Subject: [FFML] [Reviews][Ranma 1/2 Expressway] Batch 'o' Ranmafic Reviews
From: "Chris \"HomerNet\" McFarland" <homernet@mac.com>
Date: 8/1/2005, 1:59 AM
To: ffml@anifics.com


You can find these and other Ranma 1/2 fanfic reviews at The Ranma 1/2 
Expressway (http://www.ranmaexpressway.com)

(...)
(...granted, there isn't much there right now, so go to 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ranmaexpressway)

---------------------------------------------

Nabiki?  ...Impossible!

Written by:  Nicholas Stone

Posted to: FFML (http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt for information)

HomerScore:  332 (Current best score:  639 for the Sailor Ranko Saga)

Rank:  **** (4 out of 5 stars)

Genre:  Intrigue

Continuation

Maturity:  PG-13 (for sexual innuendo)

Fruit Flavor:  Orange with a twist of Lime

Main characters:  Nabiki

Synopsis:
Several years after the bombed wedding between Ranma and Akane, most of 
the group has settled down and gotten on with their lives.  There are 
some adventures, some growth, some change, and always a bit of chaos.  
Nabiki is going about her business one day as the unofficial queen of 
Nerima when she is made an offer she can't refuse by a crime lord from a 
neighboring ward and finds herself in the one situation she would never, 
ever choose willingly... a job, working for someone else.

HomerNet's Review <homernet@mac.com>:
This author manages to do what very few people have done, paint a good 
picture of the Ranma crew several years on with a convincing job having 
been done of exactly what that looks like.

Newbie's Perspective:  Move on, this isn't for newbies.  Come back to 
this after you've re-read the whole manga. (the MANGA, not the anime!)

Ranmafic Hobbyist's Perspective:  This fic is a good departure from 
nearly all other Ranmafics.  It's a continuation that doesn't focus on 
Ranma, it has Nabiki getting caught without the angst, has characters 
married or in relationships without the necessity of delving into loads 
of side-stories for history, and it has it's own personality without 
diverging too much from it's core 'Ranma-ness.'  It's funny in all the 
right places, introduces us to new aspects of some of the character's 
personalities, and has the one-shot bad-guy that seems to have the 
upper-hand, but loses spectacularly in the end.  You'll find this a 
pleasant read.
Just don't take it too seriously.

Ranmafic Obsessive's perspective:  This fic is good, but it has obvious 
flaws in characterization and begs the question, just how did all these 
different characters wind up in the positions they're in at the 
beginning of the story?  Of course, these questions could be answered 
simultaneously, but that might add loads more story than we'd want to 
read.  Not an epic, but certainly a good dime novel. (You know, the 
really good kind that are a bit trashy but you love them anyway.)

HomerScore Breakdown:
Irritating Grammatic Errors: -10
Clearly identifiable main characters:  +20
Consistent growth:  +10
Character shows gain/loss by end of story:  +10
Irritating Punctuation Errors:  -10
Accurate continuation from end of Manga:  +30
Matchups in Takahashi style:  +30
No variation on established plot devices:  +17
Same genre maintained:  +10
Posted to FFML:  +15
Problem Solvers:
*Cannon pairing:  +10
*New problems created by resolution:  +50
Ranma accepts curse:  +5
Marriage creates some problems:  +10
Ranma gets a blue-collar job:  +15
Good friends with Ryoga:  +15
Ties to Amazons annulled:  +30
Accurately reflects size and layout of environment:  +15
Major emotional impact ("Award winning/Hack the authors computer!"):    +50
Good style sheet:  +10

======================================================

Mighty Morphin' Sailor Senshi

Written by:  R-Kives

Posted to:  Fanfiction.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2074075/1/)

HomerScore:  -88 (Current best score:  639 for the Sailor Ranko Saga)

Rank:  *** (3 of 5 stars)

