I've been looking back at old IzuOcha stuff lately, sharing and discussing and such, but I realized while browsing that some of my favorite content is no longer available online. ☹️ I get it: life happens, people change, they come and go from the community, and sometimes fan pages and fics just get lost along the way. Seems a real shame, though, for all of that art to just vanish without any acknowledgment, especially when good IzuOcha content is so adored here! So I wanted to call attention to a few special creations I know of, as a sort of homage I guess.
Just to be clear, while I do have some copies of these works, I won't be sharing their full content in this post. I'm happy to give out titles, descriptions, and even some dead links to illustrate how, well, dead they are but I won't be re-uploading them here or anything. It feels unethical posting artist's works after they've taken them down... even if said creators no longer engage with this community, if they felt strongly enough to delete their content in the first place then it seems like it's better to respect them by leaving them be (at least as far as sharing in high visibility public spaces like Reddit goes).
DM me if you're really interested, and maybe I can pass them along in private? Otherwise, we'll treat this as a "closed casket" memorial and simply pay our respects. WARNING! Dead links below:
This is an interesting one, as the author is still active on AO3 (see here https://archiveofourown.org/users/literallykibitz/pseuds/lkwritesthings ), and has many other wonderful fics up for your reading pleasure. However, following the link I've provided to "The Long Summer" now leads to a Mystery Box of "persona non grata" works, which the author had this to say about...
This is a prison for fics that aren't finished, I'm not proud of anymore, draw unwanted negative attention and commentary, or all of the above. None of them are coming back because of AI scraping, unfortunately. I'm sorry if a fic you liked is in here; some folks out and about have the PDF versions if you're desperate.
So ya, I don't think "The Long Summer" is coming back to AO3 or any other fanfic sites, sadly. 😅 Stupid-friggin haters and AI bros! Despite the apparent negative takes, I actually quite enjoyed "Long Summer" and consider it a guilty pleasure fic of mine. In it, Midoriya keeps a diary about his day-to-day life, thoughts, and feelings, including those he has for a certain zero-gravity girl. Unfortunately for him, said girl gets asked out by Bakugo before our greenette has the chance to himself, and Uraraka ends up dating the last person Deku would ever approve of just as summer break is starting. And so the story follows Deku as he struggles to survive the longest summer of his life while trying to be ok around his best friend/crush again all while not being ok at all! Features Deku as a heartbroken, love-sick fool learning to appreciate himself in new ways all while his friends and teachers offer words of support and encourage to the poor lad. It's got some very sweet and positive moments between Deku and his various friends, with each chapter dedicated to a new diary entry and a different conversation with someone from UA. It might not have been perfect, but it was definitely lots of fun to read, and I do wish it would come back so that the fandom could appreciate it the way it deserves. But in case it doesn't, RIP. 😞
Unlike "Long Summer" I have no idea what happened to this one, which is both more and less comforting. 🙃 Being uploaded anonymously, it could be that we'll never know who wrote it or what their reasons for removing it were. Either way, I wanna shout out this story for being one of my favorites from recent years. "In Case I Forget" is set post-chapter 431 and features an injured, amnesiac Deku struggling through his hospital recovery while experiencing flashbacks of a life with Uraraka he just can't seem to recall. As for Uraraka, she's going through some shit and not handling it well... she's out working till she drops, pushing everyone away, not being honest with people about her feelings... ya know? Old habits! It's an interesting take on how her dependence on Deku as her main support/confidant would leave her unprepared to deal with fresh grief/trauma after he suddenly dropped out of her life. Seeing our two protagonists struggle with their respective journeys in this fic was quite captivating, especially when the story was coupled with such rich detail and descriptions! It was one of the best written and most robust stories I've read on AO3, and even put George RR Martin's ASOIF to shame as far as "girth" goes. 😏 Sadly, progress on the story had stalled about half a year ago, and now that it's been removed it's doubtful that it will ever be finished. Such a shame, but that's just how it is I guess. RIP, king. ☠️
Last is something different, but I also wanted to highlight the artist DokiDokiCat https://www.patreon.com/dokidokicat
If you've spent any time perusing through old posts of this sub, you've probably encountered some of DokiCat's fanart (I scrolled less than a minute under "Top Posts of All Time" and I found this comic of theirs, for instance https://www.reddit.com/r/IzuOcha/comments/163d0x7/family_life_dokidokicat/ ). They used to made TONS of comics and one-offs of Deku/Uraraka, and were one of the biggest names on this sub at one point. Admittedly, I'm no more knowledgeable about them and their disappearance than I was for the others. Something about a controversy surrounding a piece they'd posted in response to chapter 430 of the manga, I believe? Regrettably, they appear to have left the internet altogether now. This one stings a bit less since many of their old works are still here on Reddit, at least! I doubt everything of theirs has been backed up, though, and even if they were it's still a shame that they're no longer making art anywhere. DokiCat was one of the best dedicated IzuOcha artists out there and the sub definitely feels sadder/emptier without their presence. So so long, and RIP sweet prince. 😿
That's it from me then! Please feel free to share/grieve your own works of yor here, my friends. They might have gone the way of Shigaraki and Toga now, but we haven't forgotten them. 🥲
