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some thoughts on new fandoms
I posted, a while ago, about having new fandoms, but in more general terms.
I'm used to writing for secondary-world fantasy video games. Sometimes - as with the Final Fantasy games I write for, and Suikoden III - they're set in a Western-influenced fantasy world. I'd actually argue that Suikoden III is roughly American in setting in some ways - the Zexen nation is a fairly young country, established by apparently-white colonizers, who are in conflict with the existing residents of the area near them - but it's certainly not predominantly Asian in its origins, unlike some of the settings of the previous two Suikoden games. FF6 has Cyan, who's explicitly a samurai despite the French surname, but almost all the characters' names are of French, English, or Italian origin.
Madoka Magica, on the other hand, is set in a near-future Japan, despite the range of hair colors. For my part, I'm taking the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon approach to their hair colors - in the live-action show, from what I remember, the characters had natural hair colors in their civilian identities, then got the blue/blonde/etc. hair when they transformed into magical girls. For my purposes, something similar is happening with the Madoka Magica girls. I'm trying to maintain canonical honorifics where I can, at least where characters are addressing each other, though sometimes it gets too cumbersome in narration.
And Tiger & Bunny, despite the whole cast speaking Japanese, is pretty clearly set in an English-speaking area; all the TV crawls and onscreen text are in English, and the money resembles US dollar bills (though they're called Stern Bild dollars, abbreviated to Stern, as in "this cost fifty Stern," or "you owe me twenty Stern.") I keep Kotetsu's use of honorifics, etc. - his family probably speaks Japanese at home at least some of the time - but drop it for everyone else, because they're actually speaking English among themselves. (Except when they're not, like Pao-lin with her parents.) It's also worth noting that Kotetsu's family seems to be kind of Americanized, since middle names aren't traditional in Japanese, and he has a middle initial. This is actually a series that I could hypothetically watch dubbed, if it weren't for the fact that the original performances are amazing and I doubt dub performances could measure up.
Tiger & Bunny is also the first time I've written m/m. It's not the first time I ever shipped it - in the early parts of Naruto I shipped Sasuke/Naruto, and Hugo/Caesar was both adorable and blatant in the Suiko III manga, about the only good thing to come out of the manga - but those were typically pretty fleeting. This is OTP-level shipping like I've previously only done for het couples.
I'm not quite as passionate about any of the f/f pairings I ship, though I OTP Homura/Madoka a bit - I really cannot abide the Homestuck crossovers that keep pairing her with a guy, and it's hard to see her having a relationship with anyone that would be as intense as her feelings for Madoka. If she were to get involved with Kyoko and/or Mami, how could she open up to them? I mean, that would be an interesting dynamic to write about, but when I'm truly shipping a pairing, it's because I want them to be happy together. I want them to be good for each other, monogamous, happily married, and maybe thinking about a family, depending on the characters.*
I think part of the difference is just the level of spoiled-ness; I was watching Tiger & Bunny as it came out, I played FF6 with no idea that Celes would even be in the picture, but I watched Madoka Magica fully aware of most of the major plot developments. It's harder to get all "JUST KISS ALREADY" if you already know they don't kiss. I just put a lot more energy into wanting Kotetsu and Barnaby to get along, treat each other right, and work things out. As much as I liked the characters in Madoka Magica, I was at a remove from them.
* Of the pairings I ship: Locke and Terra would definitely want to have children of their own (whether that's possible for her, I waver on) and if they couldn't, they'd probably adopt a couple more. I don't really see Celes and Setzer wanting children, though if they had a surprise pregnancy I think they'd both be good parents. Kotetsu and Barnaby would adopt; Kotetsu adores his daughter and probably would have wanted more kids if his wife had lived, and Stern Bild seems pretty egalitarian, so no legal problems. Madoka might kind of want to have kids, but Homura would have misgivings about having a dependent when they were both magical girls. For Chris and Salome it would probably depend on timing - they wouldn't want to risk having her out of commission should they end up in a war. Jacques and Aila would eventually retire (probably to Karaya) and have a couple of kids. Rude and Tifa I don't see as having kids; one of the things that irked me most about Advent Children was Tifa having to be foster mother to Denzel and Marlene, since I didn't see her as very maternal. (And also because Squeenix had taken yet another female character I write about and lumbered her with children.)
