In most of Animeaddiction's works, the Anti-Genma theme is used for just two reasons: as an impetus to motivate Ranma, and to let the story progress. The only early-on reminder of this theme is the fact that Ranma displays a very deep dislike (and in some cases hatred) of Genma. Until Genma shows up in later chapters, he's not shown actually doing anything. He is later portrayed as something of an idiot, but that's what he is. Deal with it.
The second theme? Well, not liking Akane is the
author's perogative. *I* certainly don't.
In reading his works, I didn't see much that
the forementioned Canon-Worshippers would find that might cause them to
fling their favorite label out of their Bag-O-Badmouthing: "Out Of Character."
She seems to act and sound exactly like the Akane we all know.
I am personally of the belief that "OOC" is almost a non-issue, having very little to no importance. I usually tune out anyone who objects more than twice to a fanfic's characters being OOC. The very fact that it's fanfiction means that the entire thing is OOC. The characters can act in whatever way the author wishes. The challenge is to get us to believe it. Just get over it and enjoy the story. Not every fanfic sticks to canon. Thank goodness : P
And the last one? That can be summed up very easily,
and it's a great reason:
You have to start someehere, and that's a pretty
good spot.
Cat Fist
Fury: Cat Fist Fury is a fanfic with a truly odd flow. It goes
from a very shaky start, one that made me groan at how convieniently everything
started out, to very good later on. Especially with the happenings in the
latest chapters.
Let me explain.
When this Ranma (Cojiro, or Kojiro in later chapters) reaches Nerima a
few months after ditching Genma, he's developed powers and skills far beyond
both the rest of the Nerima bunch and his canonic counterpart. On the other
hand, it *is* explained that Ranma has trained himself intensely and studied
his new powers/abilities very closely. Where things start to fall apart
is the tournament, where the rest of the Ranma cast is introduced. They're
all there, and they're all fully-powered to the levels equivalent to those
at the end of the original Manga. Ryouga even knows the Shi Shi Hokodan.
The feeling of "convenience" is overwhelming at the beginning of the story.
Everyone is there in Nerima, ready to rumble at their full power with very
little in the way of explanations as to why.
Another problem
is one that Dual Destinies shares: Far too much of Kojiro's fights
consist of the screaming of attack names. Less of that and more narrative
descriptions would be a plus. Also, the use of exclamation points (!) should
be toned down. Everyone seems to be either shouting or really excited throughout
half of what they say.
On the plus side,
the plot later on (and not much later in fact) gets very good. The origins
of the Cat Fist, Ranma's unexpected heritage, and finally (at the time
of this review) his new status are all worth reading about. The dialogue
is good, the story progresses nicely, and the entertainment level is quite
high. Well-worth a read. Rating: 7.8
Dragon
Child: Another of the SPR ("Super-Powered Ranma") genre. This
fanfic is good, though it's still early in the plot's development stage.
There's a lot of room to grow here. It's also something I'd only seen once
or twice: An A-Ko Crossover.
One of the biggest
changes to this Ranma that I liked is to his personality. Here he's more
or less a normal adolescent (plus super Dragon powers), as opposed to his
original personality as a macho, semi-intelligent, brutish moron. I'm looking
forward to how this
Ranma deals with Genma's idiocy coming back
to haunt him.
Which also gives
rise to the first major problem I had here. The unseemly rush to introduce
the Fiancee Horde. It's only chapter 5 and at LEAST six have arrived or
are due to arrive. This includes all the Tendou girls, Shampoo, Ukyou,
and (surprisingly) Kaori Daikoku (the anime version's Martial-Arts Take-Out
Race girl). Even bearing this sudden glut of girls, I *am* interested in
seeing where it goes.
Another difficulty
I had was with Nodoka. Not with the idea that she's well-aquainted with
the old Dragon legends and her Dragon ancestry, but that she tells Genma
that she will not allow Ranma to be forced into any marriage, yet lets
all the engagements that Genma had made remain valid, each with "equal
standing" to the rest. In my mind this is just as bad as Genma's
foolishness, since it makes each and every one of the arranged marriages
valid. Ranma is now trapped, worse than he was before. Even though Nodoka
says that the final decision is up to Ranma, her words guarantee that if
Ranma says "No" to ANY of them he's done the equivalent of breaking a sworn
oath. I thought that it was a self-defeating proclamation on Nodoka's part.
