Title: The Dark Lords of Nerima
Author: claymade
Rating: T, its second sequel is M
Genre: Adventure/Humor/Drama
Status: Complete
Fandom: Ranma and Sailor Moon
Pairings: N/A for the first story, Ranma/Akane for the second
Summary: Ranma and Ryouga are no strangers to trouble. But when they accidentally convince both the Sailor Senshi and the Dark Kingdom that they're megalomaniacal villains bent on world domination, trouble starts to take on a whole new meaning.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3566724/1/The_Dark_Lords_of_Nerima
Misc.: This story has a sequel titled The Dark Lords Strike Back (LINK), which is also Complete, and a third sequel is currently in the works.


What starts out with a single Youma meeting Ryouga in her mad dash to not get killed by the Sailor Senshi leads to an over the top three way conflict between the Nerima Crew, the Dark Kingdom, and the Sailor Senshi as a consequence. The plot is fast paced, and the writing is hilarious at many points throughout. The only trouble I had with this fic is there were too many fight scenes, but even so they were very well written. Ranma and Ryouga set up an over-the-top hammy scenario to buy time for the rest of the crew, leading directly into the events in the sequel, known as The Dark Lords Strike Back.

The second sequel focuses on the fight between The Dark Kingdom and a hodge-podge collection of many different factions and tribes from the Ranma setting banding together in an all out brawl against them, along with the growing relationships between various characters. The third chapter when it first came out pissed off a lot of people due to the author using the Sailor Moon reset button after all that character growth and drama, but the author managed to make a decent save by the final chapter of that arc.

There is a third sequel in the works, and it will appear at the fukufics forums where it will be put up for constructive criticism before it gets posted at FFN.

Overall, the first story gets a 5/5 from me due to the quality and hilarity of the work, but the second sequel gets a 4/5 from due to the fact that the third chapter of it felt like such a letdown, even if the author did make a half-assed save with the final chapter.

 

This story is one of the few good Ranma stories I've read; it doesn't bash any of the characters, not even the most commonly bashed ones like Akane, Mousse, or the Kunos. You don't need much knowledge of either series to appreciate this story, the Sailor Moon half is a bit more detailed in story than the Ranma side, but the explanation for Ranma's side is plenty for someone without knowledge of the base manga to follow. Really a masterfully done fanfiction. 5/5.

EDIT: The sequel didn't seem much of a letdown to me at all; the author never said that it was anything more than an interlude. The real meat of the story is coming up in the sequel, and, honestly, the reset button only improves the story, which was always about the character interactions and growth over the actual fighting. Time travel (or in this case, simulated time travel) that goes wrong is generally good for improving character interactions. I mean, look at what happened to Ryoga at the end of chapter four. I wasn't expecting that to happen (well, at least until the author made it rather obvious what with how much Ryoga kept worrying over it).

 

How familiar do you have to be with Ranma or Sailor Moon to follow along?

 

Not very familiar at all. The author does a good job explaining both halves and if you ever get a little confused about something then a open up a wiki in another window or something. You shouldn't need to use a wiki, but both Sailor Moon and Ranma are pretty huge manga/anime so if you can't keep track...

 

Imagine you're reading a story where the characters go through a multitude of challenges, growth, and hardships, and the story finally reaches a conclusion where they overcome those hardships and earn their ending. Now imagine the author undoes all of that struggle and conflict with poorly thought out time-travel.

That is why the third chapter initially pissed off a lot of people, as until the author released the fourth chapter, it felt like he had undone all he had written. In other words, it felt like a great waste, letdown, and insult. It might have been lead-up to the fourth chapter, but it was still poorly done, especially for those of us who read it and gave Constructive Criticism for it at the time.

Now mind you, I do agree that the fourth chapter was a decent setup for the conflict to take place in the third yet-to-be-written sequel, but chapter 3 of The Dark Lords Strike Back still leaves a sour taste in my mouth due to how it was done.

 

Absolutely love this story/series, great grasp on the characters and probably the story in which the essence of Ranma 1/2 is captured the best. The humor, the plans, the fights, the interactions, everything works just as its source material.

5/5

 

I read this a while ago; it's pretty good. 4/5.

 

Dunno if anyone has been reading the third fic in the series, but just updated. Most exciting moment of the day. =P

Really enjoying the third one so far. Not as good as the first one, and not liking the new enemy all that much, but liking the interaction between the Sailor Scouts, the Nerima Wrecking Crew, and so on.

 

Update was awesome, one of my favourite updating stories by far. It takes a few months between updates but it always delivers a 20k update, so, worth the wait.

Just love everything in it (okay, admittedly, the villain is sorta meh) but I love the interactions between the Senshi and the NWC. Poor Pluto and Mercury trying to understand the "logic" behind the schemes of Ranma and Co is just entertaining to witness.

Also, I cannot be the only one who ships the hell out of Saturn and Ryouga =P

 

Hell yes. Cutest Ranma pairing I've read. Shipping that hard.

Spoiler

Almost wish that Ryouga hadn't done that big reveal so early. Would have loved to have seen more of Hotaru struggling with her feelings for the evil dark warlord for a bit longer.


Also, for some reason I've always enjoyed reading the reactions of the Senshi's friends/family when their identities get revealed. Enjoying how Dark Lords Ascendant has been doing that, though the only other fic I've read that has that did it better.

 

The third story is good, but not as good as either of the first two. The first two were far more fast paced, had better written action scenes, and the first one was funnier too. The third one is good, this latest chapter especially, but its kind of getting old, and I wish it was faster paced. I feel weird making that observation, when the latest chapter was extremely fast paced, action packed, and funny, but I do think my criticism apply to the earlier chapters, even though they don't to the latest.

 

Whoa, an update yesterday.

Still enjoyed it a lot, but I think things are getting too serious in this fic. The focus is shifting too much on Tanizaki and less on the interactions between the Senshi and the Nerima wrecking crew. The two groups finally clearing up their misunderstandings felt a bit anti-climatic and now that it's done, I find myself less interested in the main conflict of Ascendant.

 

I am actually looking forward to how this new cooperation will play out. Stretching the misunderstandings even further would have been pushing things, imo. I am satisfied to see the two parties working together after, what, 400k of being adversaries?

Besides, this is the NWC we are talking about here, it's not like this is going to work without a hitch.

So yeah, it was a fun a chapter, was grinning a lot when I've read this. it's probably the most fun story that I am following at the moment. Poor Mercury, she broke when she tried to understand Ranma's plans and the shenanigans of the NWC. Same with Pluto. As if there was some sense or logic behind them all.

 

This is still getting updates. I admit, i am not quite as into it as I was with stories one and two, mainly because seeing how we get nearer the end, things tend to be more serious overall and we get less and less typical Ranma comedy moments (although they still are there, only fewer of them).

Still, story is going strong. The stakes are clear and high and it's rather engaging.

Anyone still following this?

 

This third story has really killed my interest.

The charm of Dark Lords, and well, pretty much most Ranma/Sailor Moon fics is the fun, lighthearted, high energy action you get. Anytime they get too serious, they tend to get boring for me (with the one exception being Haigeki, which kept me immersed despite being serious the whole way through). Sometimes it can work well for the climaxes and there have been some pretty cool Ranma/SM stories that do build up to quite epic proportions, but I feel like a prolonged conflict like this hasn't worked.

The new OC antagonist and his plan of world domination is just boring and typical. The only thing this sequel had going for it was the tension building to the "big reveal" where both sides finally allied up. Once we reached that, I found my interest plummet significantly and have really had to force myself through the chapters.