Anime fanfiction and regional language

[prillalar]

Thanks, everyone, for your input on the Very Important Tuque Question. I really like hearing about different regional expressions. Vide the "huck" question. (Hmm, all these questions seem to involve Kaidoh in some way.)

But now I'm wondering if the question is as Very Important as I first thought. If I use tuque instead of knit cap (or Pudelmütze), I'm sure it will be fairly obvious from the context that Kaidoh has some sort of winter hat on his head.

I do try to use language appropriate to the canon and genre when I write fanfic. When I write about shows that take place in the US, I try not to let my Canadianisms slip in. When I write Harry Potter, I try to use more English expressions. (Not sure how well I do, of course.) Et cetera.

But when I'm writing in anime fandoms, what's appropriate? The source material is in a different language, one I understand very little of. I suppose that in tenipuri fandom, at least, the English language fandom is primarily American, and so that's the accepted default for fanfic.

Once I did see Kaidoh (*koff*) doing maths instead of math and I remember how much it charmed me. And regardless of the source, I always use Canadian spelling in my fanfic and nobody has every complained to me about it.

I wouldn't put Daniel Jackson or Draco Malfoy in a tuque but I don't see why Kaidoh shouldn't have one. (Unless no one wears those kinds of hats in Japan.)

So, here are the questions:

* If you are an anglophone American (is there such a thing or is anglophone just a Canadian term?) or Canadian who reads anime fanfic, how would you respond to a fic written in, for example, UK English? Would it impair your enjoyment of the story?

* If you are a non-American anglophone who writes anime fanfic, do you Americanize your language when you write? Why or why not?

* Do your answers to the above differ depending on the particular anime fandom?

* Am I a freak who thinks too much? (And makes too many parenthetical asides?)

Comments

[miko-no-da.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't tend to worry about it much... for one thing, some regionalisms are just so ingrained you don't realize they aren't universal until someone else points it out to you, so they're hard to avoid. The eternal debate between 'soda', 'pop', 'coke' and other variations comes to mind. ^_^

I admit I do tend to sneak in a few Britishisms when writing for Harry Potter, and I tend towards phrases that would be more likely to be said in Japanese when writing anime, but I've read fics from every fandom by people from lots of cultures, and I enjoy it when I see that person's culture show up in the fic. My favourite GW authors are in Australia, and all sorts of Aussie things crop up in their writing. Is it necessarily 'true' to GW? Probably not. But it's the way they write, and how they think, and trying to change that would make their writing seem less natural, I think.

I say write it how you know it, and don't worry about it. So long as you don't have things grossly out of place or out of character I think it all works out.

[prillalar]

GW is one canon where I think anything goes. The characters are from all over the Earth and colonies and it's set in the future. So I feel really free with my language when I'm writing it. (This is why I love writing 1x2x1 sex so much. *g*)

Things like HP or PoT, where the characters are all in the same geographical location and mostly from the same culture, require more attention to detail. But I don't tend to freak out unless there's some egregious error.