Alright, different rant this time, not emo.
Kind of wanted to rant about Reina's character in fics. It's partially inspired by grac's comment on MSF, where she observed that the convenient route that most writers pigeonhole her into (sadly, including myself sometimes) that staple tsundere character. It's easy to make her that tsundere character because she seems to have invented it herself.
Besides, it has great comic value even if she isn't the main character.
To be completely honest, I don't read quite as many H!P fics as some of the veteran readers around probably have, mostly because I'm picky and lazy. I get an instinctive sensation of horror when encountering fic I simply cannot read. It's not that I don't want to...it's like a mental block that sends me (figuratively) running away screaming. While possibly pulling out my hair.
I might be exaggerating on those, but I definitely do get mental screeches of agony when confronted with material that offends my sensibility.But I digress. Anyway, since I tend to read rokun's work quite frequently, I haven't really found much fault with
his portrayal of Reina, since he does give a lot of thought to his favourite MM girl.
So I'll have to just take grac's word at face value. Which does make sense since when I first wrote Reina in AA, she was the tsundere character. Who had epically bad luck with turtles. And a bad temper.
Fun times...
There's no doubt that she
does have tsundere characteristics. With her aloof nature (not really hanging out with other members outside of work etc), she can easily come off as standoffish, which translates to ficdom's convenient exaggeration of the "tsun" side. Fanfic's all about exaggeration, and certain qualities are just easier (and more fun) to exaggerate. I mean, just look at Sayu's narcissism. I'm pretty sure she's not really that bad IRL, and most fans probably know it too, but it's fun to play it up in fic.
I've been...accused...of being a tad too realistic with my fics.
Thanks for telling me Kuji... But I find that I want my characters to be very much believable, so that the readers can forge an emotional connection with them and what they experience. I will also take this opportunity to apologize to everyone for the excessive amounts of sorrow/misery/angst/tragedy that tend to occur in my fics. Doesn't help that I'm a pessimist and tend to take a dour approach to the concept of happy endings. I'm trying very hard to change that, really. I just need to learn to be more optimistic. ^^;
Ok, but yeah, back to Reina. I didn't realize it until recently, and grac definitely helped with her insightful comments, that I do really enjoy writing Reina. She's probably my favourite character to write because she's so complex (Ha, surprised you guys didn't I? everyone would probably have said that Ai was my favourite). My next favourite is probably Sayu, since she's also incredibly complex (if done right). I still want to write a Sayu-as-villain story someday. Maybe that Sherlock Holmes-inspired fic. But that's for another time.
Surprising, isn't it? I would have rounded up with Eri to collect the full set of Rokkies as favourite characters (I never think of Miki as a Rokkie...she's like only nominally one, I tend to associate her with 4th gen if anything else). But for some reason Eri always frightens me. She can be incredibly simple to write...or very very difficult, given my tendency to over-analyse everyone. She's unpredictable, which makes her a good wildcard in any writer's repertoire, and she's funny and crazy to boot, if you want her in crack-y situations. But for some reason Eri unnerves me as a character in a way that none of the Gorokkies have. Don't ask me why. I tend to chalk it up to paranoia and maybe a bit of instinct.
Side note about Ai: She's my favourite MM girl no doubt, but she's such a pain to write that I want to go hit my head against the nearest hard surface repeatedly whenever I'm obliged to think like her. I'm still trying to grope around for the right fit for her personality, since most of my fics are AU and so will affect her differently. I have a core idea of what she's like, but trying to juggle things around to make sure that she makes sense while still appearing credibly herself as a character is challenging to say the least. I admit to idealizing some parts of her at times, but hey, fanfic! I try my best to make sure people really get to know her. The best part about this whole gig is that I seem to be eerily accurate about certain parts of her personality. I mean, I invented emo!Ai before she confirmed it herself on Bijo Houdan (all those years back!). It makes me feel somewhat justified (and has me patting myself on my own back for it, and I don't even have to wrench an arm since mine is long enough!).
Ahem. Back on topic. Reina fascinates me because she's always strikes me as a very proud character. This image is doubly reinforced when I finally got round to watching the Rokkies audition (yeah, I never did watch that, so sue me). She has a great deal of pride, but she
will lay it aside if given sufficient motivation. I would say her ambition is even greater than her pride. She seems like the type who would sacrifice almost anything to succeed in her goals. I mean, she even entered the 5th gen auditions despite not making the age cutoff (might have gotten in too, if she hadn't been disqualified, methinks).
But yeah. Pride, ambition. Even when she lays her pride aside to learn, she doesn't grovel. She's not the type. I like her better for that. I always did like the proud ones.
Sure, most of them get stuck into the "arrogant" category, which I suppose is a fair assessment. But Reina comes by her arrogance honestly. She works hard to maintain an air of superiority. I've always been particularly struck by a couple of comments she has made on both video and her blog, about how she hates to have people see her working hard at something. She doesn't mind letting them know that she
did in fact work on something, but she rather not be observed while doing it, I think. It's part of that pride, you know, doing the unglamorous work behind the scenes so she can do stuff well out in public. Maybe it's part of idol training, I wouldn't know. Though given how Japanese TV (or TV in general, really) seems to love embarrassing their celebrities, perhaps not.
