Ranma fanfiction: old vs new

[Alathon]

Re-reading some of my older favorites from five to ten years ago, and comparing them to my favorites among those written in the last couple years, a few things really leap out at me:

• Older fanfics violate canon much more blatantly in a lot of ways. While there's plenty of exaggeration, mistakes, and stupidity even among the better modern stories, an awful lot of it is basically hewing to established fanon stereotypes that aren't really canon, but aren't that far off either. Whereas looking back at older fics that I really liked, I see a lot of what can only be considered errors -- stuff like Ranma using a Hiryu Shoten Ha on a wooden post in Careful Destiny.
  
• Older fanfics seem to hew much more closely to the spirit of Ranma 1/2 as authored by Rumiko Takahashi. By which I mean, there's a lot more emphasis on comedic martial arts challenges and storylines, on stories that could be credible continuations rather than abrupt departures from the status quo, and on the fiances as a core of the story rather than a problem to be solved or at least attacked.
  
• Portrayals of Ranma felt substantially more genuine in the older ones. Especially when it comes to his many, many decision-making weaknesses. Which isn't to say that newer ones weren't fun to read, but among the more modern fanfics I've enjoyed, an awful lot of them featured a Ranma who rapidly changed from the canon Ranma... if he didn't start the story substantially changed in the first place.

I'm curious what sort of observations everyone else has on modern vs old Ranma fanfiction... and are the trends in the new better or worse than the old? Myself.. I think I actually prefer the new cliches to the old ones.

[Ariolander]

Well a lot of the old cliches weren't really cliche at the time. Some fics set the standard, inspired authors that followed, and over the last 10+ years have grown to be cliche. Funny how that works...

I don't know if it was the coming of FF.net but a lot of fics seem to be drowning in this sea of mediocrity and unless an author really pushes him or her self I don't think there is that strive for quality we once had back when we had the Ranma Fanfiction Awards...

While writing may have improved/changed I kinda liked the oldschool characterizations I mean Ranma still felt like Ranma crossover or not but maybe that is just nostalgia talking. It tends to do that you know... I fell in love with Fire, Gabriel Blessing, Ozzallos, Slacker & crew.

I miss the thrill of the hunt, the scouring of link pages, checking out Bloodblade's list, Rakhal's likes, random webring pages, and various community awards. That conversing directly with the author rather than leaving a random review on FF.net you know will never be read and be drowned by people leaving one-liners or "update plz" reviews.

[Siden]

I agree with Ario here. All my top Ranma, Sailor Moon, Evangelion, and Fukific stories are either old or written by old authors. That is not to say that there are not good fics being written by new authors, just that some of the really good ones done by more senior writers with some experiance under their belt.

Another point:
Prior to FF.net there were a lot less fics in one place, and a fewer fics overall as well, so it was much easier to sift through the gargage and find the good ones. Therebye making it seem as if there were a larger ratio of good to bad fics, even when there was not.

[mondu_the_fat]

The internet is to be blamed for any changes, good or bad.

It is now much easier to check canon. Ten years ago it was a struggle (and a small fortune) to complete the Ranma manga or the anime. Today, it is easier to check if what is being written reflects well on what was written. In addition, it is now easier to give and receive feedback.

But not everythig the internet has wrought is good. 90% of everything is crap -- the anime and manga more available means more writers, and therefore more crap. It doesn't help that older fics sometimes establish fanon -- the better the fic, the more canon it can entrench, and so some fanon that exist today is hard to dislodge.

[Ariolander]

Yea in the old days the only way you could find fics was if you got linked to by an established author. An author wouldn't link you unless he/she liked your fics so unless your fic was good/intriguing/interesting or you knew somebody no one would ever find your writings. So yea it provides a nice illusion of greater overall quality when probably ratios were probably the same but quantity overall was less.

I mean in the late 90s the Ranma manga wasn't finsihed publishing yet, all we had were VHSs and they were hard to come by. I started in the old format Ranma manga so I remember paying $18 for the first volume and $16 for every one after that. Even when the DVDs came out they were rare and super expensive like $300 a box as compared to the $50 thinpacks of today. So cannon was hard to come by so you couldn't really fact-check back in the day so it seemed forgivable as we were probably as ignorant as the authors of the day as well.

