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Names, honorifics, and Prince of Tennis. Aiee!
So, if one were, hypothetically, to write some Prince of Tennis fic, then one would need to puzzle out the intricacies of who calls whom by what name when and with what honorific. I'm up to speed enough for watching. I've googled a lot and most sites have the same basic info, which is good enough to get an idea of what's going on. But composition requires more knowledge than simple comprehension and that's where I'm having trouble.
For example, among the third years (by each other, that is, not by outsiders), some are addressed only by their family names without an honorific -- Fuji, Oishi. Eiji goes by his given name, also without an honorific. Kawamura is often called Taka-san, a shortened form of his given name with -san added. Why is it so different among them? When can you use someone's given name?
Here are three different sets of characters. Assuming that what they call each other in canon reflects a friendly relationship, how would it change if they were A. close friends or B. romantically involved? If you don't know the show but want to take a stab anyhow, I'll put in some info about the characters. All names written with family name first, then given name. These are boys, not men, at school. And these aren't necessarily who I plan to write about, but I thought they'd make good examples.
1. Echizen Ryoma -- first year student, loner, somewhat bratty and not terribly deferential. (From spending his formative years in America?) Calls Momoshiro "Momo-senpai".
Momoshiro Takeshi -- second year student, outgoing, laid back, caused first year students to nearly faint by insisting they call him "Momo-chan". (They were just barely able to manage "Momo-chan-senpai".) Calls Echizen "Echizen".
Echizen and Momoshiro pal around after school a lot.
2. Kaidoh Kaoru -- second year, loner, serious, irritable, but respectful and observing of proprieties. Calls Inui "senpai" when he addresses him at all.
Inui Sadaharu -- third year, serious, smart, somewhat evil. Calls Kaidoh "Kaidoh", which he does quite a lot.
Inui and Kaidoh are in love not exactly friendly but they train together and have a somewhat complex unspoken relationship. In my opinion.
3. Fuji Syusuke -- third year, smiling, friendly, very evil. Calls Kawamura "Taka-san", I think. (I confess, I'm not quite sure -- but it's what most of the third years seem to call him.)
Kawamura Takashi -- third year, friendly, almost shy except when playing tennis, when he pretty much goes berserk. Calls Fuji "Fuji".
They play doubles sometimes and are generally friendly with each other.
I would be ever so grateful to anyone who could help me out with this. I really don't want to mess this up and look stupid.
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Ok, onwards. The rules don't really do much good when it comes to actual interactions, do they? It has to do with the personalities, as well as relative social positions. The use of family names (no title) among members of the same seniority level (class, grade of employment, etc.) seems more or less "we are decent friends/teammates/not girls". But Eiji gets called by his given name because he's so darn bouncy and outgoing, and both assumes and accepts a higher degree of informality/intimacy. You might have noted, he calls people by nick-names a lot (Fujiko, Taka-san, Ochibi). From Momo, though, it's Eiji-senpai, which is less formal then, say, Fuji-senpai, but keeps the vital acknowledgment of a difference in seniority. One of the reasons people like to assume Shishido and Ohtori, of Hyoutei, are lovers, is that, while Ohtori is quite proper about calling all his other seniors FamilyName-senpai, he calls Shishido 'Shishido-san', and Shishido calls him Choutarou. Given name alone is more intimate than standard Senior-to-Junior, which would be FamilyName (no title), or GivenName-kun, if they're a bit closer/politer. Similarly, Yagyuu, of Rikkai, is considered to be holding up his nickname of The Gentleman when he calls his same-year partner 'Niou-kun'. So, anyway, my guesses:
1. I would expect Momo's usage to change more than Ryouma's. Ryouma uses the forms without, clearly, investing much actual respect in them, so I wouldn't expect him to feel called upon to change the form in order to reflect, say, a closer friendship. If they were romantically involved, I might expect him to call Momo 'Momo' in private. Moreso, as Momo seems to like his nickname better than 'Takeshi'. I would expect Momo to move from 'Echizen' to 'Ryouma' as they became closer, either as friends or as lovers. He's an affectionate sort of guy, albeit surprisingly proper with his own seniors.
