Fanfic / Boy Scouts ½

A dog, a duck, a woman, a squirrel, and a cat.

Boy Scouts ½ ^note  (pronounced, Boy Scouts One Half) is a fan fiction series, set in the same universe as Takahashi Rumiko's Ranma ½, which follows an entirely original group of characters who are Boy Scouts living in Massachusetts, some of whom are a group of Self Inserted characters. After a trip to China, five of the members of Troop 192 find themselves suffering curses from the same training ground of cursed springs that some of the Ranma ½ characters had once visited.

The series has, unusually for fan fiction, spawned a franchise consisting of three spin-offs and a sequel. The components of "The Boy Scouts ½ Universe" are:

• Boy Scouts ½ ^note  (also known as, "The Main Series," or, "Year One") — After a visit to the "Training Ground of Cursed Springs" Jusenkyo, five Boy Scouts from Massachusetts go through life dealing with the challenges that their new aqua-transformative abilities (and the desire to hide them) bring.
• Perspectives — The Darker and Edgier trials and tribulations of a trio of friends who work at the Holyoke Mall.
• Kenny's Laboratory — The psudo-scientific misadventures of young super genius Kenneth Pendrell and his ambiguously able assistant, Becker.
• Boy Scouts ½ in Japan — A year has passed since they first became cursed, and now needing someplace to hide from a secret organization bent on their destruction the cursed members of Boy Scout Troop 192 find themselves living in Japan... and at Maison Ikkoku!
• To Conquer the World — Deep in the woods of Moses Scout Reservation, Martha Wadley and her gaggle of squirrels plot world revolution.

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Provides Examples Of:

The Main Series (Boy Scouts ½) and The Franchise As a Whole

• Aborted Arc: While it is still referenced occasionally, mainly for continuity, the "Adult Conspiracy" plot became much less prominent once Michael Quadrozzi (the author, not the character) was no longer writing for the series.
• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Kenny's vast underground facility? It is his laboratory!
• Affably Evil: Proctor is genuinely kind and friendly, but because he is Justy's loyal servant, he always ends up on the opposing side of the main characters.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Justy Yung. He sees everyone else in the world as his playthings to be stepped over on his way to world domination. There is a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness where this is concerned, as in his first appearance (before he became Senior Patrol Leader, he was actually acting somewhat subservient to the other characters. He soon became the psychotic laughing monster everyone knows and loathes.
• Always Identical Twins: The Porter twins.
  • Polar Opposite Twins: Kirstin is a gentle, sweet homemaker. Nicole is a greedy, ruthless money seeker.
  • Twin Switch: When involved in a production of Romeo and Juliet, Nicole, who had been playing Juliet, foists her roll upon Kirstin so that Kirstin might get to kiss Aaron, who is playing Romeo.
• Anime Chinese Girl: Perfume. She is, after all, from the same village as Shampoo.
• Ascended Extra: Richard Palmer was originally supposed to be a cameo appearance for a contest winner. He ended up being the main antagonist of the storyline he appeared in.
• Barehanded Blade Block: Hughes once preformed this feat while being attacked by Perfume. Even though Perfume is typically portrayed as inept, Hughes was rather impressed with himself.
• The Barnum: Nicole Porter, being an Expy of the original work's Tendo Nabiki, qualifies for this. It seems to stem partially from a Money Fetish, although she does seem to like to contribute some of her gains to household expenses. (She and her sisters are orphans, and otherwise survive only on inheritances and her elder sister's income.) Her monetary pursuits have certainly made her quite the High-School Hustler.
• Big "NO!": There is an Easter Egg of a story, Boy Scouts Muyo, the entire text of which is, in a giant sized font, "No!" (The brevity of the text of the story itself does not prevent it from having an extravagantly lengthy title and a few paragraphs of author's and editor's notes at the end.)
• Christmas Episode: Part 13 of Boy Scouts ½.
  • Also, Perspectives VI is this for Perspectives, taking place during and interweaving with the same events as Boy Scouts ½, part 13.
    • Then Perspectives VII follows directly after that and is Yet Another Christmas Carol.
• Dirty Old Man: A youthful version in the form of Derek from Troop 180. Dirty Kid does not apply, as Derek is an older teenager and knows exactly what he is doing. His tendencies can be quite excessive, and were even weaponized on one occasion. Derek is one of the characters based on a real person, but any such tendencies the real person had were exaggerated to turn the fictional version of him into an Expy of the original work's Dirty Old Man character, Happosai.
• Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: A few of the stories have titles that fit this trope, likely in homage to the fact that the original work often used such titles.
  • Boy Scouts ½, part 6: Enter Troop 42! Girl Scouts Arrive at the Church in the Acres
  • Boy Scouts ½, part 11: Matty's New Wardrobe? Shopping Spree from Hell
  • Boy Scouts ½, part 26: Ultimate Team Up? Trouble For the Jusenkyo Scouts!
• Expy: Some of the original characters are obviously inspired by characters in other works.
  • The Porter sisters are expies of the Tendo Sisters from Ranma ½, with Sarah being the tsundere love interest of the main character (like Akane), Kirstin being the cooking and cleaning caregiver (like Kasumi), and finally Nicole being the money lover with questionable principles (like Nabiki). This is lampshaded with the first names of Kirstin and Nicole starting with the same letters as those they are expies of.
  • Another Expy would be Justy, whose similarity to Katsuhiko Jinnai of El-Hazard: The Magnificent World was even lampshaded in Universe when some of the other characters were watching that show and thought Jinnai seemed familiar. (Further lampshaded out of canon when Justy and Jinnai were paired against each other in an Anime Deathmatch.) In this case, however, the shared initial was a coincidence. (See this page's entry on This Is a Work of Fiction.)
  • Despite being based on a real person, the character of Derek Provost is also an Expy of Happosai.
  • Taylor Kuntz shares his initials with Kuno Tatewaki and is basically what you would get if you took away Kuno's pretension of class. (These two were also lampshaded in an Anime Deathmatch story.)
• Fanfic Tropes:
  • Dead Fic: It seems like this at times, with occasionally a few years going by between updates! But it has come back from the dead more then once.
  • Elsewhere Fic: Set in the same universe as Ranma ½, but following an entirely different group of characters living in Massachusetts.
  • Fan Verse: Boy Scouts ½ started as a stand alone series. Then one guy who got a cameo in one story decided to do a spin-off. Then what had been intended as a stand alone side story got expanded into a second spin-off. Next thing you know, The Boy Scouts ½ Universe!
