Well this is a trip down memory lane.
Quill of Molliemons works on his Star Wars AU being the most memorable for myself.
He started a rewrite of Misunderstood, https://m.fanfiction.net/s/3246919/1/Misunderstood-V2
Have you had a chance to read it? It's incomplete but I found the writing was stronger and the story and characters better fleshed out. More in line with Exile.
Specifically I only have 14 favorites and offhand I'm pretty positive about all of them, though I'm sure it would shock the sensibilities of someone that I have a Frozen/BattleTech cross on there.
By: ohwhatsherface
While Sakura sleeps, Naruto and Sasuke go through her bag in search of food. Tampons and underwear galore.
Rated: Fiction K+ - English - Humor - Sasuke U., Naruto U. - Words: 2,174 - Reviews: 163 - Favs: 630 - Follows: 67 - Published: Mar 11, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3434718
Impressions before reading:
Almost certainly a one-joke fic, treading familiar ground. Still, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Review:
Okay, one-joke fic is perhaps a little unfair. I mean, yeah, it's a scene, and doesn't move much past what the summary gives, but there is a little more to unpack. Sasuke actually recognizing the tampons and one other item where Naruto doesn't is a nice touch; the author could have easily made both boys clueless, but Sasuke's panicked attempts to stop Naruto are deeply amusing. And Sakura being sufficiently protective of her beauty sleep to attack Sasuke? Also amusing.
Verdict: Not much more than it could be, but still more than it had to be. If that makes any sense. Whatever, it's funny.
By: Lathis
The ongoing adventures of Heroes and Martial Artists alike, as two very different worlds collide. The Story so far: It's time for Ryouga to finally begin Terra's training . . . but what's this? Looks like Jinx is back, and on a mission of her own.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Adventure/Humor - Ryoga, Raven - Chapters: 38 - Words: 440,791 - Reviews: 842 - Favs: 332 - Follows: 280 - Updated: Mar 21, 2012 - Published: Mar 27, 2007 - id: 3462706
Dark Titans is the sequel to The Titans and the Lost Boy, which if you'll recall was removed from the list a couple of weeks ago. As such, this has to go, too. Sorry for no review.
By: Macavity the Mystery Cat
AU. After the Third Angel, Shinji Ikari finds himself living alone, when Misato is late to arrive, and Section Two takes actions into its own hands...
Rated: Fiction T - English - Shinji I. - Chapters: 7 - Words: 44,761 - Reviews: 144 - Favs: 295 - Follows: 337 - Updated: Nov 25, 2010 - Published: Mar 31, 2007 - id: 3468695
Impressions before reading:
I know the premise, but I cannot for the life of me remember what changes flow from it. Is life for Shinji good? Bad? Better? Worse? No idea.
Review:
Section 2 of NERV tends to get the short stick in Eva fanfiction. Which makes sense, since they're almost entirely invisible in the show itself1 and are often an obstacle to the kind of story fanfic authors want to tell. The result is that they're portrayed as classic Red Shirts at best, and more often are bumbling morons, outright hostile, or simply invisible.
Anyway, none of that is present in this story. Section 2 is competent, and in fact is the part of NERV that Shinji most interacts with. In fact, the NERV staff that aren't Misato and her bridge bunnies are the main human contact Shinji has in this fic. It's a novel idea, if nothing else.
The problem is, this is a by-the-numbers stations of canon fic that never really gets to set much in motion with its changes. It's boring.
By: drakensis
Every week the most prominent citizens of Konohagakure gather for a game of poker. This time there are three new players... two kunoichi and a six year old Naruto! cowritten with Rift120
Rated: Fiction T - English - Humor/Drama - Anko M., Kurenai Y. - Chapters: 2 - Words: 25,143 - Reviews: 1,428 - Favs: 6,518 - Follows: 4,028 - Updated: Dec 29, 2007- Published: Apr 7, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3480341
Impressions before reading:
On the one hand, I remember really, really wanting this fic to update. On the other, Past Me's judgement has proven to be unsound, and my greater experience with Naruto fanon is causing some alarm bells.