Genre:  Adventure

Altiverse/Fusion

Maturity:  PG

Fruit Flavor:  Banana

Main Characters:  Ranma, Sailor Senshi

Synopsis:
At the end of the Silver Millennium, the Sailor Senshi and the Power 
Rangers have been defeated and Queen Serenity was sealed in Zordan's 
time capsule, but not before Queen Serenity had pulled off a miracle by 
slaying Metallia and Rita Repulsa and sealing Beryl away.  In the 
present day, Ranma is still mourning the death of his mother and Akane 
and has been adopted by the Mizuno clan.  He's living as normal a life 
as a super-powered martial artist can, hanging out with his friends, 
adoptive sister, the former Tendo sisters, and teaching a bit of martial 
arts on the side.  Meanwhile, Ryoga and Taro are promised control (or 
release) from their curses in exchange for freeing a mysterious entity 
calling herself Beryl from her prison.

HomerNet's Review (homernet@mac.com):
BAD AUTHOR!  NO BISCUIT!
Seriously, once you get over the utterly gut wrenching, repulsive idea 
of the Power Rangers crossed-over or fussioned with ANYTHING, this is 
actually quite a good fic.  This also marks the first time I've given 
something a negative HomerScore while still having a positive review.

Newbie's Perspective:  While not good for Ranma 1/2 newbies (knowledge 
of the way the manga ends is required), this fic is a good one for 
Ranmafic newbies.  Knowledge of Sailor Moon and Power Rangers isn't even 
really necessary, though some knowledge of Sailor Moon would be good, if 
only just to know some of the basic plot points.

Ranmafic Hobbyist's Perspective:  Good fic with long chapters and 
consistently good construction make this a fun diversion, though until 
more is written that's about as much as I can say for it.  Just 
remember, *don't* picture the absolutely horrendous Power Rangers tv 
series (ESPECIALLY the American version) if you can possibly avoid it.

Ranmafic Obsessive's Perspective:  Given that Power Rangers is an 
incredibly difficult series to cross/fusion with, this author does a 
fantastic job.  Only one other author that I know of has been able to 
capture the right amount of campiness and action when combining Power 
Rangers with Ranma, and that was for (I think, it's been a while) 
Onna-Red Side, and that wasn't even technically Power Rangers, just an 
incredibly funny parody that fit the story perfectly.  Back to this fic, 
it's a bit too short as of yet (it's not even finished with the first 
battle) to call it for sure whether this will be memorable five years 
from now, but so far there are good indicators.

HomerScore Breakdown:
Grammatic Errors - Minor:  -5
Published only to Fanfiction.net:  -40
Character seems unchanged by end of story:  -10
Punctuation Errors - Minor:  -5
Poor use of spacing:  -30
Out-of-character - Nabiki/Ukyo:  -13
Characters killed/abandoned to facilitate crossover:  -100
Sailor Moon crossover:  -20
Crossover - Character interactions further plot:  +30
Accurate continuation from end of Manga:  +30
Same genre maintained:  +10
Problems solved too quickly:  -30
New problems created by resolution:  +50
Ranma accepts curse:  +5
Ranma's Career - Martial Arts related:  +10
Ryoga - Mythical Creature cursed:  +40
Presentation - Bad line breaks:  -10

=========================================

The Ranma Omake Files:  Innortal Style

Written By:  Innortal

Posted to:  Fanfiction.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2210522/1/)

HomerScore:   Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in 
a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle 
pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam. (New high score!  
Previous high score held by spam spam spam spam spam spam spam beaked 
beans spam spam spam and spam)

Rank:  **** (4 out of 5 stars)

Genre:  Spam spam spam spam. Lovely spam! Wonderful spam! Spam 
spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam. Lovely spam! Lovely spam! 
Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Spam spam spam spam!

Omake

Maturity:  PG-13 (Some suggestive scenes)

Fruit Flavor:  Orange

Main Characters:  Ranma

Synopsis:
Just a bunch of vignettes strung together by the author.  Keep an eye 
out for Spring of Flamboyantly Gay Interior Decorator.

