[ ARASHI, Bleach, Dragonball, DRRR!!, Glee, Gundam00, OP, Sailor Moon, REBORN!, TOA, VOCALOID ]
SHARING TIME:
ღ - In Celebration of Mary Sue is an awesome idea. I absolutely think Mary Sues should be celebrated for what they are and where they come from--namely, the drive to have awesome women in fiction, to have more strong female voices in fiction. They are not the end goal, but they're an important step and I love the happiness they bring to their creators.
AND ONTO THE RECS:
ARASHI - 1 Fanfic
Durarara!! - 1 Fanfic
Glee - 3 Fanfics
Gundam 00 - 1 Fanfic
One Piece - 1 Fanfic
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! - 3 Doujinshi
Tales of the Abyss - 1 Doujinshi
VOCALOID - 1 Doujinshi
Bleach - 1 Fanart
Dragonball - 1 Fanart
One Piece - 4 Fanart
Sailor Moon - 4 Fanart
ARASHI: One more reason AnAn rules + All's well that ends well by Circe - You know what I love? Arashi being full of a bunch of bastards. Or at least Ohno and Nino are. Which they are in both these fics--the first one is an AnAn shoot with Ohmiya and they're little fuckers and get along like a house on fire. As they should. The second is a fic where Sho and Jun compete over Aiba and it's just... oh my god. It's brilliant characterization for every single member of Arashi and hilarious to watch the two of them compete while Ohno subtly eggs them on and Nino laughs at the whole thing and Aiba just sort of bounces in and out. Plus, the ending is pitch-perfect homg. (Ohmiya, Ohno/Sho/Nino, Aiba/Jun.)
Durarara!!: Touch Me by tweetthebirdy - Well. Durarara!! continues to eat me, I guess. And so I keep coming back to fic and getting fun little things like this--it's a fic about how Izaya prefers Shizuo to physically hit him rather than use vending machines or street signs or whatever else is nearby. And what makes it is the final line, I had to smile at that. (Sort of implied Shizuo/Izaya, but could be mostly gen, too.)
Glee: In the Music Room by of_hearts - And that’s when a voice deep in his soul spoke to him: DROP THAT FUCKIN’ QUESADILLA, PUCKERMAN. THIS IS HOW ALL THE BEST PORNOS START. Okay, Puck/Rachel makeout scenes in the music room and some really hilarious lines from the Puck POV? I'm there. This was one of those fun little pieces I read this morning that was just entertaining and had some great lines. ....apparently, I am still ridiculously in love with these two. (Puck/Rachel.)
Glee: In the Janitor's Closet by of_hearts - I think what put me in exactly the right frame of mind for this fic was going in knowing that it was an AU fic and that even the author couldn't decide if it was serious fic or crackfic, that it was probably somewhere in between, that she was writing the sitcom that was Puck and Rachel's romantic life. And that's exactly what this is and why it was so much freaking fun--Puck and Rachel have broken up, she's dating someone new, and Puck is driven nuts by this. Clearly, he has to sabotage it. And drag Finn in along with him. The Puck narration is hilarious (because he's a douchebag but the douchebag that gets all the best lines) and the Puck & Finn BFFery is awesome, both because it's genuinely hilarious (Puck finds Finn's stupidity pretty hilarious, too) and because it's just so nice to see them actually being friends. I only half read it for the Puck/Rachel, the other half was just that it was a fun read with fun dialogue and because of the BFFery. God, I think I could read fic like this forever. (Puck/Rachel.)
Glee: Buenos Nachos, Mr. Schue! by une_fille - In the same spirit that I read the previous fic, that line that's somewhere between canon-like and totally cracked out, I read this fic that's about Puck's mangling of the Spanish language and poor, poor Will's attempts to help him and just deal with Noah Puckerman in his class, even though it only happens a couple of times a year. I love it because it's just so unapologetically douchebag Puck revelry and so many hilarious lines and a great Puck POV and I don't think I stopped laughing the whole time I was reading this. And, sure, it's a Puck/Rachel fic, but it's really more about the interaction between Will and Puck and it's just. It's beautiful. (Some Puck/Rachel, but it's not really the point and it's in the background.)
