Fanfiction Review: “Warrior Call” by Janime

18Apr13

I’ve been going down a nostalgic road lately and it’s not related to my Nostalgia Nook posts. (Shameless plug) For some reason, I decided to YouTube “Ronin Warriors” and am going through the series. And it brought back memories of the hours I spent reading Ronin Warriors fanfiction. Which also reminded me my of my own Ronin Warriors fanfiction. And since it’s some of my early stuff…it’s bad. I’m not sure why I wanted to reread it.

So I tracked down the old website my friend/cowriter and I posted on. But it’s not really active anymore, so I had to use the Wayback Machine. Searching for my old fanfiction, I started to remember some of my old favorites. I found one that I really liked back then and started to read. I never really reviewed it back then because this site wasn’t your usual fanfiction archive—if you wanted to review, you had to actually e-mail the person. It felt weird to e-mail someone you didn’t know.

But now I do want to review it, revolving around the question: How does it hold up?

Title: “Warrior Call”

Author: Janime

Premise: Five college girls go to Japan for an exchange program. There they meet the Ronin Warriors as well as the Warlords. Nether Soldiers begin chasing after one of the girls, Jessie, which causes their worlds to collide. Romances develop as the danger increases. And more friends arrive to join in the fray.

For starters, it’s a decent if a bit clichéd plot. Especially for this fandom. There are many stories that involve five girls who are usually American, go to Japan and discover they are connected to the Ronins. And usually one or more of them are more powerful than the Ronins, which happens here in Warrior Call.

But at the same time, it provides a fresh take on it. It’s one of the few fanfics I recall reading in which the Warlords were major characters. And Janime does a good job of portraying the Ronins relationship with the Warlords post-final battle. There is an uneasy truce between the two teams and resentment continues on both sides for acts committed during the fight with Talpa. In the story, the only one willing to let bygones be bygones is Ryo, who sees himself as their leader but has also accepted the Warlords into his “family.”

Unlike other fanfictions, this one does spend time developing the Ronins rather than the original characters. But it doesn’t do enough. For example, at one point her original characters wear the armors of the Ronins. She has them see their memories due to the connection with the armors. At least one deals with the Ronins when they are younger. But the rest tend to be rehashes of scenes from the anime. And it’s a shame because she could have done so much with the memories angle. Also, you all know how I feel about copying movies scene by scene and verbatim. At the end of one chapter, Janime explains she recorded an episode onto a cassette to play over and over to get the conversation between the Ancient and Anubis right. Admirable, but it would’ve been better and more creative to see something we hadn’t in the series.

The downside to this focus is that some of the original characters are poorly underdeveloped. The story is definitely Jessie’s but Janime does tell some parts from their perspective. But as Jessie bonds with the Ronins, her friends start to suffer a bit. And I think we need to see more of them together because there are points upon my reread where I wondered “Why are they friends?”

Jessie and Joana have a good basis for a friendship and do treat each other more like sisters. Gwen and Joana also appear to be close and therefore is also close to Jessie. Twyla and especially Casey are the odd ducks. These two are the meanest of the friends. Twyla has a few redeeming moments but Casey doesn’t. She’s a sex-obsessed, foul mouthed, bad-tempered character. When she’s addressing the others, it’s usually to put them down. In the end, she seems to be there just for the romance with Cale.

In the later chapters, three more friends are introduced. They were mentioned in the first chapter but then never mentioned again until their arrival. Perhaps a few mentions here or there before that chapter were needed just to remind the readers there are more characters coming.

Another interesting thing about Janime’s take is the idea that the girls already have some experience in the paranormal. Unfortunately, she doesn’t slow down to explain this world she has created. Why do they have these powers? How did they discover them? More exposition is definitely needed.

Which leads to another moment where one wonders why Twyla and Casey are Jessie’s friends. They are stuck in the caverns with no way out. So her friends ask Jessie “to track.” But she admits she can’t because she hasn’t been practicing. And her friends, especially Twyla, go nuts. She attacks Jessie demanding to know why. I think we’re supposed to side with her, but I’m not sure. For several reasons:

1. It is mentioned very often that six months before the story starts, Jessie was in an accident. She suffered head injuries and was in a coma. I imagine she wasn’t in good enough health to practice for awhile.

2. Jessie is stated to have a problem with their mentor and no longer trusts him. So it makes sense she would probably stop practicing. Why does it matter to her friends? Why did she feel the need to lie about practicing? Do all their powers work together?

These things needed to be fleshed out to understand Twyla’s response. And to make a judgment whether to root for her or not.

Janime wrote the story over a long period of time, turning it into a saga. She does show a vast improvement in writing style over the chapters. Earlier chapters are very dialogue heavy with little description. What we do get is generally clothing, which bears little on the plot but probably seemed cool to my younger self. While later chapters still are a bit heavy on dialogue, Janime got better at using description.

Also, the tone became darker and darker. There isn’t anything wrong with it, but it almost makes the earlier chapters feel like a different story. And sometimes, it makes little sense. For example, Jessie’s past suicide attempt came out of nowhere. While it was several years prior to the story, I would imagine she might still need some therapy after it and her accident. A throwaway line about Jessie seeking therapy would’ve helped set up such a reveal. Sometimes, there is merit in such lines.

So the question: How does it hold up? Better than I feared. I have read other stories I liked as a teenager only to question my tastes. If Janime is still writing (though not this story, it’s still unfinished), I bet she’s a lot better now. This is just my fantasy, but I would like to see her either continue or rewrite this story like I did with Elaborate Lives to see how she’s changed.

Filed under: Fanfiction   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: anime, review, ronin warriors