Snowflake #9: Kimi no na wa/Your Name/君の名は。

Challenge #9 In your own space, promote at least one canon that you adore (old, new, forever fandom).

THIS MOVIE. Even thinking of this film makes me feel so many things?! I thought it would be a cute bodyswap film with hilarious hijinks and a side of romance, and it is-- but only for about the first third of the film. Then it starts adding more layers: the importance of connections and what counts as a tie that binds, relationships changing, and a mystery, underscored with the sense of baffling loss and disquiet when you suddenly lose one POV. It all comes together when they figure out the Plot Twist, and you end up going between excited over their gutsy caper, joyful and triumphant to utterly bereft again and then like, twisting in agonies of hope. Put the story together with the amazing RADWIMPS headed soundtrack and beautiful animation (with such attention to detail!) and a symbolic connecting thread that you realize has been in front of you the whole time and it just crystallizes that it was a work of art masquerading as lighthearted fare. I swear all of Japan went absolutely mad over this film (it was all I heard about all summer) when it was released and deservedly so.

You think you know the story: traditional country girl (Mitsuha), modern city boy (Taki), and an inexplicable magical connection that means they end up regularly swapping bodies in their sleep. The plot of the movie will surely be to find out why the swapping is happening, but basically the important thing is not to screw up life too much for the unexpected partner. There's the expected underlying theme of learned empathy despite their differences- illustrated beautifully in how they use her notebook: her notes are organized, neat and thorough while he sketches and scrawls instead ("Who the hell are you? What even is this place!?") with no regards to the lines or class material. Mitsuha cultivates a friendship with his crush/coworker Ms. Okudera in Taki's body and happily indulges in cafes in the Big City against Taki's wishes, while his quick temper and ignorance of things like using a sports bra similarly cause Mitsuha endless consternation whenever she returns to her body. The bickering they do through their phone diary entries is sooo funny. (Remember you're wearing a skirt! Guys are talking! This is basic human behaviour!) (Stop wasting my money already!) (It's your body I'm feeding! Besides, I'm working your shifts too!) XDDDD And of course, they end up learning good traits from each other despite never actually meeting- their communication is all done through texts and diary entries. (Epistolary is one of my favorite shippy tropes.)

Aaaand then the film changes direction, but I won't spoil it. It's such a good twist though! You will be like, DUH HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT and yet OMGGGGG NOOOO.

It's not a totally perfect film- Taki frequently gropes Mitsuha's boobs while in her body and it's played for laughs instead of as a violation. And honestly, I could have done without that last (first?) barrier between them because it seemed like contrived last minute conflict. But it's such a work of art and it will make you feel all the things, so I can't recommend it enough. 

Anyway, here are some of the fanworks I've made for this tiny fandom, and I would love, love, love to see more! (One of the links above is one of my GIFsets, the other is somebody else's)

Translations of their notes/texts in the movie Part 1, Part 2
Foodporn (Mitsuha's cafe addiction captured on Taki's phone)
Acting OOC in each other's bodies (GIFset)
Red string of fate (GIFset with meta, full of spoilers)

Deep Tie Knot (post canon fic, Taki/Mitsuha, 1251 words)
Bound (GoT crossover fic, Arya/Gendry, 34,488 words)

Recs!
Background info/meta/edit on the inspiration for the film, another poem/translation here
The ultimate meteor/comet GIFset (spoilers for the film)
Beautiful fanart of that last scene (spoilers, obviously)
That heartbreaking moment before twilight (GIFset)

Snowflake #10

Challenge #10

Talk About A Creator/Someone Who Inspired You.

I've actually been thinking of this a lot because I'm one of those creatures that writes mostly out of Nooope feelings. Media I am 100% happy with gets the GIFs and glowing reviews, but I almost always write fic because I have a nagging idea for a more satisfying change in canon, or I feel a void/plothole of some kind that is just begging to be filled. Ditto searching for fic- if a canon satisfies me, I don't even think of looking for it and I just reblog the pretties on tumblr and make icons. Whereas if I'm in the throes of butbutbut I will go trawling on AO3.

That said, my masterlist is starting to look like a Worst Offenders list when I actually really love all of the canons represented on there? And with some media like Endgame and Star Wars, I think sometimes the betrayal just goes so deep that I don't even feel fannish anymore? So creator inspiration of the An Excellent Beginning But Here Is My Revision variety (note that these are all white men. There is a pattern.): Dave&Dan from Game of Thrones (S8 in particular), Jonathan Stroud (Ptolemy's Gate), Peter Jackson (BotFA), George Lucas (prequel trilogy).

Writer Goals type inspirations (YOU GUYS ARE DA BOMB) (Note that these are mostly women- one is a husband/wife team): Naomi Novik, Madeline Miller, Ilona Andrews, Leigh Bardugo. fanfic writers tielan ,notbecauseofvictories, scrubclub, nymja, igrockspock

ETA: I just realized I forgot to add musicians that inspire me! So often I create because I want to capture that same feeling a song gives me. So also Halsey, Taylor Swift, RADWIMPS, Banks, Ruelle. 

Last but not least, sometimes writing is hard no matter how much a story is clawing at the inside of your head. So special shout outs to lyrawhite and yanak324 for being absolutely amazing cheerleaders and analytical comment makers. Their replies and PMs help me so much? I especially love that lyra loves spoilers because it's like having a beta- I can knock out the gist of how the story is going to go without making anybody mad that I spoiled anything. And that kind of "thinking out loud" really helps my process. YOU ROCK. THANK YOU.