[meta] year in fic review 2008
Fandoms: Various for the month of April, but notable fandoms include Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Subarashiki Kono Sekai, and Kamen Rider Den-O.
The Stories
January: RyoHiba 31 Days [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;drabble]
I actually babbled about this here, and it's still pretty relevant even after 11 months.
February: Mukuro-centric ficlets [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;drabble]
To be honest, I hadn't wanted to go through another 31_days but the prompt-list for February 2008 was so Mukuro that I couldn't help but be tempted to try again, although I tried to make it easier on myself and vowed to just do the alternate days. I really did like what I had of February, as few as it is, and when I was in Reborn! I did find Mukuro intruiging, especially with his Kokuyou crew, and not, as fandom would love to demonstrate, with Hibari. I still find him interesting, but my interest in Reborn! is gradually being limited to just the source material and I'm not...really into it as I used to be. My favourite piece from this batch is actually the conversation between Mukuro and Reborn, to be perfectly honest.
Retaliation for Playing Favourites [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;drabble]
This was mainly written for reisha, who liked YamaGoku a great deal and I...think this is one reason why I should never, ever attempt to write fic for things that I'm not interested in. I don't think it's terribly written, and I think it's pretty decent pr0n, but it's just so bland and blah and generic and I swear, there are probably 1000 more fics better than it (and I bet that YamaGoku does have that much fic.)
Also, taking a slight break, yes, I realized that the request post was opened in March and I only filled ONE request from it, and I'm really sorry to the people who requested stuff from me because yes, I know it cheats feelings and I swear, I do have drafts of all the fics written but I just...can't be arsed to polish them up into something decent. Man, I did mean to have all fic requests up by June 2008 and...look where we are now. *sigh*
Caregiver [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
Okay, I'm a really huge Ryohei fan and after they revealed that his flame was a healing flame as opposed to flames of destruction and it was a kink meme and the kink meme was in the in-thing and while I do not, you know, violently ship Ryohei/Tsuna, Tsuna is kind of a whore with all of his Guardians and that includes nii-san too, 'kay? Well, when I was writing this I was just basically complaining about the set-up and trying to fit pr0n in and, really, despite everything, I think it's a pretty good Ryohei/Tsuna fic, even if I don't really ship it. At all. It also probably worked because I liked Ryohei. (Which is not to say that I hate Yamamoto or Gokudera, but just that they don't hold the same fascination Ryohei held for me.)
For Luck [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
I actually liked this prompt a lot when I saw it at the KHR!kink meme, and Lussuria was kind of growing on me after I saw a few sane J!fanart of Lussuria and Ryohei cooperating quite peaceably. I really wished that I could have done something more with the fic, I had (some pretty grand) ideas of Ryohei training with Lussuria and basically being able to get on quite well with the Varia (which would lead up to the other story, Black Celebration) but I could only bang out the part where Ryohei gets ready to go back to Japan. But I really liked it and I do think that the pairing could actually work out pretty sensibly in TYL, assuming that I can fall back into Reborn!
Black Celebration [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
This was meant to be a tie in to For Luck, but then I decided to sod it and turned it into a fic of its own. I really liked it for it being a gen fic and for the fact that Ryohei is neutral enough to be able to fit into the Varia (I suspect that Lambo could too, if Lambo would stop being terrified of Xanxus for maybe 5 seconds) and crazy enough to withstand Varia's antics and perhaps even join them, and I would like to play with this universe a lot more, if I could.
April: 31 Days Challenge [Various: Silver Diamond, Clover, TotA, KHR, Persona 3, SuikoV, Mushishi, PW:AA, Nabari no Ou]
I think I'll try to make a yearly thing where I will attempt to fic for a lot of my more obscure fandoms by using prompts from 31_days, because I really do love my tiny fandoms too and even if hardly anybody reads them I know some poor soul will appreciate them! Someday! That said, I did like writing for SuikoV and Clover. Mushishi is always a little hard for me, because I kind of fail at the entire mystifying aspect of the animanga that enraptures me so much.
