Well, Fernandel's right about one thing: I need to pick up the pace, especially after Hearts of Ice wrecked my shit and my schedule. So today, we'll finish off 2001 and hopefully get through 2002; five fics in total.
And we start with...
Birthright
By:
Arthur Hansen
What if Ranma wasn't the best?
Rated:
Fiction T - English - Drama/Romance - Chapters: 3 - Words: 30,844 - Reviews:
52 - Favs: 24 - Follows: 17 - Updated: Jan 28, 2002 - Published: Jun 10, 2001 - Status: Complete - id: 313272
For want of a nail, a kingdom was lost...
That poem provides the inspiration for endless legions of fanfics that change one small thing, one small change that snowballs into something completely unrecognizable. When done well, it's an organic way to plausibly build an AU setting. When done poorly, you get an incoherent mess.
Birthright is more the former than the latter. Its one small change - namely, that the Tendos get a housekeeper after Mrs. Tendo dies - results in a very different Tendo family when Ranma crashes into their lives, and these differences are all positive - with one major exception. But we'll get to that.
I'm honestly unsure how I feel about this story. On the one hand, I mostly like the changes to the Tendo family and the effect that has on the canon character dynamics. On the other hand, I
don't like what the author does with Nabiki, and on a technical level it's a rather telly story with a lot of awkward sentences and sparse descriptions.
Verdict: But on the other hand those technical issues didn't stop me from powering through the story. I think I'll let it stay.
And next up is... oh, this is going to be fun.
Girl Days
By:
Kenko
People keep telling me to put this here. Well, all right. It's basically the often used 'Ranma has to be a girl for a while' plot... but, well, not that after all. Because I'm a humorist, I do it without angst. If you haven't seen it before... get rea
Rated:
Fiction K+ - English - Humor - Chapters: 20 - Words: 110,866 - Reviews:
385 - Favs: 902 - Follows: 514 - Updated: Jun 18, 2016 - Published: Jul 7, 2001 - id: 345691
As Kenko says, "Ranma has to be a girl for a while" is a common plot in Ranma 1/2 fanfiction, as is its close cousin "Ranma is locked into girl-form for good". And also as Kenko says, this is usually an opportunity for lots of angst. I don't like angst. Or I should say that I have a fairly low tolerance for the stuff.
Kenko does, too, and Girl Days is very firmly a comedy fic. I've found myself laughing out loud multiple times at some of the absurdity of the situations Ranma and company get into. Don't worry, we'll get some more serious examples later in the list to poke at.
Another point in the fic's favor is that it has a very original flavor feel. Aside from some toning down of the comedic sociopathy of canon, the events in Girl Days very much feel like they could fit into the Ranma 1/2 manga. As you might guess, aside from the main plot device acting as connective tissue, most of the parts are standalone.
As for said main plot device, it's Nodoka Saotome deciding that since Ranma turns into a girl, he needs to know how to act as one, and as such coerces him into remaining in girl-form for an extended time. And goddamn am I glad this isn't played for angst, otherwise that idea would come across as rather... abusive. But it is a comedy fic with no angst, so we can enjoy the humor guilt-free.
Verdict: It's funny, so it stays.
Alright, next up is... Ah. It's time to talk about the Fuku Fic.
The Fuku Fic is a very specific type of fanfiction: specifically, it's a crossover between Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon where Ranma
becomes a Senshi. That last is important. Straight crossovers between the two don't qualify, it
has to have Ranma transforming into a Senshi, though not necessarily one of the canon ones. It says something that that specific a premise was common enough to spawn an actual genre.
And like most fanfiction trends, subversions inevitably cropped up.
PARAGON
By:
Kenko
Ranma the Magical Girl? Yup. Sailor Senshi? Nope. And the Senshi are DAMN aware of this. Besides, there's the rabbit...
Rated:
Fiction K+ - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 5 - Words: 31,259 - Reviews:
127 - Favs: 297 - Follows: 246 - Published: Aug 25, 2001 - id: 380988
Paragon follows most of the main beats of the Fuku Fic: new threat similar to the last few seasons of Sailor Moon in aesthetic, power, and motivation; Ranma being rather unwillingly dragged into being a Senshi, often with a side-order of being mode-locked; Ranma wowing the rest of the Senshi with her super-awesome skills and powers, etc, etc. Most. Those differences make Paragon a rather more enjoyable read than most Fuku Fics.
First, Ranma is a magical girl - but
not a Senshi. This is a major plot point in what little story there is. That means a different set of motivations and powers, different effects on his home life, and sundry other things. Second, you might notice that this is written by the same author as Girl Days, and it's got a good does of Girl Days' humor. It's not the laugh-out-loud comedy that Girl Days is, but I've always been of the opinion that dramatic works could stand to break things up with a good joke more often.
And I'll admit: this sort of story is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, both the magical girl parts (which I unashamedly love) and the look-at-this-awesome-character shilling (which is the guilty pleasure part).
Unfortunately, Paragon was unable to get very far in its story, so there's not a whole lot that's substantive. I like it, but I'd never recommend it.
Verdict: Stays on the list because it subverts the usual Fuku Fic formula and I like this kind of story anyway.
That's 2001 down, finally, and as I said, 2002 is much more spare. We're also moving out of the Ranma fandom - and back into a familiar one.
Reflections by Moonlight
By:
CSHayden
Krillin's P.O.V. on the night of his honeymoon
Rated:
Fiction T - English - Romance - Krillin, Android 16 - Words: 1,441 - Reviews:
14 - Favs: 14 - Follows: 1 - Published: Mar 21, 2002 - id: 672276
This fic is exactly what you'd expect to be: a fluffy one-shot that's really not much more than that. Well, not quite true. It packs in a few small character and background notes in. Surprisingly many for 1400 words. But honestly, even without that it's decently executed fluff, and sometimes that's what you want.
Verdict: Stays on the list because sometimes we need a bit of fluff in our lives.
And one last fic for 2002, which is...
Genma's Journal
By:
Thrythlind
Nabiki makes a copy of Genma's journal and reads it. The secrets she discovers are disturbing to say the least. The Ryouga torture is finally somewhat toned down as I promised about two years ago.
Rated:
Fiction T - English - Drama/Romance - Words: 19,525 - Reviews:
58 - Favs: 223 - Follows: 62 - Published: Apr 6, 2002 - id: 705578
Of all the characters in Ranma 1/2, I think only Happosai rivals Genma Saotome in how much the fandom dislikes and outright
hates him. And it's not hard to see why. Genma, through sheer, gross negligent stupidity, is responsible for... probably 50% of the problems Ranma faces throughout the series. As far as I remember, it's never malicious, but remember the corollary to Hanlon's razor: sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
Genma's Journal is a case in point, reinterpreting Genma's bumbling stupidity into true malice. I'm... not sure I like this interpretation of Genma's character. I don't like how the pairings slide so quickly and easily into each other. Genma only gets chased a bit; we don't get to see any of what could have been a hilarious beatdown. The whole thing is played for more drama than I'd like, in fact. Add on the technical issues and some odd formatting, and... well, I started skimming. That's always a bad sign.
I mean, I can see why I favorited this fic in the first place. It has some good ideas to it beyond the premise, and while it is dramatic that is an appropriate avenue to take. It's more of an execution problem, and I've become harsher on that over the years.
Verdict: Struck from the list for clumsy execution of a potentially good premise
1.
Man, where's the shame? Even my first fic struck isn't very shameful.
*eyes later years*
Yeah... it's coming. Slowly, but it's coming.
- Not the last time we'll run into that problem, I suspect.
