Should my mc be japanese?

Fidelitas

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Hi,
I wanted to write a novel about reincarnation in another world. I don't know much about Japanese culture, although I have read many Japanese novels.

My question would be if my MC in my story should be a Japanese or not. I don't know if it would appeal to the reader if the main protogonist came from my country, that is, from Germany.

And I don't know if I would like the story myself if the MC was a German. I would prefer a Japanese, but I do not know much about the society and daily life of Japanese people.
 

Fidelitas

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A half-japanese german MC?

I don't know, personally I think it would be nice seeing more variety in nacionalities other than japanese, chinese, corean or even american. But that's just me.

Good idea, thanks. How I didn't think of it myself... Maybe I should make it so that his father is something like a migrant from Japan and his mother is German. And the MC has lived his life in Germany since his birth
 

A.P.R.L.

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Good idea, thanks. How I didn't think of it myself... Maybe I should make it so that his father is something like a migrant from Japan and his mother is German. And the MC has lived his life in Germany since his birth
It's also my understanding Germany it's place to the biggest Japanese community ouside of Japan in Europe. Düsseldorf, to be more precise.
 

TotallyHuman

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Hi,
I wanted to write a novel about reincarnation in another world. I don't know much about Japanese culture, although I have read many Japanese novels.

My question would be if my MC in my story should be a Japanese or not. I don't know if it would appeal to the reader if the main protogonist came from my country, that is, from Germany.

And I don't know if I would like the story myself if the MC was a German. I would prefer a Japanese, but I do not know much about the society and daily life of Japanese people.
I think the mc being German with a German mentality would be interesting
 

ThunderingSnow

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And if you were to make the MC Japanese, it wouldn't be so hard to look up foods, religions and beliefs, history, etc. It's all online nowadays. Just be respectful about it.
 

Fidelitas

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I think the mc being German with a German mentality would be interesting
I don't know if I can convey the German mentality, because I mostly only read Japanese light novels and therefore I don't know how the steoreotype German behaves in books. That's why I will simply take the most of my personality for my mc.
 

AliceShiki

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Hi,
I wanted to write a novel about reincarnation in another world. I don't know much about Japanese culture, although I have read many Japanese novels.

My question would be if my MC in my story should be a Japanese or not. I don't know if it would appeal to the reader if the main protogonist came from my country, that is, from Germany.

And I don't know if I would like the story myself if the MC was a German. I would prefer a Japanese, but I do not know much about the society and daily life of Japanese people.
It's actually a bad idea to make a character from a culture you are not part of... Because putting it simply, you don't know much about it.

I mean, you certainly know the stuff you got from novels/mangas/animes. Maybe you also did some research about it and have a general idea... But that's quite different from someone that actually lives there, and they'd probably be able to point out weird things in your story if you made a Japanese character.

So... If you wanna make someone from Earth isekai'd, I'd say the best nationality for them is always your country. Because you have a better grasp of how people in your country behave than your grasp in how the people of any other country behave like~
 

Fidelitas

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I don't know if I really managed to mix the German with the Japanese... In the end the homeland became somehow unimportant.
 

Yiphen

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Personally, I think it would be a bad idea to automatically make your characters Japanese just because they're the stereotypical character. If they're Japanese to appease the audience, it just doesn't feel... right? Like, imagine if you're suddenly using -chan or -shifu when you aren't even that aware of the proper situations to use it in. It feels foreign.
Also because I have this subtle distaste for novels that constantly do stuff like "[Name]-chan." What? So that's their secret name? It's not Sera but Serachan? Because when they say it that often it really feels like it is.
 

Fidelitas

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Personally, I think it would be a bad idea to automatically make your characters Japanese just because they're the stereotypical character. If they're Japanese to appease the audience, it just doesn't feel... right? Like, imagine if you're suddenly using -chan or -shifu when you aren't even that aware of the proper situations to use it in. It feels foreign.
Also because I have this subtle distaste for novels that constantly do stuff like "[Name]-chan." What? So that's their secret name? It's not Sera but Serachan? Because when they say it that often it really feels like it is.

Thanks, I didn't even think about it. Fortunately, I changed my mind in the end.
 

Discount_Blade

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I dont see the problem. Tons and tons of isekai on this site and RR and others and almost none of the mcs are japanese. I feel like this could have been easily figured out on your own. Nonetheless, making him or her German seems better to me.
 

ZynGrand

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If origin is quite needed,
It's fine to write of there or here.

If the story doesn't care of past,
The number of nods should not last
.
 
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