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Please use this post to promote the fandoms you're interested in requesting, or ask for recommendations of canons that suit you!
Comment here with information about the canons you are thinking of requesting, or otherwise want to get people into!
Information you might include
Title
Media
Approx length
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips.)
What is it, in summary?
What do you love about it?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
Some examples: Yuletide, Fandom5k
Please keep an eye on comments, as people may have follow-up questions about your canons.
You're also welcome to leave comments (anon or not) asking people to rec you canons that they are likely to request.
Consider letting people know if you're interested in specific media only, or have other restrictions.
Promoting your canons
Comment here with information about the canons you are thinking of requesting, or otherwise want to get people into!
Information you might include
Title
Media
Approx length
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips.)
What is it, in summary?
What do you love about it?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
Some examples: Yuletide, Fandom5k
Please keep an eye on comments, as people may have follow-up questions about your canons.
Asking for recs
You're also welcome to leave comments (anon or not) asking people to rec you canons that they are likely to request.
Consider letting people know if you're interested in specific media only, or have other restrictions.
Bloodborne: Eileen the Crow/Plain Doll
Date: 2020-08-07 04:15 am (UTC)Media: Video Game
Approx length: Full game is around 35 hours to complete but I have broken it down for the ship I'm requesting specifically so you can consume their story through videos without playing.
Where to find it: On youtube, linked in manifesto.
What is it, in summary? Bloodborne is a horror JRPG where the player character becomes and hunter and explores a Victorian city where the populace has turned into beasts. Cosmic horror is responsible. It's a lot. I am personally requesting a ship between two NPCs, Eileen the Crow and the Plain Doll
I'm actually a bit embarrassed by the length of the manifesto I made explaining why I love them individually and together, and have posted it in full on my journal. Eileen the Crow is an elderly woman who dresses like a plague doctor and hunts down hunters who have gone mad. The Plain Doll is an NPC from the hubworld that is an animated doll that serves the player and raises interesting questions about free will and the line between human and inhuman. They used to know each other.
Wolf 359 (Podcast)
Date: 2020-08-07 09:18 am (UTC)Media: Podcast
Approx length: 61 regular episodes + two specials and a live episode (episodes start off around 20 minutes each, closer to 40 minutes by the end; the specials and live episode are 1-2 hours each), and a number of 5-15 minute mini episodes which typically provide backstory or context for the various characters.
Where to find it: Free online! At the official website (https://www.wolf359.fm/season1) as well as wherever you listen to podcasts.
What is it: Wolf 359 starts off as a sitcom in space; communications officer Doug Eiffel, commander Renée Minkowski, doctor Alexander Hilbert and AI Hera are all stuck together on a boring assignment on the space station Hephaestus, where they squabble over proper protocol, seaweed-based ‘coffee’, and the last tube of toothpaste. As the series progresses, the crew start to realize more is going on with their mission to survey red dwarf star Wolf 359 than they know - only every time they unravel one piece of the puzzle, another curveball gets thrown their way at mach 5.
What do I love about it: Space hijinks! Workplace comedy! Existential despair! Plant monsters! Wolf 359 really excellently blends humor and tragedy and a dash of horror, with a cast full of fantastically written and acted characters. It’s a little hard to talk about the later stuff without a whole bunch of spoilers (and I don’t want to ruin the “holy shit that just happened” moments for anyone!) but I love that this series is able to start off as a fairly light comedy and then just continually raise the stakes up to the finale, which completely emotionally devastates me - all without losing its goofy, fun aspects.
What I’m likely to request for it: My requests are likely to center on SI-5, a team of special agents introduced midway through the series. Smooth-talking colonel Warren Kepler, explosives-happy henchman Daniel Jacobi and computer whisperer Alana Maxwell are all terrible people and I love them dearly. I’ll be requesting a mix of gen and shippy stuff, with a general focus on mission/adventure/casefic. Comics, too - there’s lots of potential for cool space views, and since the characters don’t have much in the way of defined appearances, there’s a lot of room for creativity and variation in their designs.