Gundam 00: The Worth of His Ambition by birdsarecalling and zanzou_chan - [ prologue - chapter 01 ] - I never know what to expect when I click on authors' names that I don't recognize (I didn't recognize the joint account name anyway), especially in a fandom like Gundam 00 that isn't really known for it's reams of well-written fic. But then I read this one! And it's an awesome premise--Lockon leaves Celestial Being to go hunt down Ali Al Saachez, which goes about as well as you'd expect it. The premise intrigues me, but what really caught me is the fantastic writing and how spot-on it felt. It was so easy to see these circumstances, right from the beginning with Lockon on the beach to Tieria hearing that Lockon has left and the inevitable search on both their parts. It worked and was incredibly satisfying to have these two chapters as the beginning of a story with so much potential for awesome! Then the icing on the cake? OMG TIERIA in the final scene of the second chapter--I was totally crying with laughter. That was beautiful. The whole thing was just a delightful read this morning. ♥ (One assumes eventual Lockon/Tieria.)
One Piece: Quitting's Easy by Tammaiya - I love that this was only supposed to be a quick, short little fic about Sanji quitting smoking and some tossed in jokes about the English dub using a lollipop instead of his cigarette and then maybe some Zoro/Sanji UST, but somehow it turned into a ~10,000 word monster on her; that's hilarious and awesome. Especially since I really love this characterization of Sanji, he's polished in some ways and rough in some ways, that balance that you see in the original manga is captured so well here. His potty mouth, the constant stream of swearing that goes through his head without being too over the top about it, the way he interacts with everyone in the crew are all spot-on for him--not to mention that I really love all the scenes he has with those different people! He interacts with Chopper and Usopp and Nami and Luffy and Robin and everyone! I love when authors work in the rest of the Strawhats! Plus, mmm, her Zoro is really hot, too. I swear, this fic just flew by and I didn't want it to end, like, ever. Except I'm okay with that because a) the resolution is satisfying and b) now she can move on to writing MOAR! :D (Zoro/Sanji, crew antics, a hint of Luffy/Nami that you'll blink and miss it.)
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! Doujinshi (raw): distance - [Note: This post is locked, but the comm should be easily joinable.] This one is going to be a bit difficult to explain why I liked it so much because the art admittedly did take awhile to grow on me and I was a little "..." over the reactions from Hibari at times. A lot of it is that I'm (fairly) easy to please with Dino/Hibari doujinshi, but I think what kept me going with this one and what made me really appreciate it is that the artist has a lot of potential and actually is disciplined in her own way. She has her own style and take on the characters and she has a strong sense of what makes for a good layout on a page and doesn't skip on doing the detailed work. In fact, a lot of the panels were actually really pretty, especially the close-up panels where you could see the time that went into her artwork, there are a lot of pages where I could easily see her being a mangaka on the strength of her art. And there are moments when her Dino or her Hibari felt spot on (even if they were rarer than I'd have liked), like when Hibari follows Dino back to Italy, that was just... that's Hibari for you, exactly like that. Then the doujinshika tossed in some very pretty sex on the last three pages and well. You know me. :Db (Dino/Hibari, somewhere around an R or a very light NC-17.)
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! Doujinshi (scanslated): Memoria - Okay, this is just all kinds of adorable! It's a short 10-page thing (including the notes, so more like a five page thing) where Tsuna gets a cold and Shamal gives Gokudera some advice on how to help cure Tsuna's cold. It's cute because it goes exactly how you expect it to and has this feeling of... it reminded me a lot of The Daily Life arc that I had so much fun with and this captures a lot of that, right down to the peaceful feeling, even as things are so crazy. <3 (Gokudera/Tsuna.)
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! Doujinshi (raw): sad colors - I am definitely developing a fondness for this pairing that I can't quite explain, at least when it comes to this art style. It's something about the rough lines and sketchy detail and just the overall style of it that appeals to me when it comes to the Millefiore characters, especially Shouichi. And this is a simple story--Spanner thinks about Shouichi while he's sleeping, thinks about waking up, but instead puts a jacket over his shoulders--but it doesn't need to be more than that. It's a really interesting, fun little thing on its own! (Spanner/Shouichi.)
Tales of the Abyss: Journey's End 1 - [Note: This post is locked, but the comm is freely joinable.] Oh, man, how much do I love ELEPHAN's work? SO MUCH. Usually, she's more about Asch/Natalia (who are briefly in this, both characters and them being stupid about each other), but this time it's a Jade book and it's just as gorgeous as ever. Jade is one of those really interesting characters and this doujinshi feels like it captures the feel of the game and the character really well--not just in the beautiful visuals, but in the tone of the story and Jade's reactions to everything. The conversation he has with an angry Asch was pitch-perfect, he doesn't deny that he created fomicry but calmly points out that killing him will achieve nothing good. And then there's this sort of melancholy air to everything else and it's just... MAN, do I want the second half of this one! (No warnings/pairings.)