It just doesn't work.
Thus far, I see
a lot of possibilities for fun and excitement. Add in some appropriately-powered
adversaries, an idiot or two, and perhaps even a budding romance between
Ranma and A-Ko (and all the violence that would entail) and this could
get to be a real blast. Rating: 7.7
Dual Destinies: This was the first of this author's stories
that I'd read, long long ago. Over two years now, to be precise. Several
chapters have been heavily rewritten over the course of time and the final
product, while still suffering from a few flaws, is still a good read.
The premise of Ranma
being split into multiple people has been done before. It's been done almost
to death. The most annoying habit of fanfics of the "Ranma Gets Split"
genre is the terrible names the new one gets. I'm sorry to say, but that
also happens in DD. "Ranma Red" and "Ranma Blue" are just... ick.
The fact that people refer to them by their entire names is just annoying.
"Hey, Ranma Red!" "Yes, Ranma Blue?" Yeesh!
Anyway... DD
is very reminiscent of Mortal Kombat: fight a tournament to save
the world, etc. There are some very well-written enemies (like the
swordsman who desperately wants to be defeated), and some very good surprises.
Get a load of what happens to Mousse and Ryouga and you'll see what I mean.
The fight scenes
are lengthy yet rudimentary. They usually consist of the yelling of attack
names (in ALL CAPS, of course), a brief description of the aftermath of
said attack, some dialogue, and then it repeats. Removal of a lot of the
attack-name-yelling and more descriptive combat scenes would be a definite
upgrade. This trait is greatly reduced in the author's later fanfics.
I get the idea that this
is one of the author's earlier works. Don't get me wrong, it's still a
*lot* of fun to read, but it's just not as much fun as reading Cat Fist
Fury, or The Great Crossover Crisis. Rating:
6.1
Fighting
Blind: This is one of
my favorite AnimeAddiction fanfics. It's got a mix that I'd been wanting
to see for quite some time: Ranma + maturity. A grown-up Ranma is something
that would spark interest in any rabid Ranma fan.
As I read this story,
it just kept surprising me. Even more than the expected conflicts, I really
liked the new interpersonal dilemmas faced by almost everyone in this fanfic.
Any girl after Ranma's heart has to go beyond physical beauty, since that
has no effect on him. Many people underestimate Ranma due to his blindness,
and are rudely brought up short when he proves himself. Add to that the
fact that no one's expectations of the blindfighter last more than a minute
before being turned on their ear, and you've got a fanfic that's definitely
worth reading.
I can't honestly
say I had any problems with this story. It's well written, fun to read,
and flows nicely.
At the time of this
review, chapter 12 had just ended. I'm really looking forward to this current
subplot, with Ranma meeting his biological mother. This promises to be
interesting, whichever way this meeting goes, whether it ends positively
or negatively. <grin> I'm hoping for negatively, myself. Things are
going much too smoothly for the blind warrior. But that's just my odd mind
running rampant.
In my honest opinion,
Fighting
Blind is a must-read. Rating: 8.1
Fist of the Pikachu: Read the full-sized Review.
The Great Crossover Crisis: Read the full-sized Review.
Green Lantern Ranma: Interesting.. I've seen Superhero-Ranma
fanfics before, but I've never seen a Green Lantern version. I haven't
had the words GREEN and LANTERN connect in my mind in many years.
I like what there
is so far (two chapters at the moment) and think this could be done nicely.
With opponents of the proper calibre, conflicts and dilemmas for our hero
could be properly interesting.
The problem I had
with this story is my own problem, to be honest. I have so little memory
of the original Green Lantern stories that I have to take everything the
author provides as a backstory to this fic as the honest-to-goodness DC
story. Rating: 6.6
Gundam Warblade: This is the one I had the most problems with,
really. What there is so far of this fanfic reads more like a summary than
anything else. Most of the portions of the story which would have originally
happened in Gundam Wing are simply skimmed over. To really understand everything
that goes on, knowledge of Gundam Wing is really required.
