I saw a thread urging authors to stop westernizing anime characters in their fanfics and i also saw a thread explaining how authors does NOT need to do extensive research just for creating fanfics. My take on this?

On one hand, its called creative work. Authors can be as creative as they want to and nobody should limit or take that right away.

On the other hand, we also should very much appreciate and be more sensitive to cultural differences.

Its a constant struggle for authors coz they need to stabilize between the cultural accuracy and the creativity aspect. You can NOT expect an author who wanna write about two bois bangin to do lots of research into the characters' culture lol

You also can NOT expect fanfics to be your source of cultural study. As much as i'd LOVE the characters to be in a 100% Japanese setting, with beautiful Japanese culture well-written, we gotta admit. Its. Just. A. Fanfic™

However, this is not me undermining the importance of knowing the culture beforehand! There are so many beautiful underrepresented culture out there and if an author manages to put it into their fanfic? *Chefs kiss*

Bear in mind tho that different authors have different access to resources.

So please stop putting this pressure on FANFIC authors to deliver accurate cultural representation of your fav characters.

If you click on a fanfic and the characters are soooo OOC coz theyre soooo Westernized™ and you hate it soooo freakin much, i implore u to please hit the back button and continue reading other plentiful fanfics with accurate characterization and accurate cultural representation

Tldr(?); Authors, please do as much research as you WANT to. You are NOT obligated to write the characters as 'in character' as possible. Go crazy. Do whatever it takes to get that fanfic of yours delivered to the constantly hungry fandom!(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Also, please. OOC =/= bad

Instead, OOC = creative

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Some creative take on characterization might not suit your taste so its 100% VALID to hate OOC characters. Just....dont make it sound like its a huge problem when its just a You problem¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

P/s: take this thread with a grain of salt. Its written by an Asian lady who does not have english as her main language. She's also very much NOT an author, merely a reader who appreciates and loves to read so so much(≧▽≦)