Hey, everybody! Antoni, here. I know I was supposed to review Verdi’s Aida live from the Kungliga Operan. However, last week, I caught a live stream production of Verdi’s Les Vepres Siciliennes live from the Bayerische Staatsoper, which I will most likely make a review of tomorrow, as I need to do some research about the opera’s plot. So, I do apologize for some delays in the reviewing schedule, as I had to deal with a Chemistry exam and I did need to catch up on rest so that I will not over-exert myself. With that said, I am feeling rather naughty right now. I just caught a Powerpuff Girls fanfic that has become a real guilty pleasure of mine, more on that later. It’s called My Dear Sister, written by Yurilover89, published on March 23, 2014, last updated on June 10 of that same year, but it’s incomplete with only two chapters. It’s rated M. It’s in English and the main pairing is…here it goes…Blossom/Buttercup. There are hints of Brick/Buttercup, Butch/Blossom, Boomer/Bubbles, and Princess Morbucks/Bubbles, however, they are only mentioned via exposition. The other character to be involved in this fanfic is Ace from The GangGreen Gang. Even more so, Blossom and Buttercup are 18 years old in this fanfic, so, please, be at ease. If it were not already obvious, this is basically PPGcest fanfic involving Blossom and Buttercup complete with some steamy action between the two. I am probably not alone when I say that although this pairing kind of titillates me on some occasions, I am sort of not a fan of having Blossom and Buttercup being lovers, given the fact that they are sisters. I am sure that there are certain people who jack off to this pairing because these two girls are sexy, but I am surely not one of them. I will gladly reiterate that I always enjoy Blossom’s and Buttercup’s tough love as sisters because these two work so well off of each other when it comes to being opposites of each other and having great dynamics whether they engage in physical combat or show genuine care for each other in spite of their differences. When one combines Blossom’s feminine grace, overall professionalism as a superheroine, her unparalleled skills as a fighter, and her genius bruiser persona, which has always made me love her so much, and Buttercup’s rough and tumble, rebellious, tough, fiercely independent yet reckless attitude, full-fledged bruiser persona, and tomboyish cuteness, which in turn has always made her so endearing, one gets a clear understanding how these two work as characters in terms of dynamics and chemistry. This is the reason why I always enjoy these two together because they have strong personalities as the older daughters of Professor Utonium and the older sisters of Bubbles. However, to pair them up as lovers in fanworks seems wrong as it serves to mainly titillate the mostly adolescent or young adult male demographic. Yet, to the fanfic writers’ and fan artists’ credit, I do fancy some kinky action going on between two of most favorite badass girls of the PPG. It could be their strong personalities that complement each other. It could be their bruiser personalities, what with Blossom being the genius one and Buttercup being the full-fledged one, that makes their interactions really exciting. Or it could just be because Blossom and Buttercup appeal to me a lot more than Bubbles, mostly because I am the eldest in my family and I look up to both of them for having each others’ backs and for being awesome older sisters to Bubbles. With that said, let’s get on to this guilty pleasure of a fanfic. After a long day, Blossom and Buttercup enter their apartment to have a bit of a rest. Their respective boyfriends, Butch and Brick, have gone off to Jamaica and Bubbles has gone to Korea with Professor Utonium for some philanthropy work, leaving the two older Powerpuffs behind. In terms of Bubbles, both Blossom and Buttercup, especially the former, feel envious of their younger sister because she is so well-loved by everyone and is openly bisexual, not only being in a relationship with Boomer but also having some “sessions” with Princess Morbucks, thus making her female partner change her ways. It all comes to a head when Buttercup proclaims her love to Blossom and vice versa, and then they consummate their said feelings of love to each other. Yes, I’m fully aware that there are some people who feel rather dirty when reading this fanfic and others who feel rather aroused seeing two girls in action, but at least it’s enjoyable in a kinky fashion. Moreover, I’m very pleased that the main characters of Blossom and Buttercup are both eighteen in