VOCALOID Doujinshi (raw): Jewella - [Note: This post is locked, but the comm is freely joinable.] Omg, more VOCALOID doujinshi! And this one is really super adorable! I love stories where a large chunk of it is just about the various characters hanging out and being total dorks together, which this doujinshi fed nicely into. The pairings are kind of there, but only REALLY noticeable in the second half and I like both Len/Rin and Gakupoid/Luka pretty well after seeing a crapload of fanart for them on Pixiv. It's a cute, fun bit of novelty and the art with the characters is really adorable and pretty in several panels and that's all I need from this. :Db (Some Lin/Ren, some Gakupoid/Luka.)
- Bleach - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - I've been hesitant to start recommending from non-traditional fanart sites proper, but... well, I couldn't resist. This artist does fantastic work for tegaki, which is all mouse art, which makes it a lot harder to find the good stuff. But the artist does a fantastic job with the Nnoitra/Neliel pairing, I had to! I originally came here for the Sailor Moon image the artist had done, then saw there were some fantastic Hitsugaya/Matsumoto pieces and, then, from there, it was hard to miss all the Nnoitra/Nel stuff. There's a lot of it here as well and the artist does a really fantastic job of capture Kubo's style with all her work, making it fun to go through all the gallery pages. Sigh, I do forsee spending a lot more time on tegaki again, though. Boo. Oh, but! It was totally worth it for the high school au images! Those were kind of awesome. (Nnoitra/Neliel, some Hitsugaya/Matsumoto.)
- Dragonball - [ English Fanart Site ] - Oh, goddammit. I was looking at One Piece art this morning and then somehow I stumbled over a link to a Vejiita/Bulma image and I was like, well, okay, I'll go check that out for a minute. And then back to the artist's gallery. And then there's more art of them! And it's the kind of art I totally go for with these characters--all the solid lines and glossy colors and fantastic details. Not everything matches my versions of the characters, it's more beefed up at times, especially on Vejiita, but the art is so nicely done that I fell for it anyway--which is just personal preference, by the way. The artist's Bulma is really kind of gorgeous, which is all I care about anyway. Plus, there's makeouts and skimpy clothes or lack thereof and fan-comics and the two of them being totally into each other and Vejiita being, well, Vejiita, while Bulma gives as good as she gets and it's just. Yes. This is why I love this ship. (Vejiita/Bulma, occasionally slightly NSFW.)
- One Piece - [ English Fanart Site ] - This is one of those artists who was just, like, made for me because the art hits me where I live so hard. Zoro/Nami plus Zoro/Sanji plus the occasional bit of Luffy/Nami, all done in a style that's reminiscent of the manga, but with brighter, shinier colors? Sometimes I love fandom a lot. I actually originally came here for the Zoro/Sanji art (and, boy, do I ever love this image of them--probably NSFW on that one, btw) but then noticed the artist also had some really really good art of Zoro/Nami as well, which is still totally that ship I just can't shake off, no matter how long I'm a fan of One Piece. Because it's a mix of sweeter moments with them and then stuff like Zoro just carting her off and it's all designed to make me weak. I love the artist's bright, warm colors as well, it's such a treat to go through each and every image ♥ (Zoro/Nami, Zoro/Sanji, a little other.)
- One Piece - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - Right from the current top illustration of Garp holding kidlet versions of Ace and Luffy, I was pretty sure I was going to love this site a whole hell of a lot. And it's full of art that's just so much fun, especially with Luffy flinging himself all over the place or various groups of the Strawhats watching the nighttime sky together or Ace/Luffy being adorable kidlets together or fantastic portraits of Luffy-- and so on. The art is clean with shiny colors, very cg feeling, but still managing to keep the spirit of One Piece and just having grand adventures and big smiles everywhere. I love the one of Luffy in Ace's outfit or pretty much any time he's giving Ace a tackle-glomping hug, it all reminds me of just how damn much I love Luffy and how much this artist clearly loves him, too. I wish there'd been a bit more art here, but what the artist does have is fantastic. The oekaki board is worth checking out as well for the art there--the Ace stuff is fantastic and there's an awesome one of Roger, too! ♥ (This is mostly a gen site, but maybe a little Ace/Luffy if you want to see it that way.)
