Made to Break [Kara no Kyoukai] [lemon]

[Snow]

Niche That Should've Stayed Niche

[Prix with a Silent X]

Monogatari is a hentai series.

Type Moon is about as deep into serial hentai as I wanna get, I think. Too scarred. I mean I guess it's probably better than American plot-line porn, but what do I know?

I've had a few days of phoneposting and am a people failing scatterbrain lately. I'll get to it at once.

You fail no one, dear Snow! I just was excited to know what if anything else you thought since you mentioned.

[Kirby]

That was a joke. Monogatari isn't actual porn, it just has fanservice (and sometimes odd kinds) quite a bit.

[SeiKeo]

It's actually porn.

[Snow]

I feel like you nailed Touko's feelings on Mikiya, even with the secks aside: her fondness for observing her companions and finding what makes them tick, her perceptiveness, her subtle totally-not-there concern for their well being, and how she wraps it all in teasing. That said, while the pairing is something I've wanted to see done and the actual lemony parts are written quite well, I'd say that the fic's greatest forte is how well it works as a character piece.

Touko just really feels like Touko.

The reason I doubt Mikiya would lose much sleep over something like this is that (in my personal opinion), while Mikiya is certainly hung up and cares a lot about Shiki, I don't think it's in 'that way', at least not at that particular moment. He knows very little about Shiki at the time this happens, and while he's eager to understand her and help her, I got the feeling his motivations weren't consciously romantic yet. So I feel like he'd treat sleeping with someone the same as he'd treat anything else, really.

[SeiKeo]

So at what point do you think he starts thinking that way?

[Snow]

“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”

[Mattias]

I don't even know what -monogatari is?

Now that I think of it the Monogatari series is a lot like KnK, where peoples personal issues are manifested as some special ability (except here they're manifested as monsters and spirits rather than magic and espers), and has almost 90% talking heads dialogue and great artwork. Only instead of having an apathetic murder machine solve the problem, they end up normally just talking it all out with an almost indestructible mostly-human. Each arc is pretty self contained, and only four or so episodes long, so you can consume it in pretty small bursts. Also the Touko of the show is a blonde man in Hawaiian shirts and sandals.

[SeiKeo]

However, there's an important difference in that it's bad.

[Raylen Cypher]

However, there's an important difference in that it's bad.

"You are really energetic, did something good happen?"

[Mattias]

However, there's an important difference in that it's bad.

Yeah, the baddest goddamn series since TTGL.

[just Beamu]

Bad in the negative sense unfortunately

[Prix with a Silent X]

That was a joke. Monogatari isn't actual porn, it just has fanservice (and sometimes odd kinds) quite a bit.

Like I said: what do I know? Nothing about this things. Except what I was just told.

I feel like you nailed Touko's feelings on Mikiya, even with the secks aside: her fondness for observing her companions and finding what makes them tick, her perceptiveness, her subtle totally-not-there concern for their well being, and how she wraps it all in teasing. That said, while the pairing is something I've wanted to see done and the actual lemony parts are written quite well, I'd say that the fic's greatest forte is how well it works as a character piece.

Touko just really feels like Touko.

The reason I doubt Mikiya would lose much sleep over something like this is that (in my personal opinion), while Mikiya is certainly hung up and cares a lot about Shiki, I don't think it's in 'that way', at least not at that particular moment. He knows very little about Shiki at the time this happens, and while he's eager to understand her and help her, I got the feeling his motivations weren't consciously romantic yet. So I feel like he'd treat sleeping with someone the same as he'd treat anything else, really.

Thank you so much! I think that was probably the most interesting part about writing this was getting to play with that dynamic Touko shares with all of them, especially from the perspective that she hasn't known Mikiya that long and hasn't met Shiki yet and just kind of knows she exists. There's that time Touko tries to reassure Mikiya by telling him that magi are inherently empathetic to the other people around them? Which is weird given evidence? But when you try to look at it from her point of view, I think she was being sincere in that it's a bit like most magi kind of have a sort of different lens through which they view 'human' emotions and their own emotions because of this sort of cultural adoption thing they do. Rin struggles with it. Touko just seems to accept that things are of a different shade for her. And yet it doesn't stop her from having this sort of abstract, protective feeling toward them which kind of very abruptly packs up shop when she feels she's getting too close at a really inopportune moment, which seems self-protective and strange. And all of it is really strange, but I really love writing about sort of confusing types of genuine affection, so that was really great about writing this.

