Anime OC's/Fancharacters... Yay or Nay?

Well, here I've got a discussion topic for everyone.
Various people have got their OC's or Fancharacters for their favorite fandoms. Anime isn't the exception, of course.
What do you think of them? Yay or Nay? Why? Do you have any? Which are them? For which fandom?

~

Well, personally: If the character is well developed, haves an interesting background story and doesn't steal the spotlight of the main story of the Anime (In other words, if the character ISN'T a Mary Sue), I say 'Yay' to the Anime OC's owo

I think they are a good device to feel good with themselves, and at the same time, develop one's imagination skills. Don't you think?

And yes! I have OC's :B
For each fandom I like, I have at least two, and they are...

-Chile (Hetalia - An outgoing, serious, tsundere feminine activist)
-Alizée (Kuroshitsuji - A dreamer waitress with a life focused centered in her love-life)
-Alexandra (Kuroshitsuji - A tough-hearted wealthy daughter of a tearoom chain owner)
-Okami (Durarara!! - A hidden Dollars member in the Yellow Scarves, and also, female celebrity-to be)
-Midori (Durarara!! - An innocent girl with a secret she doesn't even know: She's a Saika Army member)
-Aira (Durarara!! - A hipster-like female that feels that she belongs to a world she doesn't really belong)
-Root (Norageki! OVA- A male prisoner that used to be a hacker and delinquent informant broker -Durarara!! influenced much? >>-, sentenced to imprisonment because of hacking classified information)
-Gunslinger (Norageki! OVA - Root's sister and partner-in-crime. Female prisoner which work was assault and get the requested information. Kill if needed. Sentenced to imprisonment because of her criminal works.)

~

And... well. That's all.
What's your opinion about this? Feel free to tell!
See ya~ :3

I think it depends on how the OC is designed. I generally don't mind OCs, and actually enjoy reading and writing about them. However, one of the things that irritates me about them is when they aren't realistic (eg, too perfect + has a miserable backstory = marysue-ish), and it also really irritates me when a character that is supposed to be Japanese actually has a not-japanese name like a ninja named Sam Smith, or something. u_u;;;

But I agree with you that OCs are good at helping with our imagination and expressing ourselves. It's sometimes more interesting to write than a canon character that everybody knows about.

I must agree with you both.

Most of the OC's I see in Quizilla are Mary Sue's and are pretty pretty preeeetty girls. I have yet to see an OC who's not that much of a beauty. And when I read through their backstory, they're either orphans and a sibling of maybe ten or living alone.

Though there's nothing wrong with them and they're much easier to write. 8D
[This is actually my first post. ]

Everybody has a good point here~ I love reading about other peoples' OCs, I just wish their backgrounds could be a little more, well, unique I would call it o3o

Almost half the OCs out there are orphans or were raped or were abused - what's wrong with a happy family~? Sure there could be some sadness in it, but the OC has to have some family member or friend that'd help out, right? o3o

Over all, I'm Yay for OCs~ C:

What annoys me about Sasuke Uchiha fics is when the OC to be paired with him, also had their parents killed when they were little and have a vendetta against the killer. Sasuke wouldn't fall for that kind of backstory. If anything he'd empathise a little but the OC-with-same-past-as-him isn't going to be a big impact on his life just because of their similarities, and it probably wouldn't make him hesitate about leaving the village either.

Another irritating Naruto OC is the one where a person from our world falls into the anime world, instantly fits in, and is actually a kickass ninja. It ain't gonna happen. I don't know about you guys, but I certainly can't walk on water, I can't shoot fireballs out of my mouth, and I'm not that in-shape. o.O; It annoys me when they drag canon characters into the real world as well. ...And I once read a fic on fanfiction, where a girl fell into Naruto world and was taken captive by Itachi and Kisame, annoyed the crap out of them, and wasn't butchered by either of them for it. u-u i wanted to see her get killed by the third chapter out of 20+ chapters.

I basically agree with what everyone else has already said. I think a big issue with a lot of writers who make Mary-Sue OCs are merely guilty of the crime that they are new writers and therefore do not have the experiance to create a well-developed character, or realize they created a Mary-Sue. I mean, I've gone back and looked at OCs I made when I first started writing and I physically cringed because they were so awful.

I didn't start creating better characters until I exposed myself to other stories and saw other people's OCs. Writing skills I think come with experience that is gained through practice and taking cues from other writers.

Personally, I think the hardest OCs to write for in my experiance are Hetalia OCs, particularly if they are a nation. I'm currently writing a Germany story with an OC, and it took me a few days to decide on how to create my OC. I mean, I wanted to pick a country I knew A LOT about and knew the culture because mine is very dramatic and none-crack like so I wanted my character to be realistic and not offend people from that actual country. I'm American, and seeing as America is already a country, I created two OCs, the North and the South, that represent each side of the American Civil War.

