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Wow this got long
Dear Yuletide Author:
This is my first year of participation, so bear with me if I seem a little noobish. It's not my first gift exchange, though, so what I will do is lay down my general likes and dislikes in fic, then gush at you about each fandom I'm requesting. I will try not to make it too long, to save both you and me. Sound good? Okay!
Okay firstly, my squicks are scat, vomit, non-con, dub-con, infidelity, bloodplay, breathplay, over-the-top angst, unresolved angst/unhappy endings, drug usage, mpreg, humiliation, and anything sexual involving characters younger than 17 (which means that any character that is under 17 in canon should be aged up ideally for sexy times). I'm also not really a fan of issuefic. Pretty much everything else is fair game! I mean that! Porn, fluff, something in between, whatever you want to write! I am really easy to please!
I tend to like stories rather than character pieces, but I will never turn down a thoughtful character study! Also AUs are amazing, I love them so hard. I love fantasy AUs, fusions with any of the other fandoms I've requested if you're feeling ambitious, putting the characters in other professions; pretty much if you think it would be interesting chances are I will think that as well! I love it when authors research lots of little cultural details and get them right because it makes the fic feel so authentic, especially if they're subtle about it. I love drama and comedy in equal parts. I love witty dialogue, and introspection with no dialogue. I love dry humor and bad puns. I love porn. I love fluff. I love them together, I love them apart. If you are inclined toward writing porn, the things I like most are frottage, mutual masturbation, wall sex, snowballing, facials, writing on skin, massage, rimming, phone sex and sexting, awkward first times, silly sex, and dirty talk. I can take or leave anal in my m/m pairings, so don't feel like that's a necessity or anything if you do decide to write porn. Porn is always always always optional though so don't feel like you have to write it at all! Fade-to-black can be just as sexy and fulfilling as an explicitly-written sex scene depending on the story!
Now, on to the fandoms!
Let's start off with the most obscure, my favorite jdrama called At Home Dad. You can download all 12 episodes plus the special HERE. Each episode is about 45 minutes long, and the special is an hour and a half, so if you've never seen it it's not a huge time commitment. And I definitely highly recommend it!
If you are familiar with the social structure of Japan at all, you'll understand why I find this series so charming. The gist of it is the main character, Yamamura Kazuyuki, is the typical male head-of-household with a good job and a pretty wife and a cute daughter. He's the sort of head-of-household that makes all the money and tends to steamroll his way through most decisions because he's the man and knows what's best for his family. Until he loses his job unexpectedly. His wife is offered a good job at a brand new magazine, and suddenly their roles are reversed, with his wife becoming the breadwinner and him becoming a stay at home dad with a kindergarten-aged daughter. He resists his new role with everything he has, because it's not "manly", but is taught lessons by his new neighbor who happens to also be a stay at home dad. There are side plot shenanigans with the gossipy neighbor women and the kindergarten teacher who is secretly dating the sports club swim instructor and it's all very charming!
Seriously, I can't overstate how much I enjoy this series. Questioning traditional gender roles! Bromance shenanigans with the next door neighbor who becomes Yamamura's best friend despite all his resistance! The Sugios are adorable and have a great relationship, and the kids of both couples are really cute!! If this sounds at all like something you'd enjoy, please consider giving it a shot even if you don't end up writing it for me!!
I asked for any character, easy enough since only four were nominated. As for prompts, what I would most like to see is future fic with Rie and Ryouta in high school together. They're next door neighbors and childhood friends and everyone thinks they're dating though they aren't really. Rie wouldn't mind dating Ryouta, though, if he ever got over his childishness. If you'd like to throw in some jealous Tsubasa as well, I would not mind it! Also I would love to see how Yamamura reacts when he hears that his little girl is going out with his best friend's son. Is he supportive or overprotective? Is he still a stay at home dad or did he go back to directing commercials when Rie started going to school full-time?
If you'd rather go with something with the dads, I would love to see some shenanigans that Sugio gets them into as usual, with Sugio's wife ending up bailing them out somehow since she's amazing and perfect. I always enjoyed Miki and Shouko's scenes together talking about their husbands over lunch or a glass of wine on the deck, so perhaps that could be incorporated?
Next on the list is Free!, which can be watched for free (lol) HERE. Each episode is about 23 minutes long, and there are 12 of them. Again, not a huge time commitment!
Free! is... well. It's hot dudes swimming. The first episode contains so much gratuitous aggressive undressing. There are ridiculous speedos. And it has a heartwarming -- if cliche -- story about friendship overcoming all. The animation of the swimming is beautiful, and the characters are fun, and it may not be a masterpiece but it's definitely one of my favorite anime.
