Tokyo is ''not'' the center of CreativeProvincialism

Edit: I didn't realise the italics formatting doesn't work on forum topic titles. The ''not'' should have been readable as not.

The following links will be your guide:

Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe

Big Applesauce

Creator Provincialism

Real Life Writes the Plot

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13219283000A70343100&page=1#1

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=xeaxca3ok5f9ghrhoitkdku8

Half a decade ago, some tropers noticed that pages like "America Is The Center Of The Universe" and "Los Angeles Is The Center Of The Universe" were "not made" and that the page for Tokyo was being used because of supertrope aversion. It looks like that was never resolved because the "one true supertrope" was Creator Provincialism to those against a new Supertrope. I specifically remember such pages existing around 2009, so they were either lost in The Great Crash or deleted by someone against having a Supertrope.

Except that's only half the trope, and I'm not talking about different levels of Creator Provincialism, because that only applies when a conscious choice is made to use a location. If the studio is in New York City and the budget doesn't cover travel expences, they have to hire and film local and cannot avert Big Applesauce. If an anime is in fact set in Japan, and there is no reason to have it be a specific location, then Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe is the Japanese equivalent of Everytown, America. If Real Life Writes the Plot because current events are important, Los Angeles is going to be chosen over a small town where Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here. And if an alien invasion usually happens in a specific country that is a central part of the world economy, culture, etc. ...then there should be a page such as "Superpower-centric Storyline Syndrome" to cover it.

In other words, Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe is not the center of Creator Provincialism. It's a hybrid of Creator Provincialism and Real Life Writes the Plot, or an example of one or the other that can't be proven either way without Word of God and for whatever reason there is no such word to be found.

Of course, I can't just rely on my own opinion, so who wants to put in their own two cents?

edited 17th Jul '17 9:41:40 PM by SimYouLater

Seriously? No comments whatsoever? It's been days...

If there's no comments in the week, I'll just go ahead and propose the pages in the Launch Pad; at least there it will get looked at and voted down if it's not worthy.

Mostly I have trouble parsing what you're trying to communicate. I'm looking at the phrase "Super-Trope aversion", and wondering why my past self didn't call it Missing Supertrope Syndrome. Here's a few bullets of conversation:

• Yes, there should be some trope that says "the story is set in the creator's favorite big city".
• Ripped from the Headlines and Real Life Writes the Plot aren't related tropes.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe is 'not the Japanese equivalent of Everytown, America. It is the Japanese equivalent to Big Applesauce and Britain Is Only London.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

There isn't really a Japanese equivalent to Everytown, America. Most animes you can pin down exactly where a show is set, often in the city the animation studio is based at or in a city that directly sponsors the show.

Even supposedly fictional places like Inaba in Persona 4 is based off of Fuefuki, a town near Tokyo.

Then there needs to be a counterpart trope for when Real Life Writes the Plot is the cause of using a specific location instead of Creator Provincialism.

As for anime, it's both...

This may or may not be due to the fact that Tokyo is the world's most populous metropolitan and urban area (one-quarter of Japan's population lives in the area, enough that the area is technically a province rather than a city) and most manga publishing houses and movie production firms are located there. Setting a story elsewhere often requires that the location be specifically relevant rather than chance. Many authors are also more familiar with Tokyo than other cities. ...from Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe

Honestly, I'm annoyed that you consider the first post long and unwieldy. I'm not saying it isn't, but it is one of the shortest and simplest explanations I've written recently for anything (including outside TV Tropes) and I have no idea how to make it simpler.

Unsubstantiated claim. Please explain why "Creator's life affects the production of the story" is excluded from "creator uses Write What You Know for the story setting". Once you've done that, explain why there must be a trope that covers that exclusion. Well, looking at your first post, you open with several links whose main subject seem to be their relationship with Creator Provincialism. Your summary instead seems to focus on Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Breaking it down, these two sentences claim the following:

1. Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe is not a subgroup of Creator Provincialism.
2. Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe is a subgroup of Creator Provincialism.
3. Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe is a subgroup of Real Life Writes the Plot.
4. Alternative to 2&3: it overlaps with one or the other
5. The only way to determine if Real Life Writes the Plot applies is Word of God.
6. The only way to determine if Creator Provincialism applies is Word of God.