- One Piece - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - I originally came here to look for Ace fanart, but kind of got distracted looking at everything that's here, especially the Red Haired pirates stuff! I have the feeling I may have recommended this site before, but... enh, well, I was really in the mood for One Piece art, especially of the Ace variety, and this site does provide some nice stuff with him. It's also really cool how well the artist captures Oda's style, especially as the gallery goes on and on, the artist gets really good! My only complaint is that I wish the images had been a bit bigger so I could see the detail more. XD But it's a lot of Shanks and Luffy as a kid or Shanks with the other pirates or Ace portraits or the occasoinal Zoro illustration or the series of images of the Water 7 characters or the hilarious image of Garp snoring away while dreaming of Ace and Luffy as Marines! Or the very nice image of Ace & Luffy lounging on a couch while Shanks lounges in a chair next to them. And, boy, is there EVER A LOT OF ART HERE, which adds up really fast and makes for a great site to visit. (No real warnings/pairings.)
- One Piece - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - This is one of those sites that's kinda clearly built for meeeeee! Despite that I was actually looking for Ace art this morning, I stumbled over this Zoro-centric site and, well, who am I to resist? There's a ton of art here and the artist does a good job of capturing the style of the manga, yet putting Zoro in a ton of different situations... actually, no, that's pretty Oda-like, considering all the splash covers he's done. But there's art of Zoro by himself, Zoro with his swords, the occasional image of him with Nami or Luffy or OMG ZORO AND CHOPPER CHRISTMAS CUTENESS OH I JUST ABOUT MELTED and then there's a fair amount of Zoro/Sanji art as well. There's a good amount of group art as well and some of it is just really fun adventure type art and other images are totally cracked out Christmas stuff that's perfect for OP, too. I do find that I wished the images had been a little bigger, but that's only 'cause they're so much fun. ♥ (This is mostly a gen site, but there's some Zoro/Sanji if you want to see it that way.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - Well, since I caved and decided to start doing tegaki account recs, one of the first places I naturally had to turn was to the Sailor Moon art. I was actually just browsing around randomly and wound up on this artist's account and stumbled over a cute chibi image or two of her Haruka/Michiru images. And then there were a few more... and a few more... and they were really kinda pretty... and I don't see as much art of those two as I'd like... and, ooh, art of all the Outers doing adorable stuff together... and, oh, Christmas adorableness! and... well, you see how this went. It's tegaki, of course, so it's a lot like doodles but I effing love doodle art (well, mouse art) when it's so cute that I just want to explode from happiness. This artist did that for me. (Some Haruka/Michiru, some gen.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - This is the other Sailor Moon artist that jumped out at me immediately when I started doing tegaki recs because her stuff is fantastic for tegaki art, holy crap. Her colors are fantastic, they're always bright and vivid and shining, but it's also the strength of her lines, how much she really nails the anime's art style and keeps the spirit of it. I love that she does art for pretty much every main character and it's usually some of the best for any character, but you can tell Saturn is obviously her favorite. Even if my favorites are other characters, going through this artist's gallery is such a treat because it's all so... it's the kind of art that reminds me of why I'm in this fandom. Still tegaki art, of course, so it's never going to be smooth or polished, but I don't always need that. Sometimes this is exactly what I want. (No warnings/pairings.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - I was originally trying to stay strong with this artist's account, but... she had so much darling art that I kept caving bit by bit. I think what really did me in was the art of the Outers, especially when Haruka would hold little baby Hotaru and I was just all "asdl;fkjas;lkj" about how precious that was. I'm also a sucker for certain other things the artist gave me quick fixes for--pretty art of Princess Kakyuu, a Yaten/Minako image that was pretty, etc.--and is getting steadily better and better as she goes along. *sigh* Damn, now I'm really in the mood to look for a ton of Sailor Moon art, because I love finding little treasures like this. (Some Haruka/Michiru, a little other, but this is mostly a gen artist.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - This tegaki account doesn't have as much art as I usually go for when I'm looking for recs, but it has such beautiful art that I really couldn't resist. It started with the 2009 Christmas image that was cut up into three sections that fit together in a collage, two characters per image, and everything was so soft and lovely that I had to follow the artis back to the rest of her gallery. And pretty much everything the artist did, from an Amazong Trio image to a gorgeous Princess Kakyuu image to the series of the Inners to a beautiful Serenity & Small lady image--is a joy to look at and see the beautiful details and colors on it. It's not just good art for a tegaki artist, it's good art period. (No warnings/pairings.)