Another thing about Reina is how concerned she is about appearance. It could be chalked up to vanity, but I'm not merely talking about physical appearance. She's image-conscious, and very self-aware ---> other members have spoken about that, particularly Sayu and Ai. She
knows what she wants, and who she is, very clearly. Sure, she's kinda dumb in that she's not book-smart, but I think academics was never an interest for her. She's not stupid, she just has different priorities. I figure that if Reina had been genuinely interested in school she'd have done pretty well for herself (and never become a celebrity, which would not lead to me micro-analysing her down to her warts...if she has any). Still, the average fan has to concede that she's fairly street smart, even if lacking in practical knowledge about the world. We'll forgive her for thinking that Europe was a country.
Or that Paris and France are separate countries.
So the Reina I have described here is proud, ambitious, self-aware, and more than a little driven. That's a lot more than a simple tsundere description can encapsulate, but it does work as a simplified explanation. After all, she is standoffish because of her pride, and because of her kitten image, the "dere dere" side immediately leaps to mind. I have to admit, a smiling Reina (not that practised stage smile, the smile that Sayu occasionally manages to sneak a shot of sometimes) is like, the most adorable thing ever. It just makes you want to cuddle her.
Sayu regretfully notes that Reina only ever shows that smile off backstage, when they're with the other members. She even discusses it with Eripon (I think it was Eripon) on her radio show (or was it Kanon? I dunno, one of the Kyukkies), and it led to them concluding that Reina needs to smile like that more often.
Which leads me to another conclusion (which Reina herself often implies in her blog posts): Being an idol is just a job for her. I'm not entirely sure why she wanted to become part of Morning Musume to begin with, but judging from bits and pieces of info from over the years, she 1) wanted to be famous, 2) get close to other famous people, 3) liked being in the limelight and 4) liked to perform. I guess over 9 years in the industry has tempered her considerably, because she simply treats this as a job...and the other girls are simply colleagues. This is true, because you don't see her hanging out with them after work. I mean, she even admits that she has never gone out privately for a meal with Sayu during one concert (or was it a show), which led to a host asking if they're actually friends despite being in the same generation. Ok, if I think about this too much I might actually write a story about this.
Now you know why I have a seemingly inexhaustible amount of ideas. It comes from thinking too much about the characters of the girls.
It might be a rash statement to make, but I advance the theory that Reina doesn't really love Morning Musume as much as, say, Gaki or Sayu. Or even Fukuchan (who is probably THE H!P wota in the group now
). Reina was never a wota, and never will be. Maybe she does genuinely like them (she admired Maki back in the day). She wanted to be in the group after all. But we have to remember that at the time of her auditioning, Momusu was THE female idol group. If Reina had been asked to choose which group to audition to right now, I think mini-Reina from back then would have gone to AKB. Or maybe not, because AKB is fricking huge and it's hard to stand out of so many girls unless you took some pretty extreme steps to define yourself with a unique character. But Reina was ambitious, and probably still is, and would definitely choose the option that would allow her to stand out best and become popular.
That's not to say that Reina doesn't love the group now. But I can't really tell. There are some parts of her I can never read accurately, so I'm relying on logic and some guesswork. I mean, if you come right down to it, Ai's first choice was Takarazuka, and she was devastated at being too short to ever become an otokoyaku, so if you want to be technical about it, Momusu was her second choice.
I do sincerely believe that Ai grew to love the group, or more likely, the members that formed the group. She probably views the group as her responsibility, which is why she takes being leader so seriously, even though, well, she doesn't really have to be so serious about it. I mean, both Yossi and Iida were kinda laidback about things, though they did handle everything competently, more or less. Ai is all SRS BIZNESS about it. But that's just the way she is. She takes everything seriously.
Of course, this is probably why I tend to not write any of the girls in a real-timeline based fic. Except for one shots, since I can get away with those.
Reina is too difficult to pair with anyone but a guy if you stuck to the facts. She's like, the very definition of a straight girl (with the occasional exception, which is fun to dissect whenever it happens).
Since we stalwarts here in JPHiP love our yuri, that's obviously a no-no for the general audience. It's not impossible to pair her with another girl in a real-world-type fic, but it would be a lot more challenging (or you could just maul her character, why not, most people do that anyway).
I took the chicken way out: I put her in a different world, with different backgrounds that would facilitate her to be more receptive to the idea. And well, the writers here in JPHiP have a tendency to follow the Everyone is Gay/Lesbian (I'll be nice and not link to tvtropes, unlike a certain crack dealer...) trope, even myself (or especially myself, but I'm trying hard to make it believable in context).
But well. Reina is never easy to write, but then again, no one is easy to write in my opinion.
I love how I over-complicate everything and everyone. Which leads to the heavy degree of realism (even in my crack!) in my stories. Ironically I find (exaggerated) Sayu the most fun and relaxing to write. I mean, in MSF, all I have to do is let myself be as narcissistic and offhandedly bitchy in every little way possible and voila! I'm probably mauling Sayu a great deal, but hey, it's all in the name of good fun. Plus she has complexities that don't show immediately. Yes, even there. Did anyone notice?
I could go on forever, but I suppose I must stop somewhere.
If anyone is interested to hear me rant further, you are welcome to request specific people for me to rant about.
I'm curious to know what you guys think of my interpretations though, and what else you have observed. I'm open to new ideas, because I'm still formulating my opinion (and revising them whenever something else pops up). That's part of the fun of studying real people. You learn new things all the time, because they don't stay static.
And off to bed because I have work in the morning. All this ranting about Reina has given me more insights...hm...how to apply...
Topic: The Fanfic Rant Hole (Read 51971 times)