Again, thank you for the lovely compliment!

And ah, yes, I can see how that is a fair interpretation of things. Even while I enjoy Mikiya/Shiki a lot, I kind of think that one of the reasons is also for a kind of 'odd' genuine affection. I almost think the relative normalcy with which they addressed it at the end of the seventh film was kind of a coping thing? Because the way I read it there are elements of it that are extremely 'normal' like Shiki reflecting quite simply while she's in awful Lio situation that Mikiya had said they could live in the same place together someday, and stuff. That's pretty 'normal' as far as romantic partnership desires are concerned. But then, one thing I really like about the central cast of KnK is that even in such a brief story they all have those forged bonds that feel a bit 'stuck with each other' in a positive way. It's not like they're all trying to escape but can't but it also seems a bit like a strange bedfellows situation for all of them that nevertheless suits them and binds them together as a sort of little team thing. I feel a bit like even Mikiya and Shiki's romantic relationship is kind of like that, that it includes typical romantic trappings maybe but that it's also a bit like this permanent statement of "I'm on your side, whatever that means," that Mikiya came around to first and that Shiki later accepted it because she needed it badly and, you know, she liked Mikiya. So, if I were to differ from your assessment at all it's that I think their relationship is so much that and I think that existed very early on for him that like maybe a lot of the 'foundation' mentioned was already there before the accident because he just decided to care. BUT I can also accept that the more traditional 'romantic' bits of it formed more slowly in accordance with that quote you mentioned.

Now that I think of it the Monogatari series is a lot like KnK, where peoples personal issues are manifested as some special ability (except here they're manifested as monsters and spirits rather than magic and espers), and has almost 90% talking heads dialogue and great artwork. Only instead of having an apathetic murder machine solve the problem, they end up normally just talking it all out with an almost indestructible mostly-human. Each arc is pretty self contained, and only four or so episodes long, so you can consume it in pretty small bursts. Also the Touko of the show is a blonde man in Hawaiian shirts and sandals.

Ah okay. So not 'actual porn.' That sounds like a philosophy professor.

[AkaiNeko]

Thanks, I guess? The only comment I can make is that I write what I feel like writing and knew for a fact that my first major time commitment to TM fanfiction was going to be disliked by a fair number of people. I mean I certainly appreciate commenting acknowledging that you'd like it if my work were more to your taste and comments in general, but it's also not a constructive criticism I can really respond to. I read something in passing recently about how fanfiction is "shared with" its audience rather than being "written for" its audience. I think that's pretty true, even though I actually frequently write in response to prompt letters I volunteered to receive. That's controlled, though, so it can't throw too much at me that I just don't relate to at all. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the story, but I enjoyed its subject matter or I wouldn't have written it. Can agree to disagree, though.

I wasn't insulting you or intending it as criticism - just as an explanation for why I wasn't more positively inclined towards this story. Different strokes and whatnot. Again, I think it's good and hope you write something at some point that I don't intrinsically dislike for whatever arbitrary reason of personal taste so I can properly enjoy your writing ability.

Also -monogatari (every part I've seen, anyway) is very good - at the least, it should be worth checking out. It is also not porn.

[Prix with a Silent X]

I wasn't insulting you or intending it as criticism - just as an explanation for why I wasn't more positively inclined towards this story. Different strokes and whatnot. Again, I think it's good and hope you write something at some point that I don't intrinsically dislike for whatever arbitrary reason of personal taste so I can properly enjoy your writing ability.

I understand and appreciate the fairly mature response to anime porn you don't care for. I've written quite a bit for this fandom already, listed in my blog post, and while it is not necessarily reflective of everything I will ever write for this fandom I'm not really sure that it will ever differ so much that it'll work for you. I mean, I hope so because the greater audience that enjoys it the happier I tend to be, but I also can't make any guarantees. Again, thank you for the measure of the compliment, though.