Fanfiction – “Quixote”

Posted on 2004-12-20 by Stephan Sokolow

Title: Quixote
Author: Susan Doenime
Source: Ranma 1/2
Rating: 4/6
Length: Short one-shot

“Quixote” by Susan Doenime is a short one-shot Ranma 1/2 fanfic which exploits Ranma’s usual gullibility when exposed to a certain fanfiction cliche. To say any more would give away the surprise but I can give a scoring breakdown.

Grammar: 3.5/6 – There are several mistakes which I can not only notice, but correct. In fact, if I have some free time, I may submit an improved version to the author and bump the score up to 4.
Originality: 5/6 – The story manages to take a fanfiction cliche and follow a path which nobody else seems to have thought of. Great job but didn’t do enough work for a full 6.
Overall: 4/6 – Overall, it feels like a 4 out of 6. It didn’t go on too long, had an interesting idea, but didn’t do enough for a 5. I’m still considering a 4.5 score.

If you’ve got five minutes to spare, read this. I know I never would have thought of it.

I know, the average of 3.5 and 5 isn’t 4 but the overall score is based on how I perceive it as a whole, not the average of the other scores. To do it otherwise would break from the method I used for previous reviews and, in my opinion, reduce the usefulness of having an overall score. Anyone can calculate an average.

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Free Music

Posted on 2004-12-20 by Stephan Sokolow

After watching My Sassy Girl, I really felt a need to listen to the full version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D (The version in the movie fades out) so I went searching. If you feel the same need, I’d recommend using this page. Be sure to also search for “Canon” on Amazon.com free music downloads. Just avoid the ones which explicitly say something other than “in D” (for example, “No. 2” )

During the search I realized how little known a few facts are. For example, if you want to search for free MP3s, use AllTheWeb.com. They use a similar system to Google but they don’t overlap with Google as much as you would expect. In addition, their lower popularity means that fewer sites try to trick their ranking system.

If you just want to browse, here are a few sites that offer free mp3 downloads:
* DMusic.com
* OSMusic.net (OS = Open Source)
* OCRemix (OverClocked Remix. Source of amazing remixed video game music.)
* ModPlug Central (Has many formats.)
* mFiles
* Classic Cat (Classical music only)
* University of Quebec
* Canadian Music
* Baroque – Pages 1, 2, 3.
* Download.com Music (Make sure you get mp3s and not wma.)
* mp3.com.au
* SoundClick.com (Requires registration.)
* Amazon.com free music downloads (Requires registration.)
* MagnaTune (A “not evil” recording label that lets you try before you buy. If you can’t pay, you can geek the files out for free but come on. These guys deserve the money. They also offer easy licensing of their music.)
* WashingtonPost.com MP3 (Requires you to agree to a “no sharing and only one copy of the file” license agreement before you download.)
* emp3world (seemed OK. Let me know if I missed something)
* FreePlay Music (You can listen for free and license songs easily. The licensing terms don’t seem to be as not-evil as MagnaTune’s though.)

For sites which require free registration, you can save a lot of effort and thumb your nose at them by using a pre-existing login from BugMeNot.com or by giving them a DodgeIt.com e-mail address.

And finally, if you don’t mind your free music being in mod, xm, it, s3m, or another module tracker format, stop by The Mod Archive.

Addendum:
On a related note, John C. Dvorak wrote a good column which gives some nice examples of the counter-productive effects of lawsuits on the download of music and movies. You can read it at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1736444,00.asp

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Movie – “My Sassy Girl”

Posted on 2004-12-20 by Stephan Sokolow

Title: My Sassy Girl (Yeopgijeogin geunyeo)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Length: 123 min.
Rating: 10/10 (or whatever I choose to be maximum)

It seems that I made a fool of myself. Roughly two years ago, a friend sent me a softsubbed digital copy (a video file and a subtitle file that is automatically applied by the player program) of a Korean movie called My Sassy Girl (Yeopgijeogin geunyeo). Well, he said it was amazing but I didn’t feel like watching it. A month ago, my brother watched it to see what Korean sounded like. He immediately started pushing me to watch it… I finally watched it.

