Another batch for the CAST! Are you all ready?! Are you hyped?! Alright, fine, let’s do this.

Rainy Romance

A Nerdy Perspective (I’ll call him ANP here) gives us Rain, Mountain and Romance. This story is about two dudes, and it has good intentions but the execution reads a bit rough. Again, you can tell someone that isn’t used to writing stories and ANP is one of them. He hurries his pace to get to the meat of his story, he transitions them awkwardly and the entire thing just reads like a fun fan fic novel. I mean that in a good way, since you can tell ANP was having a fun time writing this story. The story of a guy writing something in a log cabin turns into a story about two dudes playing Nintendo switch, and it was pretty wild. It is rough in how the characters are handled, because I kinda feared for Zack’s life when Matt came knocking with a bag containing a switch in it. That is just not normal, but this is just a thing that happens when you have trouble transferring thoughts to paper. A few more write ups and I’m sure ANP can make a more polished dude romance for sure. Again, I’m no expert since I’m pretty sure I write more awkward stuff with the given romance option. I like how a lot people use it though since they’ve seen enough romance to have a go at it.

I do think ANP writes vulnerably often dropping some hints of his own personal self in the story. The line about meeting someone genuine and Matt coming off as THE perfect guy is ANP’s clumsy self just spilling onto the prose, and that’s cute. I admire writers that do that, since readers can connect to that. This story reads rough though, so I’m giving it three stars. This gets a solid A for effort though, since I admire people that try stuff out of their comfort zone. I really enjoy ANP’s travel posts and they just turned two so say hi!

I was supposed to review Karandi’s Fall + Mountain + Romance/Comedy/Tragedy next. The multiple genres just scream fun, but Karandi has deleted their work. Their blog didn’t get blipped, but they deleted their post and that’s fine. As we all know, we are our worst critic and I think Karandi wasn’t satisfied with their story, and soon deemed it unworthy. It’s normal, especially when your creative juices are flowing and you re-read you old reviews only to grimace at how bad they are. I’ve done that.

So Much Rain

Arsene Lucifer (who I’ll call AL here) apparently hijacked the tag and didn’t wait for anyone to tag them. They then gave us Rain + School + Romance. This is also apparently inspired by a song, so I had to listen to that as well. Thank you for that song, since I’m admittedly not a big music connoisseur so I love listening to random recommendations. Leap knows it, since I randomly listen to polkadot stingray thanks to him. Anyways, this story is definitely inspired by something but it also stands out for its maturity. A lot of people have used the romance option now, and you have a good idea of how romance plays a part in their life. I’m trying not to sound like an assh*le here, but I’ll just say AL’s idea of romance is mature. I guess, experienced is the word here. This is the first time I’m truly convinced someone has experience some sort of romance and this translates in their writing. Or maybe AL just listens to a lot effective songs, but you can argue that a shoujo fan can pull off the same thing as well. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to be fooled. Anyways, AL’s story is really great. It’s the inside thoughts of a guy going through grief as he flashes through the big moments of his romantic life. It starts with a rainy day at school that ends in a 20 thousand descent.

I guess “emo” is the biggest vibe I’m getting from AL’s story. I do like the character whose basically battling his own mind as rain serves as a backdrop and a good use of framing device for his misery. I love the pacing and I also love how we know the other character well enough to understand their role in the story, but also well enough to know them on a personal level. AL effectively established these characters using the thousand word limit. That’s the best thing I like about this story.

I’m giving it five stars. AL is a reviewer like me, but he branches to movie reviews too. He tackles both foreign and mainstream, so there’s a good mix in his site. Give it a visit.

Music + School + Comedy

Yomu here uses the music option. I think he’s the first one to do it, so that gets him a star. He also chose the comedy option so that was brave of him. I will knock points off since there isn’t really any music in this story. There is dancing though, but that’s cheating. Anyways, this story is pretty fun. Considering comedy is subjective, I think Yomu did it justice by using different kinds of humor. Nonsensical ones are common here, but there are also self-deprecating ones and running gags. You’ll laugh at something for sure. The “falling down the stairs” bit got me. The story reads like an LN though, and this time it has references like an actual light novel. I’m not sure if it will alienate readers, but I think the references are common enough that the ani-blogging scene will get it. They are the intended audience after all.

The climax is ridiculous and the pacing is just nonstop insanity. You kinda have a good grasp of the story after the first paragraph, and I do legitimately wonder if Alice-chan was woo-ed by the dancing. This story gets five stars. Yomu is an episodic blogger, and those kinds of posts are hard, so give him so love and visit his site.

Rain + Street + Romance

I didn’t even know our community had a miipai in it, but she gave us this story that she admits was inspired by a roleplay she did. Yeah, this story is something else. Now again, it’s hard to create stories and it’s even harder to express yourself properly in writing. I mentioned above that AL conveys romance as if he lived it and it’s easy to spot. MP here is a good example of the opposite. Their idea of romance seems to be from whatever they read and whatever they roleplay, and that’s perfectly fine. This is the fun thing about the romance tag, I just realize: the stories you write will expose you. MP’s story is beyond awkward though. It’s beyond fan fic level of writing, because I just don’t understand it. It lacks context and the entire thing is just so rough. It starts off with two people apparently in love and then there’s a curse that leads to a phone call that leads to Edward(?). It apparently ends with the character explaining to another character to wait for Edward, and it ends there. Coupled by the strange pacing, lack of characters and lack of context, this story is just really fascinatingly bizarre. I’ll give MP credit for her efforts, but man, this was just a fun read for all the wrong reasons.

Now again, I’m sorry for sounding harsh. This is just my honest feedback of your works. You are free to disagree with it. Miipai has gone silent since January, but maybe you can get her to return if we up her blog’s traffic so go visit her blog.

Rain + School + Comedy/Slice of Life

What is up with all this rain? It’s fascinating how a lot of people gravitate towards Romance and Rain. This one is brought to us by Will about a guy exploring his campus. Admittedly, Will did point out that some of the setting was inspired by her own experiences in college and the “I’m here for the air con” line rings true. The story is fairly normal. I like the pacing and I like the way she composed it. I do think it’s a missed opportunity for the guy to not mention the coffee shop while he was exploring the campus before he uttered it at the end. It’s a good chance for set up and payoff. Anyways, the story was decent enough until a girl hugged him out of nowhere. It made me laugh, because it’s just so innocently dumb. At a stab at slice of life, I do think this is a good attempt. Maybe more emphasis would’ve been given to the campus, but this certainly is a more polished story than most of the offerings. It’s still rough, but coherent enough to work.

I’ll give this story four stars. Ok, I’m mean but “alot” is not a word. Me and Will faces the same language barrier, so this should be pointed out early on. It’s “a lot” not “alot”. Will writes anime but also a lot of K Pop, so if you’re into it as massively as she is then go say Hi. She migrated to her own site, so click here.

You can read the entire collection of stories in Keiko’s blog here: https://keikosanimeblog.wordpress.com/create-a-story/

Til the next batch!