The Implementation of J.A. Seazer and other stories.

[mithrigil]

.

Upon the inspiration of one etrangere, I present, the crossover I should have written back when this all got started:

Title: Noppera-Bou
Fandoms: Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Tokyo Babylon
Characters: Subaru, Anshi, others.
Rating: PG. It's Utena.
Words: 4300
Spoilers: Implicit for the end of Utena, explicit for the end of TB.
Irony Cudgel Index: Mokushi

Comments

!!!!!!

[zombie_fetus]

OH MY EFFING BLOODY ROSES. *massive smiling*

I love this. I love this.

Re: !!!!!!

[mithrigil]

Thought you might, my dear.

Re: !!!!!!

[zombie_fetus]

The wonderful references, the symbolism, The Goddamn Himemiya Anshi! This is so beautifully done I can't stop grinning.

Success +100, Mith Levels Up!

Re: !!!!!!

[mithrigil]

::ascends in elevator, watches upgraded footage in the name of ruffles and epaulets::

[byzantienne]

Oh, lovely. Lovely. When I talk about intertextuality, this is the kind of thing I mean. The layers of referents, piled up on top of each other, like roses in Himemiya's room. This kind of crossover isn't so much slippage between universes as it is a recontextualization of both, an entirely new space created by mutual inter-reference.

And even besides all that, I love the sheer sensory overload packed into this piece; scent and image and light, and very colorful, which is such a sharp contrast to TBX usually, and is very effective here.

[mithrigil]

There is no black in Utena. That's the clincher. There is never black in Utena the way there's never white in Van Gogh. So how do you merge the canons of "something that's only got two colors and one of them is blood" and "something in which everthing black becomes what it really is?"

Well, in this case, I shaded the black and made it stand out as more than not-white. But mostly I just let the colors give the assault they wanted to give. :grin:

[byzantienne]

And it works very, very well. It's overwhelming, for both Subaru and the reader -- an assault, yes. *grins back*

[mithrigil]

::tapdances::

[lady_venn]

And now comes the incoherent CAPSLOCK OF SQUEE AND RAGE ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

BECAUSE DEAR GOD, YOU HAVE NAILED THIS!!!

The Chu-Chu and the Shadow Girls and the play and the duel and the SONG and the prologue and the Anthy and the EVERYTHING OH MY GOD YES YES YES.

(AND NOW I HAVE IMAGES OF SUBARU LOSING A FEW YEARS BUT NOT REALLY OUT AT OHTORI (TIME SLIP ISSUES YOU KNOW THEY EXIST AND A REASON FOR HIM DROPPING OUT?) AND HIM BEING IN A SECOND DUELING GAME AND FUCKING AKIO OR IS THAT AKIO FUCKING OH WHO CARES HITTING ON HIS ISSUES WITH SESHIROU AND SESHIROU INTERVENING SOMEHOW AND NOT MORE PLOT BUNNIES AH GOD NO SQUEEEE!!)

..Ahem. Lost control of myself there for a bit. ^^;

When I get my Mac back and I get a router so that I can have access to my parents' broadband, we so need to be talking on AIM.

[mithrigil]

You caught Chu-chu, thank you SO GODDAMNED MUCH.

...and oh god the capslock.

Yes. Let there be talk, when the time is ripe. Yes. Yessssssssss.

[lady_venn]

You're welcome.

And sorry bout the capslock; plot bunnies bit HARD, there. May have left marks. :P

But oh yes. The talking. And perhaps plotting? :P

[mithrigil]

I am amenable to the prospect~

[puella_nerdii]

So. This. World of yes.

Let me not to the marriage of these two canons admit impediment. *grin* The repetition really strikes me in this -- and repetition is such an Utena device -- "forgive him for not laughing" and "she squints as if she’s lost her glasses, smiles as if she’s lost her mind" acquire so many more layers of meaning when repeated in different contexts. (And yes, that kind of recontextualizing's what this is all about. What all crossovers are about, really, or at least what the good ones are.) And it's fascinating to see how much Subaru defines things by what isn't there (which, again, SUBARU), how so much of this is implication and inference and sensory overload and it's very very VERY Utena.

I love seeing how you explore purity in this, too -- Subaru and Anthy are both, in many ways, fallen, and they're both looking for the ones who've pulled their hearts out, but the way in which they approach their respective situations is different, fascinating, damn compelling. Unmei vs. sadame indeed.

And the duel. And the

[mithrigil]

I am so glad to have finally written this.

You know I went all-out with this. I missed Utena. I really did, and I was the age Subaru is here when I first saw it, and I think that also shows. I knew what I wanted to do here with purity and did it and the rest was just fun, mixing the colors and the views and all...the notion of hearts, and what each canon did for its genre, both establishing and deconstructing...yeah. Marriage of true canons.

I've pastiched Seazer before. Never like this. :grin:

And that shadowplay was a blast to write, I swear it.

So thank you for enjoying something I enjoyed, love. :smiles:

[kawaiigami]

Sadly, like so many things Utena, parts of this go way over my head. ;_; What didn't, I enjoyed--how you blended the worlds, all the details. I really, really liked how you portrayed Anthy. :)

Would it be possible to do some in-person nihongo discussion over word choices? For I love language geekery and am curious, but LJ does not seem conducive to that sort of thing. :/

[mithrigil]

I'd love to geekout-suru about this--I hope I am not outright wrong on some of these.

And thanks so much~ Yeah, I know this is kind of obtuse. But then, so is the show. So.