Hello! Been lurking on this list for a while now, mostly because I didn't have anything to say. But now I er, do. So I'm posting my opinions.. brought to you by crack, too much time spent away from homework, and, er, me. I cut and pasted this entry from several posts, so those quotes that I refer to are between apostrophes- which might get a little confusing, sorry. There might also be a couple of spoilers for both manga and anime here, so for those who don't like that sort of thing.. "Keisuke: Bi. Happy to get it anyway he can. Knows he's good looking and doesn't worry about it. If he wants something/someone, he has no doubt he's going to get it." "Kei takes it for granted that he's gonna get whatever it is that he aims for, whether it be a person or goal. Self-confidence is definitely not one of his weaknesses. He's also quite the charmer. Can you imagine being the focus of his attention and /not/ succumbing to his little-boy charm? Whoever he's trying to seduce has no chance. And why should the little brat limit himself to only half of the population, right?" In manga 23, they tell us that Keisuke used to have a girlfriend, but when he turned eighteen, he broke up with her to concentrate on racing practice. In that volume, he is also approached by a female FC driver (who could be seen by some circles as the perfect match for him, because she's a competent racer, nice, pretty, and willing to understand that he needs to spend lots of time practicing.) He turns her down immediately and makes her cry- he says something to the effect of "it's a pity, but that fellow is practicing everyday. Everyday." (that fellow referring to Takumi, the other racer for Project D.) It's also revealed that since eighteen, he hasn't had a single romantic relationship. At least, that his racing friends know about. =P "Seiji: Straight. Very aware of his manliness. Even his long hair is all about his virility. (But does it impress the girls?)" ...I dunno. I always thought that his submissiveness/loyalty? to Kyouichi was rather suspicious. When he was at the race between Kyouichi and Ryousuke, I thought he looked rather dressed up. As if preparing for a /celebration/ after.. "Yuuichi: Busybody. Probably straight, but... how come I can see him turning up once every couple of months some where in full drag? (I believe that most cross-dressers are straight men.) " Yuuichi strikes me as being Itsuki to Bunta's Takumi. Which scares me sometimes, because I can see Bunta/Yuuichi slash somewhere. ^^;;;;; And on the fanfiction issue.. I've never personally made any remarks about any initial D fanfiction.. but I've read some of the comments, and I think I understand. Lots of fic just plunges straight into romantic interaction between the characters, without any explanation or leadup (or at least very minimal ones) as to how they got there in the first place. As to the racing issue, I dunno. Sometimes I think that understanding the technicalities of racing isn't as important as understanding the passion underlying the racing. We all have our obsessions, no?