Subject: Best Ranma Fanfics 1995
From: Talswapr@aol.com
Date: 9/30/1995, 12:16 AM
To: fanfic@andrew.cais.com

THE FIRST ANNUAL TALESWAPPER AWARDS FOR BEST RANMA FAN FICTION

I noticed that someone posted on rec.arts.anime.stories a poll 
to select favorite fanfics, etc. No poll, unfortunately, 
enables respondents to provide a rationale for their choices.  
Suddenly inspired to express my thoughts on stories I have 
enjoyed reading, I put together the following list of my 
favorites and tried to describe why I like the stories so 
much.  At first, I tried to assemble my thoughts using the 
usual gimmicks (e.g., top 10 list, "best of " categories).  
Such constructs, however, only constrained me unnecessarily, 
requiring me to leave out good stories that didn't make an 
arbitrary "cut" or to rank stories numerically. Depending on my 
mood on any given day, there are at least four fanfics that 
could have won my "Best Story" award.  So I decided to simply 
state that I like about all the fanfics that I count among my 
favorites.

Why only Ranma stories?  Since I don't read everything on 
r.a.a.s., I didn't think it would be valid to list favorite 
overall fanfics when I have deliberately limited my choices.  
I've read all Ranma fanfics.  Well, to be accurate, I've 
*started* to read all Ranma fanfics.  When the writing is 
really bad or the story uninteresting, I often just skim to the 
end to get the basic plot.  But I've finished most of them, 
even many bad ones.

All Ranma fanfics in Megazone's ftp.std.com archive that have 
an archive date after 9/29/94 qualified for consideration.  I 
picked that date since it is the archive date of all the older 
files (presumably when Megazone moved from wpi.wpi.edu).  Also, 
having a cutoff date enabled me to enshrine a few stories in my 
"Hall of Fame" at the end of this post.

How does a fanfic make my list of "favorites?"  Basically, a 
fave is anything that I've read in its entirety more than 
once.  Some stories are so enjoyable or so skillfully crafted 
that I find myself reading them a second time, a third . . .  
There are stories that I consider very well written, but have 
nothing to draw me back a second time.  What tends to draw me 
back? Elegant and skillful prose (nothing turns me off faster 
than clumsy language).  Great characterization, expressed 
either by high fidelity to the anime and manga characters or by 
excellent *new* directions in characterization (though I 
usually don't enjoy new characters). Realistic and well-paced 
dialogue. Funny jokes (few writers are as funny as they think 
they are; look at any .sig for evidence of this maxim).  
Imaginative and well-described action scenes (these are 
*rare*).  Interesting (read: unique) plot lines that make me 
want to see how the story ends.  Evidence of effort to 
accurately portray elements of Japanese culture.

After compiling my list, I discovered one more virtue I look 
for in a fanfic: brevity.  Now, extended length is not an 
absolute disqualifier (one of my all-time faves is John Biles' 
15-chapter epic "Putting Your Heart in the Right Place").  But 
there does seem to be an arbitrary point at which stories 
become too long for me to want to re-read unless they are 
_very_ entertaining or thought-provoking.  Perfect examples are 
the stories released as part the Elseworld series started by 
Biles.  I enjoyed all of them, but their great length, combined 
with necessarily very complex plots, are a disincentive for me 
to re-read the stories.

The following comments are entirely my own opinion.  Naturally, 
there are a few SPOILERS in my critiques.  I welcome your comments.

Taleswapper
September 1995

--------------------

TALESWAPPER's LIST OF BEST RANMA FANFICS 1994-95 (listed 
alphabetically by author)

"Stepping Stones - Ukyou's Tale" by Benares

If Hayao Miyazaki did a Ranma movie, the script might read 
something like "Stepping Stones."  The moving story of a young 
woman conquering her emotional dependency is about as mature 
and realistic as fiction based on cartoons can be.  Ukyou's 
first-person narrative flows beautifully and sounds very much 
true to life, except for a few overdone "Now we come to . . ." 
sort of lines and the annoying "Takahashi Wall" joke.  Her 
description of the childhood encounter with Ranma was 
especially enjoyable, although Benares has either changed or 
gotten wrong the story of how the Saotomes ended up with the 
Kuonji's yatai.  I would have liked to have read the author's 
take on the secret sauce story and how Ukyou felt about Ranma's 
childhood vow to her.

In adulthood, when Ukyou talks about her feelings concerning 
Ranma and his family, your heart has to ache for her.  
Absolutely fascinating is the final confrontation between Ukyou 
and Shampoo, especially the former's palpable and frightening 
rage when her old rival dares to speak the truth Ukyou has 
denied for so long.  Bringing in the monk from the Joe's Crepes 
episode was a nice touch and a smart way to advance the plot 
toward resolution.  Ironically, this dead-serious story 
contains one of the funniest things I've read in any fanfic: 
the scene when Ranma dumps a potted plant on his head.  It 
wasn't until my third reading that I noticed that what I've 
read is meant as the beginning of a longer story.  Maintaining 
this level of quality will be a major challenge: Good luck, 
Benares, and don't do anything silly like having Ukyou fall in 
love with an American (where's she going on that ship?).