Review:
Well, anyone who knows Naruto's gambling luck can guess where this is going. And that's before the sake starts flowing, which is where the fic starts getting dumb in all the right ways.
Because make no mistake, this is an aggressively dumb fanfic, but it's the kind of dumb that makes you laugh and say "Ah, that's how we got here". Now, by no means is this perfect. The Anko/Kurenai relationship is too sexual for my tastes, Gratuitous JapaneseTM is a major problem, and there are some bits of bad fanon scattered throughout.
But goddamn, I still love this fic! Call it a guilty pleasure, I don't care!
Verdict: Good to see Past Me didn't have completely shit taste. It stays!
Next up, The Melody of the Fox! Which... maybe I should have reread fully before putting it on the list... oh boy.
By: Jetslinger
Naruto is determined to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. However, someone he didn't expect wants to help. NarutoxTayuya.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Romance/Adventure - Naruto U., Tayuya - Chapters: 44 - Words: 302,773 - Reviews: 4,195 - Favs: 4,499 - Follows: 3,882 - Updated: Oct 16, 2014 - Published: Apr 7, 2007 - id: 3481273
Impressions before reading:
I remember a fic that had to do a lot of extra legwork to justify it's pairing, and mostly does so.
Review: OH MY GOD MAN LEARN HOW TO PARAGRAPH.
Once again, technical issues get in the way of a potentially good story. Where Jetslinger learned how to format dialogue, that place needs to be bombed in oblivion. I mean, just look at this shit:
"No fair! First Sasuke gets training from the snake bastard, and now you get training from Tsunade obaa-chan! Everyone's getting trained by a sannin except me!" His teammate stuck her tongue out mockingly.
"Looks like it'll be up to me to bring back Sasuke, ne Naruto? You can be my back up." The boy lifted his chin and shifted into a slightly heroic pose.
The dialogue from one character is followed up by prose detailing another character's actions. If the characters didn't have such strong voices (and credit to Jetslinger, he does a good job there) it would be immensely confusing. As it is, it throws the flow for a loop, and makes who's doing what very confusing.
Like, lemme just fix that briefly:
"No fair! First Sasuke gets training from the snake bastard, and now you get training from Tsunade obaa-chan! Everyone's getting trained by a sannin except me!"
His teammate stuck her tongue out mockingly. "Looks like it'll be up to me to bring back Sasuke, ne Naruto? You can be my back up."
The boy lifted his chin and shifted into a slightly heroic pose.
The dialogue from one character is followed up by prose detailing another character's actions. If the characters didn't have such strong voices (and credit to Jetslinger, he does a good job there) it would be immensely confusing. As it is, it throws the flow for a loop, and makes who's doing what very confusing.
This kills me. Whenever I see this, I'm always so tempted to copy-paste it into a text editor and fix the paragraphs. Instead I just make do with correcting it my head, but I feel your pain.
By: SicTransitGloria
Kakashi takes a moment to wrap his mind around equating Ino's chest with enemy shinobi while Asuma begins beating his head against the table and groaning about how he didn't sign up for this. Rated for language and the general horror that is puberty
Rated: Fiction T - English - Kakashi H., Asuma S. - Words: 2,149 - Reviews: 605 - Favs: 3,932 - Follows: 554 - Published: Apr 8, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3483427
Impressions before reading:
A puberty story, hm? Well, considering Kakashi and Asuma are a. male and b. have been trained killers since childhood, I don't think they're going to handle it well.
Review:
Nope. They didn't handle it well. At all. Poor bastards. rofl:
Also, the sheer mental image of Sasuke splitting like an amoeba is just too good to pass up.
By: Case13
No one starts on top of the world. Bereft of his dream, or even a chance for it, Uzumaki Naruto starts his own path to the top of the world.