ღ - In Celebration of Mary Sue is an awesome idea. I absolutely think Mary Sues should be celebrated for what they are and where they come from--namely, the drive to have awesome women in fiction, to have more strong female voices in fiction. They are not the end goal, but they're an important step and I love the happiness they bring to their creators.
AND ONTO THE RECS:
ARASHI - 1 Fanfic
Durarara!! - 1 Fanfic
Glee - 3 Fanfics
Gundam 00 - 1 Fanfic
One Piece - 1 Fanfic
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! - 3 Doujinshi
Tales of the Abyss - 1 Doujinshi
VOCALOID - 1 Doujinshi
Bleach - 1 Fanart
Dragonball - 1 Fanart
One Piece - 4 Fanart
Sailor Moon - 4 Fanart
ARASHI: One more reason AnAn rules + All's well that ends well by Circe - You know what I love? Arashi being full of a bunch of bastards. Or at least Ohno and Nino are. Which they are in both these fics--the first one is an AnAn shoot with Ohmiya and they're little fuckers and get along like a house on fire. As they should. The second is a fic where Sho and Jun compete over Aiba and it's just... oh my god. It's brilliant characterization for every single member of Arashi and hilarious to watch the two of them compete while Ohno subtly eggs them on and Nino laughs at the whole thing and Aiba just sort of bounces in and out. Plus, the ending is pitch-perfect homg. (Ohmiya, Ohno/Sho/Nino, Aiba/Jun.)
Durarara!!: Touch Me by tweetthebirdy - Well. Durarara!! continues to eat me, I guess. And so I keep coming back to fic and getting fun little things like this--it's a fic about how Izaya prefers Shizuo to physically hit him rather than use vending machines or street signs or whatever else is nearby. And what makes it is the final line, I had to smile at that. (Sort of implied Shizuo/Izaya, but could be mostly gen, too.)
Glee: In the Music Room by of_hearts - And that’s when a voice deep in his soul spoke to him: DROP THAT FUCKIN’ QUESADILLA, PUCKERMAN. THIS IS HOW ALL THE BEST PORNOS START. Okay, Puck/Rachel makeout scenes in the music room and some really hilarious lines from the Puck POV? I'm there. This was one of those fun little pieces I read this morning that was just entertaining and had some great lines. ....apparently, I am still ridiculously in love with these two. (Puck/Rachel.)
Glee: In the Janitor's Closet by of_hearts - I think what put me in exactly the right frame of mind for this fic was going in knowing that it was an AU fic and that even the author couldn't decide if it was serious fic or crackfic, that it was probably somewhere in between, that she was writing the sitcom that was Puck and Rachel's romantic life. And that's exactly what this is and why it was so much freaking fun--Puck and Rachel have broken up, she's dating someone new, and Puck is driven nuts by this. Clearly, he has to sabotage it. And drag Finn in along with him. The Puck narration is hilarious (because he's a douchebag but the douchebag that gets all the best lines) and the Puck & Finn BFFery is awesome, both because it's genuinely hilarious (Puck finds Finn's stupidity pretty hilarious, too) and because it's just so nice to see them actually being friends. I only half read it for the Puck/Rachel, the other half was just that it was a fun read with fun dialogue and because of the BFFery. God, I think I could read fic like this forever. (Puck/Rachel.)
Glee: Buenos Nachos, Mr. Schue! by une_fille - In the same spirit that I read the previous fic, that line that's somewhere between canon-like and totally cracked out, I read this fic that's about Puck's mangling of the Spanish language and poor, poor Will's attempts to help him and just deal with Noah Puckerman in his class, even though it only happens a couple of times a year. I love it because it's just so unapologetically douchebag Puck revelry and so many hilarious lines and a great Puck POV and I don't think I stopped laughing the whole time I was reading this. And, sure, it's a Puck/Rachel fic, but it's really more about the interaction between Will and Puck and it's just. It's beautiful. (Some Puck/Rachel, but it's not really the point and it's in the background.)