Ten-fold [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
This was the only request that I filled from the March request post, and to be honest, I was actually grasping for something new and interesting to do and the prompt stood out at me. It's not so much that I don't ship D18, it's just that I can't really see it in that way, but I do admit that Hibari has grudging respect for Dino, and that is what I chose to focus about in the fic. One thing I really enjoyed writing it was googling up aspects of Italy and while I do not have the burning desire to visit Italy, it's really quite a beautiful place too, I guess.
Aftermath [Subarashiki Kono Sekai;prose]
I'm not sure if I started writing Subaseka fic because I got the English game or something. I might have, though the Subaseka pieces probably sat on the harddrive for a long while because I always get a bit antsy when I start writing for fandoms that I do like but I'm not very familiar with. I do like Subaseka the game, but I liked it so much that I...really don't want to touch much of it because I think fic would never be able to duplicate how awesome the storyline is (to me, at least. I know a good number of people who poo-pooed the concept). Anyway, I...don't really like this fic at all, mostly because I think it's a cop-out resolution for the end of the game, and there are probably better resolutions out there than the one that I've written.
Mind Games [Subarashiki Kono Sekai;prose]
I really kind of fell in love with the idea of Hanekoma/Joshua. It's just the way that they interact with each other, there's a sort of give and take to it, and while they could be equal in power, I think it's a lot more than just the power dynamic. I really do think that Joshua has a very interesting relationship with Hanekoma, he respects him but at the same time Joshua is also really eager to push the boundaries with Hanekoma, just to see what Hanekoma is like. And this fic is really sort of a self-indulgence, really, and it's not written very well because the ideas probably weren't articulated very clearly, and Hanekoma is just really creeped out by the entire thing, as I am. (I do like Hanekoma/Joshua, but everytime I try to write it my inner Hanekoma is going, "There is badtouch, and it's not coming from me.")
Escape Artist [Kingdom Hearts;prose]
I mostly put this up because this fic was mostly finished last year but needed that little extra something to make it complete. The problem was, a year went back and the little extra something never showed itself and looked like it never would, but I really, really liked what I wrote and it seemed to be such a colossal shame to toss away so much work, so up it went. Maybe the day I play BBS that little extra something will show itself, but I doubt it. I really like the ideas behind Escape Artist though, especially with my own reservations about Namine in general.
Inevitablity [Subarashiki Kono Sekai;prose]
I actually had this idea for a while that Joshua was essentially playing three Games, only he didn't know that he was playing a third Game with Hanekoma. I'm not sure if the third Game is actually rigged, because we never know what is up with Hanekoma despite all the info you're given about him (which is about as useful as an ice-cube in hell). But I think Hanekoma did kind of guess what was going to happen, having a certain amount of clairvoyancy, and he might have felt that it was just a tad bit regrettable that it had to come to this.
Passing Torches [Kamen Rider Den-O;drabble]
reisha got me into Den-O in the latter half of the year, and I fell really hard for Sakurai Yuuto, the second Rider in the season. I do kind of want to explore Yuuto and his relationship with Sakurai-san, because of all the implications that go with it. This was actually meant to be something bigger, but somehow the ideas didn't mesh well and I went with the one that I liked the best, though the development is still kind of shallow, which is a little disappointing.
A Bit of String and a Whole Lot of Hope [Kamen Rider Den-O;prose]
I have to admit that Kai/Ryou is kind of a weird ship, perhaps even weirder than MomoRyou, but the J-fen have a very unique ability of making you feel sympathetic for a character through their fanwork and Kai/Ryou is in fact one of their more sane pickings to pimp. That said, I did manage to feel bad for Kai in Den-O during my second re-watch because he probably did start off as someone wanting his own time too, and along the way he lost his sanity due to the fact that he was sacrificing his own time to achieve it. Ryoutarou is also someone whom, I would think, had the series spent more time developing Kai beyond "token final boss", would have tried to make friends with Kai if given the chance.
And I would like to think that even if Kai supposedly died at the finale, as all bad guys do, there's still a chance that Ryoutarou might be able to meet the not-crazy him in the future, and thus try to prevent the entire fiasco from ever happening. It still feels like a potential bad-end, because even if time does not travel the way we think it does, at least in Den-O, I think certain events will have to occur to order to achieve the future Ryoutarou fought so hard to protect.