this fanfic, which is definitely considered to be a legal age to be a young adult in many societies, otherwise, the author would’ve faced a lot of trouble for making the girls younger than that age. It is such a shame that this story was left incomplete for four years because I would’ve loved to see where this would all go especially when Brick and Butch are thrown in the mix, it would’ve been temptingly interesting. Butch could make love to Blossom, Brick could make love to Buttercup, Brick could also make love to Blossom, Butch could also make love to Buttercup, and we could have also had a Brick/Butch moment, culminating in a foursome. I would also like this story to have a little bit more substance in terms of character development and not just titillating the mostly male demographic. Would this story also work as a one-shot? Yes, I see why not, mostly because there were times that the story did drag due to some of the dialogue and the naughty bit scenes. For example, the two girls compliment each others’ breasts, buttocks, and naughty parts all while making love in the second chapter. Speaking of my favorite…
Fanfic
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction “recommendation”, you will see why I put those quotation marks there later in this post. This time, I am taking a look at an Inuyasha fanfic called A Hint of Hope which was written by darling krash and published on January 29, 2005. It’s rated M. It’s in English and the main pairing is Inuyasha and Ayame. Other characters involved are Kouga, Ginta, Hakkaku, and one random character who appears in the end. I will say this once and I will say this again. I am no InuKag fan in the slightest. I find it annoying whenever Inuyasha and Kagome bicker constantly even though they grow closer to each other, and it does not help matters when Kagome uses the “Sit boy!” command although there were times Inuyasha did not deserve to be punished in such a fashion. There are also times that despite being the main female protagonist and showing some strength and independence as a character, Kagome will at times be the designated damsel in distress probably because the plot seems to demand it. Even at thirteen, I always thought that Inuyasha should be better off with another girl aside from Kagome, who can be as strong, tough, and courageous as Inuyasha. Enter Ayame. Even though she is a filler character and was meant to be Kouga’s bride to be, she certainly has a presence to her which makes her all the more endearing and charming as a character. Yes, she only appeared in a total of four episodes, and spoilers I am not even a fan of KogAya, mostly because Kouga seems to have a lot more interest in Kagome, despite the respective couples being married in Inuyasha: The Final Act. When all is said and done, this is all just a matter of personal tastes so InuKag, InuKik, and KogAya fans please put down your torches and pitchforks. When it comes to shipping Inuyasha and Ayame, there are traits about the both of them which I love. Both Inuyasha and Ayame are strong, tough, capable, battle-ready, fiery, and badass characters with a lot of spirited personalities. Because Ayame has been raised by the white wolf yokai tribe, she was taught to fight at such an early age, and for that, she is respected by her tribe, though Ginta and Hakkaku are rather intimidated by her. In terms of Inuyasha, he grew up in such a harsh environment where both humans and demons repudiated him because of his ********** status, due to the fact that he has a human mother and a Daiyokai father. When one puts two and two together, one has characters like Inuyasha and Ayame who have gone through a lot in their lives, faced many a hardship, and even faced loss and heartbreak, Inuyasha with Kikyo and Ayame with Kouga. In spite of the obstacles, these two remain resilient and headstrong with their goals, Ayame in trying to get Kouga to marry her to reunite their tribes and Inuyasha in obtaining the Shikon no Tama or the Shikon jewel, in order to become a full-fledged yokai. Even more so, these fighters are intrepid enough to go headfirst into battling demons and other evil spirits. I love these two so much as characters, that at times I wish they could’ve been the main couple and let Kagome be paired up with someone as thrill-seeking as Kouga or calculating as Sesshoumaru. It is also a shame that Ayame did not get as many appearances in the TV show, as she was a pretty formidable ally, who was criminally underused. With that rambling out of the way, let’s get on to what I thought about the story. Ayame is sitting by a stream pondering