Obsolete: The Entertainment (Book, Movie, Game, etc) with no Fandom Experience Thread

[Almonds]

So have you ever had an experience like:

Spoiler

For example, you've found this really interesting book, or played this really good game. However, due to poor advertising or display of biased preference on the material's part, or having had the misfortune to be released during the time when the internet wasn't developed, or having been just recently released as someone's debut product with almost no fanfare (or for a combination of several reasons), very few people know about said entertainment. In other words, there's no fandom for it. You've had little to no opportunities to discuss said material and have spent days and nights immersed in the lingering imagery after the experience, and tried to find a place on the Internet to talk about it - to recommend it to other people at the very least so you could hear their opinion about it later on.

If there is such a material, here's your chance to let other people know about it.

NOTE: You can also post about experiences you had about famous entertainment in their respective fields (i.e., award-winning books or movies, etc), but aren't well-known in your area in real life.

 

[TeaWest]

This is how I'm going into Undertale when I get around to playing it on my PS4.

I want absolutely as little fandom experience/opinions as possible to influence me. I want to play the game as it comes naturally to me then dive in deeper after the fact.

 

[Almonds]

I always seem to hear about good games much too late ;_; It feels really lonely when you learn about a good game that's past its prime time - way too late to join the fandom. The Trauma Center series especially. I loved watching through all the Let's Plays on Youtube, and I had been obsessed with Markus from New Blood and Naomi from Trauma Team for some time because I liked their presentation within the games. Alas, there was almost no place to talk about it and even when I did come across a fan or two, they were old fans who didn't really have much of the enthusiasm of someone who just fell in love with the series - mostly people who knew about the existence of the series enough to answer questions and come up with jokes, but the conversation always stops short somehow. Falling in love with a near dead (or quite dead) series was like trying to keep a candle flame alive in a stormy weather that threatens me to 'move on'. I eventually did, and when I look back on it I have a number of memories of me fangirling over a game/character/etc when there's nobody to share discussions with. They're actually pretty fond memories because I was really happy that such games and/or characters existed and that I was privileged to share a part of the experience even as a late fan... but it certainly is rather lonely.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

I am literally the only person I know in real life who plays Smite on the PS4

 

[FinalArcadia]

The Fafner anime franchise is apparently pretty big in Japan, but it's really hard to find discussion on it or much of anything at all outside of Japanese sites. Even when Fafner Exodus was airing a few years ago, the discussion topics on /r/anime were so much less commented on than most other shows that were airing, which is a real shame since the show is very good.

I love the franchise, though even as a fan I acknowledge it might be a little hard to get into with the original 25-ish episode show, an OAV, a movie, and a 2-cour recent anime, with a new one coming sometime (The Beyond), and the first 10 or so episodes of the first show are a little overwhelming. But as far as mecha anime goes, I'd consider it second only to the Gundam franchise personally, and even then I prefer Fafner to several Gundam series. It has a real focus on the characters, even on the parents of the pilots, which I really like since a lot of shows don't really let the adults develop and get decent screentime. You really see how everyone on Tatsumiyajima reacts and feels about all the crap they go through. There's not a single character I hate that isn't one you're "supposed" to hate, which is pretty impressive given that I tend to hate characters easily over petty things lol.

I get the feeling that the character designs push people away, since I know a lot of people don't like Hisashi Hirai's art style in stuff like Gundam Seed (which... I also love; Seed is actually why I even watched Fafner to begin with). But they really improve by the time of Exodus, and the Heaven and Earth movie was already an improvement visually. And really, how many shows have designs by Hirai now? Not many lol, so Fafner looks unique at this point. The mecha are really well-animated since the movie too, it's pretty top-notch CG, and I say that as someone who usually hates CG mechs in anime. Absolutely fantastic soundtracks in the series too, and all of the opening themes are some of my favorites in all of anime. It also gets accused sometimes of being an NGE knock-off, but the show really is its own beast, just influenced by NGE (what mecha hasn't been influenced by Eva since it debuted though).

Wish there were more people into Fafner, but I guess at least a tiny fanbase means there are less annoying fans to deal with like larger fandoms have. :/

@Kyriaki
The Switch would be so amazing for a Trauma Center revival with how precise the Joy-Cons are compared to the Wii Remotes of the Wii-era. It's a real shame there was no Trauma Center on the 3DS or Wii U, but maybe there's a chance for a new game that could then reignite the fanbase since I bet it'd sell pretty decent with how well the Switch is doing and that there are dry spells between major titles.