We indulge ourselves in reminiscences about the voyage of discovery and exploration that was being an anime fan around the turn of the millennium. We remember the slow internet speeds, purple Kodocha Fansubs tapes, and inability to find any given volume of manga! Also, we had to walk to the anime con uphill, through the snow.

We return to an old favorite, armed with marginally more Xena: Warrior Princess knowledge than we had the first time around. Xena kills a very large man, Gabrielle tells fairy tales, and the two of them have sex together at LEAST three times.   bit.ly/rfrdragon

After more five years and 170 episodes of podcasting, Amado has finally written a full 1600 words of actual, genuine Magic School Bus fanfiction. And Tory and Della are ready to listen to it and try to serve as betas. Beta readers, I mean. You can't be too careful with the Omegaverse out there.   Link to the (slightly revised) story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57044551  

We return to Newgrounds (not to be confused with Newsgrounds, which is presumably a news site) to discuss the early fan animations of LegendaryFrog. Do they still hold up in 2024? And does it really matter, because dozens of lines from them are lodged in our middle school lizard brains either way? I'm looking at YOU, Aeris!   Link to the videos: https://legendaryfrog.newgrounds.com/

Seatbelts, everyone! Tory and Amado go on a magical journey to compare and contrast two Magic School Bus fanfics that have very different ideas about where the magic lies. Arnold may be the heart of the show. Mary Poppins makes a guest appearance.   Link to the stories: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4787280/1/What-Comes-After https://archiveofourown.org/works/296134

In this roundtable discussion episode our co-hosts discuss the 'why' of fanfiction. What could possibly drive these miscreants to produce such materials? We discuss things like fan culture, seeing yourself in characters and fiction, and creating spaces for exploration of unrepresented groups. Beverly Clearly would not approve. 

We make a two-night visit to the fandom of Kino's Journey to read "the nature of uncarved blocks." It's a short piece that explores Kino's transgender journey. (See what I did there?) We get sidetracked overanalyzing the use of parenthesis. Kino is Kino.   Link to the story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88265

Elite commando fanfic readers Della and Amado read a fancomic that skirts right up to the edge of being official but doesn't quite cross that line. Spartan sharpshooter Jun has some issues that he needs to work through. Della has some Halo lore to talk about. And most importantly, Covenant soldiers get blown up by some sticky grenades.   Link to the comic, where (and we cannot stress this enough) the PDF file is available from the lower-right corner of the page: https://leviathan.bungie.org/flip.html

The magic of Yuletide brings us this delightful pitch for a replacement for Alien 3, in which Ripley becomes a pirate, Hicks sells out, and it turns out the REAL facehugger was Capitalism all along.   Link to the story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310288

We try not to think about the Pocket Monsters we've left in the box for the last 20 years as we read a love story between a trainer and their huge flying bug with psychic powers. While we're at it, we argue over what happens to Pokemon while they're in their balls, and which interpretation is the most disturbing.   Link to the story: https://forums.serebii.net/threads/butterfree-one-shot-g.557311/

Tory and Amado went to see a play that is a fanfic, and now we talk about it! It's a retelling of Dracula where the REAL evil is patriarchy. And also, uh, vampires. Neither of those things are good.

The world is changed; we feel it in the cold, harsh light of 2024. But fear not: we swoop back in from our hiatus like eucatastrophic eagles to discuss the first section of Mordor apologia The Last Ringbearer. Aragorn and Gandalf are the worst, Saruman and the Nazgul are pretty cool, and Sauron is just some guy. Also, the author would like you to know that proper irrigation is essential for sustainable agriculture.     Link to the translation: https://archive.org/details/TheLastRingbearerSecondEdition

Due to a whole bunch of unforeseen circumstances we are gonna take a break for the rest of this year. We will come back sometime in early in the new year. In the meantime if you have comments, questions, or reading suggestions send us an email at retrofanficretrospective@gmail.com. Stay safe and see you in the cold harsh light of the 2024!

Della takes it upon herself to inflict a You Don’t Know Jack style anime quiz from the early 2000s on her co-hosts.  Hilarity(?) ensues. All questions and answers are taken from Anime Trivia Quizbook Episdoe I by Ryan Omega, © 2000 Ryan Omega published by Stone Bridge Press. All original content used under fair use principles.  

Cookie Monster not just noted fan of baked goods, he also co-producer of Monsterpiece Theater. Now HBO asking for special spooky Christmas production, so Cookie and writing team go to pitch them ideas. Maybe this bring to head issues of equitable monster representation in media, and what Monsterpiece Theater mean to monster community. Or maybe they have Count star in production of Hamilton.   Link to story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5466800

In accordance with our mystical premonitions (or at the request of a fan), we view a short and fluffy TomoSaku story. Teenage Sakura and Syaoran's relationship has ended, leaving Sakura to possibly confess her feelings to a new love. It still counts as confessing if you'd unwittingly recorded doing it by a matchmaking third party, right?   Link to the story: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/1169810/1/Caught-on-Camera

TW: childhood sexual abuse, questionable consent   We explore 80s slashfic's favorite manga, From Eroica With Love, the story of three psychic college students... actually never mind, it's about the chemistry between a fabulous art thief and a tank-loving NATO major. In our fanfic, that chemistry is brought to its culmination, with all the horrible and toxic results that one would expect from fandom.   Link to the story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41224?view_adult=true

Sara of Talkin' Fanfic returns to challenge our Dojo but an inadvertent team-up occurs when we decide to discuss Karate Kid fanfic instead. Tory and Della are perplexed by the intricacies of Cobra Kai fandom and we are all still hoping Ralph Macchio will disclose where he found that fountain of youth. Amado is still lost in the mists, but we hope his training goes well. https://twitter.com/TalkinFanfic https://fanfiction.net/s/739729/1/Backlashed

Special guest Communications Officer Taran returns to discover strange new worlds in the form of DeForest Kelley's three part poem, "The Big Bird's Dream."  Della (reluctantly) captains the ship and Tory still doesn't believe that Dr. McCoy's first name is Leonard. We discuss the relative merits of different Star Trek series and boldly go where many people have probably gone before. Link to All Three Poems: https://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/06/7-years-ago-today.html

By Della's request, we jump into the expansive and fanfic-fertile Mass Effect universe. While Commander Sheperd (he/him) is off the ship doing one of the many Mass Effect 2 sidequests, the rest of the crew are left under the authority of Miranda Lawson, and must grapple with questions like Hey Wait, Are We Part of Cerberus Now? Will a bitter mutiny ensue, or will everyone talk it out like responsible adult lifeforms?    Link to the story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14314455/chapters/33028899