Fanfic Rec: Soul Series

Maybe I would do a Final Review when the second part finishes.

Kyo Kara Maoh!: It's flawed, very flawed. I like the characters enough but the plot structure needs work. In comparison to Glee, this is heaven and manageable. While I never read the light novels (I did read Zero no Tsukaima and two of Narita Ryohgo's works), I always have this nagging feeling that it's not that faithful.

It's not a Bleach recommendation. I was trying to figure out how to unofficially name the series. Anyway, the author reminds us that s/he is only familiar with the anime so best not to let knowledge of light novels get better of.

Soul Hunters: Post Season 3. Enemies from a past life catch up with Wolfram. A significant person from Wolfram's past life emerges, throwing the Mazoku's life in chaos. And as he recovers his memories of this previous lifetime, he is forced to make a difficult - even cruel - choice. Complete.

Soul Breaker: Part 2 of Soul Hunters. Guided by Shinou, Wolfram leaves his life behind in order to save Ryuu's soul. On the other hand, Yuuri finds out the truth about Ryuu, and together with his friends, he goes after Wolfram right into the place where everything started - Raven Port.

I really like the fics. It's a little more tragic in certain spots and definitely darker; there was actual war and described onscreen deaths. Not only it addresses certain characters' agencies but also forces these characters into situations that forced them to face what they have been avoiding. I was basically fawning when Yuuri finally took the mantle of being a king seriously. Sure it took catalysts for him (jealousy towards Damian, uneasiness toward Ryuu) to actually get on his feet and be the king he could be. I know that it's divine monarchy in Shin Mazoku but if Shinou chose the pure and noble soul to be king, there have to be something about Yuuri that would make him a decisive leader, handling affairs like economy and warfare.

I like how the fic brought into light about certain issues like Wolfram's designated role as a trapped and manipulated person and Yuuri's little activity as king. I really hope to see more fruit in the second part that Wolfram can finally stand on his own with a far stronger will than ever. The world-building is graciously well-structured with the Ryuzoku (dragon riders and Wolfram ended up becoming one as well) and Crypt of Souls. We see the most political part of the story which is relieving to see. It's not stuffy, just handled well like what I thought how it was handled in Code Geass.

The Japanese honorifics when not placed in Japan is a bit awkward. I think it is best to literally translate the Japanese words such as heika to your majesty. It's off-putting, to say the least. It's understandable in the anime and there is a dub. Despite the world of demons have some obvious European inspirations, there are underlying Japanese aspects to it. Foreign languages in English works doesn't really irritate me that much; it's simply how the usage of those terms can do, sometime deducting points due to detraction. Deducting even more points for appropriating culture (which is one of the bigger problems of BH6 because I don't see Hiro, Cass, or Tadashi celebrating Japanese culture in some shape or form like how about using gratuitous Japanese in a meaningful fashion like Hiro calling Tadashi Aniki or Nii-san for example (I address my relatives by what is appropriate); how about a Japanese shrine or have a picture on a desk for Tadashi (my family have shrines for those who passed away and have gatherings on the death date); or Japanese pastries/confectioneries sold in the cafe (onigiri or anpan or even taiyaki couldn't be hard to make if they are making donuts & macarons and I saw the official menu; my family made Vietnamese pastries/sweets for gatherings). My family celebrate Vietnamese culture through food, customs, etc & appreciate each and every gesture made because it's beautiful and respectively, my friends who are Chinese or Spanish still celebrates their culture. All I see in the film are toriis, lanterns, and some Japanese kanji/hiragana/katakana. There was a ramen stand during the Baymax flight.).

The OC's are great. Damian, The Crypt of Soul, every single OC's are amazingly well-developed and personalized. I like OC's personalized not repetitive expies. Expies are fine when executed well enough that can set the character apart. Kouta and Mai from Gaim are different from Madoka. Micchy is different from Sayaka and Homura despite the comparisons. In comparison to Glee, Sam is the only one who is remarkable enough for me to remember of Finn's expies and even then some potential in him was not fulfilled like his dyslexia and his relationship with Mercedes (which I do ship). I do find Rachel Berry to be rather fascinating a character and her character has charisma and passion that her later expies don't seem to have, even Marley. Marley did later went on to be Supergirl after all and fared much better. Glee is exasperating as a whole; as I stated before, I don't have a dethroning moment or a jumping the shark moment (both of which are entirely subjective (just see Shark Jumping, a web video series where two people discussed TV series and where they believe the show jumped the shark) and for me who is a neutral person on par with Switzerland's level of neutrality is quite difficult when all I want to do is be fair; rather be fair than to be biased) to any type of media.