HomerNet's Review:
Plenty funny, definitely good if you're looking for some harmless 
diversion to pass some minutes.

========================================

Ranma and Akane Wake Up

Written By:  Zorknot

Posted To:  Fanfiction.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/747041/1/)

HomerScore:  240 (Current best score:  639 for the Sailor Ranko Saga)

Rank:  *** (3 of 5 stars)

Genre:  Sci-fi

Maturity:  PG-13 (Sexual content)

Fruit Flavor:  Lime

Main Characters:  Ranma, Akane, Nabiki

Synopsis:  Ranma is having an intense dream that launches him and Akane 
to reconcile their differences and achieve the six impossible things 
necessary to earn a trip to Milliways, the Restaurant at The End of the 
Universe.

HomerNet's Review:
Newbie's perspective:  Good if you've read a few Ranmafics but aren't 
quite to the "Ranmafic Hobbyist" level.  Unfortunetly, even though it's 
pretty good, it hasn't been updated in almost three years at the time of 
this writing.

Ranmafic Hobbyist's Perspective:  This fic seems to be bad, at first, 
and you'll be tempted to write it off, until Nabiki notices this and 
starts to investigate.  Unfortunately, the end of Chapter Two comes all 
to quickly just as the fic starts to get interesting.

Ranmafic Obsessive's Perspective:  Good to have read it, but nothing to 
go out of your way unless the author starts updating it.

HomerScore Breakdown:
Fanfiction.net - Formatted:  +50
Descriptive chapter titles:  +20
Published only to Fanfiction.net:  -40
Clearly identifiable main characters:  +20
Consistent growth (i.e. - proper response to stimulus):  +10
Character shows gain/loss by the end of story:  +10
Different genre crossover:  +20
Crossover forces character growth:  +20
Focus stays on Ranma & Co.:  +10
New problems created by resolution:  +50
Fiancee (any) is boy-cursed - By self(selfishly):  +25
Ranma deals with curse - Embracement:  +15
Marriage - Creates more problems than it solves:  +30


===================

Ranma Gets a Clue

Written By:  Robert "Asayogure" McAdams

Posted To:  http://www.asayogure.com/rgac.shtml

HomerScore:  -430 (Current best score:  639 for the Sailor Ranko Saga)

Rank:  * (2 of 5 stars)

Genre:  Adventure

Maturity:  PG

Fruit Flavor:  Orange

Main Characters:  Ranma, Akane

Synopsis:
Ranma, unable to sleep, spends some time thinking about his life and 
comes to some conclusions.  His choices and actions from then on lead 
himself and the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew into some major 
changes...screw it.  You'll understand why the synopsis sucks when you 
read the review.

HomerNet's Review:
This is either one really poorly executed fanfic, or three really 
excellent fanfics that got tossed into a blender together.  On the one 
hand, it's a great story about Ranma and Akane starting to get along 
through no outside influence.  Then you have the storyline where Ranma 
decides to train Akane.  Then there's this weird but good magic storyline.

If this were completely rewritten from scratch, it could be good.  If it 
were separated into two or three separate stories that were part of the 
same continuum, they would be great.  As it is now, it's a mediocre 
telling of an ending that has nothing to do with the beginning and a 
middle that is all mashed up together.

Recommended, but only to say you've read it.

HomerScore Breakdown:
Grammatic Errors - Irritating:  -10
Clearly identifiable main characters:  +20
Character shows gain/loss by end of story:  +10
Punctuation Errors - Irritating:  -10
Poor use of spacing:  -30
Pre-readers used:  +50
Obvious lack of proofing (first draft posted as final):  -20
Errors found after proofing:  -5
Good front page:  +10
Ranma's curse is "cured":  -300
Corrective plot items:  -40
Recycled Ideas:  -10
Lack of descriptors for environment:  -5
Too much dialog, not enough descriptive:  -10
Mediocre ("I like/hate it!"):  +20
No premise:  -100

Chris "HomerNet" McFarland
I have no tag line
http://www.strandedthecomic.com

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