For my very first blog, I'd like to share with you what I believe fanfiction authors should know when writing a story that takes place in Japan or using a Japanese theme, whether they're original, or based on anime, manga, television shows, movies, etcetera.
First, is a basic knowledge of the Japanese language, mainly the writing system of Kanji (Chinese Characters), the Kana systems of Hiragana and Katakana, and Romaji (the use of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language). One thing that always bugs me is when authors use the letters "tzu" instead of "tsu" in someone's name. Maybe they're trying to make the name look cool, but it's still wrong.
Second is a basic knowledge of Japanese geography, from the mountains (including Fuji-san), the Islands, the Prefectures (47 in all), the cities, etcetera. One key thing to note is that Tokyo is not, I repeat, NOT a city. It was a city until 1943, when its wards were given special status, almost equivalent to cities. Therefore, when people refer to Tokyo as a city, they're actually referring to the 23 Special Wards. It's similar to New York City (although New York City is, obviously, a city by definition) with its boroughs. But if you want to refer to the Special Wards overall as the city of Tokyo, that's okay.
Third, and the last for now, is that in Japan, as well as most of East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Korea, Macau, and Taiwan) have the given name listed AFTER the family name (ex.--Ishinomori Shotaro), as opposed to given name-first and family name-last. The key thing to remember is that Japanese people generally also have no middle names. If your story is set in modern Japan (more information can be found in Part III), and your character was born after the Meiji
Restoration (January 3, 1868), you may use the Western order (given name first)
throughout the story if you want, but those born before the Restoration must be
used in proper Japanese order (family name first).
I'll reveal more steps later.
No comments:
Post a Comment