2. Oh, the most fun. I would expect Kaidou to call Inui 'Senpai' or 'Inui-senpai' unless and until Inui suggested that it would be more appropriate to call him by his given name. Since I don't think that would be appropriate until they were lovers, that's when I would expect Kaidou to alter his form of address, probably blushing hugely all the while. Inui is harder. I think he would, knowing how it would disconcert Kaidou, call him Kaoru either as they became close friends (erm, supposing that to be possible) in order to tease him, or else as they were becoming lovers, in order to emphasize the intimacy of the moment.
3. Hmm. Kawamura is so sweet and retiring, as long as he doesn't have a racquet in hand, that I wouldn't expect him to use Fuji's given name unless they were lovers. I expect he would call Fuji-the-close-friend 'Fuji', still. And 'Taka-san' is so much a nick-name, or even pet name already, I would expect Fuji to keep using that for Kawamura-the-close-friend. Definitely 'Takashi' if they were lovers, though. If only to make him blush.
Looking back through that, I realize that I assumed physical intimacy; let me add that I think it would work the same for non-physical romantic involvement.
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Thanks. :) I adore it whenever those two meet up. I nearly died the time they were showing off their manly physiques to each other.
And thank you so much for all the info! Very much appreciated. Your scenarios seem logical and realistic. And, yes, it's just so much about the individual relationships. Hence my confusion!
I've watched up to episode 75 so far and I'm quite, quite hooked. I wasn't planning to try to get hold of the manga at all, but I'm thinking I might have to after all.
Inui and Kaidoh interest me by far the most. Their relationship seems so complex, layered, and mysterious.
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The safest route might be little change at all--since (if language teachers are to be believed), years later you can find yourself calling your high school senpai, "senpai" and your childhood friend "1stname-chan" and your college friends "lastname-san". Perhaps just dropping the honorific when things get *very* close.
Glancing at a few random Slam Dunk doujinshi, people can stay with last names even when being *ahem* very intimate. Also, a change to a first name or to plain last name might only occur in extreme, isolated circumstances, with the last name or last name+honorific being used in everyday life.
(I'm assuming you've got all the Confucianism-hierarchy, know-your-place etc etc stuff from googlings.) Often people who are very "proper/upper class/formal" will stick honorifics on, even when addressing someone lower, hierarchy-wise. For example, a very refined mother to her child, although clearly the child is below the mother. Close friends and people who tend to be more disrespectful/friendly may drop the honorifics where a less presumptuous person wouldn't.
If you aren't on it/haven't heard of it already... a good place to ask about this stuff might be the AMLA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amla/). It's a general yaoi/BL ML (with leanings more toward "intellectual" than "squee"). Not everyone there might be a fan of Prince of Tennis, but there are people there fluent in Japanese (and interested in 2 guys together) who could probably help you out or point you someone who could.
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I won't say "I told you so", but well, I did...
Anyway, here is what I have to say about the tricky way they address one another:
I had the same problem when I stepped into the fandom. If it's of any comfort, even the japanese fans have problems with this aspect when writing/drawing fanfiction. And the change of address when 2 characters become lovers often is the subject of doujinshis.
My favorite character is Kaidoh, so I've read a lot of djs pairing him with various other characters. Because he's so introverted and polite, a lot of plots (especially when he's paired with on of his senpai, like for example Inui or Tezuka) revolve around his lover trying to persuade him to drop the formalities. But he almost never does, even during sex... He's so damn cute!
On the contrary, Japanese fans often make Inui call Kaidoh by his given name as a sign of affection. And because it drives kaidoh mad. ^_^
So, my advice would be: 2 characters of the same age would probably use their given names in private, but when a senpai/kouhai relationship is involved, the hierachy pattern would probably remain.
Ryoma's the less predictable. After all, he grew up out of Japan.
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Hee! Say it all you like. Damn, how did it sneak up on me like this?
And thanks for your advice. :) Yes, Kaidoh is very, very cute. I heart him above all others.