  • Gender Flip: The original work had as its main character Ranma, a male who could become a female. Boy Scouts ½ continued this by having the character of Matthew Atanian similarly cursed as a male who would transform into a female. But then later in the series we meet Perfume who explores the Gender Flipped version of this: she is naturally a female, but fell into a spring that curses her to transform into a male.
    • One segment of the story Of Possible Alternatives, Girl Scouts ½, is a much more traditional example of this trope... although, curiously, the aforementioned Perfume is the one named character who is seemingly not gender flipped.
  • I Do Not Own: Stories typically conclude with a disclaimer outlining what elements may be borrowed from other works. As time went on, these disclaimers expanded to include general author's notes, as well.
  • Original Character: In the sense that they are not characters from the original work? Almost all of them! In the sense that they are completely original? Well... that may be a slightly smaller list... (That is, if one does not consider characters based on or inspired by real persons as "original characters.")
  • Self-Insert: The creator of the series has promoted it as "The world's most gratuitous self-insertion fan fiction!" Many of the main characters are based on the authors or people they know.
  • This Is a Work of Fiction: Word of God has indicated that some of the more adversarial characters are not at all based on real people with their names vaguely altered. Also, one of the characters, Aaron Abdowmassy, got himself a new last name when the real Aaron, years later, decided he didn't want to be associated with the series anymore. (This also lead to the "fictitious" Aaron Abdowmassy being credited with authorship of some of the stories!)
  • Transplanted Character Fic: Combines with Running Gag where the character of Hibiki Ryoka is concerned.
  • Webcomic Time: The series began being written in 1997 and was a contemporary work. It is, at the time of this writing, 2013 and in story we have progressed as far as... 1998.
  • Web Serial Novel
• Forceful Kiss: When Matty Hayes receives one of these from Perry, a new Boy Scout in the troop, she is rather Squicked. This is understandable, given that Matty is naturally a heterosexual male. When "Matty" attempts to break the kiss off by reverting to his natural form, there is surprise all around when both parties involved in the kiss have changed genders, and "Perry" is revealed to be Perfume.
  • The Forceful Kiss was intended as a Kiss of Death, and its giver intended to follow it up with killing Matty. Alas, Perfume is not very good at the whole killing thing, and the attempts (which also are made against the other Jusenkyo cursed Scouts) have a habit of failing.
• Foreshadowing: Boy Scouts ½, part 6 features a scene at the end with an old Asian man who wore an ornamental bell hanging from his belt. Unobserved by anyone else, he was watching the main characters and cryptically made some comments about them before walking away. Boy Scouts ½, part 11 featured Matty Hayes, out shopping, when while in a changing room she has the odd feeling she is being watched. When she looks to see if there is anyone there, she doesn't see anyone. However, she faintly hears the sound of a bell. Finally, at the end of Boy Scouts ½, part 21 this man makes another unobserved appearance, this time hinting that the time for something would be soon...
  • Readers who noted these events might have also noticed that the very last story in the series (epilogue aside) is titled, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and might have finally expected some payoff for these cryptic events then. But it isn't until the very last sentence of that story that anything that might be relevant to these previous hints occurs, when an old Chinese man leaps from the woods and attacks them. ^note  Even this proves to be a Bait-and-Switch as this old Chinese man is later revealed to not be the one who was previously watching the main characters and who wears the bell hanging from his belt. The bell-wearing old Chinese man is properly introduced in the first story of the sequel series, however, when he saves the main characters from this attacker.
• Gender Bender: A given with a Ranma ½ fic. One of the main characters, Matthew Atanian, fell into the same cursed spring as Ranma and thus has the same curse. A later introduced character is a woman, Perfume, suffering from the inverse curse. See Involuntary Shapeshifting below.
• Hand Wave: In real life, the Boy Scouts has a policy that any interactions between youth members and adults has to have at least two adults present as a safety: to avoid placing children at risk if a Scoutmaster has unsavory intentions, or to protect the adults from untrue accusations. Matthew Atanian is an Assistant Scoutmaster, and spends a lot of time hanging out with his friends who are youth in the program. Matthew, being 20 as the story begins, is not exceptionally older then his friends who are all mid - late teens. Still, he spends a lot of time hanging out with his friends, even away from Scouting functions, where he is the only adult present. This is largely a matter of plot, as it would be difficult for them to get into a lot of the situations they do if they had to drag an additional person who was over 18 along with them — especially if this person was unaware of their curses. Still, in the real world the amount of time Matthew spends with his friends could lead Matthew into much trouble. This is Hand Waved on a few occasions, with Matthew being aware of the policies but glossing over them as he knows he has no ill intent and he trusts his friends to not mention his ignoring of said policies to those who might take issue with it.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Played with. To anyone who knows "Matty Hayes" is actually Matthew Atanian, it should be no surprise what her sexual preference is. However, it was quite a shock to Taylor Kuntz when he discovered his beloved red haired woman was a lesbian, and Matty used this shock to get away from him.
