stardust_rifle

I recently returned from Japan with a bunch of doujins, and I, by and large, am enjoying reading (through MTL) basically everything that I bought. This isn't so much "stuff I wish that I knew" (except for one thing), but it's stuff that was helpful for me. (Also, all the doujins I bought were M/M, so this might be of limited usefulness if your particular proclivities lie elsewhere.)

My tips are largely based around three differences that doujin purchasing has from the Ao3 browsing that English speakers might be used to:

1: You Have To Pay Money For This Shit (which means that the cost of picking up something you aren't as into or hate isn't just a time cost, it's an actual money cost)

2: There Are No Tags (which means that you have to get good at reading what the unspoken cues of the front and back pages are telling you)

and 3: Basically Everything Is Shrinkwrapped (which means you can't read a few pages and go DANGER WILL ROBINSON if you don't like it, and put it back on the shelf.)

And now, on with the tips!

- Do Market Research: I'd really recommend, before your trip, going on Pixiv and looking around the tags for your fandom. What stuff is popular? What stuff is unpopular? Are there any artists who you really like? Are there any doujin being advertised for sale that seem interesting? (Or, best-case-scenario, the creator reuploaded an out-of-print doujin to their Pixiv and you wind up loving it.) Just kind of soak up the whole vibe, so that you can more easily filter, filter, filter baby. You won't have Ao3 tags to help you and most doujin are plastic-wrapped in store (to prevent people from ruining them by flipping through them), so what's on the front and back covers are basically all the information you're going to get. Maybe there's a trend of drawing X character as Y, and you've discovered in your market research that typically that means they're portrayed as more dominant, or more submissive, or more X, and you don't like that, so you can filter filter filter baby and not come home with something you hate.

- Do Some Deep Internalization About T/B Stuff: This basically only applies to you if you're looking for BL, but in Japanese BL fandom, top/bottom dynamics are Vry Srz Bznz. X/Y is considered a different ship from Y/X. Name order indicates who's topping who- left is top, right is bottom. (If you're dealing with an X/Y/X tag, that means they switch or it's ambiguous. If you're dealing with X/Y/Z, then, confusingly, it usually means that X and Z are topping Y.) Now, I would like you to think about the BL pairing that you really really like. The one that you're going to be looking for stuff for. I would then like you to search deeply within yourself and ask yourself this one question. "Do I have any sort of preference regarding who tops and who bottoms in my favorite pairing?"

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the warrior's bond between me and the four other people who ship a rarepair (author on ao3 who only published a single oneshot for them, the guy on pixiv who's using them to fulfill his NTR fetish, and two ukrainian cosplayers on instagram who do romantic photoshoots as them)

Whenever I see Ao3 comment discourse and the idea of writing for comments and feedback as the reason that you write I just have the feeling of like. Oh. You are a completely different kind of person than me.

As a creative (I write fiction, I draw, I do worldbuilding projects, I've been dipping my toe into icon-making/edits) I'd say that about 45/50 % of what I make, I show people. The rest of it goes into a box under my bed, or lives on my hard drive. Why don't I show it to people? The reason is because the point isn't getting comments or being part of a community. The point is making the thing. The point is creating things. The point is Finishing The Damn Project That's Been Sitting Next To The Kanata Nendo For Over A Year Now God-. The point is not sharing it. The point is not getting praise. Praise is nice. I like knowing that someone has genuinely liked my work, but it's a nice extra.

I'm sort of like my father- I think we both need to have An Ongoing Project in order to function and not go absolutely bugfuck insane. He does DIY and I write incest porn, different strokes for different folks. It's not a cult of productivity thing, it's more like the quote by Kazuma Kamachi. "If I don't keep writing, I'll crash. Like an airplane."

When people say that not getting any comments is ruining the point of writing fic I'm just like? Was the point not making it? Was the point not discovering what you could make? Or challenging yourself? Or putting something into the world that wasn't there before?

It's just so strange to me.

Trying to prepare my nominations for Rare Femslash Exchange and every time I think I've thought of everything I want to nominate, another one pops into my head.

Trying to compare Pixiv and Ao3 Top/Bottom Order Counts would be an absolute nightmare of Oh Dear God We're Generalizing Wildly From Incomplete Fucking Data but I do think it would be interesting.

Wondering whether the listings for JJBA Tomonui going for hundreds of dollars on Ebay are meant to target people who are too stupid to scroll down and see the exact same 15cm stuffed doll being sold for 10-14 dollars two listings down, or if they're some method of money laundering.

Fan theories based on “well if it was true, it would make so much thematic sense/make the work better” always make me twitch a bit because it can be true, but sometimes theorycrafters need to acknowledge that they themselves might be better writers than canon’s author. Also if you go too far you might get Secret Good Fourth Sherlock Episode.

the illusion (making eight million vento aureo aus) of free choice (thinking about pannacotta fugo being raped)

3weeks4dreamwidth is celebrating Dreamwidth's anniversary!
Come join in for fun, memes, activities, and more ♥

Are there any forums, social media groups, or online communities you frequent to discuss your fandom?

I sometimes hang out on the Enstars subreddit, but most of the time I'm just screaming into the void on Tumblr or Dreamwidth.

How would you describe the overall atmosphere and culture within the fan community?

*laughs uncertainly* It's a community that tends to skew rather young and dramatic, so there's some unpleasant drama, though I do think that the fandom has become less drama-prone over time as it's grown less niche. It's more interested in meta explaining character actions and symbolism than a lot of other fandoms I've been in, so I like that aspect of the fan community.

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3weeks4dreamwidth is celebrating Dreamwidth's anniversary!
Come join in for fun, memes, activities, and more ♥

Have you ever won a quiz or competition based on your fandom knowledge?

Nope!

What are some of the iconic symbols, phrases, or artifacts related to your fandom?

"It's going to be Christmas soon, Keito." "So what, Eichi." AMAZING. Nui. Kogaball. Brand New Stars.

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