It starts out in much the same way as many North American romantic movies and there were times when I almost caught myself making excuses for the female lead’s behavior but trust me, it all makes sense in the end. The movie is full of metaphors and elegantly balances humor and serious plot elements. If you don’t have a good memory, I suggest you watch it multiple times. The ending triggers previously hidden meanings and revelations within almost every second of the movie and, to be honest, I never expected to find such quality.

I haven’t decided how to rate movies but in this case it doesn’t matter. 10 out of 10.

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Fanfiction – “Ill Met by Starlight”

Posted on 2004-12-19 by Stephan Sokolow

Title: Ill Met by Starlight
Author: Susan Doenime and Mike L.
Source: Ranma 1/2
Rating: 5/6
Type: Dark Psychological Thriller
Length: 13 episodes, 3 epilogues, and an outtakes reel

Any Ranma 1/2 fan will tell you that Ranma Saotome doesn’t lose. Oh sure, he may have some setbacks but he always wins in the end, right? But what if Ranma Saotome weren’t such a good guy? What if he was the villain? “Ill Met by Starlight” by Susan Doenime and Mike L is a psychological thriller which puts a new, darker twist on the tale of martial arts idiocy which we all love.

Upon opening up the first page of this story, I was greeted with three pieces of quoted poetry. One for the fickleness of causality, one for the darkness and light in all of our souls, and one in german. I have always enjoyed fiction which begins the story or chapter with a quote. It’s a nice way to set the mood and to give the story depth. Then, a short speech by the author which could easily be quoted verbatim should hell ever freeze over and fanfics become movies.

Following that is an interesting story detailing a Ranma who is very different from the one we know. A story that follows characters’ thoughts much more thoroughly than any other story I’ve read thus far and does a fairly nice job of throwing monkey wrenches into the reader’s expectations. Nabiki does deviate from canon by being a mercenary who helps to keep the family afloat instead of just being greedy but that’s pretty much standard for fanfiction and the rest of the story definitely makes up for it.

As for the storyline, I definitely liked it. Every change has a reason, though you won’t see the full picture until the end. The developments flow so smoothly that you don’t really know when a fact has finally solidified from the intricate web of confusion and doubt. In fact, throughout the story, my rating has wavered up and down as I misunderstood, realized, and misunderstood again. There are bits of humor scattered around but, except for the outtakes reel, they serve only to further develop the mood.

Most of the chapters begin with relevant quotes, I do enjoy that. I also like references which further my knowledge and this is the first time I’d heard of Gunkanjima. (Hashima island) I’ll probably write a blog entry about it later. Be sure to check out the outtakes reel. It’s HILARIOUS. If you don’t get any of the references, feel free to ask in the comments. I’d be happy to name them.

Finally, you’ll probably never guess what simple change cause this much divergence from the original story. True, in the original story, Ryoga didn’t have a sister and Nabiki wasn’t as beneficial to the household finances but those are easy mistakes to make unless you read the right issues of the Ranma 1/2 Manga. I have yet to read the authors’ notes but I get the feeling that this story draws exclusively from the anime.

My final rating is 5 out of 6 and I think I’ll add psychological thrillers to my fanfiction “find some” list.

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Manga – “Angel Sanctuary”

Posted on 2004-12-18 by Stephan Sokolow

Title: Angel Sanctuary
Author: Kaori Yuki
Genre: Epic Sci-fi/Fantasy
Length: 20 Volumes

I recently read Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki and I liked what I saw.

The basic plotline is this. God has sealed himself away, things are going downhill, and only the angel Alexiel can stop it. However, Alexiel was sealed away for revolting against God, her body in crystal, her soul in a cycle of reincarnation and death. Every incarnation suffering, every incarnation dieing young. Her current incarnation is a human boy named Setsuna Mudou. But Setsuna only cares about one thing, his forbidden love for Sara, his sister.

