GRIT/History

Back in early 1996, a flamewar erupted in the UseNet newsgroup rec.arts.anime as to the merits of each of 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.

I wasn't involved much with this second GRIT so can't tell you why, but after three years, in mid 2009, it 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 Galaxy Express 999 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.