Comics - ConCONcon 2019 - page 8 - April 17th, 2019, 3:55 pm

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The paragraph-long titles are ABSOLUTELY one of the things where future generations of Otaku will look back on us and shake their heads.  It's the nerdy, narrative equivalent to platform shoes or mullets: history will NEVER let us live this nonsense down.
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Blitzkrieg1701, April 17th, 2019, 3:55 pm

So, the gag here was ORIGINALLY supposed to be how geeks constantly try to hijack any conversation and steer it towards something they can rant about, but I think that light novel idea totally hijacked the comic. No joke, I just bashed that title out without much though beyond trying to make it as rambling as possible, but after just five minutes daydreaming in the shower, I was able to come up with an actually legit plot for My Childhood Friend Is Daughter Of A Yakuza Boss And Thinks She’s A Magical Girl And Keeps Trying To Kill My Family! ...and it's TERRIFYINGLY close to something that could actually be made and sold to people.

Also, as dumb as "History of Anime in Tax Law" sounds, I DID see a panel at Otakon once that was actually just a lecture on how to write a resume. This isn't much of a stretch.

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Darius Drake (Guest), April 17th, 2019, 5:08 pm

@ Fictional Story: Honestly, the name alone gives enough that some people could write a harem comedy plot around it.

First volume establishes the premise and the MC's having to replace the Female Lead's (aka Childhood Friend's) deadly weapons with sparkly, non-dangerous equivalents.

Second volume introduces additional "Magical Girls" who attack the MC's family, as well as a group who attack the Female Lead.

Third volume starts the introduction of the Big Bad who made all the girls who believe that they're magical girls, probably via the MC breaking the brainwashing on one of them when they attacked him. Female Lead was either the last to be brainwashed into being a "magical girl", and thus received the deepest brainwashing before breaking out and starting the hunt early, or the first and thus is the hardest to break the brainwashing of, and started the attack early due to running into the MC's family due to her and the MC being childhood friends.

Volume 4 on is getting to the Big Bad, defeating them, and breaking the brainwashing on numerous girls while increasing the MC's harem to, probably, half a dozen. Big Bad gets taken down shortly after they manage to break the Female Lead's Brainwashing. Possible reveal that the Female Lead breaking the brainwashing was a temporary thing, and she's back to trying to kill the MC's family again, though this time the MC has help protecting them with the rest of his harem. Story ends there.

Blitzkrieg1701, April 18th, 2019, 12:37 am

See, that's actually sounds like something good that I'd be interested in seeing... which sadly makes it less realistic. The version I imagined focuses way more on cutesy/fanservicy school antics with the MC's harem (gotta squeeze in as many waifus as possible!), occasionally interrupted by totally unearned stabs at emotional resonance, and ultimately avoiding any kind of resolution in favor of maintaining the status quo. It sounds terrible, but it'd sell way more body pillows.

Darius Drake (Guest), April 22nd, 2019, 10:06 pm

@ Blitz: ...There's nothing to say that the two descriptions made, yours and mine, can't be the same story. Though, I have to say, my thought process went to more regular nudity than cutesy fanservice. I just wanted to come up with a legitimate overarching plot, rather than just the obvious "The female members of the MC's Family have at least one member stripped to at least their underwear, at a minimum regularity of once a volume". Hell, it would also have "Half the time the MC hinders the Female Lead's Weapons, he somehow ends up seeing her half-naked to naked".

Combine that with the Magical Girls introduced in the second volume on all being potential harem member to actual harem members, a couple of side plots for "Local Wives" and the fact that everything returns to "normal" at the end, it's not much different. The only difference between the beginning and end could be that while the Female Lead is still trying to kill his family, now he has to prevent that while being chased by his harem.

Remember, this is supposed to be a Light Novel Adapted to Manga & Anime. It needs SOMETHING to be considered an overarching plot, not just fan-service. Even High School DxD has an overarching plot, and the plot I suggested tries to follow in it's footsteps.

