Richard:
I think you have proven yourself again to be one of the best
fanfic writers around. I mean this. This story hit me hard. I felt
that a member of my own family had died. It was physically painful to
read the scenes where Nuku Nuku was senile. She was such a bright and
wonderful person in your fanfics.... she makes her anime self seem
stereotypical and shallow. You did not writer her as her creators made
her. Instead, you're like Papa-san... taking something and giving it
a soul. And you've now seen her from her birth to her death.
Don't change this. Yes, there were some spelling and grammar
problems, but keep the end scenes and, like Papa-san, let her rest in
the end. It's not a 'happy' ending, but all happy endings are premature.
As Neil Gaiman once wrote, all stories have happy endings if you know
where to end them. (I'm paraphrasing.) You have shown Nuku's life
in it's entirety. She didn't touch millions of people, like I thought
you might have her do, but she did make the lives of those around her
brighter, and her effect will spread.
Oh, certainly, there are unanswered questions... what ever
happed to Eiimi, for instance? How do Kyouko and Arisa view Atsuko
now? What happened later in the cast's lives? While it might be nice
to know these answers, life doesn't tell us everything. Someone
suggested that you stretch out Nuku Nuku's collapse. I don't think so.
DOn't prolong her suffering, but let her show some dignity, as she
does in what I read.
Gee, I guess this had more of an effect on me then I realized.
Actually, I feel really inferior now, because it's SO good. I mean this.
You have set a challenge before the FF community. I wonder if anyone
can match this.
I'm sorry if I'm spewing forth the praise, but this was powerful.
It brought tears to my eyes... perhaps unshed tears, but they were there.
Congratulations. I will miss your Nuku stories, but to write another one
would be... difficult. You'd have to top this. I don't know if that's
possible.
(Are you blushing yet? :)