This is not to say
I didn't like it, just not as much as some of the others. The introduction
of a second unknown Gundam pilot did make the latest chapter (at this time,
anyway) more interesting and quite promising. And an American Indian character
at that... I can't say I'd seen that in a Ranma fic before. It bears watching,
but needs improvement. Rating: 5.2
Legend of Ranma: A Ranma/Zelda fusion. Cool. And instead of
telling the Zelda story using Ranma as the star, the author picks up at
the end of that story by starting over at the beginning of the Ranma
tale. Nice touch. I really like what there is so far (8 chapters) and hope
to read more soon.
One the other hand,
the way I read the story it assumes the reader has better than average
knowledge of the later Zelda games, which I do not, having stopped after
A
Link to the Past (remember the Super Nintendo? :) Gawds, I'm old..).
Slowing down the pace of the story to add in a little more background would
help.
The plot thus far
is fairly straightforward: Good vs. Evil, with Ranma kicking Evil Ass.
In the latest installments though, I was pleasantly surprised by the more
insidious plot twist of turning Ranma's allies (and most of the people
aware of the situation) dead-set against him. Sounds like fun. Rating:
7.0
Ranmatech
: Another one that I liked.
It's another Super-Powered
Ranma story, but the author has avoided many of the problems that usually
pop up in that genre: lack of a plausible reason for his powers, lack of
opponents or adversaries of comparable power, Ranma's easy avoidance of
the problems contained within the original story. Thus far the author has
provided a very plausible backstory (abduction by aliens), and introduced
several high-powered foes & allies. The story hasn't progressed far
enough to accurately assess the final SPR plot tendency yet.
A full-on crossover
with Tenchi, it seams very nicely with that series. The backstory is well-detailed
and interesting. It leaves plenty of room for later flashbacks by not getting
too intricately detailed at this early point, while not being unbearably
vague. There is plenty of possibility for new problems and/or plots to
come out of the past, such as Genma's past actions do in the canonic story.
I don't really have
any down-points to this story. Partly because it's so early in the story,
I suspect mostly because there are so few. This fic is well-written and
promises to be greatly entertaining to fans of the SPR Genre. Rating:
7.8
Tattoon Ranma: After reading the author's synopsis, this fanfic
interested me the most. Upon reading it, I'm sorry to say, it hasn't been
as interesting as I'd hoped.
Ranma the Woman-Hater.
I LIKE that idea! But as I read the story (3 chapters
so far) I didn't see that idea staying alive very long. By the end of Chapter
3, this fic is indistinguishable from any other continuation fanfic. Switch
the names of Lisa and Balla for those of Akane and Shampoo, and you couldn't
tell the difference. Ranma is almost completely back to his wishy-washy
self.
His personality
as an angry woman-hater evaporates rather quickly. Instead of actively
trying to distance himself from the new girls bothering him or force them
away (Think bitchslaps. Lots and lots of nice stinging bitchslaps),
he just lets the situation fester. Were Ranma a real woman-hater (I know
people who fit that title) he'd have no problem with firmly giving the
people involved a piece of his mind; and if that didn't work, a piece of
his foot (more than likely to the side of the head). Despite the author's
assurance that Ranma's tough-guy persona won't degrade much, it certainly
looks as if it will.
Add in the probability
of Nabiki telling everyone where Ranma is, thus reintroducing the Nerima
elements, and this story is right back where it started. Serious rewriting,
or some kind of severe or drastic action on Ranma's part, would have to
be done to keep the angry "leave-me-the-hell-alone" flavor of this fanfic's
premise. One nice instance of Ranma beating the snot out of one of the
Nerima girls? That might help considerably. I reallyhope
this gets continued. Rating: 4.5
Web of Ranma: I thought this one was neat. Yes, I said "neat."
Similar to the Green Lantern Ranma plot, with the big difference
being the lack of a guiding force to help Ranma learn and cope with his
new status. He'll have to figure everything out on his own. On the other
hand, he seems to be figuring things out a bit too quickly.
With this story
so far being not more than an idea, I won't go too in-depth here. I hope
this gets continued. It looks interesting. Rating:
6.7 (story's future yet unknown)
