timepiececlock (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timepiececlock) wrote2007-11-26 10:55 pm
timepiececlock) wrote2007-11-26 10:55 pm
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Ouran Fanfic Rec: "Sweeter Than Chocolate" by Chosuki
When it comes to shipping, I'm usually very straight-up canon-going (Veronica Mars, Doctor Who, MulderScully), and when I'm not, it usually follows an obvious and particular pattern, for example Tasuki/Miaka, Zuko/Katara, Spike/Buffy before Spike/Buffy became so awesomely canon. In the case of Ouran High School Host Club, an anime series I finished about two months ago but haven't gotten to read fic for until recently, I felt the pull of multiple ships but eventually settled on Tamaki/Haruhi as my favorite, though it's not that the others don't have their appeal.
Although I like the pairing, its one that I like watching as opposed to identifying with on a personal level. I mean, Haruhi is very good with Tamaki, but if I were in her place I would KILL him. I would murder him for the good of world silence. But I like watching them onscreen and in theory, I ought to enjoy fic about them.
Unfortunately, almost all the fic I found when I went scouring last night was plagued by a consistent, recurring problem: very few fic authors can actually write Tamaki-- more precisely few can accurately write him as he appears on screen. Tamaki's character jumps wildly from drama to melodrama to obtuse stupidity to compassionate insight to painful heartfelt honesty to sly scheming wit, all wrapped in a package of over-emotional ridiculousness. Few of the fics I read could capture his speech style and verbosity right, and even fewer managed to insert any real depth beyond the typical character exclamations. Tamaki is meant to be simultaneously funny, pathetic, and inspired. The only fic I've read yet that really captured his thought process and wrote him in a believable manner was this one:
Sweeter Than Chocolate by Chosuki
It's a bit Tamaki/Haruhi, but almost in a one-sided way (because the fic is entirely in Tamaki's strange little brainview and thus we have no idea what Haruhi feels), and even if you're not into the ship I recommend the fic on a purely character and friendship basis as well. There's also a one-line comment related to Haruhi's father that I loved, and a very good use of chocolate as a continuous metaphor and thematic device.
Although I like the pairing, its one that I like watching as opposed to identifying with on a personal level. I mean, Haruhi is very good with Tamaki, but if I were in her place I would KILL him. I would murder him for the good of world silence. But I like watching them onscreen and in theory, I ought to enjoy fic about them.
Unfortunately, almost all the fic I found when I went scouring last night was plagued by a consistent, recurring problem: very few fic authors can actually write Tamaki-- more precisely few can accurately write him as he appears on screen. Tamaki's character jumps wildly from drama to melodrama to obtuse stupidity to compassionate insight to painful heartfelt honesty to sly scheming wit, all wrapped in a package of over-emotional ridiculousness. Few of the fics I read could capture his speech style and verbosity right, and even fewer managed to insert any real depth beyond the typical character exclamations. Tamaki is meant to be simultaneously funny, pathetic, and inspired. The only fic I've read yet that really captured his thought process and wrote him in a believable manner was this one:
Sweeter Than Chocolate by Chosuki
It's a bit Tamaki/Haruhi, but almost in a one-sided way (because the fic is entirely in Tamaki's strange little brainview and thus we have no idea what Haruhi feels), and even if you're not into the ship I recommend the fic on a purely character and friendship basis as well. There's also a one-line comment related to Haruhi's father that I loved, and a very good use of chocolate as a continuous metaphor and thematic device.
hate you, HTML
This is sweet and short and very, very concise, but I really love how both Tamaki and Haruhi are written. The humor in Tamaki's "courting" is true to Ouran, and so are Haruhi's reactions, and the light dash of Tama/Haru at the very end is sweetly ironic.
a ghost is born (an indie film in ten scenes) is also quite short but the writing is vague and poetic and wistful, and just. ♥ When I first found it, I wondered if this author's Tamaki and Haruhi were a little deviant of canon, but ultimately I decided this would be Tamaki and Haruhi if they grew up classy and romantic and incredibly mature. Err... or maybe it's just the writing?
Thread Count -- a glimpse into Tamaki and Haruhi's potential married life through Tamaki's eyes but then again not really. I love this piece! I think this was the first Tamaki/Haruhi I ever appreciated, maybe, but I'm sure this was the first I ever read that got the two of them right. The prose is in imitation of Tamaki's speech pattern and it's purply, ridiculous, and perfect.
