[meta] year in fic review 2009
Fandoms: Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider W, various jdramas and one anime.
The Stories
A Place to Rest Your Heart [Kamen Rider Den-O, flashfic]
This is one of the many MomoRyou-centric fics that I have lying around in my harddrive. Momotaros' relationship with Ryoutarou has always been one of my favourites in Den-O, and I tried to think of what else Momotaros would do if he'd been given a chance. I really liked how peaceful the entire situation was, how Ryoutarou's gotten used to Momo's weird shenanigans, and just Momo dere-ing all over Ryoutarou.
A Place to Rest Your Heart also talks a little about Momo's relationship with the other Imagin, that despite their bond, there's always those little family squabbles that enable Momo to go and bother Ryoutarou instead.
Forgotten Family Roles [Kamen Rider Den-O, flashfic]
I actually borrowed this idea from a Japanese fanart and comic strip, where Ryuuta actually possessed Ryoutarou to confess, of a sort, to Airi. I found the idea behind the art really sweet, and decided to use it to bridge the gap between the end of Den-O and Climax Deka.
Living In A World Created to Destroy [Mei-chan no Shitsuji, flashfic]
I didn't really like Mei-chan no Shitsuji for many reasons, but one of the butler-lady pairs which I really adored was Tami and Kanda. When we first met them, they seemed like a really eccentric pair tossed into the drama for the heck of it, but as their characters developed, I...well, I will admit that I was a little disappointed with how the development was handled.
Nevertheless, I did end up liking bits of the development, one of which was Kanda's actual relationship to Tami, a big brother compelled under very unfortunate circumstances to protect the little sister he's been given.
The Fine Art of Blackmail [Mei-chan no Shitsuji, flashfic]
This 31_days prompt also led me to think a little about why Kanda allowed himself to go so deep, and also sort of expands a little on their relationship with Lucia and her butler, Shinobu. I think when I wrote this, I wanted to delve into the other story that wasn't told, but then I rapidly lost interest in the series after the incredibly lacklustre ending. Perhaps, in the future, I might pick it up again.
New Year's Eve, 2008 [Kamen Rider Den-O, drabble]
This is a story set after "Summer in the Blink of an Eye", an AU version of Den-O where the Imagin were all human characters. Ryuuta's around fifteen, Ryoutarou's going on eighteen, Momo and Ura are nineteen, and Kin-chan's around twenty-four, twenty-five. It's pretty much an opportunity for me to just write a bit of Imagin-Ryoutarou fluff, something that's just them, even though I know that Hana's also a part of the cohesive lot. I just really like the entire environment, how contented they are with each other, just...how incredibly happy.
In Search of Being Normal [Atashinchi no Danshi, flashfic]
Atadan took me by surprise as one of the dramas that really...made me laugh and cry and love all the characters, or, if I was really honest, most of them. I know that Atadan isn't really everyone's cup of tea, because for a quirky family dramedy, it's also freakishly squicky and the writing isn't exactly high-brow. But I love the entire Ohkura clan, and of them all, I love Masaru and Satoru's relationshi with each other the most.
It really surprised me that I ended up enjoying their interaction considering my disdain for Seto Kouji, but there's really something about their chemistry, how they gravitate towards each other unconsciously, and...I am so tempted to slash them together, but even so, there's just something beyond slash. It's how Masaru is so completely over his younger brother, and how Satoru keeps picking on Masaru whenever things go wrong, and I just really, really love them.
In Search of Being Normal is really a tale of how much Masaru wants to be normal, is so enthusiastic about it, and how Satoru just plays along, and I left the ending deliberately ambiguous because even I'm not sure what Satoru thinks, but in the end it's just what one brother would do for another in this wacky family (see: Fuu encouraging Sho), all because of love.
Rediscovering Magic [Atashinchi no Danshi, flashfic]
I'm not very happy with the fic, although I'm in love with Riki, who stole my heart in the episode where he set his parents up, and I just wanted to write something for Riki with one of his uncles. I really do intend to do something about Takeru and Riki, because I think of all the uncles, Takeru would be the one spending the most time with Riki because he wants to, Riki's his favourite nephew, but Satoru's story sort of wrote itself first.
