I Like Lists, As You May Have Noticed
What follows is a list of various things I'm into enough to justify calling them a "fandom." For lack of a better term. And any notes on the subject I felt compelled to add. So if you want to read my ramblings on the subject, they're below the cut. ;D
Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X. This and Star Wars are the big ones, the ones that will always stick around.
Star Wars. Mostly the movies, Young Jedi Knights, and Knights of the Old Republic.
Star Trek: The Original Series. Another classic. I can measure this by the fact that Jim and Luke (because of Jim Kirk and Luke Skywalker respectively) are the only two "normal" names I can't imagine ever giving a character of mine, because they are so inextricably linked with those characters in my mind.
Final Fantasy VII. The last of my big, really serious, really classic fandoms that have stuck with me for years and years. Cloud is one of those defining figures in fandom and imagination for me.
Death Note. This is my current big obsession, along with Phoenix Wright.
Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright:Ace Attorney. Another big current obsession. It's. So. Awesome. So take that!
The Shinsengumi. A historical group, not a work of fiction. Which only makes my love and admiration for them all the more intense.
Kaze Hikaru. A corollary to the above. A shoujo manga about a girl who dresses up a boy and joins the Shinsengumi to get revenge for the death of her family. Should not be as awesome as it is, objectively.
Final Fantasy VIII. I love this game. I really, really love it. And most of that is because of the Squall/Rinoa pairing. And Zell.
Final Fantasy IX. The world! The settings! Zidane! Kuja! Garnet! There is nothing bad about this game. In fact, it's probably the closest to Final Fantasy VII in how much I love it out of all the Final Fantasy games. Which, for me, is saying something.
Fullmetal Alchemist. Oh yeah. It's an alternate history. With alchemy. Around the same time as World War I. It was impossible for me not to fall in love with it.
Full Metal Panic. I love this series. So much. Something about a boy mercenary who's grown up in a series of war zones trying so hard to fit into normal life, and failing at it so badly . . . . Also, giant robots.
Kung fu movies. I love them. I really love them, and it's hard to describe the way I do--I like the serious ones, the not so serious ones, and even some that are flat out bad, but I love them all the same.
Naruto. Everyone has one of these, right? Something they love to death despite the fact that as an intellectual, educated, discerning person they really shouldn't. Everyone does, right? Right?
King of Fighters. I've always loved fighting games. This is probably related to my love for kung fu movies. And for some reason, King of Fighters just pushes all my fighting game related buttons (and I have a gigantic crush on Kyo Kusanagi).
Avatar: The Last Airbender. One of the main ways to get my attention is to be a kung fu movie almost. And then fantasy. And then just to be all around awesome, despite being on Nickelodeon. Thanks, Avatar!
Final Fantasy XII. First of all, I love Ashe. Secondly, a big part of how much I love this game probably has to do with how much I thought it would suck . . . . And how little it actually does. Also, Vaan is adorable.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. I like a lot of the Gundam series, but this is my favorite. Just to shake things up, my favorite character is Heero (but if I were to cave and tell the truth, he only wins out over Duo by a very very tiny margin). Yes--Gundams are on Earth!
Stargate In this I include Stargate the movie, Stargate SG:1, and Stargate Atlantis. History + military science fiction? ALIENS BUILT THE PYRAMIDS? Yes, please. Also, Daniel Jackson. Oh yeah. (My love for Atlantis is sort of totally different, but related. In that case the "also" would be John Sheppard.)
Neon Genesis Evangelion. What can I say, I like the way it plays with your brain. I also love Shinji. A lot. And then there's always the GIANT ROBOTS.
HERO. This is a J-dorama about lawyers. It has Kimura Takuya in it. Yes, yes, I know. I forbid you from saying anything until you've watched it yourself.
Dragon Quest VII. This is a new one. It's just so classic and awesome and cute. The classic quest story is not dead at all in these games.
Howl's Moving Castle. By this I mean the novel, though it's not like I was objecting to Miyazaki's film, either. But the novel is one of my favorite books of all time.
