Challenge #1: The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you’re doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.#

Hi I’m Navi! I was inspired to do this challenge by Spill whom I follow on mastodon.

I really love anime, manga, light novels, and games, and spend the majority of my free time immersed in those worlds. It’s hard to quantify exactly why I’m into certain fandoms, but I generally love series with big casts, interesting character dynamics, and of course, shippable couples! I’m also mainly into BL, but I do have some het and GL ships that I love. If a series makes it onto my fandoms list, it’s either because 1) that series emotionally moving/personally affecting for me in particular or 2) there’s a ship that I’m a diehard fan of. And if it’s both, I worship the author for their godly abilities.

Should I list some of my all-time favorite ships? I feel like it’s not a proper introduction without it lol. Here’s a roundup in no particular order! Generally these are right-fixed for me unless otherwise stated.

1. Edgeworth/Phoenix - Ace Attorney (Unnecessary feelings, am I right?)
2. Ronaldo/Draluc, Kantarou/Nagiri - Kyuushi/94/VampDies (they’re so cute, I love how RonaDora argue all the time hahaha)
3. Isami/Lewis - Bang Brave Bang Bravern (the rest of the fandom is mostly LewSami and I suffer for it)
4. Luffy/Zoro/Luffy, Sanji/Usopp, Cavendish/Bartolomeo - One Piece (I’m sure I have way more, these are just the ones I can think of. OP is a treasure trove, truly).
5. Randel/Alice, Oreldo/Marches - Pumpkin Scissors (This series has so much going for it, I NEED people to know how much I have brainworms for this series. It’s a crime that the anime never got a further adaptation. The manga is SO GOOD)
6. Klaus/Leo/Klaus - Kekkai Sensen (I love KKSS for many personal reasons, but kuraleo is so adorable)
7. Everyone/Ippo - Hajime no Ippo (my fav is usually Miyata, Sendo, or Volg here lmao, this series is a true shipper’s paradise)
8. Fushiguro/Itadori, Maki/Nobara, Anyone/Nanami (Usually Gojo or Higuruma) - Jujutsu Kaisen
9. Anyone/Yang, Reuenthal/Mittermeyer, Bittenfeld/Oberstein - Legend of Galactic Heroes (this is usually Reinhard or Schenkopf in the left position with Yang, but I did read an excellent longfic with Reuenthal).
10. Leonard/Klein - Lord of Mysteries (this is new for me, but I love LOM so far!)
11. Sanzo/Goku, Hakkai/Gojyo - Saiyuki (the OG shippable series, any ships between these four is a banger honestly)
12. Spock/McCoy - Star Trek (yes, not everything is animanga or games related. I love OG Star Trek)

That’s enough about me for now, I think.

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom - Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!#

I don’t have any pets myself, but I just want to say if you’re looking for something really cute to watch, I highly recommend Miira no Kaikata (How to Keep a Mummy) which is about a teenager who ends up adopting a small mummy as his pet. It’s the cutest freaking thing in the world, and my heart just melted watching it!

Challenge #3: Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.#

This isn’t a love letter so much as a thank you note to one particular series. There was a period of my life when I was so utterly depressed and lost faith and confidence in my ability to do anything at all. I had failed at something important in a spectacular manner, something that would have life-changing consequences. I was filled with self-loathing. I didn’t have the strength to pick myself up and move forward.

During that time, I discovered Kekkai Sensen. If you don’t know, the main character, Leonardo Watch, makes a terrible mistake at the start of the series that ends with his little sister losing her sight, in exchange for him receiving the “All-Seeing Eyes of God”. As you can imagine, this affects him heavily. He feels like such a failure, being unable to protect his sister and do the right thing when it mattered most.

But through the course of the series, despite being unable to fix the situation, he atones for his mistake by trying to save others, and making the best of the situation. And there is one person, Klaus von Reinherz, who constantly believes in him, in his ability to do good for others and himself.

The series itself is about how the characters are fighting an impossible fight, but are striving to protect humanity with everything they have. Other than Klaus, they are not exactly paragons of society. These are flawed people who are living their lives, doing their jobs, and helping others when they can.

During that time when I was particularly weak, Klaus and Leo showed me how to survive. And the series is damn funny too, which cheered me up immensely.

Thank you Kekkai Sensen, for giving me the strength to keep moving forward.

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page. Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!#

There are so many awesome fanfic authors in Kyuushi/VampDies fandom that I wanna shout out, especially Wyvernquill, Perunaprinssi, Chaozrael, and Duthea.

Challenge #5: Create a list of at least three things you’d love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.#

1. A physical release of Pumpkin Scissors. Only Kodansha can give me this (officially).
2. More fans of the Z/Z ship in Mother of Learning! I’m currently reading the webnovel, and the fandom is quite small (at least, the AO3 tag is). I’m thinking of writing something myself.
3. Reccs for works like God’s Peace/Master-peace. It’s SO in my strike zone, would love to find more stuff like it.

