Writing thoughts, Mary Sue meme

[springgreen]

So, for those of you who write for anime and manga fandoms: do you ever have problems translating the characters in your fic?

I've found that it's much easier for me to get character voice for manga, provided that I've read the manga in translation, but with subtitled anime, I've been having a very painful time. There's always a small mental disconnect in which the characters are speaking Japanese in my head, but English in the fic, whether I'm reading or writing something.

I keep hearing the characters saying things like "Sou ka naaaa..." and I can't figure out how to do that in English. And I don't want to pepper my fic with too much random Japanese, as a) reader accessability is a good thing, b) it furthers the disconnect somewhat (i.e. I as a reader have to flip between Japanese and English even more often), and c) I have had too many bad experiences with fangirl Japanese.

How much Japanese throws you out of a fic (or does it ever)? How much do you personally try to keep in (if any)? Do you try to keep suffixes like -san and -chan, and do you try to keep interjections like "ne"?

And how in the world do you translate things like "Sou ka" and the not-quite-yes "Un" that often goes with a nod and all that stuff?

*wanders off, confused*

And now for something completely different!

I've been endlessly amused watching people I know write themselves as Mary Sues in SPN ficlets, but alas, since I don't watch SPN, I will instead apply this to my currently most active fandom!

Mary Sue Saiyuki!

"And an order of meat buns, and a dish of the beef chow fun, and some Fuzhou fried rice, and the chicken noodle soup but with the noodles and the soup separate, and some of the crispy-skinned duck, and the duck with mashed taro, and the drunken chicken, and..."

The waitress scribbled as quickly as she could.

"And some of the barbequed pork buns, and..."

"Um, would you like to try our soup dumplings, sir?"

Goku grinned. "Yeah! Hey, what else do you like?" To the table: "She called me sir!"

"Uh. Lots of stuff?" she said. "What do you like?"

"The monkey likes everything," Gojyo said, cigarette drooping from the corner of his mouth. "Couldn't you tell?"

Hakkai and Sanzo had long since let their attention wander after Goku's order went past the twentieth item.

"Oh! You should get the warm mochi rolled in peanut powder and sugar with sesame on the inside. Get two orders. Or maybe more. But the kitchen takes forever to make them."

"Okay!"

"Oh!! You forgot to get green stuff! We have really good kongxin vegetables today; I like them stir-fried with garlic. And we have bok choi and Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce and bean sprouts and cabbage, but the cabbage is sort of boring, and um... OH! We have those veggies stir-fried with the little white fish that sort of look like maggots but really taste good and salty and aren't gross at all really!"

Hakkai looked up. "Maggots?"

"Only a little, but I swear, they're so good, and really they're just fish!"

"I suppose we should try to feed Goku more green things," he mused.

The waitress nodded enthusiastically. "They're tasty!"

Sanzo glared. "Are you paid by commission?"

"No, no! I just like vegetables, that's all!"

Sanzo glared more.

"I swear!"

Goku peered at her, somewhat baffled. Goku liked food a lot. But Goku's affinity was toward meat buns and rice dishes and fried things, and he was curious. "You like vegetables? 'specially?"

"Well, I sort of like everything. But vegetables are tasty, and they're crunchy, and they're just green and fresh and did I mention the crunchy and the green?"

Goku nodded. "Hey, Sanzo, can we keep her?"

The waitress smiled uncertainly.

"Are you out of your fucking mind? We have a hard enough time just feeding you!" Gojyo yelled. "Sanzo, c'mon!"

Sanzo sucked at his cigarette. "For once, you've said something intelligent."

Hakkai leaned over and whispered to the waitress, "I think you're probably better off without us." The waitress nodded, eyes glued on Sanzo's gun. "Why don't you order yourself some of your favorites after we leave and charge it to Sanzo's card?"

"Really?" she squeaked.

"Goku's orders are so large that he probably won't be able to tell."

"COOL!"

A few weeks later: "What the fuck? How could even you eat this much?" Sanzo yelled, waving a very long credit card bill in Goku's face.

Hakkai laughed.

You are all grateful that I never got around to trying to knit the ikkou socks. Stripey, candy-colored socks. Or possibly a gun cozy.

Comments

[shati.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. I mean I also try to write it as though it were subtitled, if that makes any sense. Like, my fic is written to be a translation, not what they're actually saying, so I don't necessarily bother with "ne" and the rest.

I don't think I'd be thrown by seeing "aaa" and "oi" in a fic, though.

Also, this would get doubly confusing if I ever ended up writing fic for anime/manga set in the US.

(Yeah, I love Hiro and Ando's subtitles. And they move around the screen helpfully! -- Which will suck for vidding, sigh.)

[springgreen.livejournal.com]

Oh man, yes! Every time I write Gaiden there's this weird conflict in my head -- is it really in Chinese but I'm reading it in Japanese? Is it sort of Japanese? What what what? I think my head would explode if Minekura's world hadn't already been established as being completely anachronistic.