Stephan Sokolow's Blog

Redheads by Robert ‘Kenko’ Haynie

Length: 3 Chapters, Incomplete
Sources: Ranma ½, Slayers
Rating: 5/5

How many readers remember “Equal Halves“, the somewhat sidestory-ish sequel to “Genma’s Daughter“? Now how many of you don’t know about “Redheads”, the somewhat sidestory-ish sequel to “Girl Days“?

“Redheads” starts with a post-Girl Days Ranma trying and failing to get out of “going on a quest”. The result? Ranma and Akane in the Slayers world, travelling with Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev.

Now those of you who have read “Girl Days” know what you’re in for. For those who don’t, all I can say is that, like Monty Python films, Robert Haynie’s stories have to be seen to be believed. They’re laugh-out-loud funny and it’s widely agreed that he’s the king of funny Ranma ½ fanfiction.

As for the readability, I didn’t see any grammatical problems and the only spelling mistake was one “teh”… made all the more impressive by the fact that it’s in the rec.arts.anime.creative archive rather than some easily-updated location like Fanfiction.net.

Tsunade’s Heir by funkmasterjo

Length: 12 Chapters, Ongoing
Sources: Naruto
Rating: 5/5

A common theme in fanfiction is a small change snowballing to fix or at least lessen all of the problems in a series. Done poorly, it’s obvious and not much fun to read… but it can be done well. “Tsunade’s Heir” isn’t perfect, but it’s different enough from all the other fics I’ve seen to be noteworthy.

For example, it provides an interesting explanation for Naruto’s whisker marks, manages to get away with easing some of the Hyuuga-related unhappiness, and doesn’t follow canon events but remains familiar. That’s always a plus.

The basic plot is that, rather than being left in Konoha, Tsunade takes Naruto with her as her adopted son and heir. Don’t expect Kyuubi to come in for a while though. In order to ensure he has enough control to become a medic nin, Naruto gets an additional seal to lock Kyuubi’s chakra away and it’ll take an unexpected event to circumvent that. On the plus side, he does start to train his way towards Tsunade’s monstrous strength.

Of course, what’s probably the most original aspect is Kyuubi’s personality. Kyuubi isn’t an evil brute and he isn’t a caring if somewhat animalistic revenge-driven misunderstood titan… he’s a demon who has never been given a reason to examine what he is and why. Everybody, please welcome Philosophical Kyuubi to the world of fanfiction.

As for the lower-level elements, it’s looking pretty good. It is using the fanon name for the fourth Hokage, but I have noticed no typos or grammatical errors.

Oh, and don’t forget all the funny omake. Definitely don’t forget the omake.

Snape’s Worst Nightmare by Draco664

Length: 7 Chapters, Complete
Sources: Harry Potter
Rating: 5/5

Feeling like a post-canon story? Well, this isn’t HBP-compliant (I usually avoid anything where a favored character has died. Too depressing.), but it’s definitely a worthwhile read. In short, watch as 9 Weasleys and a set of Potter triplets drive Snape batty.

The writing is good, the pranks are great, and the plot provides a nice dose of good innocent fun.

Thousand Shinji by Academia Nut

Length: 13 Chapters, Ongoing
Sources: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Warhammer 40k
Rating: 5/5

Ever notice how Evangelion fanfiction with a less spineless Shinji seems to follow a certain pattern with him being trained by someone powerful and then ending up confident and often cunning enough to keep a low profile? …and how a similar pattern exists in stories which replace Shinji with someone braver? (eg. Ranma) How about a story which does it so well that it employs almost no recycled plot elements whatsoever?

In “Thousand Shinji”, we see a Shinji whose cunning is more Gendo-like… as it probably would be in real life. We also see that he’s human enough for his mask to crack every now and then and to, against his will, start to see Misato as a alternate mother. (his own term) It also has a wonderfully philosophical show of Shinji getting Rei to think for herself… which results in her making a decision Shinji didn’t intend (she decides to worship the most slovenly of the Warhammer 40k chaos gods) and a nicely original personality for our emotion-exploring Rei. (Trust me. You have to read it to believe it.)

I also love the new egypt-themed paint jobs the Evas get (If I can ever find time to learn to draw, I’ll have to whip up some fanart.) and the never-before-seen plot twist of Gendo taking Alka-Seltzer (cherry-flavored because he’s out of the regular stuff) and telling Fuyutsuki that, because he’s so busy with SEELE, he doesn’t have time to figure out how deep his son’s schemes go.

Usually, the author just keeps the schemes hidden from Gendo… and that gets old quickly. It’s so freeing (both plot-wise and to the author’s creativity) to have Shinji so manipulative that he can get away with things that’d normally have him killed or locked up. (You’ll see what I mean) …and it’s a ton of fun to see Shinji getting his kicks by purposefully annoying Asuka and Rei having fun by spoiling Shinji’s less important schemes. (Like annoying Asuka and then successfully evading pursuit)

Of course, if nothing else, you should read this to see Shinji gleefully sync directly with the berserker soul of Eva 01, almost forgetting to sync with his mother’s soul so they will get a normal-seeming sync ratio measurement. (Not that he knows it’s his mother’s soul yet)

The author does have an ongoing problem with mixing tenses, but it’s mainly with regards to dialogue (eg. “says” instead of “said”) and not really that noticeable when you’re enjoying the story… and I enjoyed it enough that I wish I still rated things out of 6. Among many reasons, because the author recognizes that judicious use of mild curse words adds realism to dialogue and thought.

There are a fair few other highly entertaining and original bits to this story, but this review is already long enough, so I’ll just have to say they’re great and let you read for yourself.