But I still kind of like bush-stalking hijinks and I really do think Kai/Ryou is kind of cute, if a little mind-blowing.
Making the Best of Things [Kamen Rider Den-O;prose]
Yuuto is kind of like Asch in TotA for me, and this fic was threatening to turn into the huge fic that was Baby Steps, but I sort of pulled on the reins a lot and reeled in the angst. It's really more like three short drabbles being written over a period of time a year after Den-O, when Yuuto needs to learn that he's different from Sakurai-san. I think one of the subtle impacts of Sakurai-san on Yuuto was the fact that Yuuto couldn't escape from Sakurai-san's shadow, for most of the show he kept going back to Airi and I...honestly thought that he did want to fall in love with her, even when he found nothing attractive about Airi initially, and it was just about the worst idea ever. But I would like to think that Yuuto does slowly learn over time that when he started using the Zeronos cards his time with Sakurai-san has effectively diverged, and he has his own life. Also, Sakurai's new name is entirely tongue-in-cheek in that I suck at Japanese names in general.
Marking Territories [31 Days;prose]
Ahahaha I have no excuse for this. December's 31_days featured cat-inspired themes, and I knew that Sato Takeru had two cats, and then the fic...wrote itself. Honest. That said, I do think that his cats are really cute, and I feel a need to pat myself on the back that I've only written Real People's Pets Fics (RPPF) as opposed to RPF. (Though perhaps that is also hovering slightly on the horizon.)
And that's it for the year. I think in 2009, besides doing a month of 31_days for small fandoms, I will be writing mostly for the toku fandom, as evidenced by the fic that came out in the latter half of the year. I will try to write for older fandoms but I think that I'm gradually falling out of animanga, and it depends on what games I will be playing that will induce me to fic (chances are Persona 4 fic will be coming this journal's way). I will also be focusing my energies on my fandom/translation journal, so I might not be able to write as often.
It's been a really interesting year, I think. With more variety than usual, but I think, overall, 2008 has been an interesting year for me.
The Stories
January: RyoHiba 31 Days [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;drabble]
I actually babbled about this here, and it's still pretty relevant even after 11 months.
February: Mukuro-centric ficlets [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;drabble]
To be honest, I hadn't wanted to go through another 31_days but the prompt-list for February 2008 was so Mukuro that I couldn't help but be tempted to try again, although I tried to make it easier on myself and vowed to just do the alternate days. I really did like what I had of February, as few as it is, and when I was in Reborn! I did find Mukuro intruiging, especially with his Kokuyou crew, and not, as fandom would love to demonstrate, with Hibari. I still find him interesting, but my interest in Reborn! is gradually being limited to just the source material and I'm not...really into it as I used to be. My favourite piece from this batch is actually the conversation between Mukuro and Reborn, to be perfectly honest.
Retaliation for Playing Favourites [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;drabble]
This was mainly written for reisha, who liked YamaGoku a great deal and I...think this is one reason why I should never, ever attempt to write fic for things that I'm not interested in. I don't think it's terribly written, and I think it's pretty decent pr0n, but it's just so bland and blah and generic and I swear, there are probably 1000 more fics better than it (and I bet that YamaGoku does have that much fic.)
Also, taking a slight break, yes, I realized that the request post was opened in March and I only filled ONE request from it, and I'm really sorry to the people who requested stuff from me because yes, I know it cheats feelings and I swear, I do have drafts of all the fics written but I just...can't be arsed to polish them up into something decent. Man, I did mean to have all fic requests up by June 2008 and...look where we are now. *sigh*
Caregiver [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
Okay, I'm a really huge Ryohei fan and after they revealed that his flame was a healing flame as opposed to flames of destruction and it was a kink meme and the kink meme was in the in-thing and while I do not, you know, violently ship Ryohei/Tsuna, Tsuna is kind of a whore with all of his Guardians and that includes nii-san too, 'kay? Well, when I was writing this I was just basically complaining about the set-up and trying to fit pr0n in and, really, despite everything, I think it's a pretty good Ryohei/Tsuna fic, even if I don't really ship it. At all. It also probably worked because I liked Ryohei. (Which is not to say that I hate Yamamoto or Gokudera, but just that they don't hold the same fascination Ryohei held for me.)