Also, I am baffled by people who make their Hetalia OCs states. You have to include other states right? So then it's like 50 OCs! That must be torture to think about so many.

I would be too scared to write a Hetalia OC. I'd be afraid of offending people from that country if I did something horribly wrong. :/ Though don't think most would be too offended considering the tone of the fandom...I imagine it's really tough though.

And the first two paragraphs of your latest post, Horse-Youkai are really good poits. I agree totally with that. I talked about the annoying SasukexOC's family also being killed like the Uchiha in my previous post. Actually, that's what my first OC was. -_-;; Back when Shippuden didn't exist, around abouts.

I talked about the annoying SasukexOC's family also being killed like the Uchiha in my previous post.

Yes Kin-Kitsune, I think your points particularly about SasukexOCs are the norm for a lot of those fics. Even my OC for my last Sasuke fic, which I wrote once I had a few years experiance, the orphan trait that you described. And Shippuden did throw a lot of people off, I wrote a Sasuke fic before we got to the Pain-arc and made the leader of Akatsuki someone COMPLETELY different than who it was. They let us speculate too long xD

Reading from the other people's posts, they have good points about a lot of OCs I see on Quizilla and FanFiction. Lots of fanfics I read, the authors have their OCs acting like a Mary-Sue and a Gary-Sue, which sometimes bother me a lot... (-_-'')

I have an OC of mine, but I don't make her background story all emo and depressed. I mean, it's ok for an OC to have some sort of secret, but don't make it seem like they're all that.

@dinomaniac

Yeah, a lot of the author's do make their OCs pretty and it kinda irks me whenever they do that. I mean, why must most female OCs have such a big chest?! Grr... Makes no sense at all...

@Kin-Kitsune

Ah, yes. Those OCs with the same emo, depressed background story as Sasuke... I agree with you 100% all the way. It doesn't really seem like the type of girl that he would fall for, that's why we have a character like Naruto :3

@ Horse-Youkai

You have lots of good points about that. About a year or two back, I started writing and made OCs, to be honest, they were Mary-Sues... When I read over my OCs's backgrounds, I slammed my head on my computer's keyboard. I was such an inexperience writer back then.. XP

When I make my OCs now, I don't make them all perfect and smart, nor all emo and angst. But I make them more like real people these days. With real personalities and how the reader can relate to them.

A friend of mine really dislikes OCs, seeing how lots of people makes them the star of the story and makes them fall in love with the hottest badass dude in the anime. I think I'm starting to agree with her on that...

But, now I guess some story writers don't make their original characters Mary or Gary-Sues, they rethink about that.

Er... I guess for now I'm a yay? I dunno, half of me is saying yay and the other half is saying nay... Um, in the middle, I guess... Meh.

I think it's safe to say everyone's 'Nay!' for marysues and garystus! And that most people would be willing for some originality every now and then - an original character, if designed properly can bring a new dynamic to the series they're being placed in and can sometimes create a new twist to make it more interesting to see what the canon character's will do.

We want human characters, that have their limitations and faults just as much as their unique talents, that learn from mistakes and become better people for it. In the case of a shounen anime scenario like in Naruto, Bleach, KHR, etc, I think the fans would much rather enjoy seeing how the character improves themselves through trial and error, just as the canon characters do. Like Naruto, through trial and error he became quite a formidable ninja. Through trial and error, and unfair training regimes a la Reborn, Tsuna is becoming quite a decent mafia boss. As for Bleach I'm sure there's a similar scenario but I'm not familiar with the anime.

As for shoujo anime, we want to see a normal girl/boy who isn't perfect, and who makes mistakes, and has to work to win the canon guy/girl's affections. Shoujo fans, being as they are, also enjoy romantic developments, from acquaintances, to friends(?), to something more. It took Haruhi and Tamaki approx 80+ manga chapters to get together - if that's not development I don't know what is. o.O;

We want human characters, that have their limitations and faults just as much as their unique talents, that learn from mistakes and become better people for it.

@Kin-Kitsune: YES, oh my dear Lord! We want some cathartic stuff to go down! I think most writers miss that with their OCs. They have no catharsis at all during the plot.

@XxXMizu-No-KoXxX: I agree with you, I think finding that balance of realistic belief with an OC is the most important thing when it comes to creating them.