That's six points you're trying to make at the end, and several are contradictory. Which means I'm probably reading your argument wrong, and I need you to be more specific. Longer wasn't the problem; I'm reading points 1, 2, 4, and 6 as contrasting definitions, and I'm not sure which one you are actually in favour of. You might be trying to convey confusion, but the majority of the post seems quite assertive, so I imagine that you have a definite idea in mind, and I'm failing to parse your argument.

edited 23rd Jul '17 4:22:53 PM by crazysamaritan

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Ok... I am absolutely lost...

Why would the real life location of an anime studio require an anime to be set in the same location, beyond the "creators are more familiar with it" reason outlined in Creator Provincialism?

If it were a live action program, that'd be different; if you're filming in Tokyo, then it's gonna be easier to make the setting look like Tokyo than like somewhere else. But in anime the setting is entirely the result of drawing; where it's drawn doesn't really matter.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

Its often not, a large number of animes are not based in Tokyo especially nowadays.

Most studios use reference photographs of real locations in Japan or the rest of the world, where those photos are taken just seems to be creator preference for the look. Which is a completely different trope IMO.

IE Is The Order A Rabbit is based on Colmar France, even though it is explicitly set in Japan in the work. Or Non Non Biyori's school is based on a closed school in Saitama, Japan.

Several towns outright sponsor animes to promote their town as attempts to get Otaku pilgrimages to drum up tourism, said studios are based in Tokyo. Started by Lucky Star featuring Washinomiya Shrine in Saitama Japan, becoming an Otaku holy place. Which would be another trope.

edited 24th Jul '17 5:00:26 PM by Memers

I apologize for the delay, I couldn't access my password manager or the only computer that I was logged in on for a few days.

@crazysamaritan

1. Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe needs to have the section I mentioned about anime "having to be" set in Tokyo unless the plot needs it edited if it is untrue.
2. Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe is covering all locations commonly used due to Creator Provincialism because of that paragraph, except for Big Applesauce.
3. Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe and Big Applesauce can overlap with Creator Provincialism and/or with Real Life Writes the Plot.
4. Because Word of God is required to differentiate the two, and some flaws in my argument pointed out by you and other posters, I suggest that Big Applesauce and Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe be merged into Creator Provincialism EXCEPT for the examples...
5. Create an additional trope called The Plot Hungers For Current Events or something for examples which Word of God has confirmed are due to Real Life Writes the Plot and the need for using news and other things to fuel the plot requiring a major center. Put examples confirmed by Word of God to be Creator Provincialism and/or the above two tropes in the appropriate trope's examples; The Plot Hungers... is for examples confirmed to be due to needing a place where things tend to happen, while Real Life Writes the Plot should only be used if the budget was a reason for location choice.
6. Create a trope called Hollywood Is The Center Of The Universe or similar (Filming Locations Are The Center Of The Universe?), the meaning of which is that certain locations tend to be used more than others due to Creator Provincialism and/or with Real Life Writes the Plot, but often you can't know which without Word of God. Any example which cannot get Word of God for Creator Provincialism, The Plot Hungers For Current Events or the budget inducing Real Life Writes the Plot goes in the newly-created trope.

Hopefully that should clear up everything for everyone.

edited 29th Jul '17 12:27:24 PM by SimYouLater

To repeat:

• Yes, there should be some trope that says "the story is set in the creator's favorite big city".
• Ripped from the Headlines and Real Life Writes the Plot aren't related tropes.

To add:

• You can take trope proposals to Trope Launch Pad.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

You're taking "having to be" far too literally. Of course creators don't have to set a story in Tokyo unless they have a good reason not to. But Tokyo is such a default setting that, if it's set somewhere else, people are going to assume that detail is significant in some way.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

There are many reasons to have a show set in Tokyo though, it's not really creator yada at all.

• All national TV uses new tokyo dialect as the default language for understandably reasons and uniformity, so you speak it by default it makes sense to be set where it's naturally spoken otherwise it is Anime Accent Absence, which still happens a lot IE Working is set in Hokkaido so they should all be speaking Tohoku Regional Dialect, something subtitled on national TV because only the people there can understand it. Also in Haruhi everyone should be speaking Kansai Regional Dialect but nope.
• Tokyo is really different than the rest of Japan, far more modern in everything. It is really the center of Japan in every single way, so much so the governor of Tokyo literally controls the national media with its policies. Going so far to have anything banned or labeled 18+ in Tokyo means its banned nationwide.
• It is the center of both the government and anime culture so any show with the government as a stage piece has to be set there and any anime centric thing will involve at least a trip to Akihabara or any trip to Comiket (or Fictional Counterpart like Comifes and such) will go to Tokyo Big Sight.

edited 29th Jul '17 5:20:25 PM by Memers