OWARINAKI TABIBITO - No Make Girl’s Endless Journey

Strawberry Panic - Kaname and Momomi may actually be hot

As I wait for the next episode of Macross Frontier and the next chapter of Windows of the Soul, I settled to reading Lestaki’s previous fic Astraea Lake. It’s a Strawberry Panic fic of massive proportions featuring our favourite evil lesbian duo would-be rapists, Kaname and Momomi.

Now, although I watched this series, and believe I did watch it to the end because I still bear the scars from frantically trying to claw my eyes out during that unintentionally traumatic Amane/Hikari hawt secks scene in the barn, I honestly don’t remember much except that Miyuki was awesome and deserved better, and Chikaru was awesome and probably some IQ 500 alien disguised as an innocent cute girl.

Oh, I also vaguely remember these two evil lesbian schoolgirls plotting to.. um.. plotting something, in between vaguely disturbing scenes of making out and bathing together - vaguely disturbing because the two most irredeemably despicable characters in the show were shown to have the most functional and normal relationship of the lot. That’s Strawberry Panic for you, I guess.

Now, Astraea Lake is just over 410,000 words of getting inside the head of Kaname and Momomi, our favourite evil lesbian duo of the conniving, plotting, dirty no-holds-barred variety. And while it is as dense and slow-moving as treacle, it is actually a highly addictive, fascinating read. One of the few fics in which OCs positioned nigh-perfectly - interesting enough that you would never skip any scenes in which they appear, but not so center-stage that you lose sight of the main plot. The story tells of Kaname and Momomi’s beginnings as friends in their second year and develops both their characters and relationships, plus shedding light on Amane (whom the author seems dislike as much as I do). It was a surprising delight, because in the TV series Kaname and Momomi just kinda struck me as rather creepy, and at the end of this fic I was sorry to part ways with their marvelously atypical lives.

So, if you have time to kill before the next episode of whatever it is you are watching, go and read this fic.

Posted in ANIME, Fanfiction, Strawberry Panic | 2 Comments »

Mai-Hime - Shizuru and Natsuki revisited

When I updated WordPress, I also installed the stats plugin. After a couple weeks it’s interesting to see that my most-read posts are about Mai-Hime, specifically Shizuru and Natsuki. I guess it’s not surprising, since Mai-Hime was in and of itself a highly popular show, and Shizuru and Natsuki garner much attention from the fanbase. That said, I am glad that others find this as fascinating a couple as I did.

When I finished Mai-Hime I was most unhappy with the happy-go-lucky, no-consequences ending portrayed. It was just too pat, because a whole lot of shit happened between Shizuru and Natsuki that doesn’t just go away because you killed each other out of love then came back to defeat the bad guy.

But I left it at that, because well after all is said and done it’s just a Sunrise TV series.

Then the other day, I came across a fanfic. This was a ShizNat fanfic, but it dared to go where no other fanfic writer had gone, and that was to write the aftermath of the Carnival for Shizuru and Natsuki. Shizuru’s guilt and fear and tenuous sanity. Natsuki’s courage and trauma and confusion. And how these two could ever, ever hope to bridge the gap in trust and friendship left by Shizuru’s horrendous betrayal and hideous crime of murder.

This fic is called Windows of the Soul and it is on FanFiction.Net. Read it, please. It is an amazingly good story. It’s still incomplete, but the author updates quickly in and volume, such that in 4 months we have over 310,000 words describing in detail, from Natsuki and Shizuru’s POV, what it could have been like to hold on to your most important person.

After Mai-Hime ended, I wanted, more than anything else, a realistic portrayal of Shizuru and Natsuki. So I am amazed and extremely happy to discover that sometimes we do get what we wish for ;)

Posted in ANIME, Fanfiction, Mai-HiME | No Comments »