GRIT

-> "It stands for Global Ranma Insanity Thread. Also, grit gets into everything."

-> "No really, it's a long and complicated story."

Back in early 1996, a flamewar erupted in the UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}} newsgroup rec.arts.anime as to the merits of each of [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Ranma Saotome's]] many fiancees. So far, this was entirely normal.

Then something weird happened. One poster in the thread described the thread as all out war. Another poster thought this amusing enough to write a little story about some of the participants of the flame war waging all out trench warfare against each other.

Then other people in the flamewar jumped in and wrote more stuff about this trench war.

Then, somehow, it was revealed that this war was happening in Nerima, the setting of Ranma 1/2.

Then, somehow, the participants in this war ended up in and around the Tendou dojo and were interacting with the Ranma cast.

The original warfare premise was silently dropped, and what had begun as a fairly typical flamewar on rec.arts.anime had ended up as a full-fledged self-insert ranma fanfic / role-playing game / occasional discussion thread.

In its original form, it lasted for YEARS.

But, eventually, some nine (or was it ten?) years later, too many participants had left. There were far too many characters, half-finished plot threads, and because of how impenetrable it all was there weren't enough new participants joining. Progress slowed to a crawl. Frustrated with the lack of progress, more people left. Frustrated with GRIT being so slow and impenetrable, potential newcomers stayed away.

GRIT was obviously on its last legs.

There was one last gasp at keeping GRIT going with its Hiatus - there was an in-story skip of a year, during which old plot threads were supposed to be tied up and unused characters were supposed to leave... it didn't work. There simply weren't enough people participating.

Finally, after ten years or so, the original GRIT - the Ranma 1/2 roleplaying fanfic with self-insert Mary Sues, stopped. It didn't end, it just stopped, right in the middle of a tournament storyline.


'''The second coming, aka "GRIT in Adachi"'''

But GRIT hadn't died yet. A devoted core of the original [=GRITters=], plus some who had been patiently waiting to join in and lost their chance because GRIT had basically just died, decided to do a GRIT 2.

Basically, everything from the old GRIT was chucked out the window. The setting was now Adachi (another area in Tokyo) and centred around the bar that one of the characters owned. Theoretically the original GRIT was still happening, just over there in Nerima, but aside from a joke Christmas thread there were no crossovers with the original.

After three years, in mid 2009, this second GRIT died off as well.

'''Third time's the charm, aka "The GRIT Liner"'''

GRIT is still not dead. The same writers of the second GRIT decided to try again, with another new setting. {{Cool Train}} -- This time, GRIT is set on a train that travels through time and space, making random stops here and there, just long enough for Our Heroes to get off the train, see the sights, get into an exciting and wildly improbable adventure, and then dash back to the train before it leaves them behind. This is much like ''Manga/GalaxyExpress999 but with more humor to it.

It's a lot like Doctor Who.

This version of the GRIT story has only just started and is still picking up cast members. It is notable in that some [=GRITters=] from the original GRIT have returned and are participating.

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Has a hugely in-progress [[Characters/{{GRIT}} Characters page]].

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!!This fanfic/RPG thingy provides examples of:

* BackgroundMagicField: In the original GRIT, the Fire of the Dragon was a mysterious energy field surrounding and binding everyone and everything in the world. Only people with the correct genetic makeup were able to use it. Oh, and there was a Chosen One (actually, two, but who's counting?) who had greater power in the Fire than others. It could be used to do all sorts of things, including telekinesis, remote pillars of energy blasting upwards with great force, shapeshifting, magic, and stuff that seemed to be made up on the spot. [[Franchise/StarWars Does any of this sound familiar?]] About the only functional difference was that the Fire was ''all'' Dark Side.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: In the first GRIT, Kasumi Tendo, the nicest character in Ranma 1/2 by a hugely long shot, ended up as the [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Ringbearer]], complete with Ringwraiths that answered to her. She didn't really let it get to her and retained her nice and cheerful disposition.
* CallingYourAttacks: And how. GRIT was originally based on Ranma 1/2, which had attack calls. Also, many [=GRITters=] are anime fans and fighting game fans, and attack calls are very common there as well. The third GRIT also features a Kamen Rider, and he calls his attacks.
** A notable example is the character Ryuu-ou from the first GRIT, who once had an attack call so long that he was yelling it as he charged up the street, still yelling it as he waited for the doors of the pizza restaurant to open, and finally finished yelling it as he burst in and performed the actual attack.
** His student, Steve, occasionally did made-up-on-the-spot really long attack calls... nothing quite as long as Ryuu-ou's, though.
* CatGirl: In the original GRIT there was indeed a catgirl. Far from being typically ditzy and cattish, she was one of the most sensible characters and ran an apartment block.
* ContinuitySnarl: Sort of. Maybe. The original GRIT ran for around ten years and was trying to keep and make sense of most of its continuity. Considering that its continuity included a big bad energy vampire boss in a castle called Turnip Keep, a trench war, Kuno Kodachi being turned into a pillar of salt, lots of dimensional travel, and a quest for the Holy Hairclippers that took ''years'' of real-life time to resolve, things became somewhat hard to follow after a while.
* GenderBender: The shapeshifting water curses include ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'''s Gender Bender water curses. Then, because Jusenkyo curses were boring and old hat, other characters became Gender Benders via various other means. A common joke was that the main source of female characters was genderbent male characters. Leading to...
* JumpPhysics: Well, yes. There's lots of super-high jumping, with a liberal amount of impossibly long hang-time. Of particular note is Sho in the 3rd GRIT, who as a Kamen Rider has all sorts of impossible [[JumpPhysics Jump Physics]].
* MandysLawOfAnimeGenderBending: There were quite a few characters who started off as male, were turned female, and for whatever reason stayed that way. Whether it just for a laugh, for serious psychological reasons, Author Appeal...
* PowerCreepPowerSeep: The original GRIT brought in references to different continuities left and right, and featured a lot of fighting and one-upmanship, so power inflation was somewhat inevitable.
* ResetButton:
** There was a much-vaunted Hiatus of an in-story year. During that year all sorts of things were supposed to be resolved and plotlines tied up and, bascially, reset GRIT back to a clean slate that would be much easier to write for. This Reset Button, however, didn't work.
** Shortly afterwards, groaning under the weight of too many characters and plotlines, the original GRIT was left where it is and the second GRIT started.
* {{Shapeshifting}}: The original GRIT was directly based on ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' and so many of its characters ended up with that series' shapeshifting water curses.
* TournamentArc: There are at least two tournament arcs: one back in the very beginning (the "Eric Pollen Weedwhacker Tournament"... or something) and one right around the time the first GRIT died.
* TWordEuphemism: The original run had a character named P-Word.
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