Japanese in Fanfiction/Usage by Fans

Sailor Sapphire · Post by **Sailor Sapphire** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 3:47 pm

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'll try not to do it again.

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 8:09 pm

Tiff wrote:
Starscream wrote:Or not at all *coughKevinCostner'sRobinHoodcough*
...^^; I love that movie....

Oh, so did I...but, except for very rare occassions, Mr. Costner can't act to save his life.

Tiff wrote:*ahem* but yes, I agree. I think the accents, if done right, make the movie/play that much more enjoyable.

Parallax · Post by **Parallax** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 3:29 pm

I used the Japanese names of the Sailor Senshi in my "Emerald Sunrise" fanfic. I also used some of the honorifics as well. And a few Klingon words as well. I put the definitions of the word in asteriks.

Anthy · Post by **Anthy** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 7:24 pm

I occasionally use random Japanese phrases in speech and over the IM, usually for self-parody. I'm a stupid, irritating, crazy fangirl and I know it. "Tiffu-chan! WAI WAIII~, KAWAII DESU NE!!!!???? PYOOOOO~~! ^___^" is when I'm trying to act like an idiot.

Fanfics, however, are a different thing. You are not speaking to your reader directly, so anything other than -chan and -kun should be avoided. It is incredibly irritating to see

"Ohayo, Minako-chan!"
"Ohayo gozaimasu, Usagi-chan!"
"O-genki desu ka?"
"Genki desu! So, you want to see the movies on Friday?"
"WAI WAI! Let's see Hello Kitty! KAWAII! SUGOI!"
"Hai."

When it could be simply
"'Mornin, Minako!"
"Good morning, Usagi!"
"How are you feeling today?"
"Pretty good. So, you want to see the movies on Friday?"
"YEAH! Let's see Hello Kitty! She's so cute! That would be awesome!"
"`Kay."

The second one is so much better, even though I'll admit the writing style sucks. If you can't write interesting dialogue in English, you sure as hell can't make it worth reading in Japanese. You can't imagine voice inflection, patterns of speaking, and dialects when you're spouting Japanese words. It just doesn't work.

And Parallax, Japanese names don't count. ^^ You have to use those if the fic is sub-based.

Rainbow · Post by **Rainbow** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:11 pm

Anthy wrote:I occasionally use random Japanese phrases in speech and over the IM, usually for self-parody. I'm a stupid, irritating, crazy fangirl and I know it. "Tiffu-chan! WAI WAIII~, KAWAII DESU NE!!!!???? PYOOOOO~~! ^___^" is when I'm trying to act like an idiot.

And Parallax, Japanese names don't count. ^^ You have to use those if the fic is sub-based.

1) Sometimes I'll accidentally speak Japanese too, but I probably SHOULD be using it outside of my Japanese class anyway for practicing the language. Of course, I probably shouldn't have said "Arigato gozaimasu" to someone in my English class!

2)Would you Anglicize a real person's Japanese name? I think not, that would be incredibly disrespectful. So why are the Senshi's names in the Japanese version any different?

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:14 pm

Anthy wrote:Fanfics, however, are a different thing. You are not speaking to your reader directly, so anything other than -chan and -kun should be avoided. It is incredibly irritating to see

"Ohayo, Minako-chan!"
"Ohayo gozaimasu, Usagi-chan!"
"O-genki desu ka?"
"Genki desu! So, you want to see the movies on Friday?"
"WAI WAI! Let's see Hello Kitty! KAWAII! SUGOI!"
"Hai."

I was pretty much turned off from fanfics because of "cleverness" such as the above >< It's great that you know Japanese, but even though these may be phrases known by the majority of the anime community...it REALLY disrupts the flow of the story.

J Anderson · Post by **J Anderson** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:34 pm

Am I the only one who prefers Ginzuishou over Silver Crystal? Personally, I think Ginzuishou sounds less bland.

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:48 pm

Rather than "Silver Crystal", I prefer "Silver Crystal of Illusions" or "Illusionary Silver Crystal"...heck, I even love the Black Moon Family's "Stone of Illusions". But I like "Maboroshi no Ginzuishou" over all of them. Sounds really exotic.

...I know typing what I did makes me look like a hypocrite. Forgive me ><

Sailor Sapphire · Post by **Sailor Sapphire** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:37 am

Is it a bad thing to use the English version for the character names, but name your episodes in the Japanese style?

Example: "Attack of the water dragon! The chilly battle of Sailor Sapphire!" (episode 4 of my Sailor Gemstone story)

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:48 am

Sailor Sapphire wrote:Is it a bad thing to use the English version for the character names, but name your episodes in the Japanese style?

Whatever you do with your fics is up to you, Sapphire. If you feel comfortable with the English names, go for it. I like the Japanese style of titling SM episodes, but personally, would never use it, as I actually prefer 1 or 2 word titles (a la Transformers: Armada or Smallville) ^^;

Rainbow · Post by **Rainbow** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 10:15 am

Starscream wrote:
Whatever you do with your fics is up to you, Sapphire. If you feel comfortable with the English names, go for it. I like the Japanese style of titling SM episodes, but personally, would never use it, as I actually prefer 1 or 2 word titles (a la Transformers: Armada or Smallville) ^^;

I prefer to write with fewer-word titles too. I tried writing some fics with the Japanese titles, but I found it difficult to make titles like that and NOT give away spoilers for the chapter. With shorter titles I find it easier to not give stuff away in the title.

Sailor Sapphire · Post by **Sailor Sapphire** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 12:33 pm

Okay, thanks for the feedback, guys.

Post by **Tiff** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:27 pm

Anthy wrote:I occasionally use random Japanese phrases in speech and over the IM, usually for self-parody. I'm a stupid, irritating, crazy fangirl and I know it. "Tiffu-chan! WAI WAIII~, KAWAII DESU NE!!!!???? PYOOOOO~~! ^___^" is when I'm trying to act like an idiot.

XD I do the same thing. and yay, you used my name *shines*

And yeah, I agree abuot sticking all of that japanese into a fanfic...but when I roleplay a japanese character, I tend to stick little phrases like that in there..it's just a habit, I suppose.

Sailor Sapphire · Post by **Sailor Sapphire** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:44 pm

In other words, a few Japanese words here and there are all right, but don't do it to the point where you need a dictionary to keep from confusing your readers