Why I love fairy tales (but I hate fairy stories)

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, criticism, fairy tale, fantasy, musings, villain, writing

Tags

fairy story, fairy tale, fantasy, writing about fairies, writing fantasy

I love fairy tales and love writing stories adapting or subverting their tropes. But one thing you will never find me writing is stories about fairies, or even featuring fairies, because personally I can’t stand them and have no interest in writing about them.

If this may seem odd, consider the difference between a fairy tale and a fairy story. In his essay On Fairy Tales, J.R.R Tolkien defined a fairy tale as a story dealing with the land of faery and mankind’s relationship with it. They often work as cautionary tales about wandering into the realm of the fae and not being able to return to the ‘real’ world.

‘Faery’ is a fairly broad term but it generally refers to what ancient cultures believed was a world parallel to but connected to our own filled with other-worldly creatures. Fairies were one such creature, but not the only ones which were said to inhabit it.

By contrast, Tolkien defined fantasy as something set in an entirely invented world, like his own Middle Earth. More authors are making subversions by returning to the fae variety, but what we now call fairies tend to be creatures of fantasy rather than mythology. They tend to be small, humanoid beings, usually with wings and some form of magical powers.

The reason these fairies never resonated with me is because each interpretation tends to fall into one of these categories:

1. Too generic. It’s difficult for me to love any fantasy creature if the author doesn’t do at least something new with it.
2. Too girly. Not that I’m against girly (I’m a big fan of My Little Pony) but so many writers try to make their fairies too saccharine and sweet, which makes me feel like they just vomited glitter all over the page.
3. Too bitchy. I guess this is supposed to be a subversion of the girly variety, but it tends to come across to me as making them overly mean for no real reason.

This doesn’t mean that I hate all stories with fairies, however. I like the weather fairies in A Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar and the sweets spirits in Yumeiro Pâtissière since despite being overly cutsy, they were still different than the standard fare and their story arcs were just as strong and significant as those of their human friends.

By far my favourite fairies in any form of fiction were the three good fairies – Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather – in Disney’s version of Sleeping Beauty. This is because they were well-rounded, funny, and interesting characters, in fact they were far more heroic than the incredibly bland and useless titular character.

While their magical powers were fairly generic and the film does rely upon incredibly black and white ideas of good and evil, the three of them avoided being either too girly or too bitchy by becoming developed characters rather than fairy archetypes. They had positive and negative qualities, they created some of the best comedy that’s ever been seen in a Disney film, they were loving to Aurora despite her complete lack of a personality, and when the time came to it they were completely badass. Really, the King and Queen should have given control of the kingdom to them at the end, since they were the only ones who had any sense (destroying all the spinning wheels in the kingdom both destroyed the economy and left everyone naked, your majesty).

The villainess Maleficent is also technically a fairy (which is why the re-make made her more like the fae variety) but also greatly different than most ‘bad’ fairies in fiction. True her motivation is for incredibly petty reasons, only because she wasn’t invited to a party, but she is still one of the most memorable villains that Disney has ever made. Even sixty years later, she is still the benchmark against which all other animated villains are measured. The strong characterisation of both the good and evil fairies is what makes Sleeping Beauty into both a fairy tale and a good story about fairies.

What are your thoughts on fairy tales and fairy stories? What are your favourite and least favourite fictional fairies? Tell me in the comments below!

Top Five Anime Cliches That Novelists Should Avoid

13 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, Common Criticism, criticism, fantasy, romance, shojo, story, villain, writing, writing advice

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anime, creative writing, lit, novel writing, writer, writing tips

When I began my first novel, I spent a lot of my free time watching anime. This bled into my writing and caused me to fill my book with characters and plot elements similar to those I had seen in anime.

It was only when I looked back at my first drafts that I saw just how out of place this influence was. These tropes are perfectly acceptable in anime, even if most of them are considered clichés, but don’t belong in a novel. If you’re having the same problem that I had, these are some of the anime stereotypes to look out for and leave out of your novel:

Complex love charts

Practically every anime has a complex chart of who has a crush on who, setting the ground for how the chart will be sorted out and who is going to end up with who in the end. A novel doesn’t have the same amount of time for relationship development as a 52-episode anime, so it won’t have the space to solve such a complex love chart. Novel readers also aren’t as into love triangles as anime fans are, despite what publishers will have you believe. Keep your love charts as simple as possible and resolve them fully by the end of your book.

But the chart says…

Anime hair

I’m majorly jealous of the girls in anime. They all have wacky hair colours in styles that are impossible in real life. It’s tempting to give your novel characters a similar appearance in order to make them a little more different or quirky. But while we expect girls in anime to have weird hair colours and styles, it won’t make as much sense in a novel, unless you can somehow explain where a medieval-esque fantasy society are getting so much hair dye.