  • Fortunately, when Kuntz later outed Matty to the Porter sisters, they took the news much more in stride.
• House Wife: With Sarah Porter having to work to support herself and her sisters, and Nicole Porter more interested in her own shady business dealings, Kirstin Porter is left to tend to household matters. She does not seem upset by this arrangement, which makes sense for a character who is an Expy of Yamato Nadeshiko Tendo Kasumi.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Boy Scouts ½ had three Crossovers with Jason Bertovich's series Anime Deathmatch. For Boy Scouts ½, they are non-Canon, but end up creating their own mini-canon where events from one are remembered and follow through into the next. In Anime Deathmatch canon, the first one is Retconed into a dream and the subsequent ones follow this, although it is questioned in-story how, if the first one had been just a dream, it could have been referenced in Anime Deathmatch's first anniversary special. To summarize:
  • Boy Scouts ½ exists as fiction in Anime Deathmatch, and the crossover episodes are dreams... Or Was It a Dream??
  • The crossover episodes are completely non-canon for Boy Scouts ½, and there is no indication that Anime Deathmatch exists at all in any of the canon stories... except how then in Perspectives did Jason have a dream involving the Deathmatch Emcees?
  • And finally, since the crossover episodes had the authors as characters (and even combatants), acknowledging both series as fictions, Mutually Fictional comes into play.
  • In a recently added fourth Boy Scouts ½ Anime Deathmatch story, one of the things that the character of Toro seems to blame for the downfall of Anime Deathmatch is, "that stupid fan fiction," (implied to be Boy Scouts ½), and also muses on the part he subsequently played in having the website that hosted that fan fiction taken down.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: It is a Ranma ½ fic. Thus, characters have curses by which they transform into alternate forms when splashed with cold water, and revert to their natural forms with hot water.
  • Aaron Abdowmassy becomes a duck.
  • Matthew Atanian becomes a woman who has adopted the name Matty Hayes.
  • Bill Gelinas becomes a dog.
  • Bill Hughes becomes a cat who later becomes adopted by Nicole Porter as her pet, Neko-chan. ^note  Basically, Japanese for Kitty.
  • Mike Quadrozzi becomes a squirrel.
  • A character introduced later in the series, Perfume, becomes a man who has adopted the name Perry.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On the surface, Nicole Porter may seem like a conniving girl with a Money Fetish who enjoys the game of getting money a bit too much... And, well, yes. She is. But she also loves and wouldn't hurt her family and close friends. (As for less close friends... well, at least the schemes used against them tend to be a bit less dastardly.)
• Just for Fun: Can there be any other explanation for the non-Canon Anime Deathmatch stories?
• Lampshade Hanging: Shut up, Bill!
• Love at First Sight: Matthew Atanian, towards Sarah Porter. Unfortunately for him...
  • Hate at First Sight: Sarah Porter, towards Matthew Atanian. It doesn't help that when they met, she was going through a Does Not Like Men phase due to a then recent unpleasant break-up. Also not helping is that she has caught him on occasion in situations that lead her to believe his intentions towards her are less then honorable.
• Line-of-Sight Name & Sue Donym: When Matthew Atanian needs an alias for his female form, the name he comes up with combines both of these. That name is Matty Hayes: Matty, as he never liked being called that thinking it sounded too feminine; and Hayes, after a character in the Robotech novel he was reading at the time.
• Mandatory Line: Jim "The one with the red hair?" Anderson.
• Merit Badges for Everything: Usually avoided, as several real merit badges (such as Archery, Citizenship In the Community, Collections, Communications, Farm Mechanics, Pioneering, and Theater) have been mentioned. However, on one occasion Kenny mentioned working on the Advanced Theoretical Quantum Astrophysics merit badge. Of course, Bill Gelinas was immediately suspicious.
• Minor Living Alone: Kenny is the youngest of the main characters, most of whom are also minors. Almost all of them have had family, including parents, appearing in story or at least referenced as existing. The Porter twins are orphans, but live with their adult older sister. But in the case of Kenny, the narrative seems to go out of its way to avoid even mentioning any family for him, even when the story has scenes which take place in house which is described as having an "un-lived-in" feel to it. (Kenny himself likely lives in his massive underground laboratory.)
• Missing Steps Plan: Kirstin's plan to get past Sarah's Hate at First Sight for Matthew by having her get to know him better as Matty seems to be not the most well thought out plan there is.
  • Phase One: Sarah and "Matty" get close.
  • Phase Two: ????? ^note  To transfer this wellbeing from Matty to Matthew would involve revealing that their friendship has had a major lie at its core.
  • Phase Three: Love! Sarah falls for Matt and they live happily ever after!