I requested Makoto, Haruka, Rin, and Seijuurou. I'm going to warn you right now that I am the shippiest shipper of all the shippers. I'm just going to list the pairings I like and offer a prompt for each and if any of them inspire you then go for it! Otherwise, Makoto is my favorite character so you can focus on him and his life and family and ambitions if you don't want to write shippy fic! Alternately, any of these pairings as friendships are welcome as well!
I love Makoto. I love how he so genuinely and obviously cares about Haru, as well as the rest of the team. I love how he tries his best to be the responsible one since nobody else seems to want to be. I love how he's not just some big perfect fantasy of a character, he's a huge dork that is scared of the dark and ghosts. I love how he tries to power through his fear of the ocean just to make his friends happy. I love how he cares about his siblings, to the point where playing with Ren and Ran is his favorite hobby. For all these reasons and more, he's my Free! bicycle. I pretty much ship him with everyone.
Makoto/Haruka. My OTP. What I would really enjoy seeing is a story about selkies. Young Haru is a selkie, he can transform into a seal (if you want to make it so he's a dolphin that's okay too). One day, young Makoto sees him in the water in his human form and falls in love. He doesn't realize that he's a selkie, so when he comes across a seal skin he's just like "oh neat," and takes it home with him, leaving Haru stuck in his human form. Years pass, and Haru and Makoto meet again by chance. Haru is pining for the sea and his seal form, and spends as much time in the water as he can get away with though it's never enough. Makoto doesn't recognize him from their almost-encounter when they were young (though he still has fond memories of his first crush), but they start getting to know each other and become friends and slowly fall in love.
Then Haru somehow discovers that Makoto has had his skin all along. If he takes it and leaves, he can never see Makoto again. What happens is up to you! Though happy endings are my preferred way of seeing things, you can go with sad as well where Haru runs back to the sea the moment he can.
If this prompt doesn't inspire you but the pairing does? I would pretty much love anything with them. Them graduating school and going off to college together; Haruka helping Makoto overcome his fear of the dark; the day Makoto misplaced his contact lenses and had to wear his glasses to school which Haruka finds both amusing and irritating because people start noticing Makoto; Makoto, Haruka, and the twins playing house; Makoto, Haruka, and Rin taking a trip together to Australia one summer (which would be especially fun if Haruka and Makoto didn't think of the season difference and Rin didn't remind them because he wanted to see their reactions). Seriously, anything.
Makoto/Rin. Not my OTP, but pretty darn close. What I would like to see is them getting closer after the end of the series. They were friends before Rin left for Australia, but they didn't have a whole lot of time to bond. Perhaps Makoto visits him at Samezuka by himself, and they do their homework together (since Rin's worst subject is Japanese Language and best Subject is English; and Makoto's worst subject is English and best subject is Japanese Language). I would love it if they shared a kiss behind a book in the library, or were spotted by Nitori by the gates to the school with their heads close together as if they were having a private conversation that turns into a kiss. I am just a big romantic. Angst and misunderstandings are welcome as long as everything is cleared up in the end! If you wanted to go a more gen route with these two, then perhaps Gou/Kou could be telling Makoto the story of how she once caught Rin trying on their mom's makup, and Makoto teases him gently about it later when they talk. Or really anything like that, I'm a fan of RinRin being kind of a doofus before he met Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa.
Makoto/Seijuurou. (Are you sensing a theme here? Haha) Captains! How do they coordinate to do the joint practices? Do the two of them have a friendly rivalry going? Do the two of them ever wager things on whose team has faster times? Sexy wagers? My mind is in the gutter but Seijuurou is hot. Alternately you could also do one where Seijuurou comes to Makoto for advice about how to woo Gou/Kou, and ends up getting a big crush on him when they start spending so much time together to strategize. For a less shippy option, you could explore how big of a headache it would be if Iwatobi and Samezuka decided to do a joint trip to the aquarium. Logistical nightmare, Murphy's Law in action, headaches, hundreds of text messages trying to coordinate everything. The more frustration the better!
All right, moving on! Next is Natsume Yuujincho! You can watch the first two seasons HERE and the third season HERE. Each episode is about 23 minutes, but it's a longer series so the time commitment is a bit bigger if you've never seen it. I think it's worth it, though. It's a supernatural series where the main character, Natsume Takashi, can see spirits. His entire life this has made him an outcast, and since he's an orphan he's been passed around to different family members. He's never stayed in one household for long because of the spirits that bother him, and has never really fit in with anyone until he moved to his current home. He's in high school, and though the spirits still bother him, he starts to accept that he can see them and starts to help them. His grandmother, Reiko, had the same ability, though she used it to subdue spirits and take their names. If someone possesses a spirit's name, they can command it. Reiko had an entire book of spirits' names, the "Book of Friends" (Yuujincho in Japanese, hence the title!), that was passed to Natsume on her death. Natsume decides to return the names to the spirits they belong to, and has adventures along the way. It's actually a quiet series, and the music is lovely and I adore the art style. I really wish there were more of it, but what can you do!
