Real name:

Daniel Kotes - Dont really care about putting this online since its available for anyone who can see my email address; besides, its an online alias in any case.

Online name:

Saienai - I use this for any profiles for online gaming, so if you see a character online with this name, it is possible that it is me. Or perhaps someone who is using my name. Why the name? I dont know, I just like how it sounds.

Age:

- Guess. Here is a hint though, I live close to a university for a reason.

Language:

- Lets just say this, English is my second language, but hopefully it is not bad enough to cause people who read anything I write to wince at it.

Hobbies:

- Fanfiction (obviously)

- Music (Guitar, Piano, etc.) - mostly anime music classical. Dont know almost any of the 'modern' groups.

- Manga / Anime.

- Some online gaming, but recently they all seem too boring. Starcraft 2 was good, as was the zerg campaign. Other than that haven't really played anything, dont have much time for it all.

Favorite 'official' stories:

- anything by Robert Heinlein. Master writer - enough said.

- Wheel of time series (or at least until roughly book 9. Waaaay too much politics in the later ones)

- Lord of the rings.

- Eragorn books are quite good as well

- Anything by Hayao Miyazaki. There are no words to describe his movies. If I had to pick the best one, I would go with Laputa followed by Castle of Cagliostro.

- strangely enough, the first five series of Digimon were interesting, even with the nigh exact duplicate storyline structure for each.

- all the official stories for the fanfiction categories below (except for pokemon. I like the games more - the first hundred or so episodes may have been watchable, but they just become a 'new video for same story' later on. The first few movies were quite good as well, especially the first one).

Favorite fanfiction categories:

- Hikaru no Go

- Naruto

- Harry potter

- Some bleach (way too many romance/etc for my liking...)

- How to train your dragon

- Code geass

- Select Pokemon fanfics (mostly the ones with Ash as main character or crossovers - as long as romance is kept in the background)

Favorite / Acceptable pairings:

- don't really care, as long as they make sense (even mass harems are ok if the story is mostly humor - case to point, chunin exam day)

Story types I love:

- Time travel / groundhog day loops! As long as they are done correctly these can be just awesome!

- anything with a GOOD plot and preferably acceptable language (few mistakes here and there are ok, but nothing that requires you to re-read portions over and over again just to understand what is going on)

Dislikes:

- Unfinished / permanently on hiatus fanfiction. If you are planning to just drop the story, at least have the decency to write a short (max 1000 word) summary of how you wanted the story to end. Best example of this: Reflections of oneself by 'the white wanderer'. I can totally imagine how awesome the story would have been had it been continued, just from the relatively short summary at the end. Sure I would have preferred if the story finished, but at least it did not leave me hanging like so many over (otherwise awesome) fanfics all over.

- Yaoi. Friendship or brotherly love - two thumbs up. Anything closer? No. Enough said.

- Any gender transformations of the main character to make Yaoi that is not exactly yaoi - case to point: Sasuke x FemNaruto. Note that gender transformations for other purposes (such as plot or even just to provide an alternate point of view) is fine as long as it is done properly.

- Stories that focus only on romance. I just like stories that have at least some plot in them.

- Poll selected pairings. Not to say that I dont read such stories or immediately drop them whenever this happens, but it just seems like nothing more than an excuse to get more votes... Especially bad when 'harem' gets put as an option (or worse still, possibilities of yaoi. In this case, I do drop the story).

Best stories for each category:

- Hikaru no Go - Watch and learn (unfortunately has been deleted off the site. Fortunately I still have an offline version I can re-read whenever I feel like. Heck, I must have read it over 10 times by now. Basic story - at the point after Sai leaves and Hikaru begs god to turn back time while promising to let Sai play all he wants; he gets his wish granted.)

- Naruto - Chunin exam day. Some would disagree while stating that the story is way too cliche, but to me it just seems that all the thrown in 'extras' (such as flight, anthropomorphism, too much Sasuke bashing to list...) only add to the story. Besides which - it is hilarious! The only point against this fanfic is that it stopped virtually 2 to 5 chapters before completion (as far as I can see it). Even a single chapter just to tie things up would have been great.

- Harry potter - Make a wish. If you have not read this, go and read it now. So awesome I cant properly describe it. I have personally read it several times, along with just about any fanfic I could get my hands on with 'Mr Black' as the hero (including terminal justice - cool justice league crossover)

- Bleach - Strangely enough, most of the straight out bleach fanfics are quite tasteless for me. So instead I will recommend True Warriors Never Die by Kenchi618, a Bleach-Naruto crossover that, while not finished, is still active and still extremely interesting. Following the general path of the Bleach storyline, the addition of Naruto into the mix just makes things more interesting.

- How to train your dragon - I hear him scream by Rift-Raft. Most unique 'Hiccup turns into a dragon' I've read. Other than that I should definitely recommend To soar into the sunset: A night fury's odd memoir by Fjord Mustang. Lovely amalgamation of HTTYD and Robert Heinlein's writing style. I still love Heinlein's books more, but I have to admit that it came close. Finally HTTYD loops by Saphroneth was very good - written as a collection of short acts/stories, it is from here that I got the idea for my first fanfiction (that I actually decided to write up because it was stuck in my head for WEEKS until I finally gave up and sat down to put it on paper/hard drive as it is. Will not say which part spawned what since I want to leave you guys guessing).

- Code geass - strangely enough I cant think of my favorite one here. There are some good ones, but nothing really that would hold up with the rest of the fanfiction in this list.

- Pokemon - Ashes of the Past by Saphroneth. Pure awesomeness. In many ways it reminds me of Chunin exam day, just distilled until only only the best parts are left. Better yet, It has finally been updated - just when I had almost lost all hope of seeing it continue.

- Finally, last recommendation: The Neverending Road (Hikaru no go, written by Leitbur). Have to recommend this as it was the first fanfic I have ever read and what actually got me hooked into them. At that time I loved Hikaru no Go and for some reason thought there was 'more' to it than the anime. So I found the manga which lengthened the story slightly, but I still felt that it just could not end without Sai returning. When I first started reading the neverending road I for some reason thought it was an 'official continuation' - funny right? Ofcourse Sai did not come back, but it was still quite an engaging read which incidentally opened up a portal into a multitude of other fanfics where Sai does come back (along with all the other infinite variations)

Best short stories (1-chapters) ever:

- anything by Blizdal. Most creepy stories I have ever read, and all roughly 1-5k words each. Probably the best Horror-Harry potter stories ever.

- Evil be thou my good. Not exactly short (at 40k words) but being 1 chapter qualifies. Impressive. Horrifying, but impressive.

- Sysiphus (now available only as a page on tv tropes, no clue if the actual story can be found anywhere). Short, and perfectly to the point. Best view of how the 'dream come true' can easily turn into 'fate worse than death' or 'never-ending nightmare'. Simply put, it is the story of harry getting his wish to come back to 'set things right' and then finding out just how difficult that is. I will not spoil anything (in case you can actually find the story) but I will say this: the words 'and everything starts again' will forever haunt me.

Best crossovers:

- Naruto Emiya and Hiccup, Bount by Saphroneth have to be mentioned.

- Any others I will just add into the favorite stories list if I ever re-read them.

That's all

Saienai signing off