A quick something for @gochiweek's Day 3: Being grandparents (and TruTen being parents...). A bit late but there's no way I'm missing out on showing off the wish fankid (that might make a full appearance at some point... 👀).
Sorry Pan their only grandkid, you've got a cousin to share the spotlight now
Goten is a popular wildlife animal expert (either on YouTube or has his own TV show) and Trunks is still CEO of Capsule Corp.
Trunks learns of Goten bc Bra and Pan (her best friend from school) watch him sometimes in the living room.
At first, Trunks ignores it bc he simply has other things on his mind and animals shows aren’t his first idea for entertainment, but he notes how handsome Goten is and then later how gentle and loving and patient he is with each animal, even the ones that hurt him. He becomes a bit of a fan and when Bra notices his crush, she suggests to Pan that they should meet.
Pan’s birthday is coming up, and Bra sets it up so it’s Trunks that has to take her to her friend’s party.
They arrive and who answers the door? Son Goten himself with a bright, casual smile. As Trunks takes in this handsome specimen of a man, with a healthy tan, some scarring on his arms and hands (and Trunks knows which exact wild animal gave him those, thanks to his binging of Goten’s show), and smelling vaguely of sunscreen, his mind completely short circuits.
It’s Bra that has to move them both forward, when Goten waves them in. He hisses to her that she should have mentioned who the entertainment was (while also boggling at how they managed to hire him and what animals he had license to handle at a children’s birthday party), when Bra informs him rather smugly that Pan is Son Pan and Goten is her uncle.
Trunks ends up staying at a middle schooler’s party longer than he thought, talking to Goten and holding a chameleon and various small animals for the first time in his life, and ends the day with a new number in his phone 👍🏼
Letters, Numbers and Emojis used for characters and their ships in Dragon Ball Japanese fandom!
So in Japanese media, it's common to use shorthands to talk about characters or media (if you've read Bakuman you've seen the explanation about "Wanpi (ワンピ)" being used for One Piece (ワンピース, Wan Pi (long vowel) su).
Because of their email/texting system, it's also more common to use one sole symbol to talk about characters, but also to not appear in search functions (posts are rarely tagged :()
Some of these symbols have been widely accepted by the Japanese fandom as a whole, but some others are for personal reference only (and as such, two artists may use the same emoji for different characters and nobody really cares).
Today I'm going to give you just a few of them, if you'd like more, don't hesitate to ask in the replies or in the tags, spread this blog and more ;)
Goku: Goku is usually referred as 🥕 (carot, kakarot) and 59 (五九 ; go-ku). This is why the Cell jacket has a 59! You will also find people using 空 (the second kanji for Goku's name).
Gohan: Obviously, his name meaning "rice" (as in shorthand for meal), Gohan's emoji is🍚 but you will also see 58 (五八 ; go-hachi (close enough)) to talk about him. You will also find people using 飯 (the second kanji for Gohan's name).
Goten: Goten gets🍤(for TENpura) and sometimes it's either 57 (because he's younger than 58 and 59), or more commonly 510 (五ten for go-TEN). You will also find people using 天 (the second kanji for Goten's name), but this is also the first character of Tenshinhan (and it's also used for him, as it's the symbol on his DBS outfit).
57 is also used for GoChi day (五七 go-shichi); this usage is more common than the Goten one.
Because of this, May 9th is Goku day, May 8th is Gohan day, May 10th is Goten day.. and May 7th is Gochi day :p
This is also why in mobile games, you have "Son Family Week" around those days!
(this is why Piccolo Day is funny and why people fight over whether it's Goku day or Piccolo day :p)
Those of you who follow my fic know this already, but Trunks' emoji is 🐯 (tiger, which is read Tora in Japanese.. Because Trunks' name is actually Torankusu :p). People will use トラ (the first two katakana of his name).
If you see 来, that's the first kanji for Future. 来🐯 or 来トラ is the short version for Future Trunks, and 来🍚 or 来飯 is for Future Gohan. Automatic translators will usually read it as Mi-Tora / Next Meal and just go into Blue Screen of Death mode.
So I'll be borrowing TruTen (Trunks x Goten) as an example for how ship names work in Japanese. Unlike in English, however, the order in which you put the characters is important.
天トラ / 🍤🐯: Ten-Tora. In this case, Goten tops.
トラ天 / 🐯🍤: Tora-Ten. In this case, Trunks tops.
It's a little more than just "who tops/bottoms", since the roles are very codified (Uke and Seme tropes if you want to look it up). They're so codified you should be able to tell from the book cover alone which way it's going to be!
So when I mentioned shipping wars in the past post about shipping terminologies for Japanese speakers, it's because the tropes about M/M relations are so strong and engrained in Japanese society that some people will refuse to consider "the other way around" (up to and including blocking each other on social media).
As such for Vegeta/Goku, probably the most popular M/M DB ship, the KakaVege and VegeKaka fans tend to be very opinionated about the "correct" portrayal. Anthologies (collective works) will be either one or the other, but not both at the same time.
The concept of switching isn't very common, and you'll see from the tropes that one has to be the assertive and control type and the other has to be a little more shy, smaller, etc.
In the case of TruTen (トラ天), this translates to Goten usually being smaller and more "delicate" and sensitive than Trunks (and so despite the fact that Goten, as an adult, is a solid 10cm taller than Trunks, but you'll rarely see that in トラ天 content!).
Of course this isn't universal, there are content creators and readers who will appreciate both, and who will appreciate dynamics that fall outside of the traditional tropes, but people tend to purchase stuff more easily if they know what to expect in terms of tropes used.
After all, the whole point of being two men in a relationship is that there's no woman in the relationship. They're gay, your honor!
Note that some content creators will use 89 (or 5859) for the HanKu ship. You have been warned.
I'm procrastinating on my study so here's something silly. Late on the trend but whatever. Can you tell these poses are my favourite to draw, even though I can't really do something like hang it up on my wall for people to see because it'll be kinda weird and explicit.
But now we're rockin' on the dance floor, acting naughty
Your hands around my waist
Just let the music play
We're hand in hand, chest to chest and now we're face to face... 🎵
I really really love EoZ Tentora and I think they've got to be one of the best versions of TruTen. Uni students, living it up, being each other's bad influence, what's not to love?
