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jennariaOnce upon a time, many fandoms ago, I was in a fandom that straddled the line between 'slash' and 'yaoi.' The canon was a manga that had not, at that point, been officially released in English translation. The characters were European. And at the time I got into the fandom, it was almost exclusively a 'slash' fandom: the fans came from a Western background, and their stories reflected the tendencies and tropes of, well, slash.
About a year after I got into the fandom, there was a new influx of fans, as occasionally happens. This particular influx of fans, however, came from anime fandom, and were yaoi fangirls. And their stories...well, to be fair to them, they respected the European setting and didn't throw in the sort of fangirl Japanese that's the bane of all too many other anime fandoms. But both in the stories and in their discussion posts, they seemed to regard the characters as sort of paper dolls. They looked like the characters, they mostly talked with the speech patterns of the characters, but they didn't necessarily act like the characters. The primary goal of the stories wasn't to explore character, or what might happen if the characters were put into X situation. It was to amuse the author and maybe her friends. Canonical details could go hang if they got in the way.
It's not that this attitude is exactly unknown in slash fandoms. But at that time, I'd never seen it so pervasive, so systematic. And from the way this group talked, I got the impression that all anime fandoms were like this. It wasn't the reason I wound up drifting away from this particular fandom (the fact that I fell for a new shiny had a lot more to do with it), but it was part of the reason it took several years, and strong-arming by my friends, to get me to read manga again, much less watch anime.
Time passes, fandoms change, and by this point, I've probably got more anime fandoms than I do Western fandoms. The irony is, those first impressions were not entirely wrong. I've read Gundam Wing 'fanfic' wherein the only things still recognizable from the series were the names and descriptions -- and I don't mean the ones clearly labeled 'AU,' which at least have an excuse. And half the reason I write my own Initial D fanfic (besides the fact that nobody else writes my OT3) is that it's nearly impossible to find Initial D slash fic that doesn't turn Takumi Fujiwara into the world's meekest uke. It's not just the fanfic: there's actually a doodle out there from the Yuu Yuu Hakusho mangaka wherein he bemusedly compares Canon Hiei (not ugly so much as 'I will slice you up if you look at me twice' cranky) to Doujin Hiei (sweet, pretty, not so much on the slicer!glare), and wonders how the one appeared from the other.
:sigh;
Sorry. I've been reading Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic wherein the author blithely tossed aside canonical (non-romantic!) relationships in favor of setting up their pairing, and that always makes me cranky. I think I'll go watch Detective Conan or Kino's Journey and snap my brain out of it.
About a year after I got into the fandom, there was a new influx of fans, as occasionally happens. This particular influx of fans, however, came from anime fandom, and were yaoi fangirls. And their stories...well, to be fair to them, they respected the European setting and didn't throw in the sort of fangirl Japanese that's the bane of all too many other anime fandoms. But both in the stories and in their discussion posts, they seemed to regard the characters as sort of paper dolls. They looked like the characters, they mostly talked with the speech patterns of the characters, but they didn't necessarily act like the characters. The primary goal of the stories wasn't to explore character, or what might happen if the characters were put into X situation. It was to amuse the author and maybe her friends. Canonical details could go hang if they got in the way.
It's not that this attitude is exactly unknown in slash fandoms. But at that time, I'd never seen it so pervasive, so systematic. And from the way this group talked, I got the impression that all anime fandoms were like this. It wasn't the reason I wound up drifting away from this particular fandom (the fact that I fell for a new shiny had a lot more to do with it), but it was part of the reason it took several years, and strong-arming by my friends, to get me to read manga again, much less watch anime.
Time passes, fandoms change, and by this point, I've probably got more anime fandoms than I do Western fandoms. The irony is, those first impressions were not entirely wrong. I've read Gundam Wing 'fanfic' wherein the only things still recognizable from the series were the names and descriptions -- and I don't mean the ones clearly labeled 'AU,' which at least have an excuse. And half the reason I write my own Initial D fanfic (besides the fact that nobody else writes my OT3) is that it's nearly impossible to find Initial D slash fic that doesn't turn Takumi Fujiwara into the world's meekest uke. It's not just the fanfic: there's actually a doodle out there from the Yuu Yuu Hakusho mangaka wherein he bemusedly compares Canon Hiei (not ugly so much as 'I will slice you up if you look at me twice' cranky) to Doujin Hiei (sweet, pretty, not so much on the slicer!glare), and wonders how the one appeared from the other.
:sigh;
Sorry. I've been reading Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic wherein the author blithely tossed aside canonical (non-romantic!) relationships in favor of setting up their pairing, and that always makes me cranky. I think I'll go watch Detective Conan or Kino's Journey and snap my brain out of it.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-01 03:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-02-01 11:30 am (UTC)Unfortunately, all the Initial D doujins -- yaoi doujins, at least -- that I've found on the web that included Takumi as more than a bemused commentator (see above) had him as Extreme Uke. Which, uh, no. He's laid back until he's figured out how to get what he wants, and then he goes for it so hard you don't even see him coming.