Content warnings: Some audio violence (explosions, gunshots, fistfights), character death, manipulation and coercion, and general space-related peril and tense situations.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-07 09:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-08 12:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-08 01:29 am (UTC)Media: Video Game
Approx length: About 30 hours to play, or a couple of hours to just read/watch the cutscenes. Here's a text-based LP!
Where to find it: It is currently $5.99 on PSN, available for PS3, PSP and Vita. Otherwise, you can emulate it, as it is an old PSX game.
What is it, in summary? Have you ever thought to yourself "These modern games are too sensible; I want a plot with alien soul invaders who eat planets, where your quirky miniboss squad are two sentient lizards, and at one point you beat up a foetus (born from incest, naturally) in the womb while it is possessed by both an alternate universe and its father"? If you have, I have the game for you. I still don't know how this game got released.
Wild Arms 2 has it all: a cool soundtrack, a great setting, villains who have their own reasons for what they do, and interesting characters and concepts. You play as members of ARMs, a group of international peacekeepers trying to unite the world against Odessa who want to rule it. The party is made up of a war hero who has been vilified for his actions as they are inconvenient for the current world order, a sorceress-in-training with survivor's guilt after her sister died to save her, a junior militia member whose first day on the job ended up with everyone being possessed by demons and he had to kill them all to survive, a woman who turned herself into a cyborg to save the world, a boy who can hear the spirits whose mother took him away from his destiny to die in a ritual sacrifice, and a vampire that joined your party through Weird Time Travel Shenanigans. If you like deconstructions of heroism, if you like characters being terrified of the alien invaders inside them, and if you're willing to put up with what is at times a pretty terrible translation, then Wild Arms 2 is a great way to spend 30 hours.
What do you love about it? As the above two paragraphs may have made clear, Wild Arms 2 is A Ride. It's unabashedly off-the-walls ridiculous at times, at several points the translation translates idioms literally resulting in a narrative that can feel like a fever dream at times, but at its core it's a story about heroism and self-sacrifice by flawed people who are just not equipped for what they are required to do. The playable characters are fun and bounce off one another in interesting ways, Filgaia as a backdrop is really interesting, and the idea of the protagonist being the catalyst for the end of the world and having no ability to stop it is pretty novel.
Also there are NPCs literally called Tony Stark and Scott Summers.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Body horror and worldbuilding! Filgaia is such an interesting place with its mix of lost technology and magic, while Ashley's emotional turmoil can end the world and it's rather hard to remain upbeat when the demon inside you is changing you and can take you over at any moment.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? Nope. But it's pretty short, as games go, and the game is quite easy as long as you don't go for the bonus boss.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) Wild Arms 2 contains canonical incest treated sympathetically, attempted child sacrifice, violence against a child in the backstory of one character, and Brad deciding to name a dog Rassyu (you can rename the dog, fortunately).
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-08 01:53 am (UTC)Media: Video game(s)
Approx length: 20-25 hours
Where to find it: You can buy it on Steam and PS4. Physical copies should be in the bargain bin of the gaming store of your choice. Here's a LP for Death end re;Quest, Death end re;Quest 1.5 and Death end re;Quest 2
What is it, in summary? Shina has 99 problems and one of them is that she's trapped inside the prototype of a game that she was the director for with no memory of what happened to her or how this could even be possible. Fortunately for her the lead programmer, Arata, is more than willing to throw himself into saving her. Shina will finish the main quest and thus trigger the ending sequence for the game (so she can leave) while Arata will debug the game on the fly so that she can progress. Whatever could go wrong?
Shina's storyline is a more standard JRPG setup - she and a group of suspiciously sophisticated AI characters go on a quest to find a mythical land, which coincidentally is the trigger to finish the main quest of the game. The characters are all infected with Buggies which are clearly having some effect on the characters (though what is a big spoiler) but who are also weirdly adorable as well as the source of their powers. Arata's storyline is a thriller VN, focusing on the mystery about why Shina is in the game as Arata stumbles into a worldwide conspiracy. Also a lot of death. A LOT of death. The first death is the most gruesome; the rest are nowhere near as detailed in their descriptions.
