Fanfic Rec: This Bites

This Bites!: Sea Kings, seasickness, sunburns, a 95% genocidal Navy, and more than a million and one other assorted ways to die. It's official. Being inserted into an anime sucks ass...But I guess it could be worse... Buuut I guess it could be worse. I mean, look on the bright side: At least I'm sailing with the future king of the pirates.

I won't mention anything about OP or Oda here anyway since I have past posts to do it for me.

As for Self-Inserts, I know fandom as a whole does not like them. Unless they do something new about it like this fic, SI fics are likely to be just as lampooned as any other fanfic tropes. Even when these writers are having fun and fundamentally harmless, SI fics are not going to be the epitome of plotty fanfiction that was known to be good and well.

It's a semi-serious fic like that Transformers fic Battlesleep. There are so many references to our world's media that not even OP's world of nonsense can make up for it. And that's barely scratching the surface just how cracky this fic can get. I can read crack fics but the best ones tend to the ones which have well-written mood whiplash as well as a serious plot to go with too without losing the essential plot goings. Crack is really hard to do, especially when one is consistent about its crack instead. I make this a thing: levity must happen regardless of a story. Focusing on the dark would just make things worse. I know cynicism and hatred and I know the current state of the world is less than pleasing but just a tiny piece of hope is better than the darkness.

This fic is creative, give it that at least. It started out too usual but give it time. The creativity came not just in the additional members - Vivi would prefer to live in her kingdom and act as their Queen-to-be but alas it was not to be in this fic - but also the very fact Strawhat Broadcast Station exist! I adore how outsiders reacted to the canonical events, building up support for the Strawhats. The world's adoration for the Strawhats continued when they kept saving people from oppression which would not help the Five Elder Stars' plans to turn the world against him or the Strawhats. Again, the reason I prefer outsiders who aren't involved with the mess would give their own perception of said events and reactions thereof. Seriously, the more Luffy proved to be a goodhearted fella who hates oppression and loves the freedom that he will want to have that freedom for everybody, the more almost the entire world loves him and would undoubtedly make him the Pirate King if there is a vote for it. He would be the popular choice while Blackbeard will be the least.

The Strawhats achieved 'precious cinnamon roll' status in-universe. They know they are dangerous but they are also decent people who hate oppression and loves freedom. Luffy, keep being the great man that will break the WG's chokehold.

Yeah, while I love lots of things of this fic, the Strawhat Broadcast Station is an amazing aspect. Because of the SBS, especially headed by people who might be calling Cross a prophet, there are many changes and reactions on the ongoings. Takoyaki 8 became the first mobile sports bar while many became fans of the Strawhats through their adventures and support. Fans actually called in during the Luffy and Lucci fight in Enies Lobby.

Because of these reactions, changes happened. For example, the Tontattas felt vindicated for their hero, Rebecca finding courage far earlier as a result of taking inspiration from Vivi, Sabo regained his memories way earlier, and the rest of the world finding the Strawhats' true character heroic.

Especially now that the guy that transported into an alternate dimension knows far up to Zou. I feared he is not equipped about the Yonko Saga which is starting to get worse. And Cross is well-aware of it, unfortunately.

Due to Cross' actions, things are going awry. Rebellions started well too early as a result of Enies Lobby events. Cross and Robin aired more dirty laundry than ever before, especially Cross who already made it a point to point out everything wrong with the WG. And he read the story! And that's on the big scale.

On a smaller scale, he helped Usopp's self-confidence and did not want to break him during the Thriller Bark events. If you knew canon Thriller Bark, you know what went down. He also motivated Luffy to use his brain more often. He's still dumb, but he's still better than even his grandfather. Due to Cross' influence especially in later events where he sees wits and trickery makes a lot of good, Luffy became smarter, even when it was partly because he wanted to get back on his grandpa and partly when how he sees its benefits.

Just yeah, I worry a lot about the altered timeline. Even if we are still going to have the two-year time skip, I think Cross failed to stop the Summit War/Marineford but I hope to Godoka he saves Ace. Although I think Whitebeard is still going to die though. Knowing the Biblical Jeremiah, Cross is unlikely to prevent the war. I'm sorry, Cross, but even your name points too much in that direction. And I know my storytelling, okay, and the way it's going, Marineford is still going to happen. The reason why I know this to be true? Two things: Jeremiah, the Biblical Prophet and that Cross himself referenced Marineford in a special chapter. Even without the Aokiji accidentally helping Blackbeard, I still think Marineford war will still happen regardless of Cross' intervention. Likely without Akainu to kill Ace this time because Sengoku is trying really hard with the PR at the moment and the very fact Cross broadcasted Absolute Justice, something many sane and moral people will detest, everywhere will make it worst. I think Cross would also broadcast the killing of blood that forced Ace up to including killing pregnant women and babies just to kill Ace. Probably when Ace survived, he can reveal his story via SBS about his side of the story. The backlash would be there and more people would turn against the World Government more than ever before. Cross doesn't know everything the WG did in its time of corruption and dickery - since he did not read the Reverie arc - but he would still broadcast them to his best efforts. I'm pretty sure the true ruler of WG is watching SBS as intently, given just how sane he is in comparison to the rest of the World Nobles.