"Ranma .05" by Darren Demaine

To commend the author merely for constructing "a lemon story in 
which the sex is central to the plot" would be faint praise.  
No doubt that's what Demaine intended, but like the fabled 
characters that write themselves, his plotting and scripting 
abilities have taken over and yielded prose and stories that 
are good regardless of the sexual content.  While this lemon 
fanfic, for obvious reasons, cannot be completely faithful to 
its anime/manga inspiration, Demaine does a heroic job of 
keeping Ranma and Co. in character (especially their dialogue) 
despite the obvious challenges.

The plots, which Demaine modestly downplays in his notes as 
overlong justifications for the lemon scenes, are as 
imaginative as any but the most expansive fanfic stories.  The 
plot of Volume II, Part 4 - wherein Ranma must think of a 
counter to Mousse's new technique - could be the basis of a 
good fanfic (in the TV episode style) on its own, without the 
lemon scene. Speaking of which, the sex scenes are well 
conceived and very capably written, better than anything else 
out there.  The Ranma/Akane scenes are marked by genuine 
romance of the youthful, inexperienced sort.  The Ukyou/Ryouga 
story, though, is probably the best in terms of imaginative 
staging and raw eroticism, with a setup as faithful to the 
source material as you can get in the context.

"Juyza's Lyric" by Stefan Gagne

Juyza Shiratori wins for Best New Character.  I wanted to hate 
this story; I have little patience for fanfics in which the 
author or his proxy is a major character.  I wanted to hate the 
self-centered main character with his trendy counterculturalism 
and Marvel Comics-style teenage angst (complete with 
stereotypical lines like "I don't believe in the concept of 
love"). But "Juyza's Lyric" story grabs hold of you and won't 
let go.  Gagne's choice of the first-person/journal style was 
very well calculated; it enables the reader to experience 
firsthand Juyza's maturation and enlightenment.  The 
development of the title character is professional and 
polished.  Juyza has clear (if sometimes objectionable) 
motivations and well- defined personality traits, unlike the 
predictable, two-dimensional stars of other author-in-Ranmaland 
fanfics.

The journal entries, despite their realistically nonlinear 
style, weave a surprisingly complex story.  The P-chan 
kidnapping subplot is crafted nicely; particularly 
well-thought-out is the use of the character Chance, who links 
success of Juyza's scheme to Mikado's desire to keep Azusa at a 
safe distance.  And it takes a very skilled scripter to make an 
effective climax out of a speech (Ukyou's explanation of 
contentment with her life); Gagne qualifies.

"Akane por Siempre" by Oscar Octavio Mascare~as Garza

This beautiful tale is the most romantic fanfic after Joseph 
Palmer's seasonal stories.  Garza is especially adept at 
describing what Ranma and Akane think of each other in trying 
circumstances.  Also touching are the scenes between Ryouga and 
Akane.  Akane's feeding scenes (Ranma and Shampoo) are as 
erotic as anything written in a  lemon fanfic.  The _in medias 
res_ beginning is unusually sophisticated for a fanfic; it 
works very well, so it's not pretentious.  The climactic fight 
scene is exciting; Garza shows skill in giving the multiple 
combatants something useful to do.  The story could have used a 
little more editing/proofing, though.  

"Girls' Night Out" by Jeffrey Paul Hosmer

They ought to turn this fanfic into an OAV.  Seriously, while 
the story may be extremely introspective for Ranma 1/2 (that's 
a *good* thing, BTW), it's certainly not too talky.  A fun tale 
on the first read, "Girl's Night Out" turns into a capable 
character study if you read it a second time.  Hosmer does a 
commendable job of exploring Akane's and Ukyou's motivations 
(especially how the two feel about each other) through capable 
third-person portrayal of the girls' private thoughts.  The 
language in these "inside her head" passages is well matched to 
each character's personality: Akane's tempestuousness and 
insecurity; Ukyou's cheerfulness and quirky femininity.  The 
fight scene was a little contrived and unnecessary, but it did 
have the effect of giving the fanfic the feeling of a TV 
episode.

"Winter," "Spring," and "Summer" by Joseph Palmer

Palmer is a  runaway winner in the Best Writer and Best Romance 
categories. His prose is elegant: simple and unpretentious yet 
enormously expressive; rather like poetry.  I thought about 
quoting some of my favorite passages, but taking them out of 
their well-formed contexts would be unjust.  The imagery is 
vivid and, although the extended similes in "Winter" are a 
little forced, the author keeps getting better as the seasons 
pass.

The plots don't have the complexity of other good fanfics, but 
that is because the overall story is so very realistic; as in 
much of real life, less turns out to be more.  Palmer portrays 
very authentically the evolution of a genuine romance.  The 
author has removed the slapstick comedy that is an integral 
part of Ranma 1/2, but he methodically uncovers the Ranma/Akane 
relationship in the precise way, I think, that Takahashi 
intends it: Ranma's slow realization of his feelings and 
Akane's hopeful impatience as he comes around.  BTW, Kasumi's 
role as instigator in "Winter" was the most successful of all 
authors' attempts to portray the elder Tendou as smarter than 
she seems.  I look forward to "Autumn."

