Round 1, Bracket 1, Side A, Eight poll
Art of Juligawa by @ryukogo
Ichie Otonashi and Fumi Yumeoji [Ichifumi], Revue Starlight ReLIVE vs July and Igawa [Juligawa], A3! Act Addict Actors
Read the story below and vote for the funniest story or the best ship!
Voting ended onJun 20, 2023
Story of Ichifumi by @insertbrowsinghere
This goes back to, specifically, May 16th of 2022. I was trying to get into the Revue Starlight mobile game, since there was apparently a lot of my other favorite ship from the franchise, Junnana, in it. The problem was that I was having the problem I always have with new games of its nature, that being difficulty getting attached to the new characters. So, I decided to look through their descriptions on the loading screen during a big update. Two characters caught my eye, those characters being the character Michiru, and, more importantly, Ichie.
I posted that I think she was going to take over my brain (I was right) and a pal of mine mentioned that she and Fumi were a little gay together. I responded that I hadn't seen them together and was awaiting to see them, but I didn't expect to love them together. I just expected to know that they existed. I was so very wrong and as I am currently gazing at the exact moment I learned of them as a couple while looking for the exact moment I fell in love with them, I can only laugh at old me.
Suddenly they were hitting all my ship dynamics and Ichie became a primary reason as to why Fumi is even in the main cast. Surely, though, they wouldn't grow on me that much, I thought. They were silly together, but there was only so much depth there, right? Not anything that would soon rot my brain, anyways. Boom, Ichie reassuring Fumi that she beloved her and Fumi seeking out Ichie when the performance department was shut down. Boom, heavy emotional reliance between the two which transcended their usual dynamic. Boom, the ducking "Selfie-Master's Seminar" memoir. That last one ruined my life so much and by that point, I was in too deep.
I pathetically added them to my bio alongside my other three main ships, turning that trio into a life-ruining quartet. I began hunting for cards with stories centered around them but it couldn't get worse, I told myself. Then came Arcania Arcadia chapter 3/main story chapter 15. This ruined me, and it was all because of the fucking Ichifumi revue. There were other reasons attached, but that revue destroyed me.
The not at all serious reveal that Fumi had been supporting Ichie's streaming silently and secretly. Ichie calling out Fumi on her glamorization of the idea of beauty in death, since she saw it as an excuse. Ichie telling Fumi that she wanted to know more about her. Ichie's wish to see a stage that Fumi alone formed, in a franchise where this kind of thing is just sort of a love confession most of the time. Ichie letting Fumi win out of trust in her and Fumi doubting if she was truly the victor. All the impact this had on Fumi later. I was dying at this point, and then this game decided to beat my corpse down a little more by putting in the later scene where they reflected on their revue, Fumi tried to apologize, Ichie told her not to and they both resolved to move forward together.
Another stab was taken at my corpse with the scene in the final chapter where Ichie finally got to see a stage belonging to Fumi, and got to hold pride in it. I realized then I was in too deep. The characters I originally only expected to ship a little if at all had ruined my life. I could do nothing about it. I still can't and I am still in Ichifumi hell. Help.
When twitter bots were still active there was this bot called the Cursed Prompt Guy (@a3_promptbot) that randomly generated prompts and characters together. One fateful day, it generated this prompt .
[ CHARACTERS: Tenma Sumeragi, July // PROMPT: Butterfly kiss, Loyalty ]
Ss you may notice there is no slash, meaning it's just the two characters, no ship whatsoever. this is important.
See the thing here is that the character, Tenma Sumeragi, is the son of two world-famous actors. He was a child actor for TV before he decided to choose his own path and become a theater actor (since A3! is about theater boys), being a child actor means he had a manager, right? Enter: Igawa.
I was staring at the prompt, and for an entire moment, I just randomly thought 'now why would July swear loyalty to Tenma Sumeragi?'. This thought was immediately followed by '... hmmm (goes on Twitter/Discord servers) hey guys how old is july/igawa again', and then my friends, indulgently, answered me on both platforms - they were within the age range of each other as respectable adults
And then I just SAT THERE because at that very moment my brain EXPLODED like I was JIMMY NEUTRON because this ship did NOT make sense at all and YET, AND YET EVERYTHING MADE SENSE in my head suddenly for some reason.
See the first doddle I made of them with a caption
And my friends were like 'AYO HOLD ON HOLD ON RYU ARE YOU OKAY' and all I said was smth like 'sometimes things happen' and then about five hours later I published the first fic for them on Ao3. Apparently i wrote the fic at 8-ish PM on the same day I made the first doodle (at 6PM) then finished the fic around 11-ish PM.
And then my friend who is one of my ride-or-dies also published a fic around 12 midnight soon after me. I think the majority of the English-speaking fandom/western fandom who knows us thinks we're kinda crazy. It's okay we just like to indulge.
