Aha, you probably thought that this post is about KPop Demon Hunters, didn’t you? That would be due to the title, wouldn’t it? Because the title mentioned KPop Demon Hunters? Well, you’re in for a surprise: it’s just about titling practices. But wait, come back!

If I’m honest, I don’t know where “what’s in a name” comes from. It’s either some American ‘50s sitcom or Shakespeare, I’m sure. I could look it up, but I figured it’d be funnier if I just floundered around and speculated; whether that pays off or not, I’ll leave to you. Anyway, this week’s post is about writing fiction — how do you name a character? I’d suggest that there are two stages to this process, though they both can get fairly involved and tricky. And neither is as clearly defined as I’d like.

The Apothecary Diaries is a manga series that is adapted from a light novel series, and which now has an anime adaptation of its own (which has just gotten its second season). There are three manga adaptations: the main one, a reinterpretation known as “Maomao’s Notes,” and another spinoff manga featuring a side character’s perspective. I hadn’t heard of any of these until a few days ago (as of writing), but decided to check the main manga out upon a friend’s recommendation. It was described to me like this: it’s the story of a young girl named Maomao who’s forced into a food-testing job in the inner courts of an ancient-China-adjacent fictional nation, who applies her expertise in medicine, herbs, and poisons to surviving court life. Also, there’s a prominent romance subplot with a beautiful eunuch.

For the uninitiated, Watchmen is a comic about superheroes, but as they might appear in real life. That means criminal violence, drugs, trauma, fear about nuclear weapons (it’s set during the Cold War after all) and the lot of it. It’s grittier and darker than you’d have thought with most superhero stories, at least, as they might have first appeared. I’m sure plenty of people today would be familiar with superhero media, for better or worse, and might even be familiar with it as a medium through which all kinds of stories are told. Much like cartoons, or anime, or video games, or whatever other kinds of media that are associated with particular tropes, comic books are used to tell all kinds of stories. You can use whatever medium you want to tell whatever kind of story you want. Real Steel and Big Fish are both stories about fatherhood, and they’re clearly really different.