Plural Stories

Submitted by erinptah! Thank you, erinptah!

-"Who'd want to put up with ten of us?" -"Well, if a guy didn't have many friends, it would make a great package deal."

Blurb: Adrian is a chirpy tech nerd on mental-health leave for his severe OCD. Grace is a shy street artist with PTSD and multiple personalities (we also meet G, Little, and Spike). After a meet-cute at their shared therapist's office, they strike up a friendship, which turns romantic as they work through some of their fears together.

Why is it worth your time?: A plural character gets to be the love interest in a sweet, funny romcom. Integration is mentioned but not pushed, and Adrian's care about "keeping track of which specific headmate he's talking to" is presented as one of the qualities that makes him Boyfriend Material. Does a nice job of balancing the dysfunction of the main characters: Adrian and Grace-and-company both have significant struggles, they both have moments of lashing out when their triggers get stepped on...then they apologize, and put in the care and effort to get closer anyway.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse low-focus, people: children, relationships: teamwork, relationships: romance, type: medical, type: switching

Content Warnings: Reference to Grace's past CSA. Attempted assault towards the end from Grace's current boyfriend Sledge, triggering a brief non-graphic flashback. References to sex work (also non-graphic, and nothing bad happens to the sex-worker characters).

Accessibility Notes: Available on DVD, blu-ray, and streaming, including free with ads on Youtube. Closed captions included.

Misc. Notes (if any): The rare non-terrible fictional therapist! (She's mostly there so we can get exposition through the characters talking to her.)

Submitted by erinptah! Thank you, erinptah!

"You saved me. I survived because I knew I wasn't alone. You were always there, so alive, so full of hope...You are the only real superpower I ever had."

Blurb: Steven Grant is an ordinary London retail worker, with an interest in Egyptology and a problem with sleepwalking. Marc Spector is a mercenary-turned-superhero, fighting evil as the Avatar of the god Khonshu, on one last mission to stop a divine genocide. And they were headmates (oh my god, they were headmates).

Why is it worth your time?: Possibly the most mainstream DID rep to get a ton of positive reviews from IRL systems. The headmates start out disconnected, spend some time aggressively clashing over their different values/priorities (not to mention Steven's instant crush on Marc's wife Layla). Then they need to lean on each other's skills to survive a classic superhero world-saving quest, get dragged through some magical trauma-processing, and ultimately figure out how to understand and appreciate each other. Oscar Isaac plays both of them, and (with the help of an amazing crew + diligent FX team) has amazing chemistry with himself. Avoids the usual Marvel settings to bring us to London and Cairo; it's the rare Egypt-centric series driven by IRL Egyptian creatives, and it shows.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate-focus, cofronting, memory work, otherworld, people: imaginary friends, relationship: friendship, relationship: teamwork, type: medical, type: switching

Content Warnings: Genre-typical violence. Others contain SPOILERS, see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Streaming version has multiple translations, subtitles in multiple languages, and a couple of audio tracks with voiceover descriptions included. Also available on DVD.

Misc. Notes (if any): When the show's portrayal of DID gets criticized, it's mostly over aspects that have been simplified or dramatized to keep things clear for the audience. Example: at first, when we see Marc and Steven switch, it's physically exaggerated, like they're having a seizure...because new viewers need the visual cue that something disorienting and unusual is happening. The guys have more subtle and realistic switches later, when the audience has gotten the hang of how it works.

Meanwhile, the series takes care to get a lot of important dynamics right. Like "if one headmate is doing distressing things behind another headmate's back, it doesn't mean the first one's a horror-movie villain, it means they have different ideas about how to stay safe." And "friends/loved ones don't have to be perfect experts, or to disregard their own needs, to be a good supporter for a system." And "sometimes alters are based on fictional characters, it's fine." And "trauma holders deserve to be told the trauma wasn't their fault." And "healing with DID doesn't require keeping The Original and getting rid of everyone else, it's about everyone figuring out how to work together and support each other."

Submitted by yolcatzin !

「やあ、僕の名前はティーチくんだよ。今日は僕といろんな事学ぼう」 "Hey, my name's Teach. Today we're going to learn all sorts of things."

Blurb: A thriller dressed up as a very incompetent edutainment show. Your host, a cat named Teach (joined by his headmates Sam and Kobayashi), tries to give you entertaining life lessons from the white void he calls home, even as he is beset by unpleasant, horrific, and inexplicable events.

