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banas



Joined: 16 Mar 2007
Posts: 116
Location: In a house in a country in Southeast Asia..
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:31 am Reply with quote
Do you read fanfics? I do, and sometimes I get frustrated because I favor fanfics more than anime. Do you think reading fanfics with excellent plots could affect my preference for anime? Did that ever happen to you? I mean, liking fanfics better, eve though you know that it is make up..
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NocturnalUX



Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 448
Location: Portugal
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:43 am Reply with quote
I enjoy fanfics that deal with marginal characters that I really enjoyed but got little screen time in the original anime. Many a time my favourite characters are secondary to the plot itself which can be somewhat annoying, hence fanfics come in handy.
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ElementSun



Joined: 02 Aug 2007
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:17 am Reply with quote
agreed. fanfics that center around main characaters tend to lack consistency and accuracy in personality. However, ambiguous characters can be easily interpreted into a number of different personalities and such.

I enjoy reading Golden Sun fan fiction =/
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TestamentSaki



Joined: 11 Oct 2005
Posts: 1012
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:10 am Reply with quote
ElementSun wrote:
agreed. fanfics that center around main characaters tend to lack consistency and accuracy in personality. However, ambiguous characters can be easily interpreted into a number of different personalities and such.

I enjoy reading Golden Sun fan fiction =/


Golden Sun fan here too.

IN my case, it depends. It has to hav quite a lot of the essence of the story. If it's too romantic, I pass.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:39 am Reply with quote
There's only one real instance where I vastly prefer fan fiction to the original series and that's Gundam Wing. The anime itself is...not bad, but really not the greatest thing in the world either. And yes, a lot of the fan fic is really, REALLY bad. But when you find where the good places are (I've found the good place being the older Trowa fans, which is a bit odd but whatever works) then the fic is just amazing, leagues beyond anything in the original series.

I tend however to find most fan fiction to be really bad and so I don't read much. I do write though, for a few fandoms. And every now and then I do find myself searching through the lists at FanFiction.Net.
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Boomerang Flash



Joined: 08 Sep 2007
Posts: 1021
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:03 pm Reply with quote
I find fanfictions only acceptable as reading material when I'm so into the grip of a series that I must be exposed to other aspects of it, regardless of quality. Even then, the fervor does not hide the fact that most of them are just waste of my time, though there are usually some I can find that are good at the time but also pretty bad when I've moved away from the fandom.

Then here's the problem with fanfictions which caused me to shy from them even when I'm a fanatic of a series. Fanfictions that have the best writing--paying the most meticulous attention to details, examination of thought processes, internal consistency--usually fall into one of the following categories:
1. novelization of the original material, which are almost never finished, and whose likelihood to get abandoned increases proportionally to the plot's proximity to the climax.
2. Mary Sues
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EVA fiend



Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 314
Location: Somewhere in the UK.
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:07 pm Reply with quote
I read a lot of fanfiction but only for anime series where I felt the ending to be seemingly incomplete (Mai-HiME for ShizNat - curiously, it was a fan-created work that got me interested in Mai-HiME in the first place), open-ended (Shoujo Kakumei Utena) or just plain crap (Hellsing TV - one particular piece of fanfiction actually made me appreciate the TV series a little more).

Most of the stuff I've read has been poorly conceived drivel for the most part (I hate self-inserts & poor grammar is a bane), but it is worth sifting through all the dross to find those rare gems IMO, as there are some highly talented writers out there. Anime catgrin
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Truered



Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 515
Location: Uni
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:19 pm Reply with quote
Compulsive FF writer here Very Happy

I don't read too many, but I write too much. None of them are masterpiece's and I'd never want to advertise them here as they'd be destroyed by hellfire. I just like writing and FF has given me a way to release my pent up author frustrations.