Rated: Fiction M - English - Adventure - Naruto U., Anko M. - Chapters: 4 - Words: 38,546 - Reviews: 1,237 - Favs: 3,320 - Follows: 2,921 - Updated: May 23, 2008 - Published: May 5, 2007 - id: 3524043
Impressions before reading:
A.k.a chakra-less Naruto becomes a Yakuza boss.
Review:
Uh... shoot. I don't know what to do.
I like this fic. I actually like it quite a bit. Hell, I like it even more now that I have a deeper understanding of basic economics, and can appreciate the value of finding a market inefficiency and ruthlessly exploiting it for fun and profit. I find the characterization of Anko a good one, as well as the fact that the fic gets out of Konoha in the first chapter and never looks back.
But the whole thing is built on the sand edifice of Naruto building his own business empire before the age of twelve. There's Improbable Age, and then there's that. He also doesn't feel a whole lot like Naruto, but that's more forgivable between the early-life changes and a recent fanfic I've liked that has Naruto basically remake himself in similar fashion.
Verdict: Dammit, I like this fic, so I'm keeping it. You can like things and still acknowledge their flaws.
By: MZephyr
RanmaxAkane. The martial artists of Nerima are being laid low by an unstoppable fighter. What drives him?
Rated: Fiction T - English - Humor/Romance - Ranma, Akane - Words: 4,447 - Reviews: 60 - Favs: 137 - Follows: 17 - Published: May 22, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3551790
Impressions before reading:
It's hilarious, and I can't reveal much else without spoiling the punchline.
Review:
Yup. Still hilarious. In fact, I'd overlooked how ironically appropriate most of the injuries sustained are. Like Nabiki getting her jaw dislocated from having her camera stuffed in her mouth. It helps make what might have comedic sociopathy merely seem like karma finally coming home to roost.
The author also drops a number of cryptic hints and fake-outs about just who is tearing through Nerima's best like a brand-new combine harvester, all of which become considerably more funny when the punchline hits.
And that punchline. Oh, that punchline. Perfect.
Verdict: Still one of the better Ranma stories I've read. Whoo!
Next up, we return to the Ozzallos well, with Hell is a Martial Artist.
By: Ozzallos
When the Grand Demoness of Hell finds a new play toy, she gets more than she bargained for with Ranma Saotome, gender cursed heir of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.
Rated: Fiction K+ - English - Humor/Drama - Ranma - Chapters: 15 - Words: 187,279 - Reviews: 1,899 - Favs: 2,342 - Follows: 2,051 - Updated: Dec 3, 2015 - Published: Apr 23, 2007 - id: 3505392
Impressions before reading:
I like this fic, and have reread it before. I do remember it being rather uncharitable towards certain characters, though.
Review:
Rereading this fic has reminded me of yet another flaw in Ranma fanfiction that I honestly hadn't noticed before: when authors are changing things, there's a tendency to take Ranma's side and lionize him. And honestly, I don't blame them. A lot of shit happens to Ranma that isn't his fault in canon, especially during his childhood, and it's hard not to sympathize with some of the messes he ends up.
That said, it's still a problematic trend. Ranma is a highly reactionary character with a tendency to exacerbate many of his own problems out of pride and lack of tact, something a lot of fanfic writers downplay. Worse, it tends to come with a side order of bashing, or at least taking highly uncharitable interpretations and injecting flat, static characterization.
And all of these problems are on display in Hell is a Martial Artist, enabled by the fact that Hild1 is involved and on the side of Ranma.
So it may disappoint you all to know that I don't mind.
I judge flaws in a story on whether they affect my enjoyment of the story or not. And in this case, that doesn't happen. Mostly, it's because I feel this is a deliberate stylistic choice by Ozzallos, more so than bad writing. I've seen him write more balanced stories, after all. It feels baked into the very premise, rather than an unpleasant distraction from what the fic is supposed to be about.