Although you have many allies from defected Marines, Revolutionaries, and pirates themselves, you have lots of manpower in many good places that could help to save the lives of Ace and probably Whitebeard. I do think Whitebeard is gonna die, revealing that the treasure exists.

So even with the butterfly of doom, in some way or another, it seemed like it tried to correct itself with a large majority of the Summit War saga still on. If you don't get it especially if the story had not hit you on the head with it, Summit War saga will still happen. Differently but still just as worse. Things still happen as in the original, sometimes just more or less worse. Defeating Moria in canon, too bad Moria awakened his Devil Fruit that made him a stronger opponent than he originally was.

Things will go crazy. The authors admit it so really I'm buckling up my seatbelts for the updates. I'm really waiting for the actual Marineford war after all.

...Of all the arcs I look forward to tackling in TB, it's the entire Summit War saga. I'm not even looking forward to any of post-Time Skip arcs, just Summit War. Admittedly, for Post-Time Skips arcs, it's actually Reverie I'm looking forward to the most in TB's adaptation since y'know Vivi won't join the line-up of Princesses that are at Reverie. She would still become friends with them instantly, mainly through their friendship with the Strawhats.

There is minor deconstruction then and there. It's not a hit in the face deconstruction that it is annoying. For example, Cross had knowledge of OP but only up to a certain piece, leading him to make assumptions that can get deadly for his team. For example, Baron Omatsuri. Look, I haven't watched all the movies either and I certainly won't remember all the SBS trivia. I saw Gold, Strong World, and Baron Omatsuri and that's about it when it comes to OP movies. And I never even seen a single OVA of OP. I saw fillers but not one OVA of OP. So I feared so much when I wanted to tell Cross the later arcs, especially Reverie, an insanely plot-significant one which packed so many punches without being too overwhelming.

Like many things, it is not perfect and I can name the said flaws. Hey, in comparison to the really bad works I have seen especially recently in VLD and SU, This Bites look like amazing Caterpiller sushi rolls and maybe add an eel temaki with it too. Sorry but I'm craving that for the moment. VLD started with one or two nice entrees but the more dishes come out, the course isn't worth it when the quality dropped, especially the dessert course that failed to appetize in presentation and just being plain good food. SU started out like that but instead of getting increasingly worse, it's bland instead. Bland as plain white bread without any necessary toppings. Ugh, how I wish to get my hands on a Japanese sandwich...

I wonder if there would be more members joining Post Time-Skip here. We know Jinbei will but who knows if Carrot or even Pudding could join.

I hope Oda and these authors kept their promises about no romances. Ship teases are fine. In WCI alone, we got ship teases with Sanji with Pudding and Nami. And Luffy too. Hey, I found Sanji pairing with men to be much more appealing than the ladies, to be honest. Oda because he saw how it literally tore apart Naruto. The last thing the OP fandom needs is endgames when its fandom is usually very open about its free shipping precisely because there is no endgame. I want it to differentiate from much other shounen and allow people to have their own open ending for their particular ship. Unless it's a romance right from the beginning that you made it clear there will be an endgame. Sure people can ship Sanami and ZoSan and LuSan and SanPud but I have seen that nobody in that fandom hit over the head because Oda made it clear in the beginning that there are no endgames. Just keep that promise, Oda and Cross-Brain.

I need to catch up on my Kingdom Hearts. I still have 3D after all.

Ugh, just knowing Frozen is even in this game. Though from what I heard, a large chunk of Frozen had been cut out including the Han reveal which is thank god. What is bad however is sitting through Frozen's songs which is only two fortunately but I loathe Frozen more than anything Disney put out including the living action remakes which many supposed had no place to exist. Yeah, I rather choose that over Frozen any time of the week.

