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fandom review 2021
Probably Young Royals. I don’t follow any actors on social media as a rule but I broke it for them.
Your favourite film you watched this year?
I watched three films this year: I fast-forwarded through one of them, didn’t finish one of them, and complained about one of them on here. So none of them I guess.
Your favourite book read this year?
The manga Tasogare Outfocus. Its storytelling and tone reminds me of a certain style of ’90s manga, a bit Shoubu wa Toki no… Un Daro? meets “Dokusaisha Granada”.
As usual, fic recs:
- Evil Overlord, Inc. by Footloose (Merlin) — modern, dystopian AU where Merlin becomes an Evil Overlord out of oppression and a need to pay the bills. Perfect mix of humour and plot with excellent art.
- The Boyfriend Experience by Ghostcat & MinilocIsland (Skam) — set in a sideways version of our current world where there are obedient, near-human robots, Even purchases one to be an actor in his short films and falls in love instead. An exploration of consciousness, consent, and love.
I did finally get my library card working again this year — it stopped working when I turned 19 — so I’m working my way through Actual Books. I read Red, White & Royal Blue before my library card was fixed (because of Young Royals withdrawal, though RW&RB is like a less fun modern Merlin AU); I read Winter’s Orbit today (usually space opera is right up my alley but I’m in a very character introspection mood recently so it didn’t really hit); and I’m going to read A Memory Called Empire within the next three days. We’ll see if I continue reading Actual Books or if I go back to just rereading the same fanfic.
Your favourite album or song to listen to this year?
The beautiful and haunting Gris soundtrack. Also Hannah Georgas’ All That Emotion, which I missed last year.
As mentioned in my year-end albums list, I’ve made a Spotify playlist for songs I liked and songs from albums I liked this year. Going to call out a few songs specifically:
- Capsule / Hikari no Disco — Capsule is back! Nakata is going through a bit of a retro phase right now, starting from Perfume’s “Time Warp” last year, and I’m really enjoying it.
- Culenasm / Suiseimushi (CW: flashing) — Probably my favourite song out this year, it’s got that despair/hope/catharsis down perfectly.
- RYUTist / Mizugarasu (CW: flashing) — Maison book girl disbanding has made me open to checking out more idol groups in a similar vein, such as RYUTist and Batten Shoujotai. This song takes a café pop song and adds experimental instrumentation while keeping a light touch in a way that reminds me of Yoko Kanno.
- STAYC / ASAP — Their sound and look remind me of f(x); it’s bubblegum but in a too-cool-for-you way.
Your favourite TV show of the year?
Young Royals! It’s very well-written and directed; despite being a coming-of-age teen romance drama, it tries to treat each character as a real human with flaws. It helps that several of the cast members are reflected in the characters themselves which informed their portrayals. I’ve seen people compare it to Skam but I think the writing & directing of Young Royals is stronger — well, several key moments were improvised but you get my meaning.
The director of the show said in an interview with Elle Sweden that the constraints of being from a royal family matched with a lot of things she experienced growing up in a conservative Kurdish family. Which actually, you know, explains a lot about why I like reading modern royalty AUs.
(As others have mentioned one of the side plots is unfortunate given Simon’s background, even if the character didn’t gain that background until his actor was cast. Another dicey thing is that Wilhelm’s actor turned 18 after primary filming ended, which makes me cringe every time I remember it. Simon’s actor was 21–22 during primary filming. The ages were roughly the same as Skam S3 filming, actually, but something about YR’s direction made it notably awkward.)
Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
It’s not really a fandom, but I’m going to wax lyrical about Gris again. The art style is incredibly beautiful, the music perfectly set and hauntingly gorgeous, and the storytelling bittersweet and gut-wrenching without a single word.
Also, joke’s on me, I finally watched Skam this year. I’m not sure why I didn’t watch Skam at its height — probably a combination of having a dim view of teen dramas leftover from when I was an actual teen, and being on a Tumblr hiatus around when Skam S3 was airing and all over my dash. Like I only really checked it out because I was suffering from a lack of Young Royals. Anyway, I totally get the Evak hype now, plus Yousana gives me vivid grade school flashbacks.
I haven’t made my way through all the remakes yet because I’ve heard bad things about all of them separately, but Druck’s Matteo is possibly the most realistic teenage boy portrayal I have ever seen.
Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
A musician I like(d) deciding to go on an arena tour during the fourth wave of a pandemic. That.
Your favourite character of the year?
I had mixed feelings about Sk8 in terms of plot and character development, but I’ve adopted Langa anyway because he loves poutine so much.
Honourable mentions to Amira from Druck, who I absolutely would have had a crush on in uni; and Yousef from Skam, who reminds me of an old classmate of mine ahaha.
Your biggest squee moment of the year?
I didn’t really have one this year.
The most missed of your old fandoms?
Not a fandom specifically but I miss FIMQ’s 1D crackvids 😭 (She had to private everything a few years ago after being doxxed and threatened by RPF antis.) Recently I’ve been watching crackvids in other fandoms that have a big overlap with 1D and her influence is so obvious in them.
A fandom you haven’t tried yet but want to?
I spent a lot of this year finally watching some of Those Shows Fannish People Always Talk About this year and realized a lot of them are just not for me? So I’m pretty happy to stay in my bubble in which I have no idea what the fandom du jour is.
(Or as I said to a friend about Jujutsu Kaisen: I’m too old to get into another Shounen Jump show.)
Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
Young Royals S2.
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It is! The game design is also excellent — the very beginning is a bit rough because it doesn’t explain itself very well, but it’s definitely one of my favourite recent platformers on gameplay alone.