Typically I don't care about love triangles or other shapes. I just care about execution, Love triangles may be exhausting when they don't do anything about it or just do stupid drama when they could do is talk seen in the case of Glee. I like how the love square is handled in-fic, each character seeing and knowing what is going on by a character telling them. It's self-contained and didn't hurt the characters.

Okay going into spoiler territory here. Then again, I warned about spoilers on my blog subheader...

The hints/foreshadowing that Yuuri and Ryuu are one and the same are worth applauding. It's constant enough to warrant a warning bell in your head.

The author said she was bothered that there were no consequences for Shinou's 'experiments' for a pure and noble soul. I was bothered about that too just as I am bothered how there are little consequences in P3-4. And I love how the author goes about solving this.

So Shinou, no matter how much you spin that he was possessed or his intentions, experimented on his dear friend Gavriel's soul, "splitting" it apart. The splitting results in the pure and noble soul (Susannah Julia/Shibuya Yuuri) & an aberrant soul (Ryuu).

Then Weisser, Gavriel's brother and Soul Keeper, took him away for a life (full of tragedy when the poor boy just wants to live in peace). Ryuu cannot be dead completely but rather reincarnated over and over only to have to kill just to prolong his life.

After lifetimes of tragedy and bloodshed, Ryuu wants to die and went to the Lombards where he would meet his Soul Breaker. In two years, he would fall in love with Frey Lombard and visa versa. He would nearly annihilate the Lombard clan, sending Frey into shock. Thus the Crypt of Souls specifically the leader Gottfried contacted him and tell him half-truths.

However, both were killed. Frey by Ryuu and Ryuu by suicide.

Frey eventually learned the truth of the whole affair from Weisser once he reached the Crypt of Souls; the experiments, the lead-up to Ryuu's death seeking. He was killed by Ryuu and even met Ryuu in the afterlife. The two reborn while the other half of the original soul reincarnated as Shibuya Yuuri after the pure and noble soul's first life as Susannah Julia.

We know that Wolfram is designed to destroy Ryuu completely and implied by Weisser's statement that he can kill the other part of the soul, he is also designed to destroy Yuuri as well. The irony that the halves of the same soul fell in love with the Breaker destined to destroy them had been said. Would Gavriel fall for the Breaker? I know that Susannah Julia is in love with another...

So, Shinou essentially ruined the lives of three innocent people and perhaps more due to association of original (Gavriel) and the incarnations (Conrad would be shocked to know that his brother had been the one destined to destroy Julia's soul and that Julia's soul is incomplete; that the pure and noble soul is only half a soul.). While it stated in-fic that the pure and noble soul have the right of life, the soul itself is still not whole regardless of purity. Many flat-out stated there are no such thing as an entirely good individual.

Seeing in the latest chapter, we see that the citizens especially those close to Wolfram and Yuuri are this close to finding out the truth of the matter. They would be so angry... I wanted them to know the truth of the situation just how messed up the lives of their friends have been. When nobody wants their brother/friend/son to die.

I highly recommend this series because it's more than just great characters and feeling a lot like something out of the anime/light novel/manga. It's honestly good.

Y'know for some bittersweet or downright tragic fics for couples I support fervently (AKA soulmates in my headcanon-verse; yes, I firmly believe Miyuki Kazuya and Sawamura Eijun to be soulmates for example and as this tag for this post said I want them to fall in love in literally every universe so... basically CLAMP) or for fics that are vaguely TRC (like in this fic), the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles OST by Yuki Kajiura plays in my head.

I know how Jazz is very divisive and not everyone's cup of tea. Music is music and entirely subjective. Just really like you guys to take a look at this.

Person - Arcana

Yuuri - The Fool

Murata - The Judgment

Wolfram - The Moon

Conrad - The Tower

Gwendal - The Hermit

Gunter - The Hierophant

Shori - The Strength

Cheri - The Lovers

Greta - The Star

Shinou - The Death

Mini-Review: Batman v Superman and Zootopia

*sigh*

The critics are almost on point. I really want to like this movie, really I do. I was right about BvS getting the same treatment as MoS...

I don't hate the movie. It does have some good points (mostly because of three actors) but overall the movie's hollow and frustrating.

