[Ranma 1/2] Ranma and Akane: A Love Story

[Jon]

Ranma and Akane: A Love Story

Audacity \Au*dac"i*ty\, n.
    1. Daring spirit, resolution, or confidence; venturesomeness.
    2. Why this fic rocks so much.

RAALS hasn't been updated in over two years. It features songs, most of which are at best distracting and at worst annoying. And it's a serious alt-fic, so you'll have to forget most of what you already know about the Ranmaverse. But none of this matters, because Eric Hallstrom is writing this fic. This guy knows what he's doing.

Take a much-changed Ranma, somewhat wiser, somewhat more foolish. Bring him into Nerima a year later than usual, knowing nothing of his father's arrangement with one Soun Tendo. And give him (or rather her, for chaos's sake) a chance to make a good first impression. That's where it starts, and it hits the ground running and never looks back.

What follows is one hell of a story. It's got some crossover elements, but they're subdued and you don't need to recognize them to enjoy the fic. The plot, at least in the broad sketches, is not a new one, but you'd never know it, because the plot takes back stage to the characters. Characterization is where this fic shines.

There's really only one reason not to read this, and that's the aforementioned long gap since the last update. But then, that didn't stop people from reading Potter, or watching The Lord of the Rings. Although it did stop them from waiting for Duke Nukem Forever, but that's another story.

Official site here, though sometimes slow, and with horrible color choices for the HTML: http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/CMBSC.html

Unofficial mirror, somewhat faster, but without the fanart and songs from the official page: http://www.asynjor.com/fanfic/hallstrom.html

Edit: When I say there are songs, I mean that there are lyrics woven into the text of the story, and mp3s are downloadable should you be so inclined. It's not actually embedded in HTML as background music, God forbid.

[Jeram]

I always considered the story to have some exceedingly brilliant moments - especially the fighting in the pits of Hell.  But I will agree about the songs - distracting at best, in my opinion.  Eric's story suffers from what I like to call "Every chapter has a title already, but not yet written"-itis.  He has a huge list of intriguing chapter and "book" titles on his site... but when, if ever, they willbe written is another story.

The fic is a long read, so if you're into that sort of thing, grab a drink, sit back, and relax.

-J

[DB]

Jon wrote:

Audacity \Au*dac"i*ty\, n.
    1. Daring spirit, resolution, or confidence; venturesomeness.
    2. Why this fic rocks so much.

% And here I'll disagree. I found it, from the very opening, audacious in a bad way. Sort of like 'There's a reason not too many people write things this way: because it doesn't work". And this didn't for me. Part of it, of course, is the title, which gives away, oh, everything. That and the fact R+A get together stories are a dime a dozen.

Premise being old and well trodden on, we'll go on to writing style. It turned me off from the getgo. Ranma came across as, well, way too calm, cool, and collected. Sort of like an ANC, which is not the way a central character to an already existing series is supposed to come across. Likewise, as you point out, he starts out on a much better foot with Akane, which is, well, stupid, since even in the real series when they got off to a rocky start, the end up together (for all intents and purposes). This kills romantic tension, rather than increasing it, and in a 'Love story' this is a bad thing.

The worst is (as you mention) the music, which no one seems to be able to stand. Of course, I've made my opinion on it well known by lampooning it in a different fic, I disliked it so much.

I will give points for some original moments here and there, but it wasn't enough to salvage the fic for me. I found the writing style distracting, the main characters uninteresting, and taken in a direction I had no interest it.

Grammer itself works out well, as does the imagery. But that's about all I can say nice about it. I can understand conceptually why people might like this, but I sure as heck wasn't one of them.

[Brian]

In the words of a better author than myself: "I'm beginning to think that RAALS is in fact, not a good fanfic.  It may be a very _bad_ fanfic.  It just happens to be very very well written."

I tend to agree; the characters are so OOC that they really have only a passing connection to the canon, but I personally found the story and writing style so much fun I didn't care.  The style is very much hit-or-miss -- the Jons and Brians of the world love it, while the DBs do not.  I think it's worthwhile for the average Joe to read at least one chapter and decide for himself.  Well, two chapters, come to think of it. ;)

[Dracos]

I enjoyed it for the style, but it gets a definite problem in that it is, like most fics, unfinished.  This is made worse as there's the hint that there's lots planned out post 'akane is super' bit, but it never gets past that.

Dracos

[Jason_Miao]

I've never really understood why people liked this fic.  I remember when it came out on the FFML, I read through the first couple of chapters along with everyone else.  But after the "big fic that was actually spellchecked" glamour faded, reading the next installment became more of a chore than joy.  And it wasn't even the music; until DB first brought it up in his ninja fic, I hadn't really even remembered that it contained music, because I had always skipped over those parts.  RAALS just seemed to lack enough substance to be enjoyable.  Beautifully written, but the words said little.

