Promotion Fest: “Rec me!” Comment Meme

[dark_administrator]

Hello, doers of darkness!

To kick off our fandom promotion fest, let’s have a recommendation meme:

• Comment with your favorite tropes, narrative kinks, character archetypes, and other qualities that you look for in a fandom.


• Reply to other people’s comments with recommendations for fandoms with chromatic creator(s) and character(s) that suit their preferences.

This entry is posted at Dreamwidth and LiveJournal and you may comment at either journaling platform.

Comments

[snowynight]

character type: competent decent characters who enjoy working with/spending time with each other.

[troisroyaumes]

The first series that came to mind is The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, which is a K-drama about three female friends, each of whom is very dedicated and competent in their respective careers. They don't work with each other, but they do spend a lot of time being there for one another. The series is as much about their friendship as it is about their romantic entanglements (it also features two interesting older woman-younger man couples as well as a single woman who is happy to remain single). oyceter has reviews of episodes.

The other series that comes to mind is the J-drama Keizoku 2: SPEC also comes to mind: the main characters are police officers who are partners in a special division unit. Touma is the brains, Sebumi the muscle: both are very excellent at what they do. At first they don't get along, but they soon learn to cooperate and trust each other as every good cop buddy team does. What I like about this series is that Touma is very much the eccentric, socially maladept genius type but she's female. lacewood has a great primer post.

If you're intrigued and need download links to either, I would be happy to supply them!

[troisroyaumes]

I'm looking for humor--especially parody or satire--in any form: books, movies, TV shows, etc. Dark humor is fine, as long as it really does make me laugh, as well as more lighthearted humor. I especially appreciate witty dialogue and narration!

[littlebutfierce]

I am a sucker for chosen family stuff, finding the people who suit you/discovering therefore you're not weird, bad or wrong. Examples of what I mean: Natsume Yuujinchou, Kimi ni Todoke, ahahahaha. Other stuff?

[troisroyaumes]

Hourou Musuko! But you already read/watch this series. ^^;

I think you might already be familiar with this series as well, but Otomen (manga and J-drama) comes to mind as a good example of finding friends who accept you for who you are.

It doesn't strictly fall within this story type but Nabi's protagonists are a group of orphans on the run who have no ties of blood to each other but have very much become one another's family.

Hmm, I should really try not to make my recs all East Asian media...in Amitav Ghosh's The Sea of Poppies, the members of the Ibis who hail from all sorts of backgrounds come together and form a crew...the "chosen family" aspect doesn't really kick in until the latter half of the book but I think once it does, it's really compelling.

Naguib Mahfouz' The Harafish does focus on family-by-blood relationships but I think more importantly it tells the story of how a group of outcasts settle in an alleyway and form their own community. Granted, this community forms its own conflicts and tensions so the focus isn't entirely on acceptance, but I think it still works as a variation on the story type. (I'm actually not at all sure how one would go about making fanwork for The Harafish, but it's an excellent book.)

[torachan]

If you haven't seen the drama of Nobuta. wo Produce, I think you would like it.

[franzeska]

I love longsuffering best friend characters who prop up their more volatile and unhinged counterparts and anybody who ought to be the woobie but who's just too stable.

Alas, recs for this are always inherently spoilers, but I love plots that have presumed-dead characters popping up again, whether it's YuYu Hakusho style afterlife bureaucracy hijinks or secret agents with a bad habit of falling over cliffs at dramatic points in the plot. Also cheesiness. Lots of cheesiness.

[sophinisba]

You might like the relationship between Alberto and Ernesto (Che Guevara) in the movie The Motorcycle Diaries. Ernesto isn't really unhinged or volatile but his tendency to self-sacrifice can be kind of reckless, and Alberto watches out for him.

[aldanise]

In answer to your spoilery request, there's Black & White, a Taiwanese drama available at all the usual drama places.

The character I'm thinking of is a major-minor, but her story is definitely plot-critical and has a major effect on one of the main characters. Furthermore, in a description that completely gives away which character this is, she disappears, comes back, fakes her own death, then comes back to aid the main characters' enemies. It's pretty epic, and there's plenty of other "did s/he die?" moments with other characters. I'm afraid it mostly holds back from cheesy, though.

[dharmavati]

I'd love any source that is a rom-com or has a comedic element to the romance of the story. I'm a particular sucker for:

- characters that are female and/or have other marginalized identities being respected by the narrative
- fake relationships/contracts
- crossdressing
- everyone else around the couple being a Shipper On Deck

[troisroyaumes]

For fake relationships/contracts, the K-drama Family's Honor! The main two characters, Dan-a and Gang-seok decide to pretend to go out in order to help Gang-seok's younger sister with her unrequited love for a male student who has a crush on Dan-a. (That sounds so incredibly contrived but the story manages to sell it, and I found it really entertaining.) Highlight is that the two protagonists are relatively honest about the chemistry they feel instead of being in denial about it. It's a really long series but one of the best I've watched recently. I have some episode reviews if you'd like to find out more.

