I know the message I'm replying to is over a week old, but I
hadn't gotten around to reading A Certain Point of View until today.

Mike W. Loader wrote:

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.

	It also has many of the characteristics of the BGC fanfics I
like the best: realistic worldbuilding, an awareness of the
limitations of technology, and three-dimensional character
interactions that avoid descending into melodrama.  The items you
mentioned *are* cliches of the self-insertion genre, but ACPOV
gratifyingly handles them in a reasonably understated manner.

...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.

	I don't think it's appropriate to compare a BGC self-insertion
fic to Ranma self-insertion fics.  ACPOV has so far been able to
remain above the excessive Sturm und Drang of other stories of its
genre.  It isn't even all that serious -- I thought the line "Priss
had called him boring when he said he didn't want to go piss on Genom
tower" was one of the funniest I've seen in a non-parody BGC fic.  And
yet I found the plot to be intriguing and suspenseful at times, and
I'm genuinely interested in seeing where it's going.  Personally, as
far as BGC self-insertion stories are concerned, I like ACPOV better
than Bubblegum Zone or Hopelessly Lost.

-- 
 Julian Fong                                     jhfong@ea.oac.uci.edu
   00001000111110000100010000000011111111100001000100001111100010000 
"I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom I know 
 most faults." - William Shakespeare, _As You Like It_, Act 3, Scene 2