This subject pops up from time to time, and it
occured to me that we've recently seen the most ELEGANT
and at the same time the least wordy form of recapping
a story that's ever been written, thanks to Kenjiko.
As you may recall, he recently did "Fair Warning",
a short fic where Akane receives a bit of advance notice
concerning Ranma and the chaos he drags behind him.
In this fic, he repeated the intro scenes in the
first story, but did it in a most skillful and entertaining
way.
<snip>
One evening, her father called her and her two sisters to make an
announcement.
Most of us know what happened next.
####
"Some fiancee THIS is, Daddy, he's a she."
####
"I'd really hate to be beaten by a boy..."
####
"THERE'S A PERVERT IN THE FURO!"
####
"I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this..."
####
Akane was staring at the transformation after the tale of
Jyusenkyo. And at the boy. Even the terrible curse part seemed
true.
<snip>
Please note that with just a few lines, and very few
words, Kenjiko manages to redraw the entire introduction
scene. Short, elegant and to the point, his recap is rather
like reading a haiku. He says everything he needs to say
in a spare minimum of words, drawing for us a mental portrait
that serves to fill in all the information we need.
THIS is what a good writer should try for, if
he or she feels the need to recap scenes from the manga
or anime.
We won't always succeed, but at least we have
a target to aim for.
Peace.
Ed Becerra
"Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal..."