• Mysterious Past: Kenny's house seems strangely unlived in, with no hint that anyone else other then him may occupy it. Keep in mind that Kenny is a young boy, barely old enough to be in Boy Scouts. Where are his parents? Does he have parents? And where did his massive underground laboratory come from?
• Mythology Gag: Boy Scouts ½ In Japan Origins: The Boys includes a reference to the never written third Troop 180 Chronicles story, and the unresolved cliffhanger this left from the previous Troop 180 Chronicles story:
  Mike: What about what happened to you on that shooting sports camping trip we went on with Troop 180?
  Bill Gelinas: That was just a bad dream. That didn't happen. Heck, I don't even remember how that ended.
• Noodle Incident: Kenny and the Juniors.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Will Shmuler is at first seen as a Token Evil Teammate by his fellow members in the Garden Snake Patrol. However, he is more annoying and overly energetic then he is evil. This leads to something of an inverse Heel–Face Turn, when his fellows realize they can harness his excess energy to help defeat the Canadian terrorists.
• Not What It Looks Like: Sarah walks in on Matthew and Perfume mid-kiss. Sarah assumes it is Matthew being a deviant, and storms off in anger. Little does she know that Perfume is threatening Matthew's life!
• Oblivious to Love: Aaron and Kirstin seem to suffer this for each other! Everyone else can see that they are apparently perfect together. Both have been hinted to be wishing for more with each other, but both are in denial that they are anything other then Just Friends.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Troop 192 has both Matthew Atanian and Matthew Swett, and in Troop 180 there is a Matthew Abert. Troop 192 also has two Bills, both in the same patrol: Bill Gelinas and Bill Hughes. (This patrol also contains a Will.) Also there is the case of Kenny the child super-genius and Kenny the Camp Moses chef.
• Pyromaniac: Dan Wellington. This is played for laughs... even when other human beings seem to be the target of it!
  • In some of the disclaimers, Word of God said that the character of Dan was toned down from real life Dan. Hopefully that was a joke.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Other then the obvious change in gender, there is very little difference between Matthew Atanian and Matty Hayes. He does eventually acquire a wardrobe for his female persona, but only for use on special occasions. Considering that the majority of the times he becomes female are unplanned accidents, the use of specific female wardrobe is the exception rather then the rule. It has also been noted that Matthew's mode of dress has eccentricities outside of the norm, which on one person is fine but on two people who also look similar, act similar, and are never seen together in the same place despite being known to be good friends is stretching credibility.
  • Lampshaded: Nicole Porter once started to suspect that Matthew and Matty were one and the same person, but then dismissed the possibility as ridiculous.
• Running Gag: More then a few. Some examples:
  • Kiwi-Mocha Fruit Juice. Run!
  • Jim Anderson's Mandatory Line.
  • Hibiki Ryoga's showing up lost at least once a storyline.
    • This joke is inverted in Boy Scouts ½ in Japan: so used is he to finding out he is in Massachusetts when he encounters Boy Scouts ½ characters, he assumes this is the case here, as well... even though he is finally where he wants to be!
  • ECWCWWF Extreme Thunderous Attitude II: a sequel to ECWCWWF Extreme Thunderous Attitude, this fictional Playstation game almost seems to bind The Boy Scouts ½ Universe together, having been mentioned in the main series, side stories, and both spin-offs. At this point, it is only a matter of time before it shows up in the sequel series.
    • It first shows up (or rather, makes a point of not showing up) in the first Perspectives From the Food Court, where the store Jason works at is expecting a shipment of it.
    • Having failed to make it to the store Jason works at, the shipment of this game then somehow ends up being delivered to Troop 192's Christmas party in Boy Scouts ½, part 13.
    • An allusion is then made in the Troop 180 Chronicles side story when one of the Assistant Scoutmasters of Troop 180, who happens to also be a UPS delivery man, remembers making this delivery.
    • A further allusion is then made in the Kenny's Laboratory series when Becker's Sonic Self-Abuse is revealed to be him listening to a Playstation game he got at the Troop 192 Christmas party as if it was a music CD.
• Sensory Abuse: Becker seems to like to subject himself to this, often listening to extremely loud music. Actually, it isn't only loud music: for example, once it was noted that he was loudly listening to the random noise of a Playstation game disc! Fortunately, he is considerate enough to use headphones, making it only Sensory Self-Abuse.
• Sequel Hook: The last part of the main series ties up the immediate plot threads, winds things down a bit, gets a bit nostalgic, and seems to be heading towards a resolution, when all of a sudden seemingly at random, everyone is attacked! Then... the story ends? After an epilogue where the real Matthew Atanian is visited by Nabeshin and implored to continue writing, things pick up right from there with Boy Scouts ½ in Japan.
• Secret Identity: Matthew Atanian keeps secret the fact that he and Matty Hayes are the same person. For most people, simply because it makes his life easier not to have to get into it. With Sarah Porter, it is because her sister Kirstin suggested Matt might get past Sarah's Hate at First Sight for him if she got to know him as Matty first.