Melusine, The Virtu, The Mirador. A series of fantasy novels by Sarah Monette. I LOVE THEM TO DEATH. Read them yourself to find out why, because my words are not sufficient.
The Vision of Escaflowne. I may be the only person in the whole world who isn't all that put off by the ending of this series. Again, giant robots. Also, Van. Dryden. Allen. Hitomi. What's not to like about this cast?
Firefly. Joss Whedon's series. And oh my god, the slang. If I could write dialogue like that . . . oh man. I also love, like, the characters and stuff.
Earthsea. Ursula le Guin. How fantasy should be written. That is all.
Sherlock Holmes. My big literary thing . . . . But I mean, how literary are they, really? But the reason I love these books and these characters should be pretty clear. Elementary, you might say. (And I'm a Dr. Watson fangirl.)
Margery Allingham's Campion novels. 1930s detective novels. The main character is a rich young gentleman of the aristocracy who turned into a general adventurer/spy for the British crown because he's just that smart, and who uses facetious ridiculousness to mask most of his undeniable badassery. There is nothing more awesome than that. Margery Allingham is one of my role models, also.
The Chronicles of Narnia. The Christianity thing has never bothered me. These books . . . they are my childhood. (I've also been in love with Peter Pevensie since I was what . . . like five? XD)
Robin Hood. Um. I have a thing about Robin Hood, and I always have.
Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. READ THEM. also watch them. The BBC series stars Sean Bean. Oh, yeah. Action and romance in the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic War.
The Three Musketeers. Alexander Dumas's version, as well as many of the treatments since. Hey, come on, you know you like it too.
Weiss Kreuz. They work in a flower shop by day and fight crime by night. Hunters of the night, deny these evil beasts their tomorrows XD! (yes, that's what Persia says in the English dub, word for word, I swear to you).
Final Fantasy Tactics. BASED ON THE WARS OF THE ROSES XD. And boy, can you tell.
Final Fantasy X and X-2. Obviously I love the Final Fantasy series a ton. I really like the overall feeling of these two games . . . Lenne and Shuyin kind of saved them for me, though.
Indiana Jones. It has something to do with Harrison Ford in that hat. And also, he's an archaeologist.
Jade Empire. KUNG FU GAME IN FANTASY-LAND CHINA.
Shenmue. This game franchise is not only beautiful, but awesome, and won my heart by having a hero like Hazuki Ryo. I appear to have a thing for the dutiful son trope, as well as earnest naivete. These games feel so real--and Japan and China during the eighties ftw!
Harry Potter. Okay, yeah. I like Harry Potter enough for it to be a fandom. Doesn't everybody?
Ocean's Eleven. The George Clooney/Brad Pitt remake. If you haven't seen it, I demand that you do so.
The Lord of the Rings. So beautiful. Tolkien is my fantasy writing god, not because I think he necessarily did it better than everyone since, but because he did it.
Japanese history. Um. Yeah. But it's true . . . I'm such a Japanese history geek it's ridiculous.
Disney's Mulan. Yeah. So full of inaccuracies, I know, but I love it all the same.
Actors/Singers Version:
Jet Li I am a complete mindless fangirl for him. So much so that if he weren't already married . . . . If I am ever in his presence I will not be able to say anything coherent. At all. I would probably not even be able to move.
Fujiwara Tatsuya I will watch anything he's in and like it.
Heath Ledger I was so, so sad.
Mili Avital
Jackie Chan He's adorable. And hot, for an old guy. And, I don't know, just cool. Has anyone else ever watched that animated show, The Jackie Chan Adventures? I loved that show . . . .
Oguri Shun
Utada Hikaru
Brad Pitt He's my favorite bad actor, as my cousin once said.
Arashi I had a big Matsumoto Jun phase a few years back, but now it's all about Sakurai Sho and Aiba Masaki for me.
SMAP Mostly Kimutaku, I admit. It isn't that I think he's all that hot. I just find him hilarious, and he makes me happy because of it.
Koike Teppei I don't know. He's cute.
Morning Musume It's mostly because of nuriko, but I'm becoming more and more of a fan all the time. My favorites are Yoshizawa Hitomi, Yaguchi Mari, Goto Maki, and Kamei Eri.
