reading/watching list help?

[esmenet]

Can everyone help me put together a reading/watching list of decent stuff where all/most of the main characters are queer? like, not necessarily in an ‘everybody’s dating’ way but more in a ‘do cisgender heterosexuals even exist’ way.

It doesn't have to be like an actual published book or anything, a link to somebody rambling about their OCs is fine. I just want stuff like that to look at when I'm feeling down.

So far: sailor moon manga, young avengers v3, utena


(I'm putting off today's december meme post for tomorrow, on account of I don't feel like doing it before bed.)

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

The Carmilla webseries! It has an f/f romance at it's heart, and has a very queer vibe. It's also a lot of fun :)

Here's my list of yuri recs.

[branchandroot]

At least half the CLAMP manga, except for how they're evil to grown women. RG Veda (cross-gen, a-gendered-male-presenting pair, also major lesbian pair, rocks fall everyone dies), Magic Knights Rayearth (cross-gen threesome, girl still too young for it to be sexual on her part by the closing chapter, you are not subtle CLAMP), Cardcaptor Sakura (main couple is het-cis, main actually sexual couple is gay, ton of unrequited lesbians, also cross-gen and Special Cousins), X (...everyone is incredibly screwed up but often in a queer way), xxxHolic (very ace and also undying queer love). The thing about CLAMP is that, while girls rock the world, adult women don't get to be sexual/romantic/powerful on pain of death, quite literally, so while there's all sorts of interesting queerness I tend to slap a warning on anything of theirs for serious disempowerment of adult women.

Angel Sanctuary manga plays serious messing-with-everyone games with gender and embodiment and, to an extent, with sexuality. It's also rather gory in places and stands a good chance of offending conservative Christians.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books, though they're a definite case of "problematic author, sometimes comes out in the writing". But wow is everyone queer, to the extent that main characters who aren't are often culturally pressured to /get/ queer.

Mouretsu Pirates anime: all girl's school with space pirates, lesbian senpai kissing on screen, tsundere main character so obviously hot for Our Heroine that even her /dad/ teases her about it, no romantic focus outside the adorable lesbian senpai and really no het at all except insofar as you know Our Heroine's mom was, at some point, with her dad.

Shin Sekai Yori anime: based on a speculative fiction novel, and it shows. It's not for anyone looking for action flicks, or anyone who doesn't want to engage their brain pretty seriously. For those who do, it's a pretty fascinating, if often disturbing, utopia/dystopia in which a lot of social engineering has gone on that produces a very altered take on what one does with gender and sexuality. That isn't the main focus but it's a major thread.

Nobunagun anime: for those who /do/ want action flicks, in which Oda Nobunaga is reincarnated as a schoolgirl who bonds deeply with the similarly cross-sex (for spoiler reasons) reincarnation of Jack the Ripper, because they are both bloodthirsty psychos in a fight with alien invaders. It's strangely adorable in a somewhat trippy kind of way. Also a good antidote for CLAMP, because Shio kicks /all/ the butt.

And, of course, Madoka Magica, if you're willing to have your heart ripped out and stomped on repeatedly. It's worth it, just... repeated-heart-stomping warnings apply.

[genarti]

Diane Duane's Tale of the Five series, aka her Middle Kingdoms series (The Door Into Fire, The Door Into Shadow, and The Door Into Sunset) is a fantasy series which is extremely 80s in some ways, but in which basically the entire society and definitely all the main characters default to pansexual and polyamorous. This includes, but is not limited to, multi-person marriages. (Fair warnings: the second book is in many ways my favorite, but it also contains an extremely graphic and unexpected scene of remembered child molestation towards the end which I feel everybody ought to be warned for. Also, the series is unfinished; Diane Duane has said that she's had The Door Into Starlight planned for years but I don't know if it'll ever get written.)

Tanya Huff's Quarters series also contains a whole lot of queer characters, IIRC, though I've only read the first of them. (There are also zombies, incest, bodyswapping, and heaven only knows what else; I gather it's rather a kitchen sink style of plotting.)