I also like to think that the fic touched a little on Satoru's relationship with their littlest brother Akira, that it's really because of their age that Akira could even relate, just a little, to Satoru. Even then, I believe that Satoru will always find his younger brother a little alien, and that's a bit of a shame.
One Disappointment After Another [Atashinchi no Danshi, flashfic]
While I love Satoru and Masaru's relationship, Takeru wins, hands down, as my favourite character in the show, mostly because of his development and how hard his character tries to keep the family together, up until his own breaking point with his dad and how that ended up tearing the family apart. But I love Takeru and his delinquent practicality and how much he loves Sho as a brother, a REAL brother, and I love how the series sort of gives a little limelight to how much Sho's leaving had hurt him, but Takeru still manages to stand above that, in the end.
Life After [Kamen Rider Den-O; fic]
If one were to venture into the Den-O j-fen corner, it's actually incredibly surprising to find that depressing fic takes about half the fandom output. I will admit that there's something about Den-O that is really, surprisingly sad beneath all the comedy. Life After is about Momo having to continue on without Ryoutarou, because Ryoutarou believes in reincarnation, and believes that his next life deserves a chance, which is why he chose not to stay.
But it's also about Momo and his poor relationships with other people, and how much Ryoutarou affected them, affected him, and I really liked how in the end it's just Momo and Hana together, missing the same person who brought them this far.
(P.S I also added in a part of my personal canon that Koutarou is actually Hana's son, not Ryoutarou's grandson, mostly because Owner is a lying liar and prefers that the timestream be not fucked by having Ryoutarou think that he has a grandson.)
(P.P.S In a way, I suppose, this story is also a sort of farewell to Sato Takeru never reprising his role again as Ryoutarou, having passed it on to a younger actor, and while I love baby!Ryoutarou, it will never be the same again.)
In the Year Between (1-4) [Kamen Rider W, story told in parts]
After the incredibly disappointing showing by Decade, W brought on a very strong front and has been continuing in that vein so far. One thing I really liked about the show was that it gave fandom a chance to talk about backstory; Shoutarou's life before meeting Oya-san, Shoutarou's life after meeting Oya-san, and...well, Shoutarou's life after Oya-san died. It's interesting to see how my fic sort of deviates from how the show chooses to illustrate Shoutarou's life, but it's pretty fun all the same, writing about that year in between.
I'm not entirely sure if I want to focus on Phillip at all in this series, because it's largely in Shoutarou's point of view and there's some things that I would like to play with, but...hey, we'll see in 2010.
That One Time ( A) ( B) [Kamen Rider W, fic]
Okay, so this one was kind of an exercise to see if I can get any porn out of this, and while it got to that point...the main purpose of the fic was really to illustrate just how intensely creepy Phillip is, how in the beginning everything to him is (probably) just something to be researched on and then discarded. It's not really very good, to be honest.
Two New Years [Kamen Rider W, fic]
I actually really liked this fic a lot, because it gave me a chance to explore Akiko at a time when I didn't really like her that much, but I could see the value in her and writing the fic made me accept her more. I'm really happy that Akiko's finally settling down in canon, and I really hope that things do get healthier for Shoutarou and Phillip with her around.
Under Control [Kamen Rider W, flashfic]
I wrote this mostly for Kirihiko, who intrigued me greatly as a villain and whose relationship with Saeko is just...so very interesting. There's a juxtoposition in W about how Kirihiko and Saeko's roles are reversed, and it's simply unnerving how completely masochistic Kirihiko is with regard to Saeko in canon, how intensely concerned and loyal in spite of what happened in episode 10. I do have another fic planned with him as the centrepiece, but I've sort of hit a road-block on that, and coupled with the real life situation it'll probably take a while before I get back to it.