The interquel should really be read after Death end re;Quest 2 to explain what Arata was doing through the game.
Death end re;Quest 2 takes place in a small European town where our orphaned teenage lead essentially learns that this quiet little town is really a hotbed of paranormal activity and a ton of death. Like, a lot of death. This one doesn't focus on the "rewriting reality" side as the first game did (until you get to the NG+ scenes) but instead the weird paranormal stuff that was happening in Sagami City while the Enimga cast were trying to rescue Shina.
What do you love about it? I am a sucker for flawed heroes that are just not equipped for what they must do, and the cast delivers this in spades. Arata is able to travel back in time but a) is the only one who remembers what has happened; b) has to die a lot to get an ending where everyone lives; and c) every time he rewinds time reality changes. It is at times genuinely funny and also genuinely disturbing.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Something set in the 65,000 timeloops that we don't see!
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? Nope.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) There are numerous bad ends which end badly for the cast described in varying levels of detail, two genocides of fantasy species take place inside the game that Shina is playing, and special attacks involve the cast being half-naked while slaughtering everything in their path in a fit of fury.
The second game contains explicit reference to child abuse, strongly implied sexual abuse, a ton of murder, and a fair amount of described gore that is not shown on screen.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-21 04:22 am (UTC)Media: Manga, with a discontinued anime adaptation
Approx length: 65 chapters/24 episodes
Where to find it: Wherever you usually get your manga.
What is it, in summary? A high school boy joins up with a mysterious silver-haired man to fight creatures of darkness and restore the balance of light and shadow in the world. He meets more people from both factions as he learns about the two worlds and his place in all of it.
What do you love about it?
* beautiful character designs, including dramatic long coats and dramatic long hair
* detailed and dynamic fight scenes (and there are a lot of them）
* beautiful abstract settings! Escheresque mazes, wide open halls and towering arches in black and white (see links above) - the visual aesthetic of the last arc which I am requesting is a modern-minimalist architecture dream come true.
* I also personally love the concept of two worlds of light and shadow that aren't in conflict but must be kept in balance, and the themes of opposites, counterparts, and duality.
I highly prefer the manga continuity so my requests are angled towards that.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
I'm requesting comics for the four Kings (Ryuuko, Shirogane, Homurabi and Shisui) from the deeper lore - they are the immortal beings who exist solely to maintain the balance and sometimes recruit humans to their cause. But something went very wrong and now Ryuuko is dead, Shirogane was excommunicated, and the world's balance is steadily declining. What were they like when things were better? How did they deal with the aftermath and the fallout of [spoiler event]?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests?
Yes! Chapters 51-55 are the majority of the Kings' screentime and plot relevance, chapter 61 contains the conclusion to Homurabi and Shisui's story, and chapter 64 has Ryuuko's last significant appearance. Shirogane is a main character and Homurabi is a recurring antagonist so they both show up regularly in the rest of the manga.
Content warnings: Some violence, some stylized blood and gore (nothing that would warrant a gore rating), and the creatures of darkness they fight tend to appear as creepy-crawlies.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-28 09:20 pm (UTC)Media: Video Game or Anime (and other stuff but you don't need that)
Approx length: It's about 70 hours to play the visual novel version of Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0. The anime of both games is about 18 hours and is very, very good. In fact, the English localisation is one of the best I've seen.
Where to find it: The games can be purchased on your gaming platform of choice, and the Steins;Gate anime can be streamed (or acquired) at various locations.
What is it, in summary? Over their summer vacation, a bunch of nerdy Japanese college students create a time machine that first allows them to send a message back to the past and later, memories back. The first third of Steins;Gate is the cast creating their invention, testing its limits, and generally demonstrating that they are profoundly not prepared for what is to come. The true story kicks off a third of the way through, and Okabe Rintarou now has to undo the creation of the time machine with the aid of a time traveler from the future, his time machine, breaking the hearts of his loved ones, and a lot of death.
