What are you reading?

[Yuthirin]

R

Nightmares of Futures Past updated. (After about three years of downtime. Seriously, my entire writing career, such as it is and what there is of it, has been since this thing last updated.)

Decent enough. Fairly short, for the whole 'three years' aspect.

I no longer have any idea what's going on. I'm honestly not sure I want to invest myself in it again.

[Jason_Miao]

I decided to go look for Ranma fanfics.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5734238/1/Not-All-It-s-Cracked-Up-To-Be
A spamfic.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8018537/1/Lines_of_Destiny_Destinys_Intersection
Lines of Destiny was a discontinued fic that was the first Ranma-SM cross I'd ever read.  It's entirely likely that my memories of the original story are rosy through nostalgia rather than quality since I haven't read the original in over a decade, but reason enough for me to try reading this "official" continuation.  Which I haven't yet, but will soon.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/710368/1/Journey
I have read this one through.  This is an odd one.  First part starts with a generic xover opener: one scene of Ranma fighting and running from fiancees before he's sucked into another dimension, fighting in a fantasy world, collects new fiancees and enemies, travels the multiverse, etc.  But then, the writer begins to slowly reintroduce the Ranma characters back into the story, an atypical approach, but actually kind of neat. 

The story also plays off of Ranma fannon, hands out powerups like candy, and basically does everything else I tend to hate in a Ranma fic (except for stupidly broken grammar/spelling, which usually has me "dieing" to stab the writer).  And yet, I like this fic.  I like it, and I have no idea why I like it, because from all objective evidence, I should hate it.

[Brian]

Strength of a Horse has updated:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4845847/5/

For those unfamiliar with it, it's a Ranma/Naruto crossover.  Focuses mainly on Ranma/Anko interactions after Ranma comes to realize that Ranma/Akane is never going to work out, with Ranma convincing Ryouga to help him get 'really lost'.  Well, that worked possibly far better than he ever intended....

[Brian]

'The Hypnotism of Suzumiya Haruhi'.

Squick right out the gate.

Sometimes, I'm very, very sad that my favorite fandom holds so much appeal for children. -_-

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7207791/24/From-Fake-Dreams

Spoiler: ShowHide

Chapter 24's up. No real comments right now except that the dialogue was shitty. The entire thing felt like it didn't get a beta read. On the other hand, seeing all the crazy plots play out is good, especially with how Shirou's having to work with Zouken. Things are going more and more off the rails and the shit is hitting the fan hard.

[Dracos]

Strength of a Horse has updated:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4845847/5/

For those unfamiliar with it, it's a Ranma/Naruto crossover.  Focuses mainly on Ranma/Anko interactions after Ranma comes to realize that Ranma/Akane is never going to work out, with Ranma convincing Ryouga to help him get 'really lost'.  Well, that worked possibly far better than he ever intended....

Hum.  Not sure what to think.  The last chapter was clumsy.  But rereading the rest, it isn't out of step with it.  It just seems like the entirely offscreen pressure on the hokage is feeling more and more ridiculous and it makes the Hokage's motivation with regards to ranma seem... wacky.  He's Shodai like?  Really?  How did they survive having a 'we should avoid killing' leader during the rough-shod ninja wars?

The camera is too close to just Ranma and Anko to make the story that the Hokage is telling seem reasonable.  Ranma doesn't seem to interact with anyone beside Anko, Sarutobi, and now Ino's dad.  The passive interaction is "Everyone is now afraid of him" which doesn't gel either.  Nor does the news literally being publicized all the way to other villages.

Mrgh.

I like aspects of the story, but they don't come together well in the grand scheme I think, which is making the story weaker over its course.

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/710368/1/Journey
I have read this one through.  This is an odd one.  First part starts with a generic xover opener: one scene of Ranma fighting and running from fiancees before he's sucked into another dimension, fighting in a fantasy world, collects new fiancees and enemies, travels the multiverse, etc.  But then, the writer begins to slowly reintroduce the Ranma characters back into the story, an atypical approach, but actually kind of neat. 

The story also plays off of Ranma fannon, hands out powerups like candy, and basically does everything else I tend to hate in a Ranma fic (except for stupidly broken grammar/spelling, which usually has me "dieing" to stab the writer).  And yet, I like this fic.  I like it, and I have no idea why I like it, because from all objective evidence, I should hate it.

I've enjoyed Druth's Journey for a long time, even if the fic is something on the order of 10-12 years old at this point, updated when the stars come into alignment in surprise massive chunks.  There's a grandeur to it that seems to have things coming together better than the individual elements.  A vastness to the setting that's going on that makes the power ups largely seem like survival elements than anything else, a chaoticness to the tale that seems to fit right at home with the characters.

Admittingly, I was more interested in "Secret Agent Ranma: Human Disaster in Cosmoverse!" then "Ranma...and the fiancees in RIFTS!"

But I still like it.

[Brian]

Hum.  Not sure what to think.  The last chapter was clumsy.  But rereading the rest, it isn't out of step with it.

Don't oversell it; the latest chapter had a huge chunk of just blandly delivered exposition.  "And then this and this and this happened."  The, "You're the Nibi, lawl!" bit was ... okay, but the author isn't doing a great job of exploring the reasons for using the ploy in the first place.  To me, that plot twist as stated accomplishes nothing.  Having the Hokage bring it up and people just be leery of Ranma without either Ranma or Anko knowing would have been better -- and also easily passed off 'well, you did destroy a whole park by yourself'.  The other part that irks me is that Ranma hasn't made any real inroads towards meeting up with Naruto (a logical point that I hope the fic eventually reaches):

"I got a demon inside me."
"Me, too."
"How many tails does yours have?"
"Have you ever been wrapped in fish sausage and thrown into a pit of starving foxes?"
"No, that'd be _stupid_."
"...yeah, it would be.  Let's teach you some real taijutsu, kid."

The only real bone toward that hope is the fact that Ranma's aware there are 'other' containers.

I like aspects of the story, but they don't come together well in the grand scheme I think, which is making the story weaker over its course.

That's unfortunately entirely true.  I like it for Ranma/Anko, and Ranma's character is (or at least was), surprisingly well explored.  It had a good foundation and some great leadup.  The latest chapter is a letdown, but I'm going to try and be hopefully optimistic later.  This could be the author just finding his pace after hiatus, and it may recover.  If he can put out another chapter that goes back to previous quality, then we can just view this most recent chapter as the fanfic equivalent to episode 4 of Gurren Laggan. ;)

[Grahf]

'The Hypnotism of Suzumiya Haruhi'.

Squick right out the gate.

Sometimes, I'm very, very sad that my favorite fandom holds so much appeal for children. -_-

From what I'm guessing this isn't going to be played for laughs like in the Haruhi-chan manga where Haruhi accidentally hypnotizes herself into becoming a cat, which Mikuru then squees over for a while as she and Kyon take care of cat!Haruhi.

[Brian]

Noooope.  From the one chapter I read, it squicked right from the get-go.  A creepily OOC Kyon hypnotizes Mikuru and then....

...instead of going on, I'll just say the fic was rated 'M'.

[alethiophile]

...if it was Kyon hypnotizing Mikuru, then in what sense is the hypnotism "of Suzumiya Haruhi"?

[Brian]

Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.

[alethiophile]

...right.

* alethiophile shuts up, immediately tries to erase discussion from memory.

[thepanda]

Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.

This really should be in the quote thread.

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6354319/1/Late-Arrival

Old cuteness.  Ranma ends up in narutoverse and steals Team 7 by accident.  Light comedy.