 CeruleanCypher 2009-05-31 . chapter 1M. I always love fics about Shisui in part just to see how author's characterize the guy who was Itachi's best friend. Yours is really well-written and funny!
I adore your characterization of Shisui. I've seen him as flamboyantly gay, dark and oppressive, sadistic and troubled, and tons more. But I really really love your clever goofball Shisui. Very tastefully done.
There's so much to comment on...I want to enthuse on and on! :)
Ok. I really like how you portrayed Shisui and Itachi's friendship and flirted with itasasu, itasui, and suisasu a bit, even though none of them turned out to be true. In the middle I was cocking a eyebrow at the extremely incestuous ways of the Uchiha clan, but it turned out really great what with Sasuke's little jealous lies and Itachi's firm stubbornness to be asexual ^^.
Shisui's adoration of Mikoto made me laugh. So...dirty and quite questionable, but you pulled it off with a healthy dose of lightness so I didn't find it creepy at all. It totally made part of your Shisui character, and I'm glad you included that. Although I was a little confused when you left the itasui misconception dangling at the end...poor Mikoto! XD
Shisui's early life seemed a lot like Naruto, Gaara, and Sasuke's with the staring and everything...a messed up childhood is something I see in many Shisui fics..but his dad almost cracks me up. (Is that mean...? :[) His trips across the country...dunno, it just seems kinda comical to me.
La, at least Shisui turned out nicely in spite of his hardships!
mm, I was confused by this part:
-x-
Shisui wasn’t -- well, he wasn’t Itachi. He wasn’t a prodigy, hadn’t been the best in his class, hadn’t had the most fortuitous of starts; at his birth, no one had come to mark him out for future greatness. But he was the best, and that was all that mattered.
-x-
So...if Itachi's the prodigy, how is Shisui the best?
Is this just Shisui thinking?
This phrase made me slow down to pronounce it and I love your little word combo: "scandalicious declaration". There were so many things that had be bursting out laughing, but I really loved that phrase!
And "Mamiya the Old Bag"... XD
I loved that personal touch of yours..it really characterized Shisui's light nature.
I really appreciated Kakashi's small part in the otherwise tense Hokage scene with Itachi. There were lots of would-be scary scenes in the story, but there was always something you included to make me laugh. That "obvious 180 turn" and Kakashi's shoving of "Trouble in Paradise" into Shisui's face...really, really great. Pure gold, for the lack of a less cliche expression!
And I loved the dreamland...when it came up a second time, I thought it might be foreshadowing for some sort of face-off with Itachi leading to Shisui's death and a final, permanent trip to the dreamland, but I'm so happy that that didn't happen. You characterized it very well though..I could imagine the black water and the thick atmosphere, especially the part about it smelling like red. Smelling like a color...unusual, but I could breathe it in there :)
Ahh. So this was extremely well-written. I usually go for more dark, angsty poetic fare that makes me depressed for long stretches of time, but I enjoyed this fic so much! It's my favorite characterization of Shisui yet, and you did justice to so many other characters. Sasuke was adorable with his combination of childish violence with touches of creepiness - oh wait, I really liked a phrase you wrote, let me find it..
Got it: "Shisui smirked. Somewhere within those walls was a sulking, foul-tempered seven-year-old who was probably glaring at him in simmering rage with a side of premature homoerotic frustration at this very moment."
Bah, that made me laugh so hard!
*happy sigh* Oh, I really liked your Itachi too. Nice collection of seriousness and just general Itachi-ness. There was a part where Shisui reflected on his friendship with Itachi that really rung with me. It was something about how at times Itachi drove him crazy, but he was happy and at times flattered that of all the people Itachi could have chosen to be close to, Itachi had chosen him.
Some people idealize Itachi - making him scarily perfect, extremely powerful, and devastatingly beautiful...but I appreciated how you kinda...brought out those things, but never actually...mentioned them. Does that make sense? Like...you never actually described Sasuke as "cute", "annoying", or "jealous". You let his actions, his huge eyes, his ineffectual glares do all the talking. Kinda the same with Itachi. You didn't go out and tell us what Itachi is like, you let us see him interact with Shisui and "see" him for ourselves.
And as I've already enthused before, I love your characterization of Shisui. So clever, and quite bad-assly powerful...but I never got overwhelmed by that ninja side of him until the fight. It was like he was a normal teenager with a stoic best friend and a crush on the aforementioned friend's mom...who just happened to be an amazing ninja. :D
And I adored that ending. Spot-on PERFECT. Everything wasn't completely resolved (like Mikoto with her conception of her son being homosexual and all), but that last line was just dead-on. Here it is: "“Shisui-kun,” Mikoto’s voice rang out softly through the pleasant haze. “The nurses told me it was time for your sponge bath. Would you like it now, or would you rather I came back later?” Shisui felt his grin spread to astronomical proportions. **-kicking, life-saving, and now love-winning? All in a day’s work."
It made me feel that no matter how sucky his life would get in the future, Shisui was utterly, happily alive in that moment. A great moment to freeze and end the story with.
Great job on this fic. I confess, I have exams right now and I'm studying myself to death, but in a moment of weakness, I clicked on a link to read this. Boy am I happy that I did! It really made me laugh the most that I have in a few days, and it was a breath of fresh, crisp, mountain air in my stuffy little room hole ^^
So have a great day Quillslinger, and sorry if this review comes from nowhere! (I see you wrote this fic in...gah, 2007! ^^; 2 years ago!)
When I have the time, I'm definitely going to check out your other stuff. Angsty stuff might make me cry (*happy tears*), but I've found a potential treasure source of delight. Going to come back to you someday! (soon, I hope!) ^^/ |