While the Rhythm of the Rain Keeps Time

If you are involved in English-speaking fandom, you are probably aware of Omegaverse. If you've been involved in English-speaking fandom for a decent time, you’re probably aware of Sentinelverse/Dom-sub-verse. But, what if you were to learn that these are just the tip of a massive iceberg of “verses”?

Yeah, Japanese-speaking fandom has been very busy crafting a fuckton of new “verses”, and adding interesting developments to some of ENG fandom’s old hits of yesteryear, creating a state that has been referred to as the “Verse Warring States Era”.

But, are the majority of these verses any good, as defined by my very specific and rigorous “do they appeal to Me, Specifically, and don’t just give me “we have Omegaverse at home” vibes?” Would I actually want to read an original story which centers around this verse? Would I want to put fictional characters which I like in it? Would I nut to it?

That is what this recurring series intends to find out. I will be going verse-by-verse, using the Pixiv Encyclopedia’s list of Omegaverse derivatives and other verses, summarizing and reviewing them according to my arbitrary and biased whims. If you can read Japanese (and maybe even if you can’t, I have no idea how well this stuff Google Translates) and you’re interested in a verse, I recommend reading the linked page in full instead of relying on my summary.

Without further ado, on with the first of what will hopefully be many reviews!

Omegaverse:

oh dear god do i really need to explain omegaverse to you all uhh it’s become so mainstream that it has a motherfucking wikipedia page

Anyways. I’m not explaining Omegaverse to you. I like Omegaverse. I think pregnancy and boypussy and gender essentialism and sex-pollen-adjacent stuff is hot and I’m not going to bullshit you by pretending that my enjoyment of this verse is because of some deeper social justice reason. That would be cringe.

Anyways, the Pixiv Encyclopedia article is hella interesting, because it kind of weaves a class conflict in with the Omegaverse that I don’t think a lot of English-speaking works do? Alphas as high-class, Betas as middle-class, and Omegas as lower-class, with inter-Alpha marriage presented as possible and not as horribly scandalous, in a sort of analogy to marriage within the upper classes? Interesting. Kind of like to see a hardcore deconstructionist thing that runs with this analogy. Heat suppressants as transhumanist anti-capitalist praxis.

The Pixiv Encyclopedia additionally seems to claim that studding/neutering is not very common in JPN spaces (and given the English names I’m inclined to agree with them) but this is actually the first time I’ve heard of them. Very cool ideas. Additionally, it reiterates that after an Omega is mated, they no longer release pheromones, which… I’m not sure how I feel about, honestly. Evolutionarily, it could be beneficial, but I just don’t like it. More possibility for #angst if it’s the opposite.

(it also claims to the best of my very poor japanese knowledge that the inspiration for the omegaverse was a werewolf episode in supernatural??? gell-man amnesia effect moment i guess)

(also even the pixiv encyclopedia page mentions the “yeah the original wolf research that this was based off of is bullshit lol” talking points so can people trying to make fun of omegaverse PLEASE choose something else to mock. article also gets extra points for linking Alphas, Betas, Omegas, A Primer, my second favorite Omegaverse meta)

RANKING: Omegaverse/10


Cakeverse:

Cakeverse! According to the Pixiv Encyclopedia, this one originated from South Korea, and there are two additional “genders”. Forks, who are exactly like normal humans except they have no sense of taste, and Cakes, who are exactly like normal humans except that they taste sweet. Really sweet. Like “so good even Forks can taste them” sweet.

You know where this is going.

(It doesn’t inherently have to be cannibalism! Cakes’ tears and saliva taste good, but, like, you’ve all had the experience of going “oh, I’ll just eat a little bit”, and then the whole plate is empty. You know where this is going to end up.)

This one is so fun!! So fun!! I love cannibalism and doomed relationships and deep aggressive repression of one’s own desires and a verse that revolves around an entirely different constellation of fetishes than Omegaverse! The one point against it that I have is that the name is entirely too cutesy for the subject matter, but that in itself is kind of a charm point, isn’t it?

I also love the fun beat where it’s mentioned that most of the time when normal people hear about Forks it’s in the context of sensationalized “cannibalism lust murder” stuff, which just causes more hiding and repression and yayyyyy that means M gets to use the fun metaphors! Fun. Very fun verse. M likey.

RANKING: Cannibalism Doomed Yaoi Fuck Yes/10

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- I’m asking for it again, but an Italy For American Fanfic Authors guide, similar to the ones I’ve seen floating around for Great Britain/the UK.

- This is purely to sate my own curiosity, but a list of the first-person Japanese pronouns used by Jojo characters. I’ve been searching for this (in Japanese) and it has been shockingly hard to find!

- Recs for a specific genre of fanfic I like to call “Epistolary POV Outsider”, as in, fix that is primarily told through non-prose means (social media, newspaper articles, etc) and primarily focuses on the POV of those not involved.

- Nice meta!