Fries Test Bingo Post

[22degreehalo]

Here's my entry for the I Want Fries With That! fes! Unfortunately I was only able to make one piece, but it's hella long (and took two months to make!) so I gotta hope that counts!

Essentially, this is a meta explaining with thorough detail and references why I interpret a particular character (Kanzaki Souma from Ensemble Stars!) as autistic. It should be readable to those who aren't familiar with the canon already!

Creator Name: 22degreehalo/FallacyFallacy
Fandoms: Ensemble Stars!
List of Prompts: Autism or Asperger's Syndrome
Link to Card: Created one here!


Title: Of Considerate Guys and Weirdos
Fandom: Ensemble Stars!
Prompt: Autism or Asperger's Syndrome
Medium: meta/essay
Size: 15,837
Rating: PG
Warnings: Discussion of suicidal ideation. I've included an in-page link so you can skip this section if you prefer. Some ableist language and unkind treatment of a disabled character.
Summary/Preview: A meta to explore the many interesting facets of Kanzaki Souma’s personality across the Ensemble Stars! canon, and also to explain with references why I interpret him as autistic.

Work found here at AO3

Comments

congratulations!

[dialecticdreamer]

I've never heard of this fandom. What is it? (Book, tv, video game, et al?)

Re: congratulations!

[22degreehalo]

It's a video game! Specifically, a mobile game - one that is actually super popular in Japan, though it's never gotten an official English translation. It's spawned an anime (not very recommended, sadly), a manga, a light novel, a whole heap of stage musicals and concerts - it's a big franchise!

And for a brief summary, it's an ensemble piece all about teenage guys who want to become successful idols. But it has a weirdly dramatic plot with really in-depth relationships and enough ships to have you set for a lifetime, haha. The fandom is mainly on twitter and it has 6k works on Ao3 so it's of a decent size!

I wrote a post here explaining more if you're interested! (As you might expect from this meta, it's pretty long though haha.) It's out of date now, though - as of March this year, the old app was massively updated and now there are two versions, a tapping one like the old app and a proper rhythm game. There are also two new units! (Technically three buuut there are two sets of new characters anyway, lol.)

Otherwise, your best bet is definitely to check out the wiki. Since there's no official translation everything is done by fans, and everything is archived there, so any of the stories I cite in the meta can be found there. _{(...well there are one or two things I've referenced that don't have uploaded translations because I read enough to understand it but am not good enough at Japanese to translate it properly myself but there are only one or two like that, lol.)}

Re: congratulations!

[dialecticdreamer]

That is a fantastic example of modern fandom. I'm not so old that I read mimeographed K/S fics passed by hand in coffee shops and libraries, but I also would have never thought of writing fanfiction based on a game.

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is brilliant. I enjoyed looking at it even though I don't belong to that fandom. I heartily encourage you to do more fills of this type. This month's theme may appeal to you as it features different senses beyond the usual 5.

Re: Wow!

[22degreehalo]

Thank you!! It was definitely fun to go a bit all-out on the formatting and make it look very pretty :)

Unfortunately I don't think I have it in me to do another like this - or if I did, it'd probably be 1/8 of the size, lol. Souma is definitely a hyperfixation for me and has been for a year and a half now, which is why I was able to be so incredibly detailed here. I wouldn't mind doing a short overview for one or two other characters, though, so I'll keep that in mind! :)

And mm, the new theme looks really interesting! I'll see if I can match anything up to my (very long) plotbunny list :'D