But yea in the sea that is FF.net there is just so much that it is sorta overload. I miss that thrill of the hunt 'cause it was a lot easier to find those gems when your links coem pre strained.

[Terra Hitarumonwa]

I can't really talk for 10 years ago, but even when I got into fiction in early 02 it seemed better back then. I remember going from an author's website to another to another, always finding better and better fics. Even on google it seemed easier to find the better fics.

I've tried searching for goo fics over FF.net but I just can't seem to get into it. Too much crap to sift through now a days.

Also it seemed like the FFML was better back then, as well. Maybe it's just because I'm a heavy Ranma fanfic reader (light on other series) but people just seemed, I dunno, closer.

And is it just me, or are people using more and more Japanese words in their fics than ever before?

[Vilkath]

I will agree things have changed, some for the better some for the worse.

Easier to look up canon facts has been both a blessing and a curse. On the posative side it has layed to rest many stupid fan driven assumptions, helped writers who may not of read the whole series write a story any ways etc.

On the negative side it's easier for bad or unsure writers to follow canon events, some times going as far to cut and paste dirrect dialog and scenes! I think the orginality has really taken a dive because of this.

The japanese or other foreign words in stories is defintely on the rise, and mostly anoying. Especialy if the author post the english translation right after words any ways(especialy if they didn't know what it means and use an online translator). I always subscribe to the idea of using as much english as possible, and only resorting to the foriegn stuff for two reasons. One that there is really no subtution, stuff like chan, sama or other Japanese honorifics really don't translate well into english words like Mr. or such.

The other option is ofcourse the main reason they were used in the first place, to sound cool and fully expecting the reader to not know what they mean. This is why magic words, special attacks and other such 'neat effects' are often in a language not well known by their audience.

I used to like the 'grouping' of fanfics, making it much easier to find something to read, leave a review etc. I mean I love the guy but stuff like Grum's website that is updated once a year, maybe, does make it hard to stay current on updates.

Still I am slightly disapointed in how little fanfiction archives have improved over the years. FFnet still doesn't even have a valid means to void out things like yaoi while media miner can't do chapter length etc. Some one really needs to combine the great features of the many websites into some kind of hole. Sure Ffnet lets you do a lot of things, and some times their reviews are helpful at figuring out if the story is worth reading, more so then websites that have almost no reviews like meidaminer. But why can't they have a rating system? Sure it wouldn't be completely accurate, but being able to ignore all the lowest rating stories would help matters a lot.

[KonokoHasano]

The use of random Japanese words is also abundant the most in Naruto fanfiction for some odd reason. It's honestly been a long time since I've read a 'Ranma no Baka' used in Ranma fanfics. I dunno, maybe it's just me not paying all that much attention.

Also, I really don't see how Fanfiction.net would be able to void out yaoi in any way. If they did that, they'd have to go and void yuri as well. It's the exact same thing... except on the gender front.


Edit: And on a slightly different note, I just made my 1,000th post. o_o;

[Vilkath]

Congrats on your post count for what ever it's worth.

As for voiding out Yaoi I didn't mean they had to stop having stories with slash in it, just there be a 'w/o yaoi option under the filters. Sort of like what Mediaminer has. It doesn't stop all slash, obviously only helps the stories that list it as part of their specific type. Still it would go a long way of having to search through pages of yaoi fics to find one or two non slash stories in some sections.

I have to agree Naruto is one the worst for using japanese, worse yet they tend to use online sources to try come up with cool names for new techniques. Another aspect is rather bad about the way Naruto fics use it for the ninjutsu and such is, often the author stops describing the move. Sure it's the great fireball techinque, but if you say it in a foreign language not every one will know what it is and thus require the author to bother describe what the attack looks like.

I can understand some japanese but even I have trouble in those large scale Naruto battles that call out one technique after another in japanese and don't explain anything, expecting the name the reader's can't understand to explain everything.

[lwf58]

I have to agree Naruto is one the worst for using japanese, worse yet they tend to use online sources to try come up with cool names for new techniques. Another aspect is rather bad about the way Naruto fics use it for the ninjutsu and such is, often the author stops describing the move. Sure it's the great fireball techinque, but if you say it in a foreign language not every one will know what it is and thus require the author to bother describe what the attack looks like.