Gundam 00: The Worth of His Ambition by birdsarecalling and zanzou_chan - [ prologue - chapter 01 ] - I never know what to expect when I click on authors' names that I don't recognize (I didn't recognize the joint account name anyway), especially in a fandom like Gundam 00 that isn't really known for it's reams of well-written fic. But then I read this one! And it's an awesome premise--Lockon leaves Celestial Being to go hunt down Ali Al Saachez, which goes about as well as you'd expect it. The premise intrigues me, but what really caught me is the fantastic writing and how spot-on it felt. It was so easy to see these circumstances, right from the beginning with Lockon on the beach to Tieria hearing that Lockon has left and the inevitable search on both their parts. It worked and was incredibly satisfying to have these two chapters as the beginning of a story with so much potential for awesome! Then the icing on the cake? OMG TIERIA in the final scene of the second chapter--I was totally crying with laughter. That was beautiful. The whole thing was just a delightful read this morning. ♥ (One assumes eventual Lockon/Tieria.)
One Piece: Quitting's Easy by Tammaiya - I love that this was only supposed to be a quick, short little fic about Sanji quitting smoking and some tossed in jokes about the English dub using a lollipop instead of his cigarette and then maybe some Zoro/Sanji UST, but somehow it turned into a ~10,000 word monster on her; that's hilarious and awesome. Especially since I really love this characterization of Sanji, he's polished in some ways and rough in some ways, that balance that you see in the original manga is captured so well here. His potty mouth, the constant stream of swearing that goes through his head without being too over the top about it, the way he interacts with everyone in the crew are all spot-on for him--not to mention that I really love all the scenes he has with those different people! He interacts with Chopper and Usopp and Nami and Luffy and Robin and everyone! I love when authors work in the rest of the Strawhats! Plus, mmm, her Zoro is really hot, too. I swear, this fic just flew by and I didn't want it to end, like, ever. Except I'm okay with that because a) the resolution is satisfying and b) now she can move on to writing MOAR! :D (Zoro/Sanji, crew antics, a hint of Luffy/Nami that you'll blink and miss it.)
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! Doujinshi (raw): distance - [Note: This post is locked, but the comm should be easily joinable.] This one is going to be a bit difficult to explain why I liked it so much because the art admittedly did take awhile to grow on me and I was a little "..." over the reactions from Hibari at times. A lot of it is that I'm (fairly) easy to please with Dino/Hibari doujinshi, but I think what kept me going with this one and what made me really appreciate it is that the artist has a lot of potential and actually is disciplined in her own way. She has her own style and take on the characters and she has a strong sense of what makes for a good layout on a page and doesn't skip on doing the detailed work. In fact, a lot of the panels were actually really pretty, especially the close-up panels where you could see the time that went into her artwork, there are a lot of pages where I could easily see her being a mangaka on the strength of her art. And there are moments when her Dino or her Hibari felt spot on (even if they were rarer than I'd have liked), like when Hibari follows Dino back to Italy, that was just... that's Hibari for you, exactly like that. Then the doujinshika tossed in some very pretty sex on the last three pages and well. You know me. :Db (Dino/Hibari, somewhere around an R or a very light NC-17.)
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! Doujinshi (scanslated): Memoria - Okay, this is just all kinds of adorable! It's a short 10-page thing (including the notes, so more like a five page thing) where Tsuna gets a cold and Shamal gives Gokudera some advice on how to help cure Tsuna's cold. It's cute because it goes exactly how you expect it to and has this feeling of... it reminded me a lot of The Daily Life arc that I had so much fun with and this captures a lot of that, right down to the peaceful feeling, even as things are so crazy. <3 (Gokudera/Tsuna.)
Katekyou Hitman REBORN! Doujinshi (raw): sad colors - I am definitely developing a fondness for this pairing that I can't quite explain, at least when it comes to this art style. It's something about the rough lines and sketchy detail and just the overall style of it that appeals to me when it comes to the Millefiore characters, especially Shouichi. And this is a simple story--Spanner thinks about Shouichi while he's sleeping, thinks about waking up, but instead puts a jacket over his shoulders--but it doesn't need to be more than that. It's a really interesting, fun little thing on its own! (Spanner/Shouichi.)
Tales of the Abyss: Journey's End 1 - [Note: This post is locked, but the comm is freely joinable.] Oh, man, how much do I love ELEPHAN's work? SO MUCH. Usually, she's more about Asch/Natalia (who are briefly in this, both characters and them being stupid about each other), but this time it's a Jade book and it's just as gorgeous as ever. Jade is one of those really interesting characters and this doujinshi feels like it captures the feel of the game and the character really well--not just in the beautiful visuals, but in the tone of the story and Jade's reactions to everything. The conversation he has with an angry Asch was pitch-perfect, he doesn't deny that he created fomicry but calmly points out that killing him will achieve nothing good. And then there's this sort of melancholy air to everything else and it's just... MAN, do I want the second half of this one! (No warnings/pairings.)