Tamaki Knows is a brief character study that works to derail the portrayal of Tamaki as clueless, which we can guess he certainly is not. In the canon, we already see how well Tamaki understands people, and how he lured those particular Ouran students into the club; surely he understands that their motives, to a degree, are quite selfish. I don't agree with it completely, though; I have to argue that there are extremely tight bonds of friendship, for example, between Tamaki and Kyouya, and then eventually Tamaki and the twins. It's just a very interesting piece, and very quick and easy to read.
everything by
not Tamaki/Haruhi, but too good not to mention:
This piece by
Woot, a tidy collection of crossovers with Ouran! The premise is that, within each chapter, there is a professional of some sort that visits Ouran (and thus the Ouran Host Club) to give lectures. The first chapter is Sohma Shigure, haha. This collection is absolutely hilarious, despite any unfamiliar canons.
... aaaand that's the best I can come up with as far as Ouran fic recs go. I'm not a very active reader of Ouran fic either, since they lack the multichapter potential that I really miss (drabbles are all the fad nowadays, understandably enough, but they don't give me the thrill that a fic of 40+ chapters can), but there are gems. Sort of like the Princess Tutu ficdom, in retrospect, but with a larger amount of badfic. ^_^;;
Re: hate you, HTML
I'm browsing this comm today: http://www.fanfiction.net/community/The_Central_Salon/33236/99/0/3/
I noticed a fair amount of Kyouya/Tamaki fiction, and QUITE a lot of Kyouya/Haruhi fiction. I understand where that comes from in canon undertones, but I don't understand the appeal of it from a romantic perspective. Kyouya's three main characterization points are that he's intelligent, mean, and boring. Intelligence is a talent, not a personality trait, so that doesn't count, and the combination of mean and boring just doesn't appeal to me at all. A guy can be boring but pleasant, like Mori, and be attractive. A guy can be mean but exciting, like any typical jerk, and that's attractive too. But mean AND boring is a huge double-negative. I suppose that's more thought than the topic deserves, but I just don't understand the appeal of Kyouya as a romantic lead. He's better giving sarcastic commentary from the peanut gallery.
I haven't been able to find any commendable Tamaki/Haruhi multiparter fic
It's a bit crushing. And don't even get me started on Tutu ficdom. Just THINKING about the lack of epic fics in a story that fairly SCREAMS epic just rips my soul a new one every time. SUCH TERRIBLE INJUSTICE. FANDOM, WHEN WILL YOU GET OVER YOUR DRABBLE OBSESSION?
umm... part 1 *coughs sheepishly*
(this is speaking as someone who keeps up with the latest Ouran chapters, in which Tamaki makes a decision about his future as potential Suoh heir! So that's probably why I'm a little skeptical about the pining away for Haruhi, when he actually ponders taking over from his father as a businessman, of all things. can you picture that?
also, this is not a spoiler because they haven't revealed the decision yet. He's thinking about it, though.)
You know, the preschool teacher!Tamaki future is actually
foreshadowedhinted at in the manga, somewhere. He's going on about careers he could excel at (A king! A rocket scientist! A preschool teacher!), and I think bells rang in readers' heads when they read the last one. I mean, it's almost too perfect for his personality. Plus, that particular line had its own panel!re: Kyouya/anyone fanfic
Hmmm... I think it's because Kyouya is actually very much a squishy, squishy person inside, particularly for the Host Club, Haruhi, and most of all Tamaki. Admittedly, this is much more obvious in the manga than in the anime (his working his butt off in Paris for Tamaki, and passing out in the street for it! For Tamaki! Too sweet.) Fanfic writers like to play this against his calculating, stingy exterior, I guess, though yes, I don't find it very interesting either. When it comes to Kyouya/anything, I like it best if the fic is serious, and Kyouya is actually out of his depth, which that bravecows fic executed perfectly. I don't enjoy those Kyouya/anything drabbles written in the Host Club-courting style. (that's best left for the twins)
Scarily enough, I ship Kyouya/Renge, and am kidding only about 40% of the time. They would shake the very foundations of the anime industry; whether it'd be for better or worse is hard to say. There was this marvelous businesswoman!Renge/businessman!Kyouya multichapter fic I visualized for about a week, and then realized that I had no idea how to characterize Renge. I mean, she's not so much a character as she is symbolism for otaku fangirls and labelists. So I just wrote a drabble for it and left it at that. I posted it into my LJ in case you want to see it.
And speaking of which...
I have to say, I like drabbles. I think they make fine writing exercises and can help writers refine their prose and make their writing more efficient, and all that jazz. They also encourage poignant, powerful fic endings that just don't work as well with longer, more conclusive paragraphs.
But. There is just. far. too. MUCH. I don't see, for instance, how some fanfic authors can practice to be novelists if everything they ever write is less than 500 words long. I also mourn for all the promising story ideas that are used within 300 words, and then promptly forgotten, when it's clear that they would've made thrilling multiparters. I miss those! Those are fun to read, and they're more comparable to novels than drabbles ever will be. It's like this huge, warm, homemade feast compared to a singularly delicate, artistically prepared gourmet dish. When it comes to substance and momentum, there's just really no comparison.
part 2
Also, I am so sorry it took me so long to reply! As usual! I got yanked around this weekend to the mall and the shopping center, and then discovered that the only difference between the two is that one has food and the other doesn't. Nor does the shopping center even have a bookstore. That was certainly a waste of construction.
