So, there's this in-progress Lucky Star fanfic titled Cries Unheard that I might or might not read when it's finished. It does seem a worthy story, but there is just one problem (aside from the abuse that the plot itself deals with, if you count that as one).
According to the author, schools in Japan run on exactly the same kind of schedule as in America, complete with a two-and-a-half-month summer vacation comprising the interlude between school years.
Now, that is more than just a technicality, if you ask me. It's not like he neglected to do any research on the subject, which is understandable with certain other aspects of his works in general. Anyone who has watched the anime would know damn well that summer vacation in Japan takes place mid-school-year, not between years. Episodes 5 and 6 was summer vacation during the main characters' junior year; 15 was where they began their senior year (and where certain characters told April Fools jokes to each other; let that say something), with 14 spanning the break between the two school years. To say nothing of everything in-between those two pairs of episodes.
(What makes this even harder to swallow, is that the author has made references to various canonical events every now and then, including one thing from late in the manga.)
I know it's irrelevant to the actual events, but this is still one of the biggest ways one could possibly insult a fandom and/or canon. It's as if the author simply said "screw canon; I'm gonna do things my own way." The events are conceivable enough, but fanfiction circles have rules that are enforced only by general agreement among members. Like, what if the author created fancharacters named "Sally" or "Peter", without mentioning any western heritage of theirs, even though Lucky Star takes place entirely in Japan? What if he pretended that Kanata is still alive and well? What if Miyuki spoke just as casually as most of her peers, or worse yet, if anyone spoke Totally Radical? What if Tsukasa and Kagami were presented in all seriousness as a couple of bullies and Konata as an emo girl? Would anyone consider anything like those acceptable (AUs and joke-fics notwithstanding)?
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None of this is helped by past experiences I've had while discussing some of my own fanfiction with two friends of mine.
1) Regarding a certain Pokemon ficseries, one of them at one point said screw it following an argument I had with him about the possibility of a Murkrow defeating Uxie by virtue of type-differences. He even mentioned a few months later, that he would have been interested in the ficseries itself if it weren't for that one piece of stupidity. (We have reconciled about it since then.)
2) Regarding a certain Mon Colle Knights ficseries, my other friend eventually got through to me that reviving anyone who's dead cannot be possible. Otherwise, that would have been the key to saving a certain backstory character who knew about the apocalypse at the end of the anime and how it would unfold, and thus preventing said apocalypse before it could even begin.
3) Said ficseries in general, when I discussed it with her, turned out to be too wrought with plot holes and headscratchers to work as a story (to say nothing of certain Unfortunate Implications). From there, only part I remained still planned out, and I haven't even thought about that much since then.
4) And finally, she has also taught me to Kill My Darlings. That is, no matter how fond I am of a given idea, if it serves no real purpose to the story or would even disrupt the storytelling in some way (such as creating plotholes), the best thing to do is to just abandon it.
Given all that, I am not exactly inclined to tolerate such an insulting move as to ignore something that was spelled out throughout the Lucky Star anime.
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And yet...
To be honest with myself, no matter how much I think about it, though, the fic's actual events are still interesting, and I'm still somewhat inclined to see how it ends when it does, before deciding whether or not it's worthwhile. The person I discussed the MCK ficseries with even did tell me 1) that such is how Bile Fascination thrives much of the time, and 2) to swallow my pride if I happen to like something despite its flaws. (There is a difference between when somethings scores 4 out of 5 stars and only 1 out of five; we all know that perfection is an impossible standard to hold for stuff.)
What I mentioned above, about unwritten and unenforced rules that writers generally agree upon... Somehow, I can't quite equate what CU's author did with any of those things. He did the same thing with his previous story, I Was Kagami Hiiragi, and if any of those had been the case with his prior works, I probably would have bailed out with him much earlier on. I even do remember being genuinely turned off by the writing style (to say nothing of various individual technicalities) of The Day Everything Changed, after learning about it, deeming its premise interesting enough, and finding it on Fanfiction.net.
