On Fri, 4 Apr 1997, Sean Connor wrote:

Hmmm... Dark fics are the same as serious fics? I think a fic can be 
serious without being dark. 

True, not all serious fic's are dark but most Dark fic's are serious. I
tend to place this more as a serious fic then a dark one though because of
the social issues addressed, wheras Dark fics contain a character going
through alot of angst or troubles that may or may not be caused by social
issues..
 

I'm not going to argue with matters of taste. I will, however, put my 
two cents worth in. 

It would seem that, because of certain comments that Takahashi made, 
fanfic authors have been locked into a "Ranma and Akane Forever" 
mindset. You don't have to look at the fanfic archives for very long 
to see what I mean. Well, this is fine, up to a point. It has, 
however, gone on to the point of tedium now. Most every story that 
purports to be a serious continuation to the original series has this 
slant.

Usually because Takahashi has said that Ranma and Akane will get together,
and it's set in stone. From there certain authors will work withing the
Canon set out by here and continue the series. Of course my major comment
on this fic was not the fact that it was a negative version of the Ranma
and Akane realtionship, it was the fact that the fic was way to serious
for me to like as a Ranma fic, and that's just my opinion. I did not in
away attempt to slander the fic in away, I just wanted to state that I
didn't like the feel of the fic. If it came across as an insult to the
fic, then I am sorry. 
 
For a anime/manga example of this type of feeling, watch the KOR TV series
and read the manga (I haven't read much of the manga myself but have seen
the TV series) then watch 'I want to Return to that day'. A great example
of nice story that uses the character realtionships for the mood, but I
just can't bring myself to like the story as KOR story...

Well, this has turned into a bit of a rant. Gomen. But, the way I see 
it, Ranma fanfiction isn't drying up, it's just stuck in a rut. Let's 
do something about that.

Hahaha, if this is a rut then I'd kill to have Patlabor, Dirty Pair,
Miracle Girls, KOR, GSC, and Nadia (plus many others I can't list) stuck
in this kind of fanfic rut. Ranma is still going strong, and probably
won't die out till the final anime movie is made sometime down the road.
And there are still a few authors out there willing to do some wild and
crazy stuff with the Ranma characters..^^

Of course I'm still wondering how bad Ayukawa could kick Ranma's butt, and
wondering how long it would take Kei and Yuri to blow through Nerima
(hopefully taking Dirty Pair flash with them too...Gawd DPF really bit..)
Or wondering when AKA Akane-chan will finish, ne Biles-san...^^ 
 
Ja ne!!

Richard Beaubien
----------------
Mizuno Ami-chan forever!!!

Fanfic homepage http://www.anime.usacomputers.net/~beaubird