4 ms·

> Nobody would want to read a fantasy about dwarfs, hobbits, elves, and dragons if they first had to get through a complete history of the financial systems wit

> Nobody would want to read a fantasy about dwarfs, hobbits, elves, and dragons if they first had to get through a complete history of the financial systems within the fantasy world. Japanese fantasy works on a system where you look at whatever novel is currently popular, copy every surface/world detail from it, then add exactly one thing you wanted it to be all along and just talk about all the time. It's basically done for SEO reasons, but it means you can save all the setup time if every story is in the same medieval isekai that vaguely feels like Dragon Quest. So yes, there are stories that are just about forex speculation with elves or whatever. Spice and Wolf is one. I feel like Western writers also used to do this, but the difference is they'd copy D&D and instead make the story about the super complex magic system they made up, and frankly I don't want to hear about your magic system.

dylan604 2y ago
Isn't that fanfic?
- astrange 2y ago
  No, it's not fanfic. It's not set in another continuity, it's just their own fantasy worlds are even less unique than ours. They have fanfic too of course.
  - Jensson 2y ago
    > it's just their own fantasy worlds are even less unique than ours They do have many more fantasy worlds though, not being as unique means they have room for many many more and better ones. I do feel western authors focuses too much on being different so often they make things bad just to not be like the others.
    - dylan604 2y ago
      Do copyright rules exist differently in Japan than the US? Can you imagine if I created a movie that occurs within the accepted Star Wars universe so that my protagonist was from a planet called Tatooine who had a sister that was a princess? I would be sued into oblivion.
      - BlarfMcFlarf 2y ago
        Of course you do the copyright scrubbing. Tatooine/Force/Jedi becomes Batoone/Energy/Cyberist(or something similarly inexplicable).
      - astrange 2y ago
        They're stricter in Japan if anything, but companies are better at knowing where their creativity comes from. (Domestically, I mean. They're pretty bad at it internationally.)

dylan604 2y ago

Isn't that fanfic?

astrange 2y ago
No, it's not fanfic. It's not set in another continuity, it's just their own fantasy worlds are even less unique than ours. They have fanfic too of course.
- Jensson 2y ago
  > it's just their own fantasy worlds are even less unique than ours They do have many more fantasy worlds though, not being as unique means they have room for many many more and better ones. I do feel western authors focuses too much on being different so often they make things bad just to not be like the others.
  - dylan604 2y ago
    Do copyright rules exist differently in Japan than the US? Can you imagine if I created a movie that occurs within the accepted Star Wars universe so that my protagonist was from a planet called Tatooine who had a sister that was a princess? I would be sued into oblivion.
    - BlarfMcFlarf 2y ago
      Of course you do the copyright scrubbing. Tatooine/Force/Jedi becomes Batoone/Energy/Cyberist(or something similarly inexplicable).
    - astrange 2y ago
      They're stricter in Japan if anything, but companies are better at knowing where their creativity comes from. (Domestically, I mean. They're pretty bad at it internationally.)