Ohtsuka Ai
Domoto Koichi I've had this thing for Domoto Koichi and the Kinki Kids recently. He's in this sushi movie and I think that might be why.
Grace Park I don't even like Battlestar Galactica all that much, but I think she's awesome.
Zhang Xiyi
Michelle Yeoh
Sophie Marceau
William Shatner
Harrison Ford
Carrie Fisher
Ogata Megumi
Seki Toshihiko
Seki Tomokazu
Sakurai Takahiro
Christian Bale
Matsu Takako
Yuen Biao
Other random things I like a ton:
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
Sorcerer Stabber Orphen (or however you want to translate that title)
Gokusen
The Pirates of Penzance
The Magic Flute
Arthurian legends (especially Merlin. And also The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart)
The X-Files. The truth is out there. I want to believe.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (also the rest of the Star Trek franchise, just not as much)
The Legend of Zelda
Hana Yori Dango
Cowboy Bebop
Kingdom Hearts
Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross
The Dresden Files (the novel series, not the television one)
Ranma 1/2, Inu-Yasha, and Takahashi Rumiko's stuff in general
jidai-geki
Detective Conan
Kimi wa Petto/Tramps Like Us
J-doramas in general
Street Fighter
Fushigi Yugi
Alice 19th
Way of the Samurai
A Song of Ice and Fire
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar
Mercedes Lackey's Bedlam's Bard and The Chrome Born
anything by Patricia C. Wrede, but mostly Mairelon the Magician and The Raven Ring
Spirited Away/Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
Tonari no Totoro
Mononoke-hime
Disney's Aladdin
The Karate Kid
Willow
The Neverending Story
Pirates of the Caribbean
Hikaru no Go
Huang Fei-hong (yes, I know he's a historical figure. He met his last wife when his shoe flew off in the middle of a kung-fu exhibition and hit her in the face. Beat that. Also, he was played by Jet Li . . . um, yes, I know, okay?)
Now you all know there's something severely wrong with me. How do I have the space in my head for all of this? Now that's something I don't know. Yeah. I think that list is pretty complete. Well, it looks good to me.
Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X. This and Star Wars are the big ones, the ones that will always stick around.
Star Wars. Mostly the movies, Young Jedi Knights, and Knights of the Old Republic.
Star Trek: The Original Series. Another classic. I can measure this by the fact that Jim and Luke (because of Jim Kirk and Luke Skywalker respectively) are the only two "normal" names I can't imagine ever giving a character of mine, because they are so inextricably linked with those characters in my mind.
Final Fantasy VII. The last of my big, really serious, really classic fandoms that have stuck with me for years and years. Cloud is one of those defining figures in fandom and imagination for me.
Death Note. This is my current big obsession, along with Phoenix Wright.
Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright:Ace Attorney. Another big current obsession. It's. So. Awesome. So take that!
The Shinsengumi. A historical group, not a work of fiction. Which only makes my love and admiration for them all the more intense.
Kaze Hikaru. A corollary to the above. A shoujo manga about a girl who dresses up a boy and joins the Shinsengumi to get revenge for the death of her family. Should not be as awesome as it is, objectively.
Final Fantasy VIII. I love this game. I really, really love it. And most of that is because of the Squall/Rinoa pairing. And Zell.
Final Fantasy IX. The world! The settings! Zidane! Kuja! Garnet! There is nothing bad about this game. In fact, it's probably the closest to Final Fantasy VII in how much I love it out of all the Final Fantasy games. Which, for me, is saying something.
Fullmetal Alchemist. Oh yeah. It's an alternate history. With alchemy. Around the same time as World War I. It was impossible for me not to fall in love with it.
Full Metal Panic. I love this series. So much. Something about a boy mercenary who's grown up in a series of war zones trying so hard to fit into normal life, and failing at it so badly . . . . Also, giant robots.
Kung fu movies. I love them. I really love them, and it's hard to describe the way I do--I like the serious ones, the not so serious ones, and even some that are flat out bad, but I love them all the same.