Great Charity, Bad Tactics [Kamen Rider W, fic]
This is another response fic, although it's not really very good. The one thing that I took away from it was that I realized that I still don't have a very good grasp of Shoutarou and Phillip's relationship. I do think that both of them would rather die than lose each other, but there's this...nuance that I keep failing to grasp. Well, try and try again, I suppose!
Summer In the Blink of An Eye [Kamen Rider Den-O, story told in parts]
I've been working on this AU on and off, and it's just a universe that I enjoy dabbling in because it's...what I feel Den-O might have been like without the time-travelling and the Imagin and the time fucktitry. Summer is actually a smaller portion of the universe, just focusing on the time after Ryoutarou and Momo move in together for college, whereas the actual universe is a lot larger and sort of borrows a lot from the actual Den-O canon. There's a separate story for Ura and Kin-chan, which is kind of a huge clusterfuck.
It's also a love story, of a sort, because I think while Momo loves Ryoutarou deeply, Ryoutarou... just isn't quite that sensitive enough about it. But we'll cross that bridge when it comes, eh.
Red [Ima Soko Ni Iru Boku, drabble]
I kind of cheated on this because apparently this was a drabble request from emptybackpack from...like last year (2008) and I somehow never posted it. Imaboku is...an incredible anime that deserved to be watched just once, because it's also so depressing that you can never really bring yourself to watch it again. I liked to think that, given the themes of the show, that it's highly probable that because of those horrors, Shuu would eventually choose to forget what had happened, because he's young, and while we don't forget wars, one must remember that this was a war that was witnessed by Shuu himself.
I like to think that he would regret forgetting, for a little while, but life must move on.
In total, I wrote 16 fics, which I guess is not particularly prolific. My biggest regret this year was not being able to do anything from 31_days, I'm not entirely sure why this is so, and I hope that in 2010 I'll be able to attempt the challenge again.
My fandoms have also mostly moved to the Japanese live-action area, which I'm not surprised at, although I will admit a bit of surprise that I would also write for jdramas, which usually have a longevity of...a few months? Still, I do like what I have produced, and hope that I will continue to enjoy writing simply for writing, in the year to come.
Fic index will be updated to reflect the 2009 fics in the new year.
The Stories
A Place to Rest Your Heart [Kamen Rider Den-O, flashfic]
This is one of the many MomoRyou-centric fics that I have lying around in my harddrive. Momotaros' relationship with Ryoutarou has always been one of my favourites in Den-O, and I tried to think of what else Momotaros would do if he'd been given a chance. I really liked how peaceful the entire situation was, how Ryoutarou's gotten used to Momo's weird shenanigans, and just Momo dere-ing all over Ryoutarou.
A Place to Rest Your Heart also talks a little about Momo's relationship with the other Imagin, that despite their bond, there's always those little family squabbles that enable Momo to go and bother Ryoutarou instead.
Forgotten Family Roles [Kamen Rider Den-O, flashfic]
I actually borrowed this idea from a Japanese fanart and comic strip, where Ryuuta actually possessed Ryoutarou to confess, of a sort, to Airi. I found the idea behind the art really sweet, and decided to use it to bridge the gap between the end of Den-O and Climax Deka.
Living In A World Created to Destroy [Mei-chan no Shitsuji, flashfic]
I didn't really like Mei-chan no Shitsuji for many reasons, but one of the butler-lady pairs which I really adored was Tami and Kanda. When we first met them, they seemed like a really eccentric pair tossed into the drama for the heck of it, but as their characters developed, I...well, I will admit that I was a little disappointed with how the development was handled.
Nevertheless, I did end up liking bits of the development, one of which was Kanda's actual relationship to Tami, a big brother compelled under very unfortunate circumstances to protect the little sister he's been given.
The Fine Art of Blackmail [Mei-chan no Shitsuji, flashfic]
This 31_days prompt also led me to think a little about why Kanda allowed himself to go so deep, and also sort of expands a little on their relationship with Lucia and her butler, Shinobu. I think when I wrote this, I wanted to delve into the other story that wasn't told, but then I rapidly lost interest in the series after the incredibly lacklustre ending. Perhaps, in the future, I might pick it up again.