However, when you're hearing the Japanese, or reading it, you have video or drawings to illustrate what they are doing. If in a fan fiction story you just say "He yelled "Great Fireball!" and a huge ball of flames shot from his mouth toward his opponent", that's rather poor writing. Descriptions of what things look like to provide a framework for the reader's imagination are part and parcel of writing a good story.

In other words, translating the term into English is a step forward, but not the only one. To paint the mental picture proper storytelling demands, you can't cut corners. With that in mind, let's expand my example:

Sasuke panted heavily as he tried to gather his energy for the next round of the sparring match. Knowing that Naruto would most likely use his shadow clones, he decided to open with a technique to disrupt his concentration. Gathering his chakra, he took a deep breath and mixed the energy with it. He then yelled "Great fireball!" and followed up by forcefully expelling the mixed chakra and air between guiding fingers. His effort was rewarded with a huge, roiling mass of orange and red flame that shot toward his opponent at a speed that Naruto would be hard-pressed to dodge.

[Vilkath]

I agree, I wasn't trying to imply that nothing needed to be described if the attacks were named in english, just saying it was a step up from a foreign word being used with no description.

[Cyber_Skaarj]

I believe this is starting to go slightly off of topic, so here's my attempt to stear it back in the right direction:

I find that older fics have a quailty to them that many newer fics lack. The older ones tend to have a much more focused storyline and plot, and far more believable characters, not to mention that the further back you go, the more fics have better spelling and grammer.

I may be wrong on the quailty of more modern fics; however, as has been stated, finding newer fics of a decent quality (and length) is like finding a needle in a haystack... not impossible, just very damned hard.

I could list dozens of fics from several years ago that are long, detailed, well written, etc. I could name only a few from recent years that are the same.

[Southern Cross]

Another reason why there is less interesting fanfic is that most of the good ideas have already been used,so it's much harder to come up with anything original.Worse yet,people keep using the same old ideas-i.e. Ranma becomes a Sailor Senshi.Even ignoring the effects doing this has on Sailor Moon continuity,it doesn't really fit with Ranma 1/2 either.Why can't it be Akane,and of all the Ranma cast,only Akane as a Sailor Senshi?
After all,in the original manga,she usually gets all the instant "power-ups"(Ranma gets more "power-ups",but they're the result of his hard work,and hence he usually tends to keep them).
And I've really gotten sick of the Akane-bashing that most of the newer fanfic writers seem to revel in.
Don't these people ever read the original manga?
The Akane of these stories bears no relation to the Akane that Rumiko created.

[Necavit]

Amen Southern.

Execpt its the Ryoga bashing that gets to me. I get into a moderatly well written fic just to see everyone talk about what scum Ryoga is.

The author throws canon out the window so everyone can be his puppet and harp on about how awful there most hated character is.

Not to say all new fanfiction is awful. Lathis writes some of the best stuff Ive seen in awhile. It just seems most new writers feel the need to beat a dead horse or write themself into their fanfic.

[Vilkath]

I wouldn't say all the old stuff is great, but it took a lot more dedication to write a story and post it before. Usualy requiring the person to make their own place to post the stuff, which helped weed out a lot of the less serious authors.

But it wasn't all benfits, some the lousy authors have some great idea's.

If new fanfics have any single worst feature, it is the lack of them being completed. More incomplete fics then ever, some them not even 5k words before the author calls it quits.

And to build upon what was said before about how hard it is to be orginal, the first few set up chapters are nearly impossible to be orginal any more in most fan fiction sections.

Ranma fanfiction has this the worst, I am not saying there is nothing left to do but I will say what can be done has been done many different ways already. Frankly the only thing even remotely orginal in Ranma fanfiction any more seems to be either cross overs or humor/parody fics.

Which is another aspect I find. New fanfiction seems to have a lot more humor in it, and those 'drabble or plot bunny' type stories. These series of one shots generaly poke fun at a few plot holes or random idea's but don't go to be full length stories. Seems be really popular in naruto and harry potter fanfiction lately.

In a way I think more new authors turn to Humor, because it's easier for bad authors to write, since things don't have to make sense and they can be as far out there as possible to follow an orginal plot.

Funny if you think about it, Ranma 1/2 was orginaly a comedy but a lot the older fics were rather serious or romance based.