Naruto. Everyone has one of these, right? Something they love to death despite the fact that as an intellectual, educated, discerning person they really shouldn't. Everyone does, right? Right?
King of Fighters. I've always loved fighting games. This is probably related to my love for kung fu movies. And for some reason, King of Fighters just pushes all my fighting game related buttons (and I have a gigantic crush on Kyo Kusanagi).
Avatar: The Last Airbender. One of the main ways to get my attention is to be a kung fu movie almost. And then fantasy. And then just to be all around awesome, despite being on Nickelodeon. Thanks, Avatar!
Final Fantasy XII. First of all, I love Ashe. Secondly, a big part of how much I love this game probably has to do with how much I thought it would suck . . . . And how little it actually does. Also, Vaan is adorable.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. I like a lot of the Gundam series, but this is my favorite. Just to shake things up, my favorite character is Heero (but if I were to cave and tell the truth, he only wins out over Duo by a very very tiny margin). Yes--Gundams are on Earth!
Stargate In this I include Stargate the movie, Stargate SG:1, and Stargate Atlantis. History + military science fiction? ALIENS BUILT THE PYRAMIDS? Yes, please. Also, Daniel Jackson. Oh yeah. (My love for Atlantis is sort of totally different, but related. In that case the "also" would be John Sheppard.)
Neon Genesis Evangelion. What can I say, I like the way it plays with your brain. I also love Shinji. A lot. And then there's always the GIANT ROBOTS.
HERO. This is a J-dorama about lawyers. It has Kimura Takuya in it. Yes, yes, I know. I forbid you from saying anything until you've watched it yourself.
Dragon Quest VII. This is a new one. It's just so classic and awesome and cute. The classic quest story is not dead at all in these games.
Howl's Moving Castle. By this I mean the novel, though it's not like I was objecting to Miyazaki's film, either. But the novel is one of my favorite books of all time.
Melusine, The Virtu, The Mirador. A series of fantasy novels by Sarah Monette. I LOVE THEM TO DEATH. Read them yourself to find out why, because my words are not sufficient.
The Vision of Escaflowne. I may be the only person in the whole world who isn't all that put off by the ending of this series. Again, giant robots. Also, Van. Dryden. Allen. Hitomi. What's not to like about this cast?
Firefly. Joss Whedon's series. And oh my god, the slang. If I could write dialogue like that . . . oh man. I also love, like, the characters and stuff.
Earthsea. Ursula le Guin. How fantasy should be written. That is all.
Sherlock Holmes. My big literary thing . . . . But I mean, how literary are they, really? But the reason I love these books and these characters should be pretty clear. Elementary, you might say. (And I'm a Dr. Watson fangirl.)
Margery Allingham's Campion novels. 1930s detective novels. The main character is a rich young gentleman of the aristocracy who turned into a general adventurer/spy for the British crown because he's just that smart, and who uses facetious ridiculousness to mask most of his undeniable badassery. There is nothing more awesome than that. Margery Allingham is one of my role models, also.
The Chronicles of Narnia. The Christianity thing has never bothered me. These books . . . they are my childhood. (I've also been in love with Peter Pevensie since I was what . . . like five? XD)
Robin Hood. Um. I have a thing about Robin Hood, and I always have.
Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. READ THEM. also watch them. The BBC series stars Sean Bean. Oh, yeah. Action and romance in the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic War.
The Three Musketeers. Alexander Dumas's version, as well as many of the treatments since. Hey, come on, you know you like it too.
Weiss Kreuz. They work in a flower shop by day and fight crime by night. Hunters of the night, deny these evil beasts their tomorrows XD! (yes, that's what Persia says in the English dub, word for word, I swear to you).
Final Fantasy Tactics. BASED ON THE WARS OF THE ROSES XD. And boy, can you tell.
Final Fantasy X and X-2. Obviously I love the Final Fantasy series a ton. I really like the overall feeling of these two games . . . Lenne and Shuyin kind of saved them for me, though.
Indiana Jones. It has something to do with Harrison Ford in that hat. And also, he's an archaeologist.
Jade Empire. KUNG FU GAME IN FANTASY-LAND CHINA.
