[Meme] Ask me my top 5 whatevers

[edenfalling]

Slightly modified from various places: Ask me my Top Five Whatevers, fannish or literary or otherwise. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really. I will answer them all in comments or a new post. (But definitely not with pictures. *grin*)

Because I am bored and I hate all my WIPs -- including the two things I was trying to write for Femgenficathon and which I failed miserably to finish by even the extended deadline. Please help distract me?

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ETA:

--5 fanfics I will never write (but want to read), courtesy of aishuu

--5 favorite manga and/or anime series, courtesy of theodosia21

--5 favorite stories I've written, also courtesy of theodosia21

--5 Naruto characters who've had all of five panels, but deserve their own story arcs/gaidens, courtesy of leahnari

--8 favorite things to eat, courtesy of hungrytiger11

--5 favorite scenes from The Chronicles of Narnia, also courtesy of hungrytiger11

--5 favorite female characters (from my childhood), courtesy of uminohikari

--5 tropes I love, courtesy of rianax

Comments

Top 5 favorite manga and/or anime series (plus some thoughts on story tropes)

[edenfalling]

I am twisting anime to mean anime and manga, since I very, very rarely watch anime. Also, my tastes are rather conventional, since I don't actually read all that much manga either. *is ashamed* Anyway, the following are in no particular order.

1. Angel Sanctuary, because it is pretty and fucked up and I love the characters to distraction and I want desperately to make sense of the plot holes and I think underneath all that it says interesting things about the nature of love and obsession and gender roles.

2. Fruits Basket, for similar reasons except for the plot holes. I really wish I could figure out how it manages to break my heart and uplift me in the exact same moment, and also how such a crack premise can be made to seem so plausible and compelling.

3. Code Geass, because it's like they took almost every crazy genre element, character type, and plot device I love, threw it all in a blender, and turned it up to eleven. It is made of crack, and yet somehow it works. Plus it's an alternate history, and I am a sucker for alternate histories.

4. Fullmetal Alchemist, because I love the world-building, and the bleak realism of the military stuff melded with the 'magic' of alchemy and homunculi, and the characters and their desperate quests, and... you know, I think there is a running theme of obsession going on here. I love characters who have something they want, and who work to get it.

5. Saiyuki, for, once again, the obsessive characters I love, the mad quest, the fascinating world-building I want to fill in the details of, and the pretty, pretty art. And there are ideas. There is a palpable point-of-view behind the story; it's not done just for the sake of entertainment, though it is crazy entertaining.

So apparently the story elements that really do it for me are ideas behind the entertainment, and characters who have goals and are by god going to achieve them, no matter what obstacles stand in their way. Huh. I had never put that in words before, but that's useful to know about myself. (Also I have a thing for power fantasies -- you will note there are elements of that trope in most of these stories as well -- but I knew that already.)

Re: Top 5 favorite manga and/or anime series (plus some thoughts on story tropes)

[theodosia21]

I love Fullmetal Alchemist, Saiyuki, and Fruits Basket. I haven't seen the other two, but maybe when I have time I'll check them out. ^_^

So apparently the story elements that really do it for me are ideas behind the entertainment, and characters who have goals and are by god going to achieve them, no matter what obstacles stand in their way.

Oh, yes. Me too.

Re: Top 5 favorite manga and/or anime series (plus some thoughts on story tropes)

[edenfalling]

Code Geass is an original anime; all the manga adaptations and tie-ins are a little off one way or another. Although one of them -- Nightmare of Nunnally -- is quite entertaining in its own right, and seems to explicitly declare itself an alternate universe to the main anime universe and timeline.

With Angel Sanctuary, though, you want to read the manga. It was never made into a proper anime series -- just an OVA, I think -- and in any case the animated version only goes up to about volume 4 of a 20 volume series. It's like all the introduction and none of the actual story. (Apparently Kaori Yuki liked the voice actor choices, though, so maybe it's worth watching to get a sense of how she means the people to sound?)

I really need to finish reading FMA and Fruits Basket -- I left them hanging a couple years ago when I hit the end of my 18-month mad obsession with manga (also, I got tired of waiting for new volumes to be translated), but I very badly want to know how the stories end. Hmm. You know, I think my goal for my days off next week will be to hit a bookstore and spend some quality time reading. :-)