One of the biggest problems with writing for this particular fandom (in my opinion), is the lack of canonical information available to authors who primarily write in English. Aside from the Wikipedia entry for Wangan Midnight (found here at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangan_Midnight), there's very little else out there for public perusal.

Sure, if you can read Japanese, or even Chinese, you can find mangas online at various locations and can easily write a fic in Japanese/Chinese/translate to English if you are multilingual, but finding English translations are few and far in between, if existent at all. (I only have the first two-thirds of the first volume scanlated, but it still doesn't tell me much... all I know is that Akio can't drive the Devil Z for **, and they all be funny-looking).

I like to keep the characters in-character as per what Michiharu Kusunoki wanted them to be like when I'm writing my fics. But it's kinda difficult when you have little information on how they behave, as well as what happened to them within the series, so that there could be some story background as well. It's hard for me to make a sandwich when I'm only given a few bread crumbs, you know what I mean?

Then again, given the lack of previous info, no one knows the canon anyway, so it's not like anyone cares for the most part. Which, in my opinion, is quite sad; because it brings into question how much of a fan you are of the series if you don't give a ** about it.

Discuss.

1. The manga is unaccesible.

2. You can't read the default languages.

3. The only hints of info are from the games, (sufficient at first, but will probably leave you hanging eventually)

Even so, I bet the majority of people here do lack info as well, and good fics would quench our thirst for more.

I mean... sure, in WM:MT, when you beat Kochan the first time, he says "I heard that Akio changed his car", which means that Akio dumped the Fairlady and got the Devil Z... and then while Reina's driving the black R32, she's not racing seriously, even when the Devil Z shows up; but later on, she's got her white R32 and completely hauls ** if you're not prepared. And when racing the Blackbird and the Devil Z at the same time, near the end, Tatsuya says "If I keep pushing, I'll surely die," which gives you an idea of how he'll push himself to his limits, but will back down if his limits are being breached. Then again, I wouldn't have known this about Tatsuya if Tabris hadn't told me (he reads the mangas in their pure unedited Japanese form).

There's not much you can infer from the game dialogue if you don't know the canon beforehand. Especially since you can't really pay attention to the game dialogue while playing, because you've gotta race, not read the silly things they're saying (like Gatchan's "I love you" when you race him in the Celsior). Unless you have a friend play the game and you take down every single little piece of dialogue that the characters say when they're racing, or when they're tuning your car. But even then, it'll take a lot of deductive logic to piece all the information together and pull out a haphazard canon from all that. Not to mention, there's bound to be some info gaps along the way.

From stage 40 onwards, there's definitely more story, revealing characters and events in a chronological order but still lacking the info of what's happening outside the race. This will lead to questions like,

Why did Akio drive the Z31 again? How did the legendary fc become the legendary fc? And many more of course.

It's either an inevitably permanent flaw or a deliberate marketing strategy to make the manga more popular. It being a marketing strat is unlikely, considering that you can't read the manga anyway, but it's just an idea.

What do you suggest we do then?

Now, in the way of a canon storyline or a timeline, I don't see a problem, because this is where the use of the Alternate Universe label works wonders; with an AU fic, you're not constrained by the canon timeline or storyline, even the canon logic. You're free to examine the depths of what your imagination can take you. Because it's an Alternate Universe, you can assume that certain things from the canon never happened, so you can diverge your story in any direction you desire.

However, an AU label does not grant you the freedom to mess around with the canon characterization. The characters are who they are, and messing with them without a valid reason just doesn't make any sense (unless you're writing a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, in which case all canon characters automatically become third fiddle/unimportant to the Sue/Stu, because they be so perfect and special!)

If a canon character becomes OOC (out-of-character) because you're planning on exploring their personality, it's fine; but you need to explain how they shifted from their original characterization to the OOC version. If you just jump from Point A to Point G without explaining B, C, D, E and F, your readers are left wondering "How the hell did so-and-so become like THAT?" A character's personality is what makes them who they are; Kyouichi Sudou (for example) wouldn't be Kyouichi Sudou if he liked sparkly pegasus unicorns and listening to Britney Spears's PopoZao remix with Kevin Federline while nibbling on Pocky. (I also think Seiji would run him over with his Evo IV if he saw his team leader like that)

Because the canon is so hard to find, I would personally say: Tread carefully if you're planning on writing a fic for Wangan Midnight. Because the characterization of the characters is hard to find, it's best not to give them an important role in the story. If you do, you'll be trapped with only two options: explain their purpose for being pivotal to your storyline by drawing inferences from their canon personality, or explain why their personality has changed; however this will also require having to draw inferences from the canon information. And for both, you actually need the canon information...

In short; unless you're planning on writing a fic that's wildly AU and OOC, it'd be best just not to do it at all, until you can get your hands on the canon source material. (Remember though; if you don't care about canon characterization and use the saying "It's fanFICTION; I can do whatever I want!" as your mantra for writing, then go ahead and do whatever you want. It's only if you actually care about the series and its characterization that you should take these things into consideration).

If Tokyopop publishes the english WM manga, would that be a good thing? I've heard some criticisms on tokyopop once or twice.

Well, it depends. Tokyopop has done a good job with their previous dubs/translations, keeping the canon proof relatively intact (the best one I've heard of is Cowboy Bebop). The big criticism regarding the Initial D translation is that Stuart Levy (head of TP) simply said that he had absolutely zero interest in preserving the original canon of Initial D, and was motivated to tweak it just enough to 'appeal to the 2Fast2Furious drag racing crowd'. Thus resulting in the Tokyopop dubs here in North America that the fans who've been introduced via the fansubs hate so much.

I think Tokyopop COULD do a decent job of publishing the English Wangan Midnight manga. It's just a question of whether they'll do exactly what they did with Initial D, or actually keep the canon information as it is. If it's the former, then I'm inclined to believe that they're just going to mess it up big time. If they do the latter, then I'd be interested in buying it.

I think if Tokyopop wants a 2F2F feel, Wangan will top 2F2F and also considering that Tokyopop is aware that many Americans are fond of the series because of the game and has garnered much respect and interest.

http://wangan.wired-i.us/news.php

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