How important is it for you as a reader that fanfiction stay close to the anime/manga event timeline?

I understand AU and that as a fanficiton author I can do whatever I want to craft the story I desire but i'm interested in how you as a reader prefer your stories to go.
Does it matter if things are switched around particularly around the 'final act'or does it comfort you to read things born from the actual events as they should fall?

Thanks for any and all feedback I appreciate the time you've taken to read this.

For moi,

It really depends on the genre and the focus of the story. I don't really care if it is canon or AU provided that canon elements are acknowledged to a point where you can follow the AU storyline without getting too confused by the changes.

I'm not a great fan of OC leads in an AU fic. Minor OCs are fine. I tend to create mine so they fill a niche that's empty. I can't slot them in otherwise, since a canon character usually fills that part already. Takes too much subtle manouvering unless you're very creative.

Don't care either way with the anime or manga timelines.

I've read a little and watched a little of each.

Nothing huge.

There's plenty of room for interpretation.

The only thing I've noticed with AU stories, is that there are some good ones, but very few great ones. I don't know why. I've never come across more than a handful that are so fantastic they're still my favourites today.

Most are by Forthy, Tallymark, Technoelfie, RosieB, Enkida, and a few others that were are are still very imaginative.

Their work pushes the envelope in terms of creativity, but doesn't get you so bogged down in canon or AU elements that you forget about the core cast.

Sesshy and Kagome and their relationship.

~ Pyre

That's exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks! I want to use certain events from the anime but they are too distanced from one another for the story pacing.

I generally don't care about what the author does within the main plot but I didn't know if that was the case for everyone. =)

I'll be honest and admit I didn't actually remember most of the middle in detail. Just what the big events are when I read. The research I've done for this story has brought a lot of the small stuff back and it's insane all the stuff I've forgotten. haha

I'm fine with AU Fanfics as long as it is not to far fetched or ooc. For example making Sesshoumaru 'the Killing Perfection' into a wimp is not practical in ref. to the manga/anime. I do enjoy enhancing the character's qualities and strengths.

The most important part though is for the author to write what they feel and imagine, it is their fanfic. So if I come across someting I like I try to inspire the author rather than be recluse.

Kaycibabe wrote:
That's exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks! I want to use certain events from the anime but they are too distanced from one another for the story pacing.

I generally don't care about what the author does within the main plot but I didn't know if that was the case for everyone. =)

I'll be honest and admit I didn't actually remember most of the middle in detail. Just what the big events are when I read. The research I've done for this story has brought a lot of the small stuff back and it's insane all the stuff I've forgotten. haha

Np, me too.

I forget half of what I read unless it's really memorable. Like I don't know Kagome flirting with Sesshy, and getting bitten, or propositioned. Or dying, or whatever, something that I have to remember to make sense of the rest of the story.

That kind of thing.

Np, AU or canon is fine. But I like AU cause it gives an author a bit more breathing space. The only weird thing about it, in terms of say wanting to try reading an AU, is if the summary catches my attention, aka is it advertised well.

That's my first hook-in.

I'm happy if the author warns me there by putting an AU tag.

It's convenient.

So AU stories are fine by me, I only start getting picky if the spelling and punctuation is repetitively bad. No fullstops, too many elipsis, too much bad spelling, bad text formatting, etc.

Sugary hype is fine, but anything that's written, and its fairly obvious with one hinge like say pure smut without a decent plot is something I just won't read.

I want to be entertained when I read a story, not bored out of my skull.

So I have a tendency to be relatively picky when I read, AU or canon.

~ Pyre

I think i'm going to keep with the universe mostly but switch a few things around and cut some events out. It won't quite reach AU since i'm still operating -with- the actual events.

I actually like that they threw in so many different plot devices and left Sess basically mysterious. It really lends a lot to creative freedom for him.

You both have given me things to think about and I appreciate it. I enjoy creating but I want to create things that others will enjoy as much as I enjoy the things I've read so hopefully I can balance those successfully.

Thank again guys.