Oh sure, it’s easy when you wear a wig…

Casual physical abuse

The trademark of the ‘yandere’ character is to punch their love interest into the sunset for the smallest of mistakes. Not only is this considered horribly abusive behaviour, it makes the characters despicable, not lovable. In real life, this person would either be in jail or undergoing severe psychiatric treatment. If your novel characters abuse their partners, or anyone else, it should only be if you are writing them as purposefully villainous.

Typical anime love interest

Harems

A classic anime story – A completely normal, average guy, serving as the surrogate for the romantically frustrated male audience, winds up with at least half a dozen beautiful young girls, who all magically love him despite his complete lack of a personality. It’s a male fantasy that may work in anime and visual novel games, but has no place in actual novels.

Not pictured: Personality

Lovable pervert

I think it’s fairly obvious what this character is all about. It’s difficult to make an outwardly perverted character likeable, as they will come across as creepy and rapey instead. If you try to make this character into the love interest, it will be even more unbelievable, as nobody will believe that this person can magically become monogamous through the power of love. Your novel characters may experience attraction or a sexual awakening like everyone does, but try to keep their perversions to a minimum.

How to Write a Long Term Relationship

19 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, author, Common Criticism, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, romance, shojo, story, writing, writing advice

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romance stories, writing, writing relationships, writing romance, writing tips

There is a reason why most love stories end at the ‘happily ever after’ part; after we’ve seen the couple finally confess their love or defeat the obstacles which were preventing them from getting together, we like to believe that they skipped merrily into the sunset and never had any problems ever again. We don’t like to acknowledge that in reality, even the most loving relationships can still have problems, and most don’t work out at all. It doesn’t help that most couples in fiction who are supposed to be a representation of true love wouldn’t work out for very long in the real world. This leads to many writers depicting a long term couple as boring, relying upon old stereotypes, or piling unnecessary drama upon them.

As someone who has been in a long term relationship for nearly 12 years (I’m only 28, by the way), I can tell you that there are ways that you can write one and make it just as interesting and heart-warming as a couple who have only just gotten together. Here are a few top ways:

Dealing with realistic issues

Rather than using a string of soap opera melodrama to test the couple’s relationship, it is much better to show them going through realistic and relatable issues. This could be health problems, issues with their families, or the stress of raising a child. These are the real tests of a relationship which determine if it will last. Readers will respond to them much more than yet another forced temporary breakup.

For instance, in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadence and Shining Armour are supposed to be the literal embodiment of romantic love, but they were criticized for being too perfect. In recent seasons they had a baby, Flurry Heart, and had to deal with the stress of caring for their first child, which turned opinions on the characters around and suddenly made them much more realistic and grounded.

Animated ponies are more relatable than most soap opera characters

Five love languages

Author Gary Chapman theorised in his book The Five Love Languages that there are five ways that couples show love for each other, and that we need all of them, not just one or two, to make a relationship work long term. These are gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical contact. Ensure that your fictional couples use all of these to show how their relationship remains strong.

Leave out the arguments

I for one am really sick of the so-called joke of two people arguing ‘like an old married couple’ as proof that they are a perfect couple. It is true that even the best relationships do involve arguments over petty things such as leaving the fridge door open or who was supposed to take the dog for a walk. We all get stressed at times or make mistakes so it is inevitable. But readers don’t want to be reminded of these disputes when they are indulging in escapism, so it’s best to leave them out of your fiction.

Have the relationship evolve

One of the things I love about the Japanese anime My Love Story is that the love confession scene, which would be at the end of any other anime, happens in episode three out of 24. The rest of the show is dedicated to the two figuring out their first major relationship by going on dates, setting up their friends, and getting to know each other’s families. It goes to show that you can definitely have a romance story arc that doesn’t end after ‘I love you’.

Don’t make the reader question why they’re married

For decades, mainstream television was under the apprehension that arguments and constant disagreements are a normal, and even preferable, part of relationships. But attitudes towards marriage, divorce, and family have since changed, so when modern audiences look back at these old shows, they usually say ‘but why don’t that couple just get divorced?’. Youtuber The Mysterious Mr Enter deconstructed it perfectly in this video and I agree with every word he says:

Today’s consumers aren’t accepting of actions that can be interpreted as abusive and are bored to tears of nagging wives babysitting their lazy husbands. Many of them might have even grown up in these types of households and have experienced first-hand why they are so destructive in real life. So no matter what, don’t make your readers question why your couple ever got together in the first place or why they are accepting of a miserable living situation.

