Bert Miller wrote:

Just an idea that struck me the other day. I'll
probably be lucky if even five people have seen
the series.

I'd guess more; it struck my eye fairly quickly
(though I am admittedly familiar with the jidaigeki
it parodies).

Slightly more than that have commented, which means it was more widely known
that I thought.

Tsukikage Ran, beautiful maiden, connoisseur of fine
sake, aficionado of elephants, and by chance,
wandering samurai,

Heh.  Opening with her self-description is interesting.

Sets the scene up well even for those not overly familiar with the series.
Gets a general idea of what the characters are like across and makes what
happens understandable.

That was to say, with the jug of sake in her hand, it
felt right.

:)  This is Ran, so you can't forget the sake!

Got that right. It's as much a part of her as her sword. :)

Ran shook her head at her friend's behavior. Myao, as
much a country bumpkin as the samurai had ever come
across, was obsessed. It wasn't as though Myao
had never been obsessed before. Actually, she was
quite obsessive.

Heh.  Right again.  In general, I liked all of your
descriptions of the pair a lot.

Still, Ran couldn't envision her 'constant companion'

wink, wink, nudge, nudge.  What, no subtext?

Nope. I do remember someone joking that for some people, all you need for
lebsian undertones in anime is two females talking to one another. :)

behaving in any other way. Nor would she have wanted a
change in Myao's behavior, though she would never
admit such to the girl.

That's pretty much the way it strikes me, too.

Yeah. It's the 'I hate to admit i like the antics of my friend' thing with
Ran. Myao helps keep things lively. ^_^

"I have to do this. I'm tired of being relegated to
the role of sidekick to your heroism.

Ran:  "That's comic-relief sidekick, actually."

Heh. Myao can get serious, as with the Mai episode.

"I did't really keep count," Ran said.

"Fourteen," Myao said.

Ran's eyebrow raised slightly. "It was sixteen."

Heh.  Love it.  "didn't keep count", huh?

Ran has her pride, she just doesn't wear it on her sleeve. ^_^

Ran took another sip of the sake, finishing the jug.
She stared at it mournfully. "Well, it's not really
fair to compare yourself to me. You're a martial
artist. I'm a samurai. It's like comparing radishes
and mushrooms."

I can see Ran saying that to placate Myao, but the truth
is that Ran takes out more of the riff-raff than Myao
using only her hands and hilt of her sword.  The blade
tends to be reserved for the top baddies.

Or large numbers. It actually surprised me in the first ep when she started
to dispatch people with the sword in the last fight. But after a while, you
get a feel for when she draws the blade and when she doesn't. As you say,
she tends to avoid killing where possible, and she's highly adept at using
only her hands. She's at least comparable to Myao.

I'm so confident it'll work, I already copied it in
my journal with the other techniques of my school,"
Myao bragged, flashing a thin book that had lain
hidden in the folds of her outfit.

While I didn't quite get your joke here, the idea that
the book Genma used was Myao's journal is really, really
horrifying if you think about it.

The idea was the method of learning the technique had to be written down
before actually experiencing it, otherwise Myao would have never written it
down after learning the side effects. Since she wrote it down before going
into the pit, either she or Ran added the 'Only a complete idiot would try
to learn this' on the back of the page.

Very nice descriptions; characterization right on (IMO).
Nice spamfic.

Thanks. It gave me an excuse to write in a series I found enjoyable. Now to
get back to other, larger projects.

Thanks for the comments.

D.B. Sommer

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