The good points:

• I will take the moments of levity when I can. There is a reason why I love Persona 4. I do not want Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy and DCCU suffers from this so much. I don't mind dark stories but here's the thing: if there is nothing bright worth fighting and sympathizing for, then why should we care? Why MCU works is because of the character's soul, wry wit, and humanity.
• Ben Affleck, Jeremy Irons, and Gal Gadot are great. They may have very little to work with (so very little) but they are trying in comparison to Amy Adams, Henry Cavill, Jesse Eisenberg, and others. Just yeah. 
• The cameos. I don't mind the cameos in the MCU and I feel it didn't detract too much.

The bad points:

• The hollowness. I don't even mind Batman and Superman killing. However, the presentation of the reason is so hollow and makes me just throw something at the screen. Which I didn't because I don't want to waste food so I settle for screaming mentally. Reasons are so shallow and never honestly examined. Sure we get some ideas but never fully elaborated to its full potential.
• The plot. Like I get what they are going for. Most of the time, the questions raised were never addressed. The film is mostly an excuse for conflict between Batman and Superman: what makes the conflict was just stupid and I just want to scream. It should be ideological differences, not this, this thing.
• Why? Why do you do this scene that would lead to nowhere and that plot point that doesn't make any sense in the overall game? Don't you see the potential in the film? Why people love DC? For example, why kill off Jimmy Olsen? What is the freaking point? The freaking potential there is staring at you in the face, Synder and you go for the shock value? Don't do the Family Guy thing, Synder. I know you are trying but your directing makes me want to cry. I can see the potential in there so please for the sake of your audience who wants something moderation of light and dark.

I do not want DC movies to be Marvel-style of movies. I just want them to have moments of levity and great comical lines; make them your own but remember to moderate darkness and comedy. Nolan's Batman films have great lines despite its darkness. The DCCU is just so joyless and cold that I don't feel invested in them. Look, it's great you want dark stories but dark and drama should be balanced by comedy and heartwarming. Dark stories do not mean always great stories. There is a reason why Marvel and DC telly are great: while Marvel movies are light and happy and their telly are dark while still having light moments & DC movies are dark while TV is light, they are both great in many respects.

I have seen interviews from Zack Synder and see him defending the collateral damage in MoS to Death Star. I want to point out to him and it seems like everyone else already did: it was the BAD GUYS who destroyed it not the GOOD GUYS. Synder is so big-headed that he thinks he can toss eggs at MCU when he doesn't truly understand why the audience is complaining. Please for the love of Godoka, don't make any more comments about Marvel and how you think you know better when you clearly don't, just don't insult your audience and imply they are stupid. I know you have fans but that is merely a niche audience.

So here's some Deadpool. A good superhero film. Take notes, Synder, to know what to do with a superhero film and doing right with the right superhero. The right kind of balance and wonder. Even though the wonder of Deadpool is the fourth wall jokes (though the film missed the joke with Stan Lee as a stripper announcer; come on, Deadpool should have commented on that!).

Furries must be really happy about Gazelle. I seriously wonder why Shakira want the hips to be emphasized? Just why?

Joking aside, the current Disney is okay. I mean I do love Cinderella 2015 up there with my favorite Cinderella adaptations (one of the themes is one of my life's philosophy) but then there's Frozen. I wouldn't exactly call it a Disney Renaissance but more like Disney still taking shaky baby steps...which is still freaking better than the DCCU.

The movie is more coherent. There are certainly some low points (Duke Weaselton for example and the plot twist; there are hints about it like Bellwether at the press conference but it's not constant) and there are some good points. It's not a masterpiece but still better put-together than Frozen anyhow. I just feel that the movie is just scratching the surface of how complex the world views racism/sexism despite its great allegory.

I like the characters and the actual playing with tropes. It actually examines racism/sexism though the allegorical tale; so subtle too which is a good point. I took a Sociology Class and still kept the books for it because unlike the other books I sold, I want to keep it for the sake of studying. I love the relationship between Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde and I don't particular care of shipping or platonic. I just like them together platonic or romantically, what was Ted said about himself and Robin "Platonish". I do love Po X Tigress and I do love their moments in KFP3 and I love Crane X Mei. I love BL for god's sake and a steadfast shipper of Miyusawa from Daiya no Ace and MakoHaru from Free!. The Four Loves should still apply. Why should I even care that they're animals? I don't think of sex things despite reading more R18 doujins more than I can count; I look more for sweet gooey fluff. Why else do I love intimate moments that will make me flush?

