Fleeting Fancies - Fanworks Recommendations

- Samurai Champloo - Bruised by Eleanor K. - Oh, how I have pined for Samurai Champloo fanfic like this. Even if no other fic comes along ever again (not that this should stop people, mind +__+), I can be happy with this story, because it's rough, it's intense, it's not easy, it's not smooth, it's Jin and Mugen, and the way they fight. The author's writing is lovely, but it's this sense of the fight between Jin and Mugen, the intensity of that and the hotness of it, just... it's so... Samurai Champloo-like. The characterizations were fantastic, too, and just... yeah, I wish I could give this a better, more intelligent/insightful rec, but sometimes all there is to say about a fic is, "Guh. Go read now." *__* (Jin/Mugen, NC-17.)

- Samurai Champloo - Two Sides of a Coin by Trinity Helix - *____* This may be my new favorite Samurai Champloo fic because it was just so utterly, completely them. The harsher sides to the characters, nothing really nice about them, all the fighting and snarling, but still that intense attraction, not easy, but not difficult, either, and it all felt like Samurai Champloo. It's the way Mugen reacts to Jin's advances, it's the way Jin makes those advances, like this is just an extention of the larger something between them (<---that sounds so horrible and cliche, don't mind me, please) and... hell, I guess that's what it was, it fit together so perfectly with what we already know of them that it felt completely natural to move in this direction. I am so very, very smitten with this fic. *____* (Jin/Mugen, R-to-NC-17 content.)

- Samurai Champloo - Reflection by technoelfie - Jin doesn't like mirrors for fear that one day he'll look and find himself faded. But sometimes he likes seeing himself reflected in her eyes, which are large and dark and the only truly pretty thing about her. I was wondering how this story was going to hold up for me over a bit of time, if it would still strike me the same way a month or so after I first read it and having stumble across it again recently, I went to reread it... and it does. My favorite thing about it is that it's not particularily nice, but it's not particularily mean, either. It's not devoid of feeling, there's quite a lot of feeling, especially when Jin is fucking Fuu and she's being her usual bright, cheerful self, and he's not exactly sure what to feel, but it's not angst or pining or over the top. It's something a bit like weary, but not exactly. And it's perfect for Samurai Champloo. Gorgeous characterization. (Jin/Fuu, R to NC-17-ish.)

- Samurai Champloo - Two Manners by keraha - So, I was browsing the SC fanworks community and happened to stumble over this fic, remembering that I liked keraha's Death Note fic. And, you know, there's really very little longfic for Samurai Champloo out there, much less fic that deals with both Jin/Shino and Jin/Mugen. I loved this fic because it was just long enough to properly deal with the aftermath of Jin falling in love with Shino and having to let her go, because the reactions he has, the loss, the erratic dreams, the lack of stillness, the way he wants a life he can't have, the way he doesn't want the life he can't have, the way Mugen figures into all of it, the way they both move, the way Fuu fits into the picture, it all came together in such a way that it both felt like Samurai Champloo and was a really good read. I wish I could describe it better, because it has all these little subtle moments, because it brings Jin's feelings together, the way he's so stoic, but still waters running deep sort of character, and he's so perfect here, the way there's so much to his character, but he says so little of it. It all fits with the character I saw onscreen.

More than anything, I appreciate a fic that can do several things at once, that can move a story along, that can juggle so many characters with their own motivations, and that can deal with the aspects of what I want to see dealt with. I loved Jin's relationship with Shino, it was one of my favorite episodes, and it's beautiful here, because it isn't dismissed as ultimately unimportant, the relationship with Mugen isn't love but it's not cold, either, it's all so... layered and balanced. The transition from one moment to the next felt so... human. I guess I gush because I felt that both relationships, both Jin/Shino and Jin/Mugen were done justice here. (Jin/Shino, Jin/Mugen, R-to-NC-17 content.)

- Samurai Champloo - Combine and Conquer by CinnamonGrrl - I'll be honest and admit that Fuu's role in this story didn't really work for me, it felt like it was written very early on in the series' run and then the characterizations changed and the fic no longer fit. Jin's feelings especially didn't quite ring true for me, given his feelings for her, the way he seemed to love her in the series, but she seems almost childish to him here. So, why am I rec'ing after I just spent half a paragraph nattering on about what didn't work? Because I loved the Jin/Mugen aspect of the fic, the way they fight and everything is a contest, even this thing with Fuu. But mostly it was for the sex, the way it's just another extention of their fighting, even as Jin has him pinned against the floor and Mugen is thrashing up against him and swearing to kill him in that way that says he's sort of enjoying this. And I did sort of like the way Fuu was included in this, she wasn't just tossed to the side and forgotten about. Also, the end. Hee, the end was so perfectly Samurai Champloo that I was just in love, right down to the way Jin and Mugen never change and Fuu is so Fuu. I mean, it totally hit the right buttons for me and it gave me a funny, SC-ish end. What more could I have really asked for? XD (Jin/Mugen, Jin/Mugen/Fuu, NC-17.)

- Samurai Champloo - Temptation Kunishige by Angrybee - I found this fic to be really interesting... well, no, more than that. What the author set out to accomplish, she did brilliantly, her Jin characterization was just so airtight that it felt like I almost could have been watching the series. A lot of that was the author's clever use of descriptions/imagery, the way she would describe the scene bringing to mind the style of Samurai Champloo somehow. But it was also the dirty, gritty, but not over-the-line or too cruel or too dirty portrayal of the characters and the time they're in. Mugen looking at Fuu's robe that's fallen open, being rather uncivilized about it (in Jin's opinion), the way Jin faces both temptation and irritation, the way Jin and Mugen clash, the way it is all layered over that they do care about Fuu and that they understand each other... well, I'm getting terribly vague and I don't mean to. But it's one of those stories where not much happens, yet somehow a terribly important moment has occurred, but without really being remarked on because that's not these characters' style. Just... yeah, go read. It does justice to the series. (I'm not going to count anything here/no warnings.)

- Samurai Champloo - Possibilities by w175n57 - You know, even after reading the author's notes, I got halfway into this fic before realizing what the author was getting at, because the style is so fluid and smooth that it just rolled gently along. And when I did... it was like being struck in the chest, the dull sort of ache that resonated because... well, yes. What if things had gone slightly different? Each little scene contributed to the overall feel of this, the way the characters travelled back on their journey, the people they saw or the things they commented on, each little detail tailored so cleanly to the characters. There was a certain tone to this fic that I'm failing to capture, so just go read it instead. (....um. I'm not going to warn for anything/any pairing?)