Also, there's a fic later in my favorites that takes the dynamic I spent 150 words talking about and turns it on its head, so look forward to that.
Verdict: Regardless, a flawed but enjoyable offering.
Next, a more... conventional Naruto time-travel story.
Who I suspect often got this treatment in the Ah My Goddess fanfiction scene.
By: SoulShdw
In the year's following Konoha's fall during the Sound Leaf war, the remnants have struggled to survive. After achieving vengeance against the Otokage, Uzumaki Naruto is given an unexpected second chance. A shame he didn't get a choice in the matter. Unfinished.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Anko M., Naruto U. - Chapters: 17 - Words: 167,195 - Reviews: 1,509 - Favs: 3,689 - Follows: 3,490 - Updated: Apr 11, 2009 - Published: May 12, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3536141
Impressions before reading:
Fairly standard Naruto time-travel fic. I believe Naruto removes Anko's curse seal at some point. Though that last may be mixing it up with another, similar story.
Review:
Yeah, if you're expecting much from this one, you're gonna be disappointed. It's so boring. It's intensely... boring...
*snores*
Bwah... oh, uh, sorry. Fell asleep for a moment.
Verdict: But yeah, when I want to be doing anything else besides read this fic, that's not a good sign. I didn't get past chapter 3.
I know for sure that the first one is pretty damn good. I haven't had time to see if the sequels are worth the full reread of the first that I would want to start into with them.
By: claymade
Ranma and Ryouga are no strangers to trouble. But when they accidentally convince both the Sailor Senshi and the Dark Kingdom that they're megalomaniacal villains bent on world domination, trouble starts to take on a whole new meaning.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Adventure/Humor - Ryoga, Ranma - Chapters: 24 - Words: 230,297 - Reviews: 1,360 - Favs: 1,546 - Follows: 944 - Updated: Feb 24, 2011- Published: May 30, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3566724
Impressions before reading:
This fic is widely hailed as a masterpiece, and since I'm still following the sequel, if this is anywhere as good as that fic that's only mild hyperbole. It's funny, zany, and quite awesome.
Review:
Ranma, you idiot! "What could possibly go wrong?" indeed!
During my review for The Best of Times, I mentioned that one of the fic's strong points was that the entire "Fuku fic" cliche was brought about by Ranma's own zany, Takahashi-esque scheme. There's no shortage of zany schemes here, and more measured plans, and terrified improvisation. And that's before Ranma says the most terrifying four words he could possibly speak:
"I got an idea."
Brr... but besides the schemes, this fic is also sustained by a series of equally Takahashi-esque misunderstandings. Nobody really understands each other, and everyone's running on assumptions that very often turn out to be faulty. And often, the misunderstandings are being perpetrated as part of the aforementioned zany schemes; the biggest culprit there is Beneda, the youma who gets the entire plot rolling.
No, Beneda, shut up, you've done enough damage as it is.
What this leads to is some absolutely superb comedy via dramatic irony. Characters will say something, and I burst out laughing knowing that they are completely off the mark.
Another strength is that both series are injecting their respective tones in each other's settings. I've talked about the injection of Ranma 1/2's wackiness, but it's balanced out by a raising of the stakes that canon Ranma 1/2 only rarely dipped into from the Sailor Moon side. This also results in both sides getting a fair shake. Both the Senshi and Dark Kingdom, for all that they're in the dark about what's going on the whole time, are shown competently trying to get a handle on things, and their failure is mostly due to factors outside of their control. And since we get to go behind the scenes on the Ranma side, we see just how much of their "diabolical planning" is just... the fact that the Ranma characters aren't even close to unified in their intentions, and many characters are closer to, well, random encounters from a tabletop RPG than any sort of predictable actor.