  • Secret-Keeper: Matthew (and by extension the other cursed characters) have a few. They are all Secret Keepers for each other. Other Secret Keepers would include:
    • The aforementioned Kirstin Porter, who was on hand for an unavoidable rain storm and decided it would be a good idea to help the boys keep their secret. Kirstin (as well as the other cursed characters) are also unwilling secret keepers for the fact that her sister Nicole's pet is actually Bill Hughes in his feline form.
    • Dan Wellington, who Matthew told. Matthew did this to help get past the fact that Dan was showing interest in his female form.
    • Kenneth Pendrell, being Super Intellegent, figured it out for himself. After informing those involved that he knew, he was happy to help keep up the Masquerade.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: The Jusenkyo curses do not effect what the cursed characters are wearing. Matthew and Perfume merely suffer a change of gender, so clothes wouldn't be lost upon changing, but depending on the apparel there is a chance it may suddenly no longer be appropriate. Mike, Aaron, and the Bills into animals, and there has been cases of them, after being transformed back into their human forms, having to struggle to protect their modesty.
• Shipper on Deck: Kirstin is this for Matthew and her sister Sarah, and actively helps Matthew in his efforts. Kirstin is even the one who suggested Matthew's using of his female form to get closer to Sarah.
  • Kirstin herself if shipped with Aaron by her other sister, Nicole, most prominently when Nicole pulled a Twin Switch to allow Kirstin to receive a kiss from Aaron. Of course, shipping Kirstin and Aaron is a fairly easy thing to do, since the only two people in denial about them being in a relationship are Kirstin and Aaron themselves.
• Shout-Out: When the characters need to do a play, they present a production of Romeo and Juliet. Things succeed despite everything going horribly wrong.
• Sidekick: Proctor manages to simultaneously be both the Bumbling and Hypercompetent sort for Justy: He is amazingly good at what he does to take care of Justy, but because of Justy's unreasonable standards he can never live up to expectations.
• Shout-Out: Has it's own page.
• The Sociopath: Since he's been Flanderized into a somewhat ineffectual, fowl annoyance usually played for comedic effect, it can be somewhat shocking to remember that Taylor Kuntz was introduced by having him try and gut a hapless squirrel (who just happened to be Mike Quadrozzi), seemingly taking great pleasure at the thought of what he was about to do.
• Super-Intelligence: Kenneth E. Pendrell is blessed with this.
• Think Unsexy Thoughts: Played with. On an occasion when "Matty Hayes" is spending the night at the Porter's residence, and is invited by Sarah to share a bed after finding the couch extremely uncomfortable, Matty reflects that she is glad to be a woman at the moment. The implication was that if she had been in her natural male form, this trope would have been in full effect.
• Tsundere: Sarah is a Type B. She is generally a kind and good person, but get on her bad side and she can have quite a temper. Alas for Matthew, he got on her bad side. There has been the occasional hint she may be softening towards him, however.
• Universe Chronology: If you are just reading one of the series in the Boy Scouts ½ then things are fairly straight forward. But a reader could run into a mild case of confusion if trying to read the main series, the side stories, and the spin-offs if they wished to experience things in a purely chronological order. This page is available to help readers sort things out.
• Unwitting Muggle Friend: The Garden Snake Patrol has, at the time it is created, eight members. Four of them are cursed. One is a Secret-Keeper for the cursed Scouts. One is initially disliked by the rest of the patrol. Then there is John Becker and Matthew Swett who have no idea about the curses, but are still active and valued members of the patrol.
  • When the patrol gains a ninth member it is another curse sufferer, leaving Becker and Swett still as the only Unwitting Muggle Friends in the patrol.
  • After the incident when the Garden Snake Patrol had to defend Camp Moses from a group of Canadian Terrorists, indications are that they now consider Shmuler as a friend (albeit an annoying one) making him now qualify as an Unwitting Muggle Friend, as well.
• You No Take Candle: Perfume and the Jusenkyo guide, to illustrate their lack of proficiency in English. (In a scene that takes place between the two of them, and with no English speakers to provide point of view, they are given dialogue with more standard grammar. This is because when speaking with each other they would be using their native language of Chinese.)
  • Word of God in the author's notes from the third Boy Scouts ½ in Japan story even provides Fanon explanation for why, in the original work, Shampoo and the Jusenkyo Guide speak this way but Moose and Cologne do not. It is presumed that characters who speak with such heavy accents studied multiple languages, at least English and Japanese, and thus have sufficient working knowledge but not proficiency. Meanwhile, Moose studied only Japanese, so is proficient in that language but will be unable to speak directly with any of the Boy Scouts ½ characters who only know English. Meanwhile, Cologne being as old and wise as she is, is able to speak both Japanese and English fluently.