For Luck [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
I actually liked this prompt a lot when I saw it at the KHR!kink meme, and Lussuria was kind of growing on me after I saw a few sane J!fanart of Lussuria and Ryohei cooperating quite peaceably. I really wished that I could have done something more with the fic, I had (some pretty grand) ideas of Ryohei training with Lussuria and basically being able to get on quite well with the Varia (which would lead up to the other story, Black Celebration) but I could only bang out the part where Ryohei gets ready to go back to Japan. But I really liked it and I do think that the pairing could actually work out pretty sensibly in TYL, assuming that I can fall back into Reborn!
Black Celebration [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
This was meant to be a tie in to For Luck, but then I decided to sod it and turned it into a fic of its own. I really liked it for it being a gen fic and for the fact that Ryohei is neutral enough to be able to fit into the Varia (I suspect that Lambo could too, if Lambo would stop being terrified of Xanxus for maybe 5 seconds) and crazy enough to withstand Varia's antics and perhaps even join them, and I would like to play with this universe a lot more, if I could.
April: 31 Days Challenge [Various: Silver Diamond, Clover, TotA, KHR, Persona 3, SuikoV, Mushishi, PW:AA, Nabari no Ou]
I think I'll try to make a yearly thing where I will attempt to fic for a lot of my more obscure fandoms by using prompts from 31_days, because I really do love my tiny fandoms too and even if hardly anybody reads them I know some poor soul will appreciate them! Someday! That said, I did like writing for SuikoV and Clover. Mushishi is always a little hard for me, because I kind of fail at the entire mystifying aspect of the animanga that enraptures me so much.
Ten-fold [Katekyo Hitman Reborn!;prose]
This was the only request that I filled from the March request post, and to be honest, I was actually grasping for something new and interesting to do and the prompt stood out at me. It's not so much that I don't ship D18, it's just that I can't really see it in that way, but I do admit that Hibari has grudging respect for Dino, and that is what I chose to focus about in the fic. One thing I really enjoyed writing it was googling up aspects of Italy and while I do not have the burning desire to visit Italy, it's really quite a beautiful place too, I guess.
Aftermath [Subarashiki Kono Sekai;prose]
I'm not sure if I started writing Subaseka fic because I got the English game or something. I might have, though the Subaseka pieces probably sat on the harddrive for a long while because I always get a bit antsy when I start writing for fandoms that I do like but I'm not very familiar with. I do like Subaseka the game, but I liked it so much that I...really don't want to touch much of it because I think fic would never be able to duplicate how awesome the storyline is (to me, at least. I know a good number of people who poo-pooed the concept). Anyway, I...don't really like this fic at all, mostly because I think it's a cop-out resolution for the end of the game, and there are probably better resolutions out there than the one that I've written.
Mind Games [Subarashiki Kono Sekai;prose]
I really kind of fell in love with the idea of Hanekoma/Joshua. It's just the way that they interact with each other, there's a sort of give and take to it, and while they could be equal in power, I think it's a lot more than just the power dynamic. I really do think that Joshua has a very interesting relationship with Hanekoma, he respects him but at the same time Joshua is also really eager to push the boundaries with Hanekoma, just to see what Hanekoma is like. And this fic is really sort of a self-indulgence, really, and it's not written very well because the ideas probably weren't articulated very clearly, and Hanekoma is just really creeped out by the entire thing, as I am. (I do like Hanekoma/Joshua, but everytime I try to write it my inner Hanekoma is going, "There is badtouch, and it's not coming from me.")
Escape Artist [Kingdom Hearts;prose]
I mostly put this up because this fic was mostly finished last year but needed that little extra something to make it complete. The problem was, a year went back and the little extra something never showed itself and looked like it never would, but I really, really liked what I wrote and it seemed to be such a colossal shame to toss away so much work, so up it went. Maybe the day I play BBS that little extra something will show itself, but I doubt it. I really like the ideas behind Escape Artist though, especially with my own reservations about Namine in general.