I get frustrated over fanfics as I actually spend more time planning and writing them then actually watching anime/reading manga. I guess that's what happens when you're stupid enough to try and do about four at the same time and go to University Confused

There's some stuff that's decent, a lot that's crap and some inbetween that can just be fun to read.
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Murasakisuishou



Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 1469
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:19 pm Reply with quote
I used to write one-shot fanfics constantly when I was in 7th grade, for series like Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2, and when I found out it existed, Shaman King. Then I stopped because I realized it was all crap. A couple summers ago I wrote a 45-page SK fanfic about the mother of one of the main characters, which I'm rather proud of, seeing as how she got only 15 minutes of screentime in all 64 episodes. I started a sequel, but it got really alternate universe so I stopped writing it.

The only fanfiction I've ever read has been stuff about minor characters, because most fanfiction dealing with main characters either completely messes with their personalities or is alternate universe. I love the stories that mesh with the main plot of the anime, yet stand alone and give insight into characters who aren't really fleshed out.

I do wish that fanfiction authors could learn to use correct grammar, though. And author avatar characters drive me insane, especially when the whole point of the fanfic is for the author to hook up with the bishounen main character. These stories are usually a breeding ground for Mary Sues.
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Viga_of_stars



Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Posts: 1240
Location: Washington D.C. in the Anime Atelier
PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:24 pm Reply with quote
I love fanfiction but I haven't been in the game for some time now. (I sound so old!!!)

There's no problem with liking some fanfiction more than the original. I perfer this fanfiction I read which I think could be the true ending or continuation of Tenchi in Tokyo. Or I sometimes find a nice side story using an under used character. Heck, if the anime being fanfictioned is terrible sometimes the fanfiction made it seem better.

All in all, viva la fanfiction!
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jetz



Joined: 31 Jan 2007
Posts: 2148
Location: Manila, Philippines
PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:14 am Reply with quote
Used to write fanfics and used to read some, but these days.. Nahhhh..

I don't have time to read fanfics anymore, but then again, I don't have school for the rest of the year so I guess I could start reading fics if I wanted.. Problem is, I don't know where to find good fanfics.
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Professor315



Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Fan-fics are kind of...meh. Some are really written well while others just lead to no where. I practically stay away from reading fan-fiction. Although I have written two of my own, one related to anime and the other not.
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dizzcity



Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 8
PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:36 am Reply with quote
Occasional fanfic reader and author here - primarily on FF.net. I think I have the same attitude towards fanfics that Boomerang Flash mentioned earlier - they serve as additional fodder to feed my fandom in a particular series that has me enthralled. Of course, that only applies to good fanfics, which, as mentioned, are far and few in between. Still, a really good fanfic can very often outclass even the original work, especially in the hands of a talented author. It's sort of the best of both worlds - you get to read what amounts to a light novel based on a series you like... and all for free, to boot. And yes, in response to the original question, some fanfiction has significantly boosted my interest in the original work, or rather, to specific sub-characters and pairings that exist in the original work. spoiler[(An example would be how the story Falling has boosted my appreciation of the Asuma-Kurenai romance in Naruto)]

The interesting thing about fanfiction about lesser-known characters or invisible pairings in canon is that you often have more leeway to play with them without the constraints of canon. This results both in very very good fanfics (where the author is able to project his or her style into the story and merge it with existing canon well), or very very bad ones (Mary Sues). But sometimes the good ones are worth all the hassle of weeding out the bad ones. And having filtered lists of highly-ranked fanfics does help in improving the signal-to-noise ratio for popular fanfic aggregators like Fanfiction.net.
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Raven Shinobi





PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:59 pm Reply with quote
I write fanfiction, mostly for videogames like the Megaten and Xenosaga series. I currently have four unfinished chaptered fics, but once I complete them, I'll quit doing chaptered fics and just post oneshots occasionally.

I don't read fics like I used to when I was introduced to it five years ago, my standards just gotten higher with years and nothing impress me that much anymore. The only categories that currently hold my interest are Utena, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Persona: Tsumi and Batsu.
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Ryu19



Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 23
Location: Boise,Idaho
PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 12:04 pm Reply with quote
I'm fine with fanfiction as I write it myself. It's great for when a series is done and we can create new adventures. Sometimes it's annoying with all the crazy shippers fanfiction can help create but that's a hazard of the writing.
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