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crack_van2005-02-02 03:22 am
http://users.livejournal.com/ari_/) wrote in crack_van2005-02-02 03:22 am
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Weiß Kreuz: An Overview
hi, I'm ari, and I'll be doing Weiß Kreuz recs this month.
Before those of you that are not fond of anime run away screaming, let me reassure you that WK is one of these fandoms where you can easily read the fanfiction without watching the source material. The setting is (mostly) realistic and is present-day Japan.
The main attraction, especially for slash fans:
8 guys, all young and (mostly) good-looking, with (mostly) tortured pasts. They are divided into two groups - each of them assassins, but both work for very different motives that put them at odds.
Sounds like it could be interesting? Find out more behind the cut...
The main canon source for the fandom is the anime series: there are 24 episodes, which are available in the US as DVDs, under the title Knight Hunters. I've never seen the dubbed version, so I can't offer comments on it - I recommend watching it subbed, because the Japanese voice actors are very good. Not so the animation: there's a lot of still images, and even when the images move they're not exactly the greatest.
Notes:
Japanese spellings can differ, depending on what transliteration is used, I'll list the most common alternatives. Also, the series uses a number of German terms, I'll provide both translations and alternative misspellings that are common. The series title itself translates as "white cross", and Weiß can alternatively spelled Weiss, and is sometimes seen as "WeiB" to simulate the 'ß' on a non-German keyboard.
Names are listed First Name - Last Name for Western names, and Last Name - First Name for Japanese names.
Japanese uses suffixes at the end of names to express levels of politeness. -san is the equivalent of Mr./Mrs, -kun is used among friends and usually by males, and -chan is used for girls or small children (I could write a whole essay about proper usage of names and suffixes in Japanese, but this is pretty much all you need to know).
Setting:
Weiß ('White') is an assassin group that works for Kritiker ('critic'), a group that hunts down criminals that manage to evade the law. Each member of Weiß is officially dead, and they all were picked up by Kritiker after their previous lives had been destroyed. Kritiker's leader is known only as Persia and is only seen as an outline on the mission tapes they receive. These mission tapes are delivered by one of Persia's secretaries. Members of Weiß are able to decline missions, it just means that they won't get paid. During these missions, Weiß uses cat breeds as code names. Interestingly enough, each Weiß member has a signature weapon which requires that they kill their victims up close. As a cover, Weiß by day runs a flower shop in Tokyo called Koneko no Sumu Ie ('kitten in the house'), which is constantly overrun by schoolgirls who all swoon over the 4 Weiß assassins. They all have small flats in the same building as the flower shop.
The main villain for most of the series is Takatori Reiji, a politician who is working on becoming Japan's Prime Minister. His bodyguards are the assassin group Schwarz ('black', sometimes called 'Schwartz'). Takatori is also personally responsible for the tragic pasts of 2 members of Weiß.
Schwarz itself however belongs to SZ (alternatively 'SS', 'Esszet', 'Esstet'), a sinister group based in Europe that is using Takatori for their own plans. Schwarz' members also have code names, but they are used less often. Much more sensibly than Weiß, they use guns. Additionally, Schwarz has paranormal abilities that give them an extra edge over Weiß, and any other targets. We know nearly nothing about SZ, except that they seem to be connected with Rosenkreuz, an Austrian school/training camp for people with paranormal talents.
There is never any explanation for why even those characters that are supposed to be Japanese have rather unusual hair and eye colors. It's one of the things you just have to accept.
Characters:
Weiß:
Fujimiya Ran/Aya
Aya is the strong, silent type. He doesn't say much, and he comes across as rather anti-social. He often takes the lead during missions.
His real name is Ran, his parents were bankers, and he has a younger sister. On his sister's 16th birthday, he took her to a festival and bought her earrings. When they returned home, they found their parents murdered, and then the house blew up around them. Ran was caught under rubble while his sister got out - only to be hit by a car, driven by Takatori Reiji (who had used Ran's parents as scapegoats to cover up the fact that he had been embezzling money). Since then, his sister has been in a coma. Ran took her name, and vowed vengeance. He also wears one of the earrings he had bought her for her birthday. He seldomly declines a mission, as he needs the money to pay for his sister's hospital bills.
Ran's weapon is a katana (sword) and he has this tendency to jump at people from above, yelling "shi-ne!!" ('die'). His code-name is Abyssinian. He's usually always referred to as Aya, and only occasionally switches back to Ran in stories that are set after the end of the series. Note that he's usually referred to as Aya-kun, while his sister is referred to as Aya-chan. He is 20, and spends most of his free time sitting at his sister's bedside.
Occasionally, he wears an orange sweater that clashes horribly with his hair.
Kudou Youji
Youji is the oldest member of Weiß at 22. He's a total playboy, and has been known to decline missions if they don't involve pretty women. He is lazy, a heavy smoker and flirts with anything that's female and over 18. He also loves to tease the other members of Weiß (especially Omi, who he accuses of surfing the internet for porn).
He used to be a private detective together with a woman named Asuka who he also loved (it's unclear whether or not they were actually a couple or if it was one-sided). Eventually, during a mission gone bad, both were shot, Asuka died and Youji was badly wounded and taken in by Kritiker. He carries a lot of guilt over this - women are definitely Youji's weak point, and it seems all the women he loves either betray him or die on him.
Youji's weapon is a long wire that's hidden in his watch, which he uses to strangle his victims, or to disarm them. His code-name is Balinese. Alternative spellings for his name include Kudoh Yohji and Kudo Yoji.
He loves to wear outfits that leave his midriff bare.
Hidaka Ken
Ken is 19, outgoing, a bit clumsy, but a very good soccer player. He wants to believe in the best in people. At first glance, he looks like the nice boy from next door who helps old ladies across the street. And yet, he can have quite a temper, and Ken is the also one who's weapon is the most brutal: he fights with bugnuks (a glove with retractable claws).
He used to be a young J-League soccer player, together with his best friend, Kase. Then, during one game, he was drugged and framed to make it look as if he'd purposefully thrown the match because he had been gambling on it. Kase was trying to help him clear his name, and during a meeting with people who supposedly could help him was beaten and left to die in a burning warehouse. Believing Kase dead, he was picked up by Kritiker.
During the series, Kase shows up again, miraculously not dead, and the target of a Weiß mission. Ken at first tries to clear his friend, but then realizes that it was Kase who set him up because he was jealous of the more successful Ken. Eventually, after Kase tries to kill him again, Ken kills Kase himself.
Ken's codename is Siberian, and he also drives a motorbike. In his free time, he teaches kids to play soccer in a park.
Tsukiyono Omi
At 17 (but looking significantly younger), Omi may be the youngest member of Weiß, but he was also the first. Omi was kidnapped as a child, and his parents refused to pay the ransom. He was saved by Persia and brought up as a member of Kritiker. He's very nice, upbeat, willing to help. Despite the fact that he's the youngest, he also is the one who does most of the research and planning on missions - it helps that he's also good with a computer. He not only works both his day-job as a florist and his night-job as an assassin, he also manages to deal with school (keep in mind that Japanese schools are a lot more time-consuming and demanding than US schools).
Omi fights with darts or a crossbow, and his codename is Bombay.
Schwarz:
Brad Crawford
At 26, Crawford is the oldest member of Schwarz, and usually acts as their leader. Despite the fact that he's one of the characters who'd pass most easily for Japanese, he's actually American.
Crawford usually wears white suits and glasses that often reflect light off them, especially when he is doing evil. He seems to mostly provide bodyguard duty for Takatori, who treats Crawford and all of Schwarz as his lackeys. From the way Crawford refers to "Mr. Takatori", you can tell that he doesn't think much of him.
Crawford's talent is precognition, which is probably the origin of his code name, Oracle. He is also good with a gun, and at boxing.
Schuldig
Schuldig ("Guilty") is the person with the most mangled name, mostly because early fansubbers had no idea what his name meant: at first, it was transcribed as "Juhderig". Alternative spellings seem to include Schuldich, Shuldig, Schulderich and probably some other variants that I'm forgetting. He's also the reasons German Native-speakers will cringe when reading most fiction that stars him: many writers make him speak very bad fangirl German. *wince*
Schuldig's hair and bandanna look like they could come from an 80s rock band, and his green suit jacket makes it look like he's either colorblind or on crack (or both). His talent is telepathy, and he seems to be quite powerful, enough so that he sometimes has trouble separating his own thoughts from those of other people. He also seems to be extremely quick, but it's unsure if this isn't some mental trick. His code name is Mastermind, he's German, and he's 22.
Schuldig is at best amoral, and takes great joy in his job, whether this is killing people or tormenting them.
Little is known about his background, which means that writers can make up whatever they want (including long detailed stories about his childhood as a drug addict and rent-boy).
There is a really good Schuldig essay at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
reflections_2 by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mistressrenet which goes into great details, and which I heavily recommend (especially since I really like Schuldig, so there'll be a number of stories that feature him.
Farfarello
Farfarello (alternatively Farfallo or Farferello, tho occasionally you'll see other creative variants) is Irish, about 20 years old. His looks are ... interesting: he has short white hair, one yellow-gold eye, multiple ear-piercings, multiple facial scars and an eye patch.
He's also rather insane.
During the series, we learn that his real name is Jei. He used to be a very religious child, and was living with his parents and one sister - until the day he learned that his favorite nun (named Ruth) was actually his mother. In a fit of madness, he nearly killed Ruth and did succeed in killing his whole family, and then suppressed the memory, and now believes that they were killed by a burglar. Since then, he blames God for their murder, and is working to revenge himself against God, usually be killing clergy in the most messy ways possible. How he came to join Schwarz is unknown, but he is still unstable enough that he is sometimes locked in a room in a straight-jacket.
At other times, he does however seem to function well as part of the team, especially since his special ability is an interesting *dis*ability: he can't feel pain. He's also the one member of Schwarz who does love to kill with something else than guns: he's nearly always carrying a knife, and has a tendency to lick it. Most of his scars are also self-inflicted. His codename is Berserker.
Naoe Nagi
Nagi is the youngest member of Schwarz at age 15, and is probably an orphan. He is Schwarz' only Japanese member, and may or may not have had a childhood on the streets. Nagi is telekinetic - and quite powerful, and also is the computer expert of the group. His code-name is Prodigy, and he's always wearing a traditional Japanese school uniform.
While he's usually written in fanfiction as extremely shy and really in need of love, especially if that love is provided by Omi, I've never been fond of that view and think it's just fanon that has become canon in many people's minds. If you want to read a very detailed essay on Nagi,daegaer has written a really great one for reflections_2, which pretty much mirrors how I view Nagi.
I should note that despite the fact that Schwarz are the "bad guys", they're the ones that actually function well as a team (or a dysfunctional family *g*). Weiß, on the other hand, isn't nearly so friendly with each other.
Other Characters:
Takatori family: Reiji, Masafumi, Hirofumi, Ouka
Reiji, corrupt politician with visions of grandeur. His sons, Hirofumi (the slimy one) and Masafumi (the insane one). His illegitimate daughter, Ouka, whom he surprisingly seems to genuinely love.
Schreient: Hell, Neu, Schön, Tot
(Schreient: 'to be shouting'. Hell: 'bright'. Neu: 'new'. Schön: 'beautiful'. Tot: 'dead'.)
Masafumi's little group of bodyguards/girlfriends who all adore him. Hell seems to be Masafumi's main love interest. Schön used to be a model and fights with a whip. Tot is ... simple: she always has her stuffed rabbit with her, and refers to Masafumi as 'papa'. She also fights with an *umbrella* as a weapon. More on her and Neu in the plot summary.
Persia
see plot summary for details.
Manx and Birman
Persia's "secretaries" who bring Weiß their mission briefings. Manx also seems close to Omi (err... in a maternal way).
Esszet:
the 3 leaders of Esszet.
Fujimiya Aya-chan
Ran's little sister. From what we saw of her, just a nice young girl.
Tomoe Sakura
one of the schoolgirls that fangirls Weiß - specifically, she's interested in Aya. She's supposed to look quite a lot like Aya-chan.
Plot Highlights:
The first handful of episodes mostly introduce the members of Weiß and their back stories. An incident of note is that Ken nearly runs away with a (female) love interest, but Youji talks him out of it.
Things start to get interesting once we meet Takatori's sons, Hirofumi and Masafumi. Masafumi is involved in strange DNA experiments, and Weiß is sent to hunt him down. His pet girl fighting group tries to protect him, but they are no match for Weiß, who overpower them and take care of Masafumi in a terminal way. Of note is the fact that Youji has this feeling that Neu reminds him of someone...
Immediately after that, Weiß gets a new mission that deals with Takatori's other son: Hirofumi is organizing special hunting games for high-up politicians - with human prey. Omi goes in undercover as "prey" so that Weiß can take Hirofumi down. However, when Omi and Hirofumi meet, both are shocked to find out that Hirofumi recognizes Omi as his long-lost little brother.
This causes Omi to eventually recover his memory: he is the youngest son of Takatori Reiji, and his real name is Takatori Mamoru. As if that isn't traumatic enough, he has to deal with the fact that Aya goes batshit over everything connected to the Takatoris, and now seems to hate Omi as well. This prompts Omi to do some research on Aya, and thus the rest of Weiß find out about Aya's sister.
After some severe angsting, Omi goes out and kills his brother, which makes Aya like him again.
While all of this has been going on, Omi has been getting closer to one of the schoolgirls that fangirl all of the pretty florists, a girl named Ouka. Of course, neither of them know that both are children of Takatori Reiji, and thus half-siblings. Thankfully (er... or maybe not?), by this time Schwarz has taken a special interest in Weiß, and Schuldig, accompanied by Farfarello, takes it on himself to corner them and torture them with the fact that they are related.
Unfortunately, Farfarello gets a bit over-excited and ends up shooting Ouka, who dies in Omi's arms. Ups. Especially since Takatori Reiji doesn't find this very funny and proceeds to thoroughly trash Schuldig and Farfarello with a golf club. Ouch. Also, Omi gets to angst a bit more.
Takatori now finally manages to get elected head of his party and thus Prime Minister. He immediately tells Schwarz to cause destructive mayhem while leaving clues that Weiß are behind it all, which causes Weiß to be hunted by the media and police. Weiß has to go into hiding. Before they disappear, Aya contacts Sakura, one of the schoolgirls that has a huge crush on him. He hands her the key to his save, with instructions to take care of his sister in case anything happens to him. Sakura also looks disturbingly like Aya-chan...
Takatori Reiji decides that he no longer needs Schwarz and fires them. Schwarz seems to find this amusing. He also finds out that is own brother, Takatori Shuichi, who works as the head of police, is the elusive Persia, who's behind Weiß. So Reiji has Shuichi killed - but first tells him that Omi/Mamoru is actually *Shuichi's* son, which is why Reiji had refused to pay the ransom when Omi/Mamoru was kidnapped. Shuichi/Persia takes a while to die, so Omi can show up in the nick of time to have his "uncle" die in his arms. Omi never finds out that Persia and not Reiji was his father.
Aya and Takatori battle it out on the roof of the party building, and Aya finally manages to kill Takatori.
In Switzerland, 3 very old people (ok, they're the Esszet heads) muse that now that Takatori's gone, they'll have to find another way to take power in Japan and create chaos.
Some time has passed, and Weiß has disbanded. Omi is concentrating on school, Ken is training little kids, Youji is working in the detective business again, and Aya has moved to another city and is working in construction to pay his sisters hospital bill. All seems well - until Youji is attacked, Omi's classmates are abducted by ritual murderers, Ken's soccer kids get attacked, and Aya comes to visit his sister and finds that she has been stolen from the hospital.
Eventually, Weiß reforms (with Aya being the most reluctant).
In a quick interlude, we get to meet Farfarello's mother, Ruth the nun. She buys flowers from Ken, Farfarello goes after her, Ken tries to save her, she throws herself in front of Ken, she dies (she'd been blaming herself for Farfarello's insanity, anyway). Schwarz drag Farfarello off the scene.
Schreient show up again: not only were they involved in Aya-chan's abduction, they're also working on resurrecting their precious Masafumi. Neu, the member who'd been pinging on Youji's "don't I know her?" radar, contacts him and tells him that she is actually Asuka, the woman he used to love and who died. She asked him for help, and Youji is only to happy to provide it. Of course, she ends up betraying him, and when she tries to kill him, Youji has to kill her - without ever finding out if she really was Asuka, or if she was just playing with him. He doesn't take it well, poor guy.
Somewhere in there, Sakura has really fallen in love with Aya, but Aya tells her to forget about it, he doesn't feel anything for her, and even if he did, he's not a kind of person who deserves to be loved, anyway.
We find out that Esszet are the ones behind Aya-chan's kidnapping - in the 2 years that she's been in her coma, she has not aged at all. Thus she's apparently prime material as a host body for a demon that they're trying to summon - which will make them immortal. They order Schwarz to steal Aya-chan from Schreient. At the same time, Weiß have finally tracked down Aya-chan and show up at the same time as Schwarz does, leading to big battle amongst everyone.
In the end, Weiß escape, but without Aya-chan. Schreient is killed, with the exception of Tot - it seems that Nagi and Tot had gotten close (for some unexplained reason...). Schwarz take Aya-chan's body to Esszet, and they start preparing for the resurrection/possession ritual. Not only that, they also decide to kidnap *Sakura* - possibly for their own amusement, as Schuldig first mentally influences Sakura to make her shoot Aya. Luckily Sakura is a very bad shot and misses.
That might not have been such a good move, because Sakura decides to take Aya-chan's place and hides Aya's sister in a place where Weiß can find her. Yay for Aya for getting his sister back. He doesn't have long to enjoy it, tho - Schwarz promptly steal her back again.
In a last effort to get Aya's sister back, Weiß attacks Esszet as the ritual starts. They get their asses kicked by the Esszet leaders - until it turns out that Schwarz has given Esszet the wrong girl: Schwarz wanted Esszet to fail all along. Weiß kill 2 of the Esszet elders, Schwarz take care of the 3rd.
For some reason, Birman shows up just in time to take Sakura and Aya-chan's body to safety, while Schwarz and Weiß start to battle it out. Eventually, the whole structure they were in (which was located on an island) starts to crumble and dissolves into the sea. As the whole island disappears, Aya-chan wakes from her coma.
Roll end credits.
Yup, there's no clear resolution to the Schwarz/Weiß fight. All we see are disjointed images as the credits roll: Aya-chan now working in the flower shop, Sakura visiting her, Tot sitting in a bed of flowers somewhere, and some night scenes of Weiß hunting criminals.
Other canon sources:
While the anime is the most popular and essential canon source for the fandom, there is also a manga, an OAV, a 2nd anime series, and some novels and Drama CDs. Also, the seiyuu (Japanese voice actors) of Weiß used to form a J-Rock (J-Pop? I can't tell) band, and the appearances of the Weiß characters are actually based on them. For a complete listing of additionally available sources and their history, check this link.
It's not necessary to know any of them to be able to enjoy about 98% percent of all WK fanfiction. If you are curious, this site has translations of the Drama CDs (it used to also have scanlations of the manga, but they seem to be gone). The main difference between the manga and the anime is that in the manga, Schuldig is there when Aya's parents are killed (he also gives Aya a little mindfuck).
Some character designs are different in the manga, here are group images of Manga!Weiß and Manga!Schwarz:
Just for shit and giggles, here's are the seiyuu, in their Weiß phase:
Glühen Anime
This 2nd anime series with 13 episodes was released recently (2002, IIRC). Due to legal problems, the character designs had to be completely re-done, leading to several screaming fits among fans:
Additionally, Glühen introduces 2 new members of Weiß, and one new secretary that brings them their missions:
Izumi Sena:
16, fights with a Chakram (stop laughing). He fights because one day, his mother went nuts shot his father and his sister (and him, but he survived). He also manages to have a little bit of chemistry with both Aya and Ken.
Aguri Kyou
err. He's in the series. He doesn't live long. He fights with a ... tomahawk... (*stop laughing!*). From what I recall, he had a brother who went to Koua Academy and mysteriously killed himself, which made Kyou join Weiß.
Rex:
Omi's Persia's secretary who brings Weiß their missions.
Weiß is now lead by a new Persia: Omi, who's switched back to using his real name, Takatori Mamoru. He lives with his grandfather, the original founder of Kritiker, and doesn't have much close contact with the rest of Weiß anymore.
Weiß is investigating Koua Academy, whose pupils seem to have a distrubing tendency to turn into terrorrists (or to commit suicide). To that effect, Aya and Sena are on an undercover mission: Sena as a new student, and Aya as a history teacher (*boggle*) with a long braid down to his ass and glasses (and also a personality). Aya also gets a little romance from another teacher, but of course she doesn't survive the series.
Meanwhile, Ken and Youji are in Europe, fighting against parts of Esszet there. Ken has pretty much turned into a violent sociopath who enjoys killing, and Youji looks like a strung-out male hooker. He also has some problems with intimacy: during sex, he tends to try and strangle his partners. He also sees visions of Asuka's ghost. Both later return to Japan, and Youji joins Aya as an undercover agent, as the arts teacher. He falls for another teacher, Tuji-sensei. Unfortunately for him, she turns out to be evil, and in the end he has to kill her (after nearly giving in to her offer to erase his memories so he'd no longer have to angst so much).
They eventually discover that the school's elite S-Class is pretty much a brainwashing program, and that they're producing clones. We find out that the academy is affiliated with Rosenkreuz, who in turn are affiliated with Esszet. Somehow. There are also lots of references to Epitath, the person/thing/whatever behind much of the going ons.
For the big show-down, it looks as if Weiß are rather outnumbered by lots of clones - however, in the nick of time, Nagi, Schuldig and Crawford show up and help them fight. No, we don't have a clue why they do this. Schwarz pairs off with 3 strange new paranormal talents (who apparently are cloned from them?): Geissel, Berger and Leila. They win their fights, and that's the last we see of Schuldig and Crawford.
Weiß meanwhile manages to uncover the big details: Epitath turns out to be a supercomputer. Or a computer program. Or something. And it has been using Sena's mother as some kind of vessel, and makes her shoot Sena again. This time, Sena dies for real. This seems to rouse Sena's mother enough that she manages to ask Aya to kill her, which he does. In the end, Weiß has to hurry out of the building, as one of the other Kritiker groups (Crashers) has shown up and is starting to blow up the building. Youji is hurt badly enough that he can't make it out, telling the others to go on, he'll follow them later. They do, and make it out, then the building goes *boom*. And that ends the first 12 episodes.
The series wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for episode 13, in which we learn the eventual fate of the characters:
- Omi stays Takatori Mamori and Persia, planning a new Weiß and attending high society functions. Nagi words for him as his bodyguard.
- Ken realizes that he's fucked up and voluntarily goes to prison. He mopes for awhile, but when he gets attacked by other inmates, he decides that his new life goal will be to teach those inmates soccer.
- Youji did survive the exploding building, but wakes up in a hospital without his memories. He falls in love with his nurse (whose name is Asuka), and eventually marries her, and becomes a model husband.
- Aya has moved to America, and seems to be donating lots of money to nuns. As he's wandering the streets one winter evening, a little boy runs into him and stabs him. Aya continues walking while bleeding steadily, and eventually crumbles into a little heap. Credits roll over his (dead?) body.
[ok, ok, we know he's not dead, because there's a new manga - Weiß Side B - which is set after Glühen and where Aya is alive]
A note on Crashers:
I just mentioned Crashers above, and they (very seldomly, but still) sometimes show up in fanfiction. All I know about Crashers is from Aya no Weiß Kreuz Corner's Crashers page. (links don't work if you click on them, the only relevant one should be this one).
Nutshell: They're another team that works for Kritiker, but use non-lethal force. Aya used to be a member, codenamed Rook. Other members are Knight, Bishop and Pawn, and they referred to Persia as King, and one of Persia's secretaries as Queen.
Weiß Music Videos
I also found online versions of the official Weiß Kreuz Music Videos (they're RealMedia files). 'Last In My Winds' and 'Other Side Of The Moon' just feature various shots of Weiß running around (or just standing around). 'Carnival 2000' features flashbacks to the Weiß members various traumas, and then has each of them fighting their Schwarz counterparts - with various results. 'Tokyo Sling is the most interesting of the bunch, with Schuldig playing mind-games with Aya.
Alternatively, this site has screencaps of the videos.
Places to find Weiß Kreuz fiction:
Most of the big archives that I remember from around 2001 are gone now, and most of the mailing lists are dead. These are the main places I still check:
YahooGroups:
YoujixAya
The only Y!G that I know of that is still quite active.
wkff
used to be one of the main fiction lists, but mostly dead now.
SchwarzML
used to be the main Schwarz-focussed list, also mostly dead now.
LiveJournal:
There is a Guide to Weiss Kreuz fandom on LiveJournal posted atnewbieguide that pretty much lists all relevant communities.
Also, try the LJs of the authors I recommended, most of them have other WK authors friended.
Fandom:
The most common m/m pairing is Aya/Youji, with a sizeable alternative of Aya/Ken. Other intra-Weiß pairings all exist, but make up a significantly smaller part of fandom than these 2 main camps. Stories that focus on Weiß only often ignore Schwarz completely (or use a setting that precludes the usage of Schwarz), or alternatively will feature Schwarz as genuine bad guys.
I'm personally more interested in stories that feature Schwarz as characters, either alone or teamed with (or even paired with) Weiß. The most common inter-Schwarz pairing is Crawford/Schuldig, followed by Schuldig/Farfarello. Once you mix the teams, there's usually Schuldig/Youji or Schuldig/Aya, and some Crawford/Aya. Mind you, all other possible alternatives exist, they're just harder to find (especially if you want high quality ones).
Nagi usually gets paired off with Omi, which isn't a combination that really works for me, but is extremely common as a background couple.
Weiß Kreuz het ... exists. I've occasionally seen a Mary Sue, and I've occasionally seen stories that pair one or more of the guys with an OFC, or even Manx or Aya-chan. Birman/Manx femmeslash may or may not exist - I've never looked. Given that WK is focussed nearly exclusively on males, it's not a surprise that most of the fanfiction is of the m/m variety.
I'm going to try and recommend a wide mix of pairings, but if I have a choice between a mediocre story for a rarer pairing or a good story for a common pairing, I'll go with quality.
Additional recommendations:
These are stories I had considered for my recs, but didn't use (either because they're unfinished, or because I aleady has recommended the pairing in questions):
Kuwabara no Miko
Lots of Aya/Youji, but also other pairings. Also has an UkeYouji page with nice stories by other authors.
Natalie Baan
nice Omi/Aya ('SwordDance') and Youji/Ken ('Youji's Omelette')
Utopian Trunks
sometimes funny, sometimes dark, but always hot.
Sidara
I don't necessarily agree with her characterizations, but she's written some very long Crawford/Schuldig and Aya/Ken stories.
Nekojita
Nekojita's earlier stories have a lot of technical problems, but you can also see that she's been improving steadily over the last few years. I'm especially fond of 'The Other Side', a story were most of Weiß also have paranormal powers, and end up getting trained by Schwarz.
Talya Firedancer
'To Bury the Hurt of Memory' is the first WK fic I ever read (trust me to get one of *those), the 'Subway Arc' is a rather interesting PWP series, and 'Dragon Tears' is the first ever Schuldig/Youji story.
Sionnachdhubh
'The Color of Joy' is a very long story dealing with Schwarz after the end of the WK anime. Sadly unfinished, it's got several very interesting ideas, and pretty good writing. Hasn't been updated in at least a year, but what exists is long and very good.
Yuri - Heir Apparent
Crossover with X, Seishirou/Youji. Part 1 is non-con (and one of the very very few non-con scenes I actually liked). Will make no sense if you don't know X (or at least know the story behind Seishirou and Subaru), but if you do, it's quite an interesting crossover.
Kouri and Karasu
I like 'With Friends like These' (because I generally like stories that mix Schwarz and Weiß). Sadly still WiP, I'm not sure if it's going to ge updated again - but the 26 existing parts are quite a good read.
Bonne & Nixerchan
'Breakdown' is another 'Weiß ends up having paranormal powers' story. Again, unfinished, but long and nice so far.
Sabrina (near the bottom of the page)
'Velocity over Time' is a great read.
Chalcedony Cross
Not really the kinds of stories I usually go for, but written well enough that I read them anyway.
Miko no da
I like the 'Sinners & Saints' arc, but only if I don't think too clearly about the BDSM she presents. Read it as pure fantasy kink fic.
Scarlet Fever
has written Schwarz-centric fic, some of which is long. I'm not sure the characterizations all work for me, but give it a try. Warning: really bad webpage layout.
Wiggle
has an arc of Weiß-centric stories that I enjoyed.
Jacque Koh
Not usually my cup of tea, but I like 'My Kitten and Me', the first Farfarello/Aya story I ever read.
Tritorella
Her stories are only available as .zip archives. The Anime file includes 'Zerbrochen' and 'Geheilt', her huge post-anime series featuring Weiß and Schuldig. I loved 'Zerbrochen', but if I had a printout of 'Geheilt', I would have thrown it across the room in frustration, jumped on it, and then given it to my cats to shred to little pieces. If you know Gravitation, her WK/Gravi crossover is a good read.
Also, check out theseship_manifesto posts, they all have links/recommendations as well:
Schuldig/Youji
Crawford/Schuldig
Crawford/Ran
Ran/Ken
Schuldig/Sakura
***
ok, that's it - I hope I've made at least some of you curious. I'll start recommending stories tomorrow.
Forgive any mistakes the spell checker missed, I'll fix them when I look this over again tomorrow, after some sleep (it's 3 am here).
Most images found via the Google image search
Before those of you that are not fond of anime run away screaming, let me reassure you that WK is one of these fandoms where you can easily read the fanfiction without watching the source material. The setting is (mostly) realistic and is present-day Japan.
The main attraction, especially for slash fans:
8 guys, all young and (mostly) good-looking, with (mostly) tortured pasts. They are divided into two groups - each of them assassins, but both work for very different motives that put them at odds.
Sounds like it could be interesting? Find out more behind the cut...
The main canon source for the fandom is the anime series: there are 24 episodes, which are available in the US as DVDs, under the title Knight Hunters. I've never seen the dubbed version, so I can't offer comments on it - I recommend watching it subbed, because the Japanese voice actors are very good. Not so the animation: there's a lot of still images, and even when the images move they're not exactly the greatest.
Notes:
Japanese spellings can differ, depending on what transliteration is used, I'll list the most common alternatives. Also, the series uses a number of German terms, I'll provide both translations and alternative misspellings that are common. The series title itself translates as "white cross", and Weiß can alternatively spelled Weiss, and is sometimes seen as "WeiB" to simulate the 'ß' on a non-German keyboard.
Names are listed First Name - Last Name for Western names, and Last Name - First Name for Japanese names.
Japanese uses suffixes at the end of names to express levels of politeness. -san is the equivalent of Mr./Mrs, -kun is used among friends and usually by males, and -chan is used for girls or small children (I could write a whole essay about proper usage of names and suffixes in Japanese, but this is pretty much all you need to know).
Setting:
Weiß ('White') is an assassin group that works for Kritiker ('critic'), a group that hunts down criminals that manage to evade the law. Each member of Weiß is officially dead, and they all were picked up by Kritiker after their previous lives had been destroyed. Kritiker's leader is known only as Persia and is only seen as an outline on the mission tapes they receive. These mission tapes are delivered by one of Persia's secretaries. Members of Weiß are able to decline missions, it just means that they won't get paid. During these missions, Weiß uses cat breeds as code names. Interestingly enough, each Weiß member has a signature weapon which requires that they kill their victims up close. As a cover, Weiß by day runs a flower shop in Tokyo called Koneko no Sumu Ie ('kitten in the house'), which is constantly overrun by schoolgirls who all swoon over the 4 Weiß assassins. They all have small flats in the same building as the flower shop.
The main villain for most of the series is Takatori Reiji, a politician who is working on becoming Japan's Prime Minister. His bodyguards are the assassin group Schwarz ('black', sometimes called 'Schwartz'). Takatori is also personally responsible for the tragic pasts of 2 members of Weiß.
Schwarz itself however belongs to SZ (alternatively 'SS', 'Esszet', 'Esstet'), a sinister group based in Europe that is using Takatori for their own plans. Schwarz' members also have code names, but they are used less often. Much more sensibly than Weiß, they use guns. Additionally, Schwarz has paranormal abilities that give them an extra edge over Weiß, and any other targets. We know nearly nothing about SZ, except that they seem to be connected with Rosenkreuz, an Austrian school/training camp for people with paranormal talents.
There is never any explanation for why even those characters that are supposed to be Japanese have rather unusual hair and eye colors. It's one of the things you just have to accept.
Characters:
Weiß:
Fujimiya Ran/Aya
Aya is the strong, silent type. He doesn't say much, and he comes across as rather anti-social. He often takes the lead during missions.
His real name is Ran, his parents were bankers, and he has a younger sister. On his sister's 16th birthday, he took her to a festival and bought her earrings. When they returned home, they found their parents murdered, and then the house blew up around them. Ran was caught under rubble while his sister got out - only to be hit by a car, driven by Takatori Reiji (who had used Ran's parents as scapegoats to cover up the fact that he had been embezzling money). Since then, his sister has been in a coma. Ran took her name, and vowed vengeance. He also wears one of the earrings he had bought her for her birthday. He seldomly declines a mission, as he needs the money to pay for his sister's hospital bills.
Ran's weapon is a katana (sword) and he has this tendency to jump at people from above, yelling "shi-ne!!" ('die'). His code-name is Abyssinian. He's usually always referred to as Aya, and only occasionally switches back to Ran in stories that are set after the end of the series. Note that he's usually referred to as Aya-kun, while his sister is referred to as Aya-chan. He is 20, and spends most of his free time sitting at his sister's bedside.
Occasionally, he wears an orange sweater that clashes horribly with his hair.
Kudou Youji
Youji is the oldest member of Weiß at 22. He's a total playboy, and has been known to decline missions if they don't involve pretty women. He is lazy, a heavy smoker and flirts with anything that's female and over 18. He also loves to tease the other members of Weiß (especially Omi, who he accuses of surfing the internet for porn).
He used to be a private detective together with a woman named Asuka who he also loved (it's unclear whether or not they were actually a couple or if it was one-sided). Eventually, during a mission gone bad, both were shot, Asuka died and Youji was badly wounded and taken in by Kritiker. He carries a lot of guilt over this - women are definitely Youji's weak point, and it seems all the women he loves either betray him or die on him.
Youji's weapon is a long wire that's hidden in his watch, which he uses to strangle his victims, or to disarm them. His code-name is Balinese. Alternative spellings for his name include Kudoh Yohji and Kudo Yoji.
He loves to wear outfits that leave his midriff bare.
Hidaka Ken
Ken is 19, outgoing, a bit clumsy, but a very good soccer player. He wants to believe in the best in people. At first glance, he looks like the nice boy from next door who helps old ladies across the street. And yet, he can have quite a temper, and Ken is the also one who's weapon is the most brutal: he fights with bugnuks (a glove with retractable claws).
He used to be a young J-League soccer player, together with his best friend, Kase. Then, during one game, he was drugged and framed to make it look as if he'd purposefully thrown the match because he had been gambling on it. Kase was trying to help him clear his name, and during a meeting with people who supposedly could help him was beaten and left to die in a burning warehouse. Believing Kase dead, he was picked up by Kritiker.
During the series, Kase shows up again, miraculously not dead, and the target of a Weiß mission. Ken at first tries to clear his friend, but then realizes that it was Kase who set him up because he was jealous of the more successful Ken. Eventually, after Kase tries to kill him again, Ken kills Kase himself.
Ken's codename is Siberian, and he also drives a motorbike. In his free time, he teaches kids to play soccer in a park.
Tsukiyono Omi
At 17 (but looking significantly younger), Omi may be the youngest member of Weiß, but he was also the first. Omi was kidnapped as a child, and his parents refused to pay the ransom. He was saved by Persia and brought up as a member of Kritiker. He's very nice, upbeat, willing to help. Despite the fact that he's the youngest, he also is the one who does most of the research and planning on missions - it helps that he's also good with a computer. He not only works both his day-job as a florist and his night-job as an assassin, he also manages to deal with school (keep in mind that Japanese schools are a lot more time-consuming and demanding than US schools).
Omi fights with darts or a crossbow, and his codename is Bombay.
Schwarz:
Brad Crawford
At 26, Crawford is the oldest member of Schwarz, and usually acts as their leader. Despite the fact that he's one of the characters who'd pass most easily for Japanese, he's actually American.
Crawford usually wears white suits and glasses that often reflect light off them, especially when he is doing evil. He seems to mostly provide bodyguard duty for Takatori, who treats Crawford and all of Schwarz as his lackeys. From the way Crawford refers to "Mr. Takatori", you can tell that he doesn't think much of him.
Crawford's talent is precognition, which is probably the origin of his code name, Oracle. He is also good with a gun, and at boxing.
Schuldig
Schuldig ("Guilty") is the person with the most mangled name, mostly because early fansubbers had no idea what his name meant: at first, it was transcribed as "Juhderig". Alternative spellings seem to include Schuldich, Shuldig, Schulderich and probably some other variants that I'm forgetting. He's also the reasons German Native-speakers will cringe when reading most fiction that stars him: many writers make him speak very bad fangirl German. *wince*
Schuldig's hair and bandanna look like they could come from an 80s rock band, and his green suit jacket makes it look like he's either colorblind or on crack (or both). His talent is telepathy, and he seems to be quite powerful, enough so that he sometimes has trouble separating his own thoughts from those of other people. He also seems to be extremely quick, but it's unsure if this isn't some mental trick. His code name is Mastermind, he's German, and he's 22.
Schuldig is at best amoral, and takes great joy in his job, whether this is killing people or tormenting them.
Little is known about his background, which means that writers can make up whatever they want (including long detailed stories about his childhood as a drug addict and rent-boy).
There is a really good Schuldig essay at
reflections_2 by mistressrenet which goes into great details, and which I heavily recommend (especially since I really like Schuldig, so there'll be a number of stories that feature him. Farfarello
Farfarello (alternatively Farfallo or Farferello, tho occasionally you'll see other creative variants) is Irish, about 20 years old. His looks are ... interesting: he has short white hair, one yellow-gold eye, multiple ear-piercings, multiple facial scars and an eye patch.
He's also rather insane.
During the series, we learn that his real name is Jei. He used to be a very religious child, and was living with his parents and one sister - until the day he learned that his favorite nun (named Ruth) was actually his mother. In a fit of madness, he nearly killed Ruth and did succeed in killing his whole family, and then suppressed the memory, and now believes that they were killed by a burglar. Since then, he blames God for their murder, and is working to revenge himself against God, usually be killing clergy in the most messy ways possible. How he came to join Schwarz is unknown, but he is still unstable enough that he is sometimes locked in a room in a straight-jacket.
At other times, he does however seem to function well as part of the team, especially since his special ability is an interesting *dis*ability: he can't feel pain. He's also the one member of Schwarz who does love to kill with something else than guns: he's nearly always carrying a knife, and has a tendency to lick it. Most of his scars are also self-inflicted. His codename is Berserker.
Naoe Nagi
Nagi is the youngest member of Schwarz at age 15, and is probably an orphan. He is Schwarz' only Japanese member, and may or may not have had a childhood on the streets. Nagi is telekinetic - and quite powerful, and also is the computer expert of the group. His code-name is Prodigy, and he's always wearing a traditional Japanese school uniform.
While he's usually written in fanfiction as extremely shy and really in need of love, especially if that love is provided by Omi, I've never been fond of that view and think it's just fanon that has become canon in many people's minds. If you want to read a very detailed essay on Nagi,
daegaer has written a really great one for reflections_2, which pretty much mirrors how I view Nagi. I should note that despite the fact that Schwarz are the "bad guys", they're the ones that actually function well as a team (or a dysfunctional family *g*). Weiß, on the other hand, isn't nearly so friendly with each other.
Other Characters:
Takatori family: Reiji, Masafumi, Hirofumi, Ouka
Reiji, corrupt politician with visions of grandeur. His sons, Hirofumi (the slimy one) and Masafumi (the insane one). His illegitimate daughter, Ouka, whom he surprisingly seems to genuinely love.
Schreient: Hell, Neu, Schön, Tot
(Schreient: 'to be shouting'. Hell: 'bright'. Neu: 'new'. Schön: 'beautiful'. Tot: 'dead'.)
Masafumi's little group of bodyguards/girlfriends who all adore him. Hell seems to be Masafumi's main love interest. Schön used to be a model and fights with a whip. Tot is ... simple: she always has her stuffed rabbit with her, and refers to Masafumi as 'papa'. She also fights with an *umbrella* as a weapon. More on her and Neu in the plot summary.
Persia
see plot summary for details.
Manx and Birman
Persia's "secretaries" who bring Weiß their mission briefings. Manx also seems close to Omi (err... in a maternal way).
Esszet:
the 3 leaders of Esszet.
Fujimiya Aya-chan
Ran's little sister. From what we saw of her, just a nice young girl.
Tomoe Sakura
one of the schoolgirls that fangirls Weiß - specifically, she's interested in Aya. She's supposed to look quite a lot like Aya-chan.
Plot Highlights:
The first handful of episodes mostly introduce the members of Weiß and their back stories. An incident of note is that Ken nearly runs away with a (female) love interest, but Youji talks him out of it.
Things start to get interesting once we meet Takatori's sons, Hirofumi and Masafumi. Masafumi is involved in strange DNA experiments, and Weiß is sent to hunt him down. His pet girl fighting group tries to protect him, but they are no match for Weiß, who overpower them and take care of Masafumi in a terminal way. Of note is the fact that Youji has this feeling that Neu reminds him of someone...
Immediately after that, Weiß gets a new mission that deals with Takatori's other son: Hirofumi is organizing special hunting games for high-up politicians - with human prey. Omi goes in undercover as "prey" so that Weiß can take Hirofumi down. However, when Omi and Hirofumi meet, both are shocked to find out that Hirofumi recognizes Omi as his long-lost little brother.
This causes Omi to eventually recover his memory: he is the youngest son of Takatori Reiji, and his real name is Takatori Mamoru. As if that isn't traumatic enough, he has to deal with the fact that Aya goes batshit over everything connected to the Takatoris, and now seems to hate Omi as well. This prompts Omi to do some research on Aya, and thus the rest of Weiß find out about Aya's sister.
After some severe angsting, Omi goes out and kills his brother, which makes Aya like him again.
While all of this has been going on, Omi has been getting closer to one of the schoolgirls that fangirl all of the pretty florists, a girl named Ouka. Of course, neither of them know that both are children of Takatori Reiji, and thus half-siblings. Thankfully (er... or maybe not?), by this time Schwarz has taken a special interest in Weiß, and Schuldig, accompanied by Farfarello, takes it on himself to corner them and torture them with the fact that they are related.
Unfortunately, Farfarello gets a bit over-excited and ends up shooting Ouka, who dies in Omi's arms. Ups. Especially since Takatori Reiji doesn't find this very funny and proceeds to thoroughly trash Schuldig and Farfarello with a golf club. Ouch. Also, Omi gets to angst a bit more.
Takatori now finally manages to get elected head of his party and thus Prime Minister. He immediately tells Schwarz to cause destructive mayhem while leaving clues that Weiß are behind it all, which causes Weiß to be hunted by the media and police. Weiß has to go into hiding. Before they disappear, Aya contacts Sakura, one of the schoolgirls that has a huge crush on him. He hands her the key to his save, with instructions to take care of his sister in case anything happens to him. Sakura also looks disturbingly like Aya-chan...
Takatori Reiji decides that he no longer needs Schwarz and fires them. Schwarz seems to find this amusing. He also finds out that is own brother, Takatori Shuichi, who works as the head of police, is the elusive Persia, who's behind Weiß. So Reiji has Shuichi killed - but first tells him that Omi/Mamoru is actually *Shuichi's* son, which is why Reiji had refused to pay the ransom when Omi/Mamoru was kidnapped. Shuichi/Persia takes a while to die, so Omi can show up in the nick of time to have his "uncle" die in his arms. Omi never finds out that Persia and not Reiji was his father.
Aya and Takatori battle it out on the roof of the party building, and Aya finally manages to kill Takatori.
In Switzerland, 3 very old people (ok, they're the Esszet heads) muse that now that Takatori's gone, they'll have to find another way to take power in Japan and create chaos.
Some time has passed, and Weiß has disbanded. Omi is concentrating on school, Ken is training little kids, Youji is working in the detective business again, and Aya has moved to another city and is working in construction to pay his sisters hospital bill. All seems well - until Youji is attacked, Omi's classmates are abducted by ritual murderers, Ken's soccer kids get attacked, and Aya comes to visit his sister and finds that she has been stolen from the hospital.
Eventually, Weiß reforms (with Aya being the most reluctant).
In a quick interlude, we get to meet Farfarello's mother, Ruth the nun. She buys flowers from Ken, Farfarello goes after her, Ken tries to save her, she throws herself in front of Ken, she dies (she'd been blaming herself for Farfarello's insanity, anyway). Schwarz drag Farfarello off the scene.
Schreient show up again: not only were they involved in Aya-chan's abduction, they're also working on resurrecting their precious Masafumi. Neu, the member who'd been pinging on Youji's "don't I know her?" radar, contacts him and tells him that she is actually Asuka, the woman he used to love and who died. She asked him for help, and Youji is only to happy to provide it. Of course, she ends up betraying him, and when she tries to kill him, Youji has to kill her - without ever finding out if she really was Asuka, or if she was just playing with him. He doesn't take it well, poor guy.
Somewhere in there, Sakura has really fallen in love with Aya, but Aya tells her to forget about it, he doesn't feel anything for her, and even if he did, he's not a kind of person who deserves to be loved, anyway.
We find out that Esszet are the ones behind Aya-chan's kidnapping - in the 2 years that she's been in her coma, she has not aged at all. Thus she's apparently prime material as a host body for a demon that they're trying to summon - which will make them immortal. They order Schwarz to steal Aya-chan from Schreient. At the same time, Weiß have finally tracked down Aya-chan and show up at the same time as Schwarz does, leading to big battle amongst everyone.
In the end, Weiß escape, but without Aya-chan. Schreient is killed, with the exception of Tot - it seems that Nagi and Tot had gotten close (for some unexplained reason...). Schwarz take Aya-chan's body to Esszet, and they start preparing for the resurrection/possession ritual. Not only that, they also decide to kidnap *Sakura* - possibly for their own amusement, as Schuldig first mentally influences Sakura to make her shoot Aya. Luckily Sakura is a very bad shot and misses.
That might not have been such a good move, because Sakura decides to take Aya-chan's place and hides Aya's sister in a place where Weiß can find her. Yay for Aya for getting his sister back. He doesn't have long to enjoy it, tho - Schwarz promptly steal her back again.
In a last effort to get Aya's sister back, Weiß attacks Esszet as the ritual starts. They get their asses kicked by the Esszet leaders - until it turns out that Schwarz has given Esszet the wrong girl: Schwarz wanted Esszet to fail all along. Weiß kill 2 of the Esszet elders, Schwarz take care of the 3rd.
For some reason, Birman shows up just in time to take Sakura and Aya-chan's body to safety, while Schwarz and Weiß start to battle it out. Eventually, the whole structure they were in (which was located on an island) starts to crumble and dissolves into the sea. As the whole island disappears, Aya-chan wakes from her coma.
Roll end credits.
Yup, there's no clear resolution to the Schwarz/Weiß fight. All we see are disjointed images as the credits roll: Aya-chan now working in the flower shop, Sakura visiting her, Tot sitting in a bed of flowers somewhere, and some night scenes of Weiß hunting criminals.
Other canon sources:
While the anime is the most popular and essential canon source for the fandom, there is also a manga, an OAV, a 2nd anime series, and some novels and Drama CDs. Also, the seiyuu (Japanese voice actors) of Weiß used to form a J-Rock (J-Pop? I can't tell) band, and the appearances of the Weiß characters are actually based on them. For a complete listing of additionally available sources and their history, check this link.
It's not necessary to know any of them to be able to enjoy about 98% percent of all WK fanfiction. If you are curious, this site has translations of the Drama CDs (it used to also have scanlations of the manga, but they seem to be gone). The main difference between the manga and the anime is that in the manga, Schuldig is there when Aya's parents are killed (he also gives Aya a little mindfuck).
Some character designs are different in the manga, here are group images of Manga!Weiß and Manga!Schwarz:
Just for shit and giggles, here's are the seiyuu, in their Weiß phase:
Glühen Anime
This 2nd anime series with 13 episodes was released recently (2002, IIRC). Due to legal problems, the character designs had to be completely re-done, leading to several screaming fits among fans:
Additionally, Glühen introduces 2 new members of Weiß, and one new secretary that brings them their missions:
Izumi Sena:
16, fights with a Chakram (stop laughing). He fights because one day, his mother went nuts shot his father and his sister (and him, but he survived). He also manages to have a little bit of chemistry with both Aya and Ken.
Aguri Kyou
err. He's in the series. He doesn't live long. He fights with a ... tomahawk... (*stop laughing!*). From what I recall, he had a brother who went to Koua Academy and mysteriously killed himself, which made Kyou join Weiß.
Rex:
Weiß is now lead by a new Persia: Omi, who's switched back to using his real name, Takatori Mamoru. He lives with his grandfather, the original founder of Kritiker, and doesn't have much close contact with the rest of Weiß anymore.
Weiß is investigating Koua Academy, whose pupils seem to have a distrubing tendency to turn into terrorrists (or to commit suicide). To that effect, Aya and Sena are on an undercover mission: Sena as a new student, and Aya as a history teacher (*boggle*) with a long braid down to his ass and glasses (and also a personality). Aya also gets a little romance from another teacher, but of course she doesn't survive the series.
Meanwhile, Ken and Youji are in Europe, fighting against parts of Esszet there. Ken has pretty much turned into a violent sociopath who enjoys killing, and Youji looks like a strung-out male hooker. He also has some problems with intimacy: during sex, he tends to try and strangle his partners. He also sees visions of Asuka's ghost. Both later return to Japan, and Youji joins Aya as an undercover agent, as the arts teacher. He falls for another teacher, Tuji-sensei. Unfortunately for him, she turns out to be evil, and in the end he has to kill her (after nearly giving in to her offer to erase his memories so he'd no longer have to angst so much).
They eventually discover that the school's elite S-Class is pretty much a brainwashing program, and that they're producing clones. We find out that the academy is affiliated with Rosenkreuz, who in turn are affiliated with Esszet. Somehow. There are also lots of references to Epitath, the person/thing/whatever behind much of the going ons.
For the big show-down, it looks as if Weiß are rather outnumbered by lots of clones - however, in the nick of time, Nagi, Schuldig and Crawford show up and help them fight. No, we don't have a clue why they do this. Schwarz pairs off with 3 strange new paranormal talents (who apparently are cloned from them?): Geissel, Berger and Leila. They win their fights, and that's the last we see of Schuldig and Crawford.
Weiß meanwhile manages to uncover the big details: Epitath turns out to be a supercomputer. Or a computer program. Or something. And it has been using Sena's mother as some kind of vessel, and makes her shoot Sena again. This time, Sena dies for real. This seems to rouse Sena's mother enough that she manages to ask Aya to kill her, which he does. In the end, Weiß has to hurry out of the building, as one of the other Kritiker groups (Crashers) has shown up and is starting to blow up the building. Youji is hurt badly enough that he can't make it out, telling the others to go on, he'll follow them later. They do, and make it out, then the building goes *boom*. And that ends the first 12 episodes.
The series wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for episode 13, in which we learn the eventual fate of the characters:
- Omi stays Takatori Mamori and Persia, planning a new Weiß and attending high society functions. Nagi words for him as his bodyguard.
- Ken realizes that he's fucked up and voluntarily goes to prison. He mopes for awhile, but when he gets attacked by other inmates, he decides that his new life goal will be to teach those inmates soccer.
- Youji did survive the exploding building, but wakes up in a hospital without his memories. He falls in love with his nurse (whose name is Asuka), and eventually marries her, and becomes a model husband.
- Aya has moved to America, and seems to be donating lots of money to nuns. As he's wandering the streets one winter evening, a little boy runs into him and stabs him. Aya continues walking while bleeding steadily, and eventually crumbles into a little heap. Credits roll over his (dead?) body.
[ok, ok, we know he's not dead, because there's a new manga - Weiß Side B - which is set after Glühen and where Aya is alive]
A note on Crashers:
I just mentioned Crashers above, and they (very seldomly, but still) sometimes show up in fanfiction. All I know about Crashers is from Aya no Weiß Kreuz Corner's Crashers page. (links don't work if you click on them, the only relevant one should be this one).
Nutshell: They're another team that works for Kritiker, but use non-lethal force. Aya used to be a member, codenamed Rook. Other members are Knight, Bishop and Pawn, and they referred to Persia as King, and one of Persia's secretaries as Queen.
Weiß Music Videos
I also found online versions of the official Weiß Kreuz Music Videos (they're RealMedia files). 'Last In My Winds' and 'Other Side Of The Moon' just feature various shots of Weiß running around (or just standing around). 'Carnival 2000' features flashbacks to the Weiß members various traumas, and then has each of them fighting their Schwarz counterparts - with various results. 'Tokyo Sling is the most interesting of the bunch, with Schuldig playing mind-games with Aya.
Alternatively, this site has screencaps of the videos.
Places to find Weiß Kreuz fiction:
Most of the big archives that I remember from around 2001 are gone now, and most of the mailing lists are dead. These are the main places I still check:
YahooGroups:
YoujixAya
The only Y!G that I know of that is still quite active.
wkff
used to be one of the main fiction lists, but mostly dead now.
SchwarzML
used to be the main Schwarz-focussed list, also mostly dead now.
LiveJournal:
There is a Guide to Weiss Kreuz fandom on LiveJournal posted at
newbieguide that pretty much lists all relevant communities. Also, try the LJs of the authors I recommended, most of them have other WK authors friended.
Fandom:
The most common m/m pairing is Aya/Youji, with a sizeable alternative of Aya/Ken. Other intra-Weiß pairings all exist, but make up a significantly smaller part of fandom than these 2 main camps. Stories that focus on Weiß only often ignore Schwarz completely (or use a setting that precludes the usage of Schwarz), or alternatively will feature Schwarz as genuine bad guys.
I'm personally more interested in stories that feature Schwarz as characters, either alone or teamed with (or even paired with) Weiß. The most common inter-Schwarz pairing is Crawford/Schuldig, followed by Schuldig/Farfarello. Once you mix the teams, there's usually Schuldig/Youji or Schuldig/Aya, and some Crawford/Aya. Mind you, all other possible alternatives exist, they're just harder to find (especially if you want high quality ones).
Nagi usually gets paired off with Omi, which isn't a combination that really works for me, but is extremely common as a background couple.
Weiß Kreuz het ... exists. I've occasionally seen a Mary Sue, and I've occasionally seen stories that pair one or more of the guys with an OFC, or even Manx or Aya-chan. Birman/Manx femmeslash may or may not exist - I've never looked. Given that WK is focussed nearly exclusively on males, it's not a surprise that most of the fanfiction is of the m/m variety.
I'm going to try and recommend a wide mix of pairings, but if I have a choice between a mediocre story for a rarer pairing or a good story for a common pairing, I'll go with quality.
Additional recommendations:
These are stories I had considered for my recs, but didn't use (either because they're unfinished, or because I aleady has recommended the pairing in questions):
Kuwabara no Miko
Lots of Aya/Youji, but also other pairings. Also has an UkeYouji page with nice stories by other authors.
Natalie Baan
nice Omi/Aya ('SwordDance') and Youji/Ken ('Youji's Omelette')
Utopian Trunks
sometimes funny, sometimes dark, but always hot.
Sidara
I don't necessarily agree with her characterizations, but she's written some very long Crawford/Schuldig and Aya/Ken stories.
Nekojita
Nekojita's earlier stories have a lot of technical problems, but you can also see that she's been improving steadily over the last few years. I'm especially fond of 'The Other Side', a story were most of Weiß also have paranormal powers, and end up getting trained by Schwarz.
Talya Firedancer
'To Bury the Hurt of Memory' is the first WK fic I ever read (trust me to get one of *those), the 'Subway Arc' is a rather interesting PWP series, and 'Dragon Tears' is the first ever Schuldig/Youji story.
Sionnachdhubh
'The Color of Joy' is a very long story dealing with Schwarz after the end of the WK anime. Sadly unfinished, it's got several very interesting ideas, and pretty good writing. Hasn't been updated in at least a year, but what exists is long and very good.
Yuri - Heir Apparent
Crossover with X, Seishirou/Youji. Part 1 is non-con (and one of the very very few non-con scenes I actually liked). Will make no sense if you don't know X (or at least know the story behind Seishirou and Subaru), but if you do, it's quite an interesting crossover.
Kouri and Karasu
I like 'With Friends like These' (because I generally like stories that mix Schwarz and Weiß). Sadly still WiP, I'm not sure if it's going to ge updated again - but the 26 existing parts are quite a good read.
Bonne & Nixerchan
'Breakdown' is another 'Weiß ends up having paranormal powers' story. Again, unfinished, but long and nice so far.
Sabrina (near the bottom of the page)
'Velocity over Time' is a great read.
Chalcedony Cross
Not really the kinds of stories I usually go for, but written well enough that I read them anyway.
Miko no da
I like the 'Sinners & Saints' arc, but only if I don't think too clearly about the BDSM she presents. Read it as pure fantasy kink fic.
Scarlet Fever
has written Schwarz-centric fic, some of which is long. I'm not sure the characterizations all work for me, but give it a try. Warning: really bad webpage layout.
Wiggle
has an arc of Weiß-centric stories that I enjoyed.
Jacque Koh
Not usually my cup of tea, but I like 'My Kitten and Me', the first Farfarello/Aya story I ever read.
Tritorella
Her stories are only available as .zip archives. The Anime file includes 'Zerbrochen' and 'Geheilt', her huge post-anime series featuring Weiß and Schuldig. I loved 'Zerbrochen', but if I had a printout of 'Geheilt', I would have thrown it across the room in frustration, jumped on it, and then given it to my cats to shred to little pieces. If you know Gravitation, her WK/Gravi crossover is a good read.
Also, check out these
ship_manifesto posts, they all have links/recommendations as well: Schuldig/Youji
Crawford/Schuldig
Crawford/Ran
Ran/Ken
Schuldig/Sakura
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ok, that's it - I hope I've made at least some of you curious. I'll start recommending stories tomorrow.
Forgive any mistakes the spell checker missed, I'll fix them when I look this over again tomorrow, after some sleep (it's 3 am here).
Most images found via the Google image search
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I'm always up for discussing recs, tho. *g*
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*hangs around in search of fresh reading material*
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(but you're on my list of what I'll rec. If I can just find that Schuldig/Omi/Youji story online... do you have a link for me?)
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*now has stage-fright*
Where do you want the body shipped?
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say... that whole series was never finished, was it?
(not to mention that Wufei/Duo story... or rather, the sequel. I really liked that as well, way back when...)
*blink* body?
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I'm working on them, believe it or not....
As it is, Three Hour Tour, With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies, Let the Punishment fit the Crime and Glutton are all finished.
A Twisted Game and Three Sheets to the Wind are unfinished.
Body = Link. Do you want it mailed somewhere?
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> body = link
d'oh.
ari @ lj.com will reach me (it's in my userinfo)
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(Anonymous) 2005-02-05 06:13 am (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2005-02-05 06:14 am (UTC)(link)no subject
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Ah, man, I love this anime, but logical and sensible, it ain't. :-) It gets its strength from the archetypes, certainly not from the writing or the beauty of its animation. I'm looking forward to seeing what you rec for this fandom; I've not read in it for a while, now. Aya was always my favorite of Weiss; I have a weakness for red-headed swordsmen. You might guess that I also quite like Shuldig, though he's no swordsman. They make a very interesting pairing in stories.
You've done a really lovely breakdown of the entire anime here. Thank you!
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(I still dread writing the Glühen summary - but mostly because I just can't take Glühen seriously *g*)
I hope you'll like the recs.
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The seiyuu... are scary. *g* There's a whole fandom for J-Rock/J-Pop that I know very little about, since I'm very much not into that kind of music, but I do know that when these bands play, they usually deliver a *lot* of fanservice for their RPS-minded fans. They'll openly hint that they're having sex, and there one memorable music-video where one singer pretends to go down on another one.
The Weiß group certainly is a big reason there's so many WK doujinshi (fan-comics) available in Japan, with the boys all screwing each other silly.
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One thing I've just noticed is missing from your overview that we like to have is a list, at the bottom, of archives of LJ communities that someone could check for more fic/info. If you have any such references, could you throw them up when you have a chance?
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I'm glad you like (whew! trying to coherently retell WK was harder than I thought *g*).
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I know, WK seems fairly straightforward at first, compared to other anime with truly complex plots, and then you start narrating and it becomes suddenly full of labyrinthine complications.
Loved the little snark over fangirl!German. It's a constant source of amusement and despair. Everyone uses the Sie form, even in bed. And there are Umlauts over every single vowel sometimes.
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And then there's the whole "ie" vs "ei" thing - because 'Leibchen' is a t-shirt, and 'Leib' is a word that translates as 'body'.
I have a word macro that replaces some of the most common misspellings, that sometimes saves my sanity.
(one of these days, I need to write one for fangirl Japanese)
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I love the crazy-ness of WK, you can do so many things with the story we've been given.
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(is there a story behind the icon?)
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If you're a sucker for a well-written Farfarello, P-Z's hunted down quite a lot and has them linked in her excellent essay over at
(Yep, it's entirely possible that I've been reading too much WK stuff since last weekend.)
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Too much parody and mishandling has made me shy violently away from most things written on him.
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And she's German, so at least I don't have to deal with the blood-pressure rise that I get from the bad fangirl German...
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Must check out that author. Thanks!
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But I was speaking about WK parody, really. It wasn't till someone practically forced me to read a Farfarello-centric fic that treated him like, well, a deadly, insane, professional killer that I wouldn't flee screaming the moment I saw his name listed.
... fanon is a frightening thing.
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Have you read the The Florist That Don't Do Anything (http://www.bishink.org/bishink/wk/florists.htm)?
Yeah, I saw that essay - I've generally been madly in love with most of the WK essays that were posted to Ship_Manifesto and Reflection_2.
(are you planning on trying more anime? because I'll gladly rec you some of the slashy stuff)
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(tho I can think of at least 2 other bad but extremely slashy series... hell, Saiyuki is a lot *more* slashy than WK...)
Still, doesn't keep me from trying to pimp lots of people into it (anime fandoms generally could really use an influx of good writers).
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Just one thing: perhaps you could give a brief pronunciation guide for non-German speakers? Like, an umlaut over a vowel makes it long, and 'w' is pronounced 'v' and so on. Because it's horrible to find out you've been pronouncing something wrong after a number of months when you're talking to someone.
Just a thought.
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hm. The problem is, I'd have to try and write out all the terms phonetically, and I'm afraid that I'd potentially mess up with the the English phonetics.
And then I should probably do it for all the Japanese terms, too, because English-speakers will usually pronounce Japanese wrong
Also, should I give the proper German pronounciation, the slightly-slurred German pronoiunciation that everyone uses when talking, or try to emulate the wrong pronounciation that is used in the anime?
(btw: an umlaut doesn't mean that the vowel is long, it means that the vowel is pronounced as a different kind of novel)
Hm.
I could try and see if I can find my microphone and make audio recordings... if you want, I can make you recordings all the terms that interest you, German and Japanese (with the proviso that while I took 2 years of Japanese, I don't speak it very well. I will probably get the pronounciation mostly right)
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(I acutally have an email from the author, who's noticed me linking to it and asked me to explain...)
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*weeps*
And.. thanks for the recs.
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The story links you provided have brought back some very fond memories of fics I've read. Thank you for taking the time to post this. I know it was posted a long time ago, but I've just discovered the crack van community. XD