Konshuu no Renai ~Azumanga Daioh’s Sakaki and Kaorin~

Appearing late this week (I'm developing a trend for lateness here, maybe I'm just not suited for regular weekly posting -_-), one of my favourite couples that I'd almost forgotten about. Luckily, the occurrence again of Wednesday and Konshuu no Renai forced me to dredge my memory for things I had read (and, unfortunately, written for) in the past.

Kaorin x Sakaki is one of my favourite couples, as Azumanga Daioh was one of my earliest anime and definitely a benchmark setter as far as quality was concerned. Also, although the Kaorin x Sakaki one sided "sempai" type relationship is nothing new, Kiyohiko Azuma executes it in such an amusing way that I can help being charmed by how much Kaorin likes Sakaki. (And then ending up disappointed as Kaorin gets slowly phased out towards the end of the series)

One of the reasons I love this relationship (and writing for/reading about this relationship) is that people can really empathise with Kaorin's position. I mean, who hasn't had a huge crush in their teen years and virtually stalked someone for ages? Well, I haven't (ahem); but the sympathy for Kaorin is still there, and the want to write fiction that will bring them together in some way and make Sakaki see just how much Kaorin is crushing on her is enormous.

My favourite Azumanga fiction by far (although I will be making her head swell up suika size to say so) is Azumanga Plus Six by LunaMurphy. Although not strictly a Kaorin/Sakaki fiction per se, it does deal with that relationship, and the ending feels infinitely more satisfying, simply because it feels realistic.

Surprisingly though, since the pairing is virtually canon, there isn't that much fiction for it (only 3 on http://www.shoujoai.com), most given over to Yomi/Tomo and Yukari/Nyamo. However, the best of the bunch by far is Twinkle Twinkle by Cyberano, which is well written and contains just the right amount of angst (although I am a big fan of angst, some of the fanfiction goes way too far!) Although, talking about angst, if you're into it, On the Road is very well written (but very sad).

And researching just now, I've just realised that the fanbase has grown significantly on fanfiction.net, so I might well post an update to this post tomorrow with any good ones I find.

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Konshuu no Renai ~MaiHiME’s Shizuru and Natsuki~

Wow, I just realised that I started Konshuu no renai on a Wednesday, so that makes it really inconvenient for me to get it all typed up at home with nice user friendly pictures. Therefore this weeks entry will be typed up here at medschool and pictures added later (if I can be bothered, of course ^_^)

This week,

Mai HiME's Shizuru and Natsuki

Shizuru and Natsuki (or Shiznat, as how it is known to the English speaking fanfiction community) is one of my favourite pairings at the moment. However, as the anime itself is barely a few years old, the amount of fanwork for it is less than other series, (for example last week's CCS feature)

But why Shiznat? Why does the relationship work so much better than the other canon shoujo ai pairing in the series, Haruka/Yukino?

In my opinion, the main thing that helps the pairning work so well is that both the characters in question are main characters and so they have a good background development, so you get to know each character well and the pairing makes a lot more sense, whereas both Haruka and Yukino are probably the least developed characters in Mai Hime and so the viewer feels a lot less affinity towards them.

In Hime the relationship is (for the most part) subtext with some consummation, yet in Otome, the relationship is actual canon with very little reference to what is actually going on behind the scenes as it were. I actually prefer the subtext of the first series as fodder for shoujo ai and fanfiction as it has a great feeling of "Illicit love" on the part of Shizuru and wrestling with her own feelings (although her transformation into Evilyuri girl was surreal to say the least)

And who can't say that Shizuru fighting for Natsuki's love and approval wasn't romantic?

I think that the makers of the anime went to great lengths to show that the reason for the pairing was that the two characters complement each other in that they are almost polar opposites of each other in many respects and each girl offsets the other's personality well. Take Shizuru, for example, who is gentle, graceful and traditional with a lot of inner strength and sense of what she wants, whereas Natsuki is a rebellious and gung-ho lone wolf with buckets of inner insecurity and no idea what she wants despite her gruff outer coating.

