First off, much in the spirit of the EFRS, there's no bar against reviewing of fellow group member's work (or for the said SEELE member to adding a comment, rather than a review of his own). And secondly, there's no holds barred in our reviews of each other either!

T3B goes something like this: Shinji is recovered from Unit 01 following his absorption after the battle with the Fourteenth Angel - but with the slight problem of him emerging in infant form. As you might expect, havoc and hilarity ensues. The fic had its genesis in a doujinshi (non-hentai) that is noted at the end of the first chapter.

The story proceeds to explore how the infant Shinji affects all those around him - concentrating on Misato, Asuka and Rei. While Alain's previous series, TOILI, concentrated on romantic love, this series looks more closely at maternal love and all those other emotions (positive and negative) that babies then to evoke in those around them. Certainly there is a strong vein of the sentimental about all of this and ardent feminists might complain about a baby-centred fic being written by a male. But leaving political correctness aside (and pointing out that the author does have at least one female consultant), the story and its events do seem plausible enough for me.

What I personally enjoy most about this series is how Shinji's sudden transformation affects his fellow pilots. Asuka's anger, jealousy and emotional turmoil seem fitting given her own troubled childhood and her declaration in the latter half of the NGE series about not wanting to have children. I am curious to see how Alain will resolve with this thread. And Rei... the way she is written in this series just brings a smile to my face. Given her genetic relationship to Shinji, it is just so fitting how her maternal instincts have just kicked in. Though the change in Rei is somewhat less subtle and certainly less gradual than in Chris Burke's 'Rei's Birthday Present' (after all we are talking about a baby in the former case and a puppy dog in the latter), it is a definite pleasure - a Shinji x Rei relationship that doesn't bring the problem of incest into it! (Haha!)

Presumably the series will end when Shinji is transformed back into his 14 year old self as the title won't quite fit thereafter but it would be interesting to see what lasting effect this tweak to the NGE universe will have on the rest of the plotline. But perhaps I presume too much. Am looking forward to further installments.

SEELE-06
October 26th 2000

How could I remain silent after my ego has been flattered in such a manner?

While "The One I Love is..." raised more hype than "Tokyo-3 Baby-sitters", if ask, I'd probably say that I'm prouder of T3B than TOILI. While well done (or so I believe) TOILI's plot isn't much original; if you want love triangle fics, just look at Ranma 1/2 or Tenchi Muyo fics and you'll be happy for quite some time. The only novelty of TOILI was that I was the first to actually make a sorta believable love triangle last for so many chapters.

This is where T3B differs. If we ignore Axel Terizaki's "Just a Child" fic (inspired by the plot behind T3B), "Tokyo-3 Baby-sitters" has more of a unique feel to it. Oh, there are other stories a bit similar, like Chris Burke's "Rei's Birthday Present", but as far as I know, nothing quite like it.

The story does have it's flaws, the biggest being Rei's characterization, which, while not as bad as TOILI's, is still relatively out of character. But at least, I think I'm getting better at characterizing her. Besides, I have the excuse here that a baby generally drastically change someone's life. Not to mention Rei's background.

One other problem are the additionnal drama additions to the plot (Asuka and Hikari) which takes away quite a bit of focus from the initial main theme, baby-sitting baby Shinji. Whether it'll be for the better or worse remain yet to be seen.

But the greatest challenge lays not only with some of the highly dramatic scenes I've planned to write, but also with a fact mentionned by my collegue. I'm male. I'm a single male (yes, I'm available girls!). One who is an only child, hence didn't have a baby brother or sister. Who's friends didn't have baby brothers or sisters. Who never baby-sitted in his life. All things considered, I think I still managed to actually do okay so far. And thankfully, if I do make a stupid mistake, I do have the help of two lovely female consultants.

Still, I enjoy working on this story. After one year spent on writing a story under Shinji's POV, it's refreshing to actually put our favorite wuss aside for some time. While not in depth, T3B gave me the opportinity to work with Misato, Rei, Asuka and Hikari, as well as a bit with the supporting cast: Makoto, Touji & Kensuke, Kodama, Maya & Ritsuko, Kaji and recently Fuyutsuki. And I'm looking forward to the Gendo scenes.

How will the story end?

That's a secret ^_^

That's the magic of fanfiction. I could bring back Shinji to normal or follow a different path and actually pull out of my sleeve a follow up series happening something like four of five years in the future and showing how Shinji's adoptive mother (Misato? Rei? Asuka? Hikari? Maya? Ritsuko? Yui? a sex changed Kaworu?) is coping with her new life...