And Tropes Specific To the Spin-offs Or the Sequel:

The Perspectives Series

• All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles: The bigoted antagonistic introduced in Perspectives II is of this opinion.
• Alternate Continuity: One of the segments of the story Of Possible Alternatives features the main Perspectives cast suffering from Jusenkyo curses. Weather this is instead of or in addition to the cursed characters of the main series is not made clear.
• Artifact Title: The first story in this series was titled, Perspectives From the Food Court. This made sense, as it was three people meeting in a food court and sharing strange tales that were events from part 11 in the main series, but from a different perspective. The next four stories were titled, Perspectives From the Food Court II - V, even though they were no longer confined to a food court or rehashing established events.
  • The title was shortened to just Perspectives beginning with the sixth story, thereby averting the whole "food court" thing. This story did interweave with the events of part 13 of the main series, thus harkening back to the original intent of the "Perspectives" part of the title by looking at previously related events from a different perspective.
• Author Appeal: Author Jason Bertovich is known to throw in references to whatever thing he was currently interested in at the time, including but not limited to: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Karaoke, Pro Wrestling, & DDR. No doubt, references to Bass Guitar are on their way.
• Continuity Reboot: The next story after Perspectives X is... Perspectives I. This new Perspectives I is essentially a retelling of the first Perspectives From the Food Court story, much more fleshed out and with some changes to detail.
  • The "Timeline" page on the Boy Scouts ½ website makes a point of still recommending first reading the original versions of the stories, suggesting that they may still have some relevance.
• Darker and Edgier: Not that it doesn't have light hearted or comedic moments as well... but things happen that would not have been expected based on the tone if the parent series.
• Hive Mind: John has multiple personae that seem to live independently of John inside his mind. They appear as clones of John, but dressed as different Anime Characters, each exhibiting the personalities of those Characters
• Intercontinuity Crossover: The character of Jason has more than one dream where he encounters The World Deathmatch Federation and their announcers, Guy Makahashi and Toro Watanabe. They are better known as the Emcees of the author Jason's other fan fic series, Anime Deathmatch.
• Lampshade Hanging: Jacob Marley heralding the visiting "spirits" in Perspectives VII.
• Recursive Fanfiction: Creator of the main series, Matthew Atanian, proudly proclaims Boy Scouts ½ "The world's most gratuitous self-insertion fan fiction!". It's only fitting that it spawned "The world's most gratuitous self-insertion Spin-off!"
• Web Serial Novel: Perspectives actually consists of three novella length stories, each called a "Byte", subdivided into multiple parts. Byte I was Written by Jason Bertovich and broken up into five parts (with the fifth part further being broken up into four acts). Matthew Atanian wrote the follow-up story, Byte II, which was broken up into three parts. Byte III is still incomplete at this time.

Kenny's Laboratory

• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Kenny was happy just doing this with one word, but Snarfinkle takes it to a whole new level.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Professor Snarfinkle is so evil that he manages to have the main series' Always Chaotic Evil antagonist Justy demoted from main antagonist to be his Dragon.
• Darker and Edgier: This series does it for comedic effect in Hell Comes to Springfield (although that comedy does come dangerously close to Nightmare Fuel). However, it does it for real (and can cause some Mood Whiplash) in the climatic story of the series, when most of the main characters from this and the other Boy Scouts ½ Universe stories are all dead, much of the Springfield area is completely wiped out, Earth itself is in danger of complete devastation, and the only solution is a Heroic Sacrifice that will negate the current timeline, effectively killing this version of anyone who is still left.
• The Dragon: Justy is recruited for this roll by Professor Snarfinkle.
• Living in a Furniture Store: Visitors to Kenny's house note how extremely tidy and unlived in it seems.
• Sidekick: Once Becker stops subjecting himself to Sensory Abuse, he makes a surprisingly good one for Kenny.
• Time Travel: Oh boy. Becker has to Set Right What Once Went Wrong by pushing a Reset Button, getting rid of a Stable Time Loop that had resulted in a Temporal Paradox that created the Alternate Time Line that most of the series had been taking place in and which had gone to hell. That's a Timey-Wimey Ball that could give The Doctor a headache!

Boy Scouts ½ in Japan

• Call-Back: The opening of part 1 is very similar to the opening of part 1 of the original Boy Scouts ½.
• Curse Cut Short: In the BS½ in Japan Anime Deathmatch, this happened to Derek Provost. It was somewhat literal, as he would undoubtedly be shorter after being decapitated.
• Famously Mundane, Fictionally Magical: When the main characters have to relocate to Japan, they are quite surprised to find that the country actually suffers from many of the tropes about it that are regularly portrayed in fiction. Giant Monsters? Hammerspace? Anime Hair? All real. In fact, Kenny even notes that since arriving in Japan they are developing High-Pressure Blood!
• Fanfic Tropes
  • Crossover: With the titular boarding house now being the residence of many of the characters, Maison Ikkoku is introduced into what had previously been just a Ranma ½ fic.
    • Word of God says that all other fictitious works by Rumiko Takahashi still exist in Universe as fiction. Takahashi-sensei must have just had a major creative slump between Urusei Yatsura and Inuyasha.
  • Elsewhere Fic: Averted: Many of the characters who had previously been "elsewhere" are living in Japan.
    • Word of God says, however, that while other original Ranma ½ (and Maison Ikkoku) characters will be seen, in an attempt to keep things still a bit "Elsewhere" there will be no appearances by Saotomes or Tendos.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: The final match in the BS½ in Japan Anime Deathmatch, in a parody of Endless Eight. Readers get to experience the match eight times, in reference to Endless Eight's animated adaptation. As for the characters, they went through enough loops of approximately five and a half minutes for thirteen years to pass.
• Meaningful Name: The mysterious man with bells who made intermittent, unobserved, shadowy appearances in the original Boy Scouts ½ series is finally revealed! His name is Líng Rén, which can be written in Chinese as 铃 人, two characters meaning, "bell," and "man." Thus, the mysterious man with bells is named Bell Man!
• Meanwhile, Back at the…: Part 6 is titled, "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch," a title paying direct homage to the trope namer. This story has nothing to do with the ongoing plot of BS½ in Japan, instead showing what the characters left behind in Massachusetts are up to in the main characters' absence. The author's notes with this story indicate that one such "Meanwhile, Back at the..." story should be expected after each regular multi-part story with the main cast.
• Retool: Boy Scouts ½ in Japan picks up much where Boy Scouts ½ left off, except it has undergone a drastic change of setting with many members of the main cast relocating from Massachusetts to Japan.
• There Is Only One Boarding House: Awfully convenient that when all of the main male characters end up boarding at Maison Ikkoku while they are in Japan, all three of the Porter sisters end up boarding there, as well.
• Running Gag Stumbles: Ryoga shows up during the first Boy Scouts ½ in Japan storyline, and much like he frequently did in the original Boy Scouts ½, he demands to know where Furinkan High School is. However, when he recognizes the people he is accosting, he assumes he is once again in Western Massachusetts and wanders away dejectedly, not to be seen again. What Ryoga did not realize is that this particular confrontation occurred right outside of his intended destination.
• Truth in Television: In Universe example: after they arrive in Japan, the boys and Matthew are surprised to discover that all of the tropes and clichés common in Anime, Manga and other Japanese entertainments are true, and the entire country is in on a massive Masquerade to hide this.

To Conquer the World

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"Shut up, Troper!"