Since they are both attractive characters in their own rights, a relationship between the two has all sorts of paths and storylines it can take, especially (the hardest) marriage and leading a normal life.

Therefore, it is surprising that the MaiHiME Shoujo ai community is relatively small, most fiction focusing on the relationship between Mai and Yuuichi. A relevant community on fanfiction.net are the Fuuka Gakuen – A Shoujo-ai fanfic community.

Also worth looking at is the Mai HiME page on Shoujoai.com.

I offer these links though most of the fanfiction I have read of this pairing is strictly average…no offense to the authors of course, but nothing has really grabbed my eye in terms of storyline or quality of writing…I will review my collection and recommend the best when I get home later today. However, one author I heavily recommend is dauthik, who is a fan of the pairing and has a good list of Shiznat fic on her Livejournal. She has written 3 excellent fics, "Another Chance to Bloom", "Forgiven" and "Two plus Two equals Five" I will mention her much more when I get round to doing Konoka x Setsuna later on. Also worth looking at is the Shizuru x Natsuki fanlisting "Into the Sunset" which has a small collection of fanfiction.

Another interesting fanwork unfortunately not in English at the moment is a webnovel in which Shizuru and Natsuki are married and have children (who are clones of themselves, as far as I can work out); though the rest of the storyline is a mystery to me, it is definitely worth checking out.

Apart from fanfiction, the pairing has generated huge amounts of fanart and doujinshi which can be found online (for example in danbooru's Mai_hime and Mai_Otome pages).

Shiznat forever ^_^

Konshuu no ren-ai – Sakura/Tomoyo

Today I decided to have a feature in which I introduce my favourite yuri pairings and any online resources and fanfiction available for them: It will be called provisionally "konshuu no ren-ai" (This weeks relationship. Feel free to correct me on that).

This week: Sakura and Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura

Now I've always had a soft spot for SakuraxTomoyo fanfiction, because of a number of reasons: First; Cardcaptor Sakura was THE first anime I ever watched and it is a classic, Second: Its a canon coupling, since Tomoyo really does love Sakura in that way and so it isn't really "subtext" per se. Third: Tomoyo and Sakura together is just too damn cute! (I have several less than worksafe pictures, but we'll try to keep this blog family friendly, at least for the time being)

Now due to the canon nature of the relationship, Sakura x Tomoyo has spawned possibly the largest shoujo-ai fanfiction community outside of Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena (both also canon pairings), and fanfic, both great and downright awful is plentiful for the picking. I even attempted to write one myself but that unfinished epic will hopefully never see the light of day ^_^;;

Since Sakura/Tomoyo has such a wide fanbase, I may well come back to this pairing later on to mention some writers that I missed the first time round.

Right then, lets get started:

The number one resource as always, for anything related to Shoujo-ai and fanfiction is Shoujoai.com. Also an archive of devoted Sakura/Tomoyo fanfiction exists at Moonlit nights.

Now, my favourite Sakura/Tomoyo fanfiction writer of all time is probably Meredith Bronwen Mallory (Who incidentally mainly doesn't write CCS fiction) who writes fantastic angsty dark fics such as Conjure me, but has not written anything in this genre for years, much to my chagrin.

Second place probably goes to John Fiala, who I can't find a site for. (I seem to like the niche writers more than the ones who write volumes, it seems ^_^). "A Weekend in the Sky" is probably my all time favourite fanfic, since its storyline feels particularly real to me, especially since Tomoyo doesn't end up with Sakura in the end

Third, purely by sheer volume is probably Shanejayell who writes volumes and volumes of fanfiction for multiple genres, most notably Sailor moon, and has an ongoing crossover arc between ahoujo-ai universes in multiple anime (such as Excel saga, Tenchi muyo, Hand maid May etc. etc.) However, he does write some lovely stand-alone CCS Sakura/Tomoyo fiction, most notably "Darkest before the dawn" which is again rather dark, but excellently written.

So that concludes part 1 of Sakura and Tomoyo. Stay tuned for more konshuu no ren-ai ^_^

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