Why is it worth your time?: Don't let the crude art style fool you. The mysteries are compelling, the drama is effective, the comedic moments land, and the bodysharing protagonists have very interesting dynamics with each other.
When we watched, we were invested in the one-sided relationship Sam has with Teach. That bunny is filled with so much yearning and he is so unhealthy and obsessive about it. He's a riot!

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate-focus, enmity, family, friendship, nonhumans [bunny person, cat person], romantic, spiritual, switching, the dead, visions, voices

Content Warnings: Infrequent eyestrain-inducing graphics and harsh noises.
Depictions of abuse between headmates, blood, body horror, death, illness, gore, manipulation, murder, mutilation, obsessive/stalkerish behavior, suicide, unreality, urine, vomit.  Discussions of familial abuse, incest, sexual assault, and COVID-19. (Context: This series is full of seasonal/topical episodes, so there are a few episodes from 2020 that mention the pandemic. These can be skipped without missing out on important plot points.)

Accessibility Notes: This series is entirely in Japanese. There are no transcripts or Japanese subtitles. As of the time of this submission, the first fourty episodes have been subtitled in English by the creator, and there are fansubs going up to episode 200 of 374 (compiled in this playlist). Unfortunately, all of these subtitles are baked in (not screen-reader-friendly) and riddled with errors. If you don't speak Japanese, you won't be able to fully enjoy this series.

Episode by episode playlist

Compilation playlist

"The two of us ain't gonna follow your rules
Come at me without any of your fancy tools
Let's go just me and you
Let's go just one on two!"

Blurb: Steven Universe, a half-human, half-alien Crystal Gem boy, lives with three Crystal Gems on a tropical island, protecting the earth from evil and learning about his origins, Gem culture, and the relationship his now-deceased mother had with his father, Greg.

Why is it worth your time?: Okay, this one goes on here because its "fusion" concept became such a useful concept for a specific subculture of plurals. In Steven Universe, Crystal Gems can fuse with others, mostly via dancing together, becoming one larger, more powerful individual who shares some traits and characteristics of both people while still maintaining their own identity. Over the course of the show, more and more fusions come to light; Garnet, a major character, is a fusion built by two Gems who later marry at the end of the original series. The show also goes into abusive forms of fusion. Rogan still gets all choked up watching "the Answer." The ending is kinda frustrating to adult audiences, and it takes a season or so for the show to reach its footing, but it's worth a watch! Also the music is great.

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, cofronting, fusion/integration, identityblending, children, nonhumans [aliens, gems, solar-powered robots], community (later on in the series), romantic relationships, friendship, enmity, setting-specific

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: At least somewhat watchable streaming on cartoonnetwork.com? Also seems to be entirely available on DVD, though it's like $60. Subtitled!

Misc Notes: 5 seasons, 160 episodes. Also had a movie, and a 20-episode follow-up series, Steven Universe Future, which cranks the emotional implications of the series up to the max. We watched the whole thing and found all of it worth watching, though if you're going to watch Steven Universe Future, watching the movie is advised.

"Let's face reality together, no matter how harsh it is."

Blurb: When despair overwhelms certain people in Tokyo, they find themselves whacked upside the head by a middle-school boy with a golden bat and rollerblades. Cops start investigating the case, only to discover that "Lil Slugger" isn't what he seems...

Why is it worth your time?: It's a good show with themes of dealing (or not dealing) with reality, and how things in our mind can grow bigger and bigger until they take on lives of their own (and possibly eat Tokyo.) If you enjoyed Paprika, you will likely enjoy this, especially since you can see Satoshi Kon growing as a filmmaker from Perfect Blue, to Paranoia Agent, to Paprika.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate focus, otherworld, realitymashing, enmity, visions, voices

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED)

Access Notes: Available on DVD, with subtitles and dubbing both. There's also a more-literal bootleg fan translation floating around archive.org, which despite its clunkiness I found myself preferring. (What can I say, I like having all the weird puns and references explained to me.)

Misc Notes: The beginning credits and the third-to-last episode of this show will live forever in my memory. I sometimes watch that one episode, all on its own, to inspire myself.

"I'm part of your imagination too. I'm you too, Joel."

