Warning: This page contains
SPOILERS for the TV series through TRY. Also contains
opinions, which may or not be offensive.
For an adventure series, Slayers produces a lot of
romantic fanfic. Newcomers to the genre of anime fanfic
may be wondering why this is so. I'd suggest reading my
previous essay (the word makes it rather pretentious, but
I like to think it's more thoughtful than a rant) here,
as this is meant as a follow-up.
Actually, all anime series, even the romantic ones, do
produce a disproportionate amount of romance fics
compared to other genres. I don't think I need to prove
that people enjoy reading about romance for the same
reasons they like romantic movies, romance novels, love
stories, or in some cases, erotica. Also, in most cases,
Western fans are way older than the intended audience for
the series. (Does that mean that the reactions of the
youngest fans should be viewed as the most authentic?
Probably not, because they're also not Japanese.)
Most people perceive that Slayers fandom contains an
enormous amount of 'shipping compared to other
series.
My working theory, if I recall correctly, was that
fanfic serves to provide readers and writers with what
they wish the original series provided, but didn't. In
the case of Slayers, this lack of romance results from a
conscious choice by the creators. Certainly, there is
some romance, but many feel, depending on how exactly
they feel about romance in Slayers, that it's very subtle
and clever, underdeveloped and incidental, or tacked-on
and unnecessary. Several reasons why this is so...
1) Most of the time it's not handled very
seriously.
2) Lack of progress in relationships. The reset
button at the end of NEXT, then little progress in
TRY.
3) The show doesn't pretend to be mainly about romance.
Does the main plot of TRY have anything to do with any
possible relationships between the four main
characters?
4) Romance handled in off-stage manner. So, how did that
bracelet end up on Zel's canteen? They don't bother to
show us.
5) No one actually has what would typically be called a
"relationship." In other words, no one's dating. Except
for Martina and Zangulus.We don't get to see the
relationship being worked out the way it would in another
anime.
I think one could argue that the show doesn't seem
very interested in the relationships, based on how
intermittently they are shown. Some also feel that
the anime series betrays Kanazaka's vision by adding on
more romance, in order to pander to the audience, though
I disagree with this point of view. Movies of books must
be looked upon as adaptations, not just transcriptions,
in my opinion.
Now that you know this, the answer to why there is so
much romantic fanfic should be obvious. Because the
relationships aren't very well developed, people may
project onto them even more. The less one has to
interpret, often the more freedom one has to interpret.
Most Slayers romance fics involve a lot of interpetation,
because they are going where the canon doesn't go.
There's so much more filling out to do than a fully
realized romance. There's less canon to screw up, more
room to invent and finish the story when there was no
"happily ever after."