087 ☆

[tinkaton]

I saw some people making lists of 100 formative books or other media to see how many of them other people have read, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon! But I did all kinds of media in one list, which was both way harder than I expected to get to 100 and yet I feel like I've missed a lot of important things I just can't remember off the top of my head lmao.

But here we go: Lex Tinkaton's 100 Formative Media List

I included stuff from my teen years, so anything that influenced me as a kid or I was obsessed with as a teen. There's probably a lot of old books I've missed, I used to read a loooot of series like Animorphs, Goosebumps, etc. for older elementary/middle grade readers that had like 500 books in a series. Lots of typical 90s kid stuff, I filled up a lot of spots with Disney and other animated movies. I noticed when adding my favorite old anime and manga that a ton of it had to do with gay stuff, crossdressing, or gender fuckery, which looking back is like lol. It's fitting that Adolescence of Utena got the first spot because that movie rewired my brain when I saw it in what, 5th grade? Video games were tough to narrow down too because I still think back fondly on a lot of PS1/PS2 games that I still consider faves.

Anyway, if anyone plays, let me know how many you get! Which of you would've matched my freak if we'd met in high school.

Comments

[matsushima]

We had a lot of overlap (I've read/watched/listened to/played 45/100 of your list!) but I was so excited to see Demon Diary, Wish and Tithe on there - some of my most formative media but not super famous like the Harry Potter series that everyone my age read.

[tinkaton]

I've read a lot of CLAMP manga over the years but Wish remains one of my favorites, it was one of my earliest CLAMP reads so I'm very fond of it. And I'm glad someone else has read Demon Diary!! I remember being very into Eclipse when I read it lmao

[kissed]

34/100 for me, I'd still like to sit at your lunch table though!

I was very happy to see Xena on your list. One of my favorite shows ever (and I will love Lucy Lawless forever)!!

[tinkaton]

34 is a respectable number, you're definitely invited to the lunch table!

I loved both Xena and the Hercules show but Xena was clearly the more influential property lmao. I feel like my family are the only people on earth who watched the Xena-Hercules cartoon crossover movie but I was obsesseddd with it.

[raspberrysweettea]

I like that you listed Demon In My View specifically. I still haven't read the rest of the series, but I love that particular book and it's very rare to see a mention of it in the wild :)

[tinkaton]

I truly don't remember anything about any Amelia Atwater-Rhodes books but I remember loving them a LOT lmao. I read maybe 3 or 4 of that series, and a couple of the Hawksong books? They were exactly my niche when I was like 12-13.

[rionaleonhart]

Oh, wow, we've got a lot of overlap; I ended up with 44! Smiled to see Hybrid Theory on here. And Legend of Dragoon, which I never expect to see mentioned anywhere! I should replay that.

[tinkaton]

I have been a Legend of Dragoon hype man since I played it in my youth lmao. My dream game remake is LoD!!

Lately I've been relistening to all those old albums I loved like Hybrid Theory, Evanescence's Fallen, etc. and they all slap still tbh

[straightforwardly]

A very solid 50%! Which feels appropriate, since we were both teenagers who were interested in similar kinds of media during the same period of time.

I've actually never seen Adolescence of Utena, despite loving the anime... definitely one of those "one day!!" movies for me. And omg, the Fallen album by Evanescence STILL turns me into an emotional mess every time I hear it. It has my whole heart.

More anime thoughts: Inuyasha was arguably my first fandom! ♥ Wolf's Rain is one of those series that I still think about all the time. And Yu Yu Hakusho, also super super formative for me. The Hiei & Yukina stuff went straight to my id.

and yet I feel like I've missed a lot of important things I just can't remember off the top of my head lmao the true experience when it comes to this meme haha

[tinkaton]

Nice, impressive score!

Adolescence of Utena was my first introduction to Utena and I had NO idea what was going on but I was enthralled. I forced my non-anime-fan friend to watch specific fight scenes. I found the soundtrack at a Media Play that was going out of business and listened to it nonstop. So basically: you should watch Adolescence of Utena jshfksjhsk

Evanescence doing that collab song for the new Devil May Cry cartoon got me listening to old albums again and Fallen is still top tier for sure. Every song is a banger!!