Blitzkrieg1701, April 23rd, 2019, 8:48 am

I think there may also have been a bit of miscommunication about what the dialog here is actually describing. As I wrote it, the "Childhood Friend" in the title and the "pint-sized yakuza hitwoman" mentioned in the second block of dialog were intended to be separate characters. The later was conceived as a ruthless assassin who inexplicably looks like an adorable preteen (gotta keep all the waifu bases covered, right?) assigned to infiltrate the school and help the main character keep the boss' daughter from attracting unwanted attention with her destructive behavior. Interpreting the line as referring to the main girl herself subsequently implies a lot of violent action taking place as a key component to the story, rather than just some slapsticky side-gags in a plot that's really just about a bland protagonist boy reacting to a gaggle of eccentric cute girls around him.

...which, again, is VERY MUCH the less interesting option of the two, and something I'd have little to no interest in watching. Unfortunately, anime/manga/light novels that I have no interest in seem to be very, VERY common.

Darius Drake (Guest), April 23rd, 2019, 6:14 pm

@ Blitz: Ah, and here I half thought that it was the gag at the end of one of the "Magical Girl Attempted Murders", of which I would have a notable number done by the childhood friend herself due to Magical Girls Being The Front Line Against Evil.

Basically, attempted murder with a wand-shaped gun of some sort, foiled by the gun being replaced with a toy wand. Toy wand does nothing to actually harm the target (it somehow manages to destroy her clothing), so it's taken and used to hit the Childhood Friend in the face or head 50 times as punishment.

If they're different characters, however, and the Hitwoman's role is to protect the Childhood Friend from the repercussions of her actions, then the Childhood Friend still manages to strip the MC's Sister, only to run off and the Hitwoman to mistakenly take the blame, and is hit with the wand that was left behind or taken by said hitwoman. Both ways it's still slapsticky side-gags, with a story about a bland protagonist boy reacting to a gaggle of eccentric cute girls around him.

The main difference I see between our two plots is actually that you're thinking of an Anime Original or 4-koma Original, which can get away with a premise of "Harem of Cute Wifu Girls doing weird things", and can return everything to "normal" after every episode, like the Simpsons. I'm thinking of a Light Novel Original, which demands something to be considered an overarching plot so there's something to get people to buy the next book.

Hell, the plot I suggested would probably had what I suggested as the "First Volume" only take up half of the actual first volume, while the beginning of the "Second Volume" would make up the end so that there's something to encourage the readers to continue buying the series.

Blitzkrieg1701, April 25th, 2019, 7:52 pm

I dunno, I can think of a number of Light Novel-based shows that are as... how should I put it... "unconcerned with forward plot momentum" as your average 4-koma. Heck, I can think of a few 4-koma that have way MORE plot and character development than the former. I don't think they SHOULD, any more than I want to see that from an Anime original, but history has provided me with ample examples of things I don't think should happen going ahead and happening anyway.

...also, I really truly want to see a magic wand-shaped gun now :D

Darius Drake (Guest), April 28th, 2019, 6:43 pm

Oh, I'm not saying that there aren't 4-koma with more plot than some light novel stories, just that light novel stories have a minimum plot requirement that 4-koma don't. Basically, a 'story' which is 60% or more pictures can get away with having fanservice with no plot, while one which is only 20% pictures, max, can't.

Even if it's a fan-service comedy story that focuses on repeating a singular joke (like the Male MC almost/actually being killed 6 times a chapter, yes this is an actual story), it still needs something of a plot to have people reading. Hell, Only Sense Online is a happy-friendly slice-of-life-playing-a-VRMMORPG story and it has a plot. It's not about anything world-changing (in story) or anything, but the story progresses and has a constant theme pushing it along.

Lucky Star, for example, is a highly popular 4-koma that does not have a proper plot to my knowledge. Same with Azumanga Daioh. While they have short plots in the middle of the story, most of their comics can be read in any order and it makes no difference. And neither of these heavily rely on pandering fan-service.

As for the 'wand shaped gun', there's a few ways to go about it, all of which I would suspect this story would utilize. The 'how do you see that as a wand' route (obvious sniper rifle with a decorative glittery star decoration glued onto it near the barrel). The 'Toy Turned Weapon' route (looks mostly like a toy wand, but may have a notable barrel hole coming out of the top of the decoration. Fires a single shot before having to be reloaded and recharged). The 'Just because it's a weapon, doesn't mean that it's not a wand' route (dangerous weapon is covered in glitter & paint, so it can count as a wand because why not). And the 'Odds-and-Ends' route (anything around that's pretty or bright enough can be a magical weapon, because even Sailor Moon used a tiara turned Frisbee as her magical weapon).

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