While my loathing had simmered in the years since Frozen's release, make no mistake that I will avoid the fuck out of the stupid movie. Place me remotely near anything close to that movie, merch or anything food or parade, I will avoid it like my cousin's fear for cats. I will grit my teeth if my little niece likes it but I refuse to have that movie near me in any physical form or shape. If I'm forced to go through it in KH, I will make sure I'll play the dang longer so that the taste of Frozen is out of my mouth. Still, the over-glorification of the movie puts what an average Disney Princess film as a golden benchmark when it shouldn't be. I won't ruin anybody's feelings of the movie especially if you still enjoy it. As for me, I don't like the damn movie and would skim through the world of Arendelle in KH as easily as eating my favorite dish of seafood. I would plug my ears as soon as I reached Arendelle and happily watched as everything goes through with no sound for the sake of my sanity. Because I would blatantly spell out everything wrong with the storytelling of Frozen if I see it again.

That would annoy everybody with me including me. So yeah, expect me to plug my ears while and probably force others to play it for me just because I can't stand the movie.

Sorry for that rant. I'll probably find better joy playing Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean and the actual plot of the KH than I would be playing the world of Arendelle. In fact, I'll rather watch any of those movies barring TS3.

I am glad that Zachary Levi got his chance to voice in a KH game after all. He got his wish back when he got the voice of Flynn/Eugene in the end. While I am happy to see many returning cast members from the original return including the Frozen returnees, I thought they would be too busy. Mandy Moore was very busy which is why she didn't come back.

I still need to catch up on KH and I'm starting to get into Fire Emblem due to my cousin's influence who is a huge lover of such. Her go-to in SSB is always the FE characters just as others in my family would choose Lucas and Kirby.

Olympics AU~! or the World Stage~!

Hinata Shouyou, you will conquer the world someday with the National team, receiving Olympic Gold(s) on your repertoire. Considering your progress and ambitions, you are definitely on the road to becoming a nationally recognized figure, more than any other undersized ace from any other school ever. You will shock the Americans and the Brazilians so much in-universe they will admire your tenacity and skill. I will cheer you guys on!

Sports AU was a surprising liking for me. I never had much of an interest in sports because I am terrible at them. The only sports-related stuff I am good at or at least mediocre are martial arts (Tai Chi, Karate, etc.). I hope to take up fencing one day because fighting with a sword is awesome.

Maybe because I can like sports if people just sat me down either by telling me the rules and everything that goes into it (most sports anime did explain their basics along with some spins such as sports psychology in Oofuri's end) or by telling me in a dramatic story (I am quite good with that, considering my goal and I take the time to analyze through anything writing-wise). It worked for me with a lot of sports or games I wouldn't consider playing for the life of me, knowing I am terrible at them. Hikaru no Go is an awesome manga that I will always recommend and it's always on my upper list of sports anime recommendation on board games and altogether with physical sports games. I hoped to write a sports story myself in the future because that is how deep my love for it is. Sure, fairy tales and myths would take more priority as well as exploring alternate dimensions and differences in such a world.

Sports anime rarely go onto the world stage; they will mention it if there are character's goals in mind like Rin Matsuoka. Understandably too because there are lots of things going into making more than just the national stage with payments for loads of stuff like coaches. I mean just look at Hajime no Ippo as an example. There are lots more stakes involved. Olympics or whatever international competition is usually reserved for those who have lofty ambitions to actually make it such as the Oddball Duo, Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio. This is why YOI is surprising because it focused on the international stage; because narratively, it centered on Yuuri's ambitions to skate side-by-side Viktor, not on his rise to fame as Japan's top figure skater. Seriously, Yuuri is a well-written unreliable narrator.

The Olympics is the world stage, given the acclaim. Even Hetalia gave trivia about it. My family always go to watch the men's swimming events and other events too if they're on. I remembered my brother turning on the TV to play the golf event one time. Now that I think about it, one TV displayed my family's regular channels and the other the Olympics.

Then there are events instated into the Olympic curriculum in Tokyo 2020.

Seriously, though, in-universe, those who would go onto that stage would definitely shock the world with their unpredictability and get that gold for Japan. Japan, in-universe, will be so proud of their athletes. Their family and friends will proudly boast their victory for a long time.

Remember that the timeline in the series is definitely unless stated. What year are they living in? Are Rin and Haru going to participate in London, Rio or the Tokyo Olympics when they make the national team? There are some fanfics that just made these athletes participate in the closest or the future event at the time the fic was written.

Ah... I'm pretty sure you two with your training would get the gold. You would make the Iwatobi Swim Club proud and recognized. Your childhood rivalry would be milked by the media, don't forget about it.