And finally, we have Mousse, who is a decidedly underutilized character in Ranma fanfiction. Well, I say character, but Mousse might as well be an entry in a random encounter table for all that he gets to do in most Ranma fanfiction, where he's simply an obstacle only marginally above Tatewaki Kuno. And when that facet isn't utilized, it's generally his poor eyesight and obsession with Shampoo.
These factors are all present in The Dark Lords of Nerima, but setting the fic early in Ranma canon means Mousse is far better able to keep up with Ranma and Ryouga, and it takes the opportunity to focus more on his fighting abilities and personal honor code; he's certainly a more varied and strategic fighter than those two. And he becomes far more important in the sequels, even getting interesting ties to the bad guys in the third fic.
Also, dammit, now I want to see a fic about Ukyo on the road searching for Ranma. That sounds like it'd be amazing. Does anyone know if a fic like that exists?
Verdict: Anyway, I could talk more about the good things this fic does, but let's get to the point. Is this the best thing ever? Probably not. But it is excellent.
Next up, we have some medium-length fics. Two, maybe three. Depends on how fast I go through them.
By: HitokiriOTD
Uzumaki Naruto has been many things to many people. To some, he is a friend, a comrade, and perhaps even a hero. To others, he is an enemy, a nuisance, and a villain. But he's never been a god before.
Rated: Fiction M - English - Humor - Naruto U. - Chapters: 2 - Words: 43,726 - Reviews: 711 - Favs: 2,499 - Follows: 2,153 - Updated: May 9, 2008 - Published: Jun 1, 2007 - id: 3568608
Impressions before reading:
Oh, this is so totally a crack fic. Which means this is going to hinge on whether it's funny or not.
Review:
This is, once again, the "agressively dumb" variety of comedy fic, which in this case has its good and bad points. On the good side, the first chapter is hilarious. Take the scene with the Konoha Council, for instance.
Now, normally I don't like council bullshit, but when they're openly frothing at the mouth1 regarding Naruto and making Danzo think they're idiots, that's funny enough to get a pass. And that's just one gag, there are several in the first chapter that had me laughing out loud.
Unfortunately, the second chapter isn't nearly as funny, which allows the aggressive dumbness of the whole thing to jump to the fore and start reducing enjoyment. For once, I'm glad the fic died where it did, because otherwise it would have squandered its momentum entirely.
Also. Fair warning, one of the subplots gets a little, well...
Thank you, Madoka.
Verdict: First chapter is funny enough that it stays.
By: zenith020388
He faces his family, grown larger by two. She faces her old life, lived by someone new. He faces the world, hated and reviled. She faces the beast, hopelessly wild. The fallout of the clone wars. Ultimate Spider Man
Rated: Fiction T - English - Friendship - Chapters: 21 - Words: 51,670 - Reviews: 153 - Favs: 106 - Follows: 97 - Updated: Apr 7, 2012 - Published: Jun 24, 2007 - id: 3614924
Impressions before reading:
Honestly, Jessica Drew, Peter Parker's opposite-sex clone in the Ultimate Marvel setting, is IMO an interesting and underutilized character. Not helped by the fact that she kinda disappears after Ultimate Doomsday. I'm not going to object to seeing more of her, even in fanfic form. Also, is this the one where she's adopted by Daredevil...?
Review:
No, it is not. Never mind, then.
A little backstory on the setting in question. Ultimate Marvel was an attempt by Marvel Comics to create a... sort of separate sandbox for writers to play around with established characters minus decades of continuity. There were successes, there were failures, way too many people were turned into assholes for no apparent reason, we don't even talk about Ultimatum...
And through it all, the bedrock of the setting was the Ultimate Spider-Man line. It told old stories but took things in new directions, didn't turn its main characters into assholes, and was thus rewarded by continuing through the entire Ultimate Marvel run and then being integrated into 616 after Secret Wars II. And probably the line's greatest accomplishment was retelling the Clone Saga, probably the second-most reviled Spider-Man storyline ever, and actually making it work2.