"Ryouga: The Shampoo Variation" by Mark Latus

Latus wins the award for Best Fight Scene.  I enjoy the 
climactic battle not only for the originality of having Ryouga 
and Shampoo team up against Ranma, but also for the 
ruthlessness Latus portrays in both attackers.  The battle is 
well choreographed; Latus' imagery enables any imaginative 
reader to paint some pretty exciting animation cels in his 
mind.  I wish the author had made battle last longer, although 
it might not have made much sense for Ranma to be able to put 
up more of a fight.  Also well-crafted are the scenes where 
Ryouga's secret is revealed and where he resolves to give up on 
Japan and kill his rival.  The characterization is pretty 
faithful to the source material, although Ryouga gets a little 
too verbose near the end.  I thought the framing sequence was 
superfluous; since I didn't enjoy "Ryouga: Crossover" nearly as 
much, linking the two stories holds no appeal.

TALESWAPPER's RANMA FANFIC HALL OF FAME - Charter Inductees

The following three fanfics are my favorites among the older works.

"Putting Your Heart in the Right Place" by John Walter Biles

Biles is the only author to succeed in maintaining the original 
spirit of Ranma 1/2 over a work of significant length and 
multiple plotlines.  His fight and slapstick scenes are 
especially true to their anime inspiration; even if many jokes 
fall flat, Right Place is the funniest fanfic out there. My 
favorite line: "Now the wall will be a wall forever!"  The 
organization of the story into TV episode-like chapters serves 
to keep the large cast and the web of concurrent storylines 
manageable.  The focus on Akane and Ukyou as the only "real" 
contenders for Ranma (sorry, Shampoos fans) sets up an 
interesting love triangle and Ranma's two dates were especially 
enjoyable to read for the depth of characterization.  The Akemi 
character was an ingenious creation, but wouldn't it have made 
more sense for her to choose Ranma-chan's appearance as a 
permanent form, since (so far) there is no more Ranma-chan (who 
cares what Gosunkugi wants)?

A quibble: the dialogue sometimes seems excessively intelligent 
and adult. I'm not necessarily taking issue here with Biles' 
characterization of Kasumi as a closet intellectual.  Rather, I 
was sometimes disoriented with the eloquence and literacy 
exhibited by many characters, especially Ranma and Akane.  
While we're on the topic of speech, a tip of the hat to Mr. 
Biles for the hands-down best ability to script Kunou.  Many 
(most?) fanfic authors fall flat on their faces trying to ape 
Kunou's affected formality (I recall one who had Kunou calling 
Ranma an "infidel"), probably because they don't have a 
powerful enough vocabulary.  Biles, however, pulls the trick 
off nicely in "Right Place" and his other works.  Other authors 
can also take a lesson from Biles on how to insert cameo 
appearances.  He uses cameos subtly, so the light humor works; 
other authors ruin the opportunity by making the cameo too 
obtrusive ("B-Ko, leave me and C-Ko alone!"), or worse, by 
explaining the joke ("heh heh, only Tenchi Muyo fans will 
understand this reference").  I await more chapters of 
"Furinkan Summer."

"Ranma's Timeslip" or "Ranma 1/2: Actor in the Mirror" by 
Christian Gadekan

This story may be my all-time favorite because of its 
well-crafted "what-if" plot and its faithfulness to the 
"spirit" of the anime/manga; the dialogue and characterization 
are right on, if sometimes a little too serious to be 
completely true to the source material.  A shining example is 
Ranma and Akane's first kiss: Ranma's hesitancy, Akane's 
initiative.  I wouldn't be surprised if Rumiko Takahashi 
scripts it the same way (it is comparable to her hand-holding 
scene at the end of the Shinnosuke story).  Ranma's alteration 
of the events of the first TV episodes gives the reader a 
vicarious thrill: who wouldn't want an opportunity to go back 
and erase old mistakes?  The intense emotional moments are 
genuine and demand a reader's sympathy.  I especially admired 
Gadekan's portrayal of Akane's grief at Ranma's  departure from 
the other timeline, as well as Ranma's subsequent "You don't 
know what I had to give up . . ."  The chase scene near the end 
is a refreshing comic breath after the somber ending of the 
alternate history. If I could bankroll a Ranma movie, I'd ask 
Gadekan to submit a treatment based on this story.

"Ranma 1/2: Kanketsuhen '93" by Richard Uyeyama

As Ranma fanfic, it's only a little better than average: the 
plot is simplistic and Shampoo's characterization seems way 
off.  But as metafiction, Uyeyama's work is unparalleled.  You 
have to marvel at the realism of his editorial asides, 
introductory and concluding remarks, and the bonus SD 
animation.  Especially clever were the little apologetic notes 
about difficult translations.  BTW, for those of you who fell 
for it: didn't it strike you as odd that Uyeyama went to the 
trouble of translating Shampoo's dialogue into pidgin English?