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I know this should be my own decision to make, but that's exactly the thing. I can't seem to finalize a decision whether to await the ending or just avoid it altogether, and that's exactly why I'm writing about it here.
According to the author, schools in Japan run on exactly the same kind of schedule as in America, complete with a two-and-a-half-month summer vacation comprising the interlude between school years.
Now, that is more than just a technicality, if you ask me. It's not like he neglected to do any research on the subject, which is understandable with certain other aspects of his works in general. Anyone who has watched the anime would know damn well that summer vacation in Japan takes place mid-school-year, not between years. Episodes 5 and 6 was summer vacation during the main characters' junior year; 15 was where they began their senior year (and where certain characters told April Fools jokes to each other; let that say something), with 14 spanning the break between the two school years. To say nothing of everything in-between those two pairs of episodes.
(What makes this even harder to swallow, is that the author has made references to various canonical events every now and then, including one thing from late in the manga.)
I know it's irrelevant to the actual events, but this is still one of the biggest ways one could possibly insult a fandom and/or canon. It's as if the author simply said "screw canon; I'm gonna do things my own way." The events are conceivable enough, but fanfiction circles have rules that are enforced only by general agreement among members. Like, what if the author created fancharacters named "Sally" or "Peter", without mentioning any western heritage of theirs, even though Lucky Star takes place entirely in Japan? What if he pretended that Kanata is still alive and well? What if Miyuki spoke just as casually as most of her peers, or worse yet, if anyone spoke Totally Radical? What if Tsukasa and Kagami were presented in all seriousness as a couple of bullies and Konata as an emo girl? Would anyone consider anything like those acceptable (AUs and joke-fics notwithstanding)?
-----
None of this is helped by past experiences I've had while discussing some of my own fanfiction with two friends of mine.
1) Regarding a certain Pokemon ficseries, one of them at one point said screw it following an argument I had with him about the possibility of a Murkrow defeating Uxie by virtue of type-differences. He even mentioned a few months later, that he would have been interested in the ficseries itself if it weren't for that one piece of stupidity. (We have reconciled about it since then.)
2) Regarding a certain Mon Colle Knights ficseries, my other friend eventually got through to me that reviving anyone who's dead cannot be possible. Otherwise, that would have been the key to saving a certain backstory character who knew about the apocalypse at the end of the anime and how it would unfold, and thus preventing said apocalypse before it could even begin.
3) Said ficseries in general, when I discussed it with her, turned out to be too wrought with plot holes and headscratchers to work as a story (to say nothing of certain Unfortunate Implications). From there, only part I remained still planned out, and I haven't even thought about that much since then.
4) And finally, she has also taught me to Kill My Darlings. That is, no matter how fond I am of a given idea, if it serves no real purpose to the story or would even disrupt the storytelling in some way (such as creating plotholes), the best thing to do is to just abandon it.
Given all that, I am not exactly inclined to tolerate such an insulting move as to ignore something that was spelled out throughout the Lucky Star anime.
-----
And yet...
To be honest with myself, no matter how much I think about it, though, the fic's actual events are still interesting, and I'm still somewhat inclined to see how it ends when it does, before deciding whether or not it's worthwhile. The person I discussed the MCK ficseries with even did tell me 1) that such is how Bile Fascination thrives much of the time, and 2) to swallow my pride if I happen to like something despite its flaws. (There is a difference between when somethings scores 4 out of 5 stars and only 1 out of five; we all know that perfection is an impossible standard to hold for stuff.)
What I mentioned above, about unwritten and unenforced rules that writers generally agree upon... Somehow, I can't quite equate what CU's author did with any of those things. He did the same thing with his previous story, I Was Kagami Hiiragi, and if any of those had been the case with his prior works, I probably would have bailed out with him much earlier on. I even do remember being genuinely turned off by the writing style (to say nothing of various individual technicalities) of The Day Everything Changed, after learning about it, deeming its premise interesting enough, and finding it on Fanfiction.net.
-----
I know this should be my own decision to make, but that's exactly the thing. I can't seem to finalize a decision whether to await the ending or just avoid it altogether, and that's exactly why I'm writing about it here.