This is a great point, and I think this is exactly what separates the great fics, from the ok fics. Now, let me preface by saying that everyone should be writing for their own enjoyment, and if you want Kagome to be a hanyou or you want Sesshy to be a pussy cat then power to ya! Do your thing, not my place to judge, yadda yadda.

Now, if you ask me, it's important to have a really good balance of existing content and new content. Take character development for example, I find it really hard to fall in love with the authors version of Kagome if right off the bat shes angry and tough and wants to kill everyone. The Kagome we all know and love from Inuyasha is the opposite, so if a fic provides very little back story to explain why her personality has taken a 180, it will lose my interest, as it's already lost it's credibility.

The other thing I find, is that if an author decides to go AU or canon it doesnt matter, just commit to it. Develop the back stories to make your fic believable and run with it, but don't run away from Inuyasha as a whole (not the hanyou, the show). For example, I could totally fall in love with a story about Kagome working in a bakery and some quiet asshole named Sesshomaru keeps coming by, he's so mysterious! Seems like he's brooding all the time! The character's traits fit with the anime, but the universe is different, so you've got balance. Or similarly, if you were to have the setting be canon, but Kagome has separated from Inuyasha and is dark and depressed, struggling to find herself again when she meets Sesshomaru and they learn to love. Character traits are different, but setting remains familiar. Wheras, a story about an evil half lizard Kagome meeting an outgoing and personable Sesshomaru in a dungeon in france lacks connection to the actual story we've come to know and love. To me, that stops being fanfiction and becomes your own story/characters as a whole, but thats just me.

As a personal preference, I always go for canon. I LOVE Inuyasha and I think they left so many things so vague that there's really just so many ways you could go with it. Plus, reading a good fic that keeps with the character's original personalities (of course, altering them as needed for the situation in that fic) and keeps with the canon timeline feels like reading/watching the manga/anime again!

So, long story short, I find that as long as you have an essence of familiarity be it character traits, setting, time period etc, I'd tune in. OCs are a whole other topic, but I think the common consensus is that if you're going to throw your own OC in there, don't make them the star of the show, fit them in where it makes sense and drives the plot.

Onmyouji wrote:


So, long story short, I find that as long as you have an essence of familiarity be it character traits, setting, time period etc, I'd tune in. OCs are a whole other topic, but I think the common consensus is that if you're going to throw your own OC in there, don't make them the star of the show, fit them in where it makes sense and drives the plot.

Totally agree on all points.

It's really important to know your canon very well, for the fandom or all fandoms if you do you a crossover.

Gosh.

I've read very few excellent crossovers.

It'd be less than 5%, in reality, since most peeps don't write them, or don't know their fandoms well enough to write them convincingly.

AU is fine, but nods too, you really need to know your canon well to pull of an AU, since the characters have to be familiar enough to the reader to be able to be understood, so they don't get confused by Kagome for example, being a baker.

~ Pyre

It's not so important to me as long as the story makes sense and is somewhat original. There is one I read that sticks with the anime, but shows the goings on from Sesshou's POV. in that case, I would have preferred for an AU version instead because we already know the story of Inuyasha. My patience for the story waned because I was filling in the blanks and speeding up past certain plot points to get to the end.

What matters to me more is that characters stay as true as they possibly can, even the annoying ones. A bit of OOC stuff going on is cool if there is a sensible reason for it. Basically, I don't care as long as it's a good, sensible story.

I think the only thing that irritates me about any fanfiction is when the author superimposes their personality onto the character or tries to promote a school of thought via a character that doesn't make sense given the storyline. It's hard to explain, but I think readers can tell the difference between a slightly altered Kagome vs the author placing him/herself as Kagome in the story. And don't get me started on original characters that become more important than canon.

I hope that makes sense.

I've only ever glanced at the manga and the anime has been hit or miss. A lot of what I know of the story itself I've either gleaned from the more cannon accurate stories or gotten from a synopsis of a particular season or event from the series.

If you're writing canon stories it depends on where that story picks up. If you've started after a major event that changed the flow of the story as a whole originally and just ignore it all together then it bothers me a little but I can normally let things like that go if the story is well written.

Other than that... well there isn't much that bothers when breaking from canon elements.