I find in general I try not to pay too much attention to the physical apperance of OCs. There are sayings like beauty is in the eye of the beholder and what not, but people themselves can be attractive without being traditionally beautiful. They can be cute, pretty, beautiful, etc. I've tried to not make my OCs beautiful in the traditional sense but they're attractive, as I really haven't seen that many ugly people in my life. (Not saying my area is full of good-looking people, but I think people can look beautiful with the expressions they make, how they carry themselves, etc.)

The personality is what makes it or breaks it for me. If the OC is flat, I click and move on. I also cannot stand when an OC never does really anything in the story but their presence some how changes things. Or, some hard-to-get character falls automatically for them by the OC just, like, walking by them or something. I hate that immediate stuff.

Personally I like OCs with grit. I find that I simply cannot write a moe character. I admire writers who can do that because I cannot.

Yeah, I agree with all the talk about Mary Sues and Gary stus. I tend to be a very picky reader when it comes to OC's. Not only to people always describe too much, but they usually talk too much about looks and hardly anything about character.

The way I see it, some authors either make the character too perfect, or throw them down a ditch of misfortune throughout the whole story.

Woah, all of your opinions on OCs are very good in my opinion. They're even making me rethink my OCs. Granted I usually work with Kingdom Hearts, anymore, but I have two main OCs I've spread to some of my other fandoms. (Bleach, Vampire Knight, Naruto, etc.) I've tried to make them realistic, but it can be tough sometimes. My one OC is practically me. The other is a more mischievous and crazy version of myself. I've seen a lot of OCs. And like you all, I hate the Mary-Sues and Gary-Stues. They are so annoying. As are the characters who've had completely miserable pasts. Especially the ones that are all emo. You can have a few tragic things happen, but don't make their pasts so depressing that nothing goes right for them. There always has to be something good. But on that note, there can't be only good things happening to a character. Real people don't have nothing bad happen.

Personalities are difficult. Can't be too much of one thing, and too little of another. It's hard to find a happy medium for them, considering what you do for their backrounds. No one has a 'perfect' personality. They're not liked by everyone because they can't please everyone's veiw of the 'perfect personality'.

Physical traits. Ok, an OC can be cute, pretty, good-looking. Just don't freaking overdo it! Not all girls have big breasts. Not all are perfectly proportioned.

A lot of people try to create the perfect characters. Even I've been guilty of creating a character who's a bit Mary-Sue-ish. If you ask me, the perfect OC isn't perfect. They have faults to counteract their more perfect traits. It's their faults that make them perfect. Call it their... perfect imperfections?

Wow, I just realized I went off on my own little speech. ^_^; Was this a little off-topic?

Anyway, yay for developed OCs, and nay for Mary-Sue characters.

i agree with al lof you i mean i dont like it when people make there O.C's perfect i really ticks me off and when i do my own OCs i make them much like me as possible so it wont be hard for me to write storys about them but some of my OC arnt like me at all but there not Perfect or the most prettiest with a bad background

Like for my Hetalia OC Greenland i lived in Greenland and im Greenlandic, also i know alot about there history so i made that country become my oc so when i wright about her its not that hard


but when people ask me to write a Hetalia request for them with a Country thats there OC its hard for me but thats why i look up there OC history (but its still hard for me to write about them ( < . <"")

and when they say that there OC likes a country that never had a historical relationship or even any meeting in history with them it makes my stories even harder to write so i say if you are going to make a Hetalia OC atleast now a bit about the country before making it your OC so its easyer to write about

and when they say that there OC likes a country that never had a historical relationship or even any meeting in history with them it makes my stories even harder to write so i say if you are going to make a Hetalia OC atleast now a bit about the country before making it your OC so its easyer to write about

@xxHrenlandyjaxx: I agree with you so much on that one! I mean, the only plausible way I can see that scenerio making since is in a modern time setting and the two countries (OC and love interest) start talking at a world summit meeting or something like that.

My one OC is practically me. The other is a more mischievous and crazy version of myself.

@silverrose13/psychoyuki: I do the same thing. I think that's the best place to start as a writer because you write what you know and it's good practice to think critically. Like, you have to sit there and go "Ok, what are my strengths and weaknesses?" And that practice at critical thinking I believe helps a lot in allowing a writer to then create a character not baesd off of them at all (Which I think is REALLY hard to do!)

^ Amen to that!
They do say that you are your most harsh critique afterall.
Oh for Hetalia OC's I tend to make the character as anonymous as possible? However I only write short one-shots about Hetalia so that is just one side of dealing with it.

@xxHrenlandyjaxx: Oooo Greenlandic? How unique~ I was also keen to write an OC about my country, Malaysia :3
Maybe about the historical relationship dilemma, you could try ideas about new alliances?