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

[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.

[trascendenza]

Oooh, sounds interesting! I love arcs about people working towards a goal.

[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.

[littlebutfierce]

Um, possibly not the sort of thing you're thinking of, but K-On! is about five girls in high school who start a rock (for shiny definitions of "rock") band. They go to a girls' school & there are pretty much no males at all in the show, heh. It isn't perfect but it is a lot of fun; I like it cuz of the focus on girls just hanging out & being friends, which includes sometimes being mean or petty or vapid, cuz sometimes that's just how you are.

[terajk]

Have you seen/read Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma? It's a comedy manga/anime about a group of high school girls and their teachers. It focuses more on the interactions between the characters than any real plot--though, granted, some of these interactions are over-the-top and silly--but there are no romantic relationships or emotional drama whatsoever.

All 26 episodes of the anime are available on YouTube.

Also, seconding Shikabane Hime.