So these are just speculations who are likely to go either on the national or international stage in the sports anime. No, if there is a series that already displayed the professional stage (or at the least working toward that) at that point like Baby Steps, Major and Yuri on Ice, then I won't put on here. I am also disregarding anything that has any kind of international stage for non-physical sports too such as Hikaru no Go where the final arc, the Hokuto Cup arc, was international. Of course, given their profession, go-pros are going to compete internationally one way or another. Even with my limited sports knowledge, I'm pretty sure there are international events. 

Of course, I'm not even putting in Yu-Gi-Oh in this because we already saw how the card game even made it into the international stages already in later series. I still adore YGO, don't forget it but when it's already clear that many players such as Syrus and Chazz would do well in the pros. Even when Jaden is not a pro - surprisingly, given his character development, I don't see him pursuing a route of pro dueling, probably traveling and teaching. It took time-traveling to get back into the spirit of passionate dueling again but I don't think Jaden minded about becoming a nomadic traveler and teaching people to duel. While I am sure Yugi is proud of his title of King of Games, he would be just as happy for anyone to play happily as they used to. Even if it's a worthy opponent who preferred other routes in life. I seriously worried about the health of those playing Duel Monsters in the media because the sanity is so thin to slip such as in the case of Zane. Zane, dear, you should work on your health and sanity before choosing to go back to the pros. While I'm sure the pro world would be dubious welcoming you back, I'm pretty sure Kaiba, Yugi, and Joey would let it slide, given the shit, they went through. And I just know that the future works, just like Digimon Tamers, would make things realistic but also not at the price of what makes YGO popular in the first place. YGOGX kept the spirit despite its deconstruction. There is nothing wrong with realism but when you focus on realism above characterization and plot, it will the story die faster than the speed of light. Just look at Steven Universe, who focus on deconstruction to the point it dragged the story down. Just like VLD which focuses way too much on the darker stuff without anything real and honest about it. It's dark for the sake of darkness and that's one of the worst things you do when writing something dark. 

On the upside, we know that these guys would not take steroids because these people are talented as fuck and they know it. Kageyama and Hinata would refuse to take them because they want hard work and their own skills, not drugs. Although accusations would still spring about though... They would refuse to let their hard work go to waste simply because of drugs. Some might have peer pressure going in but come on, these guys would know right from wrong...depending on their character. I can trust these guys over Lance Armstrong at any time of the day. 

By the way, this post might be updated with more once I remembered more sports anime. 

Daiya no Ace: Miyuki Kazuya, Sawamura Eijun, Haruichi, Mei, Raichi, Tetsuya, and that's what I know. As much as I don't like Terajima's writing of Furuya, Furuya is likely going to go to the pros too. But that guy needs to grow first. I don't know about Chris though. Given his connections, he would likely make an American team. Now we know he hasn't broken it completely, it just would take time for his shoulder to regain mobility to play again. I know Chris doesn't mind it now, given his character development.

These guys I can see going pro just because of their sheer love for it. It's not just because they are so talented they would be scouted. I'm pretty sure people would want Raichi in the pros the moment he could graduate high school. Even when he made his debut, offers would likely come in and Raichi's dad would likely keep track of them if they're still interested as high school goes on.

Even without Sawamura's current goal to be an ace, I'm pretty sure Sawamura would go pro. He, like Hinata, is my sunshine in their series and I will defend their character. No, I am not a stan, but I make this clear that when things go wrong, especially in DNA, Sawamura usually brings a smile. Unlike Haikyuu which stayed well-written in its run, DNA has its dreary days that can only be lightened up by Sawamura.

Haikyuu: Personally, there's plenty of people who could go into the pros. The most who are definitely going to keep playing volleyball professionally was Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou, Oikawa Tooru, Ushiwaka, Bokuto Kentarou, and that's on the Miyagi Prefecture.

I don't see a majority of the current Karasuno team going pro though joining a volleyball club either in uni or as adults much like the alumnus is still very open. About Nishinoya, I can see him going pro in the future but I wasn't exactly sure. The rest of the cast from other teams I really don't see going pro despite their skills, not even Kuroo or Lev or Goshiki or Aone or Kanji. For Kei's character development, he didn't seem the type to go pro despite his recent love for it. Let's not forget that just because he wanted to block Hinata does not mean he wants to pursue life on the international waters. It's like forcing a talented writer to become a published author despite the author's wishes. Talented lot no doubt, but I don't think they would want to go into professional work. There's a difference between high school/university sport vs actual professional work as a sportsman. Being a pro athlete means more than just time and money.

