other people's fics and it's really nice to see. the svsss fandom isn't perfect but it is generally such a nice and supportive environment to make fan content in <3 thank u scummies

[pinepickled]

1, 3 and 12 for the shipping preferences thing ^^

Thank you for the ask elm! I love doing these

If anyone else wants to send an ask:

1. List 3 Shipping Tropes You Love

I am not a big fan of tropes generally! They tend to make a relationship feel canned and not-unique, so I try to avoid them.

But aside from that... ^^

I like the poor x rich romances a lot. Aside from "I would like all of my problems to be solved by money", I've recently been replaying Mystic Messenger that has a similar dynamic and it's given me a new appreciation for the nuance that the rich character can have! Normally they're confined to being these douchebags who only slightly care about their lover who have a Dark Past but in Mystic Messenger, he's given a lot more depth and nuance as a character and I like to see that sort of stuff!

Fucked up Person A/Secretly Likes it Person B is also a huge favorite of mine. Just,,, it's so good. I especially love if Person B is in vehement denial about how much they like their partners not normal/probably abusive tendencies! Pair it with some dubcon and an absolutely loving Person A and you have a recipe perfect for Pine ☺️

My final guilty pleasure tends to only exist in C Dramas like Scum Villain's Self Saving System, but I love it all the same. Student A grows up to top Teacher B is a gigantic soft spot for me! Just, a kind older person who innocently took in this innocent little kid and mentored them, taught them and fed them, clothed them and loved them- only for the student to grow up and repay the favor by becoming the Good Strong Dominant Partner that they knew their poor teacher really needed 🥰🥰 whether the teacher likes it or not!

I feel like there's a theme going...

3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you

Ooof.... that's hard. Believe it or not, I don't actually find more than maybe 1 or 2 romances in a few months time that actually have romances that appeal to me. I kind of just bear with it to see the story and pass the time.

One thing that does always hook me though is the "I know what's good for you". Just, Person A being able to trust Person B enough to let B make decisions and watch over them, protect them, it always gets to me. And A trusting B enough to go to them for everything, all emotions and problems they could have, because they know, love, and trust B enough to take care of them. :3

12. List 3 Ships You Currently Love

Ooh!

1. Jumin/Zen from Mystic Messenger. They are the above rich/poor romance I said I love 😊 Jumin is a complex character and Zen is as well, and they compliment each other nicely. Jumin is patient and kind, though he comes off as arrogant and cold. Zen is firey and passionate, if a bit narcissistic about his appearance, and he haaaaates Jumin for no reason 😂 its funny! I'm writing a fic for them right now, and I'm enjoying their dynamic greatly.

2. Vanitas/Noe/Comte de Saint Germain from Vanitas no Shuki. Vanitas and Noe's relationship is already very sweet and heartwarming when they're friends, but I'd like to reject the "No homo" tone the series has taken recently 😷 and who better to do it with than the Comte de Saint Germain, aka Noe's teacher! I think a rivalry between Vanitas and the teacher for Noe's affections would be very funny to write and read about, especially since it would be mostly one sided on Vanitas' part. I also think Noe just deserves to be spoiled and doted on. Sue me!

3. And finally, last but not certainly least since i have a whole blog dedicated to them, Natsume/Matoba. God, I could rant about Natsume Yuujinchou forever. Its such a good series and so underrated 😭😭 the fandom is nonexistent. I've been meaning to organize a one shot project for myself just to bump the numbers on ao3 and put some activity in the tumblr and Twitter tags bc it's so bare. Especially for this ship. It's the certified problematic ship, so that doesn't help either.

Anyway.

Matoba has the capabilities to be a good mentor and guide for Natsume as he further navigates the yokai world. He has just the right edge of danger to protect Natsume and keep him on his toes, and Natsume is perfectly fine with that whether he admits it or not. I always like to remember fondly the times when Natsume rejected someone's touch, only to not only accept Matoba literally playing with his hair, but relaxed as he did so!

Please watch/read Natsume's Book of Friends. It's so good.

Again, thank you for the ask!

[emchovy]

What I've Read in 2022 So Far:

This is gonna be an incomplete list, but I didn't want until the end of May to start making these and there's no way I'll remember what I read from month to month. So, with that said, here we go!