This is important because the above story takes place immediately after that storyline, with the intent of tying up its loose ends. And good as it was, it did leave some loose ends that (I think) were mostly cleared up in later issues. Most of which were published well after 2007.
So that's perhaps one of the first issues with the story: continuity lockout. If you haven't read the comic storyline, you're probably going to be at least a little lost. Second... honestly, I'm kinda wishing I didn't recently learn how to spot passive voice, because seriously, that and trite dialogue are both serious problems here. And overuse of ellipses... And look at me, using two in as many lines.
Also, from what I can see in later chapters the story is mostly slice of life fluff. While I don't usually object to that kind of content, with the above problems it's just another nail in the coffin.
Verdict: If it was more interesting, it might stay. But it's not, so it won't.
By: Basser
When the improbable becomes the impossible, House and team find themselves struggling to treat a mysterious boy with an equally baffling ailment. Of course we all know how appearances can be deceiving... -Detective Conan crossover-
Rated: Fiction T - English - Mystery/Drama - Shinichi K./Conan E., G. House - Chapters: 24 - Words: 37,950 - Reviews: 305 - Favs: 706 - Follows: 272 - Updated: Jul 3, 2010 - Published: Jul 6, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3640634
Impressions before reading:
Well, the formula worked for Death by Chocolate, so feeling optimistic about this one.
Review:
So. Another two new settings to introduce.
House was one of many medical dramas that sprang up in the mid-2000s, and stood out from the others by a stronger focus on diagnosis and Hugh Laurie's performance as the caustic but brilliant Gregory House. Back when I still watched TV, it was one of the shows I generally looked forward to. Detective Conan, meanwhile, is a very long-running Japanese manga about a teenage detective who gets poisoned and then shrunk by a mysterious criminal organization, and uses his newfound physique to hide in plain sight and try to expose said organization - at least, in between the bodies that have on occasion literally fallen from the sky to give him murder mysteries to solve.
The problems with this fic are generally minor, mostly some gratuitous Japanese and one other problem that I've already forgotten. The strengths, meanwhile, are the ability to capture the voices of both main characters (House and Conan), and crafting a fairly realistic consequence of what would happen if Detective Conan's basic premise dragged on long enough3. It's not pretty. Not to mention confronting a realistic setting with something flatly impossible. That's always fun.
Verdict: It's nothing special, but I did enjoy it.
Another trio tomorrow, including a fic I promised @Fernandel to go over.
Among other things. Really, the council scene is one of the biggest reasons this fic is staying.
In large part due to telling it over several real-life months instead of the better part of a real-life decade. Yeah, 90s Spider-Man comics could get really, really bad.
Something the series itself dodges by gratuitous abuse of Comic Book Time.
I read Casework and by the last chapter, the impression I get is that I have read the story, years ago. Detective Conan fics that actually made me read them until the end and then reread is really rare, an exception would be the all-time favourite It's Raining Men, Hallelujah. The only issue is that I tend to not favourite fics I have read, so this one I completely forgot until now.
Impressions before reading:
I like this fic, and have reread it before. I do remember it being rather uncharitable towards certain characters, though.
Review:
Rereading this fic has reminded me of yet another flaw in Ranma fanfiction that I honestly hadn't noticed before: when authors are changing things, there's a tendency to take Ranma's side and lionize him. And honestly, I don't blame them. A lot of shit happens to Ranma that isn't his fault in canon, especially during his childhood, and it's hard not to sympathize with some of the messes he ends up.
That said, it's still a problematic trend. Ranma is a highly reactionary character with a tendency to exacerbate many of his own problems out of pride and lack of tact, something a lot of fanfic writers downplay. Worse, it tends to come with a side order of bashing, or at least taking highly uncharitable interpretations and injecting flat, static characterization.
And all of these problems are on display in Hell is a Martial Artist, enabled by the fact that Hild1 is involved and on the side of Ranma.
So it may disappoint you all to know that I don't mind.
