[Ranma 1/2] Bliss

[Brian]

Bliss is written by both Lara Bartram and Mike Loeder.  It can be found in the archives or on Lara's site.

Bliss is another of those fairly controversial fics of back in the day, but I don't seem to remember it enjoying the same popularity as (say) HoI or the Bitter End, or Relentless.

Bliss is not really one story as much as two stories.  It starts out with a boy and a girl on an island with amnesia, and a few dim recollections of what brought them to the island.  This is the first story, and it's not actually that bad.

Considering that (for a fanfic), it's got two original characters in it initially, and you have to figure out who they're supposed to be.  That turns out to not be that difficult, and then you watch the young duo try and survive on an island of Lovecraftian horror.

Well, maybe slightly more subtle than that Lovecraftian, but it's a supernatural uber-evil of some kind.  Either way, the story chronicles their struggle to survive, their eventual escape, and then Lara goes home and Mike writes his story.

Which is where we find our two characters turning back into the original Ranma 1/2 characters they were before losing their memory.  Personally, I actually liked the way the fic ended (which I'm sure would please Mike), but know from asking that many considered the ending to be a cop-out.  I don't want to offer spoilers, but after so many chapters of playing up Lara's biases, it's interesting to see Mike's take over.

Generally well written, if I do have trouble distinguishing where one author ends and the next begins.  Grammar is solid, storytelling tends to be pretty good, and characters are largely original initially, not themselves, and then....  Well.  It worked for me, but didn't work for a lot of people.  Not a favorite, but also not a bad fic.

[Bjorn]

Bliss is... eh.

Technically, it's very well written, and I enjoyed reading it for that reason. At the same time, it doesn't really ever say anything interesting, and so I don't really remember it when I've finished.  Once you've figured out who the characters are, then there aren't really any more surprises in the story.  There's no big insights, no nifty turn of events.

If you've never read it, then Bliss is a good story to fill in an empty couple of hours.  But I can't say I think it counts as one of the best Ranma fanfics by any means.

[Kwokinator]

I remember liking this fic, when I read it a couple of years ago ^_^

I find it's technically very well-written and a very engaging story in general, but I suspect the reason it doesn't have nearly the popularity and recognition that I think it deserves is because of its (supposedly) disturbing matchup ^_^

[Bjorn]

I find it's technically very well-written and a very engaging story in general, but I suspect the reason it doesn't have nearly the popularity and recognition that I think it deserves is because of its (supposedly) disturbing matchup ^_^

On the contrary, I would say that the reason I don't find it memorable is because the focus of the story itself is really about its "disturbing" matchup.  The story is a vehicle to make that matchup plausible.  Once you accept the fact that the matchup is going to happen, then the story really doesn't have much left to it -- it's just going through the necessary and inevitable motions.

Even the Lovecraftian bit kind of smacks of this.  It's like the writers were sitting there, going, "Okay, we're done with this stage, how are we going to get them off the island?  TENTACLES OUT OF THE GREEN, HELL YEAH."

I guess I'm sounding really down on this, which is not entirely fair to the story.  It is good, and I wish I could make 90% of people writing fanfic today read this so that they can see what a well-written story looks like.  But it's a popcorn story -- tasty and easy to eat, but leaves you feeling unsatisfied at the end.

[DB]

Bliss, almost more than any other story, is not about actual Ranma characters. Neither Ranma nor Kunou are really acting like Ranma and Kunou in any recognizable way. Bartram and Loader create a reason for it with the amnesia, which is needed to make the match up work, but when the pair aren't even named, (though you can figure out who they are by process of elimination) it adds to that disconnection. It could be a story about any two people trapped on an island. Given the genre shift and this disconnection from anything Ranma, it's not surprising it was never embraced that much. It's also never been much objected to for the same reason.

Then again, I've never been thrilled with anything Loader's done and found him overrated. Oh, his grammar is good, but his plots tend to be terminally flawed. Almost like a more flawed version of Anno with even less talent.