Now that I’ve done what all of the synopses do, it’s time to be a bit more specific. It’s a well written epic but there’s definitely much more that I love. Through the course of this story, the main character defies heaven and hell to keep his love. Along the way, he gains the affections of a demon, defies God himself, and participates in the greatest power struggle of all time.

I often find manga stifling after a while. I don’t really know why but there’s some aspect of Japanese culture which I pick up on and dislike. It’s partly the restrained social rules and sexism but there’s more that I can’t grasp. Regardless, this manga didn’t feel like that.

Unlike the vast majority of manga and anime out there, Angel Sanctuary has female character who, despite being a princess, and falling in love, doesn’t seem to surrender to the ideals of Japanese culture. No matter how much manga I read, it seems that at least 90% of tomboys become culturally acceptable japanese girls either to attract the one they love, or as a side effect of finding love. Angel Sanctuary proves that being a tomboy and being in love aren’t mutually exclusive. Also, unlike so much manga out there, it doesn’t just ignore the fact that women have less social and political power, it actually integrates it into the story.

Another aspect I enjoy is how heaven and hell differ from expectations. There is no such thing as pure good and pure evil. If a character acts evil, we will eventually see why. There are evil angels and victimized demons. Heaven has slums and hell has palaces. These are characters you can understand, characters you can sympathize with. Not only that, but the plot twists make sure that there will always be more to learn. No matter how far I read, I never got bored.

In summary, Angel Sanctuary is a realistic epic based on christian mythology, the characters are believable and well thought out, and it breaks free from the stifling mire which consumes so much other manga. I’d probably give this a 9 out of 10 but I haven’t decided on a rating system. Either way, if you don’t mind a littly dirty realism in your manga and you’re tired of the standard fare, give Angel Sanctuary a try.

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Rating System

Posted on 2004-12-18 by Stephan Sokolow

Well, I’ve written my first fanfiction review and, as you may have noticed, it’s rated out of 6 rather than 5 or 10.

The long and short of it is, I wrote down degrees of quality and there were 7. Since the lowest is so bad I’d never review it, the count starts at 0. Here is a listing of the different degrees.

Zero – Can’t even read it. It’s that poorly written.
1. Complete and utter crap. Ignoring or contradicting canon, grammatical errors, stupid or nonexistant story without declaring it as a spamfic.
2. Like #1 but somehow manages to redeem itself slightly. For example, a badly written story with self-insert syndrome (solving all of the problems no matter how much you have to bend the characters and setting) that has some intangible hook that makes you want to read it again.
3. Grammatically OK, plain story, nothing extraordinary in terms of quality. Not good but not bad either. Risks getting boring or does get boring.
4. Grammatically fine, interesting story but not exceptional. Ends before it gets boring and is a good way to pass some time.
5. Well written and highly enjoyable. Has novel concepts and fresh ideas or uses a fresh viewpoint. May evoke an emotional response other than mirth. Something I would seek out.
6. Extremely well written. Quite likely to evoke a full spectrum of emotions. A must-read among fanfiction. Very likely to be re-read once or more within the coming year.

I may cook up some other unique numbering system for other things I review but since they don’t fall as neatly into numbered categories, I’ll probably end up just using a pro:, con:, outcome: system.

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Fanfiction – “Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?”

Posted on 2004-12-18 by Stephan Sokolow

Title: Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?
Author: Mike L.
Source: Ranma 1/2
Rating: 5/6
Type: Murder Mystery
Length: Short to mid-length one-shot

“Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?” by Mike L.

What if Ranma ran off leaving only a note and Akane jumped to her death rather than live with her grief? What if Akane might have been pushed? “Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?” is a Ranma 1/2 murder mystery which follows Daisuke (one of the two named nobodies in Ranma’s class) as he tries to find the truth.

I give it a rating of 5 (out of 6). The people are in character, the writing flows well, the suspense is well planned, and you’ll probably never guess all of the twists and turns. I rather enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes-style explanation at the end and also the quoted lyrics from the Richard Thompson song of the same name. I’d highly recommend it to kill some time. It’s a short- to mid-length one-shot as stories go.

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