I judge flaws in a story on whether they affect my enjoyment of the story or not. And in this case, that doesn't happen. Mostly, it's because I feel this is a deliberate stylistic choice by Ozzallos, more so than bad writing. I've seen him write more balanced stories, after all. It feels baked into the very premise, rather than an unpleasant distraction from what the fic is supposed to be about.
Also, there's a fic later in my favorites that takes the dynamic I spent 150 words talking about and turns it on its head, so look forward to that.
Verdict: Regardless, a flawed but enjoyable offering.
Next, a more... conventional Naruto time-travel story.
Who I suspect often got this treatment in the Ah My Goddess fanfiction scene.
By: Evilgoddss
When a Magical game of Truth & Dare goes wrong, the Gryffindor Quidditch team must 'bare' up and face the consequences. And as the news spreads like wildfire in mmail things get quite out of control.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Humor - Harry P. - Chapters: 10 - Words: 22,510 - Reviews: 859 - Favs: 3,933 - Follows: 756 - Published: Jul 29, 2007 - Status: Complete - id: 3689325
Impressions before reading:
Well, I know why I started reading this thing. And I'm fairly sure it was more than the obvious that kept me reading.
Review:
First off, fair warning, the fic contains a fairly detailed striptease that I had forgotten about. As such, I award the fic a lewd score of
And have killed the links leading back to it.
Anyway, while the whole "naked Quidditch" thing is central to the comedy of this fic, it spins off a lot of good gags, enough that I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind the premise and the sexual humor that inevitably follows it. And to anyone wondering about the dubious canonicity of some of the information contained therein: this is an old fic that was originally posted on the author's website, migrated to fanfiction.net years after its original publishing.
Oh, one more thing: most of the story is presented as an email chain. If you don't want to see that, don't check this fic out.
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Seven hundred years he's waited, sitting on his throne. Now, as his life and strength dwindle, he has finally lost his patience. He seeks the one thing that still remains of his old lover. He seeks his heir... ON HIATUS!
Rated: Fiction T - English - Adventure/Supernatural - Yusuke U., Hiei, Kurama M., Keiko Y. - Chapters: 13 - Words: 54,279 - Reviews: 387 - Favs: 414 - Follows: 404 - Updated: Jul 21, 2009 - Published: Aug 1, 2007 - id: 3696633
Impressions before reading:
This is one I like, and wish hadn't died, though it's a rather straightforward AU.
Review:
Ah, Yu Yu Hakusho. I have fond memories of this one, having read most of the run in American Shonen Jump. The Dark Tournament is still one of my favorite arcs in a shonen battle manga.
Unfortunately, finding good fanfic that's not about slash pairings is like pulling teeth. It can make a man a little desperate. But The Last Mazoku still holds up despite that and some persistent typoes and annoying syntax choices. Essentially, Raizen picks up Yusuke as his heir early, which has all sorts of interesting ripple effects, not least of which is that Keiko takes the place of Yusuke in canon Yu Yu Hakusho events. And it works, because you look at Keiko in the series and you see a girl with the kind of temper and right hook who could have gone down that path if things changed. Like, say, her best friend up and vanishing after getting expelled for something that was apparently not his fault.
And then there's one very touching scene that I won't spoil.
Either way, it's too bad this died well before the Dark Tournament saga.
Impressions before reading:
I think Fernandel liked this one? Maybe? And it definitely seems like the sort of stupid comedy that can be a bit hit or miss with me. Well, we'll see.
Review:
This fic suffers from the terminal condition known as "being chronically unfunny". I mean, yeah, the thought of Revenge of the Sith being prevented by the powers of bartender wisdom and lots of drink is amusing, but the novelty wears off fast. And the characterizations are... honestly tolerable if this was funny. Which it's not.
*sigh* Let's get this over with...
Verdict: Chronic unfunnyness is always going to get you off the list. Always.
rofl:
