Like 2003, I saved a double-digit amount of stories, so please be patient as I sift through them on my second readings. I will also be doing an Honorable Mentions section again, mainly because this was a rather lackluster year for innovations, but there are some solid stories that still deserve recognition.

BSMFN Choices

1. FIVE MINUTE RIDE by flighty.thistledown
Motoki and Ami have a chance meeting on a bus. Each learns some things about the other. Not plot-heavy, but a nice character study through Motoki's eyes. Check out the rest of her Sailor Moon fanfics; I think I'd read each one for previous BSMFN installations, but they hadn't quite done something different enough to get a mention here.

2. THE JACKET'S ON THE HOOK by Annikaya
Prizma finds someone has been in her room and moved Sapphire's jacket.

3. DREAM GIRL by Venus Smurf
Reincarnation can only take you so far. Mina, Malachite, and the weariness of learning to trust again.

4. CHANGE by apsara
Rei and Jadeite say screw the trusting, go straight to the sado-masochism. A dark (AU) first season, evil!Jadeite pairing fic.

5. REBIRTH AND RENEWAL by aviatrix8
This is another fic that may have been posted earlier (2000 to be precise) but didn't hit ff.net until 2004. The Akayashi Sisters are visited by someone from their past -- perhaps the last person they ever expected to see again. It is a missing moment from the Super Famicon game "Another Story," so I feel it's notable for the somewhat obscure source and, of course, for featuring the quirky miniboss squad.

6. FROM PREDATORS TO PREY by Blue Jeans
Blue Jeans is at is again, this time with an intense two part vignette featuring Ann and Ail. She was able to tap into the weird brother/sister/lover/just plain confused teenager vibe those two have going on and play off their jealousy over Usagi and Mamoru without it seeming as juvenile as it did through most of the story arc.

7. THE OVERTURE by Paparini/Cookirini
This story stuck in my memory from long ago. It's one of the earliest fanfics from the PGSM continuity; almost all of them seem to focus on Darkury, and this one's no exception. Ami is trying to readjust after her brush with the dark, only to find herself a pawn of the Dark Kingdom again. This fic is strongly reminiscent of reading a transcript of the PGSM show (including the opening and credit songs) so it may not be the sort of thing everyone would like.

8. RETURN TO THE PAST by Mangaka-chan
Chibiusa returns to the past after the Stars season and finds herself beset with doubts and insecurities in her sleep. The weaving together of the multiple characters, old and new, is perhaps the highlight of this fic. The balance between the drama and action helps tremendously to make this a solid effort. The only downside are some typos that made it through revision.

Honorable Mentions

1. DEATH IS BUT A TRIP by Dark-Kingdoms
In the Dark Kingdom subset, it's pretty common to have Zoisite and Kunzite met up again after death, but this fic did it a bit differently. If you've read "The Wish" in the main archive by Ken Wolfe, you've already met Death of the Endless. Now consider for a moment how Delirium and Desire would factor in. This is...surprisingly touching. I mostly blame Delirium. (Take note that this story is a bit rough in spots; English is not the author's first language.)

2. WATCHING by SMoonEmpress
Not really new ground, here, with a Pluto and unrequited King Endymion story. What caught my eye was the melancholy narrative style. It manages to capture Setsuna's feelings of perpetually being an outside observer, even when she's surrounded by friends.

3. A STUDY OF VENUS: SILVER MILLENNIUM by Iryl
This is perhaps the classic Minako and Kunzite fic of this period and I would be remiss to omit it entirely. Unfortunately, it suffers from Cheap Romance Book Syndrome, in that perfectly good characters start acting like zombies to create unnecessary, flimsy melodrama to pad out the middle of the story. I'd recommend about the first nine chapters before this veers off into the stock romance book you've read a thousand times before.

Tags: bsmfn, should have beens
Current Mood: complacent