New Year's Eve, 2008 [Kamen Rider Den-O, drabble]
This is a story set after "Summer in the Blink of an Eye", an AU version of Den-O where the Imagin were all human characters. Ryuuta's around fifteen, Ryoutarou's going on eighteen, Momo and Ura are nineteen, and Kin-chan's around twenty-four, twenty-five. It's pretty much an opportunity for me to just write a bit of Imagin-Ryoutarou fluff, something that's just them, even though I know that Hana's also a part of the cohesive lot. I just really like the entire environment, how contented they are with each other, just...how incredibly happy.
In Search of Being Normal [Atashinchi no Danshi, flashfic]
Atadan took me by surprise as one of the dramas that really...made me laugh and cry and love all the characters, or, if I was really honest, most of them. I know that Atadan isn't really everyone's cup of tea, because for a quirky family dramedy, it's also freakishly squicky and the writing isn't exactly high-brow. But I love the entire Ohkura clan, and of them all, I love Masaru and Satoru's relationshi with each other the most.
It really surprised me that I ended up enjoying their interaction considering my disdain for Seto Kouji, but there's really something about their chemistry, how they gravitate towards each other unconsciously, and...I am so tempted to slash them together, but even so, there's just something beyond slash. It's how Masaru is so completely over his younger brother, and how Satoru keeps picking on Masaru whenever things go wrong, and I just really, really love them.
In Search of Being Normal is really a tale of how much Masaru wants to be normal, is so enthusiastic about it, and how Satoru just plays along, and I left the ending deliberately ambiguous because even I'm not sure what Satoru thinks, but in the end it's just what one brother would do for another in this wacky family (see: Fuu encouraging Sho), all because of love.
Rediscovering Magic [Atashinchi no Danshi, flashfic]
I'm not very happy with the fic, although I'm in love with Riki, who stole my heart in the episode where he set his parents up, and I just wanted to write something for Riki with one of his uncles. I really do intend to do something about Takeru and Riki, because I think of all the uncles, Takeru would be the one spending the most time with Riki because he wants to, Riki's his favourite nephew, but Satoru's story sort of wrote itself first.
I also like to think that the fic touched a little on Satoru's relationship with their littlest brother Akira, that it's really because of their age that Akira could even relate, just a little, to Satoru. Even then, I believe that Satoru will always find his younger brother a little alien, and that's a bit of a shame.
One Disappointment After Another [Atashinchi no Danshi, flashfic]
While I love Satoru and Masaru's relationship, Takeru wins, hands down, as my favourite character in the show, mostly because of his development and how hard his character tries to keep the family together, up until his own breaking point with his dad and how that ended up tearing the family apart. But I love Takeru and his delinquent practicality and how much he loves Sho as a brother, a REAL brother, and I love how the series sort of gives a little limelight to how much Sho's leaving had hurt him, but Takeru still manages to stand above that, in the end.
Life After [Kamen Rider Den-O; fic]
If one were to venture into the Den-O j-fen corner, it's actually incredibly surprising to find that depressing fic takes about half the fandom output. I will admit that there's something about Den-O that is really, surprisingly sad beneath all the comedy. Life After is about Momo having to continue on without Ryoutarou, because Ryoutarou believes in reincarnation, and believes that his next life deserves a chance, which is why he chose not to stay.
But it's also about Momo and his poor relationships with other people, and how much Ryoutarou affected them, affected him, and I really liked how in the end it's just Momo and Hana together, missing the same person who brought them this far.
(P.S I also added in a part of my personal canon that Koutarou is actually Hana's son, not Ryoutarou's grandson, mostly because Owner is a lying liar and prefers that the timestream be not fucked by having Ryoutarou think that he has a grandson.)
(P.P.S In a way, I suppose, this story is also a sort of farewell to Sato Takeru never reprising his role again as Ryoutarou, having passed it on to a younger actor, and while I love baby!Ryoutarou, it will never be the same again.)