Novels:

ASoIaF: Game of Thrones

This was a big one. I read the first Asoiaf novel, which I've been meaning to do for forever, and finally got done. We watched the first season of the TV show at the same time, and that was fun. This style of writing is very appealing to me.

Dune: Messiah

This is the first Dune sequel. I read the original Dune in Summer 2021, and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to read Messiah, especially because I knew a lot of people disliked it when it was originally serialized. I liked it a lot, especially the end. The portrayal of ladies in the series does...remain a little weird, but hey, no extremely jarring homophobic content in this one!

Resident Evil Novels: Zero Hour, The Umbrella Conspiracy, Code Veronica

These are video game novel adaptions. You love 'em or hate 'em. I loved 'em. S. D. Perry has a pretty fun writing style, and she keeps things moving. I don't LOVE her portrayal of Wesker, but it's fine. It works.

Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn

Got this off an internet reclist for gay fantasy, as one of the earliest series with positive protrayals of gay characters. Interesting read for that purpose, but ultimately I didn't enjoy it that much. Just not really my style of writing, and the way the author talked up aikido just made me laugh. Still an fine book, tho.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

A "fantasy of manners" rather than a regular swords 'n dragons fantasy, this novel was pretty fun. I liked a lot of the character writing a lot. My main detractor here is the main couple, which I didn't not care about, so I'm hopeful the sequels, which should be less about the romance and more about other characters, help that issue out.

Manga:

All of Humanity is Yuri Except for Me

Definitely other stuff, but I can't remember it right now.

I got this one mostly because I'd read a bit online on dynasty-scans a while ago and liked it, and I love when a whole manga is all in one big volume. Ultimatellllyyyyy, I didn't like it that much, as I felt the ending dropped off a lot.

FANGS

Vampire BL. It's pretty good, but I'm ultimately feeling eh on it. The most notable part of this one is how the cashier at Barnes and Noble wanted to talk to me about how much she loved it, which was sweet and funny.

I read a lot of manga!

Light Novels

I'm In Love With the Villainess Vol. 1-4

The premise of "Oh no! I've been isekai'd into the body of the lady villain of an otome game" is getting ever more popular, and this is like, a little to the left of that. The MC gets isekai'd into the body of, well, the PC, and ignoring all the eligible bachelors, decides to pursue the lady villain. It's a pretty cute romance, and there's a surprising amount of discussion about like, LGBT identity, and what that means to people. 'S good.

Scum Villain's Self-Saving System Vol. 1

Me and my brother, in the early fugue of 2020, read the online translation of this bad boy. It was something that only quarantine could've motivated me to do, as MAN was that translation bad. The first three chapters narrowed in on word-salad. This translation was much better. Anyway, I love Scum Villain but I'm sooo ambivalent on the main couple. C'est la vie.

Nonfiction:

The Dungeon Master's Guide, The Player's Handbook, The Monster Manual, and some other books. These count.

Okay, all of these aren't teccccccchnically done yet, but I've been working on them. I wanna start DMing this year, but it's been a slow process.

[hamliet]

Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Or, one of the funniest, most self-aware satires I’ve ever read that manages to be genuinely emotional and powerful even through its satire. 

(it is getting a donghua adaptation later this year(?) so the images are taken from designs and the trailer for that)

This novel is by the same author as Mao Dao Zu Shi, and again even though it’s technically boy’s love, its characters shine as the heart of the story. The characters might be hyperbolized in some ways, but they never lose the core of which makes a character seem human. 

I also enjoy reading works by authors I enjoy because you can generally pick up which themes are important to them, and how they refine and explore these themes and ideas in different ways in different stories (like for example, Dostoyevsky’s The Adolescent is very clearly a prototype for what he would later masterfully explore in The Brothers Karamazov). Luo BingHe is absolutely a prototype Jin GuangYao from MDZS, right down to the skeptical birth situation, terrible father, desperation to be noticed, etc. 