VOCALOID Doujinshi (raw): Jewella - [Note: This post is locked, but the comm is freely joinable.] Omg, more VOCALOID doujinshi! And this one is really super adorable! I love stories where a large chunk of it is just about the various characters hanging out and being total dorks together, which this doujinshi fed nicely into. The pairings are kind of there, but only REALLY noticeable in the second half and I like both Len/Rin and Gakupoid/Luka pretty well after seeing a crapload of fanart for them on Pixiv. It's a cute, fun bit of novelty and the art with the characters is really adorable and pretty in several panels and that's all I need from this. :Db (Some Lin/Ren, some Gakupoid/Luka.)
- Bleach - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - I've been hesitant to start recommending from non-traditional fanart sites proper, but... well, I couldn't resist. This artist does fantastic work for tegaki, which is all mouse art, which makes it a lot harder to find the good stuff. But the artist does a fantastic job with the Nnoitra/Neliel pairing, I had to! I originally came here for the Sailor Moon image the artist had done, then saw there were some fantastic Hitsugaya/Matsumoto pieces and, then, from there, it was hard to miss all the Nnoitra/Nel stuff. There's a lot of it here as well and the artist does a really fantastic job of capture Kubo's style with all her work, making it fun to go through all the gallery pages. Sigh, I do forsee spending a lot more time on tegaki again, though. Boo. Oh, but! It was totally worth it for the high school au images! Those were kind of awesome. (Nnoitra/Neliel, some Hitsugaya/Matsumoto.)
- Dragonball - [ English Fanart Site ] - Oh, goddammit. I was looking at One Piece art this morning and then somehow I stumbled over a link to a Vejiita/Bulma image and I was like, well, okay, I'll go check that out for a minute. And then back to the artist's gallery. And then there's more art of them! And it's the kind of art I totally go for with these characters--all the solid lines and glossy colors and fantastic details. Not everything matches my versions of the characters, it's more beefed up at times, especially on Vejiita, but the art is so nicely done that I fell for it anyway--which is just personal preference, by the way. The artist's Bulma is really kind of gorgeous, which is all I care about anyway. Plus, there's makeouts and skimpy clothes or lack thereof and fan-comics and the two of them being totally into each other and Vejiita being, well, Vejiita, while Bulma gives as good as she gets and it's just. Yes. This is why I love this ship. (Vejiita/Bulma, occasionally slightly NSFW.)
- One Piece - [ English Fanart Site ] - This is one of those artists who was just, like, made for me because the art hits me where I live so hard. Zoro/Nami plus Zoro/Sanji plus the occasional bit of Luffy/Nami, all done in a style that's reminiscent of the manga, but with brighter, shinier colors? Sometimes I love fandom a lot. I actually originally came here for the Zoro/Sanji art (and, boy, do I ever love this image of them--probably NSFW on that one, btw) but then noticed the artist also had some really really good art of Zoro/Nami as well, which is still totally that ship I just can't shake off, no matter how long I'm a fan of One Piece. Because it's a mix of sweeter moments with them and then stuff like Zoro just carting her off and it's all designed to make me weak. I love the artist's bright, warm colors as well, it's such a treat to go through each and every image ♥ (Zoro/Nami, Zoro/Sanji, a little other.)
- One Piece - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - Right from the current top illustration of Garp holding kidlet versions of Ace and Luffy, I was pretty sure I was going to love this site a whole hell of a lot. And it's full of art that's just so much fun, especially with Luffy flinging himself all over the place or various groups of the Strawhats watching the nighttime sky together or Ace/Luffy being adorable kidlets together or fantastic portraits of Luffy-- and so on. The art is clean with shiny colors, very cg feeling, but still managing to keep the spirit of One Piece and just having grand adventures and big smiles everywhere. I love the one of Luffy in Ace's outfit or pretty much any time he's giving Ace a tackle-glomping hug, it all reminds me of just how damn much I love Luffy and how much this artist clearly loves him, too. I wish there'd been a bit more art here, but what the artist does have is fantastic. The oekaki board is worth checking out as well for the art there--the Ace stuff is fantastic and there's an awesome one of Roger, too! ♥ (This is mostly a gen site, but maybe a little Ace/Luffy if you want to see it that way.)