Write them as characters

In cartoons it is normal to have stock parent characters who are only ever referred to as ‘Mum and Dad’ even by other characters. Am I the only person who has noticed how weird that is? But you hopefully aren’t writing this type of story. You want to write your long term couple or parent characters as people, not stick figures. Give them backstories, goals, likes and dislikes, and everything else you would give your protagonists and they will become some of the most memorable and lovable characters of all.

20 years later and I’m still trying to figure out their names.

Top Ten Anime and Manga to Inspire Writers

14 Sunday May 2017

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, art, author, convention, fairy tale, film, shojo, story, tokyopop, top ten list, tv

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Tags

anime, inspiring anime, inspiring manga, manga, writer

The stories which inspire you to write will largely depend upon the genre in which you write. However, I have found that stories about the journey of writers, or people of any creative discipline, are especially inspirational and motivating. Here are just a few of the top anime and manga which use this to inspire writers, or any creatives:

Princess Tutu

Have you ever had the feeling that your story is running wild and your characters are making decisions on their own? Well this is an anime in which that literally happens. It starts off as an enchantingly strange tale of a duck-turned-human at a ballet school who turns into a magical girl and uses complex ballet moves to save her beloved prince. It takes its fairy tale inspiration and parodies, subverts, twists, and turns it every possible way. The ballet and classical music references are so accurate that the anime is even used as a reference in university courses and has had academic papers written about it.

2. Whisper of the Heart

One of Studio Ghibli’s most understated films tells the simple story of a young writer working on her first story, adjusting to changes in her life, and finding her place in the world. Some write this film off as boring or lacking in conflict, especially compared to some other Ghibli films, but it is an often painfully honest portrayal of the process that writers go through in their early stages. Like Shizuka, many of us do like to believe that life is like a fairy tale and become sourly disappointed when it doesn’t turn out to be true. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t find great stories within our own lives.

All writers will know this feeling

3. Kiki’s Delivery Service

Another Ghibli film and another about a young person discovering their unique talents and forging their own life path. Again, Kiki’s Delivery Service can come across to some as slow and boring as it has no antagonist (outside of one little bitch who rejects her grandmother’s lovingly baked pie). The antagonistic force is actually Kiki’s lack of self-confidence as she goes through a period of transformation in finding her unique skill as a witch. There is also a lengthy portion about Kiki’s interaction with a young artist, which helps her to determine her reasons for doing what she does and gain her confidence back.

Ursula’s painting from Kiki’s Delivery Service

4. Sunshine Sketch

Also known as Hidamari Sketch, I have rambled on before about how this is one of my favourite anime and manga series, both for its lovable characters and how accurately it portrays the emergence of a trainee artist. The protagonist Yuno suffers disappointing setbacks and encouraging accomplishments as she tries to find out what she wants out of her artistic career, while also spending plenty of time having fun with her friends.

5. Kaleido Star

An anime about a girl training at a huge Cirque du Soleil style show, I love how this series portrays both the struggles of an emerging performer and of an established performer, almost in equal measure. It faces some tough issues that artists actually face at the beginning, such as becoming overly arrogant, wanting to hog the spotlight, and the balance between creating art and making revenue from it. It also subverts the recent American Idol idea that a positive attitude alone is enough to succeed, showing that setbacks can and do happen and can even cripple a career. Instead, the message is that consistent hard effort and learning from mistakes are the only way to succeed. The circus performances are also a tonne of fun to watch.

6. Dramacon

Back in the heyday of Tokyopop’s domination of the manga marketplace, they put out this three issue series by Russian-Canadian artist Svetlana Chmakova about a romance blooming at an anime convention. Not only is it a hilarious send up of fandom culture and the convention circuit, it also carries many lessons of becoming a creator, particularly of comics, such as accepting constructive criticism. The standard ‘fantasy forbidding parent’ plot is somewhat clichéd and the suffering artist plot is settled a little too easily, but it still alludes to several harsh truths about being a full time creator, presenting both the positive and negatives. There is an entire scene spelling out the multiple reasons not to be a creator and it is made clear that it is a large risk that requires a strong backbone even if you do become successful.

7. Love Live! School Idol Project

In this anime, a high school student starts up a school idol group as a way to drum up publicity for her school and prevent it from shutting down. Perhaps a somewhat naïve reason to get into the arts, but one which ultimately pays off and helps each of the group members to discover great things about themselves, which is why their group is fittingly named μ (muse). Plus there are more than enough musical numbers and cute outfits to entertain.

