SSBB #53 Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Thankfully not this year.
It’s that time of the month again…what? no, not that time of the–THE TIME WHEN SHOUSETSU BANG*BANG UPDATES, asshole.
And we’ve made it all the way to issue #53 (collectively, anyway, I believe that I have more than 53 issues myself). This theme was Planes, Trains & Automobiles. This was a fairly short issue, overall; once I found the time to start reading the stories, I was done almost before I knew it. Only two of the stories were two-parts, and even those seemed to be on the short side of the two-part length options.
Several “accidental themes” appeared throughout; magic being I think the most important, but also podcasts were mentioned at least twice (I take notice, as a podcaster myself), and–I guess I don’t know if this counts as a theme or what, but I noticed it, and want to point it out; there was an unusually high ethnic representation among these stories. There’s usually some, but I think most of these stories featured at least one non-white. EDIT: Okay, I counted from what I could remember and got only four out of nine, but that’s still pretty good, considering.
Boys Keep Fucking Up My Car by shukyou: A guy with a crappy rust-bucket keeps repaying car repairs with sexual favors, despite repeated proof that it’s a terrible idea. Hot and heartwarming.
Flashes by Renaissance Makoto J.: In two parts. This was one about magic; a magician making trains vanish in very dramatic ways, and the magic-obsessed fan who follows his career. I still want to know how he did it. Stupid fiction, being non-real in reality while being real to itself.
Five Hours to Chicago by Kimy�� Tabibito: Two guys driving from Vermont to Chicago (through Michigan? isn’t Michigan out of the way for EVERYTHING? why would you ever go through Michigan?), spend the night in a truck stop, and get up to some things. Curious and sweet, left me wanting more of the story.
Woodward Avenue by Aosora Hikaru: A man who inherited a very fancy classic car from his uncle wants to get it back into shape to go in a fancy car parade (cruise?), and the mechanic he ends up with …both is and is not what he expected. This was pretty hot and interesting, had some nice character development for such a short story.
Railfans by Iron Eater: Two old friends reunited over miniature railroads. Fairly basic, but clever at points, and overall enjoyable.
A treatise on the mating habits of Bibliothecarus bibliothecarii by Himawari: Two librarian podcast hosts meet up at a conference. Something about this one was not quite on for me; I don’t know if it was content or style, but it wasn’t great, IMHO.
The Journey by Hyakunichisou 13: An odd little spoof of The Moth, about a guy’s journey through severe anxiety, with a side of romance. I think I enjoyed it more for what it represented than for what it was.
The Bus Driver; or, An Accidental Meeting by Zetto Rio: A bus driver gets a new regular rider. As a constant user of public transportation in the form of buses, I found this one to be entirely erroneous, and almost a little bit creepy. Although I’m also positive it wasn’t meant to be, and was more likely just written by someone who doesn’t ride many buses–or who’s buses are fundamentally different from the ones I ride. I think overall it would have been better if I hadn’t had real-life context of bus riding that I couldn’t shake.
A Genealogy of Magic by Kuruma Ebi: Saving the best for last, again, I see. Little to do with transportation vehicles, but much to do with traveling; a magic-obsessed young man visits the ancient family home of his magician friend, wonderful, magical insanity ensues. Hot, witty, a bit under-explained (not that I’m complaining), but a full-fleshed and interesting world.