Blurb: After a painful breakup, Clementine undergoes a procedure to erase memories of her former boyfriend. When he finds out, he undergoes the same procedure and slowly begins to forget the woman that he loved, only to discover that this may not be a good idea. A flight through mindscape ensues, trying to dodge the memory-erasure.

Why is it worth your time?: It's really good! Nowhere else have I seen a story (asides from those about dementia) that is so about the preciousness and pricelessness of memories, even painful ones. The special effects are used subtly to show the differences between memory and reality, with surreal geography, blurred environments representing them not being fully committed to memory, and some looming psychological horror as memories warp before erasure. This is definitely hard on the ish part of pluralish, but seeing as Joel's introject of Clementine comes up with ideas that he himself seems unable to think of, one could argue that his memory of Clementine is somewhat freestanding and has taken on her own life within him. It's also the most relatable movie about amnesia we've ever seen.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, memory work, otherworld, realitymashing, introjects, nonswitching, romantic relationships

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Has subtitles in English, Spanish, and French, dubbing in French--my DVD version, anyway.

Misc Notes: Do not believe the box; this is NOT a romantic comedy, and if you go in expecting that, you will not have a good time.

"The actions and utterances of the possessed person are not the expression of the individual, but the loa."

Blurb: A journey into the Voudoun religion of Haiti, filmed by Maya Deren during 1947-1951 and edited posthumously by Teiji and Cherel Ito in 1981, focused primarily on religious song, dance, and possession.

Why is it worth your time?: Maya Deren experienced Voudoun possession herself (though it doesn't come up in the film--for that, see the appendices of the BOOK version of Divine Horsemen) and was an avante-garde filmmaker, which makes this film singular. It doesn't really have a story, but it's a cinematic expression of an experience from a time period that's hard to find without grotesque trappings of racism. Voudoun is treated matter-of-factly in this film, and it's worth your time. Mostly, it lets the footage speak for itself, with little commentary.

Plural Tags: spiritual, switching, on purpose, community, abuse not mentioned, possession

Content Warnings: Matter-of-fact but explicit animal injury and sacrifice (chickens, goat, bull). It isn't treated as lurid or disgusting, and the narrator makes it clear what's going to happen well ahead of time.

Access Notes: Available on DVD, VHS, and streaming. Alas, the DVD version I had contained no subtitles. There's also a book version, but because it is more about Voudoun as a religion than about plural or personal experience, it doesn't make the cut for this catalog. (That said, if you want to read Deren's experience of possession, that's Chapter 7.)

Someone has uploaded the film to archive.org here!

Alim:
She still keeps plastic on the furniture.

Cary Grant:
It keeps the evil fresh.

Blurb: Alim seems to have it all: a great career, a handsome boyfriend, and a personal guide in the spirit of Cary Grant. And living thousands of miles away from his mother, Nuru, and his family in Toronto, he can keep his lifestyle hidden. But when his mom pays an impromptu visit, Alim needs to reconcile these different sides of himself.

Why is it worth your time?: It's good and bittersweet! This is a rare time I will put a story on this list where someone has to leave their headmate behind. Cary Grant and Nuru simultaneously represent parental figures and different sides of Alim-- Cary is racist but wants Alim to be happy, while Nuru is more abrasive on the surface but also more able to change. Alim's relationship with them both can be fraught. Nuru steals the show, if you ask me; she's sympathetically complicated.

Plural Tags: imaginary friends, nonswitching, other world

Content Warnings: homophobia and racism, both external and internalized, past parental death, strained familial relationships

Accessibility Notes: Available on DVD, probably streaming somewhere. Subtitles in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai

“If you're going to perform inception, you need imagination. You need the simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally in the subject's mind. Subtle art.”

Blurb: A washed-up old dream thief pulls together a heist crew to pull off one last perfect crime: to break into a man's subconscious and, instead of stealing something, leave an idea behind. But what heist ever goes perfectly? And the thief in charge has his own inner demons...

Why is it worth your time?: As a heist movie with stunning visuals, this movie is very good. There's a reason it won a bunch of special effects awards and spawned such a big fandom. Keep your expectations to "great brain robbery" and you'll have a blast. As a deep look or explorations of dreams, self, and the psyche, it's much less satisfying than Paprika, which inspired this movie.

Plural Tags: dreamfolk, otherworld, nonswitching, introjects, the dead

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: available with subtitles, on DVD, and streaming.