| About Tales of Attraction | Gravitation | Definitions | Criteria | Archiving |
Learn more about Gravitation, fanfiction and the archiving process. Use the links in the above bar to navigate this page.
| What is Gravitation? |
"Shuichi Shindou is determined to take his band Bad Luck to the top of the Japanese pop charts. With his drive, talent, and satiny singing voice, he just might stand a chance. But Fate throws a wrench into his well-oiled machine in the form of a handsome stranger named Yuki, a romance writer with an attitude. Yuki is Shuichi's biggest critic, but as the two young artists gravitate towards each other, friendship, and perhaps something more, is sure to blossom."
Synopsis © TOKYOPOP Inc 1997-2005
As the above synopsis suggests, the series focuses on the growing relationship between two men. This type of storyline will not appeal to everyone.
Gravitation is the creation of Maki Murakami and the original manga series was first published in Japan in 1996, spanning twelve volumes. Due to its huge popularity it has spawned a two-episode OVA (1999), a thirteen-episode animated TV series (2000) and eight audio dramas, featuring the voiceovers from the OVA and TV series.
The eleven-volume Remix doujinshi, drawn by Maki Murakami herself, was released in 2004. This series deviates from the original storyline and is far more sexually explicit. Whereas the original manga is shounen-ai, the Remix doujinshi is yaoi.
English translations of the original manga series were published by TOKYOPOP in 2003. The animated TV series was licensed to Right Stuf International, who released an English-dubbed version on four DVDs in 2004.
Although the original manga ended after twelve volumes, new chapters are currently being published in an online web anthology, Genzo, by Gentosha Comics.
More information about Gravitation, in its many guises, can be found here.
| Definitions |
What is fanfiction?
Writers of fanfiction base their stories on the characters and/or events of an original series, to which they do not own copyright. Works of fanfiction can build upon a character's traits, relationships, and history, fill in gaps in the original story, look at original events from a different perspective or take the characters on a completely new adventure!
Doujinshi
Doujinshi are essentially "fan comics". As with fanfiction they portray the original characters in new situations. The doujinshi artist may have their own style of drawing these characters, or they may be able to approximate the original artistry very closely.
Shounen-ai vs. Yaoi
Shounen-ai and yaoi are both Japanese terms use with reference to the content of manga and/or anime. The term shounen-ai literally means "boy love", i.e. romantic content between male characters. The term yaoi is reserved for more hardcore, sexually explicit content between men.
| How are the stories chosen? |
In my humble opinion, a good work of fanfiction will display a good understanding of the original characters and approach all situations with the required level of maturity. A high quality of spelling and grammar goes without saying.
My personal preferences are for introspective pieces that reveal much about a character's actions or reaction during an event. Of course, it's all down to the author's interpretation and I can appreciate stories that challenge my perception of a character, so long as it is in keeping with the original series.
To help me find the best Gravitation fanfiction stories, I started a community on LiveJournal.com, good_gravi_fics, where members can recommend their favourite Gravitation fanfics for archiving. If you have a favourite story that you would like to see archived here, then join the community and make a recommendation or email me the link!
| How does archiving work? |
All authors are contacted for their permission before their stories are archived here, since this constitutes reproduction. Their contact details (email address, FF.net profile, etc.) are only displayed with their authorisation.
This is a closed archive where only the Webmistress has the ability to add stories. There is currently no review mechanism on this site since most, if not all, of the stories featured here will have been completed and posted elsewhere. I generally don't feature multi-parters still "in progress". By featuring a story, I have decided it is of sufficient quality to recommend to others. Comments can be left about the general quality of the featured stories in the Guestbook.
I will consider giving visitors the ability to comment on stories if there is enough interest from visitors and featured authors, although security and keeping this site a friendly place will be my main concerns.