#also if you're reading this dana hi. what you said about the heteronormativity of shonen did stick with me.

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

I'm still working on my current WIP, which isn't really Shonen with Women. This is to practice finishing projects from beginning to end, from conceptualisation to posting. And I'm making good progress on that, writing 400 words a day.

And I do have a list of works I want to finish before engaging with a lot of Shonen umbrella works (presently it's all the books I bought but haven't read yet -> Bayonetta 1 and 2 -> finish Sailor Moon). This is to clear my watch/read/play list because I get to anything new. (And if I'm not done with my WIP yet, it may be more toyetic media so as to continuously motivate me to write; I tend to do best researching as I write).

I think I do want to share some ideas I have right now though. Also some thing which I want to do first.

My next WIP is probably a bit closer to SWW, even if it wasn't really conceptualised as such. It's post-apocalyptic fiction, it explores gender relations, I play around with tropes and cliches, I'm hoping to make it relevant to SEAsia as a story. And the current protagonist I'm conceptualising is probably going to be something special. When I write original fiction I tend to just make up ocs as I go along, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what she is even before putting down a word. She's blorbo from my brain to me.

I know I want to do yuri. One appeal from Shonen already is the homoeroticism. I think we should have Shonen yuri, as a result. Like just. Shonen lesbians. And avoid the heteronormativity prevalent in the genre too (it's both a heteronormative and homoerotic genre, funnily enough). Make them canon lesbians.

Though it would also probably be interesting to explore F/M in such a setting. I had discussed this with a friend before, but basically she pointed out that a part of the reason for Shonen's heteronormativity is because of the misogyny, because men typically aren't expected to really be invested in women's inner lives. So playing around with gender there could also be interesting. (My F/M couples will also likely be queer in some way, bi4bi, T4T, A4A, or any combination of them.)

I also do want to see if I can write a work that's also rooted in an aspec sensibility. This is mostly to do my part in creating an aspec culture in some way, beyond the flags and the emojis and the basic 101 stuff. I know it's possible within this genre. I mean, just look at the popularity of One Piece! I can do that but with more girls, I'm sure.

As for characters and themes, I think it'll be interesting to have a work about exploring the politics of disgust. Especially as it pertains to women/intersectional feminism. I'm even envisioning a protagonist already. I want her to have some sort of 'gross' power. And I know I want her to be curious about it. Like, if she can control people's large intestines, I want her to want to know what that means. If she learns she controls large intestines via talking to the bacteria in them, I want her to do things like buy some Yakult or fish meat out of a dumpster and try and see if she can communicate with that too. I want a curious protagonist, because I think they're fun to write.

I think I should be open towards the various subgenres found under the Shonen umbrella. Competition to be the very best, battle series, superhero, mecha, what have you.

I do kind of have a concept for a story that plays on 'elemental masters'. And especially when elements go beyond the Wuxing elements/the four classical elements (think stuff like the element of ice, sand, tech, what have you). Mostly, this is because a surprisingly large amount of Western Shonen is like this. I want to see if I can play around with it and do my own version. (Also more focus on female leads lololol.)

I want to read some classics like the Iliad and other epics, because they are very much proto-Shonen in a lot of ways.

I also think it would be really funny if I watched Ninjago and read Naruto simultaneously. BUT every time I finish a season of Ninjago I watch a woman-centred Asian film and every time I finish an arc of Naruto I read a Japanese novel written by a woman. And at the end I read the Wikipedia page on ninjas. I don't know what this will do to my brain exactly, but it will probably do something to my brain.

In all seriousness though, I think I would like to do silly exercises like that to ensure I keep getting ideas. Just need to think of more thematically appropriate silly exercises to do after that.

But yeah. Assuming I finish my watchlist, I guess the media I'll prioritise engaging with first is peripheral SWW, Shonen with female leads, and Shonen written by women. We'll see where all of that takes me afterwards. My watchlists tend to be fickle, but yeah. I guess I have a rough plan. Just gotta fuck around and find out where I go after that.