Five Figure Fanwork Exchange

Title: Sarazanmai

Media: I personally believe that the best experience is multi-media, but only the anime is required both to enjoy the experience and to fulfill my requests! (Recommended order for my requests: spin-off manga -> Twitter -> first volume of the LN -> anime -> both volumes of the LN. Most to least important for my requests: anime >>> Twitter > manga >>> LN.)

Approx length: the anime is 11 episodes, so less than 4 hours. The spin-off manga, Sarazanmai: Reo and Mabu is a single volume that you can read in an hour or less. There is a fan translation floating around of the ReoMabu Twitter @/keeponly1luv that takes an hour or two to read through (it's around six months of daily tweets, with pictures). Only one of the light novels has been translated into English as of yet, but the second is coming out in November and both light novels are fairly short and shouldn't take that long to read (a few hours at most)!

Where to find it: The anime is licensed by Crunchyroll and Funimation, and is available for streaming or physical purchase on both of those websites. The manga and light novels are both licensed by Seven Seas, and are available in both hard copy and digital formats (Google Play, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon are all accessible vendors that I know of off the top of my head). Contact me if you want to see the translated Twitter, since I'm unsure of the strict legality of that? It was originally online for free (because it was an in-character Twitter...), but the Twitter was blacked out during episode 10, and all the deleted tweets were published in a book in limited quantities after the fact (Japanese only).

What is it, in summary? From Ikuhara Kunihito (of Utena fame), this anime is about connections, love, desire, and (mis)communication. It follows three teenage boys who break open a statue and release the mysterious Keppi, who claims to be the Prince of the Kappa Kingdom, and turns them into kappas to fight against the Otters, whose mission is destroy every connection on earth. Kazuki, Enta, and Tooi all need to learn to connect with each other and the people that they love to be able to defeat humans-turned-monsters (kappa zombies) and put the world back into balance. On the sidelines, mysterious Reo and Mabu are working for the Otters, and something seems to be... off about their relationship. They dance so close to one another, so why do they look so sad?
The manga and Twitter take place before the anime, and are a lot of ReoMabu's backstory that make their moments in the anime even more poignant. The LN has some exclusive backstory for ReoMabu as well, and some cut scenes that don't make it into the anime.

What do you love about it? In terms of themes: a lot of people think that this anime is confusing to follow and a bit absurd (the extended shirikodama extraction scene in the first episode is, uh... probably a deal-breaker for a lot of people, lol), and they might be right, but I think that it's most fun to just sit back and enjoy it! Sarazanmai is incredibly earnest, and it has a really wholesome message at the end that made me cry. It's often as funny as it is heartbreaking! I loved the symbolism in the show, especially the water and circle imagery.
In terms of characters: Okay, I won't lie: I love everybody in this show dearly and would be happy to see them as background characters in any fic you might think of writing for me, but Tragic Cop Dads have stolen my heart and have free real estate in my brain at all times. Their entire arc feels like it was written just for me. Every part of it is special, and putting it all together creates a tapestry of tropes that I love (childhood friends! miscommunication! dads!!! angst with consent issues!!!!), and the ending of their story I found incredibly moving (and the openness that lies afterwards)! Not only do I find their literal storyline appealing, but I love the meta elements too. Like, the way that both the audience's and Reo's opinions of Mabu's feelings towards him changed as more information slowly came out. It was really fascinating watching people say "haha ReoMabu isn't like canon canon even though they're baiting it really hard" at around episode 7 and then episode 10 happened and blew everything wide open! (Although a lot of us already considered it explicitly canon by episode 9 for... many reasons.) I'm not sure how well this will translate to people getting into the series later, but one of the things that I found really cool about Sarazanmai was how the staff constantly played with expectations by teasing us both within the show and on social media. I would love to see that in fic, too!

What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I'm still coming up with prompts as of the time I'm writing this promo post, but I'm likely to request a wide variety of scenarios for Reo/Mabu(/Otter), from pre-canon to post-canon, canon compliant to AU, fluffy to angsty, gen to smutty (I have a wide variety of kinks that I'm into, and I love vanilla as well). I love it all, and I'll try to give you some different options to work with!

Content warnings: character death (both temporary and permanent), fade to black noncon, BDSM and other fetishes shown on-screen, children in peril, a waterboarding scene, drugs, gun violence, yakuza/gang violence, police brutality/vigilante justice (it's more symbolic than literal, but still probably warrants a warning)