We know Kageyama's head is always filled with volleyball to the point his dream is to play it on the international field. He already on track to get there too, being invited by the Japan under-19 training camp. Hinata is heading there, albeit at a slower pace because he didn't have the same exposure as Kageyama, who was already known as a prodigy. He is getting noticed during his first nationals and I trust Furudate to take him where he needed to go. Kageyama and Hinata made a promise in the manga to go to the Olympics together. Aside from the romantic implications, it's a done deal from the beginning since Hinata is fucking talented and ambitious. They're a pair since the start of their partnership and I can't see them separating when it comes to volleyball. Except maybe to evolve their training such as in the case in the training arc previous to the Spring Nationals and the Qualifiers.

Is Furudate going to go through the many things Hinata and Kageyama need to participate in the international field? Not just logistically, but with time and money and managers and so forth. Because I think they would have lots of supporters when they graduate. Karasuno would be so proud to see them play in the Olympics.

Honestly, I hope one of the last pictures we see of Hinata and Kageyama is them participating in the Olympics together. Just seeing canonical panels of the culmination of their effort would make me a happy camper.

Free!: Rin and Haru. I will say this: I'm never the one to ship rivals, very rare I do. I shipped Contestshipping (May/Haruka X Drew/Shuu) and Appealshipping (Dawn/Hikari X Zoey/Nozomi) but I certainly don't ship RinHaru, even when the rivalry eventually went to friendly. I don't know even know my thought process for even picking a rivalry-turn-romance.

Now for Haru, I actually didn't see him pursuing a career in professional swimming, no matter how talented he might be. He wanted to be 'free', whatever that means in his definition. I don't think being a pro swimmer would be free. Remember this is my thought before the finale of the second season. I'm still ambivalent, don't forget it, but I don't see the point of it bothering me so much it should take over my life. I have better things to worry about like getting a job.

I haven't even seen the third season of Free yet so yeah, the Free finales don't bother me much anymore since I long since moved on. I already moved forward from VLD so no worries about trauma or long time salt or anything like that. Given that I saw something similar happened to VLD in other forms of media, I'm not that worried about it.

I'm more surprised Free is still continuing well to this day. Is there more to the story? I know that they bought back characters in the movie in the later seasons but I have no clue that they planned more to it. I know YOI would still continue, of course.

Oofuri: Tajima, maybe Abe. I don't even know about our star pitcher, Mihashi. And that's on Nishiura side of things.

I actually don't see a lot of people going into pro baseball in this end. Like I see a lot of players in Daiya no Ace becoming pros but I barely see anybody in Oofuri who desires a place in the international stage. The most interesting part of Oofuri was sports psychology, written by someone who knows said psychology.

Just because they want to go to Nationals and play on the said stage does not negate their later pursuits in life.

Kuroko no Basuke: Surprisingly, none of the MiraGen made on the list of going pro, not even Aomine. The only character I see going pro would be Kagami Taiga and even then, that's dubious. Just because they love basketball does not mean they wish to pursue internationally like Hinata and Kageyama who think of volleyball almost all the time. Seriously, Kageyama would break if he was never ever to play volleyball again. I'm pretty sure the MiraGen and Kagami could live without basketball. This had been my mindset well before I saw the jobs like Firefighter Kagami or Kindergarten Teacher Kuroko or Pro Shogi player Akashi or Pilot Kise. Seriously, I thought Murasakibara would be much happier baking in his little patisserie than he would be playing basketball professionally.

Yowamushi Pedal: Like the Haikyuu examples, there are a lot of people that have the potential to go pro. I don't know about the future goals of these characters unless they truly honestly love the sport to the point they want to travel around the world to participate. I have no fucking clue until we get to the third year. I can see Naruko and Iwaizumi going pro. Onoda became a cyclist because it brings him friends. I can see him continuing to cycle in university and in his free time exempting the time fanboying over anime. I'm pretty sure he will still watch cycling and communicate with his friends but I don't see him pursuing a life cycling on the more international

...At least, I know that they would refuse the doping culture prevalent in the professional road racing sport. The characters would know from right and wrong although I do see them coming down with peer pressure and actually take it but utterly refuse a doping program. Even if pro cycling is getting better these days with Lance Armstrong and his former teammates hanging as a warning sign, there would still be the peer pressure of stupidity. Steroids are not going to make them better. The point of sports anime is that your spirit would strive you to go over the limit, reality be damned. Even if it means breaking your body.

Whether it was the national court or it would be the international games, I'm sure you will do well. Shock the world with your unpredictability that I love so much~! Silence those who don't expect Japan to make a humongous comeback with more than determined than ever. Isn't sports anime, across many tackling of genres like slice-of-life or just upfront Japanese spirit, is just that?