#misfile

"It chronicles the story of Ash Upton and Emily McArthur who, after a universal filing error in the Celestial Filing Depository, find that their lives are very different than they were the day prior. Emily has become two years younger and Ash has swapped sexes completely, and is now a girl. In order to change things back to the way they were, they must play along to ensure that Rumisiel (the angel who caused this mess in the first place!) gets back into heaven before the bosses find out and make the changes permanent."

Propaganda:

"I dunno, I was obsessed with this comic back when I was an egg, purely because I felt seen by the idea that there was some kind of cosmic mistake that needed correcting. I think it loses points for the bit where (if I'm remembering right) the protag is put off of medically transitioning in case the magic fix comes through and the transition gets flipped around making things worse for them -- I started fearing the same thing and it was another bit on the pile of reasons not to transition. (Thankfully that's all in the past now ^ _ ^ )"

Ash and Emily are complete strangers with almost nothing in common except Rumisiel fucking up their files. And since he fucked up their files in different ways, they don't even have the same problems. Each thinks the other got off light, and another thing they have in common is that they're willing to voice their envy. And they get angry about it.

Also, to state the obvious, Emily and Ash are both angry at Rumisiel for fucking up their files. The titular misfile unmoored both of them from their own lives, filling them with memories no one else remembers, distorting their relationships with people they almost know. And Rumisiel is quite open about the fact that this happened because he made a series of unforced errors, which doesn't earn him any sympathy.

Rumisiel isn't actively pissed at the girls, he apologizes for his series of unforced errors, but he does not take them not taking it well well. Rumisiel earns some brownie points for trying to be nice, but as with most things, he doesn't try very hard.

But they are kinda stuck together. Emily is the only person Ash can complain about his misfile to, and vice versa, and Rumisiel is the only person who can help them.

"Still cis tho!"

So much of the experience reading it is painful and because I read it when I was grappling with my own choice to come out, what my name would be, how to even start transitioning without parental support, etc. It was like ripping open an old wound at times and letting it finally heal over properly for the most part.

As a young lass, I remember vividly wishing I too would wake up as the female version of myself so that I wouldn't have to go through the immense pain and struggle involved in transitioning. I still feel that way with the impending bottom surgery work to be done in the near future along with the remaining facial hair removal left to do.

So Misfile was an experience to finish and while I'm not happy with the ending, I'm lighter for having been able to finally close that chapter, heal those wounds, and button that up before going to reread Rain all the way through next year.

So the biggest influence would have to be ASequentialArt. The guy who makes it is the artist of Saffron and Sage and thus his influence is rather more direct; any kind of meta-fuckery in Legend of the Hare or Saffron and Sage is either Carlos' idea or something I thought he'd like. The big parallax finale of Legend of the Hare was his idea, and one of the low-key reasons I'm dragging my feat uploading that comic is that I don't want to have to figure out how to set it up again!

Kill 6 Billion Demons inspired the idea of having "Lore" under the Legend of the Hare pages, though that idea crashed because no one cares about my lore.

Gunnerkrigg Court inspired the idea of making Saffron and Sage episodic, an idea I actually regret a little, which is an essay I've been meaning to write.

It's a small thing, but Homestuck inspired my character writing just a little by making me think of "rules", like how every sentence out of Liri's mouth ought to deserve an exclamation mark or how Saffron often talks in sentence fragments because she's a busy woman and doesn't have time for superfluous words.

Prequel Adventure, Narbonic, and Latchkey Kingdom are all comics I like that have similar vibes to mine in one way or another, but the comic whose writing feels closest to my own might actually be Cassiopeia Quinn. If you take Cassiopeia Quinn and you mix in a bit of Katia Managan you get something not entirely dissimilar to Liri Bloom.

Final Fantasy XIV (specifically Shadowbringers and Endwalker) isn't really an influence, but it is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Those expansions are very thematically dense in a way that both inspires me to try better and makes me want to give up and quit. That's sort of tied in to why I regret the way I wrote Saffron and Sage episodically, and perhaps one day I'll write that essay. I'm pretty consistently on the precipice of quitting Saffron to try to start a new comic; I'm a notorious dilletante.

"Like EGS” is a tall order - it does a whole lot of fun things with gender, heavily exploring both fantastical magic stuff and complicated real-world identities. Other stories I know tend to be more narrow in one or both regards, so it’ll depend a lot on what specifically you’re looking for.

Incidentally, for anyone not familiar with EGS (El Goonish Shive), I recommend checking out the post I made two days ago for its 20th anniversary.

Anyway, here’s some things that come to mind out of stories I’ve enjoyed:

Ranma 1/2 probably needs no introduction, as a well-known classic genderbending story. I started watching the anime just this past week - I haven’t gotten far yet, but it’s very funny. It’s a lot older than the rest of this list, giving it a particularly distinct feel which makes for a really interesting change of pace.

