Hi!
Just read 'A Panda's dream, and I'd like to say that I thought it was beuatiful. It was very dream like and ethereal, I felt, but perhaps a little too subtle. I've read it thrice, and still have little idea what's going on.

There are parts that will suprise Ranma fans, such as Shampoo's death

Which seemed to have zero effect on Ranma and Akane. If /I/ saw someone get shot dead infront of me, by some mysterious task force, in a country where guns are more illegal than heroine, /I'd/ be pretty freaked out.

Ranma's curse being intentionally brought on by his father, and Ranma 's curse locked into his female body (to say nothing of Akane's story). 

Say what? Guess I missed /that/. Just another of the list of questions that need answering.

As for it being hard to follow, I certainly agree, as reading back over it I don't give a great deal of clues as to who speaks, except that it almost always follows a back and forth sequence.

The only bit I had trouble with was Akane phone conversation with Yuri. When I first read that I was rather tired at the time and Imanaged to /successfully/ read it as a full dialogue! Go figure.

It's especially hard in this case because the characters do not follow their usual mannerisms. To be honest, I didn't really care about making the dialogue easy-to-follow, although that's something I'll consider in the future. 

It wasn't the dialogue /I/ had problems with...

Hey, does a fic have to be easy to follow? Does it work with Panda's Dream, in the FFML's opinion? I'm curious.

Of course not, it just means it's more up market and intellectual. Not necesarily a good thing in itself, but you carried it off rather well, IMO.

Actually, I think it was essential for that vague, dreamy atmosphere it seems to have.

What I did have problems with was picking up the little clues as to what Akane and Ranma's relationship was becoming. I picked most of them up on the second pass, I think, but I still feel like you've set down before us a huge bowl of delicious icecream, but only let us lick the serving spoon.

I wan't more, damn it!

/PLEASE/ write a foolow up - there are so, so many questions left un answered, and so many more that could be asked. I'm not saying that you should write a 'normal' fic with a pleasant mix of dialogue, internal monologue and explanatory narrative... but something with more substance is required.

Perhaps a retelling and expansion upon the story from one (or more) character's pov, written in 1st p.p.

Your /REALLY/ have to do more with this though! It's the first fic that I read that I've been left thinking about (and pining for more of) for days instead of hours!


Anyhow,

Thanks for a beautiful fic,

Ja ne,
-Alex Timiney

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