Jerks Can Be Tender Too: Making-of and Key Post
Jerks Can Be Tender Too
♥ Introductory notes
♥ Part 1 of 2: Takeoff
♥ Part 2 of 2: BOOK-OFF
On the making of: Where did some references and quotes come from? Why these pairings? Why is there so much karaage? The following are production notes about the random elements I used (consciously) as inspiration for the fic.
The style
I know it could have been written much better, but I had to accept my limitations and work as far as I could within the maximum correctness possible. Sometimes I had trouble writing the dialogues, for example, because I was working with characters which I am used to read/hear in Japanese, in a language that is neither mine nor theirs. I didn't want to write something that felt like bad subs! My betas helped make my English correct (and they helped a lot!) and also stopped me from trying to do somersaults while walking with my crutches. I enjoyed discussing bits of my writing with them immensely. I had never worked with a beta and writing is usually a very lonely business.
The pairings
There are two main pairings and a third that is only implied, with the presence of one of the members. It was only after finishing the final draft that I realized all three could be represented as AxK. It was entirely accidental!!
Akutsu & Kawamura: They set my brain on fire. As much as Kawamura's game against Gin sucked, Jin Akutsu's appearance and help made it kind of magic to me. It was the manga that gave me the idea for the fic, so you can imagine my enthusiasm when I watched what they did in the corresponding OAV. In the manga, Akutsu stops him with one hand and one foot. In the anime, Akutsu takes him in his arms. I used to be a TakaFuji fan at the beginning, but with all the developments in the story, now I can only see Kawamura with Akutsu and viceversa. In a way, I think they are older than most other people their age, with a foot in adult life and responsibilities that other boys can't possibly share or understand. I don't think I could write from Akutsu's point of view, and I don't need to, as I know people who do an excellent job with him; but writing Kawamura felt really good. I believe he is not just Seigaku's luggage or somebody's lap dog. He is Seigaku's MAN.
Arai & Kachiro: To me, they are two characters that individually are nothing more than shadows in the team, but that shine whenever they interact with each other. Akutsu attacked them on his vist to Seigaku and Arai put up a good resistance until the end, grabbing Akutsu's ankle "You're not finished with me!" when Akutsu was ready to move on to Kachiro. Later, in the anime, Kachiro challenged him when it seemed all Arai wanted (and the others, but Kachiro seemed to have a fixation on Arai, perhaps because he suspected he was the most noble inside) was to get a regular's spot no matter what, taking a chance of other people's injuries. But it was Arai who almost got injured while playing Kachiro, as he had over-loaded himself with weights to train like the regulars. Nobody understood why he got so worked up about a first year, given his ferocius defence of the vertical hierarchy in the team, probably only second to Kaidoh's; but by the end of the game he was treating Kachiro like an equal, saying how he was looking forward to playing him again in the ranking matches come September. For three years I tried to find doujinshi on them every time I went out hunting, but only managed to find two. I also wished more people wrote about this pairing, but almost nobody did, so I finally decided to connect them to Akutsu again somehow in my story. At first it was only designed as an anecdotic encounter such as Akutsu tells Kawamura about. It later developed into the longest chunk of the fic!
Atobe & Kabaji: One of my favorite doujinshi pairings, but sadly ignored in fic (as far as I know). Perhaps the beauty and the beast is a clichè pairing, but so are the bishonen pairings that cover most of the BL works. I love how Kabaji makes Atobe more human and I just love them together as they are in canon. I can't write a fic on them, but I wanted Kabaji to show worry for Atobe in the same way Atobe showed for him in the movie. And I wanted Kawamura to be the other powerful man Kabaji trusted to understand. The idea of Atobe needing Kabaji so much is based on a song by the ichinen trio, Bokutachi no shippai, in which Horio tells the other two some rumours about some star players, one of them Atobe. Apparently, he can't stand being alone in his car without crying for Kabaji: "Kabaji, Kabaji. Oresama's...". The idea of the BOOK-OFF adventure being all Horio's fault also comes from his ability to spread rumours and get other people in trouble. This time, though, Kabaji proves there are certain rumours that might be true. But, sssssh!
The hair band
Unless I am forgetting someone, there are three characters who had a green hair band in the series: Akutsu, Arai and Yukimura. I liked the idea of Arai giving his to Kachiro in a sweeter way than Akutsu let Dan keep his. There was no need whatsoever to include Yukimura in the lot here as lately there is someone working on him veeery, veeery well. Naaah, Lucky? ♥
[EDIT]: Thanks to ii_crack for reminding me that I forgot Yuuji from Shitenhouji!
Kawamura's Monopoly and other 10.5 Facts
I resorted to the character guides to get a better background of the characters. Althought I admit that they are great tools for fanfiction writers, I don't really like that they have so many concrete and random facts, because once something is described there it may be considered canon and somehow I feel I cannot ignore it. I liked how I had the freeway with Arai and Kachiro, though, since there is so little about them on the guides, too. Nevertheless, what I found of Kawamura in 10.5 was very interesting. At certain points it helped me to link parts of the story and his train of thought better, and also to remember interesting facts that I had forgotten.
One of them is Kawamura's Monopoly. Apparently, when Seigaku members gather at Kawamura's room to play Monopoly things get really fired up. When he has to play alone, he makes his two personalities compete.