Shenmue. This game franchise is not only beautiful, but awesome, and won my heart by having a hero like Hazuki Ryo. I appear to have a thing for the dutiful son trope, as well as earnest naivete. These games feel so real--and Japan and China during the eighties ftw!
Harry Potter. Okay, yeah. I like Harry Potter enough for it to be a fandom. Doesn't everybody?
Ocean's Eleven. The George Clooney/Brad Pitt remake. If you haven't seen it, I demand that you do so.
The Lord of the Rings. So beautiful. Tolkien is my fantasy writing god, not because I think he necessarily did it better than everyone since, but because he did it.
Japanese history. Um. Yeah. But it's true . . . I'm such a Japanese history geek it's ridiculous.
Disney's Mulan. Yeah. So full of inaccuracies, I know, but I love it all the same.
Actors/Singers Version:
Jet Li I am a complete mindless fangirl for him. So much so that if he weren't already married . . . . If I am ever in his presence I will not be able to say anything coherent. At all. I would probably not even be able to move.
Fujiwara Tatsuya I will watch anything he's in and like it.
Heath Ledger I was so, so sad.
Mili Avital
Jackie Chan He's adorable. And hot, for an old guy. And, I don't know, just cool. Has anyone else ever watched that animated show, The Jackie Chan Adventures? I loved that show . . . .
Oguri Shun
Utada Hikaru
Brad Pitt He's my favorite bad actor, as my cousin once said.
Arashi I had a big Matsumoto Jun phase a few years back, but now it's all about Sakurai Sho and Aiba Masaki for me.
SMAP Mostly Kimutaku, I admit. It isn't that I think he's all that hot. I just find him hilarious, and he makes me happy because of it.
Koike Teppei I don't know. He's cute.
Morning Musume It's mostly because of nuriko, but I'm becoming more and more of a fan all the time. My favorites are Yoshizawa Hitomi, Yaguchi Mari, Goto Maki, and Kamei Eri.
Ohtsuka Ai
Domoto Koichi I've had this thing for Domoto Koichi and the Kinki Kids recently. He's in this sushi movie and I think that might be why.
Grace Park I don't even like Battlestar Galactica all that much, but I think she's awesome.
Zhang Xiyi
Michelle Yeoh
Sophie Marceau
William Shatner
Harrison Ford
Carrie Fisher
Ogata Megumi
Seki Toshihiko
Seki Tomokazu
Sakurai Takahiro
Christian Bale
Matsu Takako
Yuen Biao
Other random things I like a ton:
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
Sorcerer Stabber Orphen (or however you want to translate that title)
Gokusen
The Pirates of Penzance
The Magic Flute
Arthurian legends (especially Merlin. And also The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart)
The X-Files. The truth is out there. I want to believe.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (also the rest of the Star Trek franchise, just not as much)
The Legend of Zelda
Hana Yori Dango
Cowboy Bebop
Kingdom Hearts
Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross
The Dresden Files (the novel series, not the television one)
Ranma 1/2, Inu-Yasha, and Takahashi Rumiko's stuff in general
jidai-geki
Detective Conan
Kimi wa Petto/Tramps Like Us
J-doramas in general
Street Fighter
Fushigi Yugi
Alice 19th
Way of the Samurai
A Song of Ice and Fire
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar
Mercedes Lackey's Bedlam's Bard and The Chrome Born
anything by Patricia C. Wrede, but mostly Mairelon the Magician and The Raven Ring
Spirited Away/Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
Tonari no Totoro
Mononoke-hime
Disney's Aladdin
The Karate Kid
Willow
The Neverending Story
Pirates of the Caribbean
Hikaru no Go
Huang Fei-hong (yes, I know he's a historical figure. He met his last wife when his shoe flew off in the middle of a kung-fu exhibition and hit her in the face. Beat that. Also, he was played by Jet Li . . . um, yes, I know, okay?)
Now you all know there's something severely wrong with me. How do I have the space in my head for all of this? Now that's something I don't know. Yeah. I think that list is pretty complete. Well, it looks good to me.