I hope you get other recs because I like these rom-com tropes too. ^^

[alias_sqbr]

Saving Face is a funny lesbian romance movie about (and by) a Chinese American woman. Only has the first of your four requests but it definitely respects it's female characters and is a lot of fun.

[paxpinnae]

You may have already heard of it, but Coffee Prince (Hulu, Drama Fever, Various Houses of *Ahem*'d Media which I can PM you links to) hits every last one of these kinks. thefourthvine has really good summary/pimp post thingies for the first two episodes here and here. I Am Legend (Drama Fever) also features awesome female relationships; it's the story of a middle-aged high society wife who, upon learning pf her husband's affair, decides to leave him and pursue her high-school dream of becoming a rockstar.

[trascendenza]

Primarily I'm interesting in stuff about women that doesn't have much (if any) focus on romance.

Bonuses would be:
- women getting to have relationships with each other!
- fantasy elements, especially if they're unique/not like every other fantasy setting out there
- not too much interpersonal drama or over-the-top emotional drama (though of course what's "over the top" changes with context)

Examples of things I like: Fairly Legal, Aoi Hana, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Nikita, Moment in Peking, HawthoRNe, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Treme and My Name is Kim Sam Soon with the caveats that where applicable I probably would have preferred less romance and/or more focus on women. I'm also liking Claymore, though I'm not done with it yet. Oh, and I loved the movies Sin dejar huella, Spider Lilies, and Castillos de cartón.

[troisroyaumes]

What immediately came to mind was the manga series Glass Mask, which is about a young girl with a talent for acting who is on the quest to prove herself worthy to play the ultimate role called the Crimson Goddess. The series very much focuses on her relationships with other female characters, such as fellow members of her acting troupe, her teacher and her main rival. There is a romance sideplot but it develops very slowly and definitely isn't the main focus. It does have some plot arcs that are very emotionally dramatic, but I don't think they were particularly over the top, and the story is mainly about Maya's development as an actor.

[aldanise]

My absolute favorite jdrama for relationships between women is BOSS, for reasons that I go on about at length [spoilers in the second half]. It's a capery cop show, basically, whose characters make it amazing. Short answer: women as friends, mentors, and rivals, on the same show, sometimes with the same women. The romance on the show is a nice characterization sidenote that holds far less weight (for both story and character) than the lead woman's career, there are interesting female criminals (as well as male ones), and the women on the team (leader, forensic specialist/investigator-in-training, and lead forensic specialist) have the greatest narrative weight.

The second series currently airing seems to be jumping the shark, but the first one is awesome.

[glass_icarus]

Shikabane Hime, which I've written up here! :D Also, Occult Academy, which inkstone has picspammed (the link is the 1st episode; there are more, but those would be more spoilery!). Toshokan Sensou has a female protag, but that is definitely more romance-y, even if I find it entertaining (see writeup).

[torachan]

7 Seeds is an awesome post-apocalyptic shoujo manga with the main focus being on survival and exploring their new world (though there are some romantic relationships). Loads of female/female interaction between multiple characters (there's a huge cast, about half of whom are female). Consistently passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors. You can find scanlations here.

[chomiji]

Lovers or spouses or even just really good lifelong friends (m/f, m/m, f/f - it matters not to me) who are equals and partners and who snark at each other as they face tough, dangerous situations. The genre can be fantasy, SF, mystery, or adventure, and the media should be print (fiction, manga, or maybe comics), because I don't watch many movies and barely any TV.

[maerhys]

Not exactly obscure but the Parable of Sower/Parable of the Talents come to mind, specifically Lauren and Zahra's friendship, the Lauren/Bankole and Travis/Natividad romances. There are a whole host of relationships explored that really resonate at veristic even in the dystopian universe.

[troisroyaumes]

Anything with plots revolving around political/court intrigue, e.g. N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms or the K-drama Queen Seondeok.

[dharmavati]

The Twentieth Wife and its sequel, The Feast of Roses by Indu Sundaresan are fictional accounts of Nur Jahan's life as she falls in love with Mughal emperor-to-be Jahangir and maneuvers her way into the Mughal court. I haven't read Sundaresan's other novel, Shadow Princess, but it is supposed to take place later in Mughal Indian history with similar themes.

Toshokan Sensou, a.k.a. Library War, is about the militarized war between libraries and the censorship laws of the government in a future, dystopian Japan. The novels, in particular, spend significant time detailing the many political factions in and many of the conflicts require subtlety and finesse, rather than outright military action, to be resolved. You can find ongoing English translations of the novel s here.

[anenko]

I'd love recs for something with fantasy or supernatural elements. I'm pretty well covered on the Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China front (although I'm open to any Must Read/Watch recs you may have!)

My attempts on Amazon bring up Serious Literature, which. . . isn't my thing. I'm open to reading/watching more from any corner of the world. I'd also really love recs from stories by Chromatic Canadians. Think along the lines of Rabbit Fall.