about Inuyasha and Kagome liking each other so much. Kouga appears not to return Ayame’s love, but to scold her for interfering with his obsession with Kagome, and he assaults her. In storms, Inuyasha defends Ayame against Kouga, wards him off, and tends to her wounds and her overall loneliness. During Inuyasha’s stay with Ayame, the two of them become closer, a bit more intimate, and their relationship blossoms even further. All the while, Kouga is all the more obsessed in terms of having a bone to pick with Inuyasha, no pun intended. By and large, the story was pretty well-woven with sufficient interest. As always, I want to spoil neither the climax nor the ending. I will say this about the latter. The ending does make me want to draw fanart of how Inuyasha looked like with his new attire when he returns to Ayame. Okay, I know I have a no-spoiler policy when it comes to doing fanfic or general reading recommendations, but I will give myself the benefit of the doubt, the ending had a nice build up, it was nicely satisfying, and it was lovely to have Inuyasha and Ayame be together. The characters who managed to steal the show for me were Inuyasha and Ayame. Inuyasha does manage to keep his tough-guy personality, though it’s backed up with a chivalrous and noble personality without going too over-the-top with it. He makes sure that Ayame gets not only the protection she needs but the love she so wholeheartedly deserves. Speaking of Ayame, she herself manages to be thoroughly enjoyable as a character. She still keeps her loyal, fierce, and strong personality, but it’s also backed up by some vulnerability to make her all the more human and relatable. Kouga took a level in jerkass in this fanfic. Yes, he was rather villainous in his debut episode when he and his wolves ransacked a village, but he immediately had a 180 when he met Kagome at such a bizarre rate. Here, I actually like how darling krash made him a little bit more villainous in terms of his jealousy, animosity, and obsession to best Inuyasha, and he served his purpose well. The other characters like Ginta, Hakkaku, and a random black wolf yokai serve their…
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. As promised, it’s another Powerpuff Girls fanfic involving Brick, Butch, Blossom, and Buttercup called Cheater Cheater Heartbreaker! written by kuku88 and published back on August 28, 2013. It’s rated T. It’s in English. It’s romance/drama, and the main couples are Butch/Buttercup and Brick/Blossom. There are hints Brick/Buttercup and Butch/Blossom, but it’s mostly platonic. Other characters involved are Boomer, Bubbles, Brute from the Powerpunk Girls, Bunny from the episode Twisted Sister who is thankfully revived in the fanfic, and Dexter and Mandark from Dexter’s Laboratory. There are also some original characters to be found in the forms of the other Rowdyruffs, Bandit, Blaster, Braker, and the other Powerpuffs, Banana, and Bliss, the latter one not being the one from the PPG 2016 reboot. Even more so the characters in this story are teenagers, roughly 16 to 18 years old so there will be some curse words like the F- and S-words, the former being slightly more dominant. Now, we are venturing into the less fluffy direction from Aqua Bailarina 15’s Sugar Song to A Bitter, Yet Sweet Step and head to something a bit more melodramatic. Before I begin talking about the fanfic’s melodrama aspect, I would like to mention that I’m sure in the previous fanfic it would have been also cool to see Brick, Butch, Blossom, and Buttercup form their own J-Rock, Alternative, or Rock band that would give the likes of ABBA and even the A-Teens a run for their money. With that little detail out of the way, let’s get on to what I thought about this fanfic. And for those who asked, this is what I meant by this story being melodramatic, almost akin to a teen soap opera, but not as far-fetched nor over-the-top. The story starts off as Buttercup scolds Butch, whom she has dated for three months and counting, and wants to call off their relationship, as he made out with her evil counterpart, Brute from the Powerpunk Girls, during her, her sisters’, and Brute’s birthday party. In Butch’s defense, he states that he was horribly drunk, as he though Brute was Buttercup and he was in under so much pressure with Buttercup’s expectations for him to be the best boyfriend. Buttercup not wanting to hear Butch’s excuses storms off to her home, where Blossom, Bubbles, Bunny, Bliss, and Banana try to comfort her. Because of the breakup’s impact, Buttercup then ends up crying in her bedroom, until Blossom’s