Old School for Younger Readers!

[robkelk]

Now that we've all recommended some pretty grim stuff, I'll offer as a corrective The Replacement Ranmas, which takes the "character is an actor playing a role in the story" idea to its illogical conclusion.

"Are you nuts? Who _are_ all these people? This will never work!"

"Hey, look, I had to take what I could get! Anyway, they're all getting
bored with their own series, so they thought it might be fun to have a
go at this one."

"'Fun' is not the word for how it's going to be."