The story is also well aware of its role as a boy’s love novel and pokes fun at the readers for their expectations, but also pokes fun at itself for subverting and then fulfilling said expectations in thematically interesting ways. The roles of the characters (Shen Yuan becoming Shen QingQiu, who is technically Luo BingHe’s mentor at first) made me slightly uncomfortable, but it’s also kind of supposed to, because it’s a satire (and he isn’t technically the same person, and he isn’t technically a different age, etc.--see, it’s poking fun at both stereotypical BL conventions, while also poking fun at fan shipping culture in a way that really does cause you to critically think and evaluate it). 

Because the novel that the MC is transmitigated into is a “stallion” novel (aka a harem). The story then goes on to explore the stereotypes of all the female characters who would have been a part of his harem, and allows them their own stories and arcs that are not centered around the protagonist. Ning YingYing was of course a standout among the female cast, and the story criticizes stories that sideline females as stereotypes. 

Probably my favorite part was how aware the novel is of fan culture. Oh, gods, is it aware of fan culture in all its glory and beauty and ugliness. It pokes fun at fans for their investment, but at the same time shows the beauty and power of said investment and doesn’t “lol freaks” fans. It shows how the well-meaning fans can sometimes fail to get their intentions across and can discourage a writer, and how ill-meaning fans can really do harm. It allows everyone humanity, in other words. The writer is affected by fans and at the same time it points out the writer’s failings when he’s transmitigated into the novel as cannon-fodder (a red shirt), and how his failings can be genuinely hurtful too 

(for example, Luo BingHe's harem of barely-fleshed out women reduces his character by denying him the kind of love he wants, and the female characters don’t deserve it because they have a ton of potential to write their own stories, and is actually the writer compensating for his own issues). That being said the author feels like cannon-fodder, and the story that he wrote for his self-esteem backfires, and *spoilers* he gets a great ending I’ve had that spoiled for me and he deserves it. 

So basically, it doesn’t vindicate anyone in the quagmire that is fandom, but it doesn’t condemn anyone either. 

Thematically, the story explores ideas of fate/God and free will. Weighty stuff, but it does it with empathy and nuance. It asks what is necessary to create a good story in real life and in fiction, and asks how real life and fiction both impact each other (nuaaaance). It questions what kind of suffering is necessary for character development. 

It explores the typical “pride and prejudice” dilemma and shows how preconceived notions--even if understandable--can damage a relationship before it even starts. It asks you to reevaluate empathy for even the “scummiest” characters as well, which MDZS will later do too. 

It’s also vastly aware of what good writing is in general convention, and is so funny and relatable for better and for worse I still can’t stop laughing. Like, this was totally me with TG:

And the system. The system (which transmitigates Shen Yuan the weeb into Shen QingQiu the villain) was so self-aware. “Being docked 50 OOC points,” rewarded “coolness points,” the system’s idea of saving him being tearing his shirt off (aka aware of the hot villains appeal throughout history)--it’s like the internet, and Shen Yuan thereby finds himself being picked apart like he picked apart this novel--but it isn’t saying it’s bad to do so, either, because the system does help, but neither is it avoiding how that can be really painful and not always worth it.  

And. And. The ship. It had a Mutsurie moment: the moment where one of the characters is at their worst, and another character decides to embrace them anyways. I cried. 

It’s excellent as a premise and as a novel, though (still like 15 chapters from the end, thank you translators) I don’t think it’s as polished or as deep a story as MDZS. But that’s okay. It’s a solid 9 out of 10 for me.

so anyways when am I waking up as Furuta.

[ashen-star-mage]

My Favorite Fandoms and Why

I’m a huge nerd. Hopefully that’s clear for anyone who follows my blog or posts. So naturally I like a lot of fandoms, but there are a number that I really really like and some I’ve followed since childhood. 