As you can see in the following picture picture, the game he has is a foreign edition in English he bought in a flea market when he was in first grade of elementary school, and which had the name "Shûsuke" written in hiragana on the back of the box. What a coincidence, isn't it? :D
Kawamura likes to have people over in his room. That is why, small as it is, he has many cushions and videogames for many players. Look how similar the book and the anime versions of the room are!
The guide provides an ideal doubles partner depending on the zodiac and, as you can imagine, I was EXTREMELY DELIGHTED to find that Kawamura's ideal partner would be Kachiro. It seems Kachiro's cheers make Kawamura's burrrning state go POWER UP!! So they would provide for a really hot-blooded and exciting game!
Let's not forget Kachiro's tears when Taka-san was being beaten to a pulp by Gin:
(Kachiro is the girliest in the team, hands down.)
Last, one unrelated, random fact: In the first idea for the series, which was going to be called Kin-teni and have Kintaro as the protagonist, there is a Horio bros clone and someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to Kachiro:
In the Chinese drama, Horio and Kachiro are fused with the former's personality and the latter's appearance.
Quotes and references
I counted on the possible readers to know about PoT and its characters, so I took for granted the knowledge on the series, the characters and the events I was referring to at all times. There is a line that belongs to canon Akutsu. There are also a few external references (like the hippogriff) and quotes from several sources:
Fics
"Big is good. But huge is much better." (BOOK-OFF) Big is good is a reference to Momo's mental monologue in my favorite PoT fic, Somebody Else's Hand by prillalar. I think it should be natural that they have discussed such topics among the 2nd years and every one of them has their own view. In the end, both Momo and Arai might have settled for flat, though.
The idea of Fuji and Inui chatting was wonderfully developed by a couple of authors one year ago and it got stuck in my head. I am sure they are not the only ones that chat (hence Saeki's inclusion), but they may be the most obsessed.
Doujinshi
Akutsu's muscle fetish is a v.v.v. silly detail that I had in mind for a looong time after I saw Goldfinger, a short story by Showko Kanegae on how Banji got Akutsu for Yamabuki by touching the muscles in his arm in a... um... special way with just one finger while he told him how fit for tennis he was and didn't Akutsu want him to teach him new ways of having fun? And Akutsu accepted: page 1 & page 2.
When Akutsu tells Kawamura that he doesn't expect him to be ready, I somehow had in mind Ryoma's attitude towards Kaidoh in Please Say by Yoko Fujitani.
Songs
"I love you, you pay my rent" is from the song Rent by the Pet Shop Boys. (Videoclip)
Ano basho made is from Kawamura's album Greatest Over. (I didn't check the site earlier, so in the quoted bits I gave my own English version)
Movies
The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring two lines on hobbit meals. (Takeoff)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers: "...how wonderful it would be to cook for one, just one." (Takeoff)
On the way to her new home, Milly tells Adam Pontipee: "...I'd think how wonderful it would be to cook and care for one man, just one man", before bursting out singing Wonderful, wonderful days. She doesn't know yet that she has not got married to one single man, but to seven. You can listen to her happy delusion at the beginning of this movie excerpt that includes the song.
This film is my favorite classic and I have been long wanting to make a PoT parody in the same style as The Neverending PoT Story. After years of plotting and matching characters in my head, I don't think I'll have the time or the energy or the patience with Photoshop to do it, so I'll leave you here what would have been the opening scene:
From the song Bless Your Beautiful Hide.
For those who haven't watched it, this is the plot, from Wikipedia:
The film's story is about a backwoodsman named Adam Pontipee and his new bride Milly, who marries him after knowing him for only a few hours. On returning with him to his cabin in the mountains, Milly is surprised to learn that Adam is one of seven lumberjack brothers living in the same cabin. The brothers have been named alphabetically from the Bible: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephriam, Frank (short for Frankincense), and Gideon. [...] Milly teaches Adam's rowdy, ill-behaved younger brothers manners and social mores, including how to dance. At first, the brothers have a hard time changing from their "mountain man" ways, but eventually they come to see that the only way they will get a girl of their own is if they do things Milly's way.
OK, alphabetical order wouldn't work in PoT, so it'd have to be the syllabic system, for instance: Akaya, Kaoru, Sadaharu, Takeshi, Harukaze, Masaharu, Wakashi. Kunimitsu wouldn't count among the seven brothers, as we all know he is rather the father figure, and thus we would have 1 + 7 = 8, which is the perfect number. You pick the cast of your choice!
Locations
This is the view of the swings from beyond the hedge:
It is a random park that suited my vision of the swings. I kept my eyes open whenever I travelled, but in the end I confirmed that what I seeked was almost on my backyard. I went there one evening and took many pictures from all angles. Once I had finished, I looked behind me and saw the following building:
KAWAMURA PHOTO STUDIO.
...........................................................................................Ajsdshhsjafdy8yauidhwjdhjsahjdshajdhjsahdjhsajdhjsahd!!
The McDonald's and the men's toilet described in BOOK-OFF were based on the basement of a department store next to Kokura Station in Kita-Kyûshû. I used to have pictures of the toilets, including the band-aid on the wall, but I... seem to have misplaced them ;___; Zannen.
And I think it is clear how much I liked Lawson's karaage-kun in all its flavours. Aaaah ;___;
That's All Folks!