In the Year Between (1-4) [Kamen Rider W, story told in parts]
After the incredibly disappointing showing by Decade, W brought on a very strong front and has been continuing in that vein so far. One thing I really liked about the show was that it gave fandom a chance to talk about backstory; Shoutarou's life before meeting Oya-san, Shoutarou's life after meeting Oya-san, and...well, Shoutarou's life after Oya-san died. It's interesting to see how my fic sort of deviates from how the show chooses to illustrate Shoutarou's life, but it's pretty fun all the same, writing about that year in between.
I'm not entirely sure if I want to focus on Phillip at all in this series, because it's largely in Shoutarou's point of view and there's some things that I would like to play with, but...hey, we'll see in 2010.
That One Time ( A) ( B) [Kamen Rider W, fic]
Okay, so this one was kind of an exercise to see if I can get any porn out of this, and while it got to that point...the main purpose of the fic was really to illustrate just how intensely creepy Phillip is, how in the beginning everything to him is (probably) just something to be researched on and then discarded. It's not really very good, to be honest.
Two New Years [Kamen Rider W, fic]
I actually really liked this fic a lot, because it gave me a chance to explore Akiko at a time when I didn't really like her that much, but I could see the value in her and writing the fic made me accept her more. I'm really happy that Akiko's finally settling down in canon, and I really hope that things do get healthier for Shoutarou and Phillip with her around.
Under Control [Kamen Rider W, flashfic]
I wrote this mostly for Kirihiko, who intrigued me greatly as a villain and whose relationship with Saeko is just...so very interesting. There's a juxtoposition in W about how Kirihiko and Saeko's roles are reversed, and it's simply unnerving how completely masochistic Kirihiko is with regard to Saeko in canon, how intensely concerned and loyal in spite of what happened in episode 10. I do have another fic planned with him as the centrepiece, but I've sort of hit a road-block on that, and coupled with the real life situation it'll probably take a while before I get back to it.
Great Charity, Bad Tactics [Kamen Rider W, fic]
This is another response fic, although it's not really very good. The one thing that I took away from it was that I realized that I still don't have a very good grasp of Shoutarou and Phillip's relationship. I do think that both of them would rather die than lose each other, but there's this...nuance that I keep failing to grasp. Well, try and try again, I suppose!
Summer In the Blink of An Eye [Kamen Rider Den-O, story told in parts]
I've been working on this AU on and off, and it's just a universe that I enjoy dabbling in because it's...what I feel Den-O might have been like without the time-travelling and the Imagin and the time fucktitry. Summer is actually a smaller portion of the universe, just focusing on the time after Ryoutarou and Momo move in together for college, whereas the actual universe is a lot larger and sort of borrows a lot from the actual Den-O canon. There's a separate story for Ura and Kin-chan, which is kind of a huge clusterfuck.
It's also a love story, of a sort, because I think while Momo loves Ryoutarou deeply, Ryoutarou... just isn't quite that sensitive enough about it. But we'll cross that bridge when it comes, eh.
Red [Ima Soko Ni Iru Boku, drabble]
I kind of cheated on this because apparently this was a drabble request from emptybackpack from...like last year (2008) and I somehow never posted it. Imaboku is...an incredible anime that deserved to be watched just once, because it's also so depressing that you can never really bring yourself to watch it again. I liked to think that, given the themes of the show, that it's highly probable that because of those horrors, Shuu would eventually choose to forget what had happened, because he's young, and while we don't forget wars, one must remember that this was a war that was witnessed by Shuu himself.
I like to think that he would regret forgetting, for a little while, but life must move on.
In total, I wrote 16 fics, which I guess is not particularly prolific. My biggest regret this year was not being able to do anything from 31_days, I'm not entirely sure why this is so, and I hope that in 2010 I'll be able to attempt the challenge again.
My fandoms have also mostly moved to the Japanese live-action area, which I'm not surprised at, although I will admit a bit of surprise that I would also write for jdramas, which usually have a longevity of...a few months? Still, I do like what I have produced, and hope that I will continue to enjoy writing simply for writing, in the year to come.
Fic index will be updated to reflect the 2009 fics in the new year.