Sunshine Blogger Challenge Part I

I’m super late with this and despite it being the middle of Winter, it’s a temperate 65ºF here on the East coast, which I suppose is the perfect time to unload these neglected Sunshine Blogger Award Challenges. Better late than never, right?

This is the one of two Sunshine Blogger posts I’ve gotten, but rather than banging them out in one go I’ll spread them out a bit and post the second one next week. I wanna thank Carla over at Pop Culture Literary for tagging me in this challenge (and sorry for dragging my feet in getting this done). If you guys haven’t heard of Carla or her amazing site, I highly recommend giving it a look, ASAP! Carla covers a wide range of topics within the pop culture sphere from animated shows to films to books to comics, and even Japanese media, if you can think of it she’s probably got a post on it. And they’re not just your run of the mill reviews, Carla writes some great analysis pieces that give a in depth look at a series and it’s influence on the fandom and pop culture as a whole. Seriously, you have to check her stuff out, you won’t be disappointed!

As part of the Sunshine Blogger Award Challenge, Carla came up with 11 questions for me to answer, which I have done below the cut.

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1. If you were to suddenly have a portal that allowed you to choose one (media) world to have a picnic in risk-free with the guarantee that you’d return home, what world would you go to?

Oooh, this is a no brainer. If I had to choose one world to have a picnic in it would have to be one of the Pokemon regions. I’ve always loved Pokemon and it has been a dream of mine to become a Pokemon trainer and traverse the various regions in search of new Pokemon. Now choosing a region is tough, but I’ve always been fond of the Johto region it was where I started my Pokemon journey with Crystal Version and it’s the region that holds the most nostalgia for me to this day. As for the return trip… I dunno, if I ever found a portal to the Pokemon world I might never wanna come back.

2. You’ve been kidnapped by a dangerous super-villain for _______ reason. What fictional character or team would you trust to come save you? Who would make you feel absolutely doomed?

This one is kind of hard… Let’s see… I’m torn between Deku from My Hero Academia, the Sailor Senshi, and Static Shock… since they’re all pretty capable heroes with their own style. This is probably a cop out, but any of them will do…. though I’m leaning towards the Sailor Senshi.

Now, if Mineta came to save me, I think I might just stay with the villains… seems like the safer bet… Besides I’m not a fan of anything grape flavored anyway…

3. You’ve been mistaken for the manager of a well-known cafe (can it serve alcohol? Sure!) and tasked with coming up with the menu for today. It’s up to you to keep up the farce! Pair three fictional characters with drinks that you think they’d love.

This one was kind of tough, since I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to drinks, but I think I’d go with the following:

I’d give Tsukishima Kei  from Haikyu!! a Strawberry Frapp, since his character is known for being partial to strawberry shortcake and a frapp is kind of like a dessert drink.

Sasazuka Takeru from the otome game Collar x Malice orders a Cassis Orange during his route so that’s probably a safe bet, plus he also has a bit of a sweet tooth.

Lastly, a nice Earl Grey tea for my girl Cardia from Code Realize. 

4. Choose one fictional world. If you were in that world, what kind of job or power would you have, based on what you’re like as a person in our world? Ok, now do that again, but what kind of job or power would you love to have regardless of how you are in our world?

Okay, so I’m gonna go with the Pokemon world again and as for the job I’d have realistically… probably an aid in one of the Pokemon Labs. That would be the story of my life to be a perpetual intern to one of the Pokemon Professors… I hope it’s Professor Sycamore (he is yummy). And if my program didn’t set me up with that sweet sweet Poke internship, I’d probably wind up with a part time job at the local PokeMart, cus bills will need to be paid and I do have retail experience…

Now for the job I want, the one that every 11 year old at heart wants: to be a Pokemon Trainer. I mean who doesn’t want that sweet sweet transient lifestyle of traveling the world with you Pokemon companion… living off the land, beholden to no one and nothing, living for that next battle. Ah, yeah that would be the life!

5. You get to spend the day with your favorite fictional female. Who is she and what do you two do? (You can be in her world or ours!)

Definitely Sofie Hatter, I feel like she would spill all the tea on her and Howl’s many adventures and if I stick around long enough I might just get to see some magic. I’d probably visit her at her place, since mine kind of looks like I’m still in the process of moving and I would love to maybe borrow her seven league boots and just explore the world.

6. Has a work of fiction that you loved ever left you feeling let down by how they handled a character or social issue?

Oh yeah, happens quite a lot especially when otome games are constantly neutering their female protagonists, I’m talking about you Enju from Nightshade! How you gonna be the daughter of the Clan head and just be nothing but dead weight?! The writers could have just made her a random village girl or something for all the good she actually does in a fight!

