Point of view (POV) is the lens through which the reader (and therefore the
writer) sees the story.

Normally in Anime (or manga), POV isn't very important, because they
have these pictures and so can flit about, diving into whoever's
thoughts are funniest, without fear of really annoying anybody.

For example in one episode of the Urusei Yatsura (UY) anime, Ryuu-chan
(who's been forced to live as a boy all of her life) asks Ran-chan (a
particularly feminine girl) to teach her all about being a girl, which
Ran-chan takes as a date, as she perceives Ryuu-chan to be a boy (as
most everybody else does).

The majority of the story comes from Ryuu-chan's POV as the most
important driving force in the story is Ryuu-chan's desire to act more
like a proper girl.  (Her greatest wish is to wear a "sailor suit".
Luna, where are you?  This girl needs a cat visit!)

But, it doesn't distract the viewer when the "camera" focuses on
Ran-chan for a moment while her voice actress does a "think over"
reaction to Ryuu-chan's request.  (She thinks that the reason that
Ryuu-chan is so interested in her, is because he's a very horny boy, but
if she said this out loud it would not only be "unladylike", it would
also blow away the plot.)

When I write fics, I don't have the assistance of funny pictures or
voice actresses (They need to pick a much younger woman to replace Sara
Strange) so I like to keep to one consistent POV throughout a story.  In
fact, I find that the selection of POV tends to drive my plots.

As an example, take this story idea I'll probably never use.

The Aa! Megamisamaa! (AMS) story is about this goddess (Belldandy) who
grants the wish of this man (Keiichi Morisato) that she remain with him
always.  This wish activates an "ultimate force" that is activated
whenever the parameters of the wish seem to be about to be violated and
takes whatever action is needed to maintain it. (By having him thrown out
of his apartment (with her), for example.)

In chapter 79 of the AMS manga Skuld (Belldandy's younger sister,
another goddess), has an angel that acts like an extension of her inner
self.  When Skuld feels attracted to Sentarou, her angel literally
throws Skuld at him.  Skuld feels that this is sufficiently obnoxious
behavior (the embarrassed blush almost hides Skuld's "goddess
markings"), that she has the angel "repackaged".  (She's a much less
"easy going" goddess than her sister.)

So now, what if this two ideas were combined and Skuld was bound by a
wish to a boy that she had every reason not to like?  (To increase the
tension, he asked that she not just stay with him but actually be his
girlfriend, so everytime she tries to publicly reject him or run away
the ultimate force throws her at him, in an embarrassing way.)

My personal choice to play the lead against Skuld in "Obnoxious Goddess"
is UY's Ataru Moroboshi.

The Urusei Yatsura story is about the unconditional love of this cute
alien/ogress (Lum) for Ataru, which he reacts to by being the greatest
letch in the universe and chasing after every girl in the world, except
for Lum herself.  (Other guys in the series, who agree with Ataru's
girl-picks in general, think that Lum is the number one babe and ask him
if he hates Lum or loves her.  For Ataru the answer isn't as clear-cut,
because if he gives into Lum, she will restrict his freedom to bother
other girls. (Just about all of whom find his behavior very obnoxious))

So the story will be Ataru and the rest of his earthling crowd (minus
the Oni and elements directly connected to Lum) with Skuld and her
fellow goddesses and demonesses.  (This gives a double dose of spirits,
as Ataru himself attracts all sorts of strange spirits, but the more the
merrier, cha?  Actually it seems to be the interaction between Ataru and
Lum which draws forth most of the strange spirits, just as Keiichi and
Belldandy generate bugs in the AMS anime.)

I can see writing the story from the POV of either Skuld or Ataru, but
the plot is VERY different, given this choice.  The reason is that
people find themselves unremarkable and so don't really think about what
they're doing at the moment.  So the focus will be on the "partner" who
isn't the provider of the POV.

If written from Ataru's POV, the focus will be on Skuld's reaction to
her imprisonment.  She will find the situation intolerable and either
succeed in escaping or she will go insane and flay his spleen.  Thus the
story, when told from his point of view, becomes a darkfic.

If written from Skuld's POV, the focus will be on Ataru's qualities and
he actually is something of the hero (he would never use violence
against women, and when he becomes aware of Skuld's true plight, he will
help her try to overcome it, even if it isn't to his "advantage" to set
her free (but see the above for the danger to him, eh?)), so she might
just fall for this rogue.   The result is that Skuld's POV gives a
romantic comedy.

Really, the only loose element is: Did Urd set Skuld up?  (This would be
most likely if I wrote from an inconsistent POV or from Urd's.)  This
choice could be played out in either the light of comedy or the darkness
of tragedy, but either way Urd would pay by the end. (Just that western
sense of justice at play.)

	Henry J. Cobb	hcobb@slip.net          http://www.io.com/~hcobb
    You could hop over to my URL and read the AMS stories I have done.