8. Full Moon Wo Sagashite

Another series about a wannabe singer, but one with a more rounded and tragic plot. In this case, the protagonist, Mizuki, loves to sing but has a malignant tumour in her throat that can only be cured by removing her vocal cords. She opts out of the surgery to achieve her dream of being a singer, even though it means she only has a year left to live. This is a rather tragic take on the ‘follow your dreams’ plot, but one that is subverted as the story goes on. Knowing that she only has a year left to live actually frees Mizuki from many of the pressures of the music industry and allows her to focus on her music rather than the industry drama.

9. Velvet Blue Rose

This obscure manga is hard to find in English, as unfortunately Tokyopop went bankrupt before the entire series could be translated. But if you can find it, it is both an entertaining story with vibrant characters and an inspiring tale on creating beautiful things for the happiness of others. The wedding dress makers in this manga frequently take on impossible jobs which keep them up multiple nights in a row, yet their passion for their work and the smile on the customer’s faces is what keeps them going. Yet there is also an underlying message about getting out of the studio once in a while to spend time with the people you love. Oh, and lots of lovely pictures of wedding dresses.

10. The Wind Rises

This one more than any other anime on this list will make you cry buckets, but in a good way. It is fitting that for Hayao Miyazaki’s final film he paid tribute to his hero, the real life plane engineer Jiro Horikoshi. The outbreak of World War Two means Jiro has to live with the fact that the planes he loves so much and works on so passionately are being used to kill people. And as we know from history, he was on the losing side of the war. Despite its highly controversial subject matter, it is a tragic yet also inspiring story, teaching us that we can’t control how our work will be used, critiqued, or interpreted, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to make the world a better place. Watching this film actually taught me that the most important thing about being a creative is creating something that inspires others.

What anime and manga inspire you as a writer or creator? Tell me in the comments below!

Manga Review – Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, clamp, fantasy, manga review, musings, romance, series review, shojo, squee, story

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cardcaptor sakura, clamp, clamp manga, clear card arc, kero, magical girl, manga, manga review, romance manga, sakura, shipping, shojo manga, syaoran, tomoyo, touya, yaoi, yue, yukito

It’s a good time to get nostalgic about anime and manga at the moment. Right after Fruits Basket got a sequel series, my other favourite manga series Cardcaptor Sakura is also getting a sequel, to coincide with the manga’s 20^th anniversary, and the first chapter has just come out in Japan.

Cardcaptor Sakura is one of Clamp’s most popular series and along with Sailor Moon, it was one of the defining series of the magical girl genre until Madoka came along and turned it super angsty.

I’ve been re-watching the anime lately and it not only still holds up (the only thing that has become outdated is the bulky cell phones), its portrayal of LGBT+ characters was amazingly progressive for a late 90’s show, something that western animation is still struggling to get to grips with. The general rule of Cardcaptor Sakura, and with Clamp manga in general, is that love has no boundaries such as gender, age, or whether a person is technically human. While this does provide a few questionable student/teacher romances, it’s rare to see a series where sexuality and gender identity are treated in such a way. Touya and Yukito were probably the first yaoi couple I knowingly shipped like crazy (I shipped other guys as ‘friends’ thanks to section 28) and it took me this long to realise that Yukito is technically non-binary. If you throw in his alternate form Yue, does that technically make it a polyamorous relationship?

Always date a person who's hair is longer than their body.

Always date a person whose hair is longer than their body.

The plot of the original series was about a precariously cute little girl named Sakura who discovers a book of magical cards called Clow Cards in her father’s library and accidentally sets them all loose. She has to become the Cardcaptor and use her growing magical powers to get them back and stop them causing mischief throughout the town, all while trying to get the cute boy she has a crush on to notice her.

The Clear Card arc picks up almost exactly where the manga left off; on Sakura’s first day of middle school when she and her long distance boyfriend Syaoran are finally reunited and can finally be together forever. But on the same night, Sakura gets another of her prophetic dreams about a mysterious figure in strange clothes, indicating that a new supernatural thereat is on its way.

Even if Sakura has only aged up a few years in the story’s timeline, there is still a strong feeling of ‘my daughter is all grown up’ for the reader. It’s refreshing to see all of the characters again in their original forms, and not with all the Tsubasa alternate dimension self weirdness (sorry Clamp fangirls, but I really didn’t like Tsubasa). Tomoyo, Sakura’s loyal best friend, is hilarious as ever when she films Sakura and Syaoran’s touching reunion and for some reason I find it funny that Kero, a magical creature who has lived for hundreds of years, has an e-mail address.

