VNs: A Veteran's Opinion
Entry posted by Clephas
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I'm not going to argue about what defines a VN here. To be blunt, the fights over that issue - which were fairly pointless - were bad enough in the forums. That said, I am going to explain why VN terms tend to be so fuzzy and hard/impossible to pin down.
1. We are basically defining a medium that is new to us (new being a relative term, lol).
2. Pseudo-Japanisms like charage, moege, nakige, etc. are generalized terms that represent a certain type of structure and purpose to individual VNs. For people who like to nitpick, these terms really aren't fitting, because they are basically umbrella terms that contain a lot more than you'd think.
3. The Japanese otaku-media tendency to turn everything into an archetype creates an illusion of a 'universal unity of ideas'.
Of course, there are a lot of different reasons besides these, but these are some of the more obvious ones. However, perhaps the one that bothers people the most are the pseudo-Japanisms that I and some others use and have been helpfully defined (inasmuch as that is possible) by various people. I should first explain what a pseudo-Japanism is. First, as a prime example, a visual novel is a term that came from the Japanese originally, but it is one we took and redefined for our own purposes. While the term originated in Japan, it is rarely used over there and the fundamental meaning is slightly different to them than it is to us. This is similar to the pseudo-anglicanisms like 'マンション’ that litter the Japanese language.
Similarly, while the term 'moege' was coined in Japan, the actual meaning of the word changed immensely just in the past few years, as it was absorbed and reshaped by the perceptions of the Western community. Anyone who has played a 'straight moege' like Shuffle or Da Capo will understand what they are, but once you start expanding into the various other types that expanded from moege to birth new child genres, people start getting confused.
To be blunt, we've gone and created a new specialist genre that pretends to be from Japan but is really almost wholly our own, because the meanings are not, strictly speaking, matching to those in Japan anymore. Of course, in a narrow sense of the word, some are the same - such as nakige and utsuge - but in the broad sense of the word, the concept of the 'charage' is almost entirely one we created to define a type of VN that branched out and away from the VNs we define as moege.
In other words, the big mistake a lot of new and old people in the community make is in thinking these terms mean the same to the community in Japan as they do to the people here. These terms are ultimately ours, as they have been irreversibly shaped by our perceptions of their meaning in the way they are used.
For the sake of those who don't have as much experience as I do, I'll explain the Japanese tendency toward archetyping everything. First, you have to understand that Asian culture in general sees imitation as a compliment, rather than a failing or an insult. Second, Japanese thinking is hyper-conservative, despite the rich sub-cultures that have bored holes into the base of their society. This extends to otaku culture as well and is encouraged by the commercialization of new mediums and genres as they become popular. In Japan, it wouldn't be wrong to say people 'like what they recognize'. It is this that leads to archetypical characters, settings, and stories being so dominant in VNs, anime, and manga. Of course, we see the same thing over here... but it is a much slower process. In just two or three years, we can see what was new becoming an archetype in otaku media. Over here, it tends to take ten to twenty years. It is simply a function of how our cultures work. Americans tend to dislike obviously repeating themes, and as a result we have a lot of encouragement for 'creativity' and it is harder for something to become an archetype in the first place, because we move on so fast. The Japanese find something they like, then they repeat it over and over until it becomes a tradition. Modern technology has just exacerbated this tendency, when it comes to otaku culture, lol.
Edit: I should also note that the natural tendency of the Japanese is to polish things until they shine, a tendency that is reflected in their high-quality domestic products. To an extent, we can see that with VNs, as companies tend to prefer to produce a solid product that is similar if not identical to all its previous products. Unfortunately, the limitations created by that are unsuited to entertainment in general, which is the big reason why great artists and writers will all of the sudden suffer from a deep drop in quality (usually because companies want them to reproduce exactly the same VN as before, lol).
- Zalor, Kurokusari and Darklord Rooke
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