OK, moving on.  BTW, thanks to the authors for their nice
comments - it keeps me going.  Stefan Gagne must have a lot
of people who criticize his works, because he seemed rather
surprised at my positive reviews.

Anyway - the following is a review of a LEMON! series.


"Ranma .05"
by Darren Demaine


This is in three volumes, the third of which is only partially
complete.  It is perhaps the first of the "plot-oriented"
lemons that are out there, though there are certainly more of
them now.  But I believe Ranma .05 was the first one where the
plot tended to overshadow the lemon to an extent.

Volume 1 is all right, containing perhaps the smallest plot/sex
ratio.  The first R/A scene is handled very nicely, and the
A/Sham. bit is OK.  I didn't get into the Kuno one at all.  The
pergnancy test result is very well written, a sign of what we 
would see in Vol. 2 (the writing, not the pregnancy).

2.1 is where the series really begins to take off.  The lemon
is secondary to some excellent scenes - and Nabiki examining
Ranma is one of the funniest things I've seen in a lemon or
otherwise.

2.2 is...well...the characterization is exceptional, even though
it's a Ryouga/Ukyou pairing.  (Darren doesn't seem to like Ukyou
from the notes he writes, which is a shame as she's written 
impeccably.)  What sells this, and I'm trying to figure out a 
way to put this - the scene with the two of them is *the* most 
erotic scene in any lemon.  I don't like to recommend purely for 
sex, and this is very well written by itself.  But the sex is 
*really* well done.

2.3 is a Nabiki/Kuno relationship, and the first of those where
I suspect the sex was added reluctantly.  The date is extremely 
funny, and Demaine knows how to write Nabiki.  Kuno's gradual
attraction to her is also excellent.

2.4 is purely plot oriented, and the sex is definitely secondary
in this one.  Despite that, the plot is the best we've seen, and the
growth of Ranma and Akane's relationship is very well handled.

2.5 is frustrating for Mousse fans, but hey, well done.  Probably
the least of the five, though.

And the newest, 3.1 is also a sex is secondary plot, and the
first Ranma-chan/Akane sex scene (a lemon standard).  This is 
particularly well-handled in that they don't immediately take
to it - Ranma is very uncomfortable throughout, and admits he 
likes sex as a man better.  The Nodoka subplot is also well done, 
and I definitely agree with Darren's sentiments about Genma -
quite frankly, I think killing him off would only add to the 
Ranmaverse.

Anyway, overall this is an excellent attempt at combining sex 
scenes with decent plots, and it's gotten better as it goes along. 
Even if you hate lemons, check out 2.3, 2.4 and 3.1 - the sex 
is short, and the plots are great.


Next:  The other big lemon series - Caroline's.

--Sean Gaffney
--"You git!  I thought you were dead!  Git git git!" - Benny, No Future