- One Piece - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - I originally came here to look for Ace fanart, but kind of got distracted looking at everything that's here, especially the Red Haired pirates stuff! I have the feeling I may have recommended this site before, but... enh, well, I was really in the mood for One Piece art, especially of the Ace variety, and this site does provide some nice stuff with him. It's also really cool how well the artist captures Oda's style, especially as the gallery goes on and on, the artist gets really good! My only complaint is that I wish the images had been a bit bigger so I could see the detail more. XD But it's a lot of Shanks and Luffy as a kid or Shanks with the other pirates or Ace portraits or the occasoinal Zoro illustration or the series of images of the Water 7 characters or the hilarious image of Garp snoring away while dreaming of Ace and Luffy as Marines! Or the very nice image of Ace & Luffy lounging on a couch while Shanks lounges in a chair next to them. And, boy, is there EVER A LOT OF ART HERE, which adds up really fast and makes for a great site to visit. (No real warnings/pairings.)
- One Piece - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - This is one of those sites that's kinda clearly built for meeeeee! Despite that I was actually looking for Ace art this morning, I stumbled over this Zoro-centric site and, well, who am I to resist? There's a ton of art here and the artist does a good job of capturing the style of the manga, yet putting Zoro in a ton of different situations... actually, no, that's pretty Oda-like, considering all the splash covers he's done. But there's art of Zoro by himself, Zoro with his swords, the occasional image of him with Nami or Luffy or OMG ZORO AND CHOPPER CHRISTMAS CUTENESS OH I JUST ABOUT MELTED and then there's a fair amount of Zoro/Sanji art as well. There's a good amount of group art as well and some of it is just really fun adventure type art and other images are totally cracked out Christmas stuff that's perfect for OP, too. I do find that I wished the images had been a little bigger, but that's only 'cause they're so much fun. ♥ (This is mostly a gen site, but there's some Zoro/Sanji if you want to see it that way.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - Well, since I caved and decided to start doing tegaki account recs, one of the first places I naturally had to turn was to the Sailor Moon art. I was actually just browsing around randomly and wound up on this artist's account and stumbled over a cute chibi image or two of her Haruka/Michiru images. And then there were a few more... and a few more... and they were really kinda pretty... and I don't see as much art of those two as I'd like... and, ooh, art of all the Outers doing adorable stuff together... and, oh, Christmas adorableness! and... well, you see how this went. It's tegaki, of course, so it's a lot like doodles but I effing love doodle art (well, mouse art) when it's so cute that I just want to explode from happiness. This artist did that for me. (Some Haruka/Michiru, some gen.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - This is the other Sailor Moon artist that jumped out at me immediately when I started doing tegaki recs because her stuff is fantastic for tegaki art, holy crap. Her colors are fantastic, they're always bright and vivid and shining, but it's also the strength of her lines, how much she really nails the anime's art style and keeps the spirit of it. I love that she does art for pretty much every main character and it's usually some of the best for any character, but you can tell Saturn is obviously her favorite. Even if my favorites are other characters, going through this artist's gallery is such a treat because it's all so... it's the kind of art that reminds me of why I'm in this fandom. Still tegaki art, of course, so it's never going to be smooth or polished, but I don't always need that. Sometimes this is exactly what I want. (No warnings/pairings.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - I was originally trying to stay strong with this artist's account, but... she had so much darling art that I kept caving bit by bit. I think what really did me in was the art of the Outers, especially when Haruka would hold little baby Hotaru and I was just all "asdl;fkjas;lkj" about how precious that was. I'm also a sucker for certain other things the artist gave me quick fixes for--pretty art of Princess Kakyuu, a Yaten/Minako image that was pretty, etc.--and is getting steadily better and better as she goes along. *sigh* Damn, now I'm really in the mood to look for a ton of Sailor Moon art, because I love finding little treasures like this. (Some Haruka/Michiru, a little other, but this is mostly a gen artist.)
- Sailor Moon - [ Japanese Fanart Site ] - This tegaki account doesn't have as much art as I usually go for when I'm looking for recs, but it has such beautiful art that I really couldn't resist. It started with the 2009 Christmas image that was cut up into three sections that fit together in a collage, two characters per image, and everything was so soft and lovely that I had to follow the artis back to the rest of her gallery. And pretty much everything the artist did, from an Amazong Trio image to a gorgeous Princess Kakyuu image to the series of the Inners to a beautiful Serenity & Small lady image--is a joy to look at and see the beautiful details and colors on it. It's not just good art for a tegaki artist, it's good art period. (No warnings/pairings.)