boyfriend, Brick, arrives. As Blossom’s boyfriend and Buttercup’s closest friend, he also comforts her and even stated that he tried to stop Butch’s excessive drinking, but he was unfortunately stubborn. Buttercup grows feelings for Brick, as he is deemed Blossom’s perfect boyfriend. Thus, she uses him to break his relationship with Blossom and get back at Butch. However, Brick is befuddled by how she is reacting, and he proceeds to go to Blossom, as they have a study session. He reassures Buttercup that he, her sisters, and the rest of his brothers are there for her and he knows that Butch does need help in rekindling his relationship with her. Meanwhile, Butch is still awfully guilt-ridden about the incident and starts to suspect that Brick is getting much closer to Buttercup than any friend should. Whilst Blossom is doubting Brick’s fidelity towards her, as he starts to become Buttercup’s tutor in physics, and she cannot stand the thought of her boyfriend cheating on her with her own sister. I’m not going to spoil the rest of the story, but how it builds up shows that there is almost a love square going on between Brick, Blossom, Butch, and Buttercup, more appropriately of how even though Butch and Buttercup broke up, she then ends up having her eyes on Brick, even though he is faithfully dating Blossom. Of course, there is also a fair amount of bickering and suspicions going on between the four main protagonists due to misunderstandings, and the pattern seems to build. At least I will give the climax and the ending some kudos for alleviating the ongoing melodrama and resolving the story with a happily ever after, especially for our main stars Butch and Buttercup as well as Brick and Blossom. There were also some instances where flashbacks were used and they were done in the right moments. The character that really takes the cake here in this fanfic is Buttercup. Her impulsive nature is kept nicely intact as well as her tsundere edge, and I have to give kuku88 credit for keeping her characterization as it is. However, Buttercup in this fanfic also has the tendency to be manipulative, especially when it came to that break-up she had with Butch, as she tries to get her hands on Brick. Sure, it is not common for her to think about being lovey-dovey, but she always knew in her heart that Butch is not only her equal in terms of being counterparts but also someone she admires and adores so much because he is handsome, strong, and independent in his own way. In Butch’s case, I really like his characterization here. He is usually written by other fanfic authors as violent, a pervert, or even a psycho, but I love the route kuku88 was able to take him. What we have is a misunderstood and flawed male protagonist whose actions are rash and ill-timed but he still has enough loyalty, humanity, and compassion to make things right with Buttercup. Even more so, Butch has this charm which makes him all the more appealing as a character that I actually enjoy his presence. With Brick, it should be no doubt that I love the platonic sensible older brother and impulsive younger sister relationship he has with Buttercup. Given that he is her closest friend in this story, he does his best to support Buttercup and completely understands the situation she and Butch are in. Because of his act of kindness to…
Hey, everybody! Antoni, here, with another fan fiction recommendation. Today, I’m taking a look at a Powerpuff Girls fanfic, Sugar Song to A Bitter, Yet Sweet Step! written by Aqua Bailarina 15, published back on November 27, 2015, and updated on March 26, 2016. It’s rated T. It’s in English. It has two chapters, one with the main story or more appropriately one-shot and the other with another author’s note, and the main character pairings are Brick/Blossom and Butch/Buttercup. Other characters involved in the story, though not as prominent, are Boomer, Mitch Mitchelson, Bubbles, and Robin Snyder. This entire story takes place in a middle school setting, so the characters are approximately 13 to 14 years old, as they are in the eighth grade. Let’s get this started shall we? Ah, the Powerpuff Girls. For those of you who watched my look back on ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas, you will know that ever since I was a lad of seven years old, I was so excited to catch this show on Cartoon Network, considering the fact that it had two pilot shorts on The What a Cartoon Show, which a caught a year ago before the main show premiered in the Philippines, sometime during summer. I am still so happy to call myself a PPG fan to this day, as it is perched alongside