It is true that the current Disney is going to grittier topics like depression (even though Frozen skims it and Inside Out actually examines it through the Emotions) and grief and bereavement (Hiro). Should I add Force Awakens to this? Well, then psychological disorders (Kylo Ren).

However, it all depends on execution. Zootopia can be good in some respects but it's not perfect and it's not a masterpiece. Like I get Magnum Opus like your best work yet kind of thing but calling it perfect is disingenuous to the present flaws.

AUs~

When it comes to AU, it just makes me think of the potential. How this character would react to this or how this character would change as a result of this or you get the idea. There is just so much you can do with AU: Music Industry (Idol, Classical Music, etc); Ice (Figure Skating, Ice Hockey, etc); Sports (Baseball, Tennis, etc); and who knows what else is there in the bottomless library of fan's imagination from the R-rated to the cutest.

I effing love music AU's. I wanted to play the violin but I ended up playing the piano instead. My cousins have keyboards (always set to piano) and a baby grand piano. I always wanted to learn to play the violin but did play the flute and the piano. I have a strong appreciation for classical music, listening to it always soothe me of my troubles. It's just relaxing to listen to it. My brother and another cousin are in a choir; while some of my cousins definitely have tennis, I think I heard that some of them have the choir as well. I definitely know one of my cousins was originally a music major before he switched to a doctor or some related medical field.

What I'm listing is just one of the few alternate universe fics that deals with the arts, be it musicians of all walks of life or actors performing their best or characters have some talent in the arts. Now these are some of my personal favorites. I might even add some fics. I deeply apologize if there are more BL in here. This might as well be a fanfic recs post.

Ace Attorney:

• Legally Wright: M/M, F/M; Legally Blonde AU

Daiya no Ace:

• String Theory: M/M; instead of baseball, it's a music program
• as delicate as diamonds: M/M; semi-AU with Eijun being a child prodigy of music

Haikyuu!:

• Duets in a Dark Room; M/M; just like above, instead of volleyball, it's orchestra
• dream big: M/M; Kageyama is a concert pianist and the Karasuno team are a rock band
• Pretty Face and Electric Soul: M/M; Kenma is violinist while there is a band going on with a mix of teams

Free!:

• sonatina no.1: M/M; Rin and Haru are indie singers; unfortunately discontinued seeing it has an orphan account

Merlin:

• Pianos are made for Falling: M/M; Classical Music where Merlin is a piano prodigy, Arthur is violinist, and Morgana is pianist
• We Are All Diamonds: M/M; Opera Singer Merlin and Deaf Arthur
• Step By Step: M/M, F/M; boyband Knights of the Round Table

Shingeki no Kyojin

• Spinning the Flags of Freedom: M/M; Marching Band/Color Guard
• Keep Your Head Up: M/M; Theater

Durarara!!:

• rhyme of another summer: M/M; Izaya is a pianist

Kuroko no Basuke:

• Kuroko no Violinist: Gen; obviously Kuroko as a violinist but also featured Midorima as a pianist and Murasakibara wants to be a violinist

D.Gray-Man:

• The Devil's Symphony: F/M; summary lists player's instruments
• Instrument during War: F/M; just characters having musical talent within the canon

FullMetal Alchemist:

• Fullmetal Musician: F/M; Singing talent
• Ed's Song: Gen; Singing

Marvel Cinematic Universe:

• For Those About To Tech (We Salute You): Gen; Stage Crew Avengers; Loki director

Y'know, The Trajectory of Laughter reminds me of Your Lie in April with the lots of missed chances and the downright tragic moments (hell the fact that Miyuki went into a high-risk surgery just to play with Sawamura again and died in the surgery is Kaori's final situation)...well with the exception that Miyuki and Sawamura are reunited in death at the end of the story due to the time-travel stuff; we are so lucky that Miyuki and Sawamura has another chance in life and death in their timelines. I mean the romance between the two are so very shoujo; even Terajima noted that the first meeting is like one of those encounter scenes (he must be a fan of shoujo or at least having a liking to it considering three of his charas love shoujo manga), let's even say something about Miyuki and Sawamura's backstory and the eventual closeness to the point they are each other's life and soulmates; however, it's more tragic shoujo and when our hero(ine) went back, they are doing the best to be with their love of their life. That is way off-topic.