Audacious?  Audacious is making making Happosai a lovable character, and getting the reader to believe it.  Audacious is taking a hundred nonsensical phrases, and weaving them into a coherent fic that's fun to read (audacity may or may not involve Chocolate Oranges).  Audacious is a Stained Glass Mind (inside the mind of the insane), or Evanjellydonut (which may have singlehanded started half the Eva-fic cliches).  Honestly, I don't see anything I can't pick up out of a trashy fantasy novel in a used bookstore bargain bin.  Mysterious teacher who only reveals little bits and pieces in cryptic hints, flashy yet vague training techniques, random bits of prose (here in song form), and a destiny that chooses someone for no good reason except to move the plot along just in case the writer can't think of any reasonable way to do so.

Audacions in description?  Character?  Many of the people who like RAALS also profess to dislike Younge's style of writing, and I'm not sure how they can meaningfully distinguish the two.

But there was a description about the fic, and its audacity.  Well, let's break it down...

Take a much-changed Ranma, somewhat wiser, somewhat more foolish.

Which had been done, and probably will be done forevermore, by people who wished Takahashi Rumiko wrote a more Serious Ranma.

Bring him into Nerima a year later than usual, knowing nothing of his father's arrangement with one Soun Tendo.

He didn't know about it in the original either.

And give him (or rather her, for chaos's sake) a chance to make a good first impression. That's where it starts, and it hits the ground running and never looks back.

You know, I think it was a few months after Kenko joined the FFML and was hanging around #fanfic, he had this great idea.  It was original!  It was superb!  It had never been done before!  His grand and magnificent idea was that he gets a wish, and wishes that he hadn't had that big misunderstanding when he first meets Akane...

And flush from the rabid popularty of Girl Days, he ignored every single person in #fanfic when we told him that it had been done to death, and to please let the sleeping cliche die, but did he listen?  No.  Because, damnit, he was audacious, and he'd show us how his fic would be completely different from all the rest once it was written.  Naturally, it wasn't.  After all, finding a new take on Ranma 1/2 is extremely difficult.  But although many people told him that they much preferred GD, he still had people gushing over his new fic.  Some people seem to think that no one has ever figured out that if Ranma and Akane could have just gotten to know each other, and Ranma treated Akane differently the entire time they see each other, they'd just love one another.

But the idea has not only been done to death, it's lost it's next three lives as well.  Still, that's just what I say and I know someone's going to come back and tell me that this is the fic that started that cliche, so here's an experiment:  Go find the year when Hallistrom released RAALS onto the FFML.  Next, pick ANY three months prior to that year.  Proceed to read through the fics for those months in the FFML archive, and count many fics you find that have the premise of "Ranma tells Akane about the curse at the first meeting"  Then come back and tell me again why you think this idea is so new and exciting.


On the plus side, the prose is well written.  That always counts.

[thepanda]

Some people seem to think that no one has ever figured out that if Ranma and Akane could have just gotten to know each other, and Ranma treated Akane differently the entire time they see each other, they'd just love one another.

Isn't that the premise of the majority of Ranma restart alterverse stories where he clearly chooses which person he wants to be with? Just change Akane to x, where x equals the author's choice mate (male or female) for Ranma. Can't really fault him for using a convention of the 'genre' unless he was trying to say it was all brand spanking new.

On a personal note, I recall reading this a loooong time ago. I could never remember the name, though. It will forever sit in my mind as "that one fic with the music'. That's pretty much the only thing I recall clearly about it. I never could stand song fics.

I haven't read it in a while, but didn't Mirrors Multiplied have songs as well?

[Edward]

Yes, Mirrors Multiplied had songs, too.  Ick.

[Timid-san]

Ahh, I remember this story.

I used to love the Ranma/Akane pairing, being new to fanfiction. I gobbled up every story I could, no matter how bad. If I remember correctly this was the second to last of that particular pairing I ever read, only proceeding Krista Perry's Hearts of Ice.

Those two... abominations.

Long long, sickly sweet stories that abounded with words and adjectives like 'angelic smile' 'calm voice' 'serenity' and containing such lines as "Up close he noted that her eyes were an incredible blue as deep as all the worlds' oceans" or "Ranma's eyes lit. Akane was staggered again by their power." Romance novels turned up to the uber-extreme (and lacking the semi-descriptive sex scenes.)

There's only so much sweetness and fluffiness a person can stand, and when 'the incredible love that can never be matched,' 'the sheer depth of feeling between the two leads' is crammed down you're throat as much as in this story, well... it's only natural that it begins to leak out of other orifices.

I recommend this story to ANYONE seeking a frontal labotomy.

[Jason_Miao]

Isn't that the premise of the majority of Ranma restart alterverse stories where he clearly chooses which person he wants to be with? Just change Akane to x, where x equals the author's choice mate (male or female) for Ranma. Can't really fault him for using a convention of the 'genre' unless he was trying to say it was all brand spanking new.

Oh, I don't fault Eric.  I just don't see how people can rave about RAALS, when all I see are overused plots and too many adjectives.