Pokemon

A fandom I’ve followed since childhood. I was part of the original Pokemon generation who were kids when the first games (red, blue and yellow) came out. I love how even in the beginning there was no end of things to do in Pokemon. Bored with your team? There’s 151 of them and more on the way. Then you could battle and min-max your team to your heart’s content, and way back in the day you could even gamble in Pokemon games. I love the art style of Pokemon and the beloved creatures that are way too easy to get attached to. It’s like to the point where when someone (I’m not naming names) KOs your favorite Pokemon and then it’s time for some serious payback. We’re talking Hyper Beam on a 10% health Pokemon payback. Modern games have given us even more to do in games. If battling isn’t your thing, you can breed them for cool moves and other things (and potentially become a twisted Pokemon eugenicist). You can hunt for oddly colored Pokemon (shinies), something I never had the patience for. You can participate in Pokemon contests, and bond with your team by feeding or petting them. Pokemon designs are really diverse too, from ‘normal’ animals to plants to the gods themselves. Gods that can be caught and battled by ten year olds for some reason. Also it needs saying that for some reason teenage boys (and perhaps girls too) detest Pokemon because it’s not cool. What’s cool for teenage boys? Skateboards and saying ‘radical’ all the time? Ninja Turtles reference by the way. I was definitely in the minority liking Pokemon in my teenage years, but when I got to college, suddenly it was cool again and everyone was allowed to like it just like when I was a kid. Pretty awesome right? I’m really hyped for Sword and Shield, just like I’ve been hyped for every new main series game. 

Star Wars

Another fandom I’ve followed since childhood. While Pokemon took us to a land of wonderful creatures of all stripes, Star Wars takes us to that galaxy a long time a go and far far away where there are adventures, cool ships, and magic space wizards. In my opinion, Star Wars introduced the world to some of the coolest and most iconic ships. Like the wedge-shaped Star Destroyers that struck terror into all who saw them, or the Millennium Falcon, the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. And who could forget the characters. Definitely a diverse cast in terms of archetypes, Luke the naive and idealist farmboy, Leia the tough no-nonsense princess, Han Solo the lovable rogue, Darth Vader one of the most feared men in the Empire and an extremely iconic villain. The list goes on. Even if the galaxy is almost always at war, be it the clone wars, galactic civil war, or other conflicts, it was somewhere I always wanted to go some day. Meet the characters, try not to get force-choked, fly a ship through hyperspace. Star Wars may have started as three very well-done movies, but it has turned into an incredible multimedia franchise. The Legends series (formerly expanded universe) really fleshed out the galaxy and lore beyond what the movies did and so did the prequels. Say what you will, but they had some really good aspects to them. Then there are the games like my favorite of all time, Empire At War, game that would transport you into that galaxy far far away for a few hours at a time and let you blow up stormtroopers or rebel scum to your hearts content. Or clones or clankers (battle droids) if you prefer that. The fans have definitely done their part too, like the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion, two incredible professional-quality Star Wars costuming organizations (both of which I want to join some day). They really do their part to bring the galaxy to life. 

Disney/Pixar

Ah, Disney, the company that has been entertaining us with beloved child-friendly characters and stories for many decades. A lot of generations can say they grew up with at least one Disney movie. I love how Disney movies appeal to people of all ages. They have characters both kids and adults adore and stories and even humor for both adults and children as well. Then there’s Kingdom Hearts, the massive Disney and Final Fantasy crossover that brings tons of Disney characters into one universe. Also Disneyland and Disney parks which bring the magic of Disney to life with animatronics, costumed actors, and various other things. Unless someone outright hates Disney or animated films, there’s bound to be something in the Disney canon for almost everyone. I have too many favorite Disney films to name, but some I’m particularly fond of are Mulan, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Alice in Wonderland (my namesake). I’m definitely planning some Disney cosplays in the future, and now that Disney owns Star Wars, those characters could count too. 

Fire Emblem

A tactical RPG with one of the world’s saltiest fanbases (at least in my opinion). I’ve described the series as chess-meets-Final-Fantasy to people who have never heard of it. Basically you have an army of very relatable characters who can talk to each other for combat bonuses and you have a bunch of enemies and undoubtably a giant evil dragon to fight. These games have been pegged as being rather difficult, considering weapons can break mid-battle, characters who die in battle never come back (until recent games), and experience points are limited (more in older games). Fire Emblem used to be such a niche series, only known to a few dedicated fans, but luckily Fire Emblem Awakening saved the series and made it really popular, to the point of being a mainstream series now. I only got into the series in high school, but I’ve been hooked ever since. The mix of strategy, RPG elements, and interesting characters and plots really was a winning combination. The character relations are deep, especially when there are 40+ playable characters per game. Each character can talk to around half a dozen others several times, revealing character backstory, personality, and interesting and sometimes funny interactions between them. I think Fire Emblem Awakening is one of my all-time favorites, and not just because it saved the series. It was a great standalone game. Some of my favorite characters are Lilina from Binding Blade, Nino from Blazing Sword (just Fire Emblem in the international release), Lissa, Chrom, Frederick, Robin, and Nowi from Awakening, Flora and Mozu from Fates. I even cosplay Mozu. I should honestly dust that cosplay off and wear it again. I love the character.

