Okay, C&C on two fics dealing with self-insertion. Note that this is
C&C, not a debate on the merits of OtakuFics. No flame wars, okay? Play
nice.
Peter's Journey - This was billed as a parody of the Self-insertion fic.
It delivered. PJ contains some _very_ well-aimed, slightly bitter thrusts
at some of the more obnoxious features of the genre, complete with
ommipotent and thoroughly unlikable hero. From the use of Kuno as intial
punching bag, to the need to "Teach people something about themselves"
that most OtakuFic heros seem to have, the story doesn't miss much.
Indeed, that was my main problem with it. It was just too long. Clever
as it was, I began to get tired of it about halfway through.
The author might, IMHO, want to consider cutting it a bit, slimming it
down. It was funny, but seemed to be a case of a bit too much of a good
thing. See Sebastian Weinberg's, "The fic for YOU!" for a short, hilarious
piece in the same vein.
Certain Point of View - Deleted it already, hope I've got the right name.
:P
This runs along the same lines as the kind of fic that Peter's Journey
parodies. It's a Bubblegum Crisis fic (normally these things are Ranma)
that follows the author as he gets thrown into the BGC universe.
It was well-written, with good dialogue and a nice eye towards effects
and action. However, it falls prey to the sense of cliched wish-fufilling
that PJ was parodying. For example, where else do we see the following -
1 - A unexplained energy surge that flings the hero into anime for no
appartant reason.
2 - The hero uses his knowledge to amaze and mystify the regulars, and
goes on to put right a tragedy from the intital series.
3 - The hero develops strange powers.
4 - An attractive female lead is attracted to the hero.
...And so on. In defence, the powers come at a nasty and extremely
undesirable cost, and the attraction is given a believable rationale.
It's a fairly decent piece of work for the genre; though it lacks the
silliness and sense of "We're not taking this seriously" that made UF and
Twisted Path such fun. If you like serious OtakuFics, check it out. If
not, well....toss it in with the Crys Saga and Chinese Samurai.
- Mike of No Particular Title or Handle, only a few days behind.....
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/ \ l Mike Loader - Lincolnite, Amberite, Illuminatus, Discordian,
/ () \ l Journalist, Author, Traveler, Historian, Java Fiend.
/ \ l Trier - LA - LV - Kiev - Reno - Hong Kong. Fnord.
-------- l mloader@scs.unr.edu
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