Also also, thank YOU for the fic recs. I don't think I've ever received Ouran fic recs before. I'm off to read them!
Re: hate you, HTML
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3341673/1/Playing_Glass
Re: hate you, HTML
Re: hate you, HTML
more Ouran stuff
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3105172/1/Sept_Idylles
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/740552/X_Amount_Of_Words - a bunch of good ones here
Ever read Howl's Moving Castle the book? Then read this you must:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2500604/1/A_Woman_True_and_Fair
Re: more Ouran stuff
Excuse me. *off to BOOKMARK*
And I have never read Howl's Moving Castle, but I have seen the Miyazaki adaptation. (Miyazakiiiiii <3<3) and loved it. Even if I didn't understand everything. I have read some of
I'll still look at the fic, though. Are there any real spoilers?
Re: more Ouran stuff
Yeah, it's REALLY spoilery. It's the entire novel from Howl's POV, and its lovingly written, very in-depth.
Although I liked the Miyazaki version, loved it, when I later read the book I realized how different they are. Wildly different, particularly in the end. So read the book before the fic, trust me. THe differences are too big to explain without ruining the book, and I wouldn't do that to you.
Re: more Ouran stuff
Thank you for being wonderfully un-spoilery, as always! I'm intrigued, though, by the idea of the storyline through Howl's POV. During the movie, I recall finding him to be much more confounding than Sophie, whose motives and story are really quite simple. Just a quick question, hopefully not requiring spoilery context: in the novel, did Howl recognize obaasan!Sophie the way he did in the movie?
I do wish I understood more about the story through the movie, though. Towards the end, I lost track of what kind of magic-y things were happening and why, and that bit when Sophie goes back in time, witnesses Howl make the pact with Calcifer, and gives him her name most especially threw me off. Admittedly, though, I expect it's a lot clearer in the novel, as I kept getting the feel of a larger, much more elaborate story that was being cropped down to its most important, affecting parts. Which isn't such a bad decision when Miyazaki makes it, actually.
GRRRR, RASHAKA. Because of recent Ouran-related comments I choose to refrain from naming, I couldn't stop myself from revisiting that Renge/Kyouya plot bunny. (I need to decide how I want to spell his name already.) So if I do end up writing this, it means I can't read that Kyouya/Renge fic lest I unconsciously use the same style or ideas, nor would I want to know if I have the same ideas anyway. It'll basically be Kyouya/Renge happening in the face of dramatic TamaHaru, with best-friend-side-character support and a romance that really develops on the sidelines. Between business-tycooning and mangazine-managing. I am also almost positive Renge will, though still quite the same analytical fangirl, almost feel like writing an OC.
Also, Playing Glass was adorable! Adorably funny, nicely timed, and Haruhi running all over the place to get Tamaki the perfect gift without knowing why she bothers is adorably in-character. Tamaki's pretty brave there, though.
MOVIE SPOILERS BELOW!
He's more confounding in the movie, because it the movie cuts out a lot of stuff from the book, adds a lot of extraneous stuff, and in the process Howl's character often gets shortchanged, much more than Sophie's. We know him much better in the book, and some parts of the book are from his 3rd person perspective. Because Howl's character in the novel is so complicated, and Sophie's so simple and straightforward, her character weathers the transition to film much better than his.
It took more than one viewing to figure out what she meant by telling her name to the young Howl-- I believe she did that as an explanation for why he rescues her in the alley in the beginning of the film. Implying that he was looking for her, or at least recognized her, as she appeared to be her younger self when she met his childhood self. But... the first time I watched the movie I thought she was merely viewing the past, not actually THERE. So who knows. One of the flaws of the film, that keeps it from being as good in pure cinematic terms as Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, is that the ending is loosely plotted, muddled, and hard to figure out. I loved it, but I recognize its imperfections.
I can safely tell you that NONE of that is in the novel. Everything from about halfway through the film-- the meeting with Sullivan... all that is much different in the book. Certain HUGE things were cut out that dramatically changed the second half of the novel from the film ending. Also, Sullivan's character in the movie is more like a combination of two book characters, and her motivations are very different.
It's odd, but I love both stories, even though they differ significantly.
Ad to when Howl recognized her beneath the curse... I don't remember when it happened, or if it was even expressly stated. I think he realized very early on that she was cursed, but I don't remember if we ever read about the moment when he saw past it. But I believe, from my memory, that when the curse was eventually broken he wasn't surprised by her identity.