Perhaps it is because the characters are getting older but something still feels slightly off with this first chapter. Sakura and Syaoran aren’t quite as lovey dovey as you’d expect of a couple who have been separated for years. They even re-exchange their homemade teddy bears, which in the original manga were a symbol of their love for each other. I really worry that is some kind of horribly foreshadowing. There is also a notable absence of Yukito, despite being a major character and presumably an official couple with Touya by now. Perhaps there just wasn’t enough time in the first chapter to introduce him along with everyone else.

Even so, all of these new questions are intriguing. The series has been able to develop itself while still keeping with the spirit of the original. I’m looking forward to the next installments of the story arc and seeing what is going to happen to Sakura and her friends from here.

Manga review – Sunshine Sketch volume eight

18 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, art, manga review, musings, series review, shojo, squee, story, writing

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4-koma, hidamari sketch, hiro, manga, manga review, matsuri, nazuna, sae, slice of life, sunshine sketch, ume aoki, yen press, yuno, yuri

For my first review of the year, I’m going to be looking at a new volume of manga that I have been patiently anticipating for the last two years, Sunshine Sketch volume eight. Sunshine Sketch, or Hidamari Sketch in the original Japanese, is a four panel style manga about a group of art students sharing a dormitory and having random fun adventures together as they develop their artistic skills. It’s one of my favourite manga and anime series of recent years but I’m surprised it’s not more popular like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky Star. Anime fans might recognise the creator Ume Aoki as the character designer for Madoka Magica.

Turns out Madoka’s fine. She just got a haircut and went to art school.

I think that what draws me to this series is its likeable characters and their close relationships. Knowing how hard it is to get through art school, they all care about each other a lot and help each other out as much as they can. I relate to Yuno especially, even though she’s an artist and I’m a writer, because she is also struggling to find her identity as an artist and goes through many pitfalls and successes throughout the series, which is all part of becoming an adult and an artist of any kind. But she’s not the only character I can find similarities with. I relate to Sae, who is also a writer, and her endless struggle to meet deadlines and find satisfaction with her work, plus of course her addiction to books. I do find it incredibly unrealistic that she was already making a part time living from fiction writing when she was only 14! Wouldn’t it have made much more sense for her to be still developing her writing skills at that age?

There is also Nazuna who I relate to for her social anxiety and lack of self-confidence. Nazuna is so much like a young me that I just want to hug her and tell her it’s all going to be ok. I think I’ve unofficially adopted her as my manga daughter.

Nazuna, my manga daughter.

The slice of life segments are also fun, even if they tend to focus on the most mundane of day-to-day activities. Past stories have included such exciting adventures as washing the curtains, cooking dinner, and going to the store on a rainy day. And yet the manga’s comedic style still makes these episodes funny and enjoyable. It reflects how both the big and small moments of life matter and shape who we are. One minor plot point of volume eight is that Sae and Hiro use this idea for their graduation project.

Volume eight differs slightly from past editions in that the slice of life parts are almost non-existent. Instead, the drama bomb of Sae and Hiro, the two oldest main characters, graduating from high school and moving away is focused on and the other girls begin to wonder what their own post-graduation options should be. The close relationships the girls have formed makes their parting incredibly hard, with many of the 4-koma strips being purely drama based. But on the whole, the book it is still just as funny as the series always is. I particularly loved Yuno, whose main goal in life is to become more mature, not knowing what ‘lipstick on a man’s shirt’ means.

Through all the drama, a shining light comes through in the form of a new character, Matsuri, a new student moving into the apartment building. She is a fairly typical quirky shojo character who fits the eccentric image I have of art students. She even dresses up in what she considers an eccentric outfit on her first day of school because she thinks that is what is expected of art students. Her outgoing personality contrasts nicely with the other characters and by drawing positive qualities from each other, they all make good friends. I have fallen instantly in love with her and want to adopt her as my other manga daughter.

Matsuri, my other manga daughter.

As you can probably guess from all my gushing, I can’t recommend this manga highly enough to shojo fans. It is rare to find a story I don’t like in this series. Creative practitioners like me will find a lot that they can relate to and there is tonnes of yuri subtext. I might have to wait another two or three years until the next book is released, but I have the feeling that it will be worth it.

Manga Review: Fruits Basket Another

05 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, art, internet, manga review, musings, romance, series review, shojo, story, tokyopop

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fruits basket, fruits basket another, haru sohma, kyo sohma, manga, manga review, natsuki takaya, review, shigure sohma, tohru honda, tokyopop, yuki sohma

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya, the story of a teenage orphan who becomes involved with the reincarnated spirits of the Chinese zodiac, was one of the most influential manga and anime series of my late teen and university years and remains one of my favourite titles ten years later. It was so popular in the west that the end of its print run is probably one of the reasons why Tokyopop closed down. A few months ago it was announced that Takaya was releasing a sequel series online with the same setting but a new cast so of course I was excited. But do we really need another Fruits Basket or is Takaya trying to cash in on her former glory?