Challenge 6: Top 10#

I’m going to post about my favorite anime that I watched last year.

1. Lord of Mysteries - This was what got me interested in chinese anime (donghua) as a whole. The animation and composite work was so pretty, and I was so invested in the plot. I’m reading the novels now as well!
2. Link Click - Another banger donghua series. I am caught up with the series all the way till the Bridon arc, and I can’t wait for the 3rd season.
3. The Fable - I don’t see a lot of people talk about this series, and it’s awesome! It’s kind of a slice-of-life of a hitman trying to lay low and pretend to be a normal person. It feels more like a live-action show than an anime. This is a dark show (beware the triggers) with some humorous moments, and a totally underrated one.
4. Ishura 2nd Season - Battle Royale of the top fighters in an isekai world, but this series feels so fresh in comparison to other isekai series. Closer in feel to Zodiac Taisen.
5. Dekin no Mogura - The original manga is by same creator as Hoozuki. Honestly I kind of like this series better. It’s funnier and more engaging to watch.
6. Apothecary Diaries 2nd Season - Needs no introduction. Awesome as usual.
7. Clevatess - This is a dark fantasy with plenty of gore and violence. The plot is interesting, but the most notable part is that it feels like an old anime from the 90s/2000s.
8. Busu ni Hanataba wo. - Very sweet romance series where I actually like all the side couples as well. I love the manga, and the adaptation is reasonably good, though they did have to cut some things out.
9. Detectives These Days Are Crazy! - Haven’t laughed this hard since Gintama.
10. Apocalypse Hotel - A fun watch, and an anime original series at that! This has an “anthology” feel, even if it’s the same main character.

Challenge 7: Skipped#

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

Don’t feel like doing this one. It’s not that I can’t think about 3 things that I like about myself, but rather that I don’t want to write about it. Also it feels like anything nice I say right now is self-aggrandizement.

Challenge #8: Talk about your creative process.#

So I’m going to write about my process for writing fanfics, whenever I find a series that gives me a lot of inspiration!

If I’m reading a ebook, I’ll highlight passages that I think will be useful for reference (like a character moment or some dialogue that’s really cute/funny/etc.) or spark an idea. Then I accumulate all my “prompt ideas” into a list either using the notebook function of my kobo or just in a google keep note.

Then I write drafts for the shorter fic ideas, or outlines for the longer ones. I don’t normally plan out the whole story though, I like to write and see where the characters or my ideas take me. I imagine the longer the fic, the more planning I would need to do.

If it’s a physical book, or a show like an anime or tv show, I tend to just take some notes of my ideas. It’s almost like I’m creating prompts for myself to fill later.

I haven’t drawn any fanart in a while, but I’m sure one day I’ll get the itch/inspiration to.

Challenge #9: Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works.#

(Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if “trope” doesn’t resonate with you.)

So I recently finished The Greatest Estate Developer manhwa and the Mother of Learning book series, and I’ll talk about a trope that my fav ships from these series are representative of.

The trope that I eat up and will never get tired of is when characters clearly care deeply about the safety, security, and happiness of their partners (romantic or platonic) to the point where they end up making a great sacrifice. It’s like that one scene from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, where Nozaki and Mikoshiba realize that the dating sim protag’s best friend would love the main character the most lol.

Challenge #10: Skipped#

Big Mood (Board) CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND CREATE A MINI MOOD COLLECTION OF THREE (or more) ITEMS THAT EVOKE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT IT. You don’t have to limit yourself to visual media, or collect the items into a special format like a square (though you can if you’d like).

Challenge #11: Skipped#

In your own space, grant someone’s wish from Challenge #5.

Challenge #12: Skipped#

Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song… whatever moves you!

Challenge #13: TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE.#

It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community

I want to talk about Mastodon here. Although it wasn’t a perfect replacement for Twitter, the ways in which it’s different are perfect for me. I appreciate the smaller community feel and the lack of an algorithm. I find myself searching for topics and tags to see what other people are saying when I’m interested, and I appreciate that it doesn’t push big accounts into your feed. It can be as public or private as you want it to be.

Although I don’t have a lot of followers or anything, everyone that I’ve encountered has been really nice. And it’s quite simple to block anyone who isn’t.

I totally believe in the indieweb and the need for people to create their own websites/spaces, where they can celebrate and create their own fannish spaces. But I still think spaces like mastodon are still an important part of forging connections and finding new people.

Challenge #14: Skipped#

In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom.

You can look at Challenge 4 for a rec list for Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu fandom, and Challenge 6 for anime I recommend from 2025.

Challenge #15: How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go?#

I cheated and skipped quite a few towards the end, since I kind of fell off and got busy. But I still had fun filling some of the challenges. I appreciated the opportunity to blog about fandom topics.