Four years and countless animanga later, I'm still going back to my Western fandoms when I want a good dose of h/c smarm, and not just because word for word, Western fandoms have better-written fic [....] And this frustrates me, because there's a lot of anime fandoms for which I'd love to read some good friendship stories.
(Wah, I hate to quote this much, but it's a large part of what made me slink on over here and decide to comment. ^_~ *snips a bit out*) Oddly enough, a lot of that kind of thing is what made me start seeking out romance fic in the first place. (Well, that and some people royally suck at the plot thing. People can usually manage to get romance done semi-right, at least.) I came from fandoms like Highlander or The Sentinel and got a little burnt out on the teasing after awhile. I'd gotten fed up with the dancing around each other and eventually started wanting to grumble, "Give me my romance, godddammit. MAKE THEM KISS. *fumes*"
It didn't help that this was exacerbated by fandoms like Yami no Matsuei where NOTHING EVER HAPPENED. I cannot tell you how many fics had Tsuzuki and Hisoka (or, hell, Tatsumi and Watari, when I could find decent writing for them) always dancing around the fact that they had (probably) feelings for each other, never quite going anywhere with them. After awhile it got to the point where I couldn't read any more fic because I couldn't take the lack of forward momentum in their relationship.
I agree that anime fic these days is far too dominated by romance and that plotful writing is sorely lacking and that the softer approach to romance seems to be a dying art, rather than the sledgehammer approach to two characters' feelings for each other. And maybe I'm just feeling guilty and trying to justify my love of romantic fanworks for any given series, but... eh, give me a post-romantic, plotful fic and I'm usually at my most happy-fangirl-bliss point at that. (Meaning, a story that has my favored pairing established, but the story doesn't revolve around their getting together, at least not entirely.) Because I love plot, it makes me sparkle and puts stars in my eyes, but I also like well-done romance. I like my romance tempered with genuinely moving the story/relationship/whatever forward.
So, if that means a choice between a well-written gen fic that feels stagnant to me and a semi-decent romance fic that at least gets things going again...? I admit, I have a really, really tough time choosing.
(And looking over this response, I feel I should clarify a few things, just in case I'm not coming across as well as I'd hoped. ^_~ I really do very much agree that gen fic is underappreciated by a lot of authors today, but, at the same time, I can understand the impulse to go straight for the romance fic. When I like a pairing, I crave those cathartic get-together fics because I'm not getting it in canon, dammit. And I need that itch scratched so that I can move on to other things and not be so distracted by it. Plus, it's really difficult to maintain that level of tension with the whole "Will they or won't they this time?" thing without wanting to scream and smoosh the characters' heads together and force them to kiss. ^_~
Doesn't mean I don't adore gen, of course--my absolute favorite fanfic ever was the novel-length X-Men story, "The Betrayal Arc" by Valerie Jones. What I loved about that story? Wasn't the romance. Yet, at the same time, so much of what attracts me to a fandom is the emotional component, the hook of the characters and their relationships with each other. Without that, I wouldn't even need fic, I'd just go rewatch my episodes or move on to the next series. When I become genuinely fond of the characters, that's when I want more of their interaction and it's what I seek out in fanworks. Doesn't mean I want the series itself to be about that 24/7, but it's what I go for when I want that fanworks itch scratched. XD)
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2004-03-05 10:22 am (UTC)(Wah, I hate to quote this much, but it's a large part of what made me slink on over here and decide to comment. ^_~ *snips a bit out*) Oddly enough, a lot of that kind of thing is what made me start seeking out romance fic in the first place. (Well, that and some people royally suck at the plot thing. People can usually manage to get romance done semi-right, at least.) I came from fandoms like Highlander or The Sentinel and got a little burnt out on the teasing after awhile. I'd gotten fed up with the dancing around each other and eventually started wanting to grumble, "Give me my romance, godddammit. MAKE THEM KISS. *fumes*"
It didn't help that this was exacerbated by fandoms like Yami no Matsuei where NOTHING EVER HAPPENED. I cannot tell you how many fics had Tsuzuki and Hisoka (or, hell, Tatsumi and Watari, when I could find decent writing for them) always dancing around the fact that they had (probably) feelings for each other, never quite going anywhere with them. After awhile it got to the point where I couldn't read any more fic because I couldn't take the lack of forward momentum in their relationship.
I agree that anime fic these days is far too dominated by romance and that plotful writing is sorely lacking and that the softer approach to romance seems to be a dying art, rather than the sledgehammer approach to two characters' feelings for each other. And maybe I'm just feeling guilty and trying to justify my love of romantic fanworks for any given series, but... eh, give me a post-romantic, plotful fic and I'm usually at my most happy-fangirl-bliss point at that. (Meaning, a story that has my favored pairing established, but the story doesn't revolve around their getting together, at least not entirely.) Because I love plot, it makes me sparkle and puts stars in my eyes, but I also like well-done romance. I like my romance tempered with genuinely moving the story/relationship/whatever forward.
So, if that means a choice between a well-written gen fic that feels stagnant to me and a semi-decent romance fic that at least gets things going again...? I admit, I have a really, really tough time choosing.
(And looking over this response, I feel I should clarify a few things, just in case I'm not coming across as well as I'd hoped. ^_~ I really do very much agree that gen fic is underappreciated by a lot of authors today, but, at the same time, I can understand the impulse to go straight for the romance fic. When I like a pairing, I crave those cathartic get-together fics because I'm not getting it in canon, dammit. And I need that itch scratched so that I can move on to other things and not be so distracted by it. Plus, it's really difficult to maintain that level of tension with the whole "Will they or won't they this time?" thing without wanting to scream and smoosh the characters' heads together and force them to kiss. ^_~
Doesn't mean I don't adore gen, of course--my absolute favorite fanfic ever was the novel-length X-Men story, "The Betrayal Arc" by Valerie Jones. What I loved about that story? Wasn't the romance. Yet, at the same time, so much of what attracts me to a fandom is the emotional component, the hook of the characters and their relationships with each other. Without that, I wouldn't even need fic, I'd just go rewatch my episodes or move on to the next series. When I become genuinely fond of the characters, that's when I want more of their interaction and it's what I seek out in fanworks. Doesn't mean I want the series itself to be about that 24/7, but it's what I go for when I want that fanworks itch scratched. XD)
*shutting up now* ^_~