Wolf's Rain is one of my top 3 anime to this day, I remember staying up late Saturday nights to watch it air on Adult Swim. And YYH was sooo good, I was a super predictable Hiei and Kurama fangirl lmao.

[straightforwardly]

Evanescence doing that collab song for the new Devil May Cry cartoon got me listening to old albums again My brother showed me the opening to that that, and I walked away simultaneously going, "I have no interest in this take on DMC" while also vibrating with, "Evanescence should do the songs for SO MANY anime-styled openings, they're so perfect!!"

I was a super predictable Hiei and Kurama fangirl lmao
okay, but: Hiei & Kurama!!! I love them... when I rewatched the series in college I fell head-first into Hiei/Kurama as a ship asdfghjkl; and I still stand by it! Their dynamic is so good. (I do find it funny how, on paper, Kurama is the one who is super obviously going to be my fave character—fox-themed! pretty long flowing hair! plants with potential for plant-based horror! etc.!—but nope, Hiei is the one who stole that spot in my heart first.)

[tinkaton]

Yeah I haven't watched the actual show and I'm not sure if I'm going to bother with it, but the OP song being Limp Bizkit and them getting an Evanescence collab song is so funny. Perfect 2003 DMC vibes.

They're such a classic ship... I feel like I was the same too, like Kurama SHOULD have been my fave first but Hiei actually stole the show initially. I remember printing out fanart of the two of them to make a collage page for the front of my binder in like 8th grade or whatever. The good ol' days...

[greghousesgf]

Tinkaton's list says "how many have you watched/read" but Alice in Wonderland is on the list so are they referring to the book or one of the zillion movie or TV versions?
P.S. most of these didn't even exist when i was in high school

[tinkaton]

I picked the option with the Disney movie picture since that's the first version of Alice in Wonderland I ever saw, but I love the books too and I'm a sucker for pretty much anything Alice-inspired, so I'd say it all counts!

[ai]

I always thought Outlaw Star was popular, but so few of my anime friends sat through to watch it. Was pleasantly surprised to see it on the list!

61/100 and I skipped some things that I have watched/read, just didn't really have much of an opinion on like Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (it has been YEARS, I remember NOTHING) and Ranma 1/2 (another one of those I watched it, but recall nothing)

This was fun, thank you for sharing!

[tinkaton]

I loooved Outlaw Star, Aisha is one of my top fave anime girlies ♥ Though you're right it does seem like one of those shows where like, the only other person I personally know who watched it is my brother lmao

Woohoo impressive! I think that's the highest score someone's gotten on mine. and tbh stuff you consumed but don't remember still counts so the number's probably even higher.

[got_quiet]

I got 31 which is the highest score I've gotten on any of these so far.

When I saw Boy Meets Boy I thought you were talking about the old webcomic, which is a very different beast.

We probably would have bonded well over CLAMP lol.

[tinkaton]

Nice, that's still pretty good!

ok I googled the comic and holy shit I'm pretty sure I did read that too. blast from the past seeing that. I used to read a loooot of webcomics in high school, I've probably forgotten like 98% of them though. oh my god I'm doing a deeper dive and yes this is the same artist who then did Friendly Hostility which I loved...

CLAMP was suuuch a formative influence reading them in middle/high school haha.

[lizardjay]

Mr. Popper's Penguins! I read that probably 30 times as a kid.

I got 34 but several of those are more from my adult years... you reminded me of Loveless though. How did I find that as a teen?? But even just from my childhood stuff we would've been kindred spirits in high school from Avatar alone.

[tinkaton]

Yes!! I loved it so much, it was such a charming idea to me as a kid lmao. I mean it's still a charming idea I would love to just have a bunch of penguins jshdfkjsfs but especially when you're a kid!

Loveless was like catnip to me as a teen lol I was scooping up all the weird BL or BL-adjacent stuff you could find for sale in a Media Play or Borders. and Avatar is suuuch a good show, I watched it multiple times and even got my parents into it. my dad still to this day makes references to the cabbage guy haha.