Tuesday 14 October 2003

Pic of the day: Sakaki-san versus the cat. What has this to do with anything? (Screenshot from the anime Azumanga Daioh.)

Random inspirations

I'm hanging out an awful lot on the NaNoWriMo message boards. And it's still two weeks till it starts. Anything could happen in two weeks! And even if not, a fad rarely lasts longer than two weeks for me. (Although this year's Master of Magic fad has lasted for more like a month and is only now, uhm, fading.) More to the point, my brain's random access memory seems only able to hold one chapter of a story. Unless I write it down, I won't get the next. If I keep this up long enough, the muse may get bored and wander off.

So instead, I have spent some more time with my characters. It can't hurt to learn more about them before I let them star in my NaNoWriMo novel!

***

Few things are really new under the sun. And so also my characters tend to have traits from some existing character. An old friend has already pointed out that the self-doubting "devilspawn" Jon has borrowed traits from Merlin. I never considered that. On the other hand, it was obvious to me that he had some connection with Mike (Maiku) in the anime Onegai Twins, even though now that I look at it the only connection is that he's an orphan, a young self-employed programmer living alone, and slim. Well, I guess that's a bit, but their personality are wildly different. Their hair and eye color are different. Their past is different (Mike grew up in a Japanese orphanage, Jon in a series of Norwegian foster homes). Jon has magic powers, even if they are less than useless; Mike has no such thing. Mike is popular at school and all the girls are attracted to him; Jon was a loner at best and only one girl is seriously interested in him. Still, it started with a Mike clone; then it took on a totally different life.

Jon's abysmal relationship to cats and dogs is an integral part of what he is. Animals react badly to him because of what he is ... or perhaps because of what he believes he is. However, the tall black-haired girl Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh is regularly bitten badly when she tries to pet cats; not that this has ever stopped her. This was probably lurking in the background when I added this trait. Apart from the black hair and a a tendency to scare strangers, Sakaki has nothing in common with Jon. Why cats hate her is beyond my guessing.

Also from Azumanga Daioh, the big lovable dog Tadakichi is the archetype for Tassen. Tassen is a bit smaller and his owner is larger, and they are not even the same race. But without Tadakichi there would be no Tassen. (Actually Tassen is the name of the first dog we had at home during my childhood, but that is not significant. It was quite a common name before people started to use English names for their dogs. The name is partly chosen to match Anne-Linn's nickname Haugtusla. The Norwegian verb "tasse" is somewhat similar to "tusle", although it implies walking softly rather than feebly.)

Another anime cliché is the (usually) girl who lives in a huge mansion but whose rich parents are never at home. I was tempted to pull that on Anne-Linn, but this is Norway; no one is that rich here, or if they were they would be famous. So her career mother is rich, but not THAT rich. I also just found out today that she is a bit worried about gold-digger boys, which is a funny role reversal from the stereotype. Anne-Linn is actually working in a small shop more to prove herself, not because she needs the money.

The slightly slutty party girl Marianne is not patterned on anyone in particular. I don't really have any friends like that, not that I can think of. If any one of you think that you have inspired this character, you are certainly free to think so; but I don't think so. She is simply a stereotype, but not a caricature I hope. Everything she does makes sense to her, even when it doesn't to Anne-Linn or us. She may not have much personality right now, but that could change if she gets some screen time. My characters have a tendency to grow with the telling...

***

That's it for this time. Now to view more anime and have a good night.