my all-time favorite Cartoon Network shows, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Samurai Jack, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Dexter’s Laboratory, Codename: Kids Next Door, Chowder, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Regular Show. I am really looking forward to reviewing the original Powerpuff Girls because Craig McCracken and his crew made something unique, fun, endearing, absolutely high-octane, and something worth remembering until the end of time. Now in terms of the Powerpuff Girls’ rogues gallery, there is no other group of villains to get as much popularity as The Rowdyruff Boys consisting of Brick the hot-tempered leader, Butch the extremely violent one, and Boomer the dim one. They were initially created by Mojo Jojo with the help of snips of armpit hair, snails, and a dog’s tail from, of course, The Talking Dog. As an ersatz for Chemical X, he flushed the ingredients down a toxic toilet and thus, The Rowdyruff Boys were born. Yes, in their debut episode their personalities were almost similar to each other that they came off as angrier, nastier counterparts to the Powerpuff Girls. However, if you take that characterization aspect aside, they were completely on par with the girls in terms of power, that they almost defeated them. The Rowdyruff Boys do prove themselves to be formidable enemies to the girls and their episode was the second to the last one of the first season. Just when Mojo Jojo and the boys were gloating at their presumed triumph, Miss Bellum gave a pep talk to the girls saying that they can use their feminine charms to defeat the boys. From there, the viewers are then treated to the most famous scene, which has cemented the whole RRB/PPG pairing frenzy, the kissing scene. Blossom kisses Brick, Bubbles kisses Boomer, and Buttercup kisses Butch. With that, the boys exploded. These little bastards were so popular that they were even revived in Season 5 to 6. In their returning episode, The Boys are Back in Town, HIM resurrected them with a cootie shot and the boys’ personalities are not only more defined with Brick’s impulsive, mean-spirited, and hot-tempered nature, but also Butch’s bouts of psychosis, bloodlust, overall insanity, and undying loyalty to Brick as the middle brother, and Boomer’s dim-witted yet infantile nature as the youngest, as there were times that he was used as Brick’s and Butch’s punching bag evidenced in Bubble Boy. Sure, the boys’ personalities during their revival came off as obnoxious, jerkish, and irredeemable, but they were still very entertaining as characters. Heck, in The City of Clipsville, there was one scene where the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys were teenagers and they seemed to have a thing for each other. While that scene was interesting and kind of funny, I felt like they were all robbed of their distinctive personalities, as the girls acted more like clueless valley girls and the boys acted more like laid-back slackers. Speaking of RRB/PPG pairings, my goodness a lot of fan-related pieces are all over the web, mostly due to the whole bad boy/good girl pairings are very much all the rage and there is so much appeal. As for me, I really love this particular pairing. Sure, it’s not canon in the TV show given the fact that the Rowdyruff Boys and the Powerpuff Girls are between 5 to 6 years old. However, if this show continued with the girls and boys as tweens or teens, I’d say they would all go a different route. The boys would be very fed up with both Mojo Jojo and HIM telling them what to do and how to be evil, and they would eventually find their own paths, all the while realizing that maybe they were in the wrong, to begin with. They would develop from being villains to anti-villains to anti-heroes at most heroes at the least. I am really sure that among Brick, Butch, and Boomer, the latter would really turn to the good side and have an amazingly stable relationship with Bubbles. Heck, it would be amazing to see the Rowdyruff Boys team up with the Powerpuff Girls and be a great superhero team to rival that of the Teen Titans, the Justice League, the Suicide Squad, and the Avengers. I indubitably support Boomubbles with a passion, but I also enjoy Blossick and Butchercup, mostly because fanfic writers will tend to make their relationships a little bit more complex in comparison to the sentimental, lovey-dovey vibe of the youngest lovebirds Boomer and Bubbles. The usual case with Brick and Blossom in fanfics would be these two will have a will they or will they not type of relationship, and because they…