But, that rant aside, my real answer for this is Ten Count. I was really impressed with Kurose’s accurate use of exposure and response prevention therapy for Shirotani compulsive disorders. It was just so refreshing to see an author dealing with a mental health condition in such a realistic way, while also taking the time to help the reader to better understand the seriousness of mental health disorders and the affect they can have on a person’s life… and then volume 1 ends and the rest of the series uses Shirotani’s condition as a springboard for Kurose’s BDSM fantasy. WHAT THE FUCK?! You find out he hand picked Shirotani because his condition would make him the perfect submissive and it completely undermines all that wonderful supportive therapy you see in the first volume! Because, Kurose has been GROOMING Shirotani! I love my trashy BL, and I love Rihito Takarai, but that reveal seriously tainted the series for me… The fetishize Shirotani’s compulsive disorder and that… just ain’t right!

7. A while back, I read a book called The Dark Lord of Derkholm, by Diana Wynne Jones. In the book, two parallel worlds have been linked, ours and a fantasy world, and a corporate entity has turned the other world into an adventure park of sorts. People from our world can play as “adventurers” and go on a guided adventure through a made up scenario and after finishing this video-game-like adventure, they return home. If you had the opportunity to do this in any (media) world of your choosing, what would it be and why?

I feel like the Pokemon World is my go to answer for fantasy worlds I’d like to explore because it has always been a not so secret dream of mine to train my own Pokemon and travel the world battling other trainers and gyms.

8. You get to adopt a pet from any fictional world you want. Why did you pick it?

Cyndaquil. It is my favorite starter and the one I have always wanted to have in real life, besides he could keep me warm when it’s cold out. Cute and practical.

9. When you take in (media) works, what’s something that stands out to you as being problematic or something that gets overlooked/left out?

Ah, I guess I tend to notice when a series isn’t really all that representative of people of color. Usually characters of color are either treated really bad stereotypical caricatures or nothing characters that get killed off in the first act. Representation for the sake of representation isn’t the same as positive representation. And as a Black woman, it really sucks to see characters that look like me getting such a raw deal. More recently its gotten better, with more melaninated characters showing up in more of the works I love, but for every positive example of representation there’s at least five more that make me wanna pull out my hair.

10. Have you ever randomly picked up a (media) work even though you thought you’d hate it, and been surprised by it?

Yes. I watched Maburaho on a whim years ago and I absolutely loved it, despite not really being a fan of harem anime. It was a lot of fun to watch and while the characters weren’t all that original, it was a nice chill anime series that I could just turn my brain off and watch.

More recently, it was Blood Blockade Battlefront, I watched episode 3 at an anime con a few years back and it was just so ridiculous I just had to watch it for myself…. and it was the perfect hot mess of an anime! I love the senseless battles and out there characters so much! It was just absolute perfection!! It’s one of those series that on paper I should hate, but in reality I LOVE!! It’s just so stupid and fun! And that ending theme in season 1 is one of my favorites!!

11. If you had to choose only one fictional work that you could enjoy for a whole year, what work would you choose?

Oh that’s easy, Harry Potter. I have all the books and I listen to the audiobooks all the time and I never really get bored, so let’s go with that!

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Thank you so much Carla for tagging me to do the Sunshine Blogger Challenge, I love these sorts of things (even if I’m usually late with them) and I had a lot of fun answering your questions. There were quite a few that I had to think about before I could come up with an answer.

Now comes the part where I come up with my own questions and subject unsuspecting bloggers to participate in the challenge. I know most people have already done this 100 times over, so if you’ve already done it no worries. If you haven’t any you’d like to, take this as your official invitation to participate!

Questions

1. What is one series that you stan no matter how problematic or cliche it is? What makes this series so special to you?
2. What is one fictional world that you’d absolutely NOT want to visit or have yourself transported to? Why?
3. What is one series (can be from any media) that you think is severely underrated and needs more love? Tell me about it.
4. Let’s say you’re the the protagonist in your own dating simulator game, who would make up your harem (choose five) and who would you choose as your canon route? (the canon route is the true route/golden route kind of like a destined ending that wraps everything up in a nice neat bow)
5. What is your favorite character archetype and why? Least favorite?
6. What’s a special skill that you have that you’re especially proud of?
7. Who was your first anime crush?
8. If you were able to have one superpower what would it be? Would you be a villain or a hero?
9. What is your OTP (one true pairing)? You can pick from any genre and it can be canon or non-canon, sky’s the limit here!
10. Describe Naruto to someone that has never seen or heard of it… but, you have to do it badly.
11. In honor of  Pokemon Mystery Dungeon coming to the Nintendo Switch. If you suddenly woke up in the body of a Pokemon, which one would it be?

Tagging These Wonderful Bloggers

9 Tailed Kitsune

KimchiSama

Otome Heaven

Crimson

Blerdy Otaku

 

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