*

Romance novel recs would also be welcomed. Preferably with competent heroines, and not too heavy on Alpha Male behaviour.

[gloss]

Chromatic Canadians ftw! Right now I am reading (and ADORING) Hiromi Goto's Chorus of Mushrooms; I want very much to read her Kappa Child, about which I've also heard great things, but I'm having a hell of a time tracking down a copy.

Fantasy/supernatural: I cannot recommend Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar highly enough. It's categorized as "magical realism", a term I don't exactly like, but might serve okay; I'd say it's more (occasionally) surreal than fantastic, if that makes sense. It's phenomenal stuff, mundane and lusty and achey and melancholy and hilariously funny.

[aldanise]

I'm a sucker for stories with relationships that are actually poly or can be read as poly (like love triangles/polygons that are never definitely decided). Powerful Opponents, for example, or Black & White, where they kind of tie off the relationships but don't hammer the point. (I should mention that I don't mind spoilers at all, since you may have to spoil the relationship plot to rec.)

I also prefer stories with at least one primary female character and ones where the characters have ambitions and jobs that they love as well as romances. Saving the World never hurts, either.

[esmenet]

I'm primarily looking for stories that include or focus on important non-sexual relationships, preferably between women.

Other things I really enjoy:

—introverts having friends
—slice-of-life stories about people hanging out and having fun
—magic or implausible science that isn't big and flashy and a huge deal; just, y'know, normal
—technical details! Like, if a character really loves their job or something, I want to hear all about what they do and why they like it.

Some examples: BOSS, Samurai Champloo, Ashita no Ousama, Gokusen, Natsume Yuujinchou, Nobuta wo Produce, Land of the Blindfolded, Hourou Musuko.

[littlebutfierce]

I'm really not going to rec K-On! to everyone, promise! But it's totally about girls just hanging out & being friends & rocking out. (There are nods to femslashiness, but I actually think they are fewer & far between-er than most of the fandom wants to believe & I think it's pretty easy to not read them in & just have it be all about friendships.)

... the technical details thing makes me think of, um, pretty much ALL the baseball anime/manga series I've seen. Though baseball may not be your bag at all -- if you are interested I can narrow it down! (I will say lots of people go "I never thought I'd be interested in hearing ppl talk about baseball until -- " but yeah, not for everyone.) Um, although Moshidora in particular has friendship between two girls as the core of the story (around one of them being the manager of the baseball team, & using Peter Drucker's Management as the way she runs the team -- so ticking two boxes).

Kimi ni Todoke's main plot revolves around romance, so you may not be interested, but there's also really awesome stuff about friendship between girls.

[vi]

I'm looking for stories that deal with atonement. I thought Seirei no Moribito dealt with it in a way that was subtle and not over-bearing -- plus, hello, woman being awesome!

Also, are there any stories (any medium) that people know of that are by chromatic Australian creators? (e.g., authors Shaun Tan and Nam Le.) I'm particularly interested in stories about Aboriginal Australians, such as the TV series The Circuit.

[adelheid]

Anita Heiss! She's written the only chicklit I actually enjoy reading, and I think she's at five books now: or maybe just four, hmm. Not Meeting Mr Right, Avoiding Mr Right, Manhattan Dreaming, and Paris Dreaming. (She's Wiradjuri, and her main characters are always strong, awesome indigenous women.) She also wrote the Stolen Generations story that is part of the My Australian Story collection.

Michelle Cooper (Chinese-Malay-Australian) has written three YA books: The Rage of Sheep is her first, and her only one set in Australia. (The other two are part of the Montmaray series and are very English-seeming.)

Haven't read Gabrielle Wang's "Little Paradise" yet, but really want to. It sounds AWESOME: "Melbourne, 1943, and Mirabel is seventeen. She's leaving school, designing dresses, falling in love. Then fate intervenes, her forbidden affair is discovered, and JJ is posted back to China where a civil war is raging. Despite all warnings, Mirabel sets off for Shanghai to find him... " Wang is also writing the "Poppy" books for the My Australian Girl series - Poppy is Chinese/Pangerang, and when we meet her, she is living in a children's home, having been stolen from her family.

[whynot]

I'm a fan of heist and gangster movies like Ocean's 11, Quentin Tarantino's stuff, Guy Ritchie's stuff, Goodfellas, Infernal Affairs, etc. Recs of this nature, particularly for movies and TV, would greatly appreciated!

[aldanise]

For a fun heist movie, with sneaky disguises, creeping around buildings in the dark, and Dramatic Confrontations, Dhoom 2 is a blast. Basically, they took a cop movie franchise, got even more famous actors to play the criminals, and turned it into a ridiculous and kind of awesome heist movie.

Black & White/Pi Zi Ying Xiong is a Taiwanese cop-and-triad TV series, but it's a little heavier on the cops than the triad members, so YMMV.