Fabiniku (”Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to”, aka “Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout”) is a much newer genderbending series, about two friends who get pulled into a fantasy world and are now trying not to fall in love. The manga has been running for a couple of years, while the anime (which is what I’ve been following) started just this past month. It’s extremely funny, and the writing and visuals are beautiful. (I heard about Fabiniku from following @demilypyro​, who’s been posting a lot about it and other anime and manga in this vein. If you’re looking for more, she’s likely to be a good source.)

Narcissist, Coward, Fool, and Traitor is a fantasy web novel about a team of four incompetent adventurers. Includes a lot of gender-related magic and exploration of the fantasy setting’s take on trans issues, particularly in the story’s first act. Features quite possibly the funniest (and kinkiest) trans character I’ve ever seen.

Doing God's Work is a web novel about an organization of gods across the pantheons, from the perspective of Loki and their faction of rebellious gods. This setting’s take on Loki is a lot of fun, and puts their shapeshifting powers to a great deal of use.

Misfile is one of the early transformation webcomics I read, before even EGS. I haven’t kept up with it in about a decade, but it still has a special place in my heart, and thinking back to it now, I may have to read the rest of it one of these days. The main character is Ash Upton, a high school street racer whose personal information was accidentally edited by a careless angel.

SGVY (Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki) is another transformation webcomic I read around the same time as Misfile, and have a lot of similar feelings about. It’s about Yuuki, a guy who gets turned into a valkyrie to fight monsters, and is an extremely silly magical girl parody. Seems the original site is no longer available.

Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) is an anime movie about a guy and girl who periodically swap bodies while living far apart, and have to find ways to communicate and work together. One of the most popular anime movies ever, which I hadn’t realized until looking it up again while writing this, but I can believe it.

Those are the ones that really play around with gender-related transformation stuff. Some other stories I’ve really enjoyed that aren’t necessarily “genderweird” per se, but have neat portrayals of major trans/nb characters:

Dreadnought and its sequel Sovereign are a series of superhero novels about a trans girl who inherits the powers of the strongest hero. She also gets a new body in the process, resulting in some interesting complications. It’s one of my favorite book series, and the characters are wonderful disasters - in particular the main character, Danielle Tozer, is a delightful ball of rage. There’s a third book planned to complete the trilogy, although it’s been taking a while.

High Guardian Spice is a magic school cartoon that released its first season a few months ago. It’s about several girls at a magic school, including Snapdragon, a closeted trans girl who begins to consider magical means of transition. Apparently its inclusion of trans characters has lead to a lot of people trying to sabotage it by spamming bad ratings, but the show itself is adorable.

Ikenfell is an RPG also set in a magic school, with a charming and very queer cast and a playable character lineup including multiple flavors of nonbinary. It’s a lot of fun and has a neat grid-based battle system, as well as great music made by the same people who did the music for Steven Universe.

Venus Envy is an old webcomic about Zoe, a trans girl going through high school and encountering a variety of forms of trouble. Frequently very unsettling, in some fascinating ways. Lot of content warnings here, probably more than anything else on this list.

Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku (”I Wanna Be Your Girl”) is a manga about a high school girl and the friend she’s in love with, who’s a trans girl. It’s really cute and does a lot of exploring attitudes around queer topics. It’s the only story on this list not to have any fantastical elements (although counting Venus Envy is debatable).

Mask of Shadows is a two-book fantasy novel series about Sal, a genderfluid thief who joins an assassination competition while seeking influence and revenge. I’ve only read the first book so far, but I’m planning on reading the second next week.

The Murderbot Diaries is a sci-fi book series (currently five novellas and one full novel) about “Murderbot”, a delightful agender cyborg built to work in security, and the humans and other AIs it reluctantly bonds with. Has a prequel mini-story posted here.

Infinity Train is a cartoon about a magic train that draws people onto it and compels them to solve a series of puzzles. It doesn’t technically have anything concrete, but I have to give it a mention here since pretty much everyone I’ve seen has interpreted the second season’s main character as transmasculine. Great show, and I’m still bitter about it getting canceled.

Wayward Children (by @seananmcguire) is an ongoing fantasy series that recently released its seventh novel. It’s about a school for kids who’ve gone through doors to fantastical other worlds and now have returned home, changed by the experience. It’s got a lot of great characters - a major recurring character is Kade, a trans boy, and more recent books also feature Regan, an intersex girl.

Zombieland Saga is an anime about seven girls who’ve been raised from the dead as zombies and are trying to become idols. It’s cute and funny and very ridiculous, and the team includes Lily Hoshikawa, an adorable trans girl.

Also I can’t pass up the chance to mention my own story, Blood Knight! It’s a short fantasy novella about the absolute disaster of a trans girl in my icon.