Inevitablity [Subarashiki Kono Sekai;prose]
I actually had this idea for a while that Joshua was essentially playing three Games, only he didn't know that he was playing a third Game with Hanekoma. I'm not sure if the third Game is actually rigged, because we never know what is up with Hanekoma despite all the info you're given about him (which is about as useful as an ice-cube in hell). But I think Hanekoma did kind of guess what was going to happen, having a certain amount of clairvoyancy, and he might have felt that it was just a tad bit regrettable that it had to come to this.
Passing Torches [Kamen Rider Den-O;drabble]
reisha got me into Den-O in the latter half of the year, and I fell really hard for Sakurai Yuuto, the second Rider in the season. I do kind of want to explore Yuuto and his relationship with Sakurai-san, because of all the implications that go with it. This was actually meant to be something bigger, but somehow the ideas didn't mesh well and I went with the one that I liked the best, though the development is still kind of shallow, which is a little disappointing.
A Bit of String and a Whole Lot of Hope [Kamen Rider Den-O;prose]
I have to admit that Kai/Ryou is kind of a weird ship, perhaps even weirder than MomoRyou, but the J-fen have a very unique ability of making you feel sympathetic for a character through their fanwork and Kai/Ryou is in fact one of their more sane pickings to pimp. That said, I did manage to feel bad for Kai in Den-O during my second re-watch because he probably did start off as someone wanting his own time too, and along the way he lost his sanity due to the fact that he was sacrificing his own time to achieve it. Ryoutarou is also someone whom, I would think, had the series spent more time developing Kai beyond "token final boss", would have tried to make friends with Kai if given the chance.
And I would like to think that even if Kai supposedly died at the finale, as all bad guys do, there's still a chance that Ryoutarou might be able to meet the not-crazy him in the future, and thus try to prevent the entire fiasco from ever happening. It still feels like a potential bad-end, because even if time does not travel the way we think it does, at least in Den-O, I think certain events will have to occur to order to achieve the future Ryoutarou fought so hard to protect.
But I still kind of like bush-stalking hijinks and I really do think Kai/Ryou is kind of cute, if a little mind-blowing.
Making the Best of Things [Kamen Rider Den-O;prose]
Yuuto is kind of like Asch in TotA for me, and this fic was threatening to turn into the huge fic that was Baby Steps, but I sort of pulled on the reins a lot and reeled in the angst. It's really more like three short drabbles being written over a period of time a year after Den-O, when Yuuto needs to learn that he's different from Sakurai-san. I think one of the subtle impacts of Sakurai-san on Yuuto was the fact that Yuuto couldn't escape from Sakurai-san's shadow, for most of the show he kept going back to Airi and I...honestly thought that he did want to fall in love with her, even when he found nothing attractive about Airi initially, and it was just about the worst idea ever. But I would like to think that Yuuto does slowly learn over time that when he started using the Zeronos cards his time with Sakurai-san has effectively diverged, and he has his own life. Also, Sakurai's new name is entirely tongue-in-cheek in that I suck at Japanese names in general.
Marking Territories [31 Days;prose]
Ahahaha I have no excuse for this. December's 31_days featured cat-inspired themes, and I knew that Sato Takeru had two cats, and then the fic...wrote itself. Honest. That said, I do think that his cats are really cute, and I feel a need to pat myself on the back that I've only written Real People's Pets Fics (RPPF) as opposed to RPF. (Though perhaps that is also hovering slightly on the horizon.)
And that's it for the year. I think in 2009, besides doing a month of 31_days for small fandoms, I will be writing mostly for the toku fandom, as evidenced by the fic that came out in the latter half of the year. I will try to write for older fandoms but I think that I'm gradually falling out of animanga, and it depends on what games I will be playing that will induce me to fic (chances are Persona 4 fic will be coming this journal's way). I will also be focusing my energies on my fandom/translation journal, so I might not be able to write as often.
It's been a really interesting year, I think. With more variety than usual, but I think, overall, 2008 has been an interesting year for me.