Hi, I'm alara_r and I'm dealing the Gatchaman crack this month.

Edited Sept 17 to add the images directly to the page! Also wrote more about the second banana characters.

Most of you probably have never heard of Kagaku Ninja Tai (Science Ninja Team) Gatchaman. However, if I refer to it as "G-Force", it might possibly spark some childhood memories. Remember, the two hot guys in bird suits? And the token girl, that we never wanted to play because she never did anything cool? And the villain in the purple and the lipstick?

As an anime, Gatchaman has always enjoyed a weird status, not really part of the mainstream of anime interests. Partly this is because its visual style is more similar to American comic books than most anime. Eyes are big, but not too big; facial features are distinctly drawn; guys have long hair but are very much guys, not particularly bishonen; and mecha have a simple, cleanly drawn style which allows you to look at them and figure out what the hell they are, unlike modern anime where you need to have a master's in mechanical drawing or something to understand how the giant robots work. And partly, this is because the series was butchered beyond all imagining of butchery, not once, not twice, but *three times*.

The first version of Gatchaman which hit the States was called "Battle of the Planets", but many people remember it as "G-Force" because that was the name of the good guys. This was heavily cut to remove the violence, the continuity, radically alter the personality of hothead second-in-command hottie Joe into sarcastic, anti-authoritarian still hot Jason, and make it look as if the action was taking place on multiple planets. Oh, and they added a stupid robot.

The second version was called-- wait for it-- "G-Force". Although significantly less of the plot was cut from this version of the series, the characters were saddled with terrible voice actors and even worse names (such as "Ace Goodheart" and "Dirk Daring".)

The third version-- "Eagle Riders"-- took the second and third series and translated them. Neither saddled with truly awful names ("Hunter Harris" isn't quite as good as "Mark", but infinitely better than "Ace Goodheart") nor truly terrible translation, Eagle Riders was well on its way to becoming my favorite of the three. Then they took the redeemed child-villain of the second series, Gel Sadra (who they'd called Mallanox) and betrayed the entire point of her redemption arc by having her turn into the villain of the third series, Egobossler. Who they called "Happy Boy." At this point I feel all sanity fled the building.

This overview will talk about the plots of both "Gatchaman" and "Battle of the Planets", and I'll review fanfic set in both versions. I can't, however, talk about "G-Force" or "Eagle Riders" without losing my lunch, so I'm afraid I'll take a pass on that.

( Science Ninja Team Gatchaman )

( Battle of the Planets )

For more information I highly recommend the following sites:

( Links! )

Fandom: Blakes 7
Pairing: Avon/Vila
Author on LJ no
Author Website:Susannah Shepherd's Fiction Collection
Why this must be read:

Most of us have at least one episode of our canon that we'd like to alter. Mine is "Orbit", in which I don't so much mind that something very sad happens to Avon and Vila, more that they are both acting well out of character. Susannah's AU would be an eyebrow-raising scenario, but IMO no more out of character than the episode and a lot more fun. Basically, in the episode they are in a shuttle and have to lose weight from it fast, to escape planetary orbit. In the original, Avon very nearly kills Vila and throws him into space, before finding a different solution. Vila, naturally, never trusts him again. But here they find something else to jettison…. This gives you some idea what, so don't read it if you prefer things in order:
( excerpt )

Painful Sacrifices

Fandom: LOTR
Pairing: Eowyn/Eomer
Author on LJ: leadensky
Author Website: unknown
Why this must be read:

LOTR fic lends itself to AUs. It's an obvious question: what would have happended if so-and-so had taken the Ring? The answers are, unsurprisingly, often very dark.

As other rec'cers have pointed out, the One Ring Challenge resulted in many wonderful stories, and in my opinion, Mother of Horses is one of the best.

Eomer has declared the Mark renewed with his crowning and means to bring the Eorlingas to their old glory.

Please be warned: the rating should be taken seriously, both for sexual content and for angst.

Even though it's so bleak, this story is a must-read. It's rather like a shot of espresso... black and bitter but invigorating. Hossgal's strong, spare prose style suits it admirably.

( excerpt )

Mother of Horses

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Author on LJ: dsudis
Author Website: http://dira.aukestrel.com/

( Why this story must be read: )


Hate Story

Fandom: WEST WING
Pairing: Mary Marsh/Ann Stark
Author on LJ: allcanadiangirl
Author Website: http://bj.gatefiction.com/
Why this must be read:

If you looked at the pairing and went 'OK, that's just wrong'... well, you weren't the only one. Heh.

However! It's seriously worth checking out. I first heard about this and read it simply out of a spirit of perversity, but once there I found a really, really evilly brilliant idea, accomplished with skill. It's awesome. It will also refuse to leave your brain, ever, but don't take that as a bad thing: this one is thought-provoking with a vengeance in all the best ways. If every story were this good, people would have stopped using labels like slash or het or smut long ago.

Missionary Positions

Hi there, I'm Cat, some of you might remember me from last month when I recced Horatio Hornblower, this month I'm back with yet another Age of Sail fandom, and the one that got me into the genre, Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm going to try to rec a variety of stories this month, I read a lot of variety in this fandom, but I especially love Sparrington and Poly as well as more obscure or gen stuff. I'll start off the month with some fresh and fabulous new Sparrington

Fandom: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Pairing: Jack Sparrow/James Norrington
Author on LJ: gryphons_lair with commodorified
Author Website: none
Why this must be read:

gryphons_lair takes a classic Sparrington trope and gives it a gloriously fresh spin. It's some unspecified time after the end of the movie and both Jack Sparrow and James Norrington find themselves perpetually distracted by thoughts and dreams of the other. It's a popular tale, but gryphons_lair makes it feel fresh and utterly believable. What carries it off is her fabulous feel for plot and characterization. Not only Jack and James come alive in this story, but a whole collection of supporting characters, from Lts. Gillette and Groves to Gibbs and Anamaria, every one of them is alive and distinct. They move in and out of the narrative, but they are just as alive and distinct and real as the two main characters. Meanwhile, gryphons_lair puts as much effort and attention into how Jack and James arrive at their eventual meeting as she does into the meeting itself. She takes her time, she makes it believable, so that the payoff is not merely incredibly sexy, but believable and right.

commodorified is credited as co-author of the final part and her trademark skill for erotic writing is very apparant.

Overall, it is simply a stunning, sumptuous story.

Dreams and Desire