 Hyperdimension Neptunia

Definitely still a rather niche series. It’s extremely meta and loves trampling on the fourth wall. This series is basically the video game console war (Wii vs Playstation 3 vs Xbox 360) with all the players (pun intended) personified as anime girls. It’s not just those systems either. Sega is a major player, as in main character major, and video game piracy is personified too. The characters are fantastic and their interactions are equal parts endearing and hilarious. There are way too many video game references and tidbits. Like how Vert (Xbox personification) complains about overheating just like a real Xbox 360. Or how the enemies you fight are based on classic video game enemies like the ghosts from Pac-Man or the space invaders. This franchise is rather unique for me in that I like almost every character. With Star Wars or Fire Emblem for example, there are definitely a fair number of characters I’m neutral towards, but both those franchises have way more characters than Neptunia. I think my favorite characters are Vert and Nepgear (personification of the Sega Game Gear). 

RWBY

Say what you will about the animation style at first (believe me, I was turned off at first but then I came back years later to give it another try) but this series has some of the most epic fight sequences and choreography in any series I’ve seen. All the main characters have superpowers of varying sorts called semblances and throw in a bunch of cool weapons that are also guns and you’ve got a recipe for epic combat. It’s so tragic and sad that Monty Oum, the series creator passed away, since he was a real driving force behind the epic fight choreography. I normally don’t like series just because the fighting is good (I’m not into most shounen battle anime). There needs to be more than just epic fights. I like character-driven stories and RWBY provides quite the diverse and likable cast. The team dynamics (RWBY stands for the names of the four characters on team RWBY) make for very interesting character interactions. 

Disgaea

Probably the most wonderfully absurd fandom on my list. Disgaea is about playing as the demons as they get into mischief and are forced to fight even worse demons and sometimes rogue human super-villains and angels too. Also did I mention the exploding peg-leg penguins called Prinnies who also talk like surfers for some reason? Because they do exist and they’re so great they even got a few games that star them as the main character... even though they’re supposed to be the fall guy and cheap slave labor of the Disgaea universe. The main characters, Laharl being a great example, are a departure from the ‘good guy’ protagonists of your typical RPG. He’s greedy, petty, and likes to brag about himself. Sure he’ll do the right thing after much prodding, but he really likes to play the role of the villain too. Aside from the absurd characters and plots, there’s the absurd game mechanics. Lv 99 look too low for you? Try Lv 9999 and then reset to lv 1 and grind back to Lv 9999 multiple times. Also stats reaching the millions and billions and damage several magnitudes beyond that with the right overpowered sword (which you can level up by going inside it). 

Tales Series

A series that’s somewhat similar to Final Fantasy in terms of being a mostly fantasy RPG, but also with hack-and-slash team battle mechanics. It’s a series that I feel is terribly underrated and needs more love. Final Fantasy is great but I feel like Tales deserves more recognition. The series has a lot of great characters and heavily emphasizes character interactions and character development. A perfect example is Luke fon Fabre, a character whose spoiled, whiny, abrasive personality makes him hard to like, but due to certain events he becomes one of the most beloved protagonists in the series (and a personal favorite of mine). This series is known for playing archetypes and tropes straight (like the chosen one trope, or unshakable destiny) and then turning them on their heads and deconstructing them, only to reconstruct them, then deconstruct them again. The combat is fast-paced and exciting, and while I love turn-based combat as well, the Tales fights, especially boss battles are fantastic. I describe the series as Final Fantasy meets Super Smash Bros in terms of battle system. My favorite game in the series is Tales of the Abyss.