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Beastman
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« on: October 17, 2005, 11:27:05 am » |
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When I first starting reading fanfiction way back in the day, this was regarded as 'the' continuation fic, despite the fact that Ranma 1/2 was still being written when they wrote this. Links to it were everywhere and the mailing list for new chapters was in the hundreds. Why, it must be good if it's this widely lauded. Now bear in mind this was in the early days of fanfiction, before I had read much at all. So with an open, non-jaded mind, I began reading...
...And was treated to one of the most bland, uninteresting stories I have ever had the misery of reading. Large chunks of my limited time on this planet were lost forever as I pored over blase page of blase page of bordeom, slogging on only because I couldn't believe it could be this bad while so many people liked it.
I was wrong.
It's in script format, (which I guiitily admit to starting in) It started out with one of the worst early fanfic cliches (actually, it probably helped establish it) of having a Ranma Akane wedding with Ukyou not only helping out, but preventing the 'evil and dangerous Shampoo (tm)' from stopping it. Funny, I had bothered to read the manga back then. I looked over the characters. I came early on to the realization that :
A: Ukyou wants Ranma
B: Ukyou gets along with Akane
C: 'A' is more important to Ukyou than 'B' . Every. Time.
Now, having read the manga up to that point, It always perplexed as to why people thought Ukyou wouldn't interfere in a wedding between Ranma and Akane, let alone *help* them. You can't imagine my amusement when the final volume of the manga came out and people were stunned at the idea that Ukyou would try to stop it (no, the food bombs were not murder attempts either, folks from that camp). Not that it prevented the fanfic cliche from continuing, and not using the assumption it's an Alt-Uni.
Don't get me wrong. I like Ukyou a lot. She's probably number 2 in my book (yeah, Yuka's number one for me, want to make something of it?) But when the writers come out of the gate with this, I'm worried.
Now when the manga was released and the DNR/DNU authors were proved, you know, completely wrong on their take of Ukyou's reaction to a wedding, they rewrote the first chapter. Now, this is the ideal time to change their characterization of Ukyou's to match the canon version which they had bungled. Is that what happens? Heck no, That would be reasonable. Instead we are treated to the *exact* same event, except it's now the second attempt at a wedding and a few minor details are altered. This is the moral equivlent of a reporter sitting at his desk, writing up a story, then going out and start interviewing a hundred people to eventually find one that will back up what he already wrote.
Now at least it does make sense, given who these authors are. They wanted Ukyou in DNR as an ally, so even if their take on her is a bit flawed, at least this wasn't a token gesture, like Shampoo's interference in the wedding (that will be explained later).
So the wedding is successful. R+A are husband and wife, while tacitly not sleeping together. At this point we dump the entire Ranma cast not named Ranma, Akane, or Ukyou (except for purely token appearances). Ranma, Akane, and Ukyou go to college and we go from there.
Hmm. That doesn't seem like much of a Ranma continuation. You know, essentially dumping all but three of the cast. And just *why* is Ukyou there, since all she does is angst over Ranma and Akane being married, which she, you know, helped do?
We then start being bombarded with a bunch of dull, uninteresting original characters that have supplanted the original cast. Because these character are much cooler and more interesting than everyone not named Ranma, Akane, and Ukyou.
Hmm. That doesn't seem like much of a continuation either, creating a bunch of new supporting (not adversarial) characters that had nothing to do with Ranma 1/2.
Oh yes, and Ukyou angsts.
Now it should be noted that the former characters do have token appearances to make it seem like it's a continuaiton, but there's no development done there. So it's tokenism. Kodachi fights Ranma once with a giant plant and disappears. Shampoo buys a bar and serves beer. The original characters are developed though, since they're more cool than everyone in the original cast. We get quite a few scenes devoted to them.
And Ukyou angsts
In fact, Ukyou has angsted so much by this point that even the Church of Ukyou has complained about it and cast the authors names onto the Altar of Damnation (it should be interesting to note that Ukyou has had more scenes, time, and characterization devoted to her than the rest of the original cast not named Ranma or Akane combined, and that, aside from angsting, none of it is negative). So the authors did a side series to placate the hordes of angry Ukyou fans and gave her her own storyline which sticks out like a sore thumb because it was, you know, written to placate angry fans and not actually part of the DNR story. In fact, as near as I can tell, Ukyou was included just because the authors liked her, as she doesn't really served a purpose in the story until they came up with the side story.
I had to check out by now. This is not a continuation. It is 'the further Adventures of Ranma, Akane, and Ukyou in college, with Cool Original Characters Hanging Around'. This fic is solely for Ranma and Akane 2gether 4ever folks, and Ukyou fans who don't mind their character angsting a lot before getting her own series. There are a few lines here and there that are amusing,, but overall, unless you are a fan of the Big 3, this isn't worth the time it takes to scroll down the page.
1 out of 5.
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