Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Reflections and Fulfillment ❯ RAF Answering Reviews ( EndNotes )

Domo minna-san!

 

Well, since I posted this on FanFiction.net with so many questions, I decided to add the Answering Reviews chapter here as well. After all, my primary loyalty is to MM.org. :)

 

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Fanfiction dot net does not allow more than one review per chapter… thus, here's another chapter for the sole purpose of answering reviews! - sheepishly scratches head -

 

(Note: Yay! No FF funky filters!!!)

 

- Question: During the wedding flashback, what exactly was Kaoru's reason for getting mad at Kenshin and punching him into the wall? All he did was kiss her.

- Answer: Public displays of affection in Japan are vastly different than they are here in the USA, or even in Europe. Sad to say, but in the science world, Japan statistically falls as the lowest nation in the world for having sex (in fact, for the past few years running now). Taken directly from a science news article: "The rate of Japanese experiencing painful intercourse was about double the world average." It comes as no surprise that they don't know how to have sex properly considering centuries upon centuries of sexual stigma. For example, to kiss in public would be the same as having intercourse in public. Holding hands would be the same as kissing, etc. Those stigmata still hold true today, most unfortunately, to the point that the Japanese have sex workshops to try and encourage married couples to 'get it together'. (I was shocked to read there're some married couples who'd been together for 25+ years without any sexual relations whatsoever, between themselves or anyone else!) Puts a whole new, very sad, spin on anime - p o r n -, doesn't it?

 

- Question: I can't find the "Reflections: Director's Cut" DVD?!

- Answer: The DVD is readily available at Ebay.com and Amazon.com. I got mine from Amazon. :)

 

- Question: In both "Never For the Public..." and "Reflections and Fulfillment", why did I write that Kenshin consummated his marriage with Tomoe?

- Answer: Just to clarify, I have all 28 volumes of the manga, Kaden and Sakabatou manga, 95 anime episodes, and three movies. I realize it's only in the movie "Trust & Betrayal" that their consummation is hinted at, however, as a writer, I'm allowed to take certain liberties... so I took them. ;P Something else to note is that although RAF is a 'continuation' story, NFTP is a 'divergence' story, so I happily took further my liberties with that story.

 

- Question: Isn't it a little weird that Kenshin mentioned Tomoe while making love to Kaoru?

- Answer: Not really… This one-shot happens post-Jinchuu saga, so Kaoru knows all about Tomoe. It is regrettable to note that Kenshin fell in love with Tomoe far before she did with him in return, be it movies or manga. (What else could be expected for an isolated and outcasted fifteen-year-old boy :( ) Regardless, a very heavy part of this one-shot is based around Kenshin and Tomoe losing their virginity to each other, hence, his loving devotion to Kaoru. Since his own first time was so special (minus all the drama that happened around it…), he's particularly focused on making sure his second wife has the same special experience, if not better, than his first. Kaoru may be a strong woman, but in a situation where you know your husband is still in love with his deceased wife, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority will arise. Kenshin will always love Tomoe; that is a fact. However, he is more perceptive on human nature than the average man, and realizes Kaoru's feelings in regards to Tomoe, specifically, without her need of voicing them. I personally imagine that he continually soothes her feelings, not just during their honeymoon, but for the rest of their lives together, until she finally stops comparing herself with Tomoe.

 

- Question: I'm thinking you're a psyche major?

- Answer: Plyric *titters with amusement*. I'm highly flattered, but alas, I am merely a serious computer hardware engineer who's a sensual romantic in secret… ;)

 

- Question: Are you writing more KK stories?

- Answer: Plyric trudges high and low, desperately searching for the source of her current pain. She weedles from server room to server room, to no avail. Tracing the next step of her troubleshooting path, she finally nears the source of her local network outage. She raises her hand to wipe the sweat gathered on her brow. “I've found you!” she thinks in success, as she replaces the now dead LAN cable with a fresh, new wire. “Hmmm, fresh, new… story! Hey, network's back up!” ;) Hehehe, insanely enough, I have eight stories being written simultaneously, one being an original fantasy novel, the rest are KK stories. I have another one-shot I might put out this week, though it's nowhere on par with Reflections and Fulfillment… What I'm really excited about is one story where I have 10 chapters written, with maybe 10 more to go. It's inspired by the story “Out of Time” written by SiriusFan13 on MeijiTales.com. The easy part's been written, aka romance and humour. Now comes the difficult part of bringing the battles to life on paper…

 

Again, katajikenai minna-san! :)