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cimorenei've spent all of today when i wasn't doing errands being enchanted, entertained, doubled over in laughter, and knocked breathless and starry-eyed by this completely, insanely brilliant noir au in which hikaru is a private eye and touya meijin is the biggest mob boss imaginable (you have to scroll down approximately halfway to the "sam shindou, private five!" section).
i'm not sure what it is about aus that makes me love them so much, but when an au is truly wonderful, it's one of the best kinds of wonderful there is. of course, if you can manage a successful noir voice (and this writer's is fabulous) you've already won half the battle, because just the narration will already be hilarious, and that's possibly enough to salvage any problems in characterisation. but while the connection between the noir caricatures of all the principal characters and their canon characterisations may not be immediately obvious, there's a strong backbone of powerfully insightful and thoroughly right characterisation in all of the big ones: gumshoe hikaru, femme fatale-mafia heir akira, crooked cop kaga, crazy bodyguard waya, mob boss touya meijin. it's not without rough patches, but just keeping up that much crack through so much length (and scope, and detail) as well as she did is impressive.
i'm not sure what it is about aus that makes me love them so much, but when an au is truly wonderful, it's one of the best kinds of wonderful there is. of course, if you can manage a successful noir voice (and this writer's is fabulous) you've already won half the battle, because just the narration will already be hilarious, and that's possibly enough to salvage any problems in characterisation. but while the connection between the noir caricatures of all the principal characters and their canon characterisations may not be immediately obvious, there's a strong backbone of powerfully insightful and thoroughly right characterisation in all of the big ones: gumshoe hikaru, femme fatale-mafia heir akira, crooked cop kaga, crazy bodyguard waya, mob boss touya meijin. it's not without rough patches, but just keeping up that much crack through so much length (and scope, and detail) as well as she did is impressive.