Long long, sickly sweet stories that abounded with words and adjectives like 'angelic smile' 'calm voice' 'serenity' and containing such lines as "Up close he noted that her eyes were an incredible blue as deep as all the worlds' oceans" or "Ranma's eyes lit. Akane was staggered again by their power."

Hah.

Have you ever noticed that so many heros have "deepest blue eyes"?  Including Ranma...which is strange, because I thought most asians had brown eyes. :)

There's only so much sweetness and fluffiness a person can stand, and when 'the incredible love that can never be matched,' 'the sheer depth of feeling between the two leads' is crammed down you're throat as much as in this story, well... it's only natural that it begins to leak out of other orifices.

I must remember this line. :)


As for HoI, I remember when Krista used to hang out on #fanfic all the time.  She was one of the nicest people in that channel.  I never had the heart to tell her I couldn't get past the first few chapters of HoI.

[Timid-san]

As for HoI, I remember when Krista used to hang out on #fanfic all the time.  She was one of the nicest people in that channel.  I never had the heart to tell her I couldn't get past the first few chapters of HoI.

That's true, that's true...

You feel like a real bastard critisising them, no matter what. I mean, just think of the hours those two authors have clocked up to write stories of such prodigious length. Thousands of hours tapping away at their computers.

I know I couldn't do it.

[Jason_Miao]

You feel like a real bastard critisising them, no matter what. I mean, just think of the hours those two authors have clocked up to write stories of such prodigious length. Thousands of hours tapping away at their computers.

Heh.  Being on the FFML for a couple of years "cured" me of that.  After seeing people make the same basic mistakes over and over, you become less...well, timid. ^_^

BTW, just noticed your post count.  Welcome to the board!

[DB]

% thepanda wrote quote="Jason_Miao"]Some people seem to think that no one has ever figured out that if Ranma and Akane could have just gotten to know each other, and Ranma treated Akane differently the entire time they see each other, they'd just love one another.[/quote]

Isn't that the premise of the majority of Ranma restart alterverse stories where he clearly chooses which person he wants to be with? Just change Akane to x, where x equals the author's choice mate (male or female) for Ranma. Can't really fault him for using a convention of the 'genre' unless he was trying to say it was all brand spanking new.

% As bad as that is, though, having Akane as the girl is a thousand times worse because it's completely *unnecessary*. In case anyone didn't read the original manga, they did fall for one another. So what's the point in having a fic where they fall in love easier? It takes what little romantic tension there was and drives a stake into its heart. The only thing that can save the fic would be if the romantic aspects of the story are ignored or relegated to a largely unimportant plot point and use something else as the plot. In a fic named 'Ranma and Akane: A Love Story.' This obviously isn't going to happen.

% As to the HoI thing, Krista is an incredibly nice person, and I did parody the Shadowkitty, but I didn't have the heart to tell either I found it  overrated, cliche-ridden, horribly biased, and incredibly boring.  Honestly, the only reason I can think of why it hasn't gone into obscurity the way Lawson's fic have is because it was never completed.

[Jason_Miao]

Honestly, the only reason I can think of why it hasn't gone into obscurity the way Lawson's fic have is because it was never completed.

You know, I really liked Lawson's fics.  I have the impression that he really showed his characters falling in love, or really suffering, or really confused, rather than saying "They feel this way!!!  Really!  I'm saying it 50 times a page, so you know it must be true!!!111one"  Then again, I also haven't read any of them in years, so memory may be playing me false.  I ought to head over to Rak's list and see if they measure up to the test of time.

[DB]

% Jason_Miao wrote:
You know, I really liked Lawson's fics.  I have the impression that he really showed his characters falling in love, or really suffering, or really confused, rather than saying "They feel this way!!!  Really!  I'm saying it 50 times a page, so you know it must be true!!!111one"  Then again, I also haven't read any of them in years, so memory may be playing me false.  I ought to head over to Rak's list and see if they measure up to the test of time.[/quote]

% Lawson writes depressing fics like no one else. Everything he writes is dark and depressing, which would be great, except not everything he writes is *supposed* to be dark and depressing. Ranma, Nuku-Nuku, hell, Robotech. Even when he tries to write upbeat things, it ends up feeling like Edger Allan Poe trying to write a comedy-- it just doesn't work and comes off as vaguely disturbing.

% Someone that knew him personally once said to me he is a pretty dour person, so maybe it comes through in his writing and he can't help writing that way. The one time he reviewed something of mine, he recommended I leave off the kind of upbeat ending at the end and leave it darker and depressing. I could see his point, and though I disagreed with it, it was coherent and made sense, but I find it interesting that that was one of his recommendations.

In fact, that pretty much is my review on all of his works like there. Maybe I should give it it's own post. Lawson Fics" Tales of Darkness and Depression. Reading him is sort of like listening to Suzanne Vega music, it makes you want to blow your brains out.