Steins;Gate 0 takes place in one of the other timelines, filling in a gap between the last two jumps back in time that Okabe does. In this timeline, Okabe fails in his self-appointed mission, and it is all about him dealing with his PTSD and finding the courage to try one more time to fix the timeline to find a future where no one dies.
What do you love about it? First up, Steins;Gate is a clever time travel story, that digs right into the horror of travelling through time. Okabe cannot describe what he has done, not because he can't speak of it, but because no one could understand it. It's clever with its paradoxes, and it never forgets that each time Okabe undoes an event that someone really wanted to occur (thus changing the timeline) people are genuinely hurt. It's also about someone who is ill-equipped to save the world, but has to try because there is no one else, and his motivations for doing so are not the grand gestures of "saving humanity" but instead "saving one person". Also it's genuinely funny at times - the English translation is, as I've said, fantastic.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Post-canon fic, especially exploring how we got there, and how Okabe adjusted to a timeline that is like his own.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? Not really, though you can skip the spin off games and manga.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) Steins;Gate contains depictions of PTSD and depression, a whole lot of death, body horror, violence, a bit of transphobia towards Luka, and transforming bananas into jello.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-30 07:31 am (UTC)Media: Video Game (there is an anime but do not watch it.) There is also a game called "Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor" and it is unconnected with this game apart from sharing game mechanics.
Approx length: How Long to Beat clocks it at about 60 to get most things and about 100 to get all endings. It's a pretty narrative heavy game, so watching the scenes would work as well.
Where to find it: The game is on the 3DS and I think you can buy it electronically. Alternatively, here's a compilation of every scene.
What is it, in summary? You and two of your school friends are going home after an mock exam, and are sent a video of your impending demise ... just prior to the events depicted in the video occuring. You manage to avert your death by forming a pact with demons, only to learn that the world is slowly being consumed by nothingness to be reshaped into something else, while also being attacked by interdimensional invaders. Fortunately, there's a secret organisation who knew all about it and has stepped forward to save the day! Over the next several days, you decide who lives, who dies, and whose proposal about what should be done about this situation you plan to follow.
The 3DS remake has an additional campaign set after the first campaign, where you learn that all you really did was defeat one set of alien invaders intent on erasing the world we know, except this batch just want to make us all dead because of what happened in the previous campaign. To make matters worse, one of your allies is missing, you keep flickering in and out of existence, and the rest of your allies are haunted by strange memories they don't understand. You can finally win a happy ending for humanity, but it takes a lot to get there.
What do you love about it? The above description sounds pretty grim, and the game is pretty dark! The apocalypse is here, there are widescale and personal tragedies, and while there is a happy ending for the world it's hard work getting there. The game also leans very firmly on the idea that humanity is capable of miracles as well as terrible life choices, and that a cast full of ordinary people will step up and fight gods with nothing more than grit and demonic pokemon. The characters are likeable and interesting, with great writing and voice acting. It's darker than Persona, but a lot more character driven than the SMT games.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Stuff about Miyako and Yamato, who are kind of AU twins to one another but aren't.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? Not really! The anime is shorter, but the anime is its own thing that makes drastic changes to characters, especially Yamato. Further, Miyako is not in the anime.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) Devil Survivor 2 contains a lot of death (some of it depicted on screen), some body horror, and a mad scientist who doesn't seem familiar with ethics.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-08 12:06 am (UTC)Media: Video Game
Approx length: It's about 6 hours to finish the main quest, and probably 9 hours to achieve everything in the game.
Where to find it: You can download 1bitHeart for free here!. There's a spin-off game set eight years after the main story in 1bitHeart, but it's not necessary to play it.
What is it, in summary? Nanashi is a depressed shut-in who pretty much spends his time in bed or playing video games, after being bullied out of school for being pretty weird. He's bad at making friends and worse at keeping them, not the least because he's almost unsettlingly cheerful regardless of what is done to him. Needless to say, "shut-in stays in bed all day" would make a boring game, so one day a blue-haired amnesiac girl appears on his bed and insists he go outside and make some friends. And that's mainly what the game is about: making friends who like you for who you are, and then through that learning to like yourself.
And okay, there's a metaplot about hackers who are taking over people's futuristic smartphones and making them do things, but who cares? It's time that Nanashi made friends so that he can learn to like himself again! Believe it or not, this is actually extremely plot relevant not only for Nanashi's personal development, but for resolving the ultimate crisis.
What do you love about it? The main thesis of 1bitHeart is that everything is better if you're not alone and lonely, which is something that resonates pretty strongly after 2020. The game is very sympathetic to all of its characters, especially Nanashi, and is quite empathetic towards them. Nanashi himself is a really good example of someone with social anxiety and depression: he wants to reach out to people but is paralysed by his own fear and the game is about improving his emotional resilience enough that he is able to reach out and make friends of his own without crawling into a hole and wanting to die every time he makes a minor mistake in conversation. The people Nanashi meets are all really lively characters, but also treated with the same kindness as Nanashi himself is. It's just a really warm, gentle, game. Also the art is amazing.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Nanashi making friends! Nanashi's telepathy causing him pain and injury and his friends coming to visit him at the hospital! ...and Nanashi after the bad end and the closed time loop.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? Yes! 1bitHeart stands alone, and does not need you to play 1beatHeart. I'm familiar with both if you are, but if you're only familiar with 1bitHeart that is more than sufficient.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) 1bitHeart contains three mad scientists who do nothing bad to Nanashi (though one did swap a girl into a dog's body in the backstory, and one likes creepy dolls), characters being mind-controlled, one character engaging in self-harm, and one character potentially committing murder and/or suicide depending on whether you get the true ending or not.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-02-08 12:34 am (UTC)Media: Video Game
Approx length: It's about 50 hours to play, and I guess about 30 hours to watch all the cutscenes.
Where to find it: Akiba's Beat was released on Vita and Playstation 4. Here's a video playthrough of the game as well!
What is it, in summary? Tachibana Asahi is a NEET, having dropped out of college and freeloading off his parents while living in Akihabara. His hobbies include playing video games and watching anime until the early hours of the morning, sleeping most of the day, and standing up his only friend. Well, they were, until he woke up in a timeloop where Sunday keeps repeating and he's one of the few people to have noticed. Turns out Akihabara is a place where, if you want something enough you can make it happen, and there are a lot of people with fervent dreams in Akiba. Consequently, Asahi has to step up, find out what is causing the time loop, and break it so that Akiba can finally see a Monday.
Of course, it's not quite that easy. For one, people don't always want to lose their heart-felt wishes, regardless of how improbable they are. Some people may want to be celebrities, some might have strong views about how Akiba should be, and some just want their loved ones back. And then there's the answer as to who or what is causing the timeloop, and their motivations for doing so. (Also, there's a conspiracy to weaponise this reality warping, but who cares about that?)
What do you love about it? A large part of my affection for this game is the localisation. The dialogue is fun, the characters likeable, and the voice acting surprisingly good. The game isn't afraid to make fun of itself, and there's one musical joke that makes me laugh every time the track changes. Asahi is one of those rare magnetic heroes that you can see exactly why people are drawn to him, and the other characters are all well-drawn and interesting. Further, while the game can at times be hilarious, it's not afraid to go down some pretty dark paths with surprising ease. It's a game with an ultimately positive message of "having dreams is positive and good for you, so long as you are realistic about them".
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Daily life for Asahi in the timeloop, given that the game is pretty focused on the narrative. What happens afterward, and whether Akiba goes through something like this again! And an AU where Asahi's line of speculation about what is going on turns out to be 100% correct.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests? No, sadly! Akiba's Beat is a spiritual successor to Akiba's Trip, but you don't need to know Akiba's Trip to play Akiba's Beat.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) Akiba's Beat contains references to suicide and depression, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and general otaku subculture weirdness.