So for my requested characters, I would like Natsume and the little fox child. Again, I am going to be a big shipper for this. But to me, the fox child seems like he has a huge crush on Natsume. That's what I'd like to see explored! Natsume is his first love, and each time he sees him and experiences his kindness, it just grows stronger. When he's older, he eventually confesses to Natsume. Whether he is let down gently or the confession is accepted is up to you, I am honestly happy either way as long as I can get some quality pining leading up to it!
Next is Chihayafuru! This is a series with two seasons, 25 episodes per season with each episode lasting about 23 minutes each. If you are a fan of sports anime, this might be up your alley though it's not a traditional sport that you'd expect! It's more along the lines of Hikaru no Go in that respect. Chihaya is a girl who through an encounter with a transfer student named Arata in elementary school becomes obsessed with a Japanese card game called Karuta. Karuta is a poetry game using the Hyakunin Isshu, a collection of 100 poems written in the Heian period by different people and collected by a scholar named Fujiwara no Teika. The way the game is played is two players sit across from each other, mix the cards containing the second verse of each poem, and deal 25 to each person. A reader reads the first verse of a poem, and the players try to remove the correct second verse from the playing field before the other player can. The first person to clear their playing field of all 25 cards is the winner. The series is about Chihaya's obsession with Karuta and becoming Queen, the best Karuta player in Japan (and thus the world since Karuta is a very Japanese thing and not widely played outside the country). It is such a charming series, and Chihaya is so earnest and likeable. She drags other players into her newly-formed Karuta club in high school so they can play in team tournaments.
The characters I requested are Chihaya, Sudou, Suou, and Arata. This is going to be a situation similar to Free!, just replace Makoto with Chihaya haha.
Chihaya/Suou. My favorite thing about Chihaya is the fact that she gets this huge Karuta crush on pretty much every good player she encounters. I want to see Suou Meijin seriously trying to put the moves on her while she's oblivious to the whole thing, thinking that he's talking about Karuta the whole time. Maybe the fact that he's hitting on her can dawn on her as she's reflecting on a game they played together or something, and she can find she doesn't hate it! I just love her being a love idiot and Suou Meijin trying so hard.
Chihaya/Sudou. One of my favorite parts of the anime is when Sudou was the reader for one of the games. What I most would like to see is Sudou softly singing one of the Hyakunin Isshu love poems in her ear to seduce her. I can see this going one of three ways: Firstly, she could react favorably and he could tell her he was just teasing. Secondly, she could be completely oblivious and be like oh you want to play Karuta let's play! Third, they get it on and do the do. Of course there could be a fourth option that you think would be better! If that is the case then go for it!! Alternately, you could have Sudou force Chihaya to make good on her bet to shave all her hair off that she managed to get out of thanks to Harada sensei.
Chihaya/Arata. This is one of the pairings of my heart, which is kind of unusual for me since I mostly tend to prefer rarer ships. The scene in the last episode of the second season (if you've seen the anime you know the scene, if not then I won't spoil you in case you decide to watch!), almost killed me with pairing feelings. For this pairing there's so much I'd like to see. The two of them going on their first date that doesn't involve Karuta. Their first kiss. Figuring out how Taichi fits into their relationship since he's very much a part of both their lives. Playing Karuta together as Queen and Meijin. Really, I would be happy to see anything.
Getting close to the end here! Next is Bakuman. I don't have a source here for you to download or stream legally, but there are places to watch it online. The anime is 3 seasons, 26 episodes each season with each episode running approximately 23 minutes each. Alternately, you can read the manga, which is 176 chapters. I've consumed both, and while I prefer the manga, I don't mind the anime!