I'm used to writing for secondary-world fantasy video games. Sometimes - as with the Final Fantasy games I write for, and Suikoden III - they're set in a Western-influenced fantasy world. I'd actually argue that Suikoden III is roughly American in setting in some ways - the Zexen nation is a fairly young country, established by apparently-white colonizers, who are in conflict with the existing residents of the area near them - but it's certainly not predominantly Asian in its origins, unlike some of the settings of the previous two Suikoden games. FF6 has Cyan, who's explicitly a samurai despite the French surname, but almost all the characters' names are of French, English, or Italian origin.
Madoka Magica, on the other hand, is set in a near-future Japan, despite the range of hair colors. For my part, I'm taking the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon approach to their hair colors - in the live-action show, from what I remember, the characters had natural hair colors in their civilian identities, then got the blue/blonde/etc. hair when they transformed into magical girls. For my purposes, something similar is happening with the Madoka Magica girls. I'm trying to maintain canonical honorifics where I can, at least where characters are addressing each other, though sometimes it gets too cumbersome in narration.
And Tiger & Bunny, despite the whole cast speaking Japanese, is pretty clearly set in an English-speaking area; all the TV crawls and onscreen text are in English, and the money resembles US dollar bills (though they're called Stern Bild dollars, abbreviated to Stern, as in "this cost fifty Stern," or "you owe me twenty Stern.") I keep Kotetsu's use of honorifics, etc. - his family probably speaks Japanese at home at least some of the time - but drop it for everyone else, because they're actually speaking English among themselves. (Except when they're not, like Pao-lin with her parents.) It's also worth noting that Kotetsu's family seems to be kind of Americanized, since middle names aren't traditional in Japanese, and he has a middle initial. This is actually a series that I could hypothetically watch dubbed, if it weren't for the fact that the original performances are amazing and I doubt dub performances could measure up.
Tiger & Bunny is also the first time I've written m/m. It's not the first time I ever shipped it - in the early parts of Naruto I shipped Sasuke/Naruto, and Hugo/Caesar was both adorable and blatant in the Suiko III manga, about the only good thing to come out of the manga - but those were typically pretty fleeting. This is OTP-level shipping like I've previously only done for het couples.
I'm not quite as passionate about any of the f/f pairings I ship, though I OTP Homura/Madoka a bit - I really cannot abide the Homestuck crossovers that keep pairing her with a guy, and it's hard to see her having a relationship with anyone that would be as intense as her feelings for Madoka. If she were to get involved with Kyoko and/or Mami, how could she open up to them? I mean, that would be an interesting dynamic to write about, but when I'm truly shipping a pairing, it's because I want them to be happy together. I want them to be good for each other, monogamous, happily married, and maybe thinking about a family, depending on the characters.*
I think part of the difference is just the level of spoiled-ness; I was watching Tiger & Bunny as it came out, I played FF6 with no idea that Celes would even be in the picture, but I watched Madoka Magica fully aware of most of the major plot developments. It's harder to get all "JUST KISS ALREADY" if you already know they don't kiss. I just put a lot more energy into wanting Kotetsu and Barnaby to get along, treat each other right, and work things out. As much as I liked the characters in Madoka Magica, I was at a remove from them.
* Of the pairings I ship: Locke and Terra would definitely want to have children of their own (whether that's possible for her, I waver on) and if they couldn't, they'd probably adopt a couple more. I don't really see Celes and Setzer wanting children, though if they had a surprise pregnancy I think they'd both be good parents. Kotetsu and Barnaby would adopt; Kotetsu adores his daughter and probably would have wanted more kids if his wife had lived, and Stern Bild seems pretty egalitarian, so no legal problems. Madoka might kind of want to have kids, but Homura would have misgivings about having a dependent when they were both magical girls. For Chris and Salome it would probably depend on timing - they wouldn't want to risk having her out of commission should they end up in a war. Jacques and Aila would eventually retire (probably to Karaya) and have a couple of kids. Rude and Tifa I don't see as having kids; one of the things that irked me most about Advent Children was Tifa having to be foster mother to Denzel and Marlene, since I didn't see her as very maternal. (And also because Squeenix had taken yet another female character I write about and lumbered her with children.)