The story starts with Sawa Mitoma, a high school girl who purposely avoids interaction with others because she fears she is nothing but a bother. Her mother constantly leaves the house without telling her where she’s going or paying the rent, leaving Sawa to be shouted at by the landlady. After one such occasion makes her late for school and gets her in trouble with a teacher, she is ‘saved’ by a cute boy named Musuki Sohma, a member of the same Sohma clan from the original Fruits Basket. Musuki asks Sawa to go to the student council room after school, where she meets Hajime, another member of the Sohma family…By accidently stepping on his face.

After a few more brief encounters, Musuki announces that Sawa is to be a representative on the student council and all of a sudden the girl who avoided everyone is the talk of the entire school.

There are some instant and noticeable parallels with the story of Fruits Basket. The two Sohma boys are obvious copies of Yuki and Kyo, they might even be their sons, indicating that this is going to be another love triangle story. It already seems that the Kyo clone is going to be the winning love interest. I’m a little disappointed as when I was originally reading Fruits Basket, I shipped Tohru and Yuki for the longest time and thought it would be nice if ‘Yuki’ could be the winner this time. Then again, the Yuki clone is somewhat creepy and forced Sawa into the student council without asking her. Perhaps he is actually Shigure’s son.

I’m also pissed that out of all the five billion characters in Fruits Basket, the only one to make a cameo is Makoto Takei, the obnoxious leader of the student council. The one who Haru showed his… special area to. (It took me years to understand that joke!)

Sawa, like Tohru, is a cute yet plain girl in a criminally short skirt. The big difference I see between her and Tohru is that despite being an orphan and living in the woods, Tohru initially seemed to be endlessly cheerful and optimistic. As the story progressed, it became evident that this was just a mask to deal with her crippling emotional issues. Sawa’s issues are clear from the start, even the cover image spells it out. This made me emphasise with her a lot, especially when the stress gets to her and she starts to cry in public without meaning to, lamenting how she is constantly disappointed in herself. I hate to think what suddenly becoming the centre of attention at school is going to do to her already fragile emotional state.

The artwork and character designs are as adorable as I remember and there is the style of humour that Fruits Basket was known for, especially the face stepping incident. Did the Kyo clone get a good look up her skirt when that happened?

This sequel shows good potential to be just as good as its predecessor and we do know that Takaya is talented enough to pull it off. I do want to find out how Sawa is going to deal with her issues and why she is so important to the Sohmas. It will still take a little longer to see if the series progresses into a worthy successor so I’ll keep reading to see if that happens.

Why I Hate Love Triangles

17 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, writing, writing advice

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anime, character, character development, drama, plot, romance, story, storytelling, villain, writers, writing, writing advice

When I was at school and just getting started with writing, I devoured shojo manga and anime. This somehow got the idea into my head that love triangles and complex love charts were the key to drama and therefore great storytelling. As such, I made sure that all of my stories had love triangles in the hopes that they would become better.

It was only when I became a little better at writing that I looked at my plots and realised that the love triangles I had shoehorned in for the sake of drama were completely unnecessary. They did nothing but add unneeded subplots and worst of all made my characters seem unlikeable.

Now I avoid love triangles as much as possible, or at the very least the ‘which boy should I choose’ variety (and yes, it is almost always a girl who has to choose between two boys). I also started to avoid reading stories that rely solely on love triangles for their drama. I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way; just look at the backlash against Twilight and its ‘Team Edward’ and ‘Team Jacob’ camps. But then again, there are also books like The Hunger Games which subvert the trend and make a love triangle work. So is it really possible?

These are the reasons I’ve found why love triangles seldom work:

Creating unnecessary drama. As I mentioned above, many newbie writers, myself included, fall into the trap of thinking all love stories need love triangles to give them more drama. In fact, most of the time they merely create a pointless obstacle to the main couple getting together.
Telling us who the ‘right’ type of love interest is. How many times have you read a book and wished that the protagonist got together with someone else, instead of the partner they ultimately chose? Even if that person is obviously wrong for them and in the worst cases abusive, they are meant to be together because the writer said so. If the protagonist had a fling with the ‘wrong’ person then they are punished for it before realising the error of their ways.
There is always a backup boyfriend. The worst implication of love triangles is that if something happens to the chosen guy, it doesn’t matter that much because the girl has another guy who’s madly in love with her who she can run to. That person has to live with the knowledge that they were ultimately the second choice and only with the girl because they got lucky.
And a backup love interest for the losing partner. How many love triangle stories have been resolved with a forgotten minor character showing up at the last minute and making an instant connection with the losing partner? The writer wants everyone to have a happy ending but can’t consider that a character getting over someone and doing something else with their life is an option. One of the reasons that even hardcore fans turned away from Twilight (I promise this is the last time I’ll use that as an example) was when the losing partner Jacob imprinted on Bella and Edward’s newborn daughter. I suppose the implication was supposed to be that he could tell that she would grow up to be his soulmate, but it came across as incredibly creepy and probably the worst possible way to end his story.
The characters are turned into horrible people. The moment I stopped putting love triangles in my stories was when I realised that the characters I was trying to portray sympathetically were coming across as horrible because they were jealous of each other. It’s hard to like a character who will string along two different people and put them both through hell just because they can’t make up their mind who they want to be with. If done incorrectly, love triangles can make characters seem indecisive, cruel, malicious, and uncaring. There is also the trap that one of the love interests will be painted as a villain just to make the other look better by comparison. Think of Rose’s fiancé in Titanic for an example. It’s not particularly good writing when you need to show a character being mean to emphasise that the other character is nice.
It’s obvious that one partner is going to either fail or be the villain. It’s not so much drama if we know that only one love interest will be chosen. Nine times out of ten that person is obvious from the outset, making the whole idea of a love triangle seem pointless. Love triangles involving villains or the above example of one partner being nasty are also far too common. These stories make it clear that the protagonist will be pushed into the loving arms of the person they were obviously going to end with while the other will spend their nights crying and eating ice cream.
Everybody loves someone who doesn’t deserve it. Most of us are lucky to have just one person fall in love with us, so why does your protagonist get two or more? If your character is just such a nice person that many people would realistically be in love with them then fine. But chances are they aren’t, or your character isn’t as special as you think they are.

So is it possible to make love triangles work? It’s difficult but if your writing is good enough, then yes. The most important way I’ve found to do this is with good character development. Give both of your potential love interests clear goals, motivations and both positive and negative character traits to show genuine reasons why your protagonist would want to be with them. Develop your protagonist equally well so that the reader can believe why they are so beloved. If you are going to introduce a backup love interest for the losing party, develop that character as well and give them their own story arc. Unless you’re intentionally going for tragedy, leave every character in a good place by the end of the story with something they genuinely wanted and needed.

Writers, how do you make love triangles work in your stories? What do you think are the best and worst examples in fiction?

Manga review – Strawberry Panic volume 2.

27 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by Jessica Wood in anime, art, dumbass in distress, manga review, musings, series review, shojo, squee, story, writing

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anime, backstory, bad writing, bifauxnen, character, character development, japan, love story, manga, mary sue, plot, relationships, romance, story, strawberry panic, yuri

The other week I wrote a review of the first volume of the Strawberry Panic manga. In summary, the characters were vapid Mary Sues, the book didn’t realise it had a plot until half way through and Catholic nuns are surprisingly ok with schoolgirl lesbians. I also found the second and final volume in the local library so of course I want to review that too and find out just how many more ways this manga could be terrible.

The last book ended on a cliffhanger on who Amane’s partner in the Etoile competition was, and we finally see that it is….Some character that has never been seen or mentioned before. What was the point of the cliffhanger?

By the way, it’s worth noting that Kaname is the only dark skinned character in the series and her appearance was completely changed in the anime. It seems that even Japan is whitewashing its characters…

This scene also leaves me a little confused about what relation the Etoile candidates are supposed to have with each other. The position is supposed to be held by two girls, usually one older and one younger, who work together and share the Etoile’s duties. I watched the anime and assumed the position was supposed to be held by two girls with a strong, sister like bond between them, which is why Nagisa and Tamao entered together in the anime. Maybe it’s a mistranslation, but the dialogue in the manga suggests that the Etoile must be a pair of lovers. Not just any lovers, but those who have sworn to be together for all eternity.

It gets even more confusing when Amane says she doesn’t want to enter the contest with Kaname because they both sort of look like boys (although the miniskirts kind of give it away). That’s a problem…how exactly? I thought she was opposed to it because she has a crush on Hikari and Kaname is kind of a bitch. (In the anime she tried to rape Hikari several times.)

Flirting during class is fine but this is scandalous!

Meanwhile, Hikiari and Yaya are in the locker room and…you can guess where this is going, can’t you? Yaya ‘accidently’ unhooks Hikari’s bra then tells her she needs to wear sexy lingerie to impress Amane. Did I mention that these two are in middle school?

