Sakura of DOOM

umadoshi asked about "an experience revisiting an old fandom/beloved story, good or bad":

I think my very favorite experience revisiting an old fandom was, surprisingly, Gundam Wing. It was the first anime I ever watched and the first anime/manga fandom I ever got into (haha, do people still use "lime" and "lemon" for rating?), and omg, I made a fansite for it with one of my high school friends and obsessed over it and wrote down events to plot out a timeline and then constructed an alternate earth history that would eventually get to the After Colony timeline (I had great detail re: the Opium War and the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and then I left out everything from the 1900s until... SPACE ELEVATORS!). So... fond memories. But after reading more manga and watching more anime, I think I was always a little afraid to revisit, especially since I'm much more of a shoujo person at heart.

But then, rachelmanija was holding an angst off contest, and I ended up submitting several GWing characters out of nostalgia and describing their (sad, dead-puppy-holding) angst, which got Rachel and rilina to start watching and obsessing! I cackled the entire way through, particularly at all the incomprehensible political backstabbing and the factions popping up like rabbits, and it was also awesome because I still had a ton of Gundam Wing merchandise and got to share it! I also racked up the hugest phone bill ever watching some episodes over the phone with Rachel, BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Given how often My First Fandom ends up being disappointing in retrospect (still never finishing X-Files....), or how the Suck Fairy comes to visit, it was AWESOME to not only find that the stuff I had found appealing way back when was STILL appealing, but that it was still appealing enough to suck in friends, most of whom I would never have pegged as mech people!

(Also, I'm not sure how many slots I have left, but I really like having to post every day on a topic and not just daily happiness, so if anyone else has a question or topic they want me to write about, please let me know!)

• rachelmanija has finished her excellent series of posts on PTSD: Parts I, II, and III


• She's also started reading Angel Sanctuary! My joy cannot be contained! Also, spoil her and have your brain taken over by Rosiel.


• rilina and yhlee continue to watch Gundam Wing. My joy is still not contained! OMG people watching and getting into my beloved first anime series despite its mecha-ness!


• I'm sure everyone has already seen the post-apocalyptic cities posters for I Am Legend but I wanted to highlight the fact that they have TAIPEI and SEOUL! EEEEEEE! (I love Hong Kong, but I feel HK is featured much more often than Taipei and Seoul! OMG! Taipei! National monument that is only a few blocks away from my apartment!


• I have taken the plunge, put my Netflix account on hold, and started Blockbuster. I blame my sister. On the minus side, Blockbuster only has DVDs 7-10 of GWing. On the plus side.... THEY HAVE DAMO ON DVD!!!!!


• shewhohashope hosts the 5th POC in SF Carnival and focuses on non-Western fantasy, including... WUXIA! (yes, I am a little obsessed right now) I particularly rec meganbmoore's wuxia primer for those of you like me who only know you like swords and flying people and historical costumes and have no idea what to watch outside of two or three things. And it's good for people who have absolutely no idea what wuxia is too! Win-win!

I should actually catch up on book and TV posting but... oh well. Soon.

rachelmanija's hilarious write up explains our new and improved theory of crazy points in the GWing universe. Also, rilina has begun watching!

And last but definitely not least, yhlee offers proof that Heero was programmed by Photoshop. If some of the Gundams are run on Vista and Heero is programmed by Photoshop, no wonder he tries to self-destruct every other episode.

( Spoilers have no random produce today! )

I have successfully addicted rachelmanija to Gundam Wing!

GWing was my very first anime ever, and clearly it hooked me for life. I have hesitated to pimp it before because most of my memories of liking it are tied up with the insane emo angstasticness and the multiple attempts at self-destruction. But I find it's holding up well for rewatching!

It probably helps that the plot is so insane and convoluted that it feels like I'm watching for the first time. I keep yelling, "OMG! I forgot about that!"

Rachel's incredibly amusing entries are here. Spoil her, and I will sic an insane and self-destructive Heero on you.

Brief summary: There are five insane pilots of Gundams, superpowered mecha. The Gundams are the bestest and fastest and coolest because this is based off a shounen series. They go around and blow things up.

There's also the Alliance, which rules Earth and the colonies. The colonies want independence. I think. That is what the narrator says in episode 1 at least. In this series, it's a little hard to tell.

There are many coups and rebellions and factions and attempts at coups and explosions and switching of sides. Most of the time, I have no idea what is going on politically, and I have not only seen this series 3 times or so, I have also spent four years of my life attempting to figure out all the factions and politics (possibly this says something about me, but let's not go there!).

I love it to pieces and it gives me great cracktastic joy to rewatch!

( Spoilers attempt to self destruct! )

Please put any spoilers beyond ep. 20 in <span style="color:#333,background:#333">spoiler text</span>, as I've seen the entire thing, but Rachel hasn't.