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labingiIt's that time again, when I ask you all for your recommendations on media I should be checking out. I'm a picky reader/viewer, but I owe a lot of stuff I've come to adore to recs from folks in fandom: Trigun, Acid Town, New Who actually (back in the day). I want to see Star Trek Discovery--and will when it's available off CBS, and am glad I saw much of Hannibal, though I never became super fannish. These and others are due to you, so please help me out again.
Things I Am Looking For:
* A good redemption story, something that's not maudlin but really looks at how we grow through experience, guilt, attempts at atonement, etc.
* A good, nuanced story about a "saint," by which I mean one of those people who rises to live a life of great service and self-reflection. I'd include in this category figures like Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov, Vash and Rem in Trigun, Yudhishthira in the Mahabharata.
* As ever, stories with strong co-protagonists or multiple main characters who are all well developed and in interesting, personally charged relationships with each other. In this category, I would include some of my longtime favorites like Trigun, Blake's 7, Gungrave, Mirage of Blaze, X-Men at its best, even Star Wars. (I generally favor m/m, but this is not a must.)
* Stories that investigate the human condition by showing cultural or biological/psychological traits that are different from our norm. Good vampire lit does this, as do Le Guin's Hainish books. In terms of cultural otherness, I'd loosely include Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism.
* In general, I'm interested in fantasy, sci-fi, and increasingly biography. I like reincarnation stories if they do not reduce to "Now that you are at peace with your present life, forget all about your past life."
* Media: novel, manga, anime, live action show.
Generally (and with Possible Exceptions) Not Looking For:
* Stuff set in the contemporary real world. I get enough of that (even if it's not my own culture).
* Female protagonists. (In truth, I love to find a good one, but it is so rare I view the endeavor with suspicion. I do love Lal in The Innkeeper's Song, Zhaan--though she's not a protagonist--in Farscape, for example.)
* Strong single protagonist/single main character works. They can be fun but are generally not moving for me.
* Comedy (though I love humor in my drama). Exception: I would be glad of recs for half-hourish quirky, probably British, comedy TV or web series.
* Conventional romance tropes (with some exception for well-done BL).
* Video games, short stories.
That's about it. I welcome your insights!
Things I Am Looking For:
* A good redemption story, something that's not maudlin but really looks at how we grow through experience, guilt, attempts at atonement, etc.
* A good, nuanced story about a "saint," by which I mean one of those people who rises to live a life of great service and self-reflection. I'd include in this category figures like Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov, Vash and Rem in Trigun, Yudhishthira in the Mahabharata.
* As ever, stories with strong co-protagonists or multiple main characters who are all well developed and in interesting, personally charged relationships with each other. In this category, I would include some of my longtime favorites like Trigun, Blake's 7, Gungrave, Mirage of Blaze, X-Men at its best, even Star Wars. (I generally favor m/m, but this is not a must.)
* Stories that investigate the human condition by showing cultural or biological/psychological traits that are different from our norm. Good vampire lit does this, as do Le Guin's Hainish books. In terms of cultural otherness, I'd loosely include Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism.
* In general, I'm interested in fantasy, sci-fi, and increasingly biography. I like reincarnation stories if they do not reduce to "Now that you are at peace with your present life, forget all about your past life."
* Media: novel, manga, anime, live action show.
Generally (and with Possible Exceptions) Not Looking For:
* Stuff set in the contemporary real world. I get enough of that (even if it's not my own culture).
* Female protagonists. (In truth, I love to find a good one, but it is so rare I view the endeavor with suspicion. I do love Lal in The Innkeeper's Song, Zhaan--though she's not a protagonist--in Farscape, for example.)
* Strong single protagonist/single main character works. They can be fun but are generally not moving for me.
* Comedy (though I love humor in my drama). Exception: I would be glad of recs for half-hourish quirky, probably British, comedy TV or web series.
* Conventional romance tropes (with some exception for well-done BL).
* Video games, short stories.
That's about it. I welcome your insights!
no subject
Date: 2017-12-17 04:35 am (UTC)I find Captive Prince to be a beautiful and very well crafted story in its entirety (all 3 volumes), but the most emotionally charged of them is 2. I love Laurent, one of my favorite characters ever, and he reminds me of Kagetora a lot. The inner workings of their minds are very similar. Of course Laurent is much less fucked up and actually much stronger as a person. But he's also traumatized (in a similar way), manipulative (in a similar way) and very charismatic. And, in terms of characterization - impeccably written, especially compared to Kuwabara's flawed writing.
So, I recommend :) Of course, if it's him you didn't find very captivating - don't bother :)
Kusabi is not on my favorites list, I haven't even read it in Japanese (although the original OVA is very impressive, still one of the best animated BL out there). I like the story (and the characters) but it just didn't stay with me the way the other stories and characters did. It's probably the power balance thing. I like it when both characters have considerable power over one another, even if this power is of different sort. So when there's conflict, they both have leverage. Kusabi is just not this kind of story.
BTW, there is a new English BL series that came out in recent years where one of the main couples is Iason and Riki reimagined. The author heavily borrowed from AnK (almost to the point of plagiarizing), but also expanded on it, so their storyline was interesting to read. The name of the series is Fallocaust, I'm actually a big fan, but won't recommend this to anyone who cannot stomach blood and gore in large quantities (like, not even Hannibal style, more like Attack on Titan style, plus unimaginable sexual violence). But the world-building, the plot, the characters - so damn good that it keeps me hooked. And it's a saga, many volumes and still ongoing.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-20 03:40 am (UTC)AnK, for me, is not appealing as a romance. (Or to be more accurate, I ship Katze and Guy.) The BL appeal of AnK for me lies in the exploration of gender by way of the substantial absence of women. I find Iason/Riki morbidly intriguing but not arousing. I do, however, think that AnK is a very well-structured, successful tragedy. It differs a little from Shakespearean tragedy in that there's no "proper/good" social order to be restored and it has more than one tragic hero. (I think all the four principals have tragic falls.) But it has a tragic arc, and like a good tragedy, it works well slim and compact, moving steadily through that arc. Mirage is pretty clearly an epic, and as such, it works much better sprawling and exploring corners everywhere. I prefer epic overall because it provides a bigger playground for the imagination, but I do respect the experiential, cathartic impact of a good tragedy, and I think AnK is solid in that way.
While we're discussing m/m texts, I have to rec Acid Town if you haven't had a chance to check it out. Here's my almost spoiler free review/gush: https://labingi.dreamwidth.org/143616.html. It's a yakuza manga, which is not usually my thing, but it's extraordinarily good as far as it's been published.
The beginning of Acid Town superficially resembles Banana Fish, and while Banana Fish is not strictly m/m, I have to put it on my list because it hits the same spots for me. I've just started rereading it, and I'd forgotten how good it is! I'm glad it's finally getting an anime.
I can't really think of any non-Japanese m/m works I love. I've enjoyed some okay. In terms of fan fic, my biggest non-Japanese m/m ship is probably Charles/Erik from the X-Men. They have a really unusual and compelling relationship. I love Blake's 7 with all my heart, but I never could ship Blake and Avon.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-27 01:56 am (UTC)I haven't read Acid town yet, but it's on my radar. I just need to figure out an easy way to get manga online in Japanese (with all the licensing going on this has become quite difficult, and I don't read translated manga).
no subject
Date: 2018-01-04 10:24 pm (UTC)I did have a weird translation moment, though, when the German--unless I am very much mistaken after several read-throughs--said something like, "I did it because I wanted to hurt him," and the English scanlation, which I checked for clarification, said, "I did it because I didn't want him to get hurt." And it really made me wonder what the Japanese said!