She also says ‘Is it the same one you wore at the library the other day?’ implying that they really did do it in that scene in the library! Wow, this manga actually referenced something that happened before! Too bad it doesn’t really contribute anything to the overall story arc.

Shizuma pushing decisions onto Nagisa has finally had some consequences as the other girls who are jealous of Nagisa and Shizuma’s new ‘relationship’ have forced clean up duty onto her and Tamao to punish her. And yet Nagisa is the one who apologises for it and says it’s her fault! Did she forget that Shizuma forced her into it without her consent? Did saying no ever occur to her? Worst of all, Shizuma only did all of this to show off Nagisa as her latest girlfriend! And Nagisa is such a ditz that she just says ‘that’s ok then!’ and starts angsting over a girl she spent maybe an hour of time with. This manga is not only stupid and poorly written, it’s starting to make me angry.

Next we learn that Shizuma previously entered the Etoile contest with her former lover who died of a terminal illness or something. I know that it’s getting repetitive for me to keep comparing the manga and the anime, but in the anime Shizuma’s backstory was hinted at several times before devoting an entire episode to revealed it in a dramatic and heart breaking way. In the manga it’s brought up with virtually no foreshadowing and rushed out as a pitiful explination for Shizuma’s actions, plus an excuse to show girls in swimsuits.

It doesn’t even contribute that much to the story since the very next scene is of Shizuma getting cosy with Nagisa (and I swear they were having a garden party in their pyjamas). Since she’s seemingly already gotten over her past and moved on with Nagisa, it doesn’t form any kind of road block to the two of them getting together.

Oh yeah, she’s in torment. You can just see how torn up she is.

The Etoile contest finally begins with a sort of opening ceremony in which the various candidates are forced to essentially vow to be in love for all eternity. No pressure girls, you’re only making a promise to be with the same person forever in front of your Catholic Gods. It’s not like your lover could break up with your or die or something. Oh wait…

Awkward…

And it is only after making this vow of eternal love that Nagisa actually asks someone about Shizuma. How is it that this manga took so long to start the story and still develops their relationship too rapidly? What do the two of them even know about each other?

Next we have the first round of the contest – A horse race where the ‘older sisters’ need to race their horses to a tower where the ‘little sisters’ are being held. The little sisters have to jump from the tower, be caught by the horse rider and race together to the finish line. I’m starting to wonder how much these girls parents are paying to send them to this school and how much they are actually told about their education because THIS CONTEST IS INCREDIBLY STUPID AND DANGEROUS!! This manga is so awful it’s making me type all in caps and overuse the exclamation mark!!

The whole thing is so reliant on split second timing and expert level horse riding skills that it would be very likely for one of the girls to crack her head open or be trampled by a horse. In fact, the tower is so overcrowded that Nagisa gets knocked out and almost falls to her death. She’s only lucky that Shizuma somehow caught her in time.

‘I wish I was doing a spelling test right now.’

This contest feels like something out of Ouran High School Host Club, put together just for the romantic visuals of girls being rescued from a tower and carried by their ‘princes’. In fact, I think even Ouran would consider this too over the top.

What does this have to do with being an Etoile? What does an Etoile even do anyway? The manga never explains what the Etoile’s duties are other than look pretty and have the rest of the student body swoon over her. In the anime it mostly involves growing flowers. Does the position often involve rescuing princesses from towers? Maybe the next round will be slaying a dragon while serving tea.

The horse race between Shizuma and Amane is probably the only exciting part of the whole manga, as idiotic as it is, but it’s over in about two pages and we don’t even get to see the end, just a cut to the prize giving scene to reveal that Amane won. But of course she would because she’s in the equestrian club and this round gave her a huge unfair advantage.

In the final scene, Nagisa and Shizuma confess their feelings for each other and kiss, ending with ‘Continued in volume 3!’ You’ll be waiting a long time for that because this manga was unsurprisingly cancelled after only two volumes.

This book was at least somewhat better than the first one. There are far fewer stupid moments, the scenes fit together most of the time and there’s an actual plot. The art is nice and the girls all look adorable, despite one panel where Nagisa looks stoned instead of aroused. But the plot that we do get is awful, the main romance is developed poorly and there are many parts that just made me angry. Nagisa has so little personality and Shizuma is so unsympathetic that it’s hard to feel any support for the two of them getting together.

If you want a cute yuri love story that actually develops characters, relationships and backstories then watch the anime or track down the light novels. You won’t be missing much by skipping this manga.

Wood the Writer

~ Author, freelancer, and avid reader

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