Bakuman. is about the weekly shounen manga business, and struggling to create a hit and make a living creating manga. It's done by the creators of Death Note, and I actually prefer it to Death Note! (The artist is also the artist of Hikaru no Go, which is probably my favorite manga series of all time) It offers an interesting peek into the stress and triumph of being a mangaka, and also has some romance. It follows Mashiro and Takagi, two friends in junior high, through the years as they become popular mangaka and make friends and enemies and rivals in the business. Takagi is the brain behind the stories, and Mashiro is the artist. In junior high, Mashiro has no ambition other than to just float through school and eventually get a job as an office worker. His uncle was a mangaka, and he once aspired to be one just like him, but when his uncle died suddenly he tucked away that dream. Ever since his uncle died, Mashiro thought it was due to suicide from the pressure of not being a success. It takes Takagi, as well as some help from the girl Mashiro likes who aspires to become a voice actress, to get Mashiro to rekindle his dream, and create a new goal: When Takagi and Mashiro have a manga that is made into an anime, Mashiro's crush Azuki will play the heroine. And then the two of them will get married. Until then, though, they won't see each other. It's kind of a strange dream (and don't worry, they're called out by pretty much everyone for how weird it is), but it's the motivation Mashiro needed to get serious. The series takes them through their life up until they are 23 years old, and I find the behind-the-scenes look at manga creation fascinating as well as the characters being likeable. If you are a fan of many different shounen manga as well, some famous ones get namedropped as examples, as well as being part of the backgrounds in posters and tankoubon on bookshelves and such!
I've asked for any character, and I mean it! Which is easy considering only four were nominated, haha. My first request would be for Yuujirou and Fukuda. Fukuda's hypermasculine posturing is due to the fact that he's all kinds of gay gay gay gay gay. One day, he picks up a BL manga on a whim, and ends up being like THIS IS SHIT I COULD DO BETTER. So in between drawing his regular serialization he works on a BL manga, going so far as trying to improve his art so as not to be recognizable. He finishes a manuscript and submits it to a BL magazine, gets rejected but is given some concrit that helps him with his next one. It's accepted, and thus starts his moonlighting as a BL mangaka. One day Yuujiro comes by to pick up that week's manuscript, but Fukuda is in the bathroom. He accidentally left the BL manuscript on the desk instead of in a drawer where it lives until his other editor picks it up. Yuujiro grabs it and leaves without seeing Fukuda, he just calls a greeting through the bathroom door. Much awkwardness and hilarity ensues.
The other request would be for Takagi and Mashiro. They spent a lot of nights in Mashiro's uncle's studio alone together before they had assistants and Kaya started hanging around more often. Tell me a story about a one-night stand that will never be repeated but neither of them regret. For a more gen option, maybe you could tell the story of their reaction when they get fan letters from overseas and realize that someone is scanlating their manga.
Last but not least! Oofuri! The best resource for all things Oofuri is the dreamwidth community,![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
oofuri. There you can find either all the available scanlations as well as summaries of current chapters not yet scanlated, or places to find the anime.
Oofuri is about Japanese high school baseball. Mihashi is a pitcher with amazing control, but because of his grandfather's influence as the owner of the middle school he attended, people thought he'd gotten his position as ace due to favoritism. This caused the rest of his teammates to hate him, and Mihashi to develop a huge guilty inferiority complex. He doesn't just have no self-esteem, he has negative self-esteem. The high school he goes to hasn't had a hardball baseball team in a long time, so they are basically starting from scratch and clawing their way up the ranks with the national tournament, Koushien, as their ultimate goal. If you like baseball and cute high schoolers giving it their all then give it a try!!
The characters I requested are Mihashi, Tajima, Haruna, and Kanou. Again with the shipping, I'm so sorry.
Mihashi/Kanou. They're childhood friends-turned-pitching-rivals. I would like to see them starting to text each other more and more often, and perhaps it ends up turning a little dirty without either of them realizing it. They get curious and keep going, since they don't have to see each other's reactions to what is being said. For a gen option, maybe it's the finals of Koushien, and they're the two pitchers facing off against each other. It's their third year, Mihashi is a little more sure of himself. What do they talk about before the game?
Mihashi/Tajima. Tajima likes jerking off, this is canon. Mihashi has never really gotten into the habit. Tajima shows him the best way he's found. For a gen option, what do the two of them talk about when Tajima walks Mihashi home after practice? Invasive questions about the Mihashi family's penises always welcome, since that's how Tajima rolls in canon.
Mihashi/Haruna. I really just want muscle worship. Mihashi likes touching Haruna's muscles, and Haruna really likes the attention. Ideally it would end in smut, but it's not necessary! Alternately, Haruna and Mihashi somehow end up practicing together, and Haruna is pretty impressed by the kid considering he's completely self-taught up until high school.
I'm going to end it here, since this is about twice as long as I meant to make it! I just wanted to let you know, Yuletide Writer, that I am really easy to please, and even if you don't use one of the prompts I am sure to be happy with whatever you gift me. Feel free to leave me a message if you have any questions, I have anon enabled here. You could also drop me an anon ask on my tumblr,![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
loanmeadragon and I will endeavor to answer!
Thank you again, and happy Yuletide!
aoigensou
Dear Yuletide Author:
This is my first year of participation, so bear with me if I seem a little noobish. It's not my first gift exchange, though, so what I will do is lay down my general likes and dislikes in fic, then gush at you about each fandom I'm requesting. I will try not to make it too long, to save both you and me. Sound good? Okay!
Okay firstly, my squicks are scat, vomit, non-con, dub-con, infidelity, bloodplay, breathplay, over-the-top angst, unresolved angst/unhappy endings, drug usage, mpreg, humiliation, and anything sexual involving characters younger than 17 (which means that any character that is under 17 in canon should be aged up ideally for sexy times). I'm also not really a fan of issuefic. Pretty much everything else is fair game! I mean that! Porn, fluff, something in between, whatever you want to write! I am really easy to please!
I tend to like stories rather than character pieces, but I will never turn down a thoughtful character study! Also AUs are amazing, I love them so hard. I love fantasy AUs, fusions with any of the other fandoms I've requested if you're feeling ambitious, putting the characters in other professions; pretty much if you think it would be interesting chances are I will think that as well! I love it when authors research lots of little cultural details and get them right because it makes the fic feel so authentic, especially if they're subtle about it. I love drama and comedy in equal parts. I love witty dialogue, and introspection with no dialogue. I love dry humor and bad puns. I love porn. I love fluff. I love them together, I love them apart. If you are inclined toward writing porn, the things I like most are frottage, mutual masturbation, wall sex, snowballing, facials, writing on skin, massage, rimming, phone sex and sexting, awkward first times, silly sex, and dirty talk. I can take or leave anal in my m/m pairings, so don't feel like that's a necessity or anything if you do decide to write porn. Porn is always always always optional though so don't feel like you have to write it at all! Fade-to-black can be just as sexy and fulfilling as an explicitly-written sex scene depending on the story!
Now, on to the fandoms!
Let's start off with the most obscure, my favorite jdrama called At Home Dad. You can download all 12 episodes plus the special HERE. Each episode is about 45 minutes long, and the special is an hour and a half, so if you've never seen it it's not a huge time commitment. And I definitely highly recommend it!
If you are familiar with the social structure of Japan at all, you'll understand why I find this series so charming. The gist of it is the main character, Yamamura Kazuyuki, is the typical male head-of-household with a good job and a pretty wife and a cute daughter. He's the sort of head-of-household that makes all the money and tends to steamroll his way through most decisions because he's the man and knows what's best for his family. Until he loses his job unexpectedly. His wife is offered a good job at a brand new magazine, and suddenly their roles are reversed, with his wife becoming the breadwinner and him becoming a stay at home dad with a kindergarten-aged daughter. He resists his new role with everything he has, because it's not "manly", but is taught lessons by his new neighbor who happens to also be a stay at home dad. There are side plot shenanigans with the gossipy neighbor women and the kindergarten teacher who is secretly dating the sports club swim instructor and it's all very charming!
Seriously, I can't overstate how much I enjoy this series. Questioning traditional gender roles! Bromance shenanigans with the next door neighbor who becomes Yamamura's best friend despite all his resistance! The Sugios are adorable and have a great relationship, and the kids of both couples are really cute!! If this sounds at all like something you'd enjoy, please consider giving it a shot even if you don't end up writing it for me!!
I asked for any character, easy enough since only four were nominated. As for prompts, what I would most like to see is future fic with Rie and Ryouta in high school together. They're next door neighbors and childhood friends and everyone thinks they're dating though they aren't really. Rie wouldn't mind dating Ryouta, though, if he ever got over his childishness. If you'd like to throw in some jealous Tsubasa as well, I would not mind it! Also I would love to see how Yamamura reacts when he hears that his little girl is going out with his best friend's son. Is he supportive or overprotective? Is he still a stay at home dad or did he go back to directing commercials when Rie started going to school full-time?
If you'd rather go with something with the dads, I would love to see some shenanigans that Sugio gets them into as usual, with Sugio's wife ending up bailing them out somehow since she's amazing and perfect. I always enjoyed Miki and Shouko's scenes together talking about their husbands over lunch or a glass of wine on the deck, so perhaps that could be incorporated?
Next on the list is Free!, which can be watched for free (lol) HERE. Each episode is about 23 minutes long, and there are 12 of them. Again, not a huge time commitment!
Free! is... well. It's hot dudes swimming. The first episode contains so much gratuitous aggressive undressing. There are ridiculous speedos. And it has a heartwarming -- if cliche -- story about friendship overcoming all. The animation of the swimming is beautiful, and the characters are fun, and it may not be a masterpiece but it's definitely one of my favorite anime.
I requested Makoto, Haruka, Rin, and Seijuurou. I'm going to warn you right now that I am the shippiest shipper of all the shippers. I'm just going to list the pairings I like and offer a prompt for each and if any of them inspire you then go for it! Otherwise, Makoto is my favorite character so you can focus on him and his life and family and ambitions if you don't want to write shippy fic! Alternately, any of these pairings as friendships are welcome as well!
I love Makoto. I love how he so genuinely and obviously cares about Haru, as well as the rest of the team. I love how he tries his best to be the responsible one since nobody else seems to want to be. I love how he's not just some big perfect fantasy of a character, he's a huge dork that is scared of the dark and ghosts. I love how he tries to power through his fear of the ocean just to make his friends happy. I love how he cares about his siblings, to the point where playing with Ren and Ran is his favorite hobby. For all these reasons and more, he's my Free! bicycle. I pretty much ship him with everyone.
Makoto/Haruka. My OTP. What I would really enjoy seeing is a story about selkies. Young Haru is a selkie, he can transform into a seal (if you want to make it so he's a dolphin that's okay too). One day, young Makoto sees him in the water in his human form and falls in love. He doesn't realize that he's a selkie, so when he comes across a seal skin he's just like "oh neat," and takes it home with him, leaving Haru stuck in his human form. Years pass, and Haru and Makoto meet again by chance. Haru is pining for the sea and his seal form, and spends as much time in the water as he can get away with though it's never enough. Makoto doesn't recognize him from their almost-encounter when they were young (though he still has fond memories of his first crush), but they start getting to know each other and become friends and slowly fall in love.
Then Haru somehow discovers that Makoto has had his skin all along. If he takes it and leaves, he can never see Makoto again. What happens is up to you! Though happy endings are my preferred way of seeing things, you can go with sad as well where Haru runs back to the sea the moment he can.
If this prompt doesn't inspire you but the pairing does? I would pretty much love anything with them. Them graduating school and going off to college together; Haruka helping Makoto overcome his fear of the dark; the day Makoto misplaced his contact lenses and had to wear his glasses to school which Haruka finds both amusing and irritating because people start noticing Makoto; Makoto, Haruka, and the twins playing house; Makoto, Haruka, and Rin taking a trip together to Australia one summer (which would be especially fun if Haruka and Makoto didn't think of the season difference and Rin didn't remind them because he wanted to see their reactions). Seriously, anything.
Makoto/Rin. Not my OTP, but pretty darn close. What I would like to see is them getting closer after the end of the series. They were friends before Rin left for Australia, but they didn't have a whole lot of time to bond. Perhaps Makoto visits him at Samezuka by himself, and they do their homework together (since Rin's worst subject is Japanese Language and best Subject is English; and Makoto's worst subject is English and best subject is Japanese Language). I would love it if they shared a kiss behind a book in the library, or were spotted by Nitori by the gates to the school with their heads close together as if they were having a private conversation that turns into a kiss. I am just a big romantic. Angst and misunderstandings are welcome as long as everything is cleared up in the end! If you wanted to go a more gen route with these two, then perhaps Gou/Kou could be telling Makoto the story of how she once caught Rin trying on their mom's makup, and Makoto teases him gently about it later when they talk. Or really anything like that, I'm a fan of RinRin being kind of a doofus before he met Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa.
Makoto/Seijuurou. (Are you sensing a theme here? Haha) Captains! How do they coordinate to do the joint practices? Do the two of them have a friendly rivalry going? Do the two of them ever wager things on whose team has faster times? Sexy wagers? My mind is in the gutter but Seijuurou is hot. Alternately you could also do one where Seijuurou comes to Makoto for advice about how to woo Gou/Kou, and ends up getting a big crush on him when they start spending so much time together to strategize. For a less shippy option, you could explore how big of a headache it would be if Iwatobi and Samezuka decided to do a joint trip to the aquarium. Logistical nightmare, Murphy's Law in action, headaches, hundreds of text messages trying to coordinate everything. The more frustration the better!
All right, moving on! Next is Natsume Yuujincho! You can watch the first two seasons HERE and the third season HERE. Each episode is about 23 minutes, but it's a longer series so the time commitment is a bit bigger if you've never seen it. I think it's worth it, though. It's a supernatural series where the main character, Natsume Takashi, can see spirits. His entire life this has made him an outcast, and since he's an orphan he's been passed around to different family members. He's never stayed in one household for long because of the spirits that bother him, and has never really fit in with anyone until he moved to his current home. He's in high school, and though the spirits still bother him, he starts to accept that he can see them and starts to help them. His grandmother, Reiko, had the same ability, though she used it to subdue spirits and take their names. If someone possesses a spirit's name, they can command it. Reiko had an entire book of spirits' names, the "Book of Friends" (Yuujincho in Japanese, hence the title!), that was passed to Natsume on her death. Natsume decides to return the names to the spirits they belong to, and has adventures along the way. It's actually a quiet series, and the music is lovely and I adore the art style. I really wish there were more of it, but what can you do!
So for my requested characters, I would like Natsume and the little fox child. Again, I am going to be a big shipper for this. But to me, the fox child seems like he has a huge crush on Natsume. That's what I'd like to see explored! Natsume is his first love, and each time he sees him and experiences his kindness, it just grows stronger. When he's older, he eventually confesses to Natsume. Whether he is let down gently or the confession is accepted is up to you, I am honestly happy either way as long as I can get some quality pining leading up to it!
Next is Chihayafuru! This is a series with two seasons, 25 episodes per season with each episode lasting about 23 minutes each. If you are a fan of sports anime, this might be up your alley though it's not a traditional sport that you'd expect! It's more along the lines of Hikaru no Go in that respect. Chihaya is a girl who through an encounter with a transfer student named Arata in elementary school becomes obsessed with a Japanese card game called Karuta. Karuta is a poetry game using the Hyakunin Isshu, a collection of 100 poems written in the Heian period by different people and collected by a scholar named Fujiwara no Teika. The way the game is played is two players sit across from each other, mix the cards containing the second verse of each poem, and deal 25 to each person. A reader reads the first verse of a poem, and the players try to remove the correct second verse from the playing field before the other player can. The first person to clear their playing field of all 25 cards is the winner. The series is about Chihaya's obsession with Karuta and becoming Queen, the best Karuta player in Japan (and thus the world since Karuta is a very Japanese thing and not widely played outside the country). It is such a charming series, and Chihaya is so earnest and likeable. She drags other players into her newly-formed Karuta club in high school so they can play in team tournaments.
The characters I requested are Chihaya, Sudou, Suou, and Arata. This is going to be a situation similar to Free!, just replace Makoto with Chihaya haha.
Chihaya/Suou. My favorite thing about Chihaya is the fact that she gets this huge Karuta crush on pretty much every good player she encounters. I want to see Suou Meijin seriously trying to put the moves on her while she's oblivious to the whole thing, thinking that he's talking about Karuta the whole time. Maybe the fact that he's hitting on her can dawn on her as she's reflecting on a game they played together or something, and she can find she doesn't hate it! I just love her being a love idiot and Suou Meijin trying so hard.
Chihaya/Sudou. One of my favorite parts of the anime is when Sudou was the reader for one of the games. What I most would like to see is Sudou softly singing one of the Hyakunin Isshu love poems in her ear to seduce her. I can see this going one of three ways: Firstly, she could react favorably and he could tell her he was just teasing. Secondly, she could be completely oblivious and be like oh you want to play Karuta let's play! Third, they get it on and do the do. Of course there could be a fourth option that you think would be better! If that is the case then go for it!! Alternately, you could have Sudou force Chihaya to make good on her bet to shave all her hair off that she managed to get out of thanks to Harada sensei.
Chihaya/Arata. This is one of the pairings of my heart, which is kind of unusual for me since I mostly tend to prefer rarer ships. The scene in the last episode of the second season (if you've seen the anime you know the scene, if not then I won't spoil you in case you decide to watch!), almost killed me with pairing feelings. For this pairing there's so much I'd like to see. The two of them going on their first date that doesn't involve Karuta. Their first kiss. Figuring out how Taichi fits into their relationship since he's very much a part of both their lives. Playing Karuta together as Queen and Meijin. Really, I would be happy to see anything.
Getting close to the end here! Next is Bakuman. I don't have a source here for you to download or stream legally, but there are places to watch it online. The anime is 3 seasons, 26 episodes each season with each episode running approximately 23 minutes each. Alternately, you can read the manga, which is 176 chapters. I've consumed both, and while I prefer the manga, I don't mind the anime!
Bakuman. is about the weekly shounen manga business, and struggling to create a hit and make a living creating manga. It's done by the creators of Death Note, and I actually prefer it to Death Note! (The artist is also the artist of Hikaru no Go, which is probably my favorite manga series of all time) It offers an interesting peek into the stress and triumph of being a mangaka, and also has some romance. It follows Mashiro and Takagi, two friends in junior high, through the years as they become popular mangaka and make friends and enemies and rivals in the business. Takagi is the brain behind the stories, and Mashiro is the artist. In junior high, Mashiro has no ambition other than to just float through school and eventually get a job as an office worker. His uncle was a mangaka, and he once aspired to be one just like him, but when his uncle died suddenly he tucked away that dream. Ever since his uncle died, Mashiro thought it was due to suicide from the pressure of not being a success. It takes Takagi, as well as some help from the girl Mashiro likes who aspires to become a voice actress, to get Mashiro to rekindle his dream, and create a new goal: When Takagi and Mashiro have a manga that is made into an anime, Mashiro's crush Azuki will play the heroine. And then the two of them will get married. Until then, though, they won't see each other. It's kind of a strange dream (and don't worry, they're called out by pretty much everyone for how weird it is), but it's the motivation Mashiro needed to get serious. The series takes them through their life up until they are 23 years old, and I find the behind-the-scenes look at manga creation fascinating as well as the characters being likeable. If you are a fan of many different shounen manga as well, some famous ones get namedropped as examples, as well as being part of the backgrounds in posters and tankoubon on bookshelves and such!
I've asked for any character, and I mean it! Which is easy considering only four were nominated, haha. My first request would be for Yuujirou and Fukuda. Fukuda's hypermasculine posturing is due to the fact that he's all kinds of gay gay gay gay gay. One day, he picks up a BL manga on a whim, and ends up being like THIS IS SHIT I COULD DO BETTER. So in between drawing his regular serialization he works on a BL manga, going so far as trying to improve his art so as not to be recognizable. He finishes a manuscript and submits it to a BL magazine, gets rejected but is given some concrit that helps him with his next one. It's accepted, and thus starts his moonlighting as a BL mangaka. One day Yuujiro comes by to pick up that week's manuscript, but Fukuda is in the bathroom. He accidentally left the BL manuscript on the desk instead of in a drawer where it lives until his other editor picks it up. Yuujiro grabs it and leaves without seeing Fukuda, he just calls a greeting through the bathroom door. Much awkwardness and hilarity ensues.
The other request would be for Takagi and Mashiro. They spent a lot of nights in Mashiro's uncle's studio alone together before they had assistants and Kaya started hanging around more often. Tell me a story about a one-night stand that will never be repeated but neither of them regret. For a more gen option, maybe you could tell the story of their reaction when they get fan letters from overseas and realize that someone is scanlating their manga.
Last but not least! Oofuri! The best resource for all things Oofuri is the dreamwidth community,
oofuri. There you can find either all the available scanlations as well as summaries of current chapters not yet scanlated, or places to find the anime.Oofuri is about Japanese high school baseball. Mihashi is a pitcher with amazing control, but because of his grandfather's influence as the owner of the middle school he attended, people thought he'd gotten his position as ace due to favoritism. This caused the rest of his teammates to hate him, and Mihashi to develop a huge guilty inferiority complex. He doesn't just have no self-esteem, he has negative self-esteem. The high school he goes to hasn't had a hardball baseball team in a long time, so they are basically starting from scratch and clawing their way up the ranks with the national tournament, Koushien, as their ultimate goal. If you like baseball and cute high schoolers giving it their all then give it a try!!
The characters I requested are Mihashi, Tajima, Haruna, and Kanou. Again with the shipping, I'm so sorry.
Mihashi/Kanou. They're childhood friends-turned-pitching-rivals. I would like to see them starting to text each other more and more often, and perhaps it ends up turning a little dirty without either of them realizing it. They get curious and keep going, since they don't have to see each other's reactions to what is being said. For a gen option, maybe it's the finals of Koushien, and they're the two pitchers facing off against each other. It's their third year, Mihashi is a little more sure of himself. What do they talk about before the game?
Mihashi/Tajima. Tajima likes jerking off, this is canon. Mihashi has never really gotten into the habit. Tajima shows him the best way he's found. For a gen option, what do the two of them talk about when Tajima walks Mihashi home after practice? Invasive questions about the Mihashi family's penises always welcome, since that's how Tajima rolls in canon.
Mihashi/Haruna. I really just want muscle worship. Mihashi likes touching Haruna's muscles, and Haruna really likes the attention. Ideally it would end in smut, but it's not necessary! Alternately, Haruna and Mihashi somehow end up practicing together, and Haruna is pretty impressed by the kid considering he's completely self-taught up until high school.
I'm going to end it here, since this is about twice as long as I meant to make it! I just wanted to let you know, Yuletide Writer, that I am really easy to please, and even if you don't use one of the prompts I am sure to be happy with whatever you gift me. Feel free to leave me a message if you have any questions, I have anon enabled here. You could also drop me an anon ask on my tumblr,
Thank you again, and happy Yuletide!
aoigensou
