At 03:02 AM 10/21/2004 -0700, Pete Zaitcev wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 22:55:10 -0700, whimsy <fripon@earthlink.net> wrote:

[snippage]

 Similarly, Nerima is a real ward in Tokyo and contains the ultra
prestigious Waseda University Senior High School.  Yet I don't ever
recall reading a Ranma fic that used this fact (such as some sort of
competition between Waseda and Furinkan).

What would be the benefit for the readers, the vast majority of whom
do not care one way or the other? Moreover, what makes you think that
Ranma's Nerima has anything to do with actual Nerima?

While Takahashi's Nerima in Ranma may not be identical to the real one, the 
real one IS what it was based from. The same is true for Takeushi's 
Azabu-Juuban in Sailor Moon. Takeushi did some VERY creative rearranging of 
the details in Azabu-Juuban, but even when she was rearranging the 
landscape (what she did with Mugen Academy is a prime example) those 
changes were almost always based on *something* real in Tokyo.

The research complaint is valid, if for no other reason that it shows how 
much the author cares about their story. And while a certain percentage of 
the readers MAY not care if the facts are even close at times, fanfic 
readers as a whole will tend to be more knowledgeable about Japan, and 
getting the facts grossly wrong WILL diminish the enjoyment of the reading 
experience for those with even a little knowledge of the country.

For instance, any time I see a fanfic in which the author has high school 
students worrying about truancy officers it *seriously* interferes with my 
willing suspension of disbelief - high school is NOT mandatory in Japan. 
Similarly, the four hour train ride from Nerima to Azabu-Juuban (or any 
OTHER location in Tokyo) elicits a VERY big groan - Nerima is not only a 
part of the 23 central Tokyo wards, it's barely 14 kilometers away from 
Azabu-Juuban (that's less than 10 miles for those who are metrically impaired).

If an author can't be bothered to get even the most basic facts right, how 
can they expect their readers to be bothered to care about or even read 
their story?


============================================================
Mark Shurtleff
email: gaijin@sfcmd.com
irc alias: Gaijin -or- togashi_gaijin
fanfiction homepage: http://www.sfcmd.com/fanfic
============================================================


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'