Japanese Fiction and Western Fanfiction

Through several years of reading fanfiction based on (amongst others, but those others don't come into play here) manga and anime, I've come to the conclusion even most of the really acclaimed and best accepted works of fanfiction made in the West wouldn't really fly in Japan, and even would get bashed readily. I may be wrong, of course, but overall, the general impression manganime fanfics give me is they (and I include myself here), one way or another, on general principle try to subvert several key tropes the manganime themselves embrace.

Can't Spit It Out is a much loved tension keeping tool for Japanese authors, but Western fans have much less patience for it and don't seem to find it as cute as Japanese audiences do, so it usually gets subverted and undone— after all, unlike the original authors, the fan authors don't have the time to devote for years to an unpaid task that demands to keep the status quo as long as it pays (there are long runner exceptions made by greatly devoted fans, of course, but let's face it, the hook for most sems to be 'let's hook X and Y already!')

Through the filter of our own culture, we can't help but make the characters seem and sound less 'Japanese'. Often without even realizing it, our takes end up sounding and acting more like American characters, in relation to factors as varying as their views of authorities and the stablishment and relationship issues. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I like alternate interpretations, but I feel most of the time those who try for 'absolute fidelity' to the original work's feeling are fighting an uphill battle against ourselves and our own formation. Even repeated immersion into imported fictional works can't completely undo our own transcultural perception on those icons originally from a very different culture, made by and for people with very different social standards and upbringings.

The funny thing is, really, over time I've grown more jaded with the exaggerated and stylized takes on the Japanese quirks the manganime tends to paint themselves with, while I grow fonder of the Western takes. For instance, the old (and rather apart from actual Japanese culture) Accidental Pervert-Tsundere Punch routine (apart of not translating itself that well from a graphic medium to a written one in the first place) is something I've grown frankly sick of, but fanfics based on those works tend to use it much less, placing most of the comedy on other venues and situations (like verbal wordplay).

Does anyone else feel the same way about any of those things?

edited 2nd Jan '15 3:01:23 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Honestly, it's not something I've really thought about much. My biggest complaint about fan fiction that attempt to emulate the Japanese style isn't so much the Japanese style itself as it is the horrible research failures that typically result of it. When it comes to westernizing the fic or trying and failing to emulate Japanese culture, I'd pick westernization any day.

Hmm, I did wonder how would Japanese fans of a Japanese work react to a Western fanfic. Would they say "Hey, that's an interesting perspective! That guy, with those powers, it certainly works. And wow, those fights were awesome!"

Or would they say, m9(^Д^) gaijin trying to write, lolwwwww! no touch my waifu (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

But well, there are only two ways to tell. Find someone from Japan (or from Japanese perspective, at least) who speaks English; or learn Japanese myself. The former might be a possibility on a forum large enough. Doing the latter might also answer another question that's been bothering me - how would Japanese fans of a Japanese work react to a fanfic written by a Western fan in Japanese. Kininarimasu!

edited 3rd Jan '15 12:20:05 PM by TheNobody

I think it varies. Not to toot my own horn (toot toot!) but I actually got a little fic I wrote translated into Japanese.

It was for a Marimite/Robotech crossover prompt, though the way I wound up writing it, it functions perfectly well as Macross as well. I have no idea how well it was received but it at least someone liked it enough to go to the trouble of translating it.

Well, there are plenty of Western works that do well in Japan, so I can only assume that there would be at least some fanfics that would catch on.

There's also the matter of individual perspectives to consider - one person might be more open to a different interpretation than another.

I'd never really noticed that much of a distinction before. Of course, I am prone to missing subtlety, so that's probably just my bad.

I think many characters' renditions in fanfics change from their original Japanese to English at least partially because of a side effect caused by translations. Many English translations (even subs at times) try to naturalize the dialogue so it will have a similar emotional or thematic effect on American viewers as it did on Japanese viewers. While I've always preferred this to overly stilted translations, it could play a part as to why fanfics on Japanese works would slowly start to look more like western stories with Japanese names and locales.

The last western takes of Japanese fiction I read were The Teacher of All Things, which I thought worked well as a sequel to Digimon V-Tamer 01, and All Japan Pro Wrestling of Territory Wars which to me, just seemed like standard wrestling fic (though that might be because so much of territory wars veers off into Crack Fic)

So, not really seeing it. Then again, I think teacher of all was written by(what would be to me) a foreigner anyway. An English speaking one, but still. It helps that a lot of fan fics I read happened to be set in constructed worlds, explicitly not Earth or America. As for my own work? I just tended to go for consistency. Making them too American or not Japanese enough never crossed my mind so much as what were they like when I read, watched played and how would they